The University of the South Pacific

School of Information Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Physics

IS333 Project Management Semester 1, 2022

Assignment 1 SOLUTION Weight: 60 marks (20%)

Due Date: Sunday, 1st May, 2022; 11 PM (Fiji Time)

Learning Outcome (from course outline):

3. Apply scheduling techniques as part of a project management plan.
4. Demonstrate the standard techniques for resolving resource conflicts during project execution.

Instructions
Questions:
There are two questions for this assignment. All questions are compulsory.

Team formation
This is a team based assignment. Hence for this assignment you would need to work in your allocated
team/group. All documents submitted must have your team information in it. Also submit the mark
allocation agreement with your assignment.

Submission:
Submit the softcopy in Moodle (the team leader must submit in his account his team’s assignment by
the deadline)

Plagiarism:
For this and other work in IS333, it’s essential that you avoid plagiarism. Not only do you expose yourself
to possibly serious disciplinary consequences, but you’ll also cheat yourself of a proper understanding
of the concepts emphasized in the assignment. You’ll almost certainly fail the midterm and/or the final,
which will test your understanding of the assignment.
It’s not plagiarism to discuss the assignment with your friends and consider solutions to the problems
together. However, it is plagiarism for you to copy all or part of each other’s solutions. Any student
posting solutions for this assignment in Moodle will be considered to be committing plagiarism. Don’t
submit your solution to any discussion forum or mail it to anyone except the lecturer or tutors.
If you find somebody has stolen you assignment and produced it as their work, it will be considered
plagiarism. So DON’T leave your flash drives around. Be careful with them. And make sure you log out of
the lab machines when you are finished.

Things to be very careful about!

1. Do not wait till the last minute/second to submit your assignment. (How would you know 11 o’clock
on your clock means 11 o’clock on Moodle server?)
2. Take SPECIAL care of your disks/flash drives possibly containing your solution file till your assignment
is marked. Do not lose them, damage them or have them stolen, as someone else may copy your
work. Avoid the scenario that someone else has copied your work without your knowledge.
3. Do not let anyone else submit your assignment in your Moodle account on your behalf.
4. Check whose Moodle account you are using to submit your assignment.
5. Do not leave your personal class share for others to access.
6. Ensure that you are submitting the “CORRECT” files which contain your assignment solutions.
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 Question 1: Scheduling Techniques
Problem Specification
Consider the following network schedule:

Table 1: Network Schedule of a Rugby stadium.

Activity Description Duration Predecessor

1 Clear stadium site 80 days -
2 Demolish building 30 days 1
3 Set up construction site 60 days 2
4 Drive support piling 130 days 1
5 Pour lower concrete bowl 100 days 1,4
6 Pour main concourse 120 days 3, 5(SS50)
7 Install playing field 90 days 2, 5
8 Construct upper steel bowl 120 day 2, 5
9 Install seats 140 day 6, 8
10 Build luxury boxes 90 days 6, 8
11 Install large-screen television 30 days 7(SS80), 8
12 Stadium infrastructure 120 days 6, 8
13 Construct steel canopy 90 days 9 (SS40)
14 Light installation 40 days 13
15 Build roof supports 90 days 5
16 Construct roof 160 days 15
17 Install roof tracks 90 days 15
18 Install roof 90 days 16, 17
19 Inspection 30 days 7(SS40),10,12(SS30),14,18
20 Approval 5 days 18,19

Hint: SS – Start to start lag and any number after SS, indicates start lag plus number of days is total lag.

Notes:
 A working day is Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (8 hours work).
 Staff works Mondays through Friday.
 Consider leap years
 Project start date is 2nd May, 2022.
 The last Friday of every month is a sports day for the company. No work is done on this day.
 The following holidays are observed in a year.
o January 1 – New Year’s Day
o Second Monday in January, May, and October - Eat-All-You-Can day
o April 24 – Plagiarism Day
o May 9 – National Dry Day
o June 18 – Love Your Neighbor Day
o August 16 – National Rocky Road Day
o December 20th - Blame Someone Else Day
 If a holiday falls on a Saturday then Friday will be given as an extra day off, and if it falls on a Sunday
then Monday will be given as a day off. Two holidays cannot be on the same day.

Follow the information provided in Table 1 and key notes to answer the following questions.
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 Required:
a) You are tasked to draw using appropriate software an AOA PERT chart. (The length of the arrows must be indicative of the duration). (10 marks)

[2mrks layout & Activity Table, 2mrks correct labels, 2mrks correct dummies, 2mrks arrows not curved and duration, 1mrk correct end, 1mrk correct number
of nodes].
Minus marks if hand drawn and not following correct style.

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b) How long will this project take? What is the minimum completion date? (2 marks)
685 days to complete with SS. 7th March 2025. (Need to use SS as stated in page 1 last sentence)
c) List all the distinct paths in the project along with their durations. (3 marks)
Path Calculation Duration
A-B-C-F-I-M-N-S-T 80+30+60+120+[140 or [M90(SS40)]+N(40)]+30+5 495 days
A-B-C-F-J-S-T 80+30+60+120+90+30+5 415 days
A-B-C-F-L-S-T 80+30+60+120+[120 or [S30(SS30) + [T5] ] 410 days
A-B-G-K 80+30+90+(-10+30) 220 days
A-B-G-S-T 80+30+[90 or [S30(SS40) + T5] ] 200 days
A-B-H-I-M-N-S-T 80+30+120+[140 or [M90(SS40)] +N(40)] +30+5 435 days
A-B-H-J-S-T 80+30+120+90+30+5 355 days
A-B-H-L-S-T 80+30+120+ [S30(SS30)] + [T5] 350 days
A-B-H-K 80+30+120+30 260 days
A-D-E-F-I-M-N-S-T 80+130+[100 or F(50+120)]+[140 or[M90(SS40)]+N(40)]+30+5 585 days
A-D-E-F-J-S-T 80+130+ F(-50+120) +90+30+5 505 days
A-D-E-F-L-S-T 80+130+100+F(-50+120)+ 120 + [S30(SS30)] + [T5] 500 days
A-D-E-H-I-M-N-S-T 80+130+100+120+[140 or M90(SS40) + N(40) ]+30+5 635 days
A-D-E-H-J-S-T 80+130+100+120+90+30+5 555 days
A-D-E-H-L-S-T 80+130+100+120+120+ [S30(SS30)] + T[5] 550 days
A-D-E-H-K 80 + 130 + 100+ 120 + 30 460 days
A-D-E-G-S-T 80+130+100+[90 or [S30(SS40)] + [T5] ] 400 days
A-D-E-G-K 80+130+100+90+ K(-10+30) 420 days
A-D-E-O-P-R-S-T 80 + 130 + 100+ 90 + 160 + 90 + 30 + 5 685 days
A-D-E-O-Q-R-S-T 80 +130+100+90+90+90+30+5 615 days
[1 mark paths, 2 marks correct duration]
d) Which tasks are on the critical path of the PERT chart above? (2 marks)

Task A D E O P R S T
Activity 1 4 5 15 16 18 19 20

e) Identify all Activities in the above project that have a slack and the amount of slack. (4 marks)

Activity that have slack Amount of Slack (days)

B 190
C 190
F 100
G 265
H 50
I 50
J 130
K 225
L 135
M 50
N 50
Q 70
[1 mark activities, 3 marks correct slack]

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f) Peter is working on activity 10, he informs you he/she cannot start work until 90 days after the scheduled
starting date. What impact would this have on the completion date of the project? (2 marks)
There will not be any impact as this activity has 130 days of slack.

g) Pooja is in-charge of activity 17. If activity 17 is delayed by 90 days what will be the new project duration?
If there is no effect, state ‘No change in duration’. (3 marks)
Activity 17 has 70 days of slack. Since the delay is for 90 days, two things will occur. Firstly, the project
would be delayed by 20 days and the new project duration would be 705 days.

h) Convert the above AOA Chart to an AON Chart (also known as Project Network Diagram) clearly stating
the ES, EF, LS, and LF for each of the activities. Use the node style given in lectures for your AON diagram.
(10 marks)

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-
[2 marks for correct layout of network and connection, 2 marks for correct early times, 2 marks for correct latest times, 1 mark for correct ss shown, 1 mark to
avoid redundant members, and 2 marks correct slack and finish]
Minus marks for hand drawn and not following correct style

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i) Create a Gantt chart for the above network schedule using appropriate software learnt in class, indicate
appropriate milestones and resources. (6 marks)

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 [1 mark milestones, 1 mark resources, 2 marks correct diagram, and 2 marks correct formatting, date
and style]

Can fit the chart on one page and show the start time. Use landscape. In addition, the key is important.

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 Question 2: Resolving resource conflicts
Mr. Nand has recently started a business. During these hard times, he is able to secure three projects
(namely, X, Y and Z). It will take 12 days to complete each project. One of the major challenges he is
facing is the time management and resource allocation. He has two techniques in mind where he can
avoid resource conflict. The techniques are as follows:
Technique one: To complete one project after the other. The problem with this method is that burnout
would occur and he might not be as effective as he is, therefore, to solve the issue he works for 3 days on
one single task, after which he takes a ½ day off.
Technique Two: Nand’s alternative is where he intends to do multitasking; work on project X, then
switch to project Y and later switch to project Z that is for a day each. Again, the problem is burnout,
therefore, he intends to use a ¼ of a day as break before each transition.
Use a Gantt chart to show the effect of each approach and describe how it will be achieved. Determine
which method is the best for performing this work and why. (10 marks)
Answer:

Option 1: The actual task time and idle time are identical, the projects require 12 days each and there
is a total of 6 days of setup (or burnout) time in each schedule. The top Gantt chart shows the effect
of working straight through each project until completion. The total project time is 12 days and the
inserted idle time due to burnout is 1 ½ days (shaded bars denote this rest period). The span of project
A is 13.5. days. This would be followed by a rest period of a half day and then a similar pattern for
project B. The final burnout day need not be considered (unless more projects follow) so the total
time would be 41.5 days.

Option 2: Times indicated on the timeline mark the end of the setup, so the 1.25 is one day of work on
Project A followed by a one-quarter day setup, the 2.5 is the completion of the setup after the first day
on Project B, and so on. It will take 6 iterations of the Gantt chart shown to complete all segments of
projects A, B, and C, so the total time is 6×7.5=45, less the final quarter-day setup for a total time of
44.75 days.
The big difference is in the span of the projects from their beginning to completion. The first schedule
shows that Project A ends 13.5 days after it was begun. The same would hold true for projects B and C.
For the second approach, project A ends 41.25 days after it was started, as do projects B and C. So option
A is better as it finishes earlier than option 2.
[2 marks description option 1, 2 marks for correct chart option 1 and break as task, 2 marks description
option 2, 2 marks for correct chart option plus break 2, 2 marks correct answer]
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 IS333 Project Management
Semester 1, 2022
Assignment 1
Mark Allocation Agreement
After having discussed as group, we recommend the following mark allocation to each group
member based on contribution or lack of it throughout the assignment.

Member ID Percentage of assignment 1 marks

Signed
Member name ID Signature

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 Assignment 1 Marking Criteria

Title Project Management

Group: Marker:
Marks Allocated Attained Comments
Presentation 5 Formal document
CBOK: Page numbering
Communication Content page, etc.
Question 1 (a) 10
Question 1 (b) 2
Question 1 (c) 3
Question 1 (d) 2
Question 1 (e) 4
Question 1 (f) CBOK: 2
Question 1 (g) IT Project 3
Manag-
Question 1 (h) ement 10
Question 1 (i) 6
Question 2 10
Team work 3 Detail form of evidence provided on the
CBOK: teamwork
Teamwork

Total 60
(20%)

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