Project Management test 2
Task Dependency Types
Finish to start Start to finish Finish to finish Start to finish
Task Dependencies
The nature of the relationship between to linked tasks.
Determining the budget
allocating the overall cost estimate to individual work items to establish a baseline for measuring performance
Developing the schedule
analyzing activity sequences, activity resource estimates, and activity duration estimates to create the project schedule
Intangible costs or benefits
are costs or benefits that are difficult to measure in monetary terms
Indirect costs
are costs that are not directly related to the products or services of the project, but are indirectly related to performing the project
Direct costs
are costs that can be directly related to producing the products and services of the project
PERT
is a network analysis technique used to estimate project duration when there is a high degree of uncertainty about the individual activity duration estimates
CPM
is a network diagramming technique used to predict total project duration
Slack or float is
the amount of time an activity may be delayed without delaying a succeeding activity or the project finish date
A critical path for a project is
the series of activities that determines the earliest time by which the project can be completed
Analogous or top-down estimates
use the actual cost of a previous, similar project as the basis for estimating the cost of the current project
Parametric modeling
uses project characteristics (parameters) in a mathematical model to estimate project costs
Gantt charts Symbols include
A black diamond: a milestones Thick black bars: summary tasks Lighter horizontal bars: durations of tasks Arrows: dependencies between tasks
Milestones
A milestone is a significant event that normally has no duration It often takes several activities and a lot of work to complete a milestone They're useful tools for setting schedule goals and monitoring progress Examples include obtaining customer sign-off on key documents or completion of specific products
A network diagram is
A network diagram is a schematic display of the logical relationships among, or sequencing of, project activities
Calculating the Critical Path
First develop a good network diagram Add the duration estimates for all activities on each path through the network diagram The longest path is the critical path If one or more of the activities on the critical path takes longer than planned, the whole project schedule will slip unless the project manager takes corrective action
Scope Aspects of IT Projects
Functionality Features System outputs Performance Reliability Maintainability
Planning quality management
Identifying which quality standards are relevant to the project and how to satisfy them; a metric is a standard of measurement
Methods for Collecting Requirements
Interviewing Focus groups and facilitated workshops Using group creativity and decision-making techniques Questionnaires and surveys Observation Prototyping Benchmarking, or generating ideas by comparing specific project practices or product characteristics to those of other projects or products inside or outside the performing organization, can also be used to collect requirements
Performing quality control
Monitoring specific project results to ensure that they comply with the relevant quality standards
Performing quality assurance
Periodically evaluating overall project performance to ensure the project will satisfy the relevant quality standards
A schedule management plan includes
Project schedule model development The scheduling methodology Level of accuracy and units of measure Control thresholds Rules of performance measurement Reporting formats Process descriptions
Approaches to Developing WBSs
Using guidelines: Some organizations, like the DOD, provide guidelines for preparing WBSs The analogy approach: Review WBSs of similar projects and tailor to your project The top-down approach: Start with the largest items of the project and break them down The bottom-up approach: Start with the specific tasks and roll them up Mind-mapping approach: Mind mapping is a technique that uses branches radiating out from a core idea to structure thoughts and ideas
Tangible costs or benefits
are those costs or benefits that an organization can easily measure in dollars
Mandatory dependencies
inherent in the nature of the work being performed on a project, sometimes referred to as hard logic
Controlling the schedule
controlling and managing changes to the project schedule
Controlling scope
controlling changes to project scope throughout the life of the project
Controlling costs
controlling changes to the project budget
Bottom-up estimates
involve estimating individual work items or activities and summing them to get a project total
External dependencies
involve relationships between project and non-project activities
Discretionary dependencies
defined by the project team., sometimes referred to as soft logic and should be used with care since they may limit later scheduling options
Collecting requirements
defining and documenting the features and functions of the products produced during the project as well as the processes used for creating them
Planning scope
determining how the project's scope and requirements will be managed
Planning cost management
determining the policies, procedures, and documentation that will be used for planning, executing, and controlling project cost.
Planning schedule management
determining the policies, procedures, and documentation that will be used for planning, executing, and controlling the project schedule
Estimating costs
developing an approximation or estimate of the costs of the resources needed to complete a project
Project quality management
ensures that the project will satisfy the needs for which it was undertaken
Estimating activity resources
estimating how many resources a project team should use to perform project activities
Estimating activity durations
estimating the number of work periods that are needed to complete individual activities
Validating scope
formalizing acceptance of the project deliverables
Sequencing activities
identifying and documenting the relationships between project activities
Defining activities
identifying the specific activities that the project team members and stakeholders must perform to produce the project deliverables
Sunk cost
is money that has been spent in the past; when deciding what projects to invest in or continue, you should not include sunk costs
The critical path
is the longest path through the network diagram and has the least amount of slack or float
Gantt charts
provide a standard format for displaying project schedule information by listing project activities and their corresponding start and finish dates in a calendar format
Scope
refers to all the work involved in creating the products of the project and the processes used to create them
Defining scope
reviewing the project charter, requirements documents, and organizational process assets to create a scope statement
Creating the WBS
subdividing the major project deliverables into smaller, more manageable components