Case #5 Ch 14 Kevin's First Project

Recently hired Kevin McAllister was always an adventurer but imagine his surprise when he was asked to head the party planning committee at the office. This high-profile role meant he would be highly exposed to everyone and this was exactly the challenge Kevin was seeking. His first task - make the arrangements for the office Christmas party. Wow! It was now September 13, 2021

Kevin saw this as a fantastic opportunity. His professor in college had often spoken of an improved need for project management skills and had taught him many of the basic steps. This included how to form a team, run a meeting, and of course organize the project.

Kevin took leadership, which was natural for him since as a young child, he was left at home alone and he learned to fend for himself. His first task was to let the senior office manager know he was heading the committee and he would keep him aware of all activities. In doing this, Kevin was securing a project Champion at the executive level to ensure he had executive support. This would take about a week to complete.

His next task was to meet with the team and discuss the party theme. The theme would have to be chosen within a week of the initial meeting.

After the theme was chosen, the committee would get busy. One of the members would have to get quotes on all the decorations from various local suppliers. It would take about three weeks to get all quotes for the committee to review. Meanwhile, another member would provide a quote for the music portion of the party as there were many quality DJs available in the area. This would take two weeks. Also, another member would get the quotes for the paper invitations, and posters, create the email and identify the required digital resources to promote the party as well as ensure mention of the party in the company newsletter. This would take one week. The good news is the team could do these assignments simultaneously.

Kevin appreciated this help from all the team members, and he gave them all the title of Assistant to the Party Planning Committee Leader.Their next meeting was scheduled so they could review the quotes, get final authority from the Champion and proceed with final negotiations to secure contracts and dates. Kevin felt this process would take about 2 weeks.

The final step was to create some wiggle room. Since it was his first party panning committee project, he gave the project 2 extra weeks of safety time, just in case something was missed.The final deadline to post information was November 30^th 2021, to give everyone time to make arrangements for babysitting etc. even though everyone would know ahead of time through the employee ' grapevine' that the Christmas Party would be held on Dec 11th.

Answer the following questions in detail and add references.

1) Draw a network diagram including a list of activities with times for each activity shown. Do not forget to outline predecessors. A Gantt Chart should also be developed to support the planning.

2) After completion of the Network diagram, determine the earliest start/finish and the latest start-finish times for all activities. List the Critical Paths. Which activities are critical?