Chapter 6 - Project management

Network diagram

Draw on paper

Activity Duration Estimating

Duration includes the actual amount of time worked on an activity plus elapsed time Effort is the number of workdays or work hours required to complete a task Effort does not normally equal duration People doing the work should help create estimates, and an expert should review them

figure 6-3. Task Dependency Types

Finish-to-start Finish-to-finish Start-to-start Start-to-finish

Using Critical Path Analysis to Make Schedule Trade-offs

Free slack or free float is the amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying the early start of any immediately following activities 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 A forward pass through the network diagram determines the early start and finish dates A backward pass determines the late start and finish dates

Gantt Chart for project x

See picture on slide 28

Using the Critical Path to Shorten a Project Schedule

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

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 -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? A resource breakdown structure is a hierarchical structure that identifies the project's resources by category and type

Sequencing activities

-Involves reviewing activities and determining dependencies -A dependency or relationship is the sequencing of project activities or tasks -You must determine dependencies in order to use critical path analysis

Activity list includes

-The activity list -An activity identifier or number -A brief description of the activity

The five key points of using project milestones include the following:

1. Define milestones early in the project and include them in the Gantt chart to provide a visual guide 2. Keep milestones small and frequent 3. The set of milestones must be all-encompassing 4. Each milestone must be binary, meaning it is either complete or incomplete. 5. Carefully monitor the critical path

Process for Creating AOA Diagrams

1. Find all of the activities that start at node 1. Draw their finish nodes and draw arrows between node 1 and those finish nodes. Put the activity letter or name and duration estimate on the associated arrow 2. Continuing drawing the network diagram, working from left to right. Look for bursts and merges. Bursts occur when a single node is followed by two or more activities. A merge occurs when two or more nodes precede a single node 3. Continue drawing the project network diagram until all activities are included on the diagram that have dependencies 4. As a rule of thumb, all arrowheads should face toward the right, and no arrows should cross on an AOA network diagram

Gantt charts Symbols include

A black diamond: a milestones Thick black bars: summary tasks Lighter horizontal bars: durations of tasks Arrows: dependencies between tasks

Buffers and Critical Chain

A buffer is additional time to complete a task Murphy's Law states that if something can go wrong, it will Parkinson's Law states that work expands to fill the time allowed --In traditional estimates, people often add a buffer to each task and use it if it's needed or not Critical chain scheduling removes buffers from individual tasks and instead creates a project buffer or additional time added before the project's due date feeding buffers or additional time added before tasks on the critical path

More on the critical path

A project team at Apple computer put a stuffed gorilla on the top of the cubicle of the person currently managing critical task The critical path is not the one with all the critical activities; it only accounts for time --Remember the example of growing grass being on the critical path for Disney's Animal Kingdom There can be more than one critical path if the lengths of two or more paths are the same The critical path can change as the project progresses

Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM)

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

Arrow Diagramming Method

Also called activity-on-arrow (AOA) network diagrams Activities are represented by arrows Nodes or circles are the starting and ending points of activities Can only show finish-to-start dependencies

Critical Chain Scheduling

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 Uses the Theory of Constraints (TOC) a management philosophy developed by Eliyahu M. Goldratt and introduced in his book The Goal. Attempts to minimize multitasking when a resource works on more than one task at a time

Three-Point Estimates

Instead of providing activity estimates as a discrete number, such as four weeks, 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

Importance of Updating Critical Path Data

It is important to update project schedule information to meet time goals for a project The critical path may change as you enter actual start and finish dates If you know the project completion date will slip, negotiate with the project sponsor

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

Adding Milestones to Gantt Charts

Many people like to focus on meeting milestones, especially for large projects Milestones emphasize important events or accomplishments on projects Normally create milestone by entering tasks with a zero duration, or you can mark any task as a milestone

Gantt chart SMART Criteria

Milestones should be Specific Measurable Assignable Realistic Time-framed

Free and total float or slack for project x

Slide 40

Try to respond the following

Understand the importance of project schedules and good project time management Discuss the process of planning schedule management Define activities as the basis for developing project schedules Describe how project managers use network diagrams and dependencies to assist in activity sequencing Understand the relationship between estimating resources and project schedules Explain how various tools and techniques help project managers perform activity duration estimates Use a Gantt chart for planning and tracking schedule information, find the critical path for a project, and describe how critical chain scheduling and the Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) affect schedule development Discuss how reality checks and discipline are involved in controlling and managing changes to the project schedule Describe how project management software can assist in project time management and review words of caution before using this software

Developing the Schedule

Uses results of the other time management processes to determine the start and end date of the project Ultimate goal is to create a realistic project schedule that provides a basis for monitoring project progress for the time dimension of the project Important tools and techniques include Gantt charts, critical path analysis, and critical chain scheduling, and PERT analysis

Sequencing activities:

identifying and documenting the relationships between project activities

A resource breakdown structure

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

Critical Path Method (CPM)

is a network diagramming technique used to predict total project duration

Network diagrams

is a schematic display of the logical relationships among project activities.

Milestones

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

Activity list

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

An activity or task

is an element of work normally found on the (WBS) work breakdown structure that has an expected duration, a cost, and resources required.

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

is 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

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

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.

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