Countywide Construction

At Countywide Construction, you are trying to convince your boss that he should consider modern project management techniques to manage a complex project. Your boss says that he doesn’t need anything fancy, and that he can guess the total time by the seat of his pants.

To prove your point, you decide to use a very simple example of a commercial construction project, with eight tasks. You create a hypothetical work breakdown structure, as follows:

• Prepare the foundation (10 days). Then assemble the building (4 days).

• When the building is assembled, start two tasks at once: Finish the interior work

(4 days) and set up an appointment for the final building inspection (30 days).

• When the interior work is done, start two more tasks at once: landscaping (5 days) and driveway paving (2 days).

• When the landscaping and driveway are done, do the painting (5 days).

• Finally, when the painting is done and the final inspection has occurred, arrange the sale (3 days).

Now you ask your boss to estimate the total time and write his answer on a piece of paper. You look at the paper and see that his guess is wrong.

1. What is the correct answer?

2. What is the critical path?

3. Create a Gantt chart that shows the WBS.

 

4. Create a PERT/CPM chart.

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