Decision Analysis of an Interview in a Research Industry by Applying the Critical Path Method Model

1.0 Introduction

1.1 Background of the Problem

Cardas Research and Consulting Company deals with market research for different organizations and companies. The company deals with consumer research services, offering services like Geodemographic research and qualitative and quantitative research. The second section is industry research services, offering customized research and syndicate research, and online research services by providing web survey and reporting services (Cardas Research & Consulting, 2023). Dresstal Fashion Company has contracted Cardas Research Company to help collect market data about their products. Cardas has decided to interview the company’s customers and prospective clients to collect the needed data on the company and its products. The raw data collected will be availed to Dresstal fashion company to help them decide.

1.2 Challenges Currently Faced

When conducting the interview, a few challenges were faced, including; late information from the client for the contract and the data entry process taking longer days than was expected by the client company. The client made a change request on the sample size to be considered for the research and limited time and resources to plan and manage the project as was expected effectively.

1.3 Problem Statement

Understanding the attitude and requirements of a client regarding the products and services offered by the company is a very important aspect of business management. When conducting an operation for a client, the organization will always work based on the requirements of the contracting company. Despite the challenges mentioned above, Cardas must perform the project on the client’s demands; thus, finding the best way to handle and manage the product without feeling pressure is a requirement. This report outlines Cardas’s challenges when working with Dresstal; the project manager had to find the best way to handle the project within the timeline and the cost.

2.0 Problem Definition

2.1 The Objective of the Study

Decision analysis is a very important sector in management. Every manager in any organization is expected to make decisions, and having the best decision will determine the success of any project. The market research industry is one industry that is coupled with different situations that requires them to make the right decisions for the organizations that they are conducting the research (Kerzner, 2019). On many occasions, conducting research for a company or an organization requires interviews, and thus, coming up with the best procedure will make it easy for the market research company to conduct effective research, collecting data that will benefit the company.

Since the company has been contracted to conduct market research for another organization, it is prudent to handle the project effectively to benefit all the organizations involved. Some different methods and models can be used in project management, but Critical Path Method is very effective in handling projects like research (Cynthia, 2020). When managing a project, organizations must understand three elements of project management. They include the project team, the planning of the project as well as the control of the project. Having all the details of the project in place will help the organization manage the project well and give results within the best time, meeting all the client’s requirements. Therefore, this research section will highlight some challenges that Cardas Research and Consulting Company experience when interviewing their clients. Based on the challenges, the paper will recommend the best model that the company can use to conduct the interview and manage the project well for the benefit of both companies.

2.2 Description of the Problem

Some issues were faced when handling the project, and the description will help develop better strategies for managing the interview process.

The client that requested the research gave short notice to the company, and thus, Cardas needed more time to organize every activity to be undertaken in the project. Therefore, some activities could be omitted from the project outline.

The client was very specific on the time duration the interview was to take. The client wanted the survey to run for 45 minutes maximum, but the duration in the field was different as other logistics had to be followed. The field interview lasted for 1 hour and 20 minutes, which affected the project timeline and the cost.

After collecting the first set of data, the client realized that the sample could not give better results and thus increased the sample size. Cardas faced this situation by recruiting and training more interviewers, which also affected the timeline as well as the cost of the project.

Based on the challenges that Cardas Research and Consulting Company services met in the field, the recommended model of managing the project as it stood and getting effective results within the timeline was to use the Critical Path Method model. The suggested model can help the company manage all project activities systematically. The model provided an opportunity of handling the project in steps.

2.3 Explanation of Terminologies

Critical Path Method – Project managers use This project management technique to create an accurate project schedule.

Critical Path – The longest path of activities to be undertaken in a project.

Network Diagram – A representation of a series of activities to be undertaken in the project.

2.4 Scope of the Study

The project that the company undertook was researching on behalf of a contracting company. The project scope involves the main activities that Cardas has to perform to have the project management end effective and better results achieved. The activities that were conducted for the interview included coming up with the project cost, constructing the interview questions to be used in the research, selecting of sample to be used in the research process, recruiting interviewers and administrating necessary activities, testing the link that would be used for data entry and lastly involving in data collection and data processing. These are the broad tasks that the company must perform in the project, but other sub-activities have to be performed. The sub-activities for each broad task are shown in the fourth section of the research.

3.0 Model Construction

3.1 The Techniques Used

In managing the interview project, the technique used to manage the project is Critical Path Method. Through this technique, the project manager will have an opportunity to model the activities and events of a project in a network form. There are four different time frames when handling the project schedule using the CPM model (Tohari et al., 2023). They include early start, early finish, late start, and late finish. This report will adjust the network diagram based on the early start time frame. In the early time frame, the network will provide the earliest dates that a project can commence, and the earliest activity in the project tasks can be scheduled to start following time constraints experienced when managing a project. In order to use the CPM model in project management, there are a few steps that must be taken into consideration. The first is specifying the activities that should be conducted in the project (Saradhi et al., 2021). This is followed by determining the sequence of the activities that have been identified and then drawing the network diagram. The next step will be estimating the completion time of every activity in the network diagram and identifying the project’s critical path. The last section of the CPM process will be updating the CPM diagram as the project progresses, making changes where necessary.

3.2 Justification for Choosing the Technique

There are several reasons justifying the use of the CPM model in undertaking the mentioned project. The first reason making it the best method for project management is that the managers can effectively allocate enough resources for the project by identifying the critical path and determining the dependencies between the activities (Chachan et al.). Critical activities are thus allocated resources after identifying the critical path. The second reason CPM is the best model for managing such a project is the opportunity to complete the project early and within the timeline. By identifying the critical path, the management will know the best time to finish the project since the critical path is the longest time the project will take. Lastly, using CPM will allow the project manager to effectively schedule and sequence the project well, thus having the most optimal order and duration of activities (Heigermoser et al., 2019). This will help prevent unnecessary delays in the project.

3.3 The Criteria Involved

When undertaking a project using the CPM method, a criterion must be followed to make the process effective and better manage the project. When using this technique, the project manager should first list all the activities that should be undertaken in the project, the time needed to complete each activity, the predecessors of the activities, the early start time, and the cost for each activity to be done. When scheduling the work, some activities can be started without depending on other activities, and others will be conducted after some activities are already ongoing or even completed (Krol, 2021). In the project highlighted, some activities will be conducted during fieldwork; they have to be listed to help have a proper plan for the project. The project might succeed when an activity is completed within the estimated time. The project manager was fine organizing the activities of the interview project because it was not the first one the company was organizing. Meeting the deadlines and scheduling the activities was fine, and this yielded the project’s success in the long run.

4.0 Implementation and Results

4.1 Detailed Presentation of Data

In undertaking the project of an interview, there are several activities that were involved in the project, and some of the activities depended on others before they could be done. The activities were grouped based on the major tasks that should be performed. The table below shows the activities that were performed in the project.

The table gives six major tasks planned for the project, with 27 activities to be conducted. Using the CPM model will give results based on the activities’ flow and how they were conducted.

4.2 Results

The table presented below was generated based on the information provided in the table indicating the activities performed during the project and how they were conducted. The network diagram is a clear analysis tool used in presenting the data in the table showing the flow of activities while undertaking the project.

From the above network diagram, the project management team will have an idea of the activities that should start concurrently with others. Reducing the timeline of certain project activities will present the team managing the project, as mentioned earlier, to have enough time to manage the data processing and analysis process. Reducing the project timeline also impacts the cost of the project. The next network diagram presented shows the clear flow of activities of the project and how they were to be conducted.

4.3 Analysis of the Results

Based on the network diagram presented above, four activities could be run simultaneously, while some activities also depend on others. At the start of the project, the project manager realized that getting quotations from the research company and reviewing the interview questions for the project could all be started at once then the dependent activities took over. Identifying the critical path could make it easy for the company to know exactly when the project could be finished. Following the project schedule means that the activities to be conducted after some are accomplished should be done immediately to avoid slack time in the project.

5.0 Conclusions

5.1 Advantages and Disadvantages of the Technique Used

It has been noted that using CPM as a project management tool is beneficial to companies, but at the same time, there are a few disadvantages that the model has. The project management team in any company should ensure they can handle the disadvantages so that the company can benefit from the advantages of using the tool to manage their projects.

Some of the advantages of the model, when used in managing projects and helping in the process of analyzing the decisions to be undertaken, include; the project manager can present a graphical view of the project, making it easy for anyone to refer to it, the model makes it easy for the users to predict the required time for one to complete the project and lastly, the model can show the critical activities in a project to help in maintaining the schedule of the project (Yu & Xiao, 2022).

On the other hand, the CPM model of project management has disadvantages that the project manager must be aware of when managing their project using the model to help in decision-making analysis. The disadvantages include; when projects are large and complex, there are several activities and high levels of dependency relationships, making it difficult to manage (Picciotto, 2020). The second disadvantage is that printing a network diagram may be difficult when the project is large and complex, having many activities that should be undertaken.

5.2 Recommendation

Different key factors always contribute to the success of project management in decision analysis when using the CPM model. Based on the project undertaken above, a few recommendations based on the CPM model contributed to the model’s success while undertaking the mentioned project. One key factor which will always lead to project management’s success when analyzing project decisions using the CPM model is effective project preparation before problems are experienced in the project process. The second reason why CPM has become effective and successful in the project is setting clear objectives for the research. Making prior preparation before the project starts while setting clear objectives will always lead to the project’s success.

The critical Path Method model of decision analysis while handling different projects has several benefits that project managers experience. Through the model, the project management team can identify some of the most important activities of the project, which can impact the duration and schedule of the project as planned. Therefore, creating schedules for the project makes it easy to manage some of the high-risk activities on the project’s critical path.

When applying for an interview, CPM is always more suitable if the interview is conducted face-to-face. CPM will make it possible for the project manager to manage all the project activities and find it easy to reduce the cost and time to complete a project. Therefore, it is recommended that the project management team use the method of CPM while handling their future projects.

5.3 Limitations

The critical Path Method model was developed to help analyze some of the complexes but fairly routine projects project managers undertake. The model makes it possible for the project managers to work with minimal uncertainty in the project, ensuring that the project is completed within the planned timeline. On the other hand, while handling less complex projects with fewer routine activities, the process might be very uncertain, and the project completion time will always be affected. With the high level of uncertainty while handling less complex and routine projects, the usefulness of the Critical Path Method as a decision analysis model is limited. When project managers feel that the project to be undertaken can create more uncertainties when CPM is used, using the PERT diagram model of project management is advisable. The PERT model allows for a range of project activities’ durations to be easily specified. Because the CPM model of project management in decision analysis can be limited to other areas, a simple solution approach to CPM has been proposed for projects with fuzzy activities. Thus, the result will be more realistic.

6.0 References

(2023, May 12). Cardas Research & Consulting. https://www.crcg.com.my/

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Cynthia, O. U. (2020). Implementation of Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) and Critical Path Method (CPM): A Comparative Study. International Journal of Industrial and Operations Research, 3(004).

Heigermoser, D., de Soto, B. G., Abbott, E. L. S., & Chua, D. K. H. (2019). BIM-based Last Planner System tool for improving construction project management. Automation in Construction, 104, 246-254.

Kerzner, H. (2019). Using the project management maturity model: strategic planning for project management. John Wiley & Sons.

Krol, K. J. (2021). The method of anti-risk management of agro-industrial complex projects is based on the critical path. Science and Education a New Dimension. Natural and Technical Sciences. Budapest, 40-43.

Picciotto, R. (2020). Towards a ‘New Project Management’movement? An international development perspective. International Journal of Project Management, 38(8), 474-485.

Saradhi, B. P., Ramesh, H., Shankar, N. R., & Shaik, R. (2021). Hesitant fuzzy project planning and scheduling using critical path technique. Turkish Journal of Computer and Mathematics Education, 12(6), 5272-5286.

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Yu, Z., & Xiao, X. (2022). Innovation information disclosure and stock price crash risk‐based supervision and insurance effect path analysis. Australian Economic Papers, 61(3), 534-590.