Project Time Management Part 1. Learning Objectives 2 Understand the importance of project schedules and good project time management Define activities.

Project Time ManagementProject Time ManagementPart 1Part 1

Learning Objectives

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Understand the importance of project schedules and good project time 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 estimating

Learning Objectives (continued)

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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 people issues 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

Note: The last three points would be discussed in the next lecture

Importance of Project Schedules

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Managers often cite delivering projects on time as one of their biggest challenges and main cause of conflict

You can debate scope and cost overruns and make actual numbers appear closer to estimates

But once a project schedule is set any one can quickly make out the actual time project took to complete by comparing the actual time with the original time estimate.

Time has the least amount of flexibility; it passes no matter what happens on a project

Schedule issues are the main reason for conflicts on projects, especially during the second half of projects

Individual Work Styles and Cultural Differences Cause Schedule Conflicts

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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 (Judging vs. Perceiving)

People following Judging style of work will be relieved to have everything planned out in advance

Where as the other lot may resist making such a plan, because they know from experience that once they do, the wind will go out of their sails

Different cultures and even entire countries have different attitudes about schedules like In most of the Muslim countries businesses and projects may face a slowdown in Ramazan.

Media Snapshot

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Planning and scheduling was very different for the 2004 Summer Olympic Games held in Athens, Greece

Many articles were written before the opening ceremonies predicting that the facilities would not be ready in time; many people were pleasantly surprised by the amazing opening ceremonies, beautiful new buildings, and state-of-the-art security and transportation systems in Athens

The Greeks even made fun of critics by having construction workers pretend to still be working as the ceremonies began

Unfortunately the Greek government suffered a huge financial deficit since the games cost more than twice the planned budget.

Project Time Management Processes

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In order to ensure timely completion of projects, there are six planning activitiesDefining activities: identifying the specific activities that the project team members and stakeholders must perform to produce the project deliverablesSequencing activities: identifying and documenting the relationships between project activitiesEstimating activity resources: estimating how many resources a project team should use to perform project activitiesEstimating activity durations: estimating the number of work periods that are needed to complete individual activitiesDeveloping the schedule: analyzing activity sequences, activity resource estimates, and activity duration estimates to create the project scheduleControlling the schedule: controlling and managing changes to the project schedule

Project Time Management Summary

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Defining Activities

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An activity or task is an element of work normally found on the work breakdown structure (WBS) that has an expected duration, a cost, and resource requirements

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

Inputs to defining activities include Scope baseline, enterprise environmental factors and organizational process assets

The outputs of defining activities process are detailed list of activities, their attributes and a milestones list.

Activity Lists and Attributes

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An activity list is a tabulation of activities to be included on a project schedule that includes:The activity nameAn activity identifier or numberA brief description of the activity

Activity attributes provide more schedule related information such as predecessors, successors, logical relationships, leads and lags, resource requirements, constraints, imposed dates, and assumptions related to the activity.

Activity Lists and Attributes (Cont’d)The activity list and the attributes should

be in agreement with the WBS and WBS Dictionary

Adding information to the activity attributes is done in iterative manner.

As some attributes are learned in the later processes like logical relationships and resource requirements.

Many project teams use automated system to keep track of all this activity related information

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Milestones

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A milestone 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

What Went Wrong?

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At the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), poor time management was one of the reasons behind the failure of Trilogy, a “disastrous, unbelievably expensive piece of vaporware, which was more than four years in the (un)making. The system was supposed to enable FBI agents to integrate intelligence from isolated information silos within the Bureau.”*

In May 2006, the Government Accounting Agency said that the Trilogy project failed at its core mission of improving the FBI’s investigative abilities and was plagued with missed milestones and escalating costs

*Roberts, Paul, “Frustrated contractor sentenced for hacking FBI to speed deployment,”InfoWorld Tech Watch, (July 6, 2006).

Goals of Defining ActivitiesActivity definition is a required input to the other

Time management activitiesIn order to meet the overall goals the order of

meeting scope, time and cost goals must be followed

The goal of defining activities is to develop complete understanding of how much work is required before developing the schedule.

The project team members must elaborate each activity in the WBS to ensure thorough schedule.

Defining activities also elicitate assumptions and constraints related to specific activities

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Sequencing Activities

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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

Three types of Dependencies

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Mandatory dependencies: inherent in the nature of the work being performed on a project, sometimes referred to as hard logic example you can not test code until it has been written.

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 example waiting for signoff on initial requirements before the detailed design

External dependencies: involve relationships between project and non-project activities example waiting for delivery of hardware from external supplier.

All the above dependencies must be defined before working with tools and techniques like Network Diagrams and Critical Path Analysis

Network Diagrams

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Network diagrams are the preferred technique for showing activity sequencing

A network diagram is a schematic display of the logical relationships among project

activitiessequencing of project activities

Two main formats are the arrow and precedence diagramming methods

Facts about Network DiagramsKeep in mind that the network diagram shows

the activities needed to complete the project. It is not a race to get from the first to the last node

Every activity on the diagram must be completed to finish the project

It’s also not necessary to place every activity from the WBS on the network diagram. Only tasks with dependencies need to be placed here.

Although some managers place every activity in WBS on the network diagram

Sometimes only summary tasks can be represented on the network diagrams

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Sample Activity-on-Arrow (AOA) Network Diagram for Project X

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Arrow Diagramming Method (ADM)

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Also called activity-on-arrow (AOA) network diagrams

Activities are represented by arrowsNodes or circles are the starting and ending

points of activities. We can also say that nodes can represent milestones

Can only show finish-to-start dependenciesAlso need to use Dummy activities in order

to represent the logical relationships between the nodes

Process for Creating AOA Diagrams

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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. Continue 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.

Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM)

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Activities are represented by boxesArrows show relationships between

activitiesMore popular than ADM method and used

by project management softwareBetter at showing different types of

dependencies

Task Dependency Types

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Sample PDM Network Diagram

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Estimating Activity Resources

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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 resourcesHow 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?

Inputs to estimating activity resources are project’s activity list, activity attributes, resource calendar or availability, enterprise environmental factors and organization's process assets (regarding staffing and outsourcing)

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

Estimating Activity Durations

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After working with project stakeholders to determine project’s activities, their dependencies and resource estimates, the next process is to estimate duration for these activities.

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 durationPeople doing the work should help create

estimates, and an expert should review themIf scope changes occur then duration estimates

must be revised.

Three-Point Estimates

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Instead of providing activity estimates as a discrete number, such as four weeks, it’s often helpful to create a three-point estimateAn 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 (Risk Assessment)

Developing the Schedule

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Uses results of the other time management processes to determine the start and end date of the project

There are several iterations of the preceding processes until project schedule is finalized

Ultimate goal is to create a realistic project schedule that provides a basis for monitoring project progress for the time dimension of the project

The main outputs of this process are project schedule, a schedule baseline, project document updates and schedule data.

Important tools and techniques include Gantt charts, critical path analysis, critical chain scheduling, and PERT analysis

Gantt Charts

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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 tasksLighter horizontal bars: durations of tasksArrows: dependencies between tasks

Gantt Chart for Software Launch Project

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Adding Milestones to Gantt Charts

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Milestones can be particularly important parts of schedules, specially for large projects

Many people like to focus on meeting milestones

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

SMART Criteria

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To make milestones meaningful some people use SMART criteria to help define them

According to SMART criteria milestones should be:Specific - To make goals specific, they must tell a

team exactly what is expected, why is it important, who’s involved, where is it going to happen and which attributes are important

Measurable - Measuring progress is supposed to help a team stay on track, reach its target dates, and experience the exhilaration of achievement that spurs it on to continued effort required to reach the ultimate goal

SMART Criteria (Cont’d)Assignable - That is, the goals are neither out of

reach nor below standard performance, as these may be considered meaningless

Realistic - Goals that are relevant to your boss, your team, your organization. Relevant goals (when met) drive the team, department, and organization forward. A goal that supports or is in alignment with other goals would be considered a relevant or realistic goal

Time-framed - The fifth criterion stresses the importance of grounding goals within a time frame, giving them a target date. A time-bound goal is intended to establish a sense of urgency

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Best Practice

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Schedule risk is inherent in the development of complex systems. Luc Richard, the founder of www.projectmangler.com, suggests that project managers can reduce schedule risk through project milestones, a best practice that involves identifying and tracking significant points or achievements in the project. The five key points of using project milestones include the following:Define milestones early in the project and include

them in the Gantt chart to provide a visual guide.Keep milestones small and frequent.The set of milestones must be all-encompassing.Each milestone must be binary, meaning it is either

complete or incomplete.Carefully monitor the critical path.

Use of Tracking Gantt ChartTracking Gantt charts can be used to

compare planned and actual schedule information for a given project

The planned schedule dates are called the baseline dates

The entire approved schedule is called the schedule baseline

Tracking Gantt chart allows project managers to see schedule progress on individual tasks and the whole project

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Sample Tracking Gantt Chart

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