Zagazig University Industrial Engineering Department

College of Engineering Project Management

Problems in Project Management

Student Name
Student Number

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1. Why is the implementation of projects important to strategic planning and the project
manager?

2. Explain the role projects play in the strategic management process?

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 3. Discuss five of the benefits of Project Portfolio Management.

4. Check out the Project Management Institute’s home page at https:www.pmi.org.

i. Review general information about PMI as well as membership information.
ii. Use the search function at the PMI home page to find information on Project Management
Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). What are the major knowledge areas of PMBOK?
iii. Explore other links that PMI provides. What do these links tell you about the nature and
future of project management?

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5. You manage a hotel resort located on Hurghada. You are shifting the focus of your resort
from a traditional fun-in-the-sun destination to eco-tourism. (Eco-tourism focuses on
environmental awareness and education.). How would you classify the following projects in
terms of compliance, strategic, and operational? How easy was it to classify these projects?
What made some projects more difficult than others? What do you think you now know that
would be useful for managing projects at the hotel?
i. Convert the pool heating system from electrical to solar power.
ii. Build a four-mile nature hiking trail.
iii. Launch a new promotional campaign with Egypt Airlines.
iv. Update all the bathrooms in condos that are 10 years old or older.
v. Test and revise disaster response plan.
vi. Introduce wireless Internet service in café and lounge areas.

6. Two new software projects are proposed to a young, start-up company. The Alpha project
will cost LE450,000 to develop and is expected to have annual net cash flow of LE120,000.
The Beta project will cost LE6200,000 to develop and is expected to have annual net cash
flow of LE200,000. The company is very concerned about their cash flow. Using the payback
period, which project is better from a cash flow standpoint? Why?

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7. You are the head of the project selection team at a company. Your team is considering three
different projects. Based on past history, the company expects at least a rate of return of 20
percent. Given the following information for each project, which one should be the company
first priority? Should it fund any of the other projects? If so, what should be the order of
priority based on return on investment?
Project X Project Y Project Z
Year Investment Revenue Investment Revenue Investment Revenue
0 LE500,000 0 LE 250,000 0 LE 75,000 0
1 50,000 75,000 15,000
2 250,000 75,000 25,000
3 350,000 75,000 50,000
4 50,000 50,000
5 150,000

8. What questions does a project objective answer? What would be an example of a good project
objective?

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9. Use an example of a project you are familiar with or are interested in. Develop a scope
statement for this project that contains examples of all the elements. What would the priorities
likely be for this project?

10. Develop a WBS for a project in which you are going to build a bicycle. Try to identify all of
the major components and provide three levels of detail.

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11. You’re the project manager for water treatment plant project ( or any other project you are
familiar with). You’ve analyzed the work that has to be done and come up with a list of
activities. You consulted with the project sponsor in order to find out any important
milestones you need to meet. What’s the next thing that you do?
a. Create the project schedule
b. Perform the activity definition process.
c. Consult your project management plan to figure out how to handle any schedule change.
d. Figure out the dependencies between activities and create a network diagram.

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12. The project information for the custom order project of the Air Control Company is presented
here. Draw a project network for this project. Compute the early and late activity times and
the slack times. Identify the critical path.
Activity Description Predecessor Time
A Order review - 2
B Order standard parts A 3
C Produce standard parts A 10
D Design custom part A 13
E Software development A 18
F Manufacture custom hardware C, D 15
G Assemble B, F 10
H Test E, G 5

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13. You have signed a contract to build a garage. You will receive a LE5,000 bonus for
completing the project within 17 working days. The contract also contains a penalty clause
in which you will lose LE1,000 for each day the project takes longer than 17 working days.
Draw a project network given the information below. Complete the forward and backward
pass, compute the activity slack, and identify the critical path. Do you expect to receive a
bonus or a penalty on this project?
Activity Description Predecessor Time Activity Description Predecessor Time
A Prepare site - 2 G Electrical D, E,F 3
B Pour foundation A 3 H Rough-in frame G 2
C Erect frame B 4 I Door opener H 1
D Roof C 4 J Paint I 2
E Roof C 1 K Cleanup J 1
F Doors C 1

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14. You are creating a customer database for a company. Draw a project network given the
information in the table that follows. Complete the forward and backward pass, compute
activity slack, and identify the critical path. How long will this project take? How sensitive
is the network schedule? Calculate the free slack and total slack for all noncritical activities.
Activity Description Predecessor Time Activity Description Predecessor Time
A Systems design - 2 G Program C D 2
B Subsystem A A 1 H Subsystem A E 1
design test
C Subsystem B A 1 I Subsystem B F 1
design test
D Subsystem C A 1 J Subsystem C G 1
design test
E Program A B 2 K Integration H, I, J 3
F Program B C 2 L Integration test K 1

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15. The optical disk project team has started gathering the information necessary to develop the
project network—predecessor activities and activity times in weeks. The results of their
meeting are found in the following table. The project team has requested that you create a
network for the project, and determine if the project can be completed in 45 week.
Activity Description Predecessor Time
1 Define scope - 6
2 Define customer problems 1 3
3 Define data records and relationships 1 5
4 Mass storage requirements 2,3 5
5 Consultant needs analysis 2,3 10
6 Prepare installation network 4,5 3
7 Estimate costs and budget 4,5 2
8 Design section “point” system 4,5 1
9 Write request proposal 4,5 5
10 Compile vendor list 4,5 3
11 Prepare mgmt. control system 6,7 5
12 Prepare comparison report 9,10 5
13 Compare system “philosophies” 8,12 3
14 Compare total installation 8,12 2
15 Compare cost of support 8,12 3
16 Compare customer satisfaction level 8,12 10
17 Assign philosophies points 13 1
18 Assign installation cost 14 1
19 Assign support cost 15 1
20 Assign customer satisfaction points 16 1
21 Select best system 11,17,18,19,20 1
22 Order system 21 1

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16. A company is in the process of construction a new house. The following table provides the
associated activities and their durations in days.
Activity A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T
Precedes C E D,E F J G,I,M H J K L,O Q N N S,R P Q,R - - T -
Time (Weeks) 1 2 1 2 6 10 3 1 1 5 2 1 2 4 2 2 1 7 7 3
a. Draw an activity on arrow (AOA) diagram.
b. Develop a detailed schedule for all activities in the project.
2. Determine the expected length of the project.
3. Find the critical path.
4. Determine the total and free floats for the network.

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17. For the following network
a. Find the critical path
b. Find the duration of the critical path
c. How many non-critical paths are there?
d. Find the duration of all non-critical paths
e. If the duration of Activity C-E changes to 2, what is the effect on the project?
f. What activity / activities must be completed before Activity C-D begins?
g. If management tells you to complete the project two weeks early, what is the project float?
Does the critical path change?
3 wks C
A 2 wks
D 2 wks
3 wks
1 wk End
Start
4 wks
9 wks
2 wks
B E

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 18. Why are lags used in developing project networks?

19. Given the following information, compute the early, late, and slack times for the project network.
Which activities on the critical path have only the start or finish of the activity on the critical path?

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20. A publisher has a contract with an author to publish a textbook. The project manager has
identified a list of activities and a range of times in days necessary to complete each activity.
This information is given in table:
Activity A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P
Predecessors - - - A A B C C E,F,G H D D,I J K L,M J
Optimistic time 8 10 5 10 8 13 11 7 7 9 10 10 4 5 7 8
Most probable time 8 12 8 12 10 16 11 10 9 11 13 11 7 8 10 9
Pessimistic time 8 14 11 14 12 19 11 13 11 13 16 12 10 11 13 10
a. Develop a project network for this project.
b. Determine the expected completion time for each path and its variance.
c. What is the project completion time? Identify the critical path?
d. Assuming that the critical path is the one that you identified in part (c), what is the
probability that the project is completed before 59 days? Before 56 days?
e. What is the probability that the project will require more than 61 days?
f. Assuming that the critical path is the one that you identified in part (c), how many days
are required to complete the project with probability 0.95?

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21. Three recent college graduates have formed a partnership and have opened an advertising
firm. Their first project consists of activities list in the following table:
Activity A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R
Predecessors - - - A B B C D E F G G H I J K,L P Q
Optimistic time 8 10 2 11 12 10 6 10 5 12 0 2 ? 3 2 5 4 8
Most probable time 10 14 3 14 15 11 8 13 6 13 1 4 ? 4 3 7 6 10
Pessimistic time 12 6 5 15 17 13 9 15 8 15 0 6 ? 7 5 10 9 12
a. Develop a project network for this project?
b. Knowing that the probability that the project will be completed in 42 hours is 18.41 % and
the variance of this project is 2.01 Determine the total expected time “µ”.
c. Knowing that the critical path is : A-D-H-M. determine the expected time for activity “M”
and its variance?
d. What is the probability that the project is completed before 45 hours?
e. What is the probability that the project will require more than 47hours?
f. What is the probability that the project will require between 42 and 45 hours?
g. How many days are required to complete the project with probability 0.85?

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22. You have a project described as follows:
 Activities “A and B” begin at the start of the project.
 Activities “C and D” start after activity “A” is finished.
 Activity “E” may begin upon the completion of “D”.
 Activity “F” follows activity “E”.
 Activity “G” starts after activities “C, E” are finished.
 Activity “H” follows activity “E”.
 Activity “I” cannot start unless activity “C” is finished.
 Activity “J” can begin when “E” and “I” are completed.
 Activity “K” cannot start unless activities “D, H” are finished.
 Activity “L” may begin upon the completion of “G,J”.
 Activities “ I, K” precedes activity “M”.
 .Completion of activities “F, L, and M” mark the end of the project.
The resources of the activities are listed below
Activity A B C D E F G H I J K L M
Time (days) 5 4 7 5 3 8 6 5 2 5 3 5 2
Workers 2 3 4 3 2 3 1 2 2 2 3 4 3
a. Draw a Gantt chart based on the earliest start times. How many days are required to
complete the project? Identify the critical path?
b. Suppose that the machine is needed for activity “H” is damaged. Three additional days are
required to repair the machine. How much of delay in the total time required to complete
the project?
c. Knowing that Activities (F, G, H) use the same machine, of which only two units are
available. Draw a Gantt chart and determine how many days are added to the project time
when resource requirements are considered?
d. Knowing that the number of workers available is 8 workers. Draw a Gantt chart, and
determine the minimum time required to complete the project.

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23. The following table contains information related to the major activities of a research project.
Activity 1,2 1,3 1,4 2,5 2,8 3,5 4,5 4,6 5,7 6,8 6,9 7,8 8,9
Time (days) 5 5 7 4 3 3 3 6 7 4 5 2 1
Workers 2 1 3 2 2 1 1 1 2 3 1 2 2
a. Draw a Gantt chart based on the earliest start times. How many days are required to
complete the project?
b. What is the longest path in the network and what is its relation by the critical path?
c. Suppose that the machine is needed for activity “6,8” is damaged. How much extra time
is available for repair without delaying the project?
d. Knowing that Activities (5,7& 6,8 & 6,9) use the same equipment, of which only two units
are available. Draw Gantt chart and determine how many days are added to the project
time when resource requirements are considered.
e. Knowing that the number of workers available is 6 workers. Draw a Gantt chart, and
determine the minimum time required to complete the project.

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 24. A computer-system installation project consists of twelve activities. The immediate
predecessors, activity times in weeks, and activity costs in dollars are given in table below.
Activity 1,2 1,3 2,3 2,4 3,5 4,5 3,7 5,6 5,7 6,7 6,8 7,8
Normal time 9 7 3 2 5 5 7 2 6 2 8 6
Crash time - 5 2 1 3 3 5 1 4 1 6 5
Normal cost 700 800 800 1200 2000 1500 600 600 1800 500 500 800
Crash cost - 1800 1400 1900 2800 2300 1800 1000 2800 1000 1900 1600
a. Draw the project network for this project.
b. Find the critical path and the expected completion duration?
c. What is the total project cost using the normal times?
d. Assume that the project must be completed in 27 weeks. Crashing of the project is
necessary. What activities should be crashed, and what are the critical activities of the
crashed network?
e. What is the activity schedule and total project cost required to meet the-27 day completion
date?

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25. The following table provides the time in days and cost estimation by pounds for building a
new house.
Activity A B C D E F G H I J K L
Precedes D,E C,K D,E G,H F,I L J L L - F,I -
Normal time 10 5 3 4 5 6 5 6 4 4 5 6
Crash time 7 4 2 3 3 3 2 4 3 3 4 4
Normal cost 13 18 12 27 8 15 21 12 15 12 15 14
Crash cost 25 22 15 30 14 30 24 20 20 15 20 20
a. Draw the project network for this project.
b. Find the critical path and the expected completion duration?
c. Determine the least cost crashing schedule that will meet the project deadline of 21 days?
Be sure to identify exactly which activity, or activities should be reduced, by how much
and the total cost of crashing?
d. Given the indirect cost as 5 L.E per day, determine the optimal duration of the project in
terms of both the crashing and the indirect costs?

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 Sample Exam
a. Read the sentence and choose (True) or (False).
1. The first stage of project life cycle is project planning ( F )
2. Gantt Charts are not suitable for scheduling and monitoring of large and complex projects.(F)
3. A PERT chart is a graphical network model that depicts a project’s tasks and the relationships
between those tasks. (T)
4. Pessimistic duration is the estimation of the maximum amount of time that it would take to
perform a task. ( T)
5. Planning identifies the required tasks to complete the project based on the project goal. ( T)
6. Forward scheduling establishes a project start date and then schedule forward from that date. ( T )
7. The critical path determines the latest possible completion date of a project. ( F)
8. The standard deviation of an activity time varies as the square of the difference between the
optimistic and pessimistic times. ( F )
9. Reducing the time of a critical activity usually decrease the indirect costs. ( T )
10. Resource Breakdown Structure can be used to track project costs. ( T )
11. If an activity with a slack of 3 days in a project whose length is 42 days is delayed by 4
days, the project will be completed in 45 days. ( F)
12. If an activity can begin 8 days after its predecessor activity finish, this is an example of start
-to-Finish relationship. ( F)
13. A major project proposal form should include project classification or its major
deliverables. ( F )
14. Using the positive slack to manage resource utilization over the duration
of the project reduce the peak demands of the resources.

b. Choose the correct answer

1. A process is a series of actions to bring about a result. In a- project, the five basic processes
are
a. Planning, checking, directing, monitoring, b. Initiating, planning, executing,
and recording controlling, and closing
c. Planning, executing, monitoring, and closing. d. Planning, executing, closing, and delivering

2. Planning a project produces the following for a schedule

a. Activity definition, activity sequencing, b. Activity definition, activity sequencing,
activity execution, and activity duration and activity duration estimating.
c. Activity identification, activity execution, d. Activity identification, activity sequencing,
and activity results. activity connection, and activity duration

3. To decrease the total project duration for the least cost is called
a. Duration compression b. Crashing
c. Program evaluation and review technique d. Forward and backward pass to determine the
critical path
4. The critical path in any schedule:

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 a. Is the longest path in a network diagram b. Has the activities that must be done first
c. Contains all of the float. d. Contains only the tasks that cannot be
rescheduled

5. The purpose of a dummy activity in activity-on-arrow diagramming is to:

a. Show tasks that are not necessary b. Show tasks that are alternatives to planned
tasks
c. Show tasks that are milestones d. Show a dependency relationship

6. Which of the following relationships is used in activity on Arrow Method [AOA]:

a. Start-to-Finish b. Finish-to-Start
c. Start-to-Start d. Finish-to-Finish

7. Rearranging resources so that constant resource levels are maintained is called:

a. Floating. b. Leveling.
c. Restructuring. d. Crashing
8. What are SMART objectives
a. Objectives specified with far more detail b. Easily achievable objectives.
than necessary for a successful Project
c. Objectives that should be achieved in d. Objectives that have specific, measurable,
order to attain formal recognition assignable, realistic and time related
specifications

c. A project manager has compiled a list of activities that will be required to install a computer
information system in his firm. He has broken down the project into 15 activities as in the
following table.
Activity A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O
Predecessors - - - - A A E F,G B C D H J,K I,L M,N
Optimistic time 14 26 68 22 20 4 12 8 22 30 40 14 18 13 9
Most Likely time 19 30 72 27 29 7 15 12 27 35 55 20 23 16 11
Pessimistic time 26 32 78 30 45 10 18 18 30 40 65 24 26 19 14
Expected Time, 19.33 29.67 72.33 26.67 30.17 7 15 12.33 26.67 35 54.17 19.67 22.67 16 11.17
“min.”
Standard 2 1 1.67 1.33 4.17 1 1 1.67 1.33 1.67 4.17 1.67 1.33 1 0.83
Deviation

After drawing the network, and doing all calculations. The total expected time will be 141.2
days, the critical path will be: C-J- M - O
.
Pr(X ≤ 135) = Pr (Z ≤ ) = Pr (Z≤−2.19) = 0.0143
.
. .
Pr(135≤ X ≤147) = Pr( ≤Z≤ ) = Pr( -2.19 ≤ Z ≤2.05) = 0.9655
. .
.
Pr(X ≥ 145) = Pr (Z ≥ ) = Pr (Z ≥ 1.34) = 0.0901
.
Prob.=0.9, then Z = 1.28,
.
1.28 = , Then, X = 144.8 = 145 days
.

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Answer the following questions.
1. For the nearest hundredth, the expected time for activity “ D” equals
a. 13.17 b. 26.33 c. 26.67 d. None of the above

2. For the nearest hundredth, the expected time for activity “ H” equals
a. 12.67 b. 6.33 c. 12.33 d. None of the above

3. For the nearest hundredth, the standard deviation for activity “ I” equals
a. 1.33 b. 0.5 c. 0.83 d. None of the above

4. For the nearest tenth, the earliest start time for activity “M” equals
a. 80.9 b. 107.3 c. 130 d. None of the above

5. For the nearest tenth, the latest start time for activity “ N” equals
a. 56.4 b. 96.5 c. 112.5 d. None of the above

6. For the nearest tenth, the latest finish time for activity “ K” equals
a. 54.2 b. 80.9 c. 107.3 d. None of the above

7. For the nearest tenth, the latest finish time for activity “ L” equals
a. 94.3 b. 96.5 c. 114 d. None of the above

8. Approximately, the slack of activity “L” equals

a. 0 b. 12 c. 25 d. None of the above

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 9. Approximately, the expected total time of the project equals
a. 112.5 b. 130 c. 141.2 d. None of the above

10. The critical path is

a. A-F-H-L-N-O b. B-I-N-O c. C-J-M-O d. D-K-M-O
11. In which activity or activities, the delay will definitely delaying project schedule?
a. B b. D c. H d. J
12. If activity “B” delays for 12 days and all other activities are assumed to be on schedule,
the project schedule
a. will be delayed for 3 days b. will be delayed c. will be delayed d. remain the same
for 12 days for 1 day

13. Approximately, the variance of the completion time for the project equals
a. 8 b. 2.83 c. 4.7 d. None of the above

14. Approximately, the probability that the project will be completed in 135 days equals
a. 0.014 b. 0.486 c. 0.5 d. None of the above
15. Approximately, the probability that the project will require between 135 to 147 days is
a. 0.486 b. 0.5 c. 0.966 d. None of the above

16. Approximately , the probability that the project will more than 145 days is
a. 0.09 b. 0.41 c. 0.91 d. None of the above

17. Approximately, number of days required to complete the project with probability 0.9 equals
a. 142 b. 143 c. 144 d. 145
18. If the relation between activities F and H is finish to finish with Lag 20 days, the expected
time of the project
a. will be delayed by b. will be delayed by c. remain the d. None of the above
1 days 7 days same

19. If the relation between activities J and M is start to start with Lag 20 days, the expected
time of the project
a. will be delayed by 1 b. will be delayed by c. remain the d. None of the above
days 7 days same

20. A company is purchased new machine. If this machine valued at LE 900,000 six years
from now. For the nearest hundred, how much could the company spend now at an interest
rate of 7% per year?
a. LE 599,700 b. LE 1,350,700 c. LE 963,000 d. None of the above

21. For question 20, for the nearest hundred, the equivalent annual worth is:
a. LE 132,800 b. LE 188,800 c. LE 125,800 d. None of the above

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