## Critical Thinking:  Project Management (Chapter 17)

Consider a recent project that you have worked on. This could be for a company or organization with which you are familiar, or even a personal project such as purchasing a home or planning a party.
After your opening paragraph, which includes your thesis statement, identify your selected company or organization in no more than three paragraphs. Then, complete the following:
*Note: for the charts/diagrams, use suitable project-based software. A free Project management software called Libre is also available for download here https://sourceforge.net/projects/projectlibre/

1.    Create either a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) of the project or Gantt Chart for planning and scheduling the project. Discuss why you used the type of chart you did.
2.    Determine and document both probabilistic (t0, tp, and tm) and deterministic time estimates. Discuss how you arrived at these time estimates.
3.    Using project-based software (e.g. Libre), create a PERT network diagram with the Critical Path (CP) identified.
4.    Calculate the slack time for each activity. Discuss the ramifications of slack in the CP for the activities and the project as a whole.
5.    Develop the network diagram from the probability estimates. Discuss which path you would take and why.
6.    For each activity, determine hypothetical costs in a table. Include budgeted costs, percent complete, actual/projected cost, and over/under budget (and total). Discuss the rationale for how you derived these costs.
7.    Crash an activity on the Critical Path. Discuss the ramifications of crashing the activity you crashed.

## Structure:
–    Introduction + talk about Project Management
–    three to Four paragraphs to identify your selected company or organization
–    Body (to discuss and answer the above Questions)
–    Conclusion to summarize the paper
–    References

## Directions:
–    Charts/diagrams should be labeled and can be added within the body of your paper.
–    This assignment is related to Chapter #17: in the book (here is the link)
–    The essay should be 5 or 6 pages in length, which does not include the title page and reference pages.
–    Support your submission with course material concepts, principles, and theories from the textbook and at least three scholarly, peer-reviewed journal articles.
–    Follow APA style guidelines.
–    Plagiarism should be less than 25%.