ITPEC IP October 2018 Question 88
The table below shows the relationship between the standard number of staff and the number of days required to complete preparation activities A through E of an event. The preparation activities started 35 days before the event and have been conducted according to the table; however, only one staff member was assigned during the first 20 days. In order to complete the remaining activities to meet the original deadline, what is the minimum number of staff members that must be reserved per day for the remaining period? Here, the preparation activities can be performed in any sequence, any staff member can achieve the same productivity in each activity, and any number of staff members can be assigned to an activity at one time.
Explanation
6 staff members — convert all the work into person-days, subtract what one person did in 20 days, and spread the rest over the 15 days left.
- •Total work: 2 × 5 + 2 × 5 + 3 × 10 + 2 × 5 + 5 × 10 = 110 person-days
- •Done in the first 20 days by one person: 1 × 20 = 20 person-days
- •Remaining work: 110 − 20 = 90 person-days, in 35 − 20 = 15 days
- •Staff needed per day: 90 ÷ 15 = 6
Answer (c)
Why not others:
- •(a) 4 — enough for the original plan, 110 ÷ 35 ≈ 3.1, rounded up; it ignores that only 20 person-days were done in the first 20 days, and gives 4 × 15 = 60 person-days, 30 short
- •(b) 5 — gives 5 × 15 = 75 person-days, 15 short of the 90 remaining
- •(d) 7 — gives 105 person-days, which finishes the work but is not the minimum
Key rule: When staff are interchangeable and activities can run in any order, only the total effort matters: remaining person-days ÷ remaining days = staff per day, rounded up.
Project Management · AI-written, may contain errors
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