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Solutions based on content from text book

Larson, E, Gray, C 2021, ‘Project Management The Managerial Process” 8E, McGraw-Hill, published New York
2

Week 5 Solutions

Exercises
Q1
a) Draw the project network diagram (AON) for the following:

Activity Predecessor(s)
A None
B A
C A
D A
E B, C, D

b) What activity is a burst activity?

A
c) What activity is a merge activity
E
d) What activities could begin at the same time (i.e. could be carried out in
parallel/concurrently)?
B, C, D
e) What is/are the predecessor (s) of E?
B, C, D
f) What is/are the successor(s) of C?
E

Solutions based on content from text book

Larson, E, Gray, C 2021, ‘Project Management The Managerial Process” 8E, McGraw-Hill, published New York
3

Q2
a) Draw the project network diagram (AON) for the following:

Activity Predecessor(s) Duration (days)

A None 3
B A 6
C A 4
D B, C 2
E D 3

b) Complete the forward and backward pass and compute the total slack for each activity.
Enter the results of your calculations in the following table (ES = earliest start, EF = earliest
finish, LS = latest start, LF = latest finish, TS = total slack):

Activity ES EF LS LF TS
A 0 3 0 3 0
B 3 9 3 9 0
C 3 7 5 9 2
D 9 11 9 11 0
E 11 14 11 14 0

c) How long will the project take?

14 days
d) How many critical paths are there through this network?
One critical path
e) List the critical path(s)
There is one critical path: A-B-D-E
f) Can any of the activities be delayed without impacting on the duration of the project? If
so, what activities can be delayed and by how much can they be delayed before they
impact on the project duration?
Activity C can be delayed by up to 2 days before it will impact on the overall project
duration.
Solutions based on content from text book
Larson, E, Gray, C 2021, ‘Project Management The Managerial Process” 8E, McGraw-Hill, published New York
4

Q3 The following questions are based on network diagram below:

Given the project network diagram above, complete the forward and backward pass, compute
the slack for each activity and identify the critical path.
a) Complete the following table:

Activity ES EF LS LF TS
A 0 2 0 2 0
B 2 6 2 6 0
C 2 5 5 8 3
D 6 12 6 12 0
E 5 9 8 12 3
F 12 14 13 15 1
G 12 15 12 15 0
H 15 17 15 17 0

b) What is the most critical path(s) for this project? (If there is more than one critical path, list
the activities/tasks on each of the paths separately.) A-B-D-G-H

Solutions based on content from text book

Larson, E, Gray, C 2021, ‘Project Management The Managerial Process” 8E, McGraw-Hill, published New York
5

c) Use Excel to create a Gantt chart for the project. On the Gantt chart, show when the
activities are scheduled using “grey” colour fill, show slack using yellow colour fill and
underline the critical path in red (achieved with red underscore characters ____).

Answer:

d) What would happen to the project duration if activity B took an additional 2 weeks? Explain.
Assuming that all other activities took the estimated time shown, the project would take 2
weeks longer as B is on the critical path.

e) What would happen to the project duration if activity E took an additional 2 weeks.? Explain.
Assuming that all other activities took the estimated time shown the duration would still be
17 weeks as activity E has 3 weeks of slack.

f) What would happen to the project duration if activity F took an additional two weeks?
Explain.
Assuming that all other activities took the estimated time shown the duration would be 18
weeks as activity F only has 1 week of slack.

Solutions based on content from text book

Larson, E, Gray, C 2021, ‘Project Management The Managerial Process” 8E, McGraw-Hill, published New York
6

Q4 The following questions are based on network diagram below:

The customer would like the project to be completed in 30 weeks and has offered a bonus of
$10,000 if the project is completed within that time. The contract also contains a penalty clause in
which you will lose $1,000 for each week the project takes longer than 30 weeks.

Solutions based on content from text book

Larson, E, Gray, C 2021, ‘Project Management The Managerial Process” 8E, McGraw-Hill, published New York
7

a) Given that the customer wants the project completed in 30 weeks, complete the table
below listing the following values for each activity (earliest start time (ES), earliest finish
time (EF, latest start time (LS) latest finish time (LF), total slack (TS).

Activity ES EF LS LF TS
A 0 5 -4 1 -4
B 5 13 8 16 3
C 5 15 1 11 -4
D 5 13 2 10 -3
E 5 9 13 17 8
F 13 20 16 23 3
G 15 27 11 23 -4
H 13 20 10 17 -3
I 20 26 17 23 -3
J 27 34 23 30 -4

b) What is the most critical path(s) for this project? (If there is more than one critical path,
list the activities/tasks on each of the paths separately.)
There is one critical path: A-C-G-J
c) Based on the current estimates for the activity durations, what is the expected duration of
the project?
34 weeks
d) Based on the current estimates for the activity durations, would you expect to get a bonus
or penalty and if so how much? Explain your answer.
It is expected to be 4 weeks late, i.e. a penalty of 4 *1000 =$4000

Solutions based on content from text book

Larson, E, Gray, C 2021, ‘Project Management The Managerial Process” 8E, McGraw-Hill, published New York
8

Q5
a) Draw the network diagram for the following:

Activity Predecessor Duration

(weeks)

A None 2
B A 5
C A 6
D A 5
E B 6
F C 5
G D 6
H E 4
I F 4
J G 4
K H, I, J 3
L K 2

Solutions based on content from text book

Larson, E, Gray, C 2021, ‘Project Management The Managerial Process” 8E, McGraw-Hill, published New York
9

b) Complete the forward and backward pass and compute the total slack for each activity.
Enter the results of your calculations in the following table (ES = earliest start, EF = earliest
finish, LS = latest start, LF = latest finish, TS = total slack, FS = free slack):

Activity ES EF LS LF TS FS

A 0 2 0 2 0 0
B 2 7 2 7 0 0
C 2 8 2 8 0 0
D 2 7 2 7 0 0
E 7 13 7 13 0 0
F 8 13 8 13 0 0
G 7 13 7 13 0 0
H 13 17 13 17 0 0
I 13 17 13 17 0 0
J 13 17 13 17 0 0
K 17 20 17 20 0 0
L 20 22 20 22 0 0

c) How long will this project take?

22 weeks
d) How many critical paths are there?
Three
e) List each of the critical paths.
A-B-E-H-K-L
A-C-F-I-K-L
A-D-G-J-K-L
f) How sensitive is the network schedule? Explain your answer.
The network is very sensitive as all three paths are critical. None of the activities have any
slack. If any activity in the network is delayed, the project will take longer.

Solutions based on content from text book

Larson, E, Gray, C 2021, ‘Project Management The Managerial Process” 8E, McGraw-Hill, published New York
10

Q6
a) Draw the network diagram for the following:

Activity Predecessor Duration

(weeks)

A None 2
B A 7
C A 6
D A 5
E B 8
F C 5
G D 6
H E 6
I F 4
J G 4
K H, I, J 3
L K 2

Solutions based on content from text book

Larson, E, Gray, C 2021, ‘Project Management The Managerial Process” 8E, McGraw-Hill, published New York
11

b) Complete the forward and backward pass and compute the total slack for each activity.
Enter the results of your calculations in the following table (ES = earliest start, EF = earliest
finish, LS = latest start, LF = latest finish, TS = total slack, FS = free slack):

Activity ES EF LS LF TS FS

A 0 2 0 2 0 0
B 2 9 2 9 0 0
C 2 8 8 14 6 0
D 2 7 8 13 6 0
E 9 17 9 17 0 0
F 8 13 14 19 6 0
G 7 13 13 19 6 0
H 17 23 17 23 0 0
I 13 17 19 23 6 6
J 13 17 19 23 6 6
K 23 26 23 26 0 0
L 26 28 26 28 0 0

c) How long will this project take?

28 weeks
d) How many critical paths are there?
one
e) List each of the critical paths.
A-B-E-H-K-L
f) How sensitive is the network schedule? Explain your answer.
The network is not very sensitive as there is only one critical path and all the other (non-
critical) activities have a total slack of 6 weeks.

Review Questions
Chapter 6 Review Questions

Q1 What is the project network diagram and why is it beneficial to develop the project network
diagram?

It is a flow chart that graphically depicts the sequence, interdependencies and start and finish times
of the project activities. An “activity on the node” (AON) network consists of nodes (or boxes) that
represent activities and arrows that represent the precedence relationships between the activities.

Because it is a graphical tool, it can be easily understood (“a picture says a thousand words”)
allowing people to see the flow and sequence of the work through the project. It is a useful tool for
planning, scheduling and monitoring project progress.

Q2 What is an activity (or task)?

An activity (or task) is an element in the project that consumes time.

Solutions based on content from text book
Larson, E, Gray, C 2021, ‘Project Management The Managerial Process” 8E, McGraw-Hill, published New York
12

Q3 What is the relationship between the WBS and the project network?

The project network is developed from the WBS. An activity in the project network can contain one
or more work packages. A work package can become one or activities. The network uses the time
estimates found in the work packages to develop the network. After the precedence relationships
are added to the project network and the duration estimates are added to the activities, the start
and finish times for each activity can be determined.

Q4 What is the meaning of the following precedence relationships:

a) FS
This is the default relationship when using Microsoft Project. This type of relationship means
that the predecessor must finish before the successor can start.
b) SF
This means that the predecessor must start before the successor can finish
c) SS
This means that the predecessor must start before the successor can start.
d) FF
This means that the predecessor must finish before the successor can finish.

Q5
a) What is total slack?
The total slack of an activity tells us the amount of time the activity can be delayed without
impacting on the finish time of the project.
b) How do you calculate total slack (or total float) for each activity in the network?
You must first complete the forward pass through the network calculating the earliest start
time (ES) and earliest finish time (EF) for each activity. You then perform the backward pass
through the network calculating the latest finish time and latest start time for each activity.
The total slack for each activity can then be calculated using either of the following two
formulae:

SL = LS-ES
or
SL = LF-EF

c) What does it mean if the total slack for an activity is negative?

This means that the activity involved is on a path through the network that will take longer
than the project’s required duration. This means that the project cannot be finished “on
time” unless the durations of the critical path(s) through the network can be reduced so that
there is no path that takes longer than the required duration for the project.
d) What does it mean if the total slack for an activity is positive?
This means that this activity can be delayed by that amount of time (i.e. by its slack) without
impacting on the completion date of the project. It does not indicate whether or not the
project can be completed on time as there may be other activities in the network that have
negative slack.

Solutions based on content from text book

Larson, E, Gray, C 2021, ‘Project Management The Managerial Process” 8E, McGraw-Hill, published New York
13

Q6
a) What is the definition of the most critical path(s) through a network?
The critical path is the longest path through the network. Note that it is possible to have
more than one critical path through the network.
b) What will all the activities on the most critical paths(s) have in common?
All the activities on the critical path(s) will have the same amount of slack in common and
this will be the least amount of slack among all the activities in the network. They will all
have the same duration (which is also the duration of the project).
c) Why is it important for the project manager to identify the critical path(s) in the project
network?
If any of the activities on the critical path(s) are delayed, then the project will be delayed.
(Similarly, if it is necessary to reduce the duration of the project, then the duration of the
critical paths must be reduced.)

d) Given the information in the table below, which activities are on the most critical path(s)?

Activity TS

A -4
B 3
C -4
D -3
E 8
F 3
G -4
H -3
I -3
J -4

Answer: A, C, G, J (least slack)

Q7 What is free slack?

It is the amount of time an activity can be delayed without impacting on the earliest start time for
any of its successor(s). Note that it can never be negative. It can only be positive or 0. You will only
find activities with free slack at the end of a chain where you have a merge activity.

Solutions based on content from text book

Larson, E, Gray, C 2021, ‘Project Management The Managerial Process” 8E, McGraw-Hill, published New York
14

Q8 Why is slack important to the project manager?

The more slack there is, the more flexibility the project manager has in terms of rearranging work
and resources within the project (for example the project manager could delay a task within its
available slack allowing its resources to be used elsewhere). If there is very little slack, with several
critical or near critical paths, then the project manager has very little flexibility to rearrange work
and resources.

Q9
a) What is a lag?
A lag is the minimum amount of time a dependent activity must be delayed beginning or
end.
b) In the following example where activity B cannot start until at least 10-time units after
activity A has completed (i.e. there is a lag of 10-time units from activity A finishing and
activity B starting) what is the earliest start time for activity B? (Assume that activity A is
the first activity in the network.)

Answer: earliest start time for B is 15

Q10 What is network sensitivity and what are the factors that impact on network sensitivity?

The network sensitivity reflects the likelihood that the original critical path(s) will change once the
project is initiated. It is a function of the number of critical or near-critical paths. If there was only
one critical path and the non-critical paths have a large amount of slack (and so are unlikely to
become critical) then this is an insensitive network. A network with more than one critical path
and/or non-critical activities with very little slack is sensitive.

Solutions based on content from text book

Larson, E, Gray, C 2021, ‘Project Management The Managerial Process” 8E, McGraw-Hill, published New York