You work for a company that makes cell phones and have been made project manager for the design of a new cell phone. Your supervisors have already scoped the project, so you have a list showing the work breakdown structure, and this includes major project activities. You must plan the project schedule
You work for a company that makes cell phones and have been made project manager for the design of a new cell phone. Your supervisors have already scoped the project, so you have a list showing the work breakdown structure, and this includes major project activities. You must plan the project schedule and calculate project duration. Your boss wants the schedule on his desk tomorrow morning!
You have been given the information in Exhibit 4.13. It includes all the activities required in the project and the duration of each activity. Also, dependencies between the activities have been identified. Remember that the preceding activity must be fully completed before work on the following activity can be started.
Your project is divided into five major subprojects. Subproject “P” involves developing specifications for the new cell phone. Here, decisions related to such things as battery life, size of the phone, and features need to be made. These details are based on how a customer uses the cell phone. These user specifications are redefined in terms that have meaning to the subcontractors that will actually make the new cell phone in subproject “S” supplier specifications. These involve engineering details for how the product will perform.
The individual components that make up the product are the focus of subproject “D.” Subproject “I” brings all the components together, and a working prototype is built and tested.
Finally, in subproject “V,” suppliers are selected and contracts are negotiated.
Exhibit 4.13: Work Breakdown Structure and Activities for the Cell Phone Design Project
| MAJOR SUBPROJECTS/ACTIVITIES | ACTIVITY IDENTIFICATION | DEPENDENCY | DURATION (WEEKS) |
| Product Specifications (P) | |||
| Market research | P1 | — | 1 |
| Overall product specifications | P2 | P1 | 3 |
| Hardware | P3 | P2 | 4 |
| Software | P4 | P3 | 4 |
| Supplier specifications (S) | |||
| Hardware | S1 | P4 | 4 |
| Software | S2 | P4 | 6 |
| Product design (D) | |||
| Battery | D1 | S1 | 1 |
| Display | D2 | S1 | 3 |
| Camera | D3 | S1 | 1 |
| Outer cover | D4 | D1, D2, D3 | 3 |
| Product integration (I) | |||
| Hardware | I1 | D4 | 5 |
| User interface | I2 | D2 | 3 |
| Software coding | I3 | I2 | 3 |
| Prototype testing | I4 | I1, I3 | 3 |
| Subcontracting (V) | |||
| Suppliers selection | V1 | S1 ,S2 | 9 |
| Contract negotiation | V2 | I4, V1 | 1 |
Identify slack in the activities not on the project critical path. (Leave no cells blank - be certain to enter "0" wherever required.)
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