Project Management Essay

Introduction

The critical path and slack time for the web design project involve all the tasks used to indicate free time of every task within the project evaluation plan (Shields, 2001). What is slack in project management? The slack time indicates the minimum time that can be delayed without violating the entire project duration. As shown in the figure above, slack times of tasks are calculated as the difference between the earliest start and the latest start time or vice versa. The critical path is highlighted. Tasks outlined in the project plan that lie on the critical path in a project network cannot be affected without rescheduling the entire project time. This is because time is an important factor in scheduling the critical path and all those involved in the project must focus on them.

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Project Management: Schedule

Once the timeline, project management tool, has been set, it is important that the implementation schedule is adhered to rigidly. Unfortunately, often there exist changes in the execution of the project which comes with inevitable consequences. The ability of the management to manage and control changes in the project is key to the entire success of the project. The most significant problem is uncontrollable changes that can be ignited by smaller changes in the plan. Increase or decrease in a number of days for a given task will affect other factors then finally reach to the project performance. Project performance then affects the satisfaction levels and the cost and entire project schedule. On the other hand, however, the project management team needs to recognize the possible changes that cannot be avoided and communicate to the evaluation team of the project who will make reasonable adjustments to ensure that the plan is not compromised.

How to handle scope changes in project management? It is essential that the project implementation is frequently monitored (Shrnhur, Levy, & Dvir, 2007). When the project is not monitored, the project progress will not be easily visible; actors will not learn from others' experience hence failure to build on expertise. Additionally, there will be a lack of transparency and accountability. In essence, monitoring a project enables the project implementation team to reveal possible mistakes and offers learning and improvement links, providing ways to assess the critical links between the implementation team and the benefactors of the grand decision-makers. Problems can be solved with monitored project status and reported project details to senior and executive-level management.

References

Barker, S., & Cole, R. (2012). Brilliant project management: What the best project managers know, do and say.

Shields, M. G. (2001). E-business and ERP: Rapid Implementation and Project Planning. New York: Wiley.

Shrnhur, A. J., Levy, O., & Dvir, D. (2007). Mapping the dimensions of project success. Project management journal, 28(2), 5-13.