Application of Critical Path Method scheduling to research plan and management of graduate students research project in engineering education

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1 OPEN ACCESS Engineering Leaders Conference 2014 Application of Critical Path Method scheduling to research plan and management of graduate students research project in engineering education M.O. Daramola School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Wits 2050, Johannesburg, South Africa ABSTRACT Full research graduate degree programmes in engineering and science are a unique set of coordinated scientific activities with definite starting and finishing points to meet specific performance objectives within defined schedule, cost and performance parameters. Often in graduate engineering programmes, little emphasis is placed on proper research management before and during execution. This leads to improper management and overshooting deadlines, culminating in unnecessary stress on budgets, resources and time. In this article, we present a case study application of critical path method (CPM) scheduling without resource constraints in planning and managing a typical graduate chemical engineering research project. The case study describes a full MSc research degree programme that considers the synthesis and performance evaluation of a carbon nanotube-polyaspartamide (CNT-PAA) composite material for carbon dioxide capture from coal-fired power plants. Based on the approved project proposal, the scheduled project duration for completion of the degree programme is 104 weeks. However, results of the application of CPM scheduling to the project show expected project duration of ninety-four (94) weeks, indicating a reduction of about 10%. In the presence of unexpected variability in the activity time of the activities in the critical path (CP) during the life cycle of the project, the programme evaluation and review technique (PERT) reveals that there is 85 percent chance of completing the degree programme on, or before, the scheduled project deadline. Keywords: Project management, critical path analysis, scheduling, graduate engineering programme /qproc.2015.elc ª 2015 Daramola, licensee Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Cite this article as: Daramola MO. Application of Critical Path Method scheduling to research plan and management of graduate students research project in engineering education, QScience Proceedings (Engineering Leaders Conference 2014) 2015:20

2 Page 2 of 5 1. INTRODUCTION Similar to the definition of a project, 1 3 full research graduate degree programmes in science and engineering are a unique set of coordinated scientific activities with definite starting and finishing points, undertaken to meet specific performance objectives within defined schedule, cost and performance parameters. At the initial stage of a scientific research project, ideas are conceived, defined and refined through a literature survey and review, culminating in a scientific research proposal. Achieving the goals of a scientific research project depends on having a proper research plan and management. As such, the research plan is an essential part of any research management process and often marks the difference between success and failure. In science and engineering degree programmes with full research, little emphasis is often placed on proper research management before and during execution. Because of improper management, the completion duration for the research often overshoots the scheduled project duration, culminating in unnecessary stress on budget, resources and time. In some cases, outcomes from such research projects often fall below the expected standard. More often, researchers contend with constraints like time, cost and scope in the management of graduate research projects and these constraints should be well managed without compromising the quality and deliverables of the research project. Adopting effective project management using activity-on-node (AON), critical path method (CPM) scheduling and resource allocation in managing graduate research projects could be instrumental in efficiently managing the aforementioned constraints. 4 The critical path method scheduling has been in existence since 1950s and has been applied effectively in construction management and in construction work, 5 7 but application of CPM scheduling in the management of graduate research projects in science and engineering is still limited. Some of the advantages of the application of CPM include: (i) identify work activities that can be performed in parallel; (ii) determine the priorities of work to be completed; (iii) serves as the platform upon which other project monitoring tools such as weekly and daily planning reports and/or schedules are built; (iv) ability to measure the effect of a sudden delay or changes to a project on an activity. 5 Understanding and appropriate use of CPM scheduling in the management of graduate research projects in science and engineering may be instrumental in improving how these research projects are effectively managed. 5 Furthermore, CPM scheduling determines the total project duration along with the early start time (ES) and the early finish time (EF) for each activity using a forward pass. 6 The forward pass is complemented with a backward pass to calculate the latest finish time (LF), the latest start time (LS) and the total slack (TS) for each activity. 6 The TS of an activity indicates the amount of time by which an activity can be delayed without prolonging the expected project duration obtained from the forward pass. 6 In this article, application of CPM scheduling without resource constraints in the research plan and management of a typical graduate research project in chemical engineering programme is presented through a case study. The case study is an example of a full MSc research project that considers synthesis and performance evaluation of a carbon nanotube/paa material for carbon dioxide capture from coal-fired power plants. The scheduled project duration of the research is one-hundred and four (104) weeks, making a two-year calendar period excluding weekends. This article considers only nonresource constrained CPM where there is no limitation in the availability of resource for executing the project. In the case of a project where resource available for executing the project is limiting, resourceconstrained CPM scheduling, otherwise referred to as resource allocation of the CPM method, is applied. 6,7 Resource allocation reschedules the project activities in such as way that the available resource is efficiently utilized while minimizing the extension of the project duration METHODOLOGY 2.1. Description of case study The benefit of the application of CPM scheduling in managing graduate engineering degree programme with full research is showcased through diagnosis of a case study. The case study employed in this study is an example of a full research master s degree programme in chemical engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. The main goal of the full research project is to synthesize a composite material and evaluate its performance during CO 2 capture. The scheduled project duration for the degree programme is one-hundred and four (104) weeks. Several planned activities in the research project, their durations and preceding activities are presented in Table 1.

3 Page 3 of 5 Table 1. Planned activities according to the approved research proposal. ID Activity Preceding activity Duration (weeks) A Registration of and commencement of programme none 1 B Literature survey and review A 16 C Development of feasible proposal for approval B 8 D Procurement of chemicals and laboratory consumables C 4 E Building of experimental set-up, test-running and commissioning C 12 F Synthesis and characterization of CNT- (PAA) composite materials D 6 G Evaluate CO 2 -adsorption performance of the CNT/PAA E 16 H Analysis and discussion of results of activity G G,F 2 I Study effect of operating variables on CO 2 adsorption H 16 performance of CNT/PAA J Analysis and discussion of results of activity I I 2 K Writing of thesis for review and submission J 10 L Examination of thesis and correction K 10 M Submission of the final correction to the university for award of degree L Construction of activity-on-node (AON) network In the construction of a project network, activity-on-node (AON) and activity-on-arrow (AOA) are used. 3 AON uses a box or node to denote an activity, while in AOA an arrow is used to denote an activity. However, AON is preferred to AOA network due to its simplicity. The construction of a project network using AON involves forward passing and backward passing, which are guided by eight (8) procedural rules. 8 The procedure followed to construct the AON and evaluate the critical path (CP) via the CPM is as described by Larson and Gary. 3 The following were assumed in the study: (i) one resource person in the programme (the student); (ii) resources required to conduct the research are not limited. Furthermore, the early finish (EF), the late start (LS), and the slack (SL) for forward pass and backward pass were obtained using Eq. (1) through Eq. (4): Forward pass EF ¼ ES þ DUR SL ¼ LS þ ES ð1þ ð2þ Backward pass LS ¼ LF 2 DUR SL ¼ LF 2 EF ð3þ ð4þ Where ES is the early start time for an activity. In the AON, ES for the commencing activity in a forward pass is assumed zero (0). For the backward pass, the LF of the last activity in the AON is always taken as the LS. In addition, DUR (DU) is the duration of the activity. 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The AON network with forward and backward pass for the project is depicted in Figure 1. Activities in an AON of a project are elements of the project that require time and are connected sequentially by a path. 3 Three major types of activity, the predecessor activity, the successor activity and the concurrent/parallel activity are associated with AON. 9 For example, in Figure 1, activity H is the successor activity to activity F and activity G while activity F and activity G are predecessor activities to H. This indicates that activity F and activity G should be completed before H can commence. Furthermore, activity D is a parallel activity to E, and so are activities F to G. This indicates that these activities could run independent of each other. In addition, the CP, which indicates the critical activities to be completed to ensure no delay in the scheduled completion date of the research project, connects the activities with zero (or smallest slack) in the path. In Figure 1, the CP for the project is the path A-B-C-E-G-H-I-J-K-L-M. EF of the last activity in the CP indicates the duration of the project because EF of the last activity in CP is the longest in the AON. For the case study, EF of activity M, the last activity on the CP is 94 weeks, indicating a reduction of about

4 Page 4 of D F A 0 0 B 0 0 C H 0 0 I 0 0 J 0 0 K 0 0 L 0 0 M E 0 0 G LEGEND ES EF SL ID SL LS DU LF ES: Early Start time LS: Late Start time EF: Early Finish time LF: Late Finish time DU: Activity duration SL: Slack ID: Activity Identification Figure 1. AON network for the project with forward and backward pass. 10% in the scheduled research project duration. The 10% reduction on the duration of the project means a substantial reduction in costs, materials and time. Furthermore, completing the research project earlier than the scheduled project duration avoids unnecessary stress on budget, resources and time and saves energy without sacrificing the quality of the outcome of the research. In addition, the slack, SL, in the CP is zero, indicating that the activities in the CP could be delayed for 0 weeks without inducing unnecessary delay on the degree programme. In fact, if the research master project is resource-constrained, automatically a delay will occur in the completion of the project. However, if the scheduling is not resource-constrained, as the case is in this study, no delay is expected in the project. It is noteworthy to mention that if an activity is delayed beyond its SL, ES for all succeeding activities will be delayed and their SL accordingly reduced. If SL of any of the activities in the CP is greater than zero, the expected project duration of ninety-four (94) weeks could be increased, thereby requiring additional costs, energy and even resources. In the presence of unforeseen circumstances (positive/negative) during the project life cycle, variability may occur in the activity time, especially for the activities on the CP. To evaluate the impact of the variability on meeting the scheduled project duration of 104 weeks, programme evaluation and review technique (PERT) was used. Equation (5) and Equation (6), described in Gary and Larson, 3 were used in the PERT analysis using the data presented in Table 2. z ¼ T s 2 T E ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi q Ps 2 te ð5þ s te ¼ b 2 a 6 ð6þ Table 2. Data for PERT analysis. ID Activity a (day) Duration (day) b (day) (b-a)/6 A Registration of and commencement of programme B Literature survey and review C Development of feasible proposal for approval D Procurement of chemicals and consumables E Building of experimental set-up, test-running and commissioning F Synthesis and characterization of carbon-nanotube (CNT)-PAA) composite materials G Evaluate CO 2 -adsorption performance of the CNT/PAA via adsorption experiment H Analysis and discussion of results of activity G I Study effect of operating variables on CO adsorption performance of CNT/PAA J Analysis and discussion of results of activity I K Writing of thesis for review and submission L Examination of thesis and correction M Submission of the final correction to the university for award of degree

5 Page 5 of 5 Where Z is the probability (of meeting scheduled duration in spite of the delays); T s, the scheduled project duration; T E, the critical path duration (sum of t e along the CP); t e, is the expected activity duration. In addition, a is the optimistic activity time (1 chance in 100 of completing the activity earlier under normal conditions); and b is the pessimistic activity time (1 chance in 100 of completing the activity later under normal conditions). In spite of the unavoidable occurrences during the life cycle of the project, result of the PERT indicates that the probability of completing the project on or before the scheduled project duration is 85 percent. Furthermore, the probability obtained from the PERT could be instrumental to managing the risks that might be associated with the project duration. 4. CONCLUSIONS Benefits of the application of CPM scheduling without resource constraints to a typical full research MSc degree programme in Chemical Engineering are enumerated in this study. The results show that the degree programme could be completed in ninety-four (94) weeks instead of the scheduled duration of one-hundred and four (104) weeks, a reduction of 10%. The reduction in the scheduled project duration could avoid unnecessary stress on budget, resources and save energy without jeopardizing the quality of the research output. In the presence of any variability in the activity time of any critical activities, the PERT analysis reveals that the project could still be completed in the scheduled project duration with a probability of 85% without extending the scheduled project duration. With this finding, it is expected that application of CPM scheduling will be encouraged and promoted in the management of full research graduate degree programmes and of any graduate research projects in engineering degree programmes. It is noteworthy to mention that non-resource constrained CPM scheduling, where the resource required for completing the research is not limited, was applied in this study. In the case of resource-constrained CPM scheduling, where the resource required for completing the research is limited, the results will definitely change. Acknowledgements The author hereby acknowledges the financial support of the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, through Faculty-top slice grant. In addition, the author acknowledges Mr Tafara Chistiga whose MSc research proposal was used in this study. REFERENCES [1] Steyn H. Project Management: A multi-disciplinary approach. Pretoria South Africa: FPM Publishing; [2] Bisschoff T, Govender C, Oosthuizen P. Project management in education and training. Van Schaik Publishers; [3] Gray CF, Larson EW. Project management: The managerial process. Asia: McGraw-Hill; [4] Chatfield C, A short course in project management. 2010, March 26, [online]. Available: en-us/project/ha aspx [5] Galloway PD. Comparative study of university courses on critical path method scheduling. J. Constr. Eng. Manage. 2006; [6] Lu M, Lam H-C. Critical Path scheduling under resource calendar constraints. J. Constr. Eng. Manage. 2008;134: [7] Hegazy T. Optimization of resource allocation and levelling using genetic algorithms. J. Constr. Eng. Manage. 1999;125(3): [8] Bricknell L. Project planning: Part I. In: Oossthuizen T, Venter R, eds. Project management in perspective. South Africa: Oxford University Press; [9] Hadju M. Network scheduling techniques for construction project management. Netherlands: Netherlands Kluwer Academic Publisher; 1997.