Question

Project Management Analytics Exercise

This is an example of a construction project. The construction for a large corporate building must be started by February 19^th and completed by the end of the year. The legal contract for the project includes a penalty of $10,000 for every week of delay beyond December 31^st. This implies 315 days or 45 weeks for the expected project duration assuming a seven-day work schedule and no holidays in between!

The details of the project activities are as follows –

The project begins with clearing the site, an activity that takes eight weeks. Once the site is cleared, laying of the subsurface drainage takes another eight weeks, followed by filling of the earth which takes 14 weeks. Only after this activity is completed can installation of the artificial turf outside of the building can start – the task then takes 12 weeks. Simultaneously, the work on the building can also start once the site is cleared.

The work on the building starts first by excavating and then by pouring of the concrete basement. Each of these activities takes 4 weeks to complete. Next comes the construction of the walls (12 weeks), followed by constructing the roof (13 weeks). The interiors are then completed (5 weeks) followed by internal painting (4 weeks). However, painting cannot be started until electrical work is completed (4 weeks). The electrical work cannot be started until the outside power lines are laid (8 weeks), which needs an additional activity of getting the permits before it can be started. The permit takes 4 weeks. Assume that you would start on the permits after the excavation activity for the building begins.

Once the roof of the building is erected, work can start simultaneously on the outside lighting (5 weeks), and on the signage and other external landscaping (4 weeks). For simplicity, assume you start the project on February 19^th and you follow a 7-day work schedule where each week of an activity’s duration takes 7 days.

Analyze the following questions based on the estimates of the above activities -

1) When do you complete the project?

Answer 1

The first step is to prepare a table listing the project activities, their predecessors and duration as under:

Activity	Description	Predecessor	Duration
A	Clearing the site		8
B	Laying of subsurface drainage	A	8
C	Filling of earth	B	14
D	Installation of artificial turf	C	12
E	Excavation	A	4
F	Pouring of concrete basement	E	4
G	Construction of walls	F	12
H	Constructing the roof	G	13
I	Complete interiors	H	5
J	Internal painting	I,M	4
K	Start on the permits	D	4
L	Lay outside power lines	K	8
M	Electrical work	L	4
N	Outside lighting	H	5
O	Singage and ther external landscaping	H	4

Draw the activity on node network diagram as under

There are two paths in the network.

i) A-B-C-D-K-L-M-J , duration = 62 weeks (sum of individual activity run

ii) E-F-G-H-I-J, duration = 42 weeks

Longest path is the ceitical path. The duration of critical path is 62 weeks. This is 17 weeks more than the planned duration of 45 weeks.

1) The project would complete on 29th April .

It means the project would complete