Question

Supplemental assignment for MGMT8300: Network Diagram and the Critical Path 

1. Draw an Activity on Arrow (AOA) network diagram based on the following table. The network proceeds from node 1 to node 1. 9. All times are in days. 

2. What is the critical path? 

3. How long will it take to complete the project if everything goes according to plan? 

4. Choose an activity that is not on the critical path. How many days longer should it take in order for the critical path to be different from the original critical path that you found in step 2? 

Answer 1

1.

2.

Project paths	Duration
A-D-G-J-K	15
A-B-E-I-J-K	14
A-B-E-H-K	10
A-C-F-I-J-K	16 (Max)
A-C-F-H-K	12

The path A-C-F-I-J-K, being the longest path, is the critical path.

3.

If everything goes as per plan, the project will finish 16 days.

4.

Let us choose 'B'.

If the duration of 'B' is 5 days, the duration of the path A-B-E-I-J-K will be 17 days and this will be the critical path in that case.

So, B's duration has to increase by 5 - 2 = 3 days in this case.

If the duration of B becomes 4 days (i.e. an increase of 2 days from what it is now), there will be two critical paths - A-C-F-I-J-K and A-B-E-I-J-K both having duration = 16 days.