Dragonfly case study

The current cost system allocates overhead costs once a year, as a function of direct labor dollars. This allocation strategy results in:

Critical path analysis identifies the most efficient and cost effective way of completing a complex project. The various activities which together will make up the project are identified, and the order of these activities are identified. Then, the duration of each activity is estimated and these factors are then arranged as a network or graph, showing the whole project from start to finish, and showing which tasks can happen at the same time. The sequence of tasks which have to be done one after another with no gaps in between is called the Critical Path.

2. Assume that the project is time constrained and try to resolve any overallocation problems by leveling within slack. What happens?

1. What is the estimated project completion date? (Assume there are no holidays and ignore the sunk cost of the planning team’s effort)

Specific Activities 3 4. Milestones 5 5. Dependent Relationship & Legs 5 6. RACI chart 6 7. Scheduling 11 7.1 Estimation of Most Likely Case Duration 11 7.2 Durations of Added Tasks 11 7.3 Critical Path 12 7.4 ES, EF, LS, LF & Slack 13 8.

It is more on the not efficient side since it is lower than 1.0, but it is close enough to 1.0 that it is not very inefficient.

Budgets and Planning. To begin with, the program, like the organization, fosters an open and collaborative environment for the process to take place. In this regard, it is, therefore, impossible for any one space or environment to be able to accommodate every conceivable project or application that is “thought up”. Therefore, certain perimeters and guidelines need to be established to assess costs with the program and help determine a course of action in future planning. As we are discussing costs, we assume there is a

Describe common practices to estimate the duration of project activities as well as real reasons that cause project delays.

(b) Which activities should be crashed to meet a project deadline of 12 days at minimum cost?

A) The weekly budget is formed by only using the early start times of each activity.

Critical Path: The sequence of activities that represents the longest path through a project, which determines the shortest possible duration.

3. Under the new activity-based costing (ABC) system, compute the indirect cost allocation rates for each of the three activities:

Problem 12 (page 82) Table 2.5 on page 82 contains information about an environmental clean-up project. Shorten the project three weeks by finding the minimum-cost schedule. Assume that project indirect costs and penalty consts are negligible. Identify activities to crash while minimizing the additional crash costs. Solution: AON Diagram for the environmental project:

The team leaders' projections show that the cost of starting the race under normal circumstances would be $3,152,000 (see table 2), however, normal conditions also dictate that the project will require 50 weeks to finish. As with any solid plan, the team leaders have also calculated crash times and costs as backup options in case the project experiences delays, or in this circumstance an imposed deadline; the start of the race 45 weeks from now. Analyzing crash times and costs we see that if each activity were crashed the project could be finished in 42 weeks, however, the budget would skyrocket to $4.952 million (see table 5). Therefore, the team will need to analyze the project network and its critical path to determine which individual activities can be crashed while maintaining the integrity of the budget.

Placing the events in a Gantt chart will help clarify and organize the events, the order in which they will occur, as well as any preceding activities that must be accomplished. Table 5 shows the project 's normal conditions, their timeframes and associated costs. As noted, normal conditions require 50 weeks to complete and therefore, cannot be used. Table 6 is a similar chart showing the project under ultimate crash conditions. As mentioned earlier, the project can be accomplished in as little as 42 weeks if every activity is crashed. This scenario is not desired however, because the project 's budget then approaches $5 million in associated costs, over 50% beyond the original allotted expenditure.