Revision Question 1 A nine week procurement project has been planned with seven tasks.

A team of no more than four procurement officers has been made available.

Task A B C D E F G

Duration 2 2 4 2 4 2 1

Predecessor/s A A A B D C, E, F

Resources 4 1 2 1 2 2 4

The resources shown are procurement officers which are required for each week of the task, so for example Task C requires two procurement officers for a 4 week period. Assume all tasks are scheduled to start as soon as possible.

Required: (a) Comment as to whether you agree with the following statement: (8 marks)

Tasks C, D and F each have 2 weeks of float (free slack) (b)

Assuming all tasks will start as soon as possible, identify any weeks where there might be a resource conflict. Show your answer in the form of a simple resource histogram. (10 marks) Suggest a tactic for resolving the resource conflict. Identify any drawbacks of your proposal. (7 marks)

(c)

Q : MARK SCHEME Question aims: The aim of this question is to assess candidates knowledge of float (free slack). Syllabus Reference(s): 3.22 Pass grade answer content is likely to include: Candidates are expected to develop a network diagram along the following lines (but this is not a strict requirement of the question).

This shows that the critical path runs through tasks A, B, E and G. Task C clearly has 2 weeks of float (free slack). Award up to 3 marks for the above analysis. But Tasks D and F share 2 weeks of float (free slack). The statement given is incorrect: both do not have 2 weeks. Either one or the other can have 2 weeks, or they could have 1 week each but not 2 week each, otherwise the critical path would be impacted and the entire project delayed. Award up to 5 marks for the above analysis. Total 8 marks

Q(b) : MARK SCHEME Question aims: The aim of this question is to assess candidates knowledge of resource management, histograms and the identification of potential conflicts. Pass grade answer content is likely to include: Working through the week by week task resource requirements (POs) and aggregating on a weekly basis should give a resource histogram, roughly as follows:

Award up to 3 marks for presentation quality, 4 marks for accuracy and 3 marks for stating that weeks 5 and 6 have a resource conflict 6 POs required but only a maximum of 4 available. Total 10 marks

Q(c) : MARK SCHEME Question aims: The aim of this question is to assess the ability to resolve resource conflicts. Pass grade answer content is likely to include: The analytical approach to solving this problem is to commence Task F as late as possible within its permissible 2 weeks of float (and by implication, start and complete Task D precisely on time). Providing all the other tasks go to plan, this would have the effect of smoothing the resource profile as follows:

Now all 4 POs are occupied for the full duration of the project. Award up to 4 marks for the above analysis. Some students may tackle this issue in a less logical way and recommend a series of alternative measures that could be taken working overtime, hiring extra staff, reducing the work scope, prolonging the duration etc. Award up to 2 marks only if a practical tactic is formulated. The drawback (from the preferred solution) is that all the available float has been absorbed all tasks are now effectively critical and must be completed exactly on schedule to deliver the project within the nine week time frame. This implies that all four POs must be available and working 100% of the time. Award up to 3 marks for this conclusion.