You have just been promoted to the role of assistant project manager to Jack Welch, who is in charge of project DELTA. DELTA is a code name that he assigned to the development of a top secret handheld electronic medical reference guide. DELTA would be designed for emergency medical technicians and paramedics who need a quick reference guide to use in emergency situations.

Jack and his top notch project team were developing a project plan aimed at producing 30 working models in time for one of the biggest medical equipment trade shows, FutureMed.  The trade show will start on October 25.  Meeting the FutureMed October 25 deadline is critical to success.  All the major medical equipment manufacturers demonstrate and take orders for new products at FutureMed.  Jack also heard rumors that competitors were considering developing a similar product, and he knew that being first to market would have a significant sales advantage.  Besides, top management made funding contingent upon developing a workable plan for meeting the FutureMed deadline.

The project team spent the morning working on the schedule for DELTA.  They started with a WBS and developed the information for a network, adding activities they needed.  Then, the team added the time estimates they had collected for each activity.  Below is the preliminary information for activities with duration times and predecessors. 

Activity	Description	Duration (in days)	Predecessors
1	Architectural decisions	10	None
2	Internal specifications	20	1
3	External specifications	18	1
4	Feature specifications	15	1
5	Voice recognition	15	2,3
6	Case	4	2,3
7	Screen	2	2,3
8	Speaker output jacks	2	2,3
9	Tape mechanism	2	2,3
10	Database	40	4
11	Microphone/soundcard	5	4
12	Pager	4	4
13	Barcode reader	3	4
14	Alarm clock	4	4
15	Computer I/O	5	4
16	Review design	10	5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15
17	Price components	5	5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15
18	Integration	15	16,17
19	Document design	35	16
20	Procure prototype components	20	18
21	Assemble prototypes	10	20
22	Lab test prototypes	20	21
23	Field test prototypes	20	19,22
24	Adjust design	20	23
25	Order stock parts	15	24
26	Order custom parts	2	24
27	Assemble first production unit	10	25,26
28	Test unit	10	27
29	Produce 30 units	15	28
30	Train sales representatives	10	29

 

Instructions

Prepare a short memo to senior management that addresses the following questions:

Will the project as planned meet the October 25th deadline?  Assume that the project start date is January 1st.
 

What activities lie on the critical path? List all of them in correct sequence.

Attach supporting documentation that shows how you arrived at your answers.

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

1 As per the planned WBS it will be unlikely to meet the deadline of Feb 25 as also clear from at... View the full answer