Question

Below are the project steps for the creation of a television advertisement for Foolio, which is a new energy drink that the musician Coolio has created.    Consider the following data for questions 1 through 5:

Activity	Duration (days)	Description	Preceding Activity(ies)
A	6	Create script for advertisement	-
B	4	Book technical crew	A
C	4	Book actors	A
D	3	Create props and costumes	B,C
E	6	Book location	C
F	5	Filming and editing	D,E

How many paths are there through this network?

1

2

3

4

How many critical paths are there?

0

1

2

3

Which activities have slack?

A

B

E

F

What is the slack for activity B?

0

1

2

3

What is the expected duration of this project?

19

20

21

22

Which of the following statements about a network’s critical path(s) is always true?

The critical path(s) is the path that passes through the most activities

The critical path(s) is the path with longest total time duration

The critical path(s) is the path that passes through the most slack activities

The critical path(s) is the path that gets us through the network fastest.

In these network diagrams, slack is best described a measurement of what?

The difference between an activity’s normal cost and its crash cost

The difference between an activity’s early start and early finish times

The difference between the duration of two precedent activities

The difference between an activity’s early start and late start times

Answer 1

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How many paths are there through this network?

[3] - ABDF, ACDF, ACEF

How many critical paths are there?

[1] - ACEF with duration of 21 days

Which activities have slack?

[B] - because others are on the critical path and hence have slack=0

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Activity	Duration (days)	Predecessors	ES	EF	LS	LF	Slack
A	6	-	0	6	0	6	0
B	4	A	6	10	9	13	3
C	4	A	6	10	6	10	0
D	3	B,C	10	13	13	16	3
E	6	C	10	16	10	16	0
F	5	D,E	16	21	16	21	0

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What is the slack for activity B?

[3]

What is the expected duration of this project?

[21]

Which of the following statements about a network’s critical path(s) is always true?

[The critical path(s) is the path with longest total time duration]

In these network diagrams, slack is best described a measurement of what?

[The difference between an activity’s early start and late start times]