6/Allocating Resources to the Project

Chapter 6
Allocating Resources to the Project

This chapter extends the previous one on scheduling into the area of allocating resources among
the activities of a project, or among multiple projects competing for the same resources. The
chapter begins with a discussion of expediting project completion times and highlights that by
selectively choosing which activities to crash and by how much, we can determine the minimum
cost for all possible project completion time. The use of Excels Solver optimization routine to
facilitate this analysis is also presented. Next, the chapter moves on to the topic of resource
loading and in particular highlights the problems of over scheduling resources. The topics of
resource leveling and resource allocation naturally follow in the subsequent sections. Finally, the
chapter concludes with an overview of several of the concepts Goldratt raises in his provocative
book Critical Chain.

Cases and Readings

A case appropriate to the subject of this chapter is:
Harvard: 9-613-020 Space Constructors, Inc. This 3-page case involves a simple project
where partial crashing has already been planned but more, and less, crashing is also to be
considered. The network has some special characteristics that offer some worthwhile lessons for
the student.

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6/Allocating Resources to the Project

Answers to Review Questions

1. Given the fact that a projects resource requirements are clearly
spelled out in the projects action plan, why are PMs so
concerned with resource allocation?
There can be a variety of reasons why resource allocation is of concern to
the PM despite having a properly completed action plan. For example:
o The action plan only lists general categories of resource requirements
such as engineering, purchasing, marketing, and production. In these
cases, the project manager must still arrange to get the specific
resources (e.g., personnel) needed.
o The action plan may only specify how much of the resource is needed
and precedence between the activities relationships, it may not specify
exactly when the PM will need these resources.
o Although the action plan specifies the amount of a resource needed for
a particular project, there may not be a mechanism in use that
balances the load of resources across multiple projects. This can lead
to conflicts and the creation of bottleneck resources.
2. Explain the difference between a project that has a fixed delivery
day and one that has a fixed limit on resource usage.
A project with a fixed delivery date can vary the level of resources used to
meet a firm project completion date.
A project with a fixed limit on resource usage cannot obtain additional
resources but can possibly delay the project completion date.
Why might a PM be interested in this difference?
The reason this distinction is important is that it specifies which of the
fundamental trade-offs the project manager can exercise. In the case of
projects with fixed delivery dates, only performance and cost (resource
usage) can be varied. In projects with fixed resource usage levels, only
schedule and performance can be varied.
3. What does it mean to fast track a project?
Fast-tracking is a technique whereby key stages of the project are
overlapped.

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6/Allocating Resources to the Project

In the construction industry, this might entail beginning construction

before the design and planning are finished. In the pharmaceutical
industry this may entail developing the production process as the new
drugs are being developed and tested.

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4. List as many things as you can think of that should be entered

into a specific resources calendar.
Information that should be entered into a resources calendar include:
o The resources availability (e.g., days in week available, total hours
available per week, hours available each day).
o Times the resource will not be available (e.g., lunch, weekends,
holidays, vacations, scheduled maintenance), and
o Resource cost (e.g., cost per unit of usage, cost for overtime and
overuse, known changes in future resource cost).
5. Explain why project-oriented firms require excess resource
capacity.
In project oriented firms there is much more uncertainty about the timing
of resource needs since the resources primarily move between projects
rather than moving between projects and a functional department.
Therefore, extra resource capacity is needed as a buffer given the greater
level of uncertainty present.
6. The arrival and departure times of commercial aircraft are
carefully scheduled. Why, then, is it so important to have excess
capacity in the airport control tower?
Although the arrival and departure times may be carefully scheduled, we
all know that actual arrivals and departures often deviate significantly
from these schedules. Therefore, a significant amount of uncertainty is
present and greatly complicates the ability of the airport control system to
handle arrivals and departures.
Indeed unplanned events (e.g., weather delays, equipment malfunctions,
late flight crews, and so on) often cascade through the system further
compounding the problem. Therefore, excess capacity in control towers is
needed as a buffer given this level of uncertainty. Clearly, the cost of not
having this capacity greatly exceeds the cost of some idle capacity.
7. Explain the difference in the problems faced by a PM who is short
of secretarial resources and one who is short of a Walt.
The PM that is short of secretarial resources does not face that great of a
problem as this type of resource is relatively abundant and not usually
critical to the projects ultimate success or failure. The PM that is short of

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a Walt (i.e., an individual with expertise and knowledge in an area)

faces a much more daunting problem because a Walt is a scarce resource
that is important to the projects successful completion and there are no
readily available substitutes for a Walt.

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8. When allocating scarce resources to several different projects at

the same time, why is it important to make sure that all resource
calendars are on the same time base (i.e., hourly, daily, or weekly
)?
One reason it is important to ensure the resource calendars are on the
same time base is because task duration is not usually dictated by the
number of labor hours required to complete the task, but rather by the
calendar time required to complete it.
9. List and describe the three most common criteria by which to
evaluate different resource allocation priority rules.
The three criteria are:
o Schedule slippage a measure of the delay suffered by projects as a
result of the application of a resource allocation priority rule.
o Resource utilization a measure of the total resource cost (including
costs such as the cost of hiring, firing, and maintaining resource
inventories) under different allocation rules.
o In-process inventory a measure of the cost of unfinished work in the
system.
10. Why is the problem of allocating scarce resources to a set of
projects similar to the problem of scheduling a job shop?
In a job shop allocating resources (equipment and workers) to jobs or
orders is required. In projects, a similar allocation is required where
specific resources must be allocated to tasks and activities which
represent the jobs.
11.

What is meant by the student syndrome?

The student syndrome refers to situations in which people wait until the
last possible minute to begin a task. Its name is derived from the belief
that students often delay the start of an assignment until just before it is
due.

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Suggested Answers to Discussion Questions

12. Describe the fundamental trade-offs when deciding whether or
not to crash a project.
The fundamental trade-off in crashing a project is between schedule and
budget. Specifically, crashing entails employing additional resources
(cost) in order to reduce the projects completion time.
If the decision is made to crash, what additional trade-offs must
be made?
If it is decided to crash a project other trade-offs may be necessary in
terms of the completion time of other projects and perhaps the
performance of this and other projects.
13. Discuss the advantages of labor pools in a project oriented
company.
The main advantages of labor pools versus dedicating workers to
specific projects are:
o Less waiting time for key resources.
o The ability to level resource usage, and
o The ability to substitute one worker for another should one become
unavailable.
Are there any potential disadvantages with the use of pools?
Potential drawbacks include:
o Workers who do not identify with a particular project.
o Personnel who may not be well trained in specific tasks required by the
assignment.
o Fewer opportunities for job enlargement.
All of these may lead to lower levels of job satisfaction, as well as lower
morale and motivation.

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14. What purpose(s) might be served by using each of the

following priority rules for allocating scarce resources?
a. As late as possible.
b. Shortest task duration time first.
c. Minimum slack first.
a. Starting a task as late as possible preserves resources and delays
cash flows as long as possible.
b. Allocating resources to tasks with the shortest durations first
maximizes the number of tasks that can be completed within a certain
time period.
c. The minimum slack priority rule is used to minimize the number of
late activities.
15. Linking a group of projects together with pseudoactivities
creates a sort of superproject. What does this mean, and why
would anyone want to do it?
Just as a project consists of tasks and activities with precedence
relationships, a superproject can be thought of as consisting of a group of
projects with precedence relationships. In the superproject,
psuedoactivities are used to show the precedence relationships among
the projects. These precedence relationships may be actual technological
constraints (e.g., the product development project must be completed
before the process development project) or simply a reflection of
managements priorities.
The reason for creating a superproject is to help identify important
relationships and dependencies across the projects and use this
information to better plan the usage of key resources.
16. Describe in your own words what is meant by Goldratts critical
chain.
Traditionally, in project management the concept of the critical path is
used. More specifically, the critical path is defined as the path(s) that if
delayed will delay the completion of the entire project.
One shortcoming of the critical path approach is that it only considers
task precedence information and does not consider issues related to
resource usage. The critical chain addresses this concern and considers
both technical precedence relationships as well as the resources that will
be used to complete the tasks. Therefore, the critical chain refers to the

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6/Allocating Resources to the Project

longest chain of consecutively dependent events including both

technological as well as resource dependencies.

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6/Allocating Resources to the Project

How does it work?

The critical chain works by defining two sources that can delay the
completion of the project. One source of delay is uncertainty in the tasks
that comprise the critical chain. A project buffer is added to guard against
these uncertainties. The second source of delay is uncertainty in the
tasks external to the critical chain. A feeding buffer is added to these
paths to help ensure they do not delay the tasks on the critical chain.
17. Projects A and B are both nearing completion. You are
managing a super important project C that requires an immediate
input of resource being used by both projects A and B, but is
otherwise unavailable. Project A has a Type 1 life cycle. Project
Bs life cycle is Type 2. From which (or both or neither) do you
borrow the resource? Why?
In this case it would be best to borrow from project A. According to Figure
6-20, as a Type 1 project, fewer resources will have little impact on project
As performance as it nears completion. Conversely, as a Type 2 project,
taking resources away from project B as it nears completion will
dramatically reduce its performance.
18. Goldratt suggested that to avoid the student syndrome, it is a
good idea to set the activity durations so short that there is a
high probability that the task will not be finished on time. On the
other hand, it has long been known that setting up people for
failure is strongly demotivating. What should the PM do?
There is a delicate balance between setting goals that people believe are
impossible to achieve and therefore result in demotivating the team
versus stretch goals that really push the team and serve to motivate the
team.
The project manager should not set goals that have extremely low
probabilities of success, but may find it desirable to set goals that do have
a reasonable chance of not being met (say 40 to 60 percent).
19. Describe as many types of resource allocation problems as you
can, based on the situations described in this chapter.
The chapter identifies three types of resource allocation problems:
o

Available resources (resource loading).

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6/Allocating Resources to the Project

o
o

Scarce resources single projects.

Scarce resources multiple projects.

Resource loading recognizes the existence of needed resources and ensures that
they are allocated to the project when needed. An example would be a
construction site where the electrical work is subcontracted to an external
supplier. The main task is to determine that the external firm can have the
necessary skilled work force on site at the appropriate time.
Scarce resources are those with limited availability and the key elements of the
project have to be scheduled around that availability of the resource - even if a
firm has just a single project. An example of this situation would be the reliance
of a construction site on a specific piece of equipment such as a crane.
The allocation of scare resources becomes far more complex when the same
resources are need on more than one project. In this case, the utilization of the
resource on project A will also have an impact on project B (and, possibly, other
projects). As indicated in the chapter, the company will need to apply one of the
six priority rules to determine which project shall have the first use of the scarce
resource.

Solutions to Problems
20.

This project involves the landscaping of a building site.

a. The Gantt chart for the project.

b. Assuming a five day week, the critical path is: A-C-D-E-G and the project
duration is 14 days.

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6/Allocating Resources to the Project

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6/Allocating Resources to the Project

c. Since each resource is assigned 100 per cent to each task, the resource
constraints are:
o Resource X is over utilized on the Friday of week 1, Monday of week 2,
and Tuesday of week 3.
o Resource W is over utilized on Tuesday or week 3.

d. After leveling the resources, the project duration is 17 days and the
critical path is
A-C-D-F-G.

e. If it is necessary to shorten the project duration without overallocating the resources then
there are two options:
o
o

Adding an additional X resource would shorten the project by 2 days,

Leveling the W resource would be 15 days.

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6/Allocating Resources to the Project

The project duration is 13 days when the resources work weekends and after leveling.

21. Provided are the predecessors, normal time, normal cost, crash time
and crash cost for an eight activity (a to h) project.
a. The network for this project is as follows:

A
1

3
B

C
2

G
6

The critical path is B-C-E-H. The project duration and cost for the all
normal level of project activity is 20 days and $400, respectively.
b. The crash costs per day for all activities are shown in column F.

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6/Allocating Resources to the Project

A
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

B
Normal
Time
5
4
7
2
3
8
5
6

Activity
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h

C
Normal
Cost
$50
$40
$70
$20
$30
$80
$50
$60

D
Crash
Time
3
2
6
1

E
Crash
Cost
$150
$200
$160
$50

F
Crash
Cost/Day
50
80
90
30

5
4
3

$290
$100
$180

70
50
40

c. The spreadsheet below was created to find the optimal way of getting to
an 18-day delivery time. As shown, the total normal cost is $400 (cell
C14) and the total crash cost is $80 (cell I14) for a total project cost of
$480 (cell B2). The 18 day duration was achieved by crashing activity H 2
days (cell H13).
A
1 Deadline:
2 Total Cost:
3
4
Activity
5
6
a
7
b
8
c
9
d
10
e
11
f
12
g
13
h
Total
14
15
16
Node
17
18
2
19
3
20
4
21
5
22
6

B
18
$480

Normal
Time
5
4
7
2
3
8
5
6

Normal
Cost
$50
$40
$70
$20
$30
$80
$50
$60
$400

Crash
Time
3
2
6
1

Crash
Cost
$150
$200
$160
$50

5
4
3

$290
$100
$180

Crash Max Crash

Amt
Crashing
Cost/Day
Amt
to Crash
Cost
50
2
0.0
0.0
80
2
0.0
0.0
90
1
0.0
0.0
30
1
0.0
0.0
0
0.0
0.0
70
3
0.0
0.0
50
1
0.0
0.0
40
3
2.0
80.0
$80

Actual
Time
5
4
7
2
3
8
5
4

Event
Time
4
11
13
14
18

The optimal solution using Solver was found in the following way:
o Cell I14 was specified as the target cell to minimize.
o The ranges H6:H13 and B18:B22 were specified as the changing cells.
The following constraints were added:

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6/Allocating Resources to the Project

o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o

H6:H13 < G6:G13 (maximum amount each activity can be crashed)

B18 > J7 (node 2)
B19 > B18 + J8 (node 3)
B19 > J6 (node 3)
B20 > B19 + J9 (node 4)
B21 > B18 + J11 (node 5)
B21 > B19 + J10 (node 5)
B22 > B20 + J12 (node 6)
B22 > B21 + J13 (node 6)
B22 < B1 (node 6 project deadline)
6:H13 > 0 and B18:B22 > 0 (all decision variables must be > 0)
The Assume linear model check box was also selected.

d. The optimal 16-day project duration can be found by entering 16 in cell

B1 and then resolving using Solver. The optimal solution calls for crashing
activity H 3 days, B 1 day, and D 1 day. The cost of completing the
project in 16 days is $400 + $230 = $630.
e. If all activities are crashed as much as possible, the project can be
completed in 14 days. Entering 14 in cell B1 and resolving, it is
discovered that the project can be completed in 14 days at a cost of $400
+ $ 400 = $800.
f. See solutions to c e above.
22. Given the following AOA network, what is the first activity to be given
extra resource?
The following Table shows the activity, duration, successors, critical
followers, and slack associated with each of the four activities:
Activity
A
B
C
D

Duration
4
3
7
5

Successors
D
C, D
D
None

Critical Followers

Slack

D
C, D
D
None

6
0
0
0

a. Using the shortest task first priority rule: Task B has the shortest duration.
b. Minimum slack first Tasks B, C, and D all have zero slack.
c. Most critical followers Task B has the largest number of critical
followers.
d. Most successors Task B has the largest number of successors.
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6/Allocating Resources to the Project

23. Given the project shown in Figure 5-10 of Chapter 5 and the fact that
the facility used by activities c and d is scarce, which activity would
benefit from each of the rules?
The following Table shows the activity, slack, critical followers, duration,
and latest start time for activities c and d:
Activity
Start Time

Slack

Followers

F, I

G, H, J

Critical Followers

Duration

None

H, J

8
7

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Latest

6/Allocating Resources to the Project

a. Using the minimum slack rule: Activity D has the least amount of slack
and therefore would get the facility first using this rule.
b. Most followers D has the most followers and would get the facility first.
c. Most critical followers D has the most critical followers and would get
the facility first.
d. Shortest task first C has a smaller duration and would get the facility
first.
e. With the as late as possible priority rule, the latest start times are used.
In this case activity C has a LSof 8 and D has a LS of 7. In using this rule it
only makes sense to assign the facility to the resource with the earliest LS
or activity D.

Incidents for Discussion Suggested Answers

Lab Results, Inc.
Question 1: Do you think Sams plan is going to work? Why or why
not?
No, Sams plan of just adding this work to his current work load without any
additional resources will not work for a number of reasons:
o There is little or no excess capacity in the current operation. If Sam is
paying overtime weekly, his current staff are working beyond normal
capacity now. Adding additional work through this new project will only
add to this.
o Sams plan does not take into account vacation or sick time for his
technicians. Four months is also a long time to ask the staff to work more
overtime on top of what they are already working.
o There is also no time built in to deal with any issues that may come up,
such as increases in work load from his other clients, problems with
equipment, etc.
If he continues with this plan, quality and the ability to meet the scheduled
delivery of results will suffer.
How would you handle the bid on the new project?

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6/Allocating Resources to the Project

Among the steps one could take would be to:

o Redesign the project plan for this new job to include additional resources
to complete the additional work.
o Use this as an opportunity to build excess capacity into the current
system.
Focusing on the costs associated with additional resources instead of paying
overtime to already overworked staff would reduce the project cost and
improve the chance of meeting the projects specification for quality and
delivery.
Question 2: Would Crystal Ball be useful in assessing Sams plan
and changing it, if necessary?
If Sam has data on the ebb and flow of demand on this work force across
time, he can use Crystal Ball to simulate the amount of overtime his
workforce will be expected to work if he wins the contract. Further, he can
find the amount of system capacity consistent with any given level of
overtime.

Southern Kentucky University Bookstore

Question 1: Is the minimum slack rule a reasonable way to schedule
resources of the Textbook division? Why or why not?
No. The projects are not combined and the minimum slack on one may
receive resources when its slack is more than the minimum slack on another
project.
Question 2: What complication is added by making this project four
separate projects?
The interactions between these projects are important and must be
accounted for by scheduling this as a multiproject plan. Peak resource loads
need to be determined in advance and leveled. The overall project schedule
should be determined with the resource utilization of each area in mind.

Suggested Case Analyses and Solutions

St. Dismas Assisted Living Facility Resource Usage Part 4

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6/Allocating Resources to the Project

Teaching Purpose: In this installment students are required to develop Gantt charts for the
resources and prepare a resource calendar using MSP.
Question 1: Prepare a Gantt chart with resources for the action plan Dr.
Alison submitted. Begin this project on January 2. Prepare a resource
calendar for Dr. Alison.

The following is the Gantt chart of the action plan presented in the case.
This Gantt chart was prepared using MSP with a resource calendar for Dr.
Alison and Dr. Link with a workweek of Monday through Friday, and a daily
schedule of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. with an hour of non-working time for lunch.
The resource calendar was applied using the Change Working Time under
the Tools menu in MSP. (The issue of scheduling the Test of the
assessment tool will be addressed in answer #3 & #4). Note: the case
stated to start the project on January 2, if students use the year 2000, the
project will actually begin work on January 3rd, as January 2nd is a non-working
day. If students use January 2, 2001 (or later), the project will start on
January 2nd. The start date used in these examples is January 2, 2000, to
coincide with the year that the case started.

The following is the standard resource calendar used for Dr. Alison for all of
the tasks defined by the action plan. Since the case outlined that a resource
scheduling conflict would only pertain to the task of Testing the assessment
tool, it is not appropriate to constrain Dr. Alison on the project for any other
tasks. Note: The following printout excerpt was prepared using the Reports
feature in MSP. The issue of how to handle the specific scheduling constraint
will be addressed in answer #3 below.
Question 2: How would you handle Dr. Alisons resource problem?
The resource issue that Dr. Alison has should be handled by adjusting the
project schedule to allow for the scheduling constraints.

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6/Allocating Resources to the Project

The case states that Dr. Alison can perform all of the project steps within his
8 a.m. to 5 p.m. normal work week, however he will only be able to perform
the Test of the assessment tool during his administrative time on
Wednesdays from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. Since that step is important to the
success of the project, it is necessary to adjust the project plan to reflect Dr.
Alisons scheduling conflict. It is not appropriate to add another resource, or
overallocate Dr. Allison to get this task done within the time frame specified.
There are several different ways to set a resource constraint on the Test the
tool task, Step #4 in the action plan. MSP 2007allows you to create a
specific calendar for a step in an action plan. Simply create a New calendar
in the Tools menu, Change working time section. In the new calendar
create a schedule that has its working time as Wednesdays, 8 a.m. to 12
p.m., and all other days as non-working. Then you apply this calendar to
step 4 in the action plan. (This is done by selecting the task information box
for Step #4, going to the Advanced tab, and selecting the new calendar
you just created. These steps are all outlined in the Help section, under
Assigning a calendar to a task.)
Once you apply the new calendar, MSP will automatically adjust the Gantt
chart to reflect the changes in the schedule. Note: If students are using
MSP98, the schedule constraint can be incorporated into the project by
adjusting Dr. Alisons resource calendar for only the time period that this step
takes place (Jan 19 Jan 26).]
Question 3: Given Dr. Alisons availability, how long will it take to
complete testing of the assessment tool?
Based on Dr. Alisons availability to complete the step Test of the
assessment tool, Step #4 will now take from January 19, 2000 January 26,
2000. Please note that the tasks duration remains at 6 hours, however with
Dr. Alison only available to work on the step from 8 a.m. 12 p.m. one day a
week, the step will now take an extra calendar week to complete. Without
the constraint the task could begin as soon as Step #3 was completed,
January 14. However, with the constraint applied, Step #4 cannot begin
until the following Wednesday when Dr. Alison is available, and he can only
work 4 hours on that day, so another 2 hours the following Wednesday is
necessary to complete the task.

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6/Allocating Resources to the Project

Question 4: Prepare a Gantt chart for Dr. Alisons plan incorporating

any changes you recommend.
The Gantt chart below shows the scheduling changes adjusted for the availability of Dr. Alison to
complete step #4 in the action plan.

Or with a more detailed view of the calendar:

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6/Allocating Resources to the Project

Charter Financial Bank

Teaching Purpose: This case provides students with opportunity to evaluate alternative crashing
strategies.
Question 1: What is the cost of completing this project if no overtime is used? How long will it
take to complete the project?
The network diagram shown below can be constructed from the information
in the case.
Test

DB

Benchmarking

Plan

Design

Pages
Forms

8
e
s
t

The time to complete the project at a normal level of activity is 43 days and
the cost is $100,650.
Question 2: What is the shortest amount of time in which the
project can be completed? What is the cost of completing the
project in the shortest amount of time?
When all the activities are crashed their maximum amount, the project is completed in 30 days.
In the spreadsheet below, Solver was used to find the least costly way to crash the project such
that it was finished in 30 days. Column H details the amount each activity was crashed. The
incremental cost required to shorten the project these 13 days is $26,250 (cell I13).

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6/Allocating Resources to the Project

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23

A
Deadline:
Total Cost:

Activity
Benchmark
Plan
Design
Database
Webpages
Forms
Test
Total

Node
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

B
30
$126,900
Normal
Time
10
5
15
10
10
7
3

Normal Crash Crash

Crash Max Crash
Amt
Crashing Actual
Cost
Time Cost Cost/Day
Amt
to Crash
Cost
Time
$15,000
7
$18,750
1250
3
3.0
3750.0
7
$3,750
3
$4,500
375
2
2.0
750.0
3
$45,000
10 $58,500
2700
5
5.0
13500.0
10
$9,000
7
$11,250
750
3
2.0
1500.0
8
$15,000
8
$19,500
2250
2
2.0
4500.0
8
$8,400
7
0
0.0
0.0
7
$4,500
2
$6,750
2250
1
1.0
2250.0
2
$100,650
$26,250

Event
Time
7
10
20
28
28
27
30

Using Solver required the following steps:

o Cell I13 was specified as the target cell to minimize.
o The changing cells included the ranges I6:I12 and B17:B23.
In addition to specifying Assume linear model the following constraints
were entered:
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o

H6:H12 < G6:G12 (limit on the amount each activity can be crashed)
B17:B23 > 0 & H6:H12 > 0 (nonnegativity constraints)
B17 > J6 (node 2)
B18 > B17 + J7 (node 3)
B19 > B18 + J8 (node 4)
B20 > B19 + J9 (node 5)
B20 > B21 (node 5)
B20 > B22 (node 5)
B21 > B19 + J10 (node 6)
B22 > B19 + J11 (node 7)
B23 > B20 + J12 (node 8)
B23 < B1 (deadline specified)

88

6/Allocating Resources to the Project

Question 3: Suppose that the benchmarking study actually required

13 days as opposed to the 10 days originally estimated. What
actions would you take to keep the project on a normal schedule?
The spreadsheet presented in question 2 can be modified such that the
benchmarking studys normal and crash times are now 13 days implying that
this task can no longer be crashed. Then the spreadsheet can be resolved
using Solver and specifying a deadline of 43 days. As shown in the
spreadsheet, below the project can still be completed in 43 days by crashing
the Plan task by 2 days and the Test task by 1 day. The cost of crashing
these two tasks will increase the project cost by $3,000.
Question 4: Suppose the President wanted the website launched in
35 days. What actions would you take to meet this deadline? How
much extra would it cost to complete the project in 35 days?
The spreadsheet presented in question 2 can again be modified. This time
35 is entered in cell B1 and the problem resolved with Solver. Column H in
the spreadsheet below details the amounts the various activities should be
crashed to meet the 35-day deadline. The extra cost of reducing this project
8 days (43 35) is $12,150.
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
1 Deadline:
35
2 Total Cost:
$112,800
3
Normal
Normal Crash Crash
Crash
Max Crash
4
Activity
Time
Cost
Time
Cost
Cost/Day
Amt
5
6
Benchmark
10
$15,000
7
$18,750
1250
3
7
Plan
5
$3,750
3
$4,500
375
2
8
Design
15
$45,000
10
$58,500
2700
5
9
Database
10
$9,000
7
$11,250
750
3
10 Webpages
10
$15,000
8
$19,500
2250
2
11
Forms
7
$8,400
7
0
12
Test
3
$4,500
2
$6,750
2250
1
Total
$100,650
13
14
Event
15
Node
Time
16
17
2
7
18
3
10
19
4
23
20
5
33
21
6
33
22
7
30
23
8
35

89

Amt
Crashing Actual
to Crash
Cost
Time
3.0
3750.0
7
2.0
750.0
3
2.0
5400.0
13
0.0
0.0
10
0.0
0.0
10
0.0
0.0
7
1.0
2250.0
2
$12,150