POM Chapter 3: Project Management – Flashcards
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The 3 phases the management of a project
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1. planning 2. scheduling 3. controlling
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project organization
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an organization formed to ensure that programs receive the proper management and attention
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project organization is most helpful when
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1. tasks can be defined with a goal and deadline 2. job is unique or unfamiliar to the organization 3. work requires specialized skills 4. project is temporary but critical 5. project cuts across organizational lines
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the 4 responsibilities of a project manager
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1.on time 2. within budget 3. meets quality goals 4. people assigned receive the motivation, direction, and information needed for jobs
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the for ethical issues project managers face
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1. offer of gifts form contractor 2. pressure to alter status reports to mask the reality of delays 3. false reports for charges of time and expenses 4. pressures to compromise quality to meet bonuses or avoid penalties related to schedules
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work breakdown structure (WBS)
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a hierarchical description of a project into more and more detailed components
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Gantt Charts
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planning charts used to schedule resources and allocate time and require 4 things 1. activities are planned 2. order of performance is documented 3. activity time estimates are recorded 4. overall project time is developed
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the downside to Gantt charts
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they do not adequately illustrate the interrelationships between the activities and the resources
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the 4 things project scheduling serves
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1. shows the relationship of activities to others and the whole project 2. identifies the precedence relationships 3. encourages setting of realistic time and cost estimates 4. helps make better use of people, money, and material resources
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Program evaluation and review technique (PERT)
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a project management technique that employs three times estimates for each activity
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Critical path
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the coupled longest time paths throughout a network
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critical path method (CPM)
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a project management technique that uses only time factor per activity
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the 6 basic steps of PERT and CPM
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1. define the project and prepare the work breakdown structure 2. develop the relationship among the activities. decide which activities must precede and which must follow others 3. draw the network connecting all the activities 4. assign time and/or cost estimates to each activity 5. compute the longest time path through that network. this is call the critical path 6. use the network to help plan, schedule, monitor, and control the project
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activity on node (AON)
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a network diagram in which nodes designate activities
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activity on narrow (AOA)
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a network diagram in which arrow designate activities
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the 2 approaches for drawing a project network
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1. AON 2. AOA
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critical path analysis
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a process that helps determine a project schedule
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forward pass
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a process that identifies all the early times
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earliest start time rule
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before an activity can start, all its immediate predecessor must be finished
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earliest finish time rule
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the earliness finish time of an activity is the sum of its earliest start time and its activity time
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backward pass
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an activity that finds all the late start and finish times
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latest finish time rule
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this rule is again based on the fact that before an activity can start, all its immediate predecessors must be finished
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lastest start time rule
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the difference of its latest finish time and its activity time
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slack time
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free time for an activity. also referred to as free float or free attack
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the 2 formulas for slack
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ls-es or lf-ef
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the 3 time estimates in PERT
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1. optimistic time 2. pessimistic time 3. most likely time
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optimistic time
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the best activity completion time that could be obtained in a PERT network
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pessimistic time
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the worst activity time that could be expected in a PERT network
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most likely time
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the most probable time to complete an activity
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crashing
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shortening activity time in a network to reduce time on the critical path so total completion time is reduced
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when we choose activities to crash we must consider the following
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1. the amount by which an activity is crashed is, in fact, permissible 2. taken together, the shortened activity durations will enable us to finish the project by the due date 3. the total cost of crashing is as small as possible
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the four steps to crashing
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1. compute the crash cost per week 2. using the current activity times, find the critical path in the project network and identify the critical activities 3. select the activity on this critical path that can still be crashed and the smallest crash cost per period 4. update all activity times
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the 7 advantages of PERT and CPM
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1. useful when scheduling and controlling large projects 2. straightforward 3. helps highlight relationships among project activities 4. critical path and slack time analyses help pinpoint activities that need to be watched 5. points out who is responsible for various activities 6. applicable to a wide variety of projects 7. useful in monitoring schedules but costs
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the 4 limitations of PERT and CPM
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1. project activities must be defined, independent, and in stable relationships 2. relationships must be specific and networked together 3. time estimates tend to be subjective and are subject to fudging by managers 4. there is danger in placing too much emphasis on the critical path
