Work Breakdown Structure and Activities for the Cell Phone Design Project
You work for a company that makes cell phones and have been made project manager for the design of a new cell phone. Your supervisors have already scoped the project, so you have a list showing the work breakdown structure, and this includes major project activities. You must plan the project schedule and calculate project duration. Your boss wants the schedule on his desk tomorrow morning! You have been given the information in Exhibit 4.13. It includes all the activities required in the project and the duration of each activity. Also, dependencies between the activities have been identified. Remember that the preceding activity must be fully completed before work on the following activity can be started. Your project is divided into five major subprojects. Subproject “P” involves developing specifications for the new cell phone. Here, decisions related to such things as battery life, size of the phone, and features need to be made. These details are based on how a customer uses the cell phone. These user specifications are redefined in terms that have meaning to the subcontractors that will actually make the new cell phone in subproject “S” supplier specifications. These involve engineering details for how the product will perform. The individual components that make up the product are the focus of subproject “D.” Subproject “I” brings all the components together, and a working prototype is built and tested. Finally, in subproject “V,” suppliers are selected and contracts are negotiated.
Exhibit 4.13: Work Breakdown Structure and Activities for the Cell Phone Design Project
MAJOR SUBPROJECTS/ACTIVITIES ACTIVITYIDENTIFICATION DEPENDENCY DURATION (WEEKS) Product Specifications (P)
Market research P1 — 6
Overall product specifications P2 P1 4
Hardware P3 P2 4
Software P4 P3 6
Supplier specifications (S)
Hardware S1 P4 5 Software S2 P4 6
Product design (D)
Battery D1 S1 1 Display D2 S1 6
Camera D3 S1 1
Outer cover D4 D1,D2, D34 4
Product integration (I)
Hardware I1 D4 3
User interface I2 D2 4
Software coding I3 I2 4
Prototype testing I4 I1, I3 5
Subcontracting (V)
Suppliers selection V1 S1 ,S2 10
Contract negotiation V2 I4, V1 6
a. Calculate the start and finish times for each activity. (Leave no cells blank – be certain to enter “0” wherever required.)
Activity EST EFT LST LFTP1
P2
P3
P4
S1
S2
D1
D2
D3
D4
I1
I2
I3
I4
V1
V2
b. Determine the minimum number of weeks for completing the project.
c. Find the activities that are on the critical path for completing the project in the shortest time.
multiple choice
- P1-P2-P3-P4-S1-D2-D4-I1-I4-V2
- P1-P2-P3-P4-S1-D2-I2-I3-I4-V2
- P1-P2-P3-P4-S1-D3-D4-I1-I4-V2
- P1-P2-P3-P4-S1-D1-D4-I1-I4-V2
