Testbank

Chapter

2 |

Project Management | |

Discussion Questions

1. Software is an essential element for successful management of complex projects. It can provide information on completion performance of critical activities, highlight activities that need additional resources, and suggest the project duration that will minimize costs. However, whether projects are large or small, the people who manage them or perform the activities will ultimately determine the outcome of the project. The project manager must have the ability to coalesce a diverse group of people into an effective team. The organization of the firm must also be conducive to cross-functional inputs.

2. Slack in a project is determined by calculating the early start time (ES) and the latest start time (LS) for each activity. The ES time for an activity is found by moving forward through the project network from the Start activity along the longest time path to that activity. Using the project’s targeted completion date, the LS time is found by moving backward through the project network from the Finish node along the longest path to that activity. The difference LS – ES determines the slack for that activity. Slack can also be calculated by taking the difference between the latest finish time (LF) and the earliest finish time (EF) for an activity. Managers need to know the slack for each activity because slack indicates how much the schedule for that activity can slip before the entire project is delayed. Activities with little or no slack need to be closely monitored. In addition, managers can move resources from activities enjoying sizeable slack to activities that have no slack or are falling behind schedule.

3 Risk is a measure of the probability and consequence of not reaching a project goal. There are four major sources of risk in a project: (1) Strategic fit, which reflects the synergy of the project to the firm’s operations strategy. A lack of fit may cause myriad problems of...