CIS 4375 - Quiz 3
requirement
"a condition or capability that must be met or possessed by a system, product, service, result, or component to satisfy a contract, standard, specification, or other formal document.
Estimating activity resources
Before estimating activity durations, you must have a good idea of the quantity and type of resources that will be assigned to each activity; resources are people, equipment, and materials.
Gantt charts
Display project schedule info by listing project activities and corresponding start and finish in a calendar format o Black diamonds: milestones o Thick black bars: summary tasks o Lighter horizontal bars: durations of tasks o Arrows: dependencies between tasks
Developing the Schedule
Uses results of the other time management processes to determine the start and end date of the project
Tracking Gantt chart
a Gantt chart that compares planned and actual project schedule information.
WBS
a deliverable-oriented grouping of the work involved in a project that defines the total scope of the project
WBS dictionary
a document that describes detailed information about each WBS item
A resource breakdown structure
a hierarchical structure that identifies the project's resources by category and type.
PERT
a network analysis technique used to estimate project duration when there is a high degree of uncertainty about the individual activity duration estimates PERT uses probabilistic time estimates •Duration estimates based on using optimistic, most likely, and pessimistic estimates of activity durations, or a three-point estimate
milestone
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
activity list
a tabulation of activities to be included on a project schedule that includes: •The activity name •An activity identifier or number •A brief description of the activity
work package
a task at the lowest level of the WBS
buffer
additional time to complete a task
activity or task
an element of work normally found on the work breakdown structure (WBS) that has an expected duration, a cost, and resource requirements
requirements management plan
describes how project requirements will be analyzed, documented, and managed
A forward pass through the network diagram
determines the early start and finish dates
A backward pass through the network diagram
determines the late start and finish dates
scope baseline
formed from the approved project scope statement and its WBS and WBS dictionary. Baseline is used to measure performance in meeting project scope goals.
Requirements documents are usually ...
generated by software and include text, images, diagrams, videos, and other media; they are often broken down into different categories such as functional, service, performance, quality, training requirements, and so on.
Key inputs for preparing the project scope statement
include the project charter, requirements documentation, and organizational process assets such as policies and procedures related to scope statements as well as project files and lessons learned from previous, similar projects
Duration
includes the actual amount of time worked on an activity plus elapsed time
Project scope management
includes the processes involved in defining and controlling what work is or is not included in a project. It ensures that the project team and stakeholders have the same understanding
Scope control
involves controlling changes to the project scope
Activity definition
involves developing a more detailed WBS and supporting explanations to understand all the work to be done so you can develop realistic cost and duration estimates
Scope
refers to all the work involved in creating the products of the project and the processes used to create them.
Decomposition
subdividing project deliverables into smaller pieces
Murphy's Law states
that if something can go wrong, it will
Parkinson's Law states
that work expands to fill the time allowed
Slack or float
the amount of time an activity may be delayed without delaying a succeeding activity or the project finish date.
Time
the least amount of flexibility Schedule issues are the main reason for conflicts on projects, especially during the second half of projects.
Effort
the number of workdays or work hours required to complete a task. Effort does not normally equal duration
dependency or relationship
the sequencing of project activities or tasks. You must determine dependencies in order to use critical path analysis.
A critical path for a project
the series of activities that determines the earliest time by which the project can be completed. The critical path is the longest path through the network diagram and has the least amount of slack or float
Critical chain scheduling
•A method of scheduling that considers limited resources when creating a project schedule and includes buffers to protect the project completion date
Two formats of network diagrams
•Arrow diagramming method - Activities are represented by arrows. Nodes or circles are the starting and ending points of activities. Can only show finish-to-start dependencies •Precedence diagramming methods - Activities are represented by boxes. Arrows show relationships between activities. More popular than ADM method and used by project management software. Better at showing different types of dependencies
5 main processes for Project Scope Mgt
•Collecting requirements - defining & documenting the features and functions of the products produces during the project as well as the processes used for creating 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. •Verifying scope - involved formalizing acceptance of the project deliverables. •Controlling scope - involved controlling changes to project scope throughout the life of the project.
Project time management processes includes
•Defining activities: identifying the specific activities that the project team members and stakeholders must perform to produce the project deliverables •Sequencing activities: identifying and documenting the relationships between project activities •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 •Developing the schedule: analyzing activity sequences, activity resource estimates, and activity duration estimates to create the project schedule •Controlling the schedule: controlling and managing changes to the project schedule
To calculate 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.
Consider important issues in estimating resources
•How difficult will it be to do specific activities on this project? •What is the organization's history in doing similar activities? •Are the required resources available?
Goals of scope are to
•Influence the factors that cause scope changes •Assure changes are processed according to procedures developed as part of integrated change control •Manage changes when they occur
Methods for Collecting Requirements
•Interviewing •Focus groups and facilitated workshops •Using group creativity and decision-making techniques •Questionnaires and surveys •Observation •Prototyping •Software tools
three types of dependencies
•Mandatory dependencies: inherent in the nature of the work being performed on a project, sometimes referred to as hard logic •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 •External dependencies: involve relationships between project and non-project activities
Individual work styles and cultural difference cause schedule conflicts
•One dimension of the Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator focuses on peoples' attitudes toward structure and deadline •Some people prefer to follow schedules and meet deadlines while others do not (J vs. P) •Difference cultures and even entire countries have different attitudes about schedules
Tools and techniques to control the schedule are:
•Progress reports •A schedule change control system •Project management software, including schedule comparison charts like the tracking Gantt chart •Variance analysis, such as analyzing float or slack •Performance management, such as earned value (Chapter 7)
Critical chain scheduling removes buffers from individual tasks and instead creates
•Project buffers or additional time added before the project's due date •Feeding buffers or additional time added before tasks on the critical path
Three main techniques for shortening schedules
•Shortening durations of critical activities/tasks by adding more resources or changing their scope •Crashing activities by obtaining the greatest amount of schedule compression for the least incremental cost •Fast tracking activities by doing them in parallel or overlapping them
Four approaches to developing WBS
•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.
controlling the schedule goals are
Goals are to know the status of the schedule, influence factors that cause schedule changes, determine that the schedule has changed, and manage changes when they occur
Sequencing activities
Involves reviewing activities and determining dependencies
schedule baseline
NOTE: for Tracking Gantt chart. the entire approved planned schedule
baseline dates
NOTE: for Tracking Gantt chart. the planned schedule dates for activities
Scope verification
involves formal acceptance of the completed project scope by the stakeholders. Acceptance is often achieved by a customer inspection and then sign-off on key deliverables.
WBS
is a foundation document that provides the basis for planning and managing project schedules, costs, resources, and changes
CPM
is a network diagramming technique used to predict total project duration
requirements traceability matrix (RTM)
is a table that lists requirements, various attributes of each requirement, and the status of the requirements to ensure that all requirements are addressed
Total slack or total float
is the amount of time an activity may be delayed from its early start without delaying the planned project finish date
Variance
is the difference between planned and actual performance
Instead of providing activity estimates as a discrete number
it's often helpful to create a three-point estimate •An estimate that includes an optimistic, most likely, and pessimistic estimate, such as three weeks for the optimistic, four weeks for the most likely, and five weeks for the pessimistic estimate Three-point estimates are needed for PERT and Monte Carlo simulations
Important tools and techniques for developing the schedule include:
o Gantt Chart: display schedule o Critical path: develop and control schedule o Critical chain: limited resources o Pert Analysis: considering risks
Network diagrams
preferred technique for showing activity sequencing. is a schematic display of the logical relationships among, or sequencing of, project activities.
Activity attributes
provide more information such as predecessors, successors, logical relationships, leads and lags, resource requirements, constraints, imposed dates, and assumptions related to the activity.
