Project Management
Dec 18, 2015
Project Management
What is a Project?
One Time Effort
Identifiable Start/End Points
Specific Objectives
Multiple Tasks
Resources from Across the Organization
Risk and Uncertainty
Responsibility
Personnel Roles
Project SponsorOverall responsibility
Champion
Gives approvals
Project Team LeaderDay-to-day responsibility to get project done
Directs the team in the process of the project
Individual ContributorContributor of unique expertise
Responsible for specific tasks
4 Stages of Design Phase
High-Level Design
Detailed Design
Implementation
Testing & Integration
4 Stages of Design Phase
High-Level Design Customer Requirements (Input from Customers) Functional / Performance Requirements Block Diagram (Functional Blocks / Interface) Bill of Materials Equipment / Tool List HW / SW / Interface / Mechanical Specifications Test Plan Budget
Detailed Design
Implementation Testing & Integration
4 Stages of Design Phase
High-Level Design
Detailed Design Mechanical Design & Simulation
Electrical Design & Simulation
Software Design & Simulation
Performance Analysis
Implementation
Testing & Integration
4 Stages of Design Phase
High-Level Design
Detailed Design
Implementation Building Mechanical Parts & Assembly Electrical Hardware Physical Implementation Software Coding Build Interface connectors / cables
Testing & Integration
4 Stages of Design Phase
High-Level Design
Detailed Design
Implementation
Testing & Integration Unit Functional Test
Unit Performance Test
Reliability Test
System Integration
Integration Test
Project Time Management
• Activity Sequencing and Network Diagrams
• Activity on Arrow (AOA) Network Diagrams
• Precedence Diagram Method (PDM)
• Gantt Charts
• Critical Path Method (CPM)
• GanttProject Tool
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Activity Sequencing and Network Diagrams
• Review activities and determine dependencies of project activities or tasks
• Determine dependencies in order to use critical path analysis
• Network diagrams are used for showing activity sequencing
• A network diagram is a schematic display of the logical relationships among, or sequencing of, project activities
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Network Diagrams
Two popular network diagrams:
• Activity on Arrow (AOA) network diagrams or Arrow diagramming method (ADM)
• Project network diagrams or Precedence Diagram Method (PDM)
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Activity on Arrow (AOA) Network Diagrams
• Also called Arrow Diagramming Method (ADM)
• A network diagram in which activities are represented by arrows
• ADM is used for scheduling activities in a project plan
• Precedence relationships between activities are represented by circles
connected by one or more arrows
• The length of the arrow represents the duration of the activity
• ADM only shows finish-to-start relationships, meaning that each activity is
completed before the successor activity starts
• Sometimes a "dummy task" is added, to represent a dependency between
tasks, which does not represent any actual activity. Such a dummy task often
has a completion time of 0
Activity on Arrow (AOA) Network Diagrams
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Activity on Arrow (AOA) Network Diagrams
Project Network Diagrams
• Also called Precedence Diagram Method (PDM)
• A visual representation technique that depicts the activities involved in a project
• Communicate the flow of project execution
• Identify missing activities: When an activity is not identified, it’ll never be done.
• Identify dependencies: Each activity is dependent on some other activity. When a dependency is not identified, the project will be delayed until such a time that identification occurs
• Identify critical activities: Certain activities have a greater impact on project schedule than others. This is known as the Critical Path Method (CPM)
• Create a project schedule: The final goal is to create a practical and robust project schedule.
Project Network Diagrams• Task Dependency types
Project Network Diagrams
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Gantt Charts• 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
• Symbols include:
– Black diamonds: Milestones
– Thick black bars: Summary tasks
– Lighter horizontal bars: Durations of tasks
– Arrows: Dependencies between tasks
Gantt Charts• Microsoft Project
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Milestones of Gantt Charts• Milestones emphasize accomplishments for large projects• Create milestone by entering tasks that have a zero duration
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Critical Path Method (CPM)• CPM is to predict total project duration
• A critical path for a project 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
• Slack or float is the amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying a succeeding activity or the project finish date
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Critical Path Method (CPM)
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Critical Path Method (CPM)• Three main techniques for shortening schedules:
– Shortening the duration of critical activities or 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
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GanttProject Tool• GPL-licensed (free software) Java based, project management
software that runs under the Windows, Linux and Mac OS X
• Download: http://www.ganttproject.biz/
• Handbook: http://www-mdp.eng.cam.ac.uk/web/CD/engapps/project/ganttproject.pdf
• Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rHCSa5ad34&feature=youtu.be
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GanttProject Tool
Action Items• Create your network diagram
• Create a Gantt chart for your project
• Due day: 10/03/2014, Friday