Discussion week 5 project planning and control
Discussion week 5 project planning and control
Discussion week 5project planning and control
Please answer each discussion with 250 -300 words, APA style. DO NOT FORGET THE CITATION!!!! Then write a response to 2 students for each discussion week with 100 words min, and directed at them in a positive manner not in 3rd person! The other students discussion posts can also be used as an example on how your initial post should be done. So by the end of this assignment your should have done 1 discussions and 2 responses!!!
Discussion question
- After reviewing week 4 and 5 lecture materials please explain the importance of slack time. Do you think that slack time can be used as a measure to improve the efficiency of projects?
- Please cite at least 2 reliable sources (e.g., scholarly articles and textbooks).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URdxhl_8qIE
Student 1 Sabrina ( needs a response directly at him not in a 3rd person, what u like about his post or agree with or disagree with, stay positive) ill post it once someone posts
Slack time is also referred to as float time. To calculate the slack time of a project use the formula: Late Finish (LF) – Early Finish (EF). Tasks that have no slack on a path is defined as a critical path (Taylor, 2008). This indicates that the tasks on the critical path must not move or slip because the project schedule could end up in jeopardy. Each of the tasks on the path must be completed on time or ahead of schedule to be successful. Slack is important to a project manager because it tells them the amount of time an activity can be delayed and not delay the project.
In order to maximize the slack time you need to find the critical path and calculate the amount of float in each non-critical task path. This is when the Gantt chart becomes helpful because it can provide a visual of the slack time available in the given project.
Yes, I believe that slack time can be used as a measure to improve the efficiency of projects because it can allow reshuffling of tasks to take place in order to consolidate all of the non-critical tasks into as few tasks chains as possible (Icasas, 2019). Being able to reassign resources to tasks that are on the critical path can improve efficiency and productivity because you can get the most out of the spare time allotted. Having slack time in a project is important to keep it on time and within the budget. If a project continues to get delayed it begins to get more expensive. Changes occur throughout projects majority of the time, so without the slack time it can be very challenging to manage the project in a flexible way without causing tasks to be jammed or not being able to handle unexpected urgent tasks.
References:
Icasas, P. (2019, June 21). Project Management 101: What is Float/Slack? Retrieved August 4, 2019, from https://explore.easyprojects.net/blog/project-management-101-floatslack
Taylor, James C. (2008). Project scheduling and cost control: planning, monitoring and controlling the baseline. [Skillsoft version] Available from https://login.proxy.cityu.edu/sso/skillport?context=30324
Student 2Tess( needs a response directly at him not in a 3rd person, what u like about his post or agree with or disagree with, stay positive) ill post it once someone posts
I feel like I had a genuine eureka moment while reading through the module four and five articles. When our office has to set up anything new in our system, it goes through a process where my team receives the initial request, we perform our function and then it gets passed on to two other teams. When they have each independently finished their portion it passes to the final team who completes the project. One of the managers that has to pick up the work after my team completes it NEVER finishes her team’s piece in time for the final team to need to start on theirs. It’s been frustrating because the system can work without her piece but will cause problems about two days later.
In reading through the behavioral issues that result when there is slack time in a project, it hit me. She is suffering from both student syndrome and Parkinson’s Law. The article described student syndrome by saying that “humans with time buffers start their tasks later and waste safety margins,” (Lechler, 2005). She fits this description as she takes the two days between when the task should be completed and when the system absolutely needs the info as additional slack. The article described Parkinson’s Law as “humans tend not to finish their tasks ahead of time even though they have the chance to do so,” (Lechler, 200). Her team usually has about 9 days to set up their piece without problem but doesn’t. One of the recommendations to avoid the student syndrome is to use as late as possible activity start times (Lechler, 2005). This keeps the urgency high when the request comes through and doesn’t provide wiggle room to procrastinate. Since we use SmartSheets for these projects this could easily be set up by changing the ordering of our information to request her team’s information as soon as the others have all done their part or give her only a one day lead instead of about nine.
In regards to using slack time as a measure of efficiency, it seems like that would have to be a case by case basis. For construction projects that require intensive permitting processes, for example, there needs to be slack time built into the project for the permitting process to complete with reasonable delays without impacting the overall timeline. However, I can see other examples where eliminating the slack time in a project could be a great value to a business and could be seen as a measurement of efficiency because the project gets completed earlier than expected. One way the article suggested making sure that those deadlines are still getting met when there is some slack is to impose a penalty for going past the free float time “because later than this can cost money to negotiate a new start date for a following activity,” (Love, 1983).
References:
Lechler, T. G., Ronen, B., & Stohr, E. A. (2005). Critical Chain: A New Project Management Paradigm or Old Wine in New Bottles? Engineering Management Journal, 17(4), 45-58. doi:10.1080/10429247.2005.11431672
Love, S. F. (1983). Save time and money on projects by using float. Project Management Quarterly, 14(4), 46–49.
Answer preview…………….
Clack time alludes to the time of delay in the start of the project without leading to another delay of other tasks or affecting the termination date of the project. It takes play when the flow turns out to be unbalanced. Some of the things remain constant in the course of the project (Larson & Gray, 2011). Absence of slack time leads to a lack of flexibility in the management of the project; thus, it may not be possible to address some urgent tasks that were launched. Slack time is significant in the management of the project since it is very infrequent…………..
APA 376 words