Project Management

(Part One)

Harry Kogetsidis

School of Business

Lecture’s topics

• What is a project?
• What is project management?
• How can network analysis methods help in

project management?

Projects

A

project

is a unique set of activities

designed to

accomplish a specific set of objectives.

e.g. building a new factory, introducing a new product to the

market etc.

Projects

As projects may consist of many activities, they

need

to be carefully planned, coordinated and controlled

in

order to:

(a) accomplish their objectives
(b) meet time and cost targets

Project Management

Project management

involves the process of

planning,

coordinating and controlling projects that

consist of

various activities.

sequential and interrelated

Example

Activity Preceding activity Duration

A

-

5

B

-

4

C

A

2

D

C

4

E

B

5

F

B

5

G

B,C

4

H

F

3

* activity expected durations given in

weeks.

Project completion time

As a number of activities can take place at the

same

time (

concurrent activities

), the expected

completion

time of the project will be less than the sum of

the

completion times of all its activities.

Network Analysis

Network analysis

involves the use of

network-

based methods that can be used as tools in

the

analysis and management of projects.

Critical Path Method (CPM)

A simple network-based method which can
estimate how long a project will take and

which

activities are

critical

for its on time

completion.

Critical Path Method (CPM)

Two ways of drawing CPM diagrams:
• activities represented by lines
• activities represented by nodes

The second approach is adopted here.

Critical Path Method (CPM)

Activity example

The amount of time an activity can be delayed without
delaying the overall completion time of the project.

CPM network

CPM network

Solution

• Expected project completion time: 12 weeks.

• Critical path: B-F-H

.

• Critical activities: B, F and H

.

slack = 0

• Non-critical activities: A, C, D, E, and G

.

slack =

1

slack = 3

slack = 1 slack = 1 slack = 1

Problem 1

Activity Preceding activity Duration

A

-

3

B

-

6

C

A

2

D

B,C

5

E

D

4

F

E

3

G

B,C 9

H

F,G

3

Use the Critical Path Method to identify the critical path
for this project and to estimate its expected completion
time.

Problem 2

Activity Preceding activity Duration

A

-

12

B

-

8

C

-

14

D

B

4

E

D

1

F

A

12

G

A

9

H

E,C

8

I

F

4

J

G,H

7

Use the Critical Path Method to identify the critical

path

for this project and to estimate its expected

completion

time.

Problem 3

Activity Preceding activity Duration

A

-

5

B

-

4

C

-

6

D

A

3

E

B

7

F

B

2

G

C

5

H

F,G

8

I

D

4

J

D

4

K

E,I

2

L

K,H

6

M

L

5

Use the Critical Path Method to identify the critical

path

for this project and to estimate its expected

completion

time.