CEN4009-N – Advanced Project Planning and Visualisation

CEN4009-N Assignment Help

Advanced Project Planning and Visualisation Assignment help

A Teesside PLC has won a contract to work on a major Project to start on 1^st December 2023. As a Project Manager you need to develop and analyse the planning schedule for this project using MS-Project. Your project team has identified major activities of the project, their dependency and resources needed to run each activity (see Appendix 1).

Appendix 1 provides information about the project, which includes project logic (activity links and their relationship – finish to start (FS), start to start (SS), and start to finish (SF), activity durations, resource allocation and work breakdown structure (WBS).

You have been asked to perform the following planning and scheduling processes using Microsoft Project 2012 or later version.

A: CPM & WBS (10% of the assignment) 

1. Draw a Gantt-Chart and CPM network for the project. Calculate early start (ES), early finish (EF), late start (LS), late finish (LF) and total float (TF) based on As Soon as Possible (ASAP) method and identify critical path.
2. Draw WBS for the project (must include Level 1, Level 2, Level 3 and Level 4) and discuss the importance of WBS as a Project Management tool.
3. Explain why identification of the critical path is important? Also comment on the changes to the Critical Path, if the project is developed using As Late as Possible (ALAP)

B: Resource Planning (10% of the assignment) 

1. Produce and draw smoothed resource histograms for the skilled labour resources used in the project. Critically assess the output identifying the maximum units of each resource required for this project.
2. Carry-out resource levelling for Unskilled resource only (do not use automatic resource levelling) and discuss how activities might be delayed beyond the latest start time (LST) to cater for the limits on Unskilled resources as a result of levelling. Consider resource pool for unskilled resources as 7 units per day.
3. Explain and discuss the process of resource levelling. 

C: Cost Analysis (5% of the assignment)                                                   

1. Calculate the cost of each activity in the project (level 3). Consider the standard cost of a skilled labour as £20/hr, unskilled labour as £10/hr and equipment as £50/hr.
2. Produce cumulative cost-time curve for the project.

Note:

• Start the project on 1^st December 2023.
• Use default UK working calendar (i.e. Saturdays and Sundays are non-working days, 8 working hours in a day, bank holidays should be considered as non-working days)
• Use resource unit as decimal.
• Use fixed duration and set unit as days.
• Clearly identify each part of the answers to the questions.
• Use header and footer to clearly indicate what the chart or graph is showing.

PART 4 (25% of the assignment)

4D Planning

1. Use Synchro Pro software and link the Building Project planning data with the given 3D CAD Building Model. Use both Assignment2.1.xml and Assignment2.2.xml with Assignment2.dxf. You will have two different models to review. Identify issues and conflicts with the proposed plans and changes. You should provide the pictures of the visualisation on your assignment. Briefly discuss the linking procedure carried out. (13% of the assignment).
2. Define 4D planning. Discuss the purpose and benefits of 4D systems as a Project Management tool in an Engineering industry (12% of the assignment)