Project Management Questioned

Week 7 Hand-in AssignmentSerDoc is a company that manufactures customised medical equipment for hospitals and is about to initiate a project for building a new machine for a recent order from a hospital. The project involves the following six phases: initiating, requirements gathering, design, development and testing, documentation, deployment and testing. The project is scheduled to start on 15 October.

The duration and precedence relationships (or sequencing) between the tasks of the project are provided in the table below:

Phase	Task Name	Task ID	Immediate Predecessor	Time (Days)
Initiating	Defining the scope of the project	1		5
Initiating	Analysing the existing product which is being produced by SerDoc	2		10
Requirements Gathering	Preparing the requirements document and a high-level design	3	1, 2	15
Requirements Gathering	Conducting a proof of concept to validate the approach	4	3	7
Requirements Gathering	Signoff of requirements and a high-level design from the customers who have ordered the machine	5	3	4
Design	Design of hardware components	6	5, 4	20
Design	Detailed product specifications	7	5	30
Design	Detailed program design*	8	7	20
Development and Testing	Manufacturing of the shell of the machine	9	7, 8	40
Development and Testing	Assembling of the electronic components of the machine	10	7	10
Development and Testing	Testing of the circuit for accuracy of responses	11	9, 10	40
Development and Testing	Testing of the manufactured machine and calibration to standards	12	11	15
Documentation	Preparing an installation and user manual	13	Finishes with 8, 12	30
Deployment and Testing	Installation of the machine at the hospital	14	12	5
Deployment and Testing	Conducting trials and checking all functionality at the hospital after installation	15	12, 14	10
Deployment and Testing	Getting client signoff	16	13, 15	0
Deployment and Testing	Training hospital technicians for using the machine	17	12	15
Deployment and Testing	Commissioning of the machine at the hospital	18	8	9

 

*This task can begin 5 days after starting Task 7.

Part 1

On the basis of the above information, use Microsoft® Project to create a project plan that lists project tasks, establishes precedence relationships between tasks, sets precedence relationships, calculates the project duration, and identifies the critical path. While preparing the project plan, categorise the project tasks in the different phases of initiating, requirements gathering, design, development and testing, documentation, and deployment and testing.

What is the end date of the project?

Submit a screen shot of the Microsoft Project plan in the same document as your answer.

Part 2

After looking at the schedule that you have created, the client has objected to the project completion date. The client wants the project to be completed at least 30 days before the current completion date. According to the client, there should be no reduction in the duration of some activities, such as the installation of the machine at the hospital, conducting trials and checking all functionality at the hospital after installation, and getting client signoff, as the current estimate for these tasks itself is very aggressive.

Activities that can be considered for reducing the duration by adding resources are the following:

• Manufacturing of the shell of the machine: A maximum of 4 resources can be added at an additional cost of $500 per day per resource.
• Assembling of the electronic components of the machine: A maximum of 1 resource can be added at an additional cost of $700 per day.
• Testing of the circuit for accuracy of responses: A maximum of 3 resources can be added at an additional cost of $300 per day per resource.
• Testing of the manufactured machine and calibration to standards: A maximum of 1 resource can be added at an additional cost of $200 per day.

Given the above data, what would be the maximum reduction in the duration of each task that can be achieved by using all the additional resources? What would be the additional cost for the same?

Submit a screen shot of the modified Microsoft Project plan in the same document as your answers.

Please make sure that you cite and reference all your outside sources properly, as per the Harvard Referencing System