All five members of a project team add 20% to their individual serial activities as a safety margin and submit their time estimates to the project manager. The manager adds the activity length estimates together and adds 20% for his personal safety margin. Then, anticipating a cut by top management, he adds another 20% to his final project estimate. Much to his surprise, top management leaves his project alone. How much of a cushion is now built into the project

Total cushion built into the project is as follows:

Cushion by project team = 20%

First cushion by manager = 20% of 120 (100+20) % = 24%

Second cushion by manager = 20% of (100+20+24) % = 28.8%

Total cushion = (20 + 24 + 28.8) % = 72.8%

Explanation:

Cushion in project planning is a concept that is based on the assumption that things will go wrong or more time will be spent than initially envisaged.

This cushion attempts to take into consideration some unexpected events that may arise.

For example, it may take normally 8 hours to travel from New York to Wyoming by bus. But, due to traffic delays and other unforeseen circumstances, the driver could take 9 hours to get to Wyoming.

The extra hour, if it was initially calculated into the projected arrival time is the cushion hour. The bus driver could then tell somebody in Wyoming waiting to collect a parcel from New York that he would be arriving in 9 hours' time. He has cushioned the arrival time by one hour.