Business Project Management
One of the most serious challenges facing a manager is to coordinate numerous activities throughout the organization. In project management, there are several approaches to accomplishing this task. During the appointment, the client will be introduced to a project management strategy that is a modified version of the critical path method (CPM) approach.
I. Background
CPM method has been used in project management for half a century and has demonstrated its effectiveness across projects. In 1957, when CPM was introduced to the public, this management strategy applied to the construction of a new chemical plant by DuPont (Suryakanta, 2015). At the moment, the strategy applies to a wide range of projects, mainly to those of repetitive type.
The main task of CPM approach is to identify a critical path, “a sequence of tasks in a project wherein none of the tasks can be delayed without affecting the final project end date” (Aguanno, 2002, p. 1). CPM approach has become popular in all industries due to its main strength that is an accurate assessment of cost vs. schedule tradeoff data (Aguanno, 2002). However, the approach also has some limitations, and it is necessary to consider them to have a more accurate understanding of modifications that have been made to it and are presented to the client.
According to Aguanno (2002), a serious limitation of CPM strategy is a high probability of losing sight of the risks that are inherent in the tasks of the project that are not defined as critical. Such risk exists both in the forward and backward pass CPM methods (Winter, 2003). A project manager often falls into the trap of lack of time, when reducing the amount of time to perform a task on the critical path.
Another limitation of CPM strategy is that while highlighting the task causing the greatest risk for causing schedule delay, it does not identify the source of risk (Aguanno, 2002). The limitation lies in the fact that the project manager does not have sufficient information to prevent or respond to possible schedule delays. It is suggested that lack of strategies to respond to schedule delays further increases the likelihood of their occurrence.
II. Unique Project Management Strategy
Taking into consideration limitations inherent in the traditional CPM strategy, the client is offered its modified version. Two modifications have been added to CPM and are described below. Since the manager adheres to the idea of flexibility, the proposed strategy is the subject of further discussion and changes.
The idea underlying the first proposed modification is that in addition to critical paths, CPM framework contains critical resource paths and critical responses. The objective of the critical resource paths is to determine the cause of schedule delays, for instance the task completion is delayed because there is a shortage of workforce, bad weather conditions, or problems with suppliers. The identification of critical resource paths is required to identify critical responses, for instance a shortage of workforce is mitigated by having a reserve list of experts.
Another modification involves a priority …
