PROJECT TIME
MANAGEMENT
Project Time Management includes the processes
required to manage the timely completion of the project.
We discussed about preparing and managing
schedule for the project. We learned about Precedence Diagramming Method and
understood the concept of Lead, Lags and Resource Leveling. We were able
construct a network diagram and calculated critical path and understood the
essence of float.
The knowledge area of Project Time Management
consists of the following seven processes:
Process Name
|
Project Management Process
Group
|
Key Deliverables
|
Plan
Schedule Management
|
Planning
|
Schedule
Management Plan
|
Define
Activities
|
Planning
|
Activity
List, Milestone list
|
Sequence
Activities
|
Planning
|
Project
Schedule network diagrams
|
Estimate Activity
Resources
|
Planning
|
Activity
resource requirements, Resource breakdown structure
|
Estimate
Activity Durations
|
Planning
|
Activity
duration estimates
|
Develop
Schedule
|
Planning
|
Schedule
Baseline, Project Schedule
|
Control
Schedule
|
Monitoring
and Controlling
|
Work
Performance Information, Change Requests
|
- A schedule model
is a representation of the plan for executing the project’s activities
including durations, dependencies, and other planning information, used to
produce project schedules along with other scheduling artifacts.
- On some projects,
especially those of smaller scope, defining activities, sequencing
activities, estimating activity resources, estimating activity durations,
and developing the schedule model are so tightly linked that they are
viewed as a single process that can be performed by a person over a
relatively short period of time.
- The Project Time
Management processes and their associated tools and techniques are
documented in the schedule management plan.
- The schedule
management plan is a subsidiary plan of, and integrated with, the project
management plan through the Develop Project Management Plan process.
- As the project
activities are being performed, the majority of effort in the Project Time
Management Knowledge Area will occur in the Control Schedule process.
- The schedule
management plan defines how schedule contingencies will be reported and
assessed.
- The schedule
management plan may be updated to reflect a change in the way the schedule
is managed.
The Inputs, Tools and Techniques and Output of
Plan
Schedule Management process are given below.
Project Management Plan
|
Expert Judgment
|
Schedule Management Plan
|
Project Charter
|
Analytical Techniques
|
|
Enterprise Environmental Factors
|
Meetings
|
|
Organizational Process Assets
|
- Define Activities
is the process of identifying and documenting the specific actions to be
performed to produce the project deliverables.
- Work packages are
typically decomposed into smaller components called activities that represent the work effort required to complete
the work package.
- Decomposition is a technique
used for dividing and subdividing the project scope and project
deliverables into smaller, more manageable parts.
- The Define
Activities process defines the final outputs as activities rather than
deliverables, as done in the Create WBS process.
- Rolling wave planning is an iterative
planning technique in which the work to be accomplished in the near term
is planned in detail, while the work in the future is planned at a higher
level.
The Inputs, Tools and Techniques and Output of
Define
Activities process are given below.
Schedule Management Plan
|
Decomposition
|
Activity List
|
Scope Baseline
|
Rolling Wave Planning
|
Activity Attributes
|
Enterprise Environmental Factors
|
Expert Judgment
|
Milestone List
|
Organizational Process Assets
|
- Sequence
Activities is the process of identifying and documenting relationships
among the project activities.
- Every activity
and milestone except the first and last should be connected to at least one
predecessor with a finish-to-start or start-to-start logical relationship
and at least one successor with a finish-to-start or finish-to-finish
logical relationship.
- Bar charts (or
Gantt charts) are used to display tasks and their dates in a graphical
fashion. They are used to display information of the type task 1 is
scheduled from date A to date B. Typically the date range is displayed in
the X-axis and the tasks on the Y-axis. Bar charts do not show task
dependencies. They are generally used to track progress and show to the
team.
- Milestone charts
are similar to bar charts but display only major events. They display
major milestones (for example bridge design completed). They are used to
report status to Management.
- Network diagrams
are used to display activities and their dependencies. Network diagrams
can be used to perform critical path analysis. Network diagrams can also
be used to perform crashing and fast tracking of the project. There are
two type of network diagrams:
- Activities on
Node (or Precedence)
- Activities on
Arrow (or AOA)
- Precedence is
most commonly used. AON and AOA cannot have loops or conditional
relationships.
- Precedence (or
Activity on Node) diagrams can be used to display four type of
relationship between activities. These are:
- Finish-To-Start
- Start-To-Start
- Start-To-Finish
- Finish-To-Finish
- Finish-to-start
relationship means the dependent activity cannot start until the first
activity is finished. This is the most common way to represent
relationships between activities.
- Activities on
Array (AOA) network diagrams have the following characteristics.
- AOA only uses
Finish-To-Start relationship between tasks.
- PERT and CPM can
only be used with AOA.
- Dummy events are
shown with dotted lines. They do not take any time. They show dependencies
between tasks.
- Longest path
through the network diagram is called the critical path. The activities on
the critical paths are called critical activities.
- Lags are inserted
waiting times in between tasks. For example Task B cannot start until three
days after task A completes.
- Slack or Float is
the amount of time a task can be delayed without delaying the project.
Tasks on the critical path have zero float.
- Critical Path
Method (CPM) has the following characteristics.
- It uses one time
estimate per activity
- It can be drawn
only using AOA diagrams
- It can have
dummy events
- Program
Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) has the following characteristics.
- It uses three
estimates per activity - optimistic, pessimistic and most likely
- It can be drawn
only using AOA diagrams
- It can have
dummy events
- PERT utilizes
more information than CPM as it considers the "Pessimistic" and
"Optimistic" values in addition to the "Most Likely"
value in its calculations. The following are formulae used by PERT:
Mean = (P + 4M + O)/6
Standard Deviation = (P-O)/6
Variance = ((P-O)/6)2
Here P is the pessimistic estimate, O is the
optimistic estimate and M is the most likely estimate.
- GERT is another
type of network diagram. It can support looping.
- If a project has more
than one critical path then the risk to the project increases.
- Resource leveling
refers to keeping the resources same across the duration of the project.
The Inputs, Tools and Techniques and Output of
Sequence
Activities process are given below.
Schedule Management Plan
|
Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM)
|
Project Schedule Network Diagrams
|
Activity List
|
Dependency Determination
|
Project Documents updates
|
Activity Attributes
|
Leads and Lags
|
|
Milestone List
|
||
Project Scope Statement
|
||
Enterprise Environmental Factors
|
||
Organizational Process Assets
|
The Inputs, Tools and Techniques and Output of
Estimate
Activity Resources process are given below.
Schedule Management Plan
|
Expert Judgment
|
Activity Resource Requirements
|
Activity List
|
Alternatives Analysis
|
Resource Breakdown Structure
|
Activity Attributes
|
Published Estimating Data
|
Project Documents updates
|
Resource Calendars
|
Bottom-Up Estimating
|
|
Risk Register
|
Project Management Software
|
|
Activity Cost Estimates
|
||
Enterprise Environmental Factors
|
||
Organizational Process Assets
|
The Inputs, Tools and Techniques and Output of
Estimate
Activity Duration process are given below.
Schedule Management Plan
|
Expert Judgment
|
Activity Duration Estimates
|
Activity List
|
Analogous Estimating
|
Project Documents updates
|
Activity Attributes
|
Parametric Estimating
|
|
Activity Resource Requirements
|
Three-Point Estimating
|
|
Resource Calendars
|
Group Decision Making Techniques
|
|
Project Scope Statement
|
Reserve Analysis
|
|
Risk Register
|
||
Resource Breakdown Structure
|
||
Enterprise Environmental Factors
|
||
Organizational Process Assets
|
The Inputs, Tools and Techniques and Output of
Develop
Schedule process are given below.
Schedule Management Plan
|
Schedule Network Analysis
|
Schedule Baseline
|
Activity List
|
Critical Path Method
|
Project Schedule
|
Activity Attributes
|
Critical Chain Method
|
Schedule Data
|
Project Schedule Network Diagram
|
Resource Optimization Techniques
|
Project Calendars
|
Activity Resource Requirements
|
Modeling Techniques
|
Project Management Plan Updates
|
Resource Calendars
|
Leads and Lags
|
Project Documents updates
|
Activity Duration Estimates
|
Schedule Compression
|
|
Project Scope Statement
|
Scheduling Tool
|
|
Risk Register
|
||
Project Staff Assignments
|
||
Resource Breakdown Structure
|
||
Enterprise Environmental Factors
|
||
Organizational Process Assets
|
The Inputs, Tools and Techniques and Output of
Control
Schedule process are given below.
Project Management Plan
|
Performance Reviews
|
Work Performance Information
|
Project Schedule
|
Project Management Software
|
Schedule Forecasts
|
Work Performance Data
|
Resource Optimization Techniques
|
Change Requests
|
Project Calendars
|
Modeling Techniques
|
Project Management Plan Updates
|
Schedule Data
|
Leads and Lags
|
Project Documents updates
|
Organizational Process Assets
|
Schedule Compression
|
Organizational Process Assets updates
|
PROJECT TIME
MANAGEMENT
Project Time Management includes the processes
required to manage the timely completion of the project.
We discussed about preparing and managing
schedule for the project. We learned about Precedence Diagramming Method and
understood the concept of Lead, Lags and Resource Leveling. We were able
construct a network diagram and calculated critical path and understood the
essence of float.
The knowledge area of Project Time Management
consists of the following seven processes:
Process Name
|
Project Management Process
Group
|
Key Deliverables
|
Plan
Schedule Management
|
Planning
|
Schedule
Management Plan
|
Define
Activities
|
Planning
|
Activity
List, Milestone list
|
Sequence
Activities
|
Planning
|
Project
Schedule network diagrams
|
Estimate Activity
Resources
|
Planning
|
Activity
resource requirements, Resource breakdown structure
|
Estimate
Activity Durations
|
Planning
|
Activity
duration estimates
|
Develop
Schedule
|
Planning
|
Schedule
Baseline, Project Schedule
|
Control
Schedule
|
Monitoring
and Controlling
|
Work
Performance Information, Change Requests
|
- A schedule model
is a representation of the plan for executing the project’s activities
including durations, dependencies, and other planning information, used to
produce project schedules along with other scheduling artifacts.
- On some projects,
especially those of smaller scope, defining activities, sequencing
activities, estimating activity resources, estimating activity durations,
and developing the schedule model are so tightly linked that they are
viewed as a single process that can be performed by a person over a
relatively short period of time.
- The Project Time
Management processes and their associated tools and techniques are
documented in the schedule management plan.
- The schedule
management plan is a subsidiary plan of, and integrated with, the project
management plan through the Develop Project Management Plan process.
- As the project
activities are being performed, the majority of effort in the Project Time
Management Knowledge Area will occur in the Control Schedule process.
- The schedule
management plan defines how schedule contingencies will be reported and
assessed.
- The schedule
management plan may be updated to reflect a change in the way the schedule
is managed.
The Inputs, Tools and Techniques and Output of
Plan
Schedule Management process are given below.
Project Management Plan
|
Expert Judgment
|
Schedule Management Plan
|
Project Charter
|
Analytical Techniques
|
|
Enterprise Environmental Factors
|
Meetings
|
|
Organizational Process Assets
|
- Define Activities
is the process of identifying and documenting the specific actions to be
performed to produce the project deliverables.
- Work packages are
typically decomposed into smaller components called activities that represent the work effort required to complete
the work package.
- Decomposition is a technique
used for dividing and subdividing the project scope and project
deliverables into smaller, more manageable parts.
- The Define
Activities process defines the final outputs as activities rather than
deliverables, as done in the Create WBS process.
- Rolling wave planning is an iterative
planning technique in which the work to be accomplished in the near term
is planned in detail, while the work in the future is planned at a higher
level.
The Inputs, Tools and Techniques and Output of
Define
Activities process are given below.
Schedule Management Plan
|
Decomposition
|
Activity List
|
Scope Baseline
|
Rolling Wave Planning
|
Activity Attributes
|
Enterprise Environmental Factors
|
Expert Judgment
|
Milestone List
|
Organizational Process Assets
|
- Sequence
Activities is the process of identifying and documenting relationships
among the project activities.
- Every activity
and milestone except the first and last should be connected to at least one
predecessor with a finish-to-start or start-to-start logical relationship
and at least one successor with a finish-to-start or finish-to-finish
logical relationship.
- Bar charts (or
Gantt charts) are used to display tasks and their dates in a graphical
fashion. They are used to display information of the type task 1 is
scheduled from date A to date B. Typically the date range is displayed in
the X-axis and the tasks on the Y-axis. Bar charts do not show task
dependencies. They are generally used to track progress and show to the
team.
- Milestone charts
are similar to bar charts but display only major events. They display
major milestones (for example bridge design completed). They are used to
report status to Management.
- Network diagrams
are used to display activities and their dependencies. Network diagrams
can be used to perform critical path analysis. Network diagrams can also
be used to perform crashing and fast tracking of the project. There are
two type of network diagrams:
- Activities on
Node (or Precedence)
- Activities on
Arrow (or AOA)
- Precedence is
most commonly used. AON and AOA cannot have loops or conditional
relationships.
- Precedence (or
Activity on Node) diagrams can be used to display four type of
relationship between activities. These are:
- Finish-To-Start
- Start-To-Start
- Start-To-Finish
- Finish-To-Finish
- Finish-to-start
relationship means the dependent activity cannot start until the first
activity is finished. This is the most common way to represent
relationships between activities.
- Activities on
Array (AOA) network diagrams have the following characteristics.
- AOA only uses
Finish-To-Start relationship between tasks.
- PERT and CPM can
only be used with AOA.
- Dummy events are
shown with dotted lines. They do not take any time. They show dependencies
between tasks.
- Longest path
through the network diagram is called the critical path. The activities on
the critical paths are called critical activities.
- Lags are inserted
waiting times in between tasks. For example Task B cannot start until three
days after task A completes.
- Slack or Float is
the amount of time a task can be delayed without delaying the project.
Tasks on the critical path have zero float.
- Critical Path
Method (CPM) has the following characteristics.
- It uses one time
estimate per activity
- It can be drawn
only using AOA diagrams
- It can have
dummy events
- Program
Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) has the following characteristics.
- It uses three
estimates per activity - optimistic, pessimistic and most likely
- It can be drawn
only using AOA diagrams
- It can have
dummy events
- PERT utilizes
more information than CPM as it considers the "Pessimistic" and
"Optimistic" values in addition to the "Most Likely"
value in its calculations. The following are formulae used by PERT:
Mean = (P + 4M + O)/6
Standard Deviation = (P-O)/6
Variance = ((P-O)/6)2
Here P is the pessimistic estimate, O is the
optimistic estimate and M is the most likely estimate.
- GERT is another
type of network diagram. It can support looping.
- If a project has more
than one critical path then the risk to the project increases.
- Resource leveling
refers to keeping the resources same across the duration of the project.
The Inputs, Tools and Techniques and Output of
Sequence
Activities process are given below.
Schedule Management Plan
|
Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM)
|
Project Schedule Network Diagrams
|
Activity List
|
Dependency Determination
|
Project Documents updates
|
Activity Attributes
|
Leads and Lags
|
|
Milestone List
|
||
Project Scope Statement
|
||
Enterprise Environmental Factors
|
||
Organizational Process Assets
|
The Inputs, Tools and Techniques and Output of
Estimate
Activity Resources process are given below.
Schedule Management Plan
|
Expert Judgment
|
Activity Resource Requirements
|
Activity List
|
Alternatives Analysis
|
Resource Breakdown Structure
|
Activity Attributes
|
Published Estimating Data
|
Project Documents updates
|
Resource Calendars
|
Bottom-Up Estimating
|
|
Risk Register
|
Project Management Software
|
|
Activity Cost Estimates
|
||
Enterprise Environmental Factors
|
||
Organizational Process Assets
|
The Inputs, Tools and Techniques and Output of
Estimate
Activity Duration process are given below.
Schedule Management Plan
|
Expert Judgment
|
Activity Duration Estimates
|
Activity List
|
Analogous Estimating
|
Project Documents updates
|
Activity Attributes
|
Parametric Estimating
|
|
Activity Resource Requirements
|
Three-Point Estimating
|
|
Resource Calendars
|
Group Decision Making Techniques
|
|
Project Scope Statement
|
Reserve Analysis
|
|
Risk Register
|
||
Resource Breakdown Structure
|
||
Enterprise Environmental Factors
|
||
Organizational Process Assets
|
The Inputs, Tools and Techniques and Output of
Develop
Schedule process are given below.
Schedule Management Plan
|
Schedule Network Analysis
|
Schedule Baseline
|
Activity List
|
Critical Path Method
|
Project Schedule
|
Activity Attributes
|
Critical Chain Method
|
Schedule Data
|
Project Schedule Network Diagram
|
Resource Optimization Techniques
|
Project Calendars
|
Activity Resource Requirements
|
Modeling Techniques
|
Project Management Plan Updates
|
Resource Calendars
|
Leads and Lags
|
Project Documents updates
|
Activity Duration Estimates
|
Schedule Compression
|
|
Project Scope Statement
|
Scheduling Tool
|
|
Risk Register
|
||
Project Staff Assignments
|
||
Resource Breakdown Structure
|
||
Enterprise Environmental Factors
|
||
Organizational Process Assets
|
The Inputs, Tools and Techniques and Output of
Control
Schedule process are given below.
Project Management Plan
|
Performance Reviews
|
Work Performance Information
|
Project Schedule
|
Project Management Software
|
Schedule Forecasts
|
Work Performance Data
|
Resource Optimization Techniques
|
Change Requests
|
Project Calendars
|
Modeling Techniques
|
Project Management Plan Updates
|
Schedule Data
|
Leads and Lags
|
Project Documents updates
|
Organizational Process Assets
|
Schedule Compression
|
Organizational Process Assets updates
|