Discussion question post

Initial Postings:

Read and reflect on the assigned readings/videos for the week. Respond to both the below:

1. Based on the different concepts covered, choose one topic area to explore further. Conduct online research related to that topic across at least two articles. Post a summary (2-3 paragraphs) of these learnings to further educate your peers on the subject.
2. Provide a graduate-level response to one of the following questions:
3. Why is the critical path method important to determining the length of a project?
4. What are some techniques related to schedule compression that a PM could use to help reduce the length of a project?
5. Why might having extra lead/lag time be beneficial or hurtful to a project?

Your post must be substantive and demonstrate insight gained from the course material. Postings must be in the student’s own words – do not provide quotes nor use ChatGPT or other tools to write on your behalf!

Your initial post should be at least 450+ words and in APA format (including Times New Roman with font size 12 and double spaced). Post the actual body of your paper in the discussion thread then attach a Word version of the paper for APA/Plagiarism review.

Module Overview:

When controlling the project schedule, the Project Manager will focus on reviewing variances as related to the schedule baseline to actual performance. If performance begins to vary from the baseline, then different tools may be deployed to get the project back-on track. These tools may include reviewing the critical path and revisiting leads/lags of the project, completing what-if scenarios, and deploying schedule compression and leveling techniques.

Module Objectives:

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

1. Students will use various tools such as what-if scenarios and critical path for project performance purposes.

Learning Materials:

Study the following learning materials this week:

• Take a moment to review

Recap of the Critical Path

The critical path of the project identifies the sequence of activities/tasks which represents the shortest possible duration to complete the project. Those activities on the critical path will have no float time, thus any delays to those activities will cause a delay in the project. The activities that are computed to have float time can delay up to the maximum amount of float without delaying the project. This only works when you have parallel streams of work with different members working on different activities. As if your project is just one long sequential project, then all the activities are on the critical path. Understanding the critical path is important as it allows the Project Manager the ability to understand what activities can be delayed without impacting the schedule, or where possible contingency float may want to be proactively added in. It also gives an opportunity for the Project Manager to review with the team to see if more opportunities exist to do work in parallel to reduce the length of the project.

Take a moment to review

What-If Scenarios

What-if scenarios is a technique that the Project Team can use to help identify how variables and potential changes could influence the constraints of the project. The team will typically run through hypothetical conditions and elaborate how it may harm or benefit the project typically via some form of brainstorming session. This is often used as an additional tool for risk assessment.

Take a moment to read through

Schedule Compressions & Leveling

There are multiple techniques for compressing the schedule down if the Project Manager is faced with the challenge to reduce the schedule, while maintain the scope of the project. Note these options may though adjust resource requirements. Some options include:

• Crashing the schedule, where we add resources to critical activities in order to shorten the schedule
• Fast-tracking, where we overlap or start work on multiple activities at the same time. Note though this only works effectively if the project has resources to support and may lead to other project challenges.
• Resource leveling involves redistributing resources to ensure maximum efficiency.

Take a moment to review the following videos related to schedule compressing:

Leads & Lags

You should have learned about Leads and Lags during project planning, as they help with building out the schedule. They are important as a component of project control as they are often areas where the Project Manager needs to monitor to ensure they are not becoming excessive or being taken advantage of, which later in the project could cause a shift in the critical path.

• Lead is the amount of time a successor task can start before its predecessor is finished. You can use Leads to overlap tasks if needed.
• Lag is the amount of time that must pass before a successor task can start after the predecessor task has completed. These purposely cause delays between tasks, which are useful to help manage dependencies or possible bottlenecks. They are also used as a contingency at times to account for the possibility of delays with tasks.

There may be times when a task can start prior to the predecessor finishing. For example, if a quality assurance team can start reviewing data imported into a new software system prior to all the data being loaded, then we can adjust a lead time to permit that. This in-turn can help reduce the overall project time.

Please read the following articles:

References