Chapter 17
Project Management
Topics covered
1. Introduction, 762
2. Behavioral aspects of Project Management, 763
- Nature of projects, 763
- Key decisions in project management, 765
- Project Manager, 766
- Project Champion, 766
- Certification, 767
- Pros and Cons of working in projects, 768
3. Project Life Cycle, 768
4. Work Breakdown structure, 769
5. Planning and scheduling with GANTT charts, 770
6. PERT & CPM, 770
- Network diagram, 771
- Network conventions, 772
7. Deterministic time estimates, 773
8. A computing algorithm, 774
- Activity on Arrow, 775
- Rules for the computing algorithm, 779
- Computing slack times, 780
- Probabilistic time estimates, 781
- Determining path probabilities, 784
9. Time cost Trade-offs: Crashing, 787
10. Advantages of using PERT and potential sources of error, 790
11. Project Management Software, 791
Chapter Summary
Every management professional encounters situations, at some point of time or
other, which needs good knowledge on project management and this is the main
reason behind including project management as a part of the studies in most of the
business schools around the world. The unique nature of projects, the major
decisions in project management, functions of a project manager, project life cycle,
work breakdown structure, network analysis and crashing, forms the core content of
this chapter. Projects play a vital role in sustaining business activity. Network
analysis and finding the critical path is inevitable for any project. Finding the path
variance and the probability of completion of the project in a given time and so on,
are of primary importance to project managers. In addition to the above, crashing the
project to complete the same in lesser time using additional resources is another
technique which is worth learning in this context. The student is expected to be
conversant with various terms and definitions related to project management in
addition to developing skills to generate work breakdown structure, network
diagram and its analysis for any project.
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Contact: Dr. Suresh Subramoniam, A253