Rassy and her project team were developing a project plan aimed at producing 30 working models in time for MedCON, the biggest medical equipment trade show each year. Meeting the MedCON October 25 deadline was critical to success. All the major medical equipment manufacturers demonstrated and took orders for new products at MedCON. Rassy had also heard rumors that competitors were considering developing a similar product, and she knew that being

first to market would have a significant sales advantage. Besides, top management made funding contingent upon developing a workable plan for meeting the MedCON deadline.

The project team spent the morning working on the schedule for Nightingale. They started with the WBS and developed the information for a network, adding activities when needed. Then the team added the time estimates they had collected for each activity. Following is the preliminary information for activities with duration time and predecessors.

Use January 2, 2017 as the Start Date

1. Will the project as planned meet the October 25th deadline?

If we consider that the team has to initial working from today onwards, then by looking a the WBS described by them, it is quite clear that it will not be possible for the team to meet the deadline of October 25th. In fact, in order to meet the deadline, the team must initiate working on the project from January without working on weekends.

2. What activities lie on the critical path?

The various critical tasks are shown in the figure:-

CAN YOU PLEASE DOUBLE CHECK MY PROJECT SCHEDULE BELOW?

Activity	Description	Duration	Start	Finish	Predecessor
	Nightingale Project	248 days	Mon 1/2/17	Wed 12/13/17
1	Architectural decisions	10	Mon 1/2/17	Fri 1/13/17
2	Internal specifications	20	Mon 1/16/17	Fri 2/101/7	2
3	External specifications	18	Mon 1/16/17	Wed 2/8/17	2
4	Feature specifications	15	Mon 1/16/17	Fri 2/3/17	2
5	Voice recognition	15	Mon 2/13/17	Fri 3/3/17	3,4
6	Case	4	Mon 2/13/17	Thu 2/16/17	3,4
7	Screen	2	Mon 2/13/17	Tue 2/14/17	3,4
8	Speaker output jacks	2	Mon 2/13/17	Tue 2/14/17	3,4
9	Tape mechanism	2	Mon 2/13/17	Tue 2/14/17	3,4
10	Database	40	Mon 2/6/17	Fri 3/31/17	5
11	Microphone/soundcard	5	Mon 2/6/17	Fri 2/10/17	5
12	Pager	4	Mon 2/6/17	Thu 2/9/17	5
13	Barcode reader	3	Mon 2/6/17	Wed 2/8/17	5
14	Alarm clock	4	Mon 2/6/17	Thu 2/9/17	5
15	Computer I/O	5	Mon 2/6/17	Fri 2/10/17	5
16	Review design	10	Mon 4/3/17	Fri 4/14/17	6,7,8,9,10
17	Price components	5	Mon 4/3/17	Fri 4/7/17	6,7,8,9,10
18	Integration	15	Mon 4/17/17	Fri 5/5/17	17,18
19	Document design	35	Mon 4/17/17	Fri 6/2/17	17
20	Procure prototype components	20	Mon 5/8/17	Fri 6/2/17	19
21	Assemble prototypes	10	Mon 6/5/17	Fri 6/16/17	21
22	Lab test prototypes	20	Mon 6/19/17	Fri 7/14/17	22
23	Field test prototypes	20	Mon 7/17/17	Fri 8/11/17	20,23
24	Adjust design	20	Mon 8/14/17	Fri 9/8/17	24
25	Order stock parts	15	Mon 9/11/17	Fri 9/29/17	25
26	Order custom parts	2	Mon 9/11/17	Tues 9/12/17	25
27	Assemble first production unit	10	Thu 10/12/17	Wed 10/25/17	25, FS-8 time units 26. FS-13 time units
28	Test unit	10	Thu 10/26/17	Wed 11/8/17	27
29	Produce 30 units	15	Thu 11/9/17	Wed 11/29/17	28
30	Train sales representatives	10	11/30/17	Wed 12/13/17	29