5. Creating the Project Schedule 86%

the steps for constructing a project schedule

1. Determine tasks. 2. Sequence tasks. 3. Allocate resources. 4. Determine task durations including start and end dates. 5. Determine milestones. 6. Construct the schedule. 7. Determine the critical path. 8. Set the baseline and obtain approval. 9. Set quality gates. 10. Establish the governance process. For the purposes of this exam, the terms task and activity are interchangeable.

What are the most commonly used forms to display project schedules?

PERT charts and Gantt charts, a type of bar chart, are the most common ways to display a project schedule.

Which of the following uses weighted average to determine the project duration and forecast the project schedule with a high degree of reliability?

PERT. (program evaluation review technique) uses weighted average to determine the project duration. It is used to manage the project and forecast the project schedule with a high degree of reliability.

Parametric Estimating

a quantitatively based estimating method that multiplies the quantity of work by the rate. The duration is obtained by multiplying the unit of work produced by the productivity rate. For example, if a typical cable crew can bury 5 miles of cable in a day, it should take 10 days to bury 50 miles of cable.

Internal dependencies

a relationship between tasks within an individual project and is therefore under the control of the project team.

(Duration Compression) Crashing

a technique that looks at cost and schedule trade-offs. Crashing is typically implemented by adding more resources to the critical path tasks in order to complete the project more quickly. Crashing can also be accomplished by requiring mandatory overtime for those team members working on critical path tasks or by speeding up delivery times from team members, vendors, and so on.

Expert Judgment

a technique where the people most familiar with the work determine the estimate.

For the exam, remember that tasks with zero float are

critical path tasks. Float time calculations are easily performed in project-scheduling software.

Discretionary dependencies

defined by the project management team and is usually process or procedure driven and may include best-practice techniques. An example is a process that requires approvals and sign-off on planning documents before proceeding with the work of the project.

Mandatory dependencies

directly related to the type of work being performed. For example, a utility crew can't lay the cable for a new housing area until a trench has been dug.

Governance Gates

used as approval points in the project. On large projects, they can also be used as additional approval checkpoints or go/no-go decision points during the project.

Duration Compression

What happens if your calculation of the total project duration is longer than your target project completion date? This is where duration compression scheduling techniques come in These techniques can be used during planning to shorten the planned duration of the project or during project execution to help resolve schedule slippage.

The Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) Example let's say your most likely estimate is 10 days. The optimistic estimate is 7 days, and the pessimistic estimate is 14 days. Using the same numbers produces the following expected value:

(optimistic + pessimistic + (4 × most likely)) / 6 (7 + 14 + (4 × 10)) / 6 = 10 days

Your subject-matter expert tells you that her most likely estimate is 40 hours, pessimistic estimate is 65 hours, and optimistic estimate is 24 hours. What's the final three-point estimate?

43 hours. Three-point estimates are an average of most likely, pessimistic, and optimistic estimates. Three-point estimate = (most likely estimate + optimistic estimate + pessimistic estimate)/3 = (40 + 24 + 65)/3 = 43 hours

Activity B on your project schedule starts on Monday, October 3, and ends on Wednesday, October 12. You calculate duration in workdays, and the team does not work on Saturdays or Sundays. How many days is the total duration of this task in workdays?

8 days. The first day counts as one full day.

Activity B on your network diagram has a most likely estimate of 8 days, a pessimistic estimate of 11 days, and an optimistic estimate of 6 days. What's the three-point estimate for this task, rounded to the nearest whole number?

8. The three-point estimate is calculated by averaging all three estimates: 8 + 11 + 6 = 25 25/3 = 8.3

Finish-to-finish (FF)

A finish-to-finish relationship is where the predecessor activity must finish before the successor activity finishes.

Question 42 :Which of the following is not true for critical path tasks?This task contains the radio buttons and checkboxes for options. The shortcut keys to perform this task are A to H and alt+1 to alt+9. The early start date is not same as the late start date. These activities are on the longest full path on the project schedule. The float time for tasks is zero. The late finish date is the same as the early finish date.

A. Float is always zero for the critical path activities, so early start and late start are the same date.

Which of the following can convey that you have achieved the completion of an interim key deliverable? Milestone Gantt chart Project charter document Acceptance criteria

A. Milestone signals that you have completed one of the key deliverables on the project. Milestones are major accomplishments of the project and mark the completion of major deliverables or some other key events in the project. Answer D is incorrect. Acceptance criteria describes how to determine whether the deliverables are complete and meet the requirements of the project. Answer B is incorrect. Gantt chart is a tool for displaying project schedule. Answer C is incorrect. Project charter document authorizes the project to begin.

You're entering all the activities of the project with their durations to depict when the project is scheduled to end. Which of the following are you building? Fishbone Scatter diagram Gantt chart Pareto chart

C. You're building the Gantt chart to depict when the project is scheduled to end. Gantt chart is the most common way to display project schedules. You can enter tasks, durations, and/or start and end dates; assign resources; and generate a graphical representation of the project. Answer D is incorrect. A pareto chart allows you to identify the top portion of causes that need to be addressed to resolve the number of defects in a project. Answer A is incorrect. A fishbone diagram is a cause-and-effect diagram that shows the relationship between the effects of problems and their causes. Answer B is incorrect. A scatter diagram plots two numerical variables on a chart to determine whether there is a correlation between them.

You want to show the project sequence activities to your team members. For this, you're using boxes to represent the project activities and arrows to connect the boxes and show the dependencies. Which of the following are you using? RACI WBS PDM ADM

C. You're using PDM (precedence diagramming method), which uses boxes to represent the project activities and arrows to connect the boxes and show the dependencies. Answer A is incorrect. RACI (responsible, accountable, consulted, informed) is a matrix-based chart that shows the resource role and responsibility level for the work product. Answer B is incorrect. WBS (work breakdown structure) is a deliverables-oriented hierarchy that defines the work of the project. Answer D is incorrect. ADM (arrow diagramming method) is a network diagramming technique in which activities are represented by arrows.

Which of the following is not true for the critical path? It has zero float. It controls the project finish date. You can determine which tasks can start late without impacting the project end date. It's the shortest activity sequence in the network.

D. The critical path is the longest path on the project. The tasks have zero float because the critical path controls the project end date. Using critical path, you can determine which tasks can start late or go longer than planned without impacting the project end date.

You're in the process of developing a project schedule for a new project. You've just completed the WBS. What would be the project manager's next step in figuring out what tasks go into the project schedule?

Develop a task list. After the WBS is developed, the next step involves creating an activity list that describes the activities required to complete each work package on the WBS. WRONG: C Determine the critical path tasks.

You are a project manager for a major movie studio. You need to schedule a shoot in Denver during ski season. This is an example of which of the following?

External dependency. A requirement such as weather conditions or a specific season that drives the scheduling of a task is an example of an external dependency. WRONG Mandatory dependency-directly related to the type of work being performed. For example, a utility crew can't lay the cable for a new housing area until a trench has been dug.

What are the two types of charts that you might utilize to display the project schedule?

Gantt chart, Milestone chart Gantt chart and milestone chart are the most commonly used formats to display a project schedule. A Gantt chart shows milestones, deliverables, and all the activities of the project including their durations, start and end dates, and the resources assigned to the task. Milestone chart lists the major deliverables, key events, or project phases and shows the scheduled and actual completion dates of each milestone.

Difference between workdays and calendar days.

If your workweek is Monday through Friday and you have a four-day task starting on Thursday, the duration for that task will be six calendar days because no work will be done on Saturday and Sunday.

Finish-to-start (FS)

In a finish-to-start relationship, the successor activity cannot begin until the predecessor activity has completed. This is the most frequently used logical relationship and is the default setting for most project-scheduling software packages.

Start-to-finish (SF)

In a start-to-finish relationship, the predecessor activity must start before the successor activity can finish. This relationship is seldom used.

Start-to-start (SS)

In a start-to-start relationship, the predecessor activity must start before the successor activity can start.

Predecessor vs Successor

Predecessor activity is one that comes before another activity. A successor activity is one that comes after the activity in question.

What is analogous estimating also referred to as?

Top-down estimating. It is used early in the project, when there is not enough detail to do a detailed estimate.

The Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)

a method that the U.S. Navy developed in the 1950s. The Navy was working on one of the most complex engineering projects in history at the time—the Polaris Missile Program—and needed a way to manage the project and forecast the project schedule with a high degree of reliability. PERT was developed to do just that. The difference is that three-point estimates use an average estimate to determine project duration, while PERT uses what's called expected value (or the weighted average) (optimistic + pessimistic + (4 × most likely)) / 6

External dependencies

a relationship between a project task and some factor outside the project that drives the scheduling of that task. For example, installation of a new server depends on when the vendor can deliver the equipment.

The Critical Path Method (CPM)

determines the amount of float time for each activity on the schedule by calculating the earliest start date, earliest finish date, latest start date, and latest finish date for each task. Float is the amount of time you can delay the earliest start of an activity without delaying the ending of the project. Tasks with the same early and late start dates and the same early and late finish dates have zero float and are considered critical path tasks.

(Duration Compression) Fast Tracking

is performing multiple tasks in parallel that were previously scheduled to start sequentially. Let's go back to our painting example. Scraping and painting cannot start at the same time. However, we have two painting tasks. One is painting the walls; the other is painting the trim. The schedule currently shows the trim starting when the paint finishes (an FS relationship) We could fast-track these activities and have the trim start at the same time as the walls. Logistically, the crews will have to start from different points in the building so they aren't in each other's way, but the tasks can be started in parallel. There is a great deal of risk in fast tracking. If you decide to compress your project schedule using this method, be sure you get input from the team members as to what could go wrong. Document all the risks, and present them to your sponsor and other key stakeholders. Don't make the mistake of trying to do the project faster without communicating any of the potential risks or impacts. You need to make sure that everyone understands the potential consequences and agrees to the schedule change.

Analogous Estimating

known as top-down estimating a technique that uses actual durations from similar tasks on a previous project Although analogous estimating can provide a good approximation of task duration, it is typically the least accurate means of obtaining an estimate.

Dependencies

relationships between activities. For example, one activity may not be able to start until another has finished, or perhaps one activity is dependent on another activity starting before it can finish.

Quality Gates

similar to milestones. They don't produce something per se; they are used to determine quality checks at strategic points in the project and ensure that the work is accurate and meets quality standards. In the painting example, you may have a quality gate that occurs after the scraping is finished but before the painting task begins. Painting should not begin until the quality gate is verified. In this case, the quality gate is to assure the work has been performed correctly and completely.

Schedule Baseline

the final, approved version of the project schedule that includes the baseline start and finish dates and resource assignments. It's important that you obtain sign-off on the project schedule from your stakeholders and the functional managers who are supplying resources to the project.

The Critical Path

the longest full path on the project. If you refer to pic, you'll see that the longest path for this project has a duration of 20 days. This is calculated by adding the durations for the A-B-D path (Task A, Task B, and Task D). Simply add up the task durations for that path.

For the exam, make certain you understand that the critical path is

the longest full path on the project. The simplest calculation you can use for the exam is to add up the duration of each activity for each path on the project and determine which one is the longest. It might be helpful to draw a network diagram on your scrap paper so that you can more easily see which tasks are dependent on each other and add up the durations of each path.

Sequencing

the process of identifying dependency relationships between project activities and sequencing them in proper order. First you need to identify the type of dependency, and then you need to determine the specific relationship between the activities.

Estimating duration, you need to make sure that you are looking at the

total elapsed time to complete the activity. For example, let's say you have a task that is estimated to take five days to complete based on an eight-hour workday. You have one fulltime resource assigned to this task, but they have only four hours a day to work on it. That means the actual duration estimate for this task is 10 days.