The tasks that need to be utilized are: Tasks optimistic average pessimistic Predecessor A - Process development A B B - Plant layout / Concrete C - Machinery placement D - Hiring Employees D E,C E - Training employees F - Production Start-up The time is 1 week for hiring and 1 week for training. Everything else is 2 weeks for each task. BELOW IS THE EXAMPLE OF WHAT IS NEEDED This week you will get to manage your own project! Please remember for this Discussion you will write an essay to address the requirements described below. Your essay must be carefully planned and written using well-constructed sentences and paragraphs. This should be written in Word and attached to the discussion post. The essay should be at least one page in length. I worked as a project manager. I will use an example from that area to apply here! In this example, I am working with a customer to develop a computer program that allows the user to access information about their shipments. I will keep the task list very simple to just 5 tasks. In keeping in line with the analysis steps at the start of chapter, I am going to list out all the tasks that need to be completed along with three time estimates. (I decided to focus on the time aspect of the project using PERT/CPM rather than the cost using PERT/Cost.) The times estimates are in weeks. Tasks Predecesso r optimistic average pessimistic A - Create plan for programming interface 2 3 4 B - Complete programming 4 6 12 A C - Document changes 1 2 4 A D - Test the results 1 2 3 B E - Rollout to customer 2 4 6 B Gantt Chart A B C D E 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 Time Critical Activity Noncritical Activity Slack 14 16 The Gantt chart can be created in Excel. You can simply create a chart with the start and end times. Here is the one I used: Tasks E - Rollout to customer D - Test the results C - Document changes B - Complete programming A - Create plan for programming interface Start 11 9 3 3 0 End 15 11 5 9 3 Select the chart and go to Insert - Stacked Bar Chart. The next step is to compose your answers to the questions below. (You can see my attached file for some of these answers too). What is the overall timeline for this project? It looks like my project would finish in about 26 weeks. What activities are critical for established timeline of the project? The critical activities are those on the critical path. From the Gantt chart you can see the ones in red are A, B, D, and E (creating a plan, programming, testing, and rollout.) What activities have flexibility in completion that would not impact the overall project timeline? Those that are flexible are those that have slack time, C (documenting changes). What time, resources and money might be affected by any changes to activities throughout the project? If the customer was unavailable to test or the person that was assigned to program the changes was slow in their task, it could postpone the whole project, which costs money! What recommendations would you suggest to prioritize the company's time, resources and money with regards to the project? This is a good one to think about and I look forward to hearing your thoughts in your reflective essay! Using all of this will give you the necessary information to compose your essay! Tasks A - Create plan for programming interface B - Complete programming C - Document changes D - Test the results E - Rollout to customer optimistic average pessimistic Predecessor 2 3 4 4 6 12 A 1 2 4 A 1 2 3 B 2 4 6 B Gantt Chart A B C D E 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 Time Column H Critical Activity Noncritical Activity Slack 14 16 Project Management Precedences; 3 time estimates Data Activity Optimistic Likely Pessimistic A 2 3 4 B 4 6 12 C 1 2 4 D 1 2 3 E 2 4 6 PrecedencesImmediate Predecessors (1 per column) Activity Time Pred 1 Pred 2 A 3 B 6.666666667 A C 2.166666667 A D 2 B E 4 B Mean 3 6.666667 2.166667 2 4 Std dev 0.333333 1.333333 0.5 0.333333 0.666667 Variance 0.111111 1.777778 0.25 0.111111 0.444444 Pred 3 Results Late Activity Early Start Early Finish Late Start Finish A 0 3 0 3 B 3 9.666666667 3 9.666667 C 3 5.166666667 11.5 13.66667 D 9.666666667 11.66666667 11.666666667 13.66667 E 9.666666667 13.66666667 9.6666666667 13.66667 Project 13.66666667 Early start computations A B C D E 0 3 3 9.666666667 9.666666667 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Late finish computations A A 13.66666667 B 3 C 11.5 D 13.66666667 E 13.66666667 3 B 13.66666667 13.66666667 13.66666667 11.66666667 9.666666667 9.666666667 C 13.666666667 13.666666667 13.666666667 13.666666667 13.666666667 13.666666667 D 13.66667 13.66667 13.66667 13.66667 13.66667 13.66667 Graph A B C D Critical Activit Noncritical Activ Slack 0 3 0 0 3 6.666666667 0 0 3 0 2.1666666667 8.5 9.666666667 0 2 2 Slack 0 0 8.5 2 0 Variance 0.111111 1.777778 0.25 0.111111 0.444444 Project Std.dev Critical Variance 0.111111 1.777778 0.444444 2.333333 1.527525 E 13.66667 13.66667 13.66667 13.66667 13.66667 13.66667 6 5 4 3 2 Graph E D C B Critical Acti 9.666667 4 9.666667 0 3 0 3 6.666667 E 9.666666667 4 0 0 1 A 0 3 Noncritical 0 2 2.166667 0 Slack 0 2 8.5 0 0 0