Professional Documents
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1 General: Pre-Contract - Identification of The Job Requirements, Recruiting and
1 General: Pre-Contract - Identification of The Job Requirements, Recruiting and
2 Gantt Charts
Gantt charts define stages of production and estimated work time for each
stage.
Terminal elements are the items that are estimated in terms of resource
requirements, budget and duration linked by dependencies and schedules.
The WBS/task elements are listed on the left hand side and the start and
completion of each activity is represented by a bar to the right of the activity.
The time period in this example is represented in months, both planned and
actual. Some Gantt charts may show time in weeks, which can also be
broken down into days.
Work
Breakdown 2010
Structure
JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH APRIL MAY JUNE
(WBS)
Recruit &
allocate
inspection staff
Review
fabrication
drawings
Review WPSs,
WPQRs&
WATCs
Prepare quality
plans
Witness welder
qualification
tests
Visual
inspection of
first
production
welds
LEGEND
Planned duration Planned milestone
CPA can also show where remedial action needs to be taken in order to get
a project back on course.
The benefit of using CPA over Gantt charts is that CPA formally identifies
tasks which must be completed on time in order for the whole project to be
completed on time, and also identifies which tasks can be delayed for a
while if resources need to be reallocated to catch up on missed tasks.
A further benefit of CPA is that it helps to identify the minimum length of time
needed to complete a project. Where there is a need to run an accelerated
project, fast track, it helps to identify which project steps should be
accelerated in order to complete the project within the available time. This
helps to minimise cost while still achieving objectives.
CPA is presented using circle and arrow diagrams. The circles show events
within the project, such as the start and finish of tasks. Circles are normally
numbered to allow identification of them. An arrow running between two
event circles shows the activity needed to complete that task. A description
of the task is written underneath the arrow. The length of the task is shown
above it. By convention, all arrows run left to right.
0 4
A
START 1 2
4 Wks
Where one activity cannot start until another has been completed and when
other activities need to be scheduled it is useful to tabulate the terminal
elements and allocate time against each activity. For example the inspection
activities for a project could be shown as:
Review fabrication
drawings, material & Start when A is
B completed 2 weeks
consumable certificates
4
C E
2 2
0 4 Wks 6 Wks 11 13 22
A B D F G
START 1 2 3 5 6 7 FINISH
An effective CPA can make the difference between success and failure on
complex projects. It can be very useful for assessing the importance of
problems faced during the implementation of the plan.
The formula below is used to calculate the time for each project stage:
This helps to bias time estimates away from the unrealistically short time-
scales normally assumed.