ESM 505 System Project Management Homework 1 Network Planning techniques and DSM

Spring 2012
Out: January 25, 2012 Due: February 12, 2012, 1pm

Learning objectives This homework is divided into two parts. In the first part, you will create a project plan using the Critical Path Method (CPM). You will draw a project graph, estimate the early finish time (EF) of the project and identify the critical path and slack times. You will think about the impact of changes in individual task times on the critical path and consider probability distributions of task times and their effect on the project schedule (PERT). In the second part, you will apply the Design Structure Matrix (DSM) method to a hypothetical design project. You will first learn how to translate the project graph from the previous assignment to a DSM representation. Next, you will add iterations to the project and analyze their effect on the previous task sequence. You will consider partitioning the DSM to reveal meta-tasks. Finally, you will estimate the effect of these changes on the critical path and estimated project completion time. Readings
[1]

K.F. Levy, G. L Thompson and J.D. Wiest, The ABCs of the Critical Path Method, Harvard Business Review, #63508, Harvard Business School Publishing, 1963 Reading #2

Other Resources
[2]

[3] [4]

[5]

[6] [7]

Optional: H. Kerzner, Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling and Controlling, John Wiley & Sons, 2009 Chapter 12 Online Normal Distribution Table (online): http://www.math2.org/math/stat/distributions/z-dist.htm Steven D. Eppinger, Daniel E. Whitney, Robert P. Smith, and David A. Gebala. "A ModelBased Method for Organizing Tasks in Product Development", Research in Engineering Design. Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 1-13, 1994. Steven D. Eppinger, Murthy V. Nukala, and Daniel E. Whitney. "Generalized Models of Design Iteration Using Signal Flow Graphs", Research in Engineering Design. Vol. 9, No. 2, pp. 112-123, 1997. DSM website: http://www.dsmweb.org/ DSM software: http://www.problematics.com (PSM32)

This homework is designed to be solved without the assistance of project management software. Please do it manually.

Part I: Network Planning Techniques [75 marks]

Situation You are a Project Manager at New Millennium Aerospace (NMA) Inc.. Your task today is to create a project schedule, find the critical path and to estimate the finish time of the project. The subsequent project description is hypothetical, but will help you establish the plan. UAV Project Description (NMA-X1) The UAV pusher vehicle concept is shown in Figure 1. In a pusher aircraft, the engine is rearmounted which can lead to higher propulsive efficiency. The vehicle can be decomposed into the following assemblies: fuselage (houses the avionics suite), wings, empennage, payload (a visual and an IR camera, incl. transmitter) and the engine (incl. propeller).

fuselage

empennage b

avionics suite

wings

B What follows is a description of the tasks necessary to develop the vehicle, incl. the dependencies between tasks. The task (job) descriptions are engine underlined the first time they are mentioned, and the payload L task ID and normal duration in working days are given in parentheses. Example: engine integration (x,17), means that there is a task called engine Fig 1. UAV concept, Specifications: integration, identified by the symbol x, whose L=2000 mm, B=3500 mm, b=500 mm nominal duration is 17 working days.

After the project start (a,0), you first have to complete the overall requirements definition (b,10) step. Once this is accomplished, you can carry out the following jobs in parallel: negotiate the engine specification (c,5) with ECC, define your payload specification (d,5), determine the vehicle layout (e,8) and write the software specification (g,12). You can initiate (GFE) avionics design (f,15) after (b,10). However the tasks (c,5) and (d,5) must also have been completed before the GFE design can be started, so that the avionics will be able to control both the engine and payload in a synchronized fashion. Once the engine specs (c,5) have been defined, the supplier (ECC) informs you that it will take 30 days for engine development (i,30) based on experience with a previous variant. Once engine development is complete, delivery and checkout (n,2) can take place at NMAs facilities. After (d,5) is done, payload development (j,15) can take place in parallel with engine development. Once the payload is developed (j,15) and the engine delivered (n,2), both the engine and payload are integrated (electrically) in the power system integration (o,10) step. Fuselage design (k,17) and empennage/wing design (l,15) begin in parallel after the vehicle layout (e,8) has been established. Internal fittings (m,8) can be designed after these two jobs are

completed. Also, structural airframe prototyping (r,8) consists of building a physical frame for the vehicle after jobs (k,17) and (l,15) are completed. Once avionics design (f,15) has been completed, this leads to avionics delivery and checkout (p,12) and subsequent avionics/software integration (q,5). Obviously, in order for this last step to take place, software development (h,25) which depends both on (g,12) and (f,15) must have also been completed. The project is continued by performing vehicle integration (s,10) which requires prior completion of power system integration (o,10), airframe prototyping (r,8) and avionics/software integration (q,5). After vehicle integration (s,10) and internal fitting design (m,8) have been achieved , final vehicle assembly (t,5) can begin. After final assembly, the completed vehicle is subjected to laboratory testing (u,5), followed by an outdoor flight test campaign (v,10) leading to completion of the prototype development project, finish (w,0). Notes: - task descriptions are underlined - (n,25) means that the task is tagged as n and is expected to take 25 work days - task descriptions are hypothetical, but in a notionally meaningful sequence - task durations are hypothetical (on the short side) Task 2: Plan the Project 1. Construct a task table from the NMA-X1 project description. Clearly designate each task with its tag, description and identify immediate predecessors and nominal task completion times. Try to arrange the task table in technological order (see [1] for an explanation of that term). [5 marks] 2. Create a project graph [similar to slide #18 of session 2 lecture note] by hand. [8 marks] 3. What is the earliest finish (EF) for the project as a whole (in units of work days)? Show how you arrived at this result. [5 marks] 4. What is the critical path? (e.g. a-b-k-t-w). Highlight the critical path in the project graph obtained in step 2.). Explain in a few sentences what this means for you as the project manager. [4 marks] 5. The start date of the project (a,0) has been fixed as January 1, 2012. What is the earliest calendar finish date of the project, assuming that everyone (incl. suppliers) works only Monday through Friday and that there are no holidays? [7 marks] 6. After some negotiation, the CEO of NMA has set a target date (T) of May 26, 2012 for completion of the project. Figure out, for each task, what the total slack (TS) and what the free slack (FS) is. Which task in your project has the largest free slack? How do you suggest to best use this free slack as a project manager? [8 marks]

7. Set specific target dates (for example, April 2, 2012) for both delivery of the engine (n,2) from ECC and for delivery of the avionics package (p,12) from GFE. Why did you choose those dates? Which of the two dates is more critical for the overall project completion date and why? [8 marks] 8. You just successfully finished the requirements definition (b,10), engine specification (c,5) and payload specification (d,5) steps on time. It is now Friday, January 19, 2012 at 5:00 p.m. As you get ready to leave your office for happy hour and a nice weekend, the phone rings and you get a call from the engine supplier, ECC. They inform you that engine development (task i) will now take 40 working days instead of 30 working days due to the more stringent engine requirements agreed to in task c. [10 marks] How does this impact the critical path of the project? Revise the project plan with the changed information, i.e. task (i,40). What is the impact on the earliest finish (EF) date of the project? Does it impact the target date (T) set by the CEO? What do you report to her? How does this phone call change your focus as a project manager? Explain and contrast with what you answered earlier to question 4.

Challenge Question 9. You have just completed all tasks up to (and including) vehicle final assembly (t,5) according to your revised schedule that you worked out in question 8., i.e. all tasks were completed at their earliest finish time (EF). You are now starting laboratory (u, 5) and flight testing (v,10). Based on previous experience, the completion times for these tasks u and v are represented by the histograms shown in Figure 2.

Fig. 2: Task completion time histogram for NMM-X1 testing

The CEO wants to move the NMA-X1 project completion date to May 8, 2012 for an early flight demonstration of the system to an Air Force General. What is the probability (in percent %) that you can complete the project by that date? [20 marks]

Part II: Task-based Design Structure Matrix [25 marks]

Situation You are still Project Manager for the NMA-X1 UAV development project and you have successfully completed the requirements definition (b,10) step, effectively the first task in the process. You realize that your previous PERT/CPM plan was useful, but did not capture a number of important design iterations. Assignment 10. Construct a Design Structure Matrix (DSM), with dimension 23x23, including all NMA-X1 tasks a through w (including dummy tasks start and finish). This DSM should capture the same task dependencies as the project graph from partI.2. See Appendix I for an initial DSM template that you could use to get started. Comment briefly on the structure of the completed matrix.[5 marks] 11. During the requirements review (b) you discussed the upcoming design project with your functional team managers and your suppliers. You realize that your previous PERT/CPM plan is useful, but does not capture some important task interdependencies: [7 marks] Avionics design (f) requires information from software development (h) in terms of properly sizing the avionics bus and controllers for processing speed, memory and communications bandwidth In order to decide what the power budget between the engine and the payload should be, there must be some concurrent development. This means that UAV engine development (i) and payload development (j) require data from each other. In previous vehicle projects there were structural misalignment problems between the fuselage, wing and empennage. In order to avoid this on the NMA-X1 project, tasks (k) and (l) must be coupled together (i.e. they feed information to each other). Software specification (g) and software development (h) are really iterative. Experience from other programs has shown that significant errors and non-conformances are often discovered during avionics/software integration (q). This can require substantial rework from task (q) to software development (h). Integrating the vehicle (s) is never a single step process and data from past projects indicates that adjustments must be made to power system integration (o) due to problems discovered during (s). Finally, despite early efforts to avoid collisions between fuel lines, electric wire harnesses, air ducts and trim panels it is a frequent occurrence that internal fittings (m) need to be adjusted based on interferences discovered during final vehicle assembly (t).

Modify the DSM to reflect these iterations and briefly comment on the changes.

12. Convert the DSM to a binary matrix using only {1,0} and multiply the matrix by itself a number of times. Describe the result of each sequential multiplication and draw conclusions for your vehicle development project. The purpose of this step is to identify the loops in the 5

project of length 1 (two tasks coupled) or larger. How many iteration loops are there in the project? What tasks are involved in each loop? [7 marks] 13. The manual partitioning algorithm we discussed in class (Lecture 4-5) by swapping columns and rows of the DSM in a deliberate fashion. Attempt to improve the task sequence of the project such that feedback loops (entries above the main diagonal of the DSM) are minimized and appropriate meta-tasks emerge. Identify which tasks can be done sequentially, in parallel and which ones must be worked on iteratively. Highlight the coupled meta-tasks by enclosing them in a highlighted box. How many iterations remain in the upper right triangular part of the DSM after you have re-sequenced? Discuss briefly how this new way of modeling the project might change your view and focus relative to the original CPM project plan. [6 marks]

Appendix I : Design Structure Matrix (DSM)

a b c d e f G h i j k l m n o p q R s t u v w a a b b c c d d e e f f g g h h i i j j k k l l m m n n o o p p q q r r s s t t u u v v w w