Using the CPA technique as a tool, we can plot out the answers to many of these questions.
One of the many problems ACME encounters during the course of a project is bandwidth, or resource, availability. Due to the many projects going on at one time, resources are spread thin therefore new projects must be carefully planned. With the help of the CPA, project managers can start gathering data on identifying all the major parts of the project, how much time it will take to complete each of these parts, and how many resources are needed.
Weekly project meetings are a critical part of any project and the project involving a new version of software is no exception. Through these meetings, each department that has a stake in the project is present. After reading the requirements for the project, the department representative will give an estimate as to how long it will take them to complete their piece. For this project, the creation of a new version of software, the key players are software development and quality engineering.
From the first thought of the project, someone has an idea on when the project needs to be completed. The problem comes in when commitments to a certain timeframe are made before getting all the necessary feedback from key participants. By obtaining information regarding the tasks that need to take place, the duration of these tasks, and identifying sequential and parallel tasks, the project manager can plot this data into a Gantt chart. This is known as the project schedule and is sent to every member of the team in the early stages of a project. Each department representative will look over the schedule and include information that is missing or modify incorrect data (i.e. additional tasks, task duration, etc.). The use of Microsoft's Project software is very useful in creating the schedule.
While the CPA technique is a valuable tool in every project ACME embarks on, this tool is not the most effective in solving in some problems.
