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Chapter 16 Project planning and control 471
Figure 16.9 Initial project plan for a simple project, with resources
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Time-constrained. The overriding priority is to complete the project within a given time.
Once normally available resources have been used up, alternative (‘threshold’) resources
are scheduled.
Example project
Returning to the breakfast-in-bed project, we can now consider the resource implications
of the plan in Figure 16.9. Each of the four activities scheduled at the start (pour orange,
cut bread, fill pan, fetch tray) consumes staff resources. There is clearly a resource-loading
problem, because the project definition states that only one person is available. This is not
an insuperable difficulty, however, because there is sufficient float to move some of the
activities. A plan with levelled resources can be produced, as shown in Figure 16.10. All that
has been necessary is to delay the toast preparation by one minute, and to use the elapsed
time during the toasting and water-boiling processes to pour orange and fetch the tray.
Fix the schedule
Project planners should ideally have a number of alternatives to choose from. The one which
best fits project objectives can then be chosen or developed. For example, it may be appropriate
to examine both resource-limited and time-limited options. However, it is not always
possible to examine several alternative schedules, especially in very large or very uncertain
projects, as the computation could be prohibitive. However, modern computer-based project
management software is making the search for the best schedule more feasible.
Example project
A further improvement to the plan can be made. Looking again at the project definition,
the success criteria state that the product should be ‘high-quality’. In the plan shown in
Figure 16.10, although the egg is freshly boiled, the toast might be cold. An ‘optimized’ plan
which would provide hot toast would be to prepare the toast during the ‘boil egg’ activity.
This plan is shown in Figure 16.11.