Red Zuma Project

Course-Long Project

At the back of your textbook you'll find three projects:

Red Zuma Project (page 646)

Each project asks you to apply what you learn each week to create specific project management documents utilizing the trial version of MS Project Professional included with your text. During Week 8 of the course, you will submit all the documents required by the Project you select. Your effort on these documents will comprise your final exam and contribute over twenty percent of your course grade. Complete all documents prior to the due date in Week 8.

While there is no specified alignment between the 18 chapters of your text and the project documents cited in the projects, you’ll no doubt be able to determine which documents logically align with the content of each week’s assignments. All Week 8 submissions should be in MS Project Professional format

When is the project estimated to be completed? How long will the project take?

The project would be estimated to start on Friday (January 2, 2015) and finished on Monday (January 11, 2016) as indicated in the table below. The total project durations for Red Zuma Project would get involved around 260 days. The estimated project duration for each process as listed in the table below. (Gupta, 2014)

WBS    Task Name    Duration    Start    Finish    Predecessors

1    Red Zuma Project    260 days    Fri 1/2/15    Mon 1/11/16   
1.1       Market Analysis    25 days    Fri 1/2/15    Fri 2/6/15   
1.2       Product Design    30 days    Mon 2/9/15    Fri 3/20/15    2
1.3       Manufacturing Study    20 days    Mon 2/9/15    Fri 3/6/15    2
1.4       Product Design Selection    10 days    Mon 3/23/15    Fri 4/3/15    3,4
1.5       Detailed Marketing Plan    15 days    Mon 4/6/15    Fri 4/24/15    5
1.6       Manufacturing Process    30 days    Mon 4/6/15    Fri 5/15/15    5
1.7       Detailed Product Design    45 days    Mon 4/6/15    Mon 6/8/15    5
1.8       Build Prototypes    25 days    Tue 6/9/15    Tue 7/14/15    8
1.9       Lab Test Prototypes    10 days    Wed 7/15/15    Tue 7/28/15    9
1.10       Field Test Prototypes    15 days    Wed 7/15/15    Tue 8/4/15    9
1.11       Finalized Product Design    20 days    Wed 8/5/15    Tue 9/1/15    7,10,11
1.12       Final Manufacturing Process    10 days    Wed 9/2/15    Wed 9/16/15    12
1.13       Order Components    7 days    Wed 9/2/15    Fri 9/11/15    12
1.14       Order Production Equipment    14 days    Thu 9/17/15    Tue 10/6/15    13
1.15       Install Production Equipment    35 days    Wed 11/18/15    Fri 1/8/16    14FS+20 days,15FS+30 days
1.16       Celebrate    1 day    Mon 1/11/16    Mon 1/11/16    6,16
 
What is the critical path for the project?

The significant path for the Red Zuma project shown as a red path which to represents an important task whereas, the blue path represent as an uncritical path which shows at the figure below.
 
Otherwise, the figure below indicated only a group of the critical path. Thus, the significant task of the project is involved the market analysis, product design, product design selection and so on as indicated in the box at the figure below. (Kathy, 2012)

The critical tasks are as below:

WBS    Task Name    Duration    Start    Finish
1.1    Market Analysis    25 days    Fri 1/2/15    Fri 2/6/15
1.2    Product Design    30 days    Mon 2/9/15    Fri 3/20/15
1.4    Product Design Selection    10 days    Mon 3/23/15    Fri 4/3/15
1.7    Detailed Product Design    45 days    Mon 4/6/15    Mon 6/8/15
1.8    Build Prototypes    25 days    Tue 6/9/15    Tue 7/14/15
1.10    Field Test Prototypes    15 days    Wed 7/15/15    Tue 8/4/15
1.11    Finalized Product Design    20 days    Wed 8/5/15    Tue 9/1/15
1.12    Final Manufacturing Process    10 days    Wed 9/2/15    Wed 9/16/15
1.14    Order Production Equipment    14 days    Thu 9/17/15    Tue 10/6/15
1.15    Install Production Equipment    35 days    Wed 11/18/15    Fri 1/8/16
1.16    Celebrate    1 day    Mon 1/11/16    Mon 1/11/16

Which activity has the greatest amount of slack?

In Figure below at the last column shows the total amount of slack for each task project. Hence, the detailed marketing plans were the greatest quantity of total slack which it around 179 days as indicated in the box at the figure below.