Continuing Case Analysis: Personal Trainer

Background

Personal Trainer, Inc. owns and operates fitness centers in a dozen Midwestern cities. The centers have done well, and the company is planning an international expansion by opening a new "supercenter" in the Toronto area. Personal Trainer's president, Cassia Umi, hired an IT consultant, Susan Park, to help develop an information system for the new facility. During the project, Susan will work closely with Gray Lewis, who will manage the new operation.You are enjoying your job as a student intern at Personal Trainer. Last week, Susan asked you to help her plan the new information system project. Susan knows that you have completed several information systems courses at the local college, and that you have studied project management tools and techniques.Specifically, she wants you to get ready for the next set of systems development tasks, which will be requirements modeling for the new system. Yesterday, Susan called you into her office to discuss the specific tasks she wants you to perform. After meeting with Susan, you sit down and review your notes. She wants you to treat the set of tasks as a project, and to use project management skills to plan the tasks.Here is what she suggested to you as a work breakdown structure, including the duration she estimated for each task:

• First, you need to meet with fitness center managers at other Personal Trainer locations (5 days).
• After these meetings, you can conduct a series of interviews (5 days).
• When the interviews are complete, two tasks can begin at the same time: you can review company records (3 days) and observe business operations (8 days).
• When you have reviewed the records and observed business operations, two other tasks can begin at the same time: you can analyze the BumbleBee accounting software (5 days) and study a sample of sales and billing transactions (2 days).
• After completing the analysis and studying the sales transactions, prepare report for Susan (1 day)

You are excited about the opportunity to practice your skills, and you start to work on the following tasks.Tasks

1. Create table listing each task in a separate row, and indicate its duration and its predecessor task(s) (if any).
2. Construct a PERT/CPM chart similar to the one in the attachment. You can use Microsoft Visio or SmartDraw or Microsoft Project or any other project management software to create chart. Make sure that the predecessors for each task match the ones listed in your table.
3. Determine the overall duration of the project, and identify the critical path. You can either list the tasks that are on the critical path or highlight them in your chart.

\fTASK 3 Review Company Records Duration (Days) 3 TASK 1 TASK 2 TASK 5 TASK 6 Meet with fitness Analyze BumbleBee TASK 7 Conduct Study sales and center manager Interviews accounting softfware billing transaction Prepare report to Duration (Days) Susan Duration (Days) Duration (Days) Duration (Days) 5 5 Duration (Days) 2 TASK 4 Observe Business Operations Duration (Days) 8