Exam 11: Critical Chain Project Scheduling

All five members of a project team add 10% to their individual serial activities as a safety margin and submit their time estimates to the project manager.The manager adds the activity length estimates together and adds 10% for his personal safety margin.Then,anticipating a cut by top management,he adds another 20% to his final project estimate.Much to his surprise,top management cuts only 10% off his time estimate.How much of a cushion is now built into the project?

An organization's budget estimating process routinely misses the actual cost of a project by 25%.For the most recent project,the budget variance was a ridiculous 23%,but this must be considered common cause variance.

Delays in project activity are known as ________ variation.

A project consists of four consecutive tasks that have average duration and worst-case duration estimates (in days)as shown in the table.Use Newbold's model to determine the aggregated one sigma buffer for this project.

A project is represented by the activity durations (in days,estimated at 90% likelihood of completion)and precedence requirements shown in the table.What is the length of the project buffer if this project is managed using critical chain methodology? Use the rule of thumb approach.

ABC project organization has one workstation that is capable of generating the drawings that their clients study before accepting ABC's bid.ABC is currently in the midst of three proposal projects and knows which proposed project will be most profitable and which will be least profitable.The workstation is scheduled so that the most profitable project's work is done first and the least profitable project work is done last.This is an example of:

Create an example and explain how it shows the effect of path merging on positive and negative variation.

Which of the following statements about CCPM activity networks is correct?

The first step in TOC methodology is to:

A worker is assigned three tasks,A,B,and C,each having a duration of 20 days.One approach to completing these tasks would be to focus on one at a time,complete it,and then move to the second,followed by the third.One multitasking approach would call for dividing each task into fourths and rotating from one to the other so that the first fourths of A,B,and C are completed before the second fourths of A,B,and C are completed (always in this order)and so on until the activities are finished.What is the difference in the average completion times for the multitasked activities?

Your next project consists of 5 consecutive 10-day activities,each estimated by a different worker in your organization.You have all secretly added your own safety margin of 4 days into your estimates and you watch in horror as the project manager whips out his copy of Critical Chain and slams it on the table midway through their first project meeting."I'm taking your buffers and making them my own," he bellows.You recoil from this news and do some quick mental arithmetic.Now that you know the project manager is a Goldratt disciple,you know that the new project buffer will be:

Which of the following is an example of special cause variation?

XYZ project organization has one workstation that is capable of generating the drawings that their clients study before accepting XYZ's bid.XYZ is currently in the midst of three proposal projects and knows exactly when it will need to use the workstation.All other work to be done,both before and after the workstation is used,is scheduled such that it flows to the workstation and keeps it busy.Resources used after this step are less critical;so while the subsequent work and resources are important,they aren't viewed with the same reverence as the workstation.This is an example of:

What are the recommendations for applying the principle of common cause variation to the theory of critical chain project management?

A project is represented by the activity durations (in days,estimated at 90% likelihood of completion)and precedence requirements shown in the table.How many project buffers are needed if this project is managed using critical chain methodology?

What is the difference between the critical path and the key system constraint?

CCPM advocates putting off non-critical activities as late as possible and providing each activity with a(n)________.