1 - What Is An Activity Slope and What Does It Indicate?

CHAPTER 9
1– What is an activity slope and what does it indicate?

 Activity Slope is the cost for decreasing the project duration by 1 day. For a particular
activity, when we undertake crashing the duration by 1 day at a time, the incremental
cost that is borne to reduce this duration by adding re-sources is called Activity Slope.
indicates that the project duration can be reduced by 1 day at an incremental cost of
Activity Slope.
2– Name four priority rules. What priority rule is best overall? How would a firm decide which
priority rule to use?
 As Soon As Possible – This is the general rule for scheduling tasks using CPM.
 As Late as Possible – This rule attempts to delay activities as much as possible to defer
their use of resources.
 Shortest Task First – This rule sorts the competing tasks by duration and assigns
resources starting at the short end of the list. This rule maximizes the number of
activities to be completed in any given time period.
 Most Resources First – This rule sorts the competing tasks by the amount of
resource required and assigns resources starting at the highest end of the list. This
favors tasks with high re-source consumption under the assumption that they are more
important.
 Minimum Slack First – This rule sorts the competing tasks by the amount of slack they
currently have and as-signs resources starting at the low end of the list. This rule favors
activities on or close to being on the critical path. Tasks that are delayed lose slack and
so have a relatively higher priority in the next time period.
 Most Critical Followers – This rule sorts the competing tasks by the number (count) of
critical path activities that follow each one. Resources are assigned starting at the high
end of the list.
 Most Successors – This rule sorts the competing tasks by the number (count) of
successors that follows each one. Resources are assigned starting at the high end of the
list.
 Arbitrary – Resources are assigned in some other way. This may involve a value
judgment like which customer is perceived as most important.
3– What is resource loading? How does it differ from resource leveling?
 Resource Loading – The amount of resource required by a task during a specific time
frame is its resource loading
 Resource Leveling – Typically the first resource-loading pattern coming from a CPM
schedule has problems. Either the peak load exceeds the availability or the variation in
load is too extreme from time period to time peri-od. In many cases, both problems will
occur simultaneously. Resource leveling attempts to solve these problems by shifting
activities within their slack.
4– Identify several resources that may need to be considered when scheduling projects.
 Individual types of labor, specific facilities, kinds of materials, individual pieces of

equipment, and other discrete inputs that are relevant to an individual project.????
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 As Soon As Possible – This is the general rule for scheduling tasks using CPM.
 As Late as Possible – This rule attempts to delay activities as much as possible to defer
their use of resources.
 Shortest Task First – This rule sorts the competing tasks by duration and assigns
resources starting at the short end of the list. This rule maximizes the number of
activities to be completed in any given time period.
 Fast-Tracking – Another way to expedite a project is to overlap activities. In a design to
production project, one way to accomplish this is to overlap the design and production
phases. In other words the design is not complete when construction starts. Research
has shown that this can be an effective method of expediting.
 Crashing a Project – Crashing is the process of attempting to shorten project activities
and in turn the overall project by assigning additional resources
 Most Resources First – This rule sorts the competing tasks by the amount of resource
required and assigns resources starting at the highest end of the list. This favors tasks
with high resource consumption under the assumption that they are more important.
 Arbitrary – Resources are assigned in some other way. This may involve a value
judgment like which customer is perceived as most important. Research has shown that,
in general, the minimum slack rule works the best. Heuristics can also employ simulation
techniques, where a number of possibilities are tested, and the best is kept.
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5- Name three efficiency criteria that might be considered when choosing a multiproject
scheduling system.?
 Schedule slippage – The time past a project’s due or delivery date.

 Resource utilization – The effectiveness of the resource leveling activities.
 Amount of in-process inventory – The amount of work waiting to be processed because
there is a shortage of some re-source(s).
6- What are two methods for addressing the constrained resources allocation problem?
 Heuristic approaches and optimization models.

7- When might a firm choose to crash a project? What factors must be considered in making
this decision?
a) Crashing of the project is chosen when:

I. initial time estimates are inaccurate, the project falls behind schedule or the
project completion date is moved up.
II. In these cases, the project cannot be completed on time given the original
schedule. Crashing would expedite the project/activities to meet new
completion dates.
III. Another scenario occurs when late fees or penalties may be incurred. It may
be more cost effect to crash activities than to pay the additional fees.
b) Factors considered are
I. Cost of the additional resources hired

II. Crashing must be considered in light of a number of factors,
principally the penalties that the contractor will be forced to
absorb should the project be late. In this case, the decision is
based on the fact that top management has informed the
project manager that he has some discretionary money to
spend but the project cannot be late, suggest-ing that crashing
makes good sense.
8- Why is the impact of scheduling and resource allocation more significant in multiproject
organizations?
 scheduling and resource allocation will have more significance in multi project
organizations.
 scheduling is the allocation of time to reach the specific goal. In multi project
organization, it involves each goal for each project.
 resource allocation, it means using the resources available in the organization to meet
the organizational goals. resource allocation may be the human resource or material
resource, using them to the best to reach the goal. In multi project organizations
resource allocation should be perfectly planned so that to reach the specific goals in
specific time.
9- What are some of the indirect costs of crashing?

 they consume indirect costs, including the cost of facilities, equipment, and machinery,
interest on investment, utilities, labor, personnel costs, and the loss of skills and labor
from members of the project team who are not working at their regular jobs.
10- What is the formula for computing the cost/time slope for each activity that can be
crashed?
 Slope = (crash cost - normal cost) / (crash time - normal time)
11- What is the technique overlaps the design and builds phases of a project to expedite its
completion?
 The fast-tracking Schedule Compression.
12- What are the important parameters used to measure effectiveness of PM scheduling?
 Physical percent complete, cash flow, and weeks ahead or behind the critical path.

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CHAPTER 9

1– What is an activity slope and what does it indicate?

3– What is resource loading? How does it differ from resource leveling?

 Individual types of labor, specific facilities, kinds of materials, individual pieces of

 Schedule slippage – The time past a project’s due or delivery date.

 Heuristic approaches and optimization models.

a) Crashing of the project is chosen when:

b) Factors considered are

I. Cost of the additional resources hired

9- What are some of the indirect costs of crashing?

 Slope = (crash cost - normal cost) / (crash time - normal time)

 The fast-tracking Schedule Compression.

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