The movie. Project management and the Critical Path.

We will watch the project management video look for related various aspects of it’s content to the course material with special attention to terms used in the video. The video’s value is that it shows the history and development of the project management industry. Also shown are an application of project management to the 1988 Winter Olympic, Woolworth’s supply chain management and concurrent engineering practice introduced at Lucas Girling’s brake parts operations. The concurrent activities in designing the break parts were called the “Rugby scrum” approach. We prefer to call this concurrent. In another environment it might include bring the various cross-functional team members together and letting them all have input as to their roles on the project. In engineering this is called concurrent engineering. 

Make a note of terms used in the video. You will be asked to submit a comprehensive list of terms and definitions. for marks in Week 5. Start building your list each week – capture new words.

Other key notes from movie.

C.P.A. (critical path analysis) has been replaced with the term C.P.M. critical path method. The key formula for determining

how to lay out (draw or create with software) a network diagram is to as ask and answer the following questions.

                                    What do I want to do? Give this task a #. E.g. 3

                                    What do I have to do before 3?

                                    Which task comes after three?

                                    What can be done at the same time as three?

As part of this course you will learn how to determine the Critical Path-which is generally the longest path in the network.

Milestones. These are important physical markers on the project charts or indicators in the written plan. They mark the point at which something significant occurs.  They are shown on the charts as a diamond shaped symbol. A milestone in our course might be the completion of the Mid term exam. .

Risk management in project management includes contingency plans. I.e. What alternatives have we planned if things go wrong? If there is no snow on the slopes we will transfer the skiing to another location, perhaps even in another State or Province.

Stakeholders are mentioned in each of the projects. Who were the stakeholders in the Olympics?                     

Chunking is the process of breaking down large numbers of tasks into related work groups. We now use the term W.B.S. or Work Breakdown Structure to chart this process. The related groups of activities are called Summary Tasks. The individual

tasks under the summary are called work packages.

Benchmarks. These are standards set for measuring quality. They are related to “Best Practices” which are standards that a company sets for

Note the reason why Woolworth’s used Project management practices. For safety. This is not related to accidents, it means the safety of the future of the company. Survival in the marketplace, beating the competition. As we said in Wk. One P.M. can help accompany get specific results. K MART closed over three hundred stores this year. . I wonder if they embraced Project Management practices in their organization?

End of movie notes.