Question

One of the tasks that needed to be completed after activity sequencing, is allotting duration times for each activity. Name and discuss three options for calculating activity duration.

Answer 1

Answer:

Sequencing: Sequencing is the process in which, all the operation or machines or work stations are arranged in their order of execution. The operation which start the process is placed in the start of the sequence and then followed by all other operations which follows one by one and ends with the last operation to be performed.

Activity Duration: Activity duration is defined as the time taken by the activity to be performed within that time duration. Thus the lead time of the activity is known as the activity duration.

This can be calculated by below three approaches as below.

• Expert Judgment Approach: The easiest way for calculating the activity duration is by having the expert judgment. The expert judgment will mention the activity duration by his expertise of past experience in that field. This is the simplest approach of activity duration assignment.
• Historical Data Average Approach: This is more realistic approach, in which the historical data are used and their average is used as time duration for each activity. This is a data driven approach in which old or historical data are used for calculating the time duration for all the activities.
• Group Decision-Making Approach: This is another approach in which the a group is formed and based on the knowledge level and expertise of the group, the time duration is assigned to each activity. This is based on experience, biasness and skill sets of the group involved in the time duration calculation exercise. This is a group perception based approach.
• Time study Approach: This is the approach in which actual time is calculated for the activity. So based on actual time calculation for the study, the time is assigned for the activity. This approach is used in the machine production environment. But this is not suitable for the project management approach.
• Estimation Approaches: Various estimating approaches can be used for the time duration calculation for the project operations. Analogues estimating, parametric estimation and three point estimation are some of the key techniques used for activity duration estimation.