Abstract

This case is about a software company in India. Though it had been providing quality service, the company’s financial figures had not been encouraging over the past few years. The new CEO had sought information about the ongoing projects in the company. After going through the reports, he asked Sudheer Gupta (Gupta), Director (Planning), to develop a suitable project control mechanism in the organization. After making an in-depth analysis of the ongoing projects, Gupta identified some lacunas during project implementation. Gupta had to now develop a project control mechanism in order to control project delays and improve the profits of the company.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• To understand the trade-off between project time duration and its costs
• To understand the issues involved in employing the popular network model Critical Path Method (CPM)
• To understand the time-cost relationship of an activity
• To understand how CPM can be used to reduce project duration

Keywords

Critical Path Method, Project Management, Network Models, Program Evaluation Review Technique, Time-Cost Relationship, Cost Slope, Crash Point, Early Start, Early Finish, Late Start, Late Finish, Project Duration, Time Delays, Slack Time