Explain how to plan and control projects by determining the project
completion time and the slack times of each activity
Project controls are procedures for acquiring and analyzing data about a project in order to keep costs and timelines on track. Project controls are responsible for initiating, planning, monitoring, and managing projects, as well as communicating and closing out project expenses and schedules. Project controls, in the end, are iterative methods for assessing project status, anticipating expected results based on those measurements, and then changing project performance if the projected consequences are unacceptable. Project controls may involve the following activities: Aligning initiatives with the goals and objectives of the portfolio/organization Putting together a work-breakdown framework (WBS)
Initial project schedules are being worked on together. -Creating a risk management strategy -budgeting and forecasting for projects -cost tracking for projects
Reporting and feedback
Decision-making is an act as old as humankind and the ancestors of modern humans made daily decisions based on interpretations of dreams, smokes, divinations and oracles (Buchanan and O’Connell, 2018). According to Gigerenzer (2011), modern decision-making dates back to the seventeen century; when Descartes and Pointcarre invented the first calculus of decision-making. Buchanan and O’Connell (2018) attributes the popularity of modern decision- making to Chester Barnard in the middle of the twentieth century; for importing the terminology “ decision-making” which was mainly a public administration concept to the business sector to substitute restrictive narratives like policy making and resource allocation. William Starbuck, a professor in Oregon University acknowledges the positive impact of Chester Barnard’s introduction of decision- making on managers by explaining that policy-making and resource allocation are never ending acts, while decision denotes the conclusion of a discussion and start of an action plan (Buchanan and O’Connell, 2018). In addition, Gigerenzer (2011) suggests that the contemporary view of decision-making involves the use of heuristics and human information processing; which is the revolutionary work of Herbert Simon. Heuristics are mental short cuts, cognitive tools and rules of thumb developed through experiences, to enable individuals make judgements and arrive at decisions quickly (Gigerenzer and Gaissmaier, 2011).
2.6 Decision theory
Decision theory is a divergent field because of the different perceptions held by researchers about decisions (Hansson 2005). Decision theory also known as the theory of choice is the study of the rationale behind the choices made by an agent (Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, 2015). Decision theory deals with goal oriented behaviour in the presence of alternatives (Hansson, 2005). Decision theory can be broken into three branches namely; normative, descriptive and prescriptive branch (Vareman, 2008). Normative theory deals with how to make accurate decisions in a scenario of uncertainty and values, descriptive theory, examines the possibility of imperfect individuals making decision and prescriptive theory is a combination of descriptive and normative theories to achieve the best decision at any given situation (Vareman, 2008). However, there is no universal agreement on a standardized classification on the theories and therefore many researchers have classified the theories as either rational or non-rational (Gigerenezer, 2001; Hansson, 2005; Oliveira, 2007). In differentiating the rational from non-rational theory, Gigerenezer (2001) id