Project Management Ch. 6

Estimating activity durations

estimating the number of work periods that are needed to complete individual activities

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

Duration

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

Mandatory dependencies

inherent in the nature of the work being performed on a project, sometimes referred to as hard logic

External dependencies

involve relationships between project and non-project activities

Slack/Float

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

Crashing

obtaining the greatest amount of schedule compression for the least incremental cost

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

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

Murphy's Law

states that if something can go wrong, it will

Parkinson's Law

states that work expands to fill the time allowed

project charter

A draft schedule for a project is most likely to be found in a _____

resource breakdown structure

A hierarchical representation of resources by category and type.

Critical chain scheduling

A method of scheduling that takes limited resources into account when creating a project schedule and includes buffers to protect the project completion date

forward pass

A network diagramming technique that determines the early start and early finish dates for each activity

backward pass

A project network diagramming technique that determines the late start and late finish dates for each activity

-Project schedule model development -The scheduling methodology -Level of accuracy and units of measure -Control thresholds -Rules of performance measurement -Reporting formats -Process descriptions

A schedule management plan includes:

network diagram

A schematic display of the logical relationships or sequencing of project activities

milestone

A significant event that normally has no duration on a project; serves as a marker to help in identifying necessary activities, setting schedule goals, and monitoring progress

Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM)

A technique used for constructing a schedule model in which activities are represented by nodes and are graphically linked by one or more logical relationships to show the sequence in which the activities are to be performed.

Start to Start

An activity relationship type that requires the current activity to start before its successor can start.

three-point estimate

An estimate that includes an optimistic, most likely, and pessimistic estimate

probabilistic time estimates

Duration estimates based on using optimistic, most likely, and pessimistic estimates of activity durations instead of using one specific or discrete estimate

Defining activities

In project time management, the main goal of _____ is to ensure that the project team has complete understanding of all the work they must do as part of the project scope so they can start scheduling the work.

controlling the schedule

In project time management, the process of_____ primarily involves checking and managing changes to the project schedule.

Time

Managers cite delivering projects on ______ as one of the biggest challenges

-Specific -Measurable -Assignable -Realistic -Time-framed

Milestones should be

True

T/F: A schedule management plan includes information which describes the format and frequency of schedule reports required for the project.

False

T/F: In a critical path analysis, the shortest path is what drives the completion date for the project.

False

T/F: In project time management, the primary output of defining activities is a schedule managementplan.

True

T/F: The technique of fast tracking can result in lengthening the project schedule

Free slack/float

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

Total slack/float

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

longest path

The critical path is the _________ through the network diagram and has the least amount of slack or float

Estimating activity resources

estimating how many resources a project team should use to perform project activities

An activity attribute provides more schedule-related information about each activity than an activity list.

Which of the following is a difference between an activity list and an activity attribute?

Theory of Constraints (TOC)

a management philosophy developed by Eliyahu M. Goldratt and introduced in his book The Goal.

Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)

a network analysis technique used to estimate project duration when there is a high degree of uncertainty about the individual activity duration estimates

CPM

a network diagramming technique used to predict total project duration

feeding buffers

additional time added before tasks on the critical path

buffer

additional time to complete a task

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

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

Planning schedule management

determining the policies, procedures, and documentation that will be used for planning, executing, and controlling the project schedule

Fast tracking

doing them in parallel or overlapping them

Activity List

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

Effort

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

critical path

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