| Course | BU 345 Project Management |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 4 |
| Paper type | Schedule and dependency chart |
| Length | About 780 words, 5 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Herzing University |
| Program | BS in Project Management |
| Updated | September 2026 |
Free sample paper for BU 345 Unit 4
Sixty-Seven Working Days, and Fifty of Them Waiting for a Machine: A Schedule and Dependency Chart for a Composite Brewery's Canning Line
Student Name
Business, Herzing University
BU 345: Project Management
Instructor Name
March 4, 2026
Sixty-Seven Working Days, and Fifty of Them Waiting for a Machine: A Schedule and Dependency Chart for a Composite Brewery's Canning Line
From Packages to Activities
This schedule turns the work packages defined in Unit 3 for Iron Trestle Brewing's in-house canning line into a sequence of 14 activities. Iron Trestle is the composite Dayton craft brewery used throughout this course. Each activity carries its package number, a duration in working days, its predecessors and the basis of its estimate, which is enough for a reader to redraw the network by hand. Working days run Monday through Friday, excluding Memorial Day, starting Monday, March 2, 2026. Project management packages 1.1 and 1.2 run across the whole project and are not scheduled as activities.
The Activity List
The table lists each activity with its duration, predecessors and estimating basis. Durations are in working days.
| ID | Activity (package) | Duration | Predecessors | Basis of estimate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Sign purchase order and pay deposit (3.1) | 3 | None | Owner's approval cycle; judgment |
| B | Obtain electrical permit (2.4) | 15 | None | City's posted review time for commercial electrical permits |
| C | Design can labels (4.1) | 10 | None | Designer's quote for four labels |
| D | Obtain federal label approvals (4.2) | 20 | C | Owner's experience with keg label approvals; judgment |
| E | Sign can and lid supply contract (4.3) | 5 | C | Supplier's stated contract turnaround |
| F | Upgrade electrical service (2.1) | 8 | B | Contractor's estimate |
| G | Run air and CO2 lines (2.2) | 4 | F | Subcontractor's estimate: 90 feet of line at a known daily rate |
| H | Cut floor drain and patch slab (2.3) | 5 | B | General contractor's estimate |
| I | Manufacture and ship line (3.1, 3.2) | 50 | A | Vendor's quoted 10-week lead time |
| J | Receive, set and level line (5.1) | 3 | I, G, H | Vendor's installation plan |
| K | Connect utilities and run acceptance test (5.2, 5.3) | 4 | J | Vendor's installation plan |
| L | Write procedures and train operators (6.1, 6.2) | 6 | K | Vendor training days plus writing time |
| M | Run three trial batches (5.4) | 4 | K, E | One trial every other day with brewing between |
| N | First saleable production run (7.1) | 1 | L, M, D | One production day |
The Network and the Two Passes
The critical path method, introduced by Kelley and Walker (1959) for industrial plant projects, rests on two calculations. The forward pass calculates each activity's early start and early finish, beginning at day 0 and taking the latest early finish of its predecessors as each activity's early start. The backward pass starts from the project's end at day 67 and calculates each activity's late finish and late start, taking the earliest late start of its successors. Float is the difference between late start and early start: how many working days a task may run late before the finish date moves (Project Management Institute, 2017). The table below records the results; it holds the same information a node diagram would show inside each box.
Drawn as a diagram, the network has three parallel chains that meet at the end. The equipment chain runs A to I to J to K, then splits to L and M. The site chain runs B to F to G, with H branching from B, and joins the equipment chain at J. The label chain runs C to D, with E branching from C, and joins at M and N.
| ID | Earliest start | Earliest finish | Latest start | Latest finish | Slack (days) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| B | 0 | 15 | 26 | 41 | 26 |
| C | 0 | 10 | 36 | 46 | 36 |
| D | 10 | 30 | 46 | 66 | 36 |
| E | 10 | 15 | 57 | 62 | 47 |
| F | 15 | 23 | 41 | 49 | 26 |
| G | 23 | 27 | 49 | 53 | 26 |
| H | 15 | 20 | 48 | 53 | 33 |
| I | 3 | 53 | 3 | 53 | 0 |
| J | 53 | 56 | 53 | 56 | 0 |
| K | 56 | 60 | 56 | 60 | 0 |
| L | 60 | 66 | 60 | 66 | 0 |
| M | 60 | 64 | 62 | 66 | 2 |
| N | 66 | 67 | 66 | 67 | 0 |
The Critical Path
The critical path is A, I, J, K, L, N: sign the purchase order, wait for the line to be built and shipped, set it, connect and test it, train the operators and run the first saleable batch. It totals 67 working days, which puts the first saleable run on Wednesday, June 3, 2026. Fifty of those days are the vendor's manufacturing and shipping time, so the project's end date depends far more on one supplier than on anything the brewery does. Every other activity has float. The trial batches, M, have only 2 days, because they must follow the acceptance test and finish before the first run. The site work has 26 days of float, and the label work has 36.
Two practical consequences follow. First, signing the purchase order, activity A, is the most urgent task on the project; every day it slips moves the end date by a day. Second, the permit and electrical work, which feel urgent because they involve outside parties, are in fact the most forgiving part of the schedule, with more than five weeks of float.
What Could Change the Critical Path
Float can disappear. The federal label approvals, D, have 36 days of float on paper, but the estimate of 20 days is a judgment based on the owner's experience with keg labels, and a request for corrections could double it. If D took more than 56 days instead of 20, it would start delaying the first run. The electrical chain, B to F to G, would become critical if the permit took more than 41 days instead of 15, or if the contractor discovered that the building's service needed a utility transformer upgrade, a risk the risk table in Unit 6 addresses. Kerzner (2017) notes that schedules built only on most likely durations understate risk on paths with little float and on activities whose estimates are judgments rather than quotes. The estimates flagged as judgments in the activity list, A and D, are the ones to watch.
Key Dates
Converted to calendar dates, the schedule sets these milestones: purchase order signed by March 4; permit issued by March 20; labels designed by March 13 and approved by April 10; line delivered by May 13; acceptance test passed by May 22; training complete by June 2; first saleable run on June 3. The latest dates that would still allow a June 3 finish are April 27 for the permit, June 2 for label approval and May 27 for the can supply contract. Iron Trestle Brewing and every estimate here are composites created for this course.
References
Kelley, J. E., Jr., & Walker, M. R. (1959). Critical-path planning and scheduling. In Proceedings of the Eastern Joint Computer Conference (pp. 160-173). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/1460299.1460318
Kerzner, H. (2017). Project management: A systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling (12th ed.). Wiley.
Project Management Institute. (2017). A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK guide) (6th ed.). Project Management Institute.
What the BU 345 Unit 4 instructions ask for
The Unit 4 assignment asks students to build a schedule from their work breakdown structure. Most versions want an activity list with durations and predecessors, a network diagram, forward and backward pass calculations, the critical path identified and float shown for each activity. Many rubrics also ask for the basis of each duration estimate and for key milestone dates. Project software is usually optional; a clear table and hand-drawn or described diagram can earn full credit if the calculations are shown. Instructors check whether activities trace to packages and whether the critical path follows from the numbers. Expect a few pages with tables, citing the course text in APA 7.
How this BU 345 Unit 4 example is built
The sample begins by explaining how packages became activities and how working days are counted. The activity list gives fourteen rows with durations, predecessors and a basis for each estimate, flagging two as judgments. A section explains the forward and backward passes with a citation to the method's originators and presents a table of early and late dates and slack for every activity. The network is described as three chains that meet near the end. The critical path section names the path, its length and the first-run date, and draws two practical consequences. A section on what could change the path discusses label approvals and electrical risks. Key calendar dates close the paper.
BU 345 Unit 4 rubric: what full points look like
The rubric for scheduling typically weighs the activity list, the network logic, the calculations and the analysis of the critical path. The activity list earns full points when each activity links to a package and carries a duration with a stated basis. Network logic is judged by sensible predecessors. Calculations score highest when early and late dates and float are shown for every activity so the instructor can check them. The analysis criterion rewards papers that explain what the critical path means for the project, which activities are most urgent and where float might disappear, as the sample does. Clear tables, calendar dates and correct APA citations complete the grade.
BU 345 Unit 4 help: mistakes that cost points
A frequent Unit 4 mistake is naming a critical path without showing the forward and backward passes. Another is listing durations with no basis, which makes the schedule impossible to judge. Students often forget dependencies on outside parties, such as permits or approvals, and treat them as instant. Some schedules put every activity in a single chain, which hides the float that makes parallel work possible. Others count calendar days and working days inconsistently. Finally, look for activities whose estimates are guesses; the sample flags two judgment-based estimates and explains how they could turn a comfortable schedule into a late one. Recalculate the passes after any change to a duration, because a single edit can move the critical path.
Get a BU 345 Unit 4 example written to your instructions
Send the Unit 4 instructions and the rubric from your BU 345 classroom, with the breakdown you submitted earlier and any software the section requires. We write a custom example that tables the activities first, argues each dependency, records the basis of every estimate and shows both passes. First custom sample free, back in 24 to 48 hours.
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BU 345 Unit 4 questions, answered
Does the chart have to be drawn in project software?
Read the instructions, since sections vary and some accept a table plus a hand drawn network. Where software is required, submit output a marker can read at page size rather than a screenshot of a wide timeline. Where it is not, the activity table carries most of the marks anyway, because that is where dependencies and estimates can be checked.
What if the critical path runs through everything?
Then the network has almost no parallel work, which usually means dependencies were added that the job does not require. Look for activities linked only because you imagined doing them in that order. Genuinely sequential projects exist, and if yours is one, say so and show the float figures proving there was nothing available to run alongside.
How should I estimate durations for invented work?
Reason them and show the reasoning. A quantity multiplied by a rate, a comparison with a job of similar size, or a stated three point range all give a marker something to grade. What earns nothing is a column of numbers with no account of where they came from, and what causes trouble is copying real durations out of an employer's system.
Where can I find a free BU 345 Unit 4 sample paper?
The finished BU 345 Unit 4 schedule, with its activity list and pass calculations, is posted above for free. If your project has different activities, pass along your breakdown and the prompt, and a free custom schedule will be worked out for you, normally within 48 hours.
Does the BU 345 Unit 4 chart need project software?
Usually not. The sample presents its network as a table of early and late dates and a written description of the chains, which lets any reader check the logic. Software is useful for large projects, but the calculations matter more than the tool.