PART $3(25\%$ of the assignment$)$

Case Study

A Teesside PLC has won a contract to work on a major Project to start on $1$st November $2024.$ As a Project Manager you need to develop and analyse the planning schedule for this project using MS$-$Project. Your project team has identified major activities of the project, their dependency and resources needed to run each activity $($see Appendix $1).$

Appendix $1$ provides information about the project, which includes project logic $($activity links and their relationship $$ finish to start $($FS$),$ start to start $($SS$),$ and start to finish $($SF$)),$ activity durations, resource allocation and work breakdown structure $($WBS$).$

You have been asked to perform the following planning and scheduling processes using Microsoft Project $2012$ or later version.

A: CPM & WBS $(10\%$ of the assignment$)$

$1.$ DrawaGantt$-$ChartandCPMnetworkfortheproject.Calculateearlystart$($ES$),$early finish $($EF$),$ late start $($LS$),$ late finish $($LF$)$ and total float $($TF$)$ based on As Soon as Possible $($ASAP$)$ method and identify critical path.

Page $3$ of $10$

Advanced Project Planning & Visualisation Assignment

School of Computing, Engineering and Digital Technologies, Teesside University

$2.$ Draw WBS for the project $($must include Level $1,$ Level $2,$ Level $3$ and Level $4)$ and discuss the importance of WBS as a Project Management tool.

$3.$ Explain why identification of the critical path is important? Also comment on the changes to the Critical Path, if the project is developed using As Late as Possible $($ALAP$)$ method.

B: Resource Planning $(10\%$ of the assignment$)$

$1.$ Produce and draw smoothed resource histograms for the skilled labour resources used in the project. Critically assess the output identifying the maximum units of each resource required for this project.

$2.$ Carry$-$out resource levelling for Unskilled resource only $($do not use automatic resource levelling$)$ and discuss how activities might be delayed beyond LST to cater for the limits on Unskilled resources as a result of levelling. Consider resource pool for unskilled resources as $7$ units per day.

$3.$ Explainanddiscusstheprocessofresourcelevelling.

C: Cost Analysis $(5\%$ of the assignment$)$

$1.$ Calculatethecostofeachactivityintheproject$($level$3).$Considerthestandardcost of a skilled labour as $20/$hr$,$ unskilled labour as $10/$hr and equipment as $50/$hr$.$

$2.$ Producecumulativecost$-$timecurvefortheproject.

Note:

$$ Start the project on $1$st November $2024.$

$$ Use default UK working calendar $($i$.$e$.$ Saturdays and Sundays are non$-$working

days, $8$ working hours in a day, bank holidays should be considered as non$-$

working days$)$

$$ Use resource unit as decimal.

$$ Use fixed duration and set unit as days.

$$ Clearly identify each part of the answers to the questions.

$$ Use captions and axis labels to clearly indicate what each chart$/$graph is showing.