6/Allocating Resources to the Project

Chapter 6 Allocating Resources to the Project

This chapter extends the previous one on scheduling into the area of allocating resources among the activities of a project, or among multiple projects competing for the same resources. The chapter begins with a discussion of expediting project completion times and highlights that b selectivel choosing which activities to crash and b how much, we can determine the minimum cost for all possible project completion time. The use of !xcel"s #olver optimi$ation routine to facilitate this anal sis is also presented. %ext, the chapter moves on to the topic of resource loading and in particular highlights the problems of over scheduling resources. The topics of resource leveling and resource allocation naturall follow in the subse&uent sections. 'inall , the chapter concludes with an overview of several of the concepts (oldratt raises in his provocative boo) Critical Chain.

Cases and Readings

A case appropriate to the subject of this chapter is* Harvard: 9-613-020 Space Constructors, Inc. This +,page case involves a simple project where partial crashing has alread been planned but more, and less, crashing is also to be considered. The networ) has some special characteristics that offer some worthwhile lessons for the student.

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6/Allocating Resources to the Project

Answers to Rev ew !uest ons

1. Given the fact that a projects resource requirements are clearly spelled out in the projects action plan, hy are P!s so concerned ith resource allocation" There can be a variety of reasons why resource allocation is of concern to the PM despite having a properly completed action plan. For example: o The action plan only lists general categories of resource requirements such as engineering, purchasing, mar eting, and production. !n these cases, the pro"ect manager must still arrange to get the specific resources #e.g., personnel$ needed. o The action plan may only specify how much of the resource is needed and precedence between the activities relationships, it may not specify exactly when the PM will need these resources. o %lthough the action plan specifies the amount of a resource needed for a particular pro"ect, there may not be a mechanism in use that balances the load of resources across multiple pro"ects. This can lead to conflicts and the creation of bottlenec resources. #. $%plain the difference &et een a project that has a fi%ed delivery day and one that has a fi%ed limit on resource usage. % pro"ect with a fixed delivery date can vary the level of resources used to meet a firm pro"ect completion date. % pro"ect with a fixed limit on resource usage cannot obtain additional resources but can possibly delay the pro"ect completion date. 'hy might a P! &e interested in this difference" The reason this distinction is important is that it specifies which of the fundamental trade&offs the pro"ect manager can exercise. !n the case of pro"ects with fixed delivery dates, only performance and cost #resource usage$ can be varied. !n pro"ects with fixed resource usage levels, only schedule and performance can be varied. (. 'hat does it mean to )fast trac*+ a project" Fast&trac ing is a technique whereby ey stages of the pro"ect are overlapped. !n the construction industry, this might entail beginning construction before the design and planning are finished. !n the pharmaceutical industry this may entail

66

6/Allocating Resources to the Project

developing the production process as the new drugs are being developed and tested.

6.

6/Allocating Resources to the Project

,. -ist as many things as you can thin* of that should &e entered into a specific resources calendar. !nformation that should be entered into a resource's calendar include: o The resource's availability #e.g., days in wee available, total hours available per wee , hours available each day$. o Times the resource will not be available #e.g., lunch, wee ends, holidays, vacations, scheduled maintenance$, and o (esource cost #e.g., cost per unit of usage, cost for overtime and overuse, nown changes in future resource cost$. .. $%plain hy project/oriented firms require e%cess resource capacity.

!n pro"ect oriented firms there is much more uncertainty about the timing of resource needs since the resources primarily move between pro"ects rather than moving between pro"ects and a functional department. Therefore, extra resource capacity is needed as a buffer given the greater level of uncertainty present. 0. 1he arrival and departure times of commercial aircraft are carefully scheduled. 'hy, then, is it so important to have e%cess capacity in the airport control to er" %lthough the arrival and departure times may be carefully scheduled, we all now that actual arrivals and departures often deviate significantly from these schedules. Therefore, a significant amount of uncertainty is present and greatly complicates the ability of the airport control system to handle arrivals and departures. !ndeed unplanned events #e.g., weather delays, equipment malfunctions, late flight crews, and so on$ often cascade through the system further compounding the problem. Therefore, excess capacity in control towers is needed as a buffer given this level of uncertainty. )learly, the cost of not having this capacity greatly exceeds the cost of some idle capacity. 2. $%plain the difference in the pro&lems faced &y a P! ho is short of secretarial resources and one ho is short of a )'alt.+ The PM that is short of secretarial resources does not face that great of a problem as this type of resource is relatively abundant and not usually critical to the pro"ect's ultimate success or failure. The PM that is short of a *+alt, #i.e., an individual with expertise and nowledge in an area$ faces a much more daunting problem because a +alt is a scarce resource that is important to the pro"ect's successful completion and there are no readily available substitutes for a +alt.

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6/Allocating Resources to the Project

3. 'hen allocating scarce resources to several different projects at the same time, hy is it important to ma*e sure that all resource calendars are on the same time &ase 4i.e., hourly, daily, or ee*ly 56" -ne reason it is important to ensure the resource calendars are on the same time base is because tas duration is not usually dictated by the number of labor hours required to complete the tas , but rather by the calendar time required to complete it. 7. -ist and descri&e the three most common criteria &y different resource allocation priority rules. The three criteria are: o .chedule slippage / a measure of the delay suffered by pro"ects as a result of the application of a resource allocation priority rule. o (esource utili0ation / a measure of the total resource cost #including costs such as the cost of hiring, firing, and maintaining resource inventories$ under different allocation rules. o !n&process inventory / a measure of the cost of unfinished wor in the system. 18. 'hy is the pro&lem of allocating scarce resources to a set of projects similar to the pro&lem of scheduling a jo& shop" !n a "ob shop allocating resources #equipment and wor ers$ to "obs or orders is required. !n pro"ects, a similar allocation is required where specific resources must be allocated to tas s and activities which represent the "obs. 11. 'hat is meant &y the )student syndrome+" The *student syndrome, refers to situations in which people wait until the last possible minute to begin a tas . !ts name is derived from the belief that students often delay the start of an assignment until "ust before it is due. hich to evaluate

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6/Allocating Resources to the Project

Su""ested Answers to # scuss on !uest ons

1#. 9escri&e the fundamental trade/offs project. hen deciding hether or not to crash a

The fundamental trade&off in crashing a pro"ect is between schedule and budget. .pecifically, crashing entails employing additional resources #cost$ in order to reduce the pro"ect's completion time. :f the decision is made to crash, hat additional trade/offs must &e made"

!f it is decided to crash a pro"ect other trade&offs may be necessary in terms of the completion time of other pro"ects and perhaps the performance of this and other pro"ects. 1(. 9iscuss the advantages of )la&or pools+ in a project ; oriented company. The main advantages of *labor pools, versus dedicating wor ers to specific pro"ects are: o 1ess waiting time for ey resources. o The ability to level resource usage, and o The ability to substitute one wor er for another should one become unavailable. Are there any potential disadvantages Potential drawbac s include: o +or ers who do not identify with a particular pro"ect. o Personnel who may not be well trained in specific tas s required by the assignment. o Fewer opportunities for "ob enlargement. %ll of these may lead to lower levels of "ob satisfaction, as well as lower morale and motivation. ith the use of pools"

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6/Allocating Resources to the Project

1,. 'hat purpose4s6 might &e served &y using each of the follo ing priority rules for allocating scarce resources" a. As late as possi&le. &. <hortest tas* duration time first. c. !inimum slac* first. a. .tarting a tas as late as possible / preserves resources and delays cash flows as long as possible. b. %llocating resources to tas s with the shortest durations / first maximi0es the number of tas s that can be completed within a certain time period. c. The minimum slac priority rule / is used to minimi0e the number of late activities. 1.. -in*ing a group of projects together ith pseudoactivities creates a sort of superproject. 'hat does this mean, and hy ould anyone ant to do it" 2ust as a pro"ect consists of tas s and activities with precedence relationships, a superpro"ect can be thought of as consisting of a group of pro"ects with precedence relationships. !n the superpro"ect, psuedoactivities are used to show the precedence relationships among the pro"ects. These precedence relationships may be actual technological constraints #e.g., the product development pro"ect must be completed before the process development pro"ect$ or simply a reflection of management's priorities. The reason for creating a superpro"ect is to help identify important relationships and dependencies across the pro"ects and use this information to better plan the usage of ey resources. 30. 9escri&e in your o n ords hat is meant &y Goldratts critical chain.

Traditionally, in pro"ect management the concept of the critical path is used. More specifically, the critical path is defined as the path#s$ that if delayed will delay the completion of the entire pro"ect. -ne shortcoming of the critical path approach is that it only considers tas precedence information and does not consider issues related to resource usage. The critical chain addresses this concern and considers both technical precedence relationships as well as the resources that will be used to complete the tas s. Therefore, the critical chain refers to the longest chain of consecutively dependent events including both technological as well as resource dependencies.

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=o

does it

or*"

The critical chain wor s by defining two sources that can delay the completion of the pro"ect. -ne source of delay is uncertainty in the tas s that comprise the critical chain. % pro"ect buffer is added to guard against these uncertainties. The second source of delay is uncertainty in the tas s external to the critical chain. % feeding buffer is added to these paths to help ensure they do not delay the tas s on the critical chain. 12. Projects A and > are &oth nearing completion. ?ou are managing a super important project C that requires an immediate input of resource &eing used &y &oth projects A and >, &ut is other ise unavaila&le. Project A has a 1ype 1 life cycle. Project >s life cycle is 1ype #. @rom hich 4or &oth or neither6 do you &orro the resource" 'hy" !n this case it would be best to borrow from pro"ect %. %ccording to Figure 4&56, as a Type 3 pro"ect, fewer resources will have little impact on pro"ect %'s performance as it nears completion. )onversely, as a Type 5 pro"ect, ta ing resources away from pro"ect 7 as it nears completion will dramatically reduce its performance. 13. Goldratt suggested that to avoid the student syndrome,+ it is a good idea to set the activity durations so short that there is a high pro&a&ility that the tas* ill not &e finished on time. An the other hand, it has long &een *no n that setting up people for failure is strongly demotivating. 'hat should the P! do" There is a delicate balance between setting goals that people believe are impossible to achieve and therefore result in demotivating the team versus stretch goals that really push the team and serve to motivate the team. The pro"ect manager should not set goals that have extremely low probabilities of success, but may find it desirable to set goals that do have a reasonable chance of not being met #say 86 to 46 percent$. 17. 9escri&e as many types of resource allocation pro&lems as you can, &ased on the situations descri&ed in this chapter.
The chapter identifies three types of resource allocation problems: o o o %vailable resources #resource loading$. .carce resources 9 single pro"ects. .carce resources 9 multiple pro"ects.

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6/Allocating Resources to the Project

(esource loading recogni0es the existence of needed resources and ensures that they are allocated to the pro"ect when needed. %n example would be a construction site where the electrical wor is subcontracted to an external supplier. The main tas is to determine that the external firm can have the necessary s illed wor force on site at the appropriate time. .carce resources are those with limited availability and the ey elements of the pro"ect have to be scheduled around that availability of the resource & even if a firm has "ust a single pro"ect. %n example of this situation would be the reliance of a construction site on a specific piece of equipment such as a crane. The allocation of scare resources becomes far more complex when the same resources are need on more than one pro"ect. !n this case, the utili0ation of the resource on pro"ect % will also have an impact on pro"ect 7 #and, possibly, other pro"ects$. %s indicated in the chapter, the company will need to apply one of the six priority rules to determine which pro"ect shall have the first use of the scarce resource.

So$ut ons to %ro&$e's

56. This pro"ect involves the landscaping of a building site. a. The :antt chart for the pro"ect.

b. %ssuming a five day wee , the critical path is: A/C/9/$/G and the pro"ect duration is 38 days.

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6/Allocating Resources to the Project

c. .ince each resource is assigned 366 per cent to each tas , the resource constraints are: o (esource ; is over utili0ed on the Friday of wee 3, Monday of wee 5, and Tuesday of wee <. o (esource + is over utili0ed on Tuesday or wee <.

d. %fter leveling the resources, the pro"ect duration is 3= days and the critical path is A/C/9/@/G.

e. 4f it is necessar to shorten the project duration without overallocating the resources then there are two options* o o Adding an additional 5 resource would shorten the project b 3 da s, 6eveling the 7 resource would be 2- da s.

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6/Allocating Resources to the Project

The project duration is 2+ da s when the resources wor) wee)ends and after leveling.

53. Provided are the predecessors, normal time, normal cost, crash time and crash cost for an eight activity #a to h$ pro"ect. a. The networ for this pro"ect is as follows:

% 3 7 5 ) <

@ A

8 ?

: B 4

The critical path is >/C/$/=. The pro"ect duration and cost for the all normal level of pro"ect activity is 56 days and >866, respectively. b. The crash costs per day for all activities are shown in column F.

A 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Activity a b c d e f g h

B Normal Time 5 4 7 2 3 8 5 6

C Normal Cost $50 $40 $70 $20 $30 $80 $50 $60
.-

D Crash Time 3 2 6 1 5 4 3

E Crash Cost $150 $200 $160 $50 $290 $100 $180

F Crash Cost/Day 50 80 90 30 70 50 40

6/Allocating Resources to the Project

c. The spreadsheet below was created to find the optimal way of getting to an 3C&day delivery time. %s shown, the total normal cost is >866 #cell )38$ and the total crash cost is >C6 #cell !38$ for a total pro"ect cost of >8C6 #cell 75$. The 3C day duration was achieved by crashing activity B 5 days #cell B3<$.
A 1 Deadli e! 2 "#$al%C#&$! 3 4 Activity 5 6 a 7 b 8 c 9 d 10 e 11 f 12 g 13 h Total 14 15 16 Node 17 18 2 19 3 20 4 21 5 22 6 B 18 $480 Normal Time 5 4 7 2 3 8 5 6 C D E F G H I J

Normal Cost $50 $40 $70 $20 $30 $80 $50 $60 $400

Crash Time 3 2 6 1 5 4 3

Crash Cost $150 $200 $160 $50 $290 $100 $180

Crash Max Crash Amt Crashing Cost/Day Amt to Crash Cost 50 2 0'0 0'0 80 2 0'0 0'0 90 1 0'0 0'0 30 1 0'0 0'0 0 0'0 0'0 70 3 0'0 0'0 50 1 0'0 0'0 40 3 2'0 80'0 $80

Actual Time 5 4 7 2 3 8 5 4

Event Time 4 11 13 14 18

The optimal solution using .olver was found in the following way: o )ell !38 was specified as the target cell to minimi0e. o The ranges B4:B3< and 73C:755 were specified as the changing cells. The following constraints were added: o o o o o o o o o o o o B4:B3< D :4::3< #maximum amount each activity can be crashed$ 73C E 2= #node 5$ 73F E 73C G 2C #node <$ 73F E 24 #node <$ 756 E 73F G 2F #node 8$ 753 E 73C G 233 #node ?$ 753 E 73F G 236 #node ?$ 755 E 756 G 235 #node 4$ 755 E 753 G 23< #node 4$ 755 D 73 #node 4 9 pro"ect deadline$ 4:B3< E 6 and 73C:755 E 6 #all decision variables must be E 6$ The *%ssume linear model, chec box was also selected.

d. The optimal 34&day pro"ect duration can be found by entering 34 in cell 73 and then resolving using .olver. The optimal solution calls for crashing activity B < days, 7 3 day, and @ 3 day. The cost of completing the pro"ect in 34 days is >866 G >5<6 H B0(8.

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e. !f all activities are crashed as much as possible, the pro"ect can be completed in 38 days. Antering 38 in cell 73 and resolving, it is discovered that the pro"ect can be completed in 38 days at a cost of >866 G > 866 H B388. f. .ee solutions to c 9 e above. 55. :iven the following %-% networ , what is the first activity to be given extra resourceI The following Table shows the activity, duration, successors, critical followers, and slac associated with each of the four activities: %ctivity % 7 ) @ @uration 8 < = ? .uccessors @ ), @ @ Jone )ritical Followers @ ), @ @ Jone .lac 4 6 6 6

a. Ksing the shortest tas first priority rule: Tas 7 has the shortest duration. b. Minimum slac first / Tas s 7, ), and @ all have 0ero slac . c. Most critical followers / Tas 7 has the largest number of critical followers. d. Most successors / Tas 7 has the largest number of successors. 5<. :iven the pro"ect shown in Figure ?&36 of )hapter ? and the fact that the facility used by activities c and d is scarce, which activity would benefit from each of the rulesI The following Table shows the activity, slac , critical followers, duration, and latest start time for activities c and d: %ctivity ) @ .lac < 5 Followers F, ! :, B, 2 )ritical Followers Jone B, 2 @uration < 8 1atest .tart Time C =

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6/Allocating Resources to the Project

a. Ksing the minimum slac rule: %ctivity @ has the least amount of slac and therefore would get the facility first using this rule. b. Most followers / @ has the most followers and would get the facility first. c. Most critical followers / @ has the most critical followers and would get the facility first. d. .hortest tas first / ) has a smaller duration and would get the facility first. e. +ith the *as late as possible, priority rule, the latest start times are used. !n this case activity ) has a 1.of C and @ has a 1. of =. !n using this rule it only ma es sense to assign the facility to the resource with the earliest 1. or activity @.

Inc dents (or # scuss on Su""ested Answers -a& Results, :nc.

Question 1: Do you think Sams plan is going to work? Why or why not? Jo, .am's plan of "ust adding this wor to his current wor load without any additional resources will not wor for a number of reasons: o There is little or no excess capacity in the current operation. !f .am is paying overtime wee ly, his current staff are wor ing beyond normal capacity now. %dding additional wor through this new pro"ect will only add to this. o .am's plan does not ta e into account vacation or sic time for his technicians. Four months is also a long time to as the staff to wor more overtime on top of what they are already wor ing. o There is also no time built in to deal with any issues that may come up, such as increases in wor load from his other clients, problems with equipment, etc. !f he continues with this plan, quality and the ability to meet the scheduled delivery of results will suffer. How would you handle the bid on the new project? %mong the steps one could ta e would be to: o (edesign the pro"ect plan for this new "ob to include additional resources to complete the additional wor . o Kse this as an opportunity to build excess capacity into the current system.

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6/Allocating Resources to the Project

Focusing on the costs associated with additional resources instead of paying overtime to already overwor ed staff would reduce the pro"ect cost and improve the chance of meeting the pro"ects specification for quality and delivery. Question : Would !rystal "all be use#ul in assessing Sams plan and changing it$ i# necessary? !f .am has data on the ebb and flow of demand on this wor force across time, he can use )rystal 7all to simulate the amount of overtime his wor force will be expected to wor if he wins the contract. Further, he can find the amount of system capacity consistent with any given level of overtime.

<outhern Centuc*y Dniversity >oo*store

Question 1: %s the minimum slack rule a reasonable way to schedule resources o# the &e'tbook di(ision? Why or why not? Jo. The pro"ects are not combined and the minimum slac on one may receive resources when its slac is more than the minimum slac on another pro"ect. Question : What complication is added by making this project #our separate projects? The interactions between these pro"ects are important and must be accounted for by scheduling this as a multipro"ect plan. Pea resource loads need to be determined in advance and leveled. The overall pro"ect schedule should be determined with the resource utili0ation of each area in mind.

Su""ested Case Ana$)ses and So$ut ons

St. # s'as Ass sted * v n" +ac $ t) Resource ,sa"e - %art . Teaching Purpose* 4n this installment students are re&uired to develop (antt charts for the resources and prepare a resource calendar using 9#P. Question 1: )repare a *antt chart with resources #or the action plan Dr+ ,lison
submitted+ "egin this project on -anuary + )repare a resource calendar #or Dr+ ,lison+

The following is the :antt chart of the action plan presented in the case. This :antt chart was prepared using M.P with a resource calendar for @r. %lison and @r. 1in with a wor wee of Monday through Friday, and a daily schedule of C a.m. to ? p.m. with an hour of non&wor ing time for lunch.

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6/Allocating Resources to the Project

The resource calendar was applied using the *)hange +or ing Time, under the *Tools, menu in M.P. #The issue of scheduling the *Test of the assessment tool/, will be addressed in answer L< M L8.+ /ote: the case stated to start the pro"ect on 2anuary 5, if students use the year 5666, the pro"ect will actually begin wor on 2anuary < rd, as 2anuary 5nd is a non&wor ing day. !f students use 2anuary 5, 5663 #or later$, the pro"ect will start on 2anuary 5nd. The start date used in these examples is 2anuary 5, 5666, to coincide with the year that the case started.

The following is the standard resource calendar used for @r. %lison for all of the tas s defined by the action plan. .ince the case outlined that a resource scheduling conflict would only pertain to the tas of *Testing the assessment tool,, it is not appropriate to constrain @r. %lison on the pro"ect for any other tas s. /ote: The following printout excerpt was prepared using the (eports feature in M.P. The issue of how to handle the specific scheduling constraint will be addressed in answer L< below.

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6/Allocating Resources to the Project

Question : How would you handle Dr+ ,lisons resource problem? The resource issue that @r. %lison has should be handled by ad"usting the pro"ect schedule to allow for the scheduling constraints. The case states that @r. %lison can perform all of the pro"ect steps within his C a.m. to ? p.m. normal wor wee , however he will only be able to perform the *Test of the assessment tool, during his administrative time on +ednesday's from C a.m. to 35 p.m. .ince that step is important to the success of the pro"ect, it is necessary to ad"ust the pro"ect plan to reflect @r. %lison's scheduling conflict. !t is not appropriate to add another resource, or overallocate @r. %llison to get this tas done within the time frame specified. There are several different ways to set a resource constraint on the *Test the tool, tas , .tep L8 in the action plan. M.P 566=allows you to create a specific calendar for a step in an action plan. .imply create a /ew calendar in the Tools menu, *)hange wor ing time, section. !n the new calendar create a schedule that has its wor ing time as +ednesdays, C a.m. to 35 p.m., and all other days as non&wor ing. Then you apply this calendar to step 8 in the action plan. #This is done by selecting the tas information box for .tep L8, going to the *%dvanced, tab, and selecting the new calendar you "ust created. These steps are all outlined in the Belp section, under *%ssigning a calendar to a tas ,.$ -nce you apply the new calendar, M.P will automatically ad"ust the :antt chart to reflect the changes in the schedule. /ote: !f students are using M.PFC, the schedule constraint can be incorporated into the pro"ect by ad"usting @r. %lison's resource calendar for only the time period that this step ta es place #2an 3F 9 2an 54$.N Question 0: *i(en Dr+ ,lisons a(ailability$ how long will it take to complete testing o# the assessment tool? 7ased on @r. %lison's availability to complete the step *Test of the assessment tool,, .tep L8 will now ta e from 2anuary 3F, 5666 9 2anuary 54, 5666. Please note that the tas 's duration remains at 4 hours, however with @r. %lison only available to wor on the step from C a.m. 9 35 p.m. one day a wee , the step will now ta e an extra calendar wee to complete. +ithout the constraint the tas could begin as soon as .tep L< was completed, 2anuary 38. Bowever, with the constraint applied, .tep L8 cannot begin until the following +ednesday when @r. %lison is available, and he can only wor 8 hours on that day, so another 5 hours the following +ednesday is necessary to complete the tas .

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6/Allocating Resources to the Project

Question 1: )repare a *antt chart #or Dr+ ,lisons plan incorporating any changes you recommend+ The (antt chart below shows the scheduling changes adjusted for the availabilit of :r. Alison to complete step ;8 in the action plan.

-r with a more detailed view of the calendar:

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Charter + nanc a$ /an0 Teaching Purpose* This case provides students with opportunit to evaluate alternative crashing strategies. Question 1: What is the cost of completing this project if no overtime is used? How long will it take to complete the project1 The networ diagram shown below can be constructed from the information in the case.
1est 9>

. 0 2

>enchmar*ing

Plan

9esign

Pages @orms

3 e s t

The time to complete the pro"ect at a normal level of activity is 8< days and the cost is >366,4?6. Question : What is the shortest amount o# time in which the project can be completed? What is the cost o# completing the project in the shortest amount o# time? 7hen all the activities are crashed their maximum amount, the project is completed in +1 da s. 4n the spreadsheet below, #olver was used to find the least costl wa to crash the project such that it was finished in +1 da s. <olumn = details the amount each activit was crashed. The incremental cost re&uired to shorten the project these 2+ da s is >36,3-1 ?cell 42+@.

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6/Allocating Resources to the Project

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

A Deadli e! "#$al%C#&$!

B 30 $126(900 Normal Time 10 5 15 10 10 7 3

Activity Be ch)a*+ ,la De&ig Da$aba&e -eb.age& F#*)& "e&$ Total

Normal Crash Crash Crash Max Crash Amt Crashing Actual Cost Time Cost Cost/Day Amt to Crash Cost Time $15(000 7 $18(750 1250 3 3'0 3750'0 7 $3(750 3 $4(500 375 2 2'0 750'0 3 $45(000 10 $58(500 2700 5 5'0 13500'0 10 $9(000 7 $11(250 750 3 2'0 1500'0 8 $15(000 8 $19(500 2250 2 2'0 4500'0 8 $8(400 7 0 0'0 0'0 7 $4(500 2 $6(750 2250 1 1'0 2250'0 2 $ 00!"#0 $$"!$#0

Node 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Event Time 7 10 20 28 28 27 30

Ksing .olver required the following steps: o )ell !3< was specified as the target cell to minimi0e. o The changing cells included the ranges !4:!35 and 73=:75<. !n addition to specifying *%ssume linear model, the following constraints were entered: o o o o o o o o o o o o B4:B35 D :4::35 #limit on the amount each activity can be crashed$ 73=:75< E 6 M B4:B35 E 6 #nonnegativity constraints$ 73= E 24 #node 5$ 73C E 73= G 2= #node <$ 73F E 73C G 2C #node 8$ 756 E 73F G 2F #node ?$ 756 E 753 #node ?$ 756 E 755 #node ?$ 753 E 73F G 236 #node 4$ 755 E 73F G 233 #node =$ 75< E 756 G 235 #node C$ 75< D 73 #deadline specified$

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6/Allocating Resources to the Project

Question 0: Suppose that the benchmarking study actually re2uired 10 days as opposed to the 13 days originally estimated+ What actions would you take to keep the project on a normal schedule? The spreadsheet presented in question 5 can be modified such that the benchmar ing study's normal and crash times are now 3< days implying that this tas can no longer be crashed. Then the spreadsheet can be resolved using .olver and specifying a deadline of 8< days. %s shown in the spreadsheet, below the pro"ect can still be completed in 8< days by crashing the Plan tas by 5 days and the Test tas by 3 day. The cost of crashing these two tas s will increase the pro"ect cost by ><,666. Question 1: Suppose the )resident wanted the website launched in 04 days+ What actions would you take to meet this deadline? How much e'tra would it cost to complete the project in 04 days? The spreadsheet presented in question 5 can again be modified. This time <? is entered in cell 73 and the problem resolved with .olver. )olumn B in the spreadsheet below details the amounts the various activities should be crashed to meet the <?&day deadline. The extra cost of reducing this pro"ect C days #8< 9 <?$ is >35,3?6.
A B C D E F G 1 Deadli e! 35 2 "#$al%C#&$! $112(800 3 Normal Normal Crash Crash Crash Max Crash 4 Activity Time Cost Time Cost Cost/Day Amt 5 6 Be ch)a*+ 10 $15(000 7 $18(750 1250 3 7 ,la 5 $3(750 3 $4(500 375 2 8 De&ig 15 $45(000 10 $58(500 2700 5 9 Da$aba&e 10 $9(000 7 $11(250 750 3 10 -eb.age& 10 $15(000 8 $19(500 2250 2 11 F#*)& 7 $8(400 7 0 12 "e&$ 3 $4(500 2 $6(750 2250 1 Total $ 00!"#0 13 14 Event 15 Node Time 16 17 2 7 18 3 10 19 4 23 20 5 33 21 6 33 22 7 30 23 8 35 H I J

Amt Crashing to Crash Cost 3'0 3750'0 2'0 750'0 2'0 5400'0 0'0 0'0 0'0 0'0 0'0 0'0 1'0 2250'0 $ $! #0

Actual Time 7 3 13 10 10 7 2

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