University of Tunis Fall 2024

Tunis Business School

Tutorial 4: Project Management

Question 1
Build the PERT network for the project with the activities given below.
Tasks Predecessors
A -
B -
C A
D A, B
E C, D
F D
G A, B
H D, G
Question 2
A preliminary study of a project has allowed it to be broken down into 9 tasks. The immediately preceding
tasks and the durations in days under normal time for each task are gathered in the table below:
Duration
Task predecessors
(days)
A 4 -
B 6 -
C 5 A
D 8 -
E 2 F
F 4 D
G 4 A, E, I
H 8 F
I 7 B,D
1. Represent the PERT network for this project.
2. Calculate for each activity its total and free margins.
3. Determine the critical path and deduce the project duration.
4. What will be the effect on the project duration if the durations of tasks G and I each increase by 1 day
simultaneously?

Question 3
The company MADEST has undertaken the construction of a warehouse. The following table summarizes all
the tasks related to this project, along with their durations and predecessors.

Task Description Predecessors Duration (days)

1 Acceptance and implementation of the plans - 4
2 Site preparation - 2
3 Material ordering 1 1
4 Excavation of foundations 1,2 1
5 Ordering doors and windows 1 2
6 Material delivery 3 2
7 Pouring of foundations 4,6 2
8 Delivery of doors and windows 5 10
9 Construction of walls and roof 7 4
10 Installation of doors and windows 8,9 1
1. Build the network corresponding to this project
2. Determine the earliest and latest start dates for the various tasks. Deduce the minimum project completion
date accordingly.
3. Determine the total floats of the various tasks. Deduce the critical path(s).
4. In the case of a 2-day delay in the delivery of doors and windows, what would be its impact on the final
project date? What would be the impact if we have the same delay in the delivery of materials?
5. How to modify the graph if we want the excavation of foundations not to start until 5 days later?
Recalculate the earliest and latest start dates.
6. The material ordering and the ordering of doors and windows must be disjointed as they are done with the
same construction material supplier. How to resolve this disjoint? Is the project end date affected?

Question 4
The production manager at NOVACO Company (subcontractor in the automotive industry) is tasked with
establishing the schedule for a new product and managing the project's progress. The table below summarizes
the various tasks to be carried out to reach the end of the project, including duration estimates (in days) and the
number of workers required for each task.

Code Predecessors ai mi bi Number of workers

A - 2 3 4 2
B - 4 5.5 10 4
C A 6 7.5 12 3
D A 11 15.5 17 4
E C,B 3 4.5 9 5
F E 3 3.5 7 4
1. Determine the earliest and latest start and finish dates for the tasks.
2. Determine the average duration of the project as well as the critical path.
3. What is the probability that the project will be completed in 18 days or less? The probability that it
will finish in at least 22 days?
4. Calculate the maximum duration of the project with a 95% probability.
5. With only 9 workers available, can the project be completed with an earliest schedule? Justify your
answer.

Quetion 5
For the construction of a yacht, six tasks must be performed according to the PERT network given below. The
expected durations as well as the variances of the various activities are indicated in the following table.

Task Expected durations Variance

2 4 (weeks)
B A 8 0,5
E F B 5 1,8
C
C 7 0,1
1 D 6 4
A 3 5 E 9 1
D
F 17 2,8

1. What is the most commonly used statistical distribution law to estimate the expected duration of an
activity in a probabilistic project environment?
2. Recall the expressions used to calculate the expected duration of an activity as well as its variance.
3. Estimate the average duration of the construction project and determine its critical path.
4. What would be the effect on the project execution if simultaneously the expected duration of task A
increased by 5 weeks and that of D by 2 weeks? Justify your response without calculation.
5. Calculate the estimated duration of the project with a probability of 90%.
Question 6
For the implementation of a project, indirect costs are estimated at 12,000 dinars per week of work. The table
below presents the costs and durations required for the completion of each task in the project.
Potential Reduction cost
Task Duration (weeks) Predecessor
reduction (Dinars)
A 10 - 3 11000
3000 for the first week and 4000 for the
B 14 A 3
subsequent weeks
C 13 - 2 6000
D 6 C 1 1000
E 15 - 3 6000
F 8 E 1 2000

1. Propose an optimal reduction plan.

2. Present the different solutions on an optimization graph and interpret it.