The National Oceanic Research Institute is planning a research study on global warming in Antarctica. The 16-month network schedule is presented below. It is followed by budgets for each activity. Create a time-phased budget for the research project in the form provided.

True or false?

a. The approval of a capital budget allows managers to go ahead with any project included in the budget.

b. Capital budgets and project authorizations are mostly developed "bottom up." Strategic planning is a "top-down" process.

c. Project sponsors are likely to be overoptimistic.

Why is cost estimation such an important component of project planning? Discuss how it links together with the Work Breakdown Structure and the project schedule.

Solve for rate in the application problem. Round to the nearest tenth of a percent.

A recent study by Rand's National Defense Research Institute examined 48,000 military jobs, such as Army attack-helicopter pilot and Navy gunner's mate. It was found that only 960 of these jobs are filled by women. What percent of these jobs are filled by women?

Can a project not meet its scope, schedule, budget, and quality objectives and still be considered successful? Why or why not?

A project manager has just learned that the schedule performance index (SPI) for his project is 85 percent. The calculation of the cost performance index (CPI) is 107 percent. How would you describe this project both in terms of budget and schedule?

Can a project meet its scope, schedule, budget, and quality objectives and still be considered unsuccessful? Why or why not?

Why was one of the earliest project tracking devices referred to as an S-curve? Do you see value in the desire to link budget and schedule to view project performance?

Name the five basic project planning steps when setting up a CPM schedule.

Solve for rate. Round to the nearest tenth of a percent.

One Carrier Corporation factory builds air conditioning systems for commercial buildings. Sales are traditionally low as summer draws to an end and the manager decides he must lay off 80 of the 760 employees working on the assembly lines. Find the percent of workers that will be laid off.

A problem includes last year’s sales and this year’s sales and asks for the percent of increase. Explain how you would identify the base, rate, and part in this problem.

Compute the early, late, and slack times for the activities in the network that follows, assuming a time-constrained network. Which activities are critical? What is the time-constrained project duration? Note: Recall, in the schedule resource load chart the time-constrained scheduling interval (ES through LF) has been shaded. Any resource scheduled beyond the shaded area will delay the project. Assume you have only three resources and you are using a computer that uses software that schedules projects by the parallel method and following heuristics. Schedule only one period at a time!

Minimum slack

Smallest duration

Lowest identification number

Keep a log of each activity change and update you make each period—e.g., period 0–1, 1–2, 2–3, etc. (Use a format similar to the one on the page.) The log should include any changes or updates in ES and slack times each period, activities scheduled, and activities delayed. (Hint: Remember to maintain the technical dependencies of the network.) Use the resource load chart to assist you in scheduling (see the pages and the figures). List the order in which you scheduled the activities of the project. Which activities of your schedule are now critical? Recompute your slack for each activity given your new schedule. What is the slack for activity 1? 4? 5?

Solve for rate. Round to the nearest tenth of a percent.

$\underline{~~~~~~~}$% of 752 employees is 470 employees.

Solve for rate. Round to the nearest tenth of a percent.

$\underline{~~~~~~~}$% of $330 is$91.74.