Project Management

Project management is important for business in many ways. After drawing up a project network we can then start to figure and calculate how long the project is going to take. In this project we figured out the slack times and the largest slack time was between hardware to circuits there is an estimation of 12 weeks of slack time. Then we did the duration data, which can be estimated in reality by looking at the duration times of each step in the manufacturing process. By looking at the times you will be able to estimate the other duration data and be able to find the shortest and longest duration times. The shortest time this project can take could be 35 weeks. The longest this project could take is 37 weeks. The only way to shorten this critical path would be to take away the slack time if possible.

Project management is important because big businesses such as Motorola, Apple, and Sony realize the benefits of organizing work and around projects and the critical need to communicate and co-ordinate work across departments. They provide excellent product quality by allocating budgets, resources, and testing methods that make the qualitative and quantitative production high. Also, by using the six sigma training programs you enhance the quality of products. It provides adequate communication which as we all know, improper communication among employees can lead to misunderstandings and negatively impacts the firm. With great communication comes greater productivity and more money. Also, with good management comes the reduction of risk by a greater ability to identify potential risks.

Slack time denotes how much an activity can be delayed beyond its earliest start date, without causing any problems in the completion of the project by its due date. To calculate slack time you need to know the early start and late start. Then you take the late start and subtract it from the early start. The most slack time in the project would be from the Hardware to the circuits and display. There is an estimation of 12 weeks that will be slack time. The overall product specifications and the software specifications have one week slack time. Which could leave the software and user interface with one week. The user interface leading into the product integration software could also be up to a four week slack.

Duration data can be estimated in reality by looking at the duration times of each step in the manufacturing process. By looking at the times you will be able to estimate the other duration data and be able to find the shortest and longest duration times. The other thing you would be able to find out by estimating the duration data would be the critical path. The approaches that can be used to find the total completion time of the project would be to use the early and late start schedules. This way you could see all of the early and late start times. You could add in the slack time to find out where the project is getting held up. Also you could use the critical path to see the time without the slack. With using all of these things together