CIS 5800_Chapter 6

Effort

which is the number of workdays or work hours required to complete a task

resource breakdown structure

is a hierarchical structure that identifies the project's resources by category and type

slipped milestone

A slipped milestone means the milestone activity was completed later than originally planned

Theory of Constraints (TOC) or Critical chain scheduling

Any complex system at any point in time often has only one aspect or constraint that limits the ability to achieve more of the system's goal

probabilistic time estimates

duration estimates based on using optimistic, most likely, and pessimistic estimates of activity durations—instead of one specific or discrete duration estimate, as CPM does

7 main processes are involved in project time management

Planning schedule management Defining activities Sequencing activities Estimating activity Estimating activity durations Developing the schedule Controlling the schedule

PERT charts

Some people refer to network diagrams as project schedule network diagrams

Tracking Gantt chart

a Gantt chart that compares planned and actual project schedule information

activity-on-arrow (AOA) approach or the arrow diagramming method (ADM)

a network diagramming technique in which activities are represented by arrows and connected at points called nodes to illustrate the sequence of activities.

Discretionary dependencies

are defined by the project team. For example, a project team might follow good practice and not start the detailed design of a new information system until the users sign off on all of the analysis work. Discretionary dependencies are sometimes referred to as soft logic and should be used with care because they may limit later scheduling options

Mandatory dependencies

are inherent in the nature of the work being performed on a project. They are sometimes referred to as hard logic. For example, you cannot test code until after the code is written

Critical chain scheduling

is a method that considers limited resources when creating a project schedule and includes buffers to protect the project completion date

Defining activities

involves identifying the specific activities that the project team members and stakeholders must perform to produce the project deliverables. An activity or task is an element of work normally found on the work breakdown structure (WBS) that has expected duration, cost, and resource requirements. The main outputs of this process are an activity list, activity attributes, a milestone list, and project management plan updates

Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)

can be used to estimate project duration. PERT applies the critical path method (CPM) to a weighted average duration estimate.

SMART

criteria are guidelines suggesting that milestones should be: • Specific • Measurable • Assignable • Realistic • Time-framed

forward pass

determines the early start and early finish dates for each activity

Dummy activities

have no duration and no resources, but are occasionally needed on AOA network diagrams to show logical relationships between activities

three-point estimate

includes an optimistic, most likely, and pessimistic estimate, such as three weeks for the optimistic scenario, four weeks for the most likely scenario, and five weeks for the pessimistic scenario

duration

includes the actual amount of time worked on an activity plus elapsed time

External dependencies

involve relationships between project and non-project activities. For example, the installation of a new operating system and other software may depend on delivery of new hardware from an external supplier. Even though delivery of the hardware may not be included in the scope of the project, you should add an external dependency to it because late delivery will affect the project schedule

Developing the schedule

involves analyzing activity sequences, activity resource estimates, and activity duration estimates to create the project schedule. Outputs include a schedule baseline, project schedule, schedule data, project calendars, project management plan updates, and project documents updates

Controlling the schedule

involves controlling and managing changes to the project schedule. Outputs include work performance information, schedule forecasts, change requests, project management plan updates, project documents updates, and organizational process assets updates

Planning schedule management

involves determining the policies, procedures, and documentation that will be used for planning, executing, and controlling the project schedule. The main output of this process is a schedule management plan

Fast tracking

involves doing activities in parallel that you would normally do in sequence

Estimating activity durations

involves estimating the number of work periods that are needed to complete individual activities. Outputs include activity duration estimates and project documents updates

Sequencing activities

involves identifying and documenting the relationships between project activities. The main outputs of this process include project schedule network diagrams and project documents updates

precedence diagramming method (PDM)

is a network diagramming technique in which boxes represent activities. It is particularly useful for visualizing certain types of time relationships

Critical path method (CPM) critical path analysis

is a network diagramming technique used to predict total project duration

network diagram

is a schematic display of the logical relationships among project activities and their sequencing

activity list

is a tabulation of activities to be included on a project schedule

Crashing

is a technique for making cost and schedule trade-offs to obtain the greatest amount of schedule compression for the least incremental cost

node

is simply the starting and ending point of an activity

Total slack or total float

is the amount of time an activity can be delayed from its early start without delaying the planned project finish date

Free slack or free float

is the amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying the early start date of any immediately following activities

Slack or float

is the amount of time an activity may be delayed without delaying a succeeding activity or the project finish date

critical path

is the series of activities that determine the earliest time by which the project can be completed

backward pass

through the network diagram determines the late start and late finish dates for each activity in a similar fashion

Bursts

occur when two or more activities follow a single node

merge

occurs when two or more nodes precede a single node

milestone

on a project is a significant event that normally has no duration

Gantt charts

provide a standard format for displaying project schedule information by listing project activities and their corresponding start and finish dates in calendar form

activity attributes

provide schedule-related information about each activity, such as predecessors, successors, logical relationships, leads and lags, resource requirements, constraints, imposed dates, and assumptions related to the activity

Estimating activity

resources involves estimating how many resources— people, equipment, and materials—a project team should use to perform project activities. The main outputs of this process are activity resource requirements, a resource breakdown structure, and project documents updates

Project time management

simply defined the processes required to ensure timely completion of a project.

Parkinson's Law

states that work expands to fill the time allowed

PERT weight average

the total project duration estimate takes into account the risk or uncertainty in the individual activity estimates