Chapter 12Question 3: What is the philosophy underlying resource loading? What does it do for our project? Why is it a critical element in effectively managing the project plan? Question 5: Discuss th

Suppose that you can commit a maximum of eight re- source hours per day.

a. What are the dates on which project resources are over - allocated?

b. How should the resource-loading table be reconfig- ured to correct for this overallocation? c.

Now suppose that the maximum number of resource hours per day you can commit is reduced to six. How would you reconfigure the resource-loading table to adjust for this number? What would be the new project completion date? CASe STuDy 12.1 The Problems of Multitasking An eastern U.S. financial services company found itself way behind schedule and over budget on an important strategic program. Both the budget and schedule base- lines had begun slipping almost from the beginning, and as the project progressed, the lags became severe enough to require the company to call in expert help in the form of a project management consulting firm.

After investigating the organization’s operations, the consulting firm determined that the primary source of problems both with this project in particular and the company’s project management practices in general was a serious failure to accurately forecast resource requirements. In the words of one of the consultants, “Not enough full-time [human] resources had been dedicated to the program.” The biggest problem was the fact that too many of the project team members were working on two or more projects simultaneously—a clear example of mul- titasking. Unfortunately, the program’s leaders devel- oped their ambitious schedule without reflecting on the availability of resources to support the project mile- stones. With their excessive outside responsibilities, no one was willing to take direct ownership of their work on the program, people were juggling assignments, and everyone was getting farther behind in all the work.

Again, in the words of the consultant, “Project issues would come up and there would be nobody there to handle them [in a timely fashion].” Those little issues, left unattended, eventually grew to become big prob- lems. The schedule continued to lag, and employee morale began to bottom out.

Following their recognition of the problem, the first step made by the consultants was to get top man- agement to renegotiate the work assignments with the project team. First, the core team members were freed from other responsibilities so they could devote their full-time attention to the program. Then, other support members of the project were released from multitasking duties and assigned to the project on a full-time or near full-time basis as well. The result, coupled with other Case Study 12.1 427 428 Chapter 12 • Resource Management suggested changes by the consultants, was to finally match up the project’s schedule and activity duration estimates with a realistic understanding of resources needs and availability. In short, the program was put back on track because it was finally resource-leveled, particularly through creating full-time work assign- ments for the project team that accurately reflected the need to link resource management with scheduling. 12 Questions 1. How does multitasking confuse the resource availability of project team personnel? 2.

“In modern organizations, it is impossible to eliminate multitasking for the average employee.” Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Why?

3. Because of the problems of multitasking, project managers must remember that there is a differ - ence between an activity’s duration and the proj- ect calendar. In other words, 40 hours of work on a project task is not the same thing as one week on the baseline schedule. Please comment on this concept. Why does multitasking “decou- ple” activity duration estimates from the project schedule? 12.1 Access www.fastcompany.com/magazine/87/project-man agement.html. What suggestions does the author offer for managing the pressures to multitask? The author suggests the need to “multiproject.” What is her point about the idea of learning how to multiproject?

12.2 Search the Web for examples of projects that suffer from each of the following:

a. Time constraints b. Resource constraints c. Mixed constraints For each of these examples, cite evidence of the types of constraints you have identified. Is there evidence of how the project is working to minimize or resolve these constraints?

12.3 Access Web sites related to the Boston tunnel project known as the “Big Dig.” Describe the problems that the project had. How did resource management play a role in the severe delays and cost overruns associated with the project?

Internet exercises Exercise 12.1 Refer to the activity network table shown below. Enter this in- formation using MS Project to produce a Gantt chart. Assume that each resource has been assigned to the project activity on a full-time (8 hours/day or 40 hours/week) basis.

Activity Duration Predecessors resource Assigned A. User survey 4None Gail Wilkins B. Coding 12 A Tom Hodges C. Debug 5B Wilson Pitts D. Design interface 6A, C Sue Ryan E. Develop training 5D Reed Taylor Exercise 12.2 Using the information from Exercise 12.1, produce a resource usage sheet that identifies the total number of hours and daily commitments of each project team member.

Exercise 12.3 Refer to the activity network table shown in Exercise 12.1.

Suppose that we modified the original table slightly to show the following predecessor relationships between tasks and resources assigned to perform these activities. Enter this infor - mation into MS Project to produce a Gantt chart. Assume that each resource has been assigned to the project activity on a full-time (8 hours/day or 40 hours/week) basis. Activity Duration Predecessors resource Assigned A. User survey 4None Gail Wilkins B. Coding 12A Tom Hodges C. Debug 5A Tom Hodges D. Design interface 6B, C Sue Ryan E. Develop training 5D Reed Taylor a. Using the Resource Usage view, can you determine any warning signs that some member of the project team has been overassigned?

b. Click on the Task Usage view to determine the specific days when there is a conflict in the resource assignment schedule.

Exercise 12.4 Using the information provided in Exercise 12.3, how might you resource-level this network to remove the conflicts? Show how you would resource-level the network. From a schedule perspective, what is the new duration of the project? MS Project exercises