MGT 530 DPU Wk 12 Operation Management in The Alvarenga Organization Essay

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Business Finance

MGT 530

DePaul University

MGT

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Critical Thinking

Consider a recent project that you have worked on. This could be for a company or organization with which you are familiar, or even a personal project such as purchasing a home or planning a party.

After your opening paragraph, which includes your thesis statement, identify your selected company or organization in no more than three paragraphs. Then, complete the following:

*Note: for the charts/diagrams, use MS Word, Excel, Google Docs or Google Sheets. You may also use any other suitable project-based software. A free Project management software called Libre is also available for download here https://sourceforge.net/projects/projectlibre/

  1. Create either a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) of the project or Gantt Chart for planning and scheduling the project. Discuss why you used the type of chart you did.
  2. Determine and document both probabilistic (t0, tp, and tm) and deterministic time estimates. Discuss how you arrived at these time estimates.
  3. Using MS Word, Google Docs, or similar software, create a PERT network diagram with the Critical Path (CP) identified.
  4. Calculate the slack time for each activity. Discuss the ramifications of slack in the CP for the activities and the project as a whole.
  5. Develop the network diagram from the probability estimates. Discuss which path you would take and why.
  6. For each activity, determine hypothetical costs in a table. Include budgeted costs, percent complete, actual/projected cost, and over/under budget (and total). Discuss the rationale for how you derived these costs.
  7. Crash an activity on the Critical Path. Discuss the ramifications of crashing the activity you crashed.

Formatting requirements:

  • Your essay is required to be 5-6 pages in length, which does not include the title page and reference pages, which are never a part of the content minimum requirements.
  • Charts/diagrams should be labeled and can be added within the body of your paper.
  • Support your submission with course material concepts, principles, and theories from the textbook and at least three scholarly, peer-reviewed journal articles.
  • Use the Saudi Digital Library to find your resources. Use an academic writing standards and follow APA style guidelines.
  • It is strongly encouraged that you submit all assignments into Turnitin prior to submitting them to your instructor for grading. If you are unsure how to submit an assignment into the Originality Check tool, review the Turnitin – Student Guide for step-by-step instructions.

Review the grading rubric to see how you will be graded for this assignment.

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Project Management Copyright ©2018 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education 17-1 You should be able to: LO 17.1 LO 17.2 Describe the project life cycle Discuss the behavioral aspects of projects in terms of project personnel and the project manager LO 17.3 Explain the nature and importance of a work breakdown structure in project management LO 17.4 Name the six key decisions in project management LO 17.5 Give a general description of PERT/CPM techniques LO 17.6 Construct simple network diagrams LO 17.7 Analyze networks with deterministic times LO 17.8 Analyze networks with probabilistic times LO 17.9 Describe activity ‘crashing’ and solve typical problems LO 17.10 Discuss the advantages of using PERT and potential sources of error LO 17.11 Discuss the key steps in risk management Copyright ©2018 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education 17-2  Projects  Unique, one-time operations designed to accomplish a specific set of objectives in a limited time frame  Examples:  The Olympic Games  Producing a movie  Software development  Product development  ERP implementation LO 17.1 Copyright ©2018 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education 17-3  Projects go through a series of stages – a life cycle  Projects bring together people with a diversity of knowledge and skills, most of whom remain associated with the project for less than its full life  Organizational structure affects how projects are managed LO 17.1 Copyright ©2018 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education 17-4 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Initiating Planning Executing Monitoring and Controlling Closing LO 17.1 Copyright ©2018 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education 17-5  The project manager is ultimately responsible for the success or failure of the project  The project manager must effectively manage:  The work  The human resources  Communications  Quality  Time  Costs LO 17.2 Copyright ©2018 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education 17-6 Quality Performance Objectives LO 17.2 Copyright ©2018 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education 17-7  Behavioral problems can be created or exacerbated by  Decentralized decision making  Stress of achieving project milestones on time and within budget  Surprises  The team must be able to function as a unit  Interpersonal and coping skills are very important  Conflict resolution and negotiation can be an important part of a project manager’s job LO 17.2 Copyright ©2018 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education 17-8  Many problems can be avoided or mitigated by:  Effective team selection  Leadership  Motivation  Maintaining an environment of  Integrity  Trust  Professionalism  Being supportive of team efforts LO 17.2 Copyright ©2018 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education 17-9  Project champion  A person who promotes and supports a project  Usually resides within the organization  Facilitate the work of the project by ‘talking up’ the project to other managers who might be asked to share resources with the project team as well as employees who might be asked to work on parts of the project  The project champion can be critical to the success of a project LO 17.2 Copyright ©2018 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education 17-10  WBS  A hierarchical listing of what must be done during a project  Establishes a logical framework for identifying the required activities for the project 1. 2. 3. LO 17.3 Identify the major elements of the project Identify the major supporting activities for each of the major elements Break down each major supporting activity into a list of the activities that will be needed to accomplish it Copyright ©2018 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education 17-11 LO 17.3 Copyright ©2018 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education 17-12  Project success depends upon making key managerial decisions over a sequence of steps:  Deciding which projects to implement  Selecting the project manager  Selecting the project team  Planning and designing the project  Managing and controlling project resources  Deciding if and when a project should be terminated LO 17.4 Copyright ©2018 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education 17-13  PERT (program evaluation and review technique) and CPM (critical path method) are two techniques used to manage large-scale projects  By using PERT or CPM Managers can obtain: 1. 2. 3. 4. LO 17.5 A graphical display of project activities An estimate of how long the project will take An indication of which activities are most critical to timely project completion An indication of how long any activity can be delayed without delaying the project Copyright ©2018 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education 17-14  Network diagram  Diagram of project activities that shows sequential relationships by use of arrows and nodes  Activity on arrow (AOA)  Network diagram convention in which arrows designate activities  Activity on node (AON)  Network convention in which nodes designate activities  Activities  Project steps that consume resources and/or time  Events  The starting and finishing of activities LO 17.6 Copyright ©2018 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education 17-15 LO 17.6 Copyright ©2018 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education 17-16  Deterministic  Time estimates that are fairly certain  Probabilistic  Time estimates that allow for variation LO 17.7 Copyright ©2018 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education 17-17  Finding ES and EF involves a forward pass through the network diagram  Early start (ES)  The earliest time an activity can start  Assumes all preceding activities start as early as possible  For nodes with one entering arrow  ES = EF of the entering arrow  For activities leaving nodes with multiple entering arrows  ES = the largest of the largest entering EF  Early finish (EF)  The earliest time an activity can finish  EF = ES + t LO 17.7 Copyright ©2018 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education 17-18  Finding LS and LF involves a backward pass through the network diagram  Late Start (LS)  The latest time the activity can start and not delay the project  The latest starting time for each activity is equal to its latest finishing time minus its expected duration:  LS = LF - t  Late Finish (LF)  The latest time the activity can finish and not delay the project  For nodes with one leaving arrow, LF for nodes entering that node equals the LS of the leaving arrow  For nodes with multiple leaving arrows, LF for arrows entering node equals the smallest of the leaving arrows LO 17.7 Copyright ©2018 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education 17-19  Slack can be computed one of two ways:  Slack = LS – ES  Slack = LF – EF  Critical path  The critical path is indicated by the activities with zero slack LO 17.7 Copyright ©2018 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education 17-20  Knowledge of slack times provides managers with information for planning allocation of scarce resources  Control efforts will be directed toward those activities that might be most susceptible to delaying the project  Activity slack times are based on the assumption that all of the activities on the same path will be started as early as possible and not exceed their expected time  If two activities are on the same path and have the same slack, this will be the total slack available to both LO 17.7 Copyright ©2018 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education 17-21  The beta distribution is generally used to describe the inherent variability in time estimates  The probabilistic approach involves three time estimates:  Optimistic time, (to)  The length of time required under optimal conditions  Pessimistic time, (tp)  The length of time required under the worst conditions  Most likely time, (tm)  The most probable length of time required LO 17.8 Copyright ©2018 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education 17-22 LO 17.8 Copyright ©2018 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education 17-23  The expected time, te ,for an activity is a weighted average of the three time estimates: te = to + 4t m + t p 6  The expected duration of a path is equal to the sum of the expected times of the activities on that path: Path mean =  of expected times of activities on the path LO 17.8 Copyright ©2018 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education 17-24  The standard deviation of each activity’s time is estimated as one-sixth of the difference between the pessimistic and optimistic time estimates. The variance is the square of the standard deviation:  (t p − to )  =  6   2 2  Standard deviation of the expected time for the path  path = LO 17.8  (Variances of activities on path ) Copyright ©2018 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education 17-25  Knowledge of expected path times and their standard deviations enables managers to compute probabilistic estimates about project completion such as:  The probability that the project will be completed by a certain time  The probability that the project will take longer than its expected completion time LO 17.8 Copyright ©2018 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education 17-26  Calculating path probabilities involves the use of the normal distribution  Although path activities are represented by the beta distribution, the path distribution can be represented by a normal distribution LO 17.8 Copyright ©2018 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education 17-27 z= LO 17.8 Specified time - Path mean Path standard deviation Copyright ©2018 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education 17-28  A project is not complete until all project activities are complete  It is risky to only consider the critical path when assessing the probability of completing a project within a specified time  To determine the probability of completing the project within a particular time frame  Calculate the probability that each path in the project will be completed within the specified time  Multiply these probabilities  The result is the probability that the project will be completed within the specified time LO 17.8 Copyright ©2018 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education 17-29  Independence  Assumption that path duration times are independent of each other  Requires that 1. 2. Activity times are independent Each activity is on only one path  The assumption of independence is usually considered to be met if only a few activities in a large project are on multiple paths LO 17.8 Copyright ©2018 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education 17-30  When activity times cannot be assumed to be independent, simulation is often used  Repeated sampling is used  Many passes are made through the project network  In each pass, a random value for each activity time is selected based on the activity time’s probability distribution  After each pass, the project’s duration is determined  After a large number of passes, there are enough data points to prepare a frequency distribution of the project duration  Probabilistic estimates of completion times are made based on this frequency distribution LO 17.8 Copyright ©2018 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education 17-31  Activity time estimates are made for some given level of resources  It may be possible to reduce the duration of a project by injecting additional resources  Motivations:  To avoid late penalties  Monetary incentives  Free resources for use on other projects LO 17.9 Copyright ©2018 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education 17-32  Crashing  Shortening activity durations  Typically, involves the use of additional funds to support additional personnel or more efficient equipment, and the relaxing of some work specifications  The project duration may be shortened by increasing direct expenses, thereby realizing savings in indirect project costs LO 17.9 Copyright ©2018 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education 17-33  To make decisions concerning crashing requires information about: 1. Regular time and crash time estimates for each activity 2. Regular cost and crash cost estimates for each activity 3. A list of activities that are on the critical path  Critical path activities are potential candidates for crashing  Crashing non-critical path activities would not have an impact on overall project duration LO 17.9 Copyright ©2018 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education 17-34  General procedure: 1. Crash the project one period at a time 2. Crash the least expensive activity that is on the critical path 3. When there are multiple critical paths, find the sum of crashing the least expensive activity on each critical path  LO 17.9 If two or more critical paths share common activities, compare the least expensive cost of crashing a common activity shared by critical paths with the sum for the separate critical paths Copyright ©2018 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education 17-35 LO 17.9 Copyright ©2018 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education 17-36  Among the most useful features of PERT: 1. It forces the manager to organize and quantify available information and to identify where additional information is needed 2. It provides the a graphic display of the project and its major activities 3. It identifies a. Activities that should be closely watched b. Activities that have slack time LO 17.10 Copyright ©2018 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education 17-37  Potential sources of error: 1. The project network may be incomplete 2. Precedence relationships may not be correctly expressed 3. Time estimates may be inaccurate 4. There may be a tendency to focus on critical path activities to the exclusion of other important project activities 5. Major risk events may not be on the critical path LO 17.10 Copyright ©2018 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education 17-38  Risks are an inherent part of project management  Risks relate to occurrence of events that have undesirable consequences such as  Delays  Increased costs  Inability to meet technical specifications LO 17.11 Copyright ©2018 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education 17-39  Good risk management involves  Identifying as many risks as possible  Analyzing and assessing those risks  Working to minimize the probability of their occurrence  Establishing contingency plans and budgets for dealing with any that do occur LO 17.11 Copyright ©2018 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education 17-40 MGT530 Critical Thinking Writing Rubric - Module 12 Exceeds Expectation Content, Research, and Analysis 25-30 Points Requirements Includes all of the required components, as specified in the assignment. 37-45 Points Content Demonstrates substantial and extensive knowledge of the materials, with no errors or major omissions. 37-45 Points Analysis Provides strong thought, insight, and analysis of concepts and applications. 13-15 Points Sources Sources go above and beyond required criteria and are well chosen to provide effective substance and perspectives on the issue under examination. Meets Expectation Below Expectation 19-24 Points Includes most of the required components, as specified in the assignment. 28-36 Points Demonstrates adequate knowledge of the materials; may include some minor errors or omissions. 28-36 Points Provides adequate thought, insight, and analysis of concepts and applications. 10-12 Points Sources meet required criteria and are adequately chosen to provide substance and perspectives on the issue under examination. 13-18 Points Includes some of the required components, as specified in the assignment. 19-27 Points Demonstrates fair knowledge of the materials and/or includes some major errors or omissions. 19-27 Points Provides poor though, insight, and analysis of concepts and applications. 7-9 Points Sources meet required criteria but are poorly chosen to provide substance and perspectives on the issue under examination. Limited Evidence 7-12 Points Includes few of the required components, as specified in the assignment. 6-18 Points Fails to demonstrate knowledge of the materials and/or includes many major errors or omissions. 10-18 Points Provides little or no thought, insight, and analysis of concepts and applications. 4-6 Points Source selection and integration of knowledge from the course is clearly deficient. MGT530 Critical Thinking Writing Rubric - Module 12 Mechanics and Writing Demonstrates college-level proficiency in organization, grammar and style. 5 Points Project is clearly organized, well written, and in proper format as outlined in the assignment. Strong sentence and paragraph structure, contains no errors in grammar, spelling, APA style, or APA citations and references. Total points possible = 140 4 Points Project is fairly well organized and written and is in proper format as outlined in the assignment. Reasonably good sentence and paragraph structure, may include a few minor errors in grammar, spelling, APA style, or APA citations and references. 3 Points Project is poorly organized and written and may not follow proper format as outlined in the assignment. Inconsistent to inadequate sentence and paragraph development, and/or includes numerous or major errors in grammar, spelling, APA style, or APA citations and references. 1-2 Points Project is not organized or well written and is not in proper format as outlined in the assignment. Poor quality work; unacceptable in terms of grammar, spelling, APA style, and APA citations and references.
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Running head: ALVARENGA ORGANIZATION

Alvarenga Organization
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course
Date

1

ALVARENGA ORGANIZATION

2

Alvarenga Organization
Many people enjoy working in organizations that have an effective working structure.
The management have the capacity of determining how much an individual will enjoy working
in the organization and the incentives that one can get. Many of us aspire to work in an
organization where we can show our skills and remain competent enough to help the
organization move forward. There are many advantages that are offered by organizations.
However, few people have the chance of not feeling frustrated and show the inability to work
in tight situations. Sometimes, we may think that policies are mistake and the rules and
available regulations are considered to be inappropriate to work with (Alvarenga et al., 2018).
There are chances that we have to wait for too long to make the required decision. In this paper,
I will discuss the working structure of Alvarenga Organization and how the work is divided
across the firm.
Ensuring effective project management plays a critical role in helping any organization
to be effective. This enables users to ensure that they get the required services and how they
are rendered to the customers. In this case, the orga...


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