Faculty of Engineering & Information Sciences (EIS) School of Mechanical, Materials, Mechatronic & Biomedical Engineering (MMMB)
ENGG461 Managing Engineering Projects
Assessment 1 MS Project Exercise (individual) – 20% (Due: 10.00pm, Monday, 17 April 2023) [1500 words (maximum) - excluding figures, tables and graphs]
The high-level activities and related information for a project to develop the next generation remotely controlled residential lighting system is given below. The project is to be carried out within New South Wales, Australia.
Table 1:
ID Activity Name
1 Market Analysis
2 Competitor benchmarking
3 Product architecture
4 Mock prototype
5 Customer demo and feedback
6 Prototype product architecture
7 Hardware design
8 Firmware specification
9 Component specification
10 Supplier selection
11 Order components
12 Firmware Development
13 Engineering prototype
14 Alpha testing
15 Production-ready architecture
16 Production-ready drawings
17 Production-line layout
18 Beta-ready prototype 15 days
19 Beta testing 15 days
20 Production-line set-up 20 days
21 Order material 10 days
22 Test run 15 days
23 Market launch 30 days
Duration
Predecessors
1
1,2
3
4
5
6
6
7
6
9,10
8
11,12
13
14
14
14FS +10days 15,16FF 18
17
14, 20FF 19FF, 21 22FF
Resource Initials [Resource Count]
MKT
HW, ARC, TEC[2]
ARC, HW, FW, PRO
HW, TEC[3]
MKT, TEC[2]
ARC, HW, FW, PRO, PUR HW, TEC[2]
FW
HW, TEC[2]
PUR
PUR
FW, TEC[2]
HW, TEC[3]
HW, FW, ARC, TEC[2] ARC, HW, FW, PRO
HW, TEC[3], ARC
PRO, TEC[2]
HW, TEC[3]
FW, HW, TEC[3]
PRO, TEC
PUR
PRO, TEC[3]
MKT
30 days 15 days 20 days 15 days 15 days 10 days 20 days 10 days 10 days 20 days 45 days 50 days 20 days 20 days 20 days 30 days 35 days
Table 2:
Resource (staff) Abbreviation
Hardware Engineer HW Firmware Engineer FW Marketing Manager MKT Process Engineer PRO Technician TEC Purchasing PUR Product Architect ARC Overhead/Indirect costs* OH
Availability
1
1 90/hour 1 90/hour 1 60/hour 3 40/hour 1 50/hour 1 100/hour
Rate($)#
80/hour
1000/week #Consider any overtime penalty rate as 50%; *Overhead costs are incurred for the entire duration of the project.
Section A: Instructions for Completing the MS Project Tasks and Interpretation of Results:
1. Create a new file and enter the project title. Ensure the author's name and student number are entered in the appropriate field to be displayed in all print-outs and reports. Ensure all text within the charts are reasonably legible.
2. Fix the start of the project to your birth date next year. Include this in your list of assumptions.
3. Set the environment to: 40-hour week, 5 working days per week, and the working day start to 9 am. Account for any non-
working times and Public Holidays, as applicable to NSW.
4. Create the resources sheet with appropriate resource type, maximum availability and pay rates, as applicable.
5. Enter the Activities, Durations and Dependencies.
6. Enter the resources. Produce a Gantt Chart to include in your report.
7. View the Resource Graph and note any over-allocations. Generate a report for each of the resources concerned, to clearly show
over-allocations. If a particular resource is not showing any over-allocations, make sure to identify them in the report as such.
8. Investigate appropriate “levelling options” within MS Project for the following scenarios and keep a record of the options applied in each scenario. Note the effect on project duration and cost in each scenario. Produce Gantt charts and project
statistics## for each scenario to include in your report.
I. Resource-constrained: completing the project within the shortest possible time without adding more resources
II. Time-constrained: completing the project by the initial completion date (as in step 6) at the lowest possible cost.
a) by bringing in the minimal required amount of additional resources
b) by allowing relevant resources to work overtime
9. Produce a Cost Report for each scenario of the project, showing the costs at activity, resource and project levels to include in the report. Only include elements of the report that convey useful information to the reader.
Section B: Assessment Report – You are required to submit a PDF copy of your report, along with MS Project files
The report shall be a focused discussion of the challenges faced, solutions proposed and lessons learnt in completing the exercise, and must demonstrate an understanding of the use of MS Project as well as its limitations, as you experienced. The format of your report should be of a typical technical report (using a structured layout with appropriate headings, and a table of contents - include the word count on the title page). The recommended structure is introduction, problem definition, the solution approach followed and the discussion of the findings along with conclusions/recommendations. All figures, charts and tables must also be numbered and captioned appropriately. Clearly state all assumptions made in setting out your solution approach, as well as in relation to the analysis and/or interpretation of the results; make sure to identify the two type of assumptions separately.
Note Well: The report must include:
1. Gantt Chart, highlighting the Critical Path, and Project Statistics## after resource allocations (as in step 6 above).
2. Histograms for each resource showing over-allocations (you may extract only the relevant segments of the graph).
3. Gantt Charts and Project Statistics## for each levelling option considered under time-constrained and resource-constrained scenarios. Clearly show the MS Project levelling options applied in each scenario.
4. Cost Reports showing the breakdown by activity and by resource, as well as the overall project.
## Project Statistics should show: When is the project estimated to be completed? How many working days will it take? What is the
final cost of the project?
• A PDF copy of your report saved with your name and student ID in the file name must be submitted via the link provided on the subject Moodle site by 10PM Monday, 17 April 2023.
• MS Project file(s), saved in appropriate format (.mpp) with your name and student ID in the file name, must be submitted via the separate link provided on the subject Moodle site by 10PM Monday, 17 April 2023.
Marking Criteria:
Marks are allocated as per the following distribution.
Completing Part A correctly and including all attachments in the report (including presentation standard) Problem solving (e.g. developing a workable schedule from a practical point of view)
Complete statement of assumptions used in setting out the solution approach and analysing/interpreting results Insights/critical analysis in developing and presenting solutions (also refer to section A tasks)
30% 30% 10% 30%
Please also refer to the detailed marking rubric for Assignment 1 available on the subject Moodle site.
