You have been asked to determine a schedule for a nine-month billing system project as part of your job as a consultant to a Fortune 500 firm. The firms old system was written in COBOL on a mainframe computer, and the maintenance costs are prohibitive. The new systems will run on an off-the-shelf application. You have identified several high level tasks needed to initiate, plan, execute, control, and close the project. The table below shows your analysis of the projects tasks so far.

PART A) Using the information in table below, draw horizontal bars to illustrate when you think each task would logically start and end. In addition, identify task dependencies for inclusion in part B. Add additional detailed tasks at various levels, and at least 2 milestones for each of the five process groups in the table below also for inclusion in part B. For Part A show drawings, sketches, notes etc.

PART B) Using Figure 6-6 in the text as an example, create a Gantt chart using the tasks, durations, dependencies, and milestones from part A. The Gantt chart should include: proper formatting to show summary tasks, individual tasks (dependent and independent), and milestones. For part B The Gant chart can be done by hand or in software.

Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov TABLE 6-4 COBOL conversion project schedule Tasks Initiating Develop project charter Meet with stakeholders Planning Create detailed WBS and schedule Estimate project costs Create project team Create communication plan Organize a comprehensive project plan Executing Award and manage contract for software conversion Install new software on servers Install new hardware and software on clients' machines Test new billing system Train users on new system Controlling Closing Cengage Learning 2014