Question:

(a) Back~to~Future International, a recently setup non-profit organization by the students of Fashion & Design Institute, has decided to organize a fashion show. The objective of the event will be to give members of the organization opportunities to express their hidden and innovative talents. The event will be held at the Moteelall International Convention Centre.

A project team has been set up and the main activities and precedence for the project have been identified and the estimated durations assessed as follows:

i. Draw an activity-on-arrow network diagram for the project. Include full information on earliest and latest event times.

ii. Determine the minimum completion time and the critical path.

(b) Describe how each of the following changes to task durations (on their own) would affect the critical path and project duration.

i) Task A - reduced to 3 weeks
ii) Task E - increased to 5 weeks
iii) Task G - reduced to 8 weeks

(c) List 2 advantages and 2 disadvantages of using an activity-on-node diagram for a project plan in comparison with using a Gantt chart.

(d) Why do we carry out monitoring and control on a project?

(e) Project managers often have to create routine reports for example weekly or monthly. List 2 reports that the project manager may have to write that are not routine.

(f) In order to decide if the project is on schedule what four key pieces of information must the project manager possess?