Final answer:
Using the critical path method, the early start for an activity is 10 weeks, taking the later of the two predecessors' finish times. Adding the activity's duration of 5 weeks, the early finish for the activity is 15 weeks.
Step-by-step explanation:
The student is asking a question related to the critical path method (CPM), a project management tool used for planning and controlling complex projects. The specific aspect of the question deals with the forward pass calculation which is used to determine the earliest start and finish times for each activity in a project network diagram.
In the scenario provided, there are two predecessors for an activity with early finishes of 6 weeks and 10 weeks respectively. When performing the forward pass, we always use the later of the early finish times of the predecessors when calculating the early start for an activity. This ensures that all preceding activities must be completed before a new one can start.
According to the next-day method, which assumes that the next activity starts on the following day after a predecessor activity finishes, the early start of this activity would be after the later of the two predecessor activities, which in this case is 10 weeks.
The early finish of this activity is then calculated by adding the duration of the activity to its early start time. With a duration of 5 weeks, the early finish for this activity would be 10 weeks + 5 weeks = 15 weeks.