Directions: Answer the questions below.

Why is it important to determine the critical path of a project? What happens if activities on this path are delayed? What happens if activities on this path are accelerated?

Refer to Figure 5.4 on page 154 in the textbook. Why is the earliest start time for Review Comments & Finalize Questionnaire day 33? Why is the earliest finish time day 38?

Describe the different types of project slack and how each is calculated.

In 500-750 words, submit this assignment in MS Word to your instructor via the dropbox. This assignment is worth 30 marks.

FIGURE 5.4 Network Diagram for Consumer Market Study Project, Showing Earliest Start and Finish Times

Look for a moment at Test Software. It has an ES of day 50 because, according to Rule 1, it cannot start until the two activities leading directly into it are finished. Develop Data Analysis Software does not finish until day 50, and Develop Software Test Data does not finish until day 40. Because Test Software cannot start until both of these are finished, Test Software cannot start until day 50.

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9. Refer to Figure 5.4. What are the earliest start and earliest finish times for Pilot-Test Questionnaire?

As a further illustration of Rule 1, refer once more to Figure 5.4. To start Mail Questionnaire & Get Responses, the two activities immediately preceding it, Prepare Mailing Labels and Print Questionnaire, must be finished. The EF of Prepare Mailing Labels is day 40, and the EF of Print Questionnaire is day 48. According to Rule 1, it is the later of the two EFs, which is day 48, that determines the ES of Mail Questionnaire & Get Responses.

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10. What determines a particular activitys earliest start time?

If you continue calculating the ES and the EF for each remaining activity in the network diagram in Figure 5.4, you will see that the very last activity, Prepare Report, has an EF of day 138. That is 8 days beyond the project required completion time of 130 days. At this point, we know there is a problem.

It should be noted that although the ES and EF times for each activity are shown on the network diagram in Figure 5.4, this is not normally the case. Rather, the ES and EF times (and the LS and LF times, which are explained in the following section) are listed in a separate schedule table, like the one in Figure 5.5. Separating the schedule table from the network logic diagram makes it easier to generate revised and updated schedules (perhaps using project management software), without continually making changes to the ES, EF, LS, and LF times on the network diagram itself.