Assignment 2- Project Management Cutting Edge Systems (CES) designs and distributes a variety of management software products online and through various retail outlets located across Canada. CES is considering the development of an Internet-based forecasting system that is specifically designed for new start-up and small businesses and has entrusted you to assume the role of project manager. After consulting with technical staff and reviewing archival data from similar projects completed in the past, Table 1 was constructed to summarize the task descriptions, time estimates, and precedence relationships. Table 1: Project Description and Time Estimates (in Weeks) Task A Optimistic Likely Pessimistic Predecessor 2 3 4 None B 4 7 10 A 4 6 D E F Description Determine requirements Market assessment Design Development Testing Revising Documentation Quality assurance Pricing Production Distribution 6 7 4 3 2 2 4 2 7 9 5 6 4 G H 1 J K 8 8 11 6 9 6 4 4 4 A B D E B F, G, H, I J 3 4 3 CES plans to use existing software components during the development phase as a means of keeping project costs and overall timeframe within bounds. Nevertheless, multiple task time estimates are formulated to better account for the inherent uncertainties associated with software development CES' management team has established a completion target of 27 weeks for this project. A preliminary assessment indicates that some of the project tasks would need to be shortened to meet this desired project deadline. Accordingly, a set of task-crashing estimates (shown in Table 2) has been prepared. You know that this is an important project to manage and that you must do a thorough analysis to estimate the project's completion time and budget before presenting your findings/recommendations in a business report. Table 2: Project Crash Data Task A B D E F G H Crashed Cost S000) 10 25 30 65 25 Allowable Crash Time (Weeks) 0 1 1 1 1 Normal Cost ($000) 10 20 15 45 10 15 20 10 5 40 15 18 30 15 5 1 2 1 1 1 50 J K 25 1 Note: When a task is crashed by a week, the optimistic estimate, most likely estimate, and the pessimistic estimate decrease by a week as well. As such, the variance is unaffected by crashing. If multiple critical paths exist, select the path with the highest variance (standard deviation) to use in probability calculations so that uncertainty is better accounted for. Assignment Questions: 1) Calculate each activity's expected time and variance for the "Normal" scenario. (15 marks) a. What is the critical path(s) and estimated completion time for this project? b. What is the estimated project cost? c. What is the probability that the project can be completed in 27 weeks with this project plan? 2) Crash the project until you reach the Maximum Crashing" scenario and detail your steps (hint: does not necessarily mean that every activity must be crashed to its maximum allowable crash time). (15 marks) a. What is the minimum expected time in which this project can be completed and at what cost? b. What is the probability of completing the project in 27 weeks with this project plan