Chapter No 6 – Project Time Management

CE- 403: Computer Engineering Project Management

ƒ Course Description

Project Management ƒ Managing Information Technology projects within

an organizational context, including the processes
related to initiating, planning, executing,

Compiled By: controlling, monitoring and closing a project.

Muzammil Ahmad Khan ƒ This course covers topics such as project
muzammil.ssuet@yahoo.com
integration, scope, time, cost, risk management.
Sir Syed University of Engineering & Technology Project Management 2

Project Management
Course Objective
Course Learning Outcomes( CLO’s )
CLO
ƒ This course intends to give the student a basic No
Outcome Statement Level *

Identifying basic concepts of Project Management, thus, enabling

familiarity with Project Management.
ƒ To provide students with a portfolio of project
management tools that can be used in managing
information technology projects.
ƒ To provide students with a real-world project
management experience.
Project Management
1 him/her to functionally utilize these skills in his/her future C1
Information Technology (IT) bases project practices.
Describing and understanding the Project Management concepts,
2 principles, methods, project life cycle and the knowledge that is C2
required for managing the IT projects.
Applying and analyze the different processes of each knowledge
3 area with its Inputs, Outputs, Tools and Techniques. C3
Applying project management techniques for IT projects to
initiate, plan, execute and evaluate a project and work in teams to
4 C3
create a project plan for a project scenario that includes key tasks,
critical path, dependencies and a realistic timeline
* Bloom’s taxonomy level. C: Cognitive, P: Psychomotor, A: Affective
3 Project Management 4

Books Marks Distribution

Text Book
ƒ Information Technology Project Management
ƒ Assignments, Quizzes & Project 20
7th Edition, ƒ Mid Term 30
Kathy Schwalbe
ƒ Final Examination 50
Reference Book
ƒ Information Technology Project Management
ƒ Total Marks 100
4th Edition
Jack Marchewka https://sites.google.com/site/cedssuet

Project Management 5 Project Management

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 CE - 403: Computer Engineering Project Management
Information Technology Project Management
7th Edition
Chapter No 6:
Project Time Management
Complied By: Muzammil Ahmad Khan
muzammil.ssuet@yahoo.com
Project Management
Learning Objectives
ƒ 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
ƒ Discuss how reality checks and discipline are involved in
controlling and managing changes to the project schedule
ƒ Describe how project management software can assist in project
time management and review words of caution before using this
software
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Individual work styles and cultural
differences cause schedule conflicts
ƒ One dimension of the Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator focuses on
peoples’ attitudes toward structure and deadline
ƒ Some people prefer to follow schedules and meet deadlines
while others do not (J vs. P)
ƒ Difference cultures and even entire countries have different
attitudes about schedules
Project Management
Learning Objectives
ƒ Understand the importance of project schedules and good
project time management
ƒ Discuss the process of planning schedule management
ƒ Define activities as the basis for developing project schedules
ƒ Describe how project managers use network diagrams and
dependencies to assist in activity sequencing
ƒ Understand the relationship between estimating resources and
project schedules
ƒ Explain how various tools and techniques help project managers
perform activity duration estimates
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Importance of Project Schedules
ƒ Managers often cite delivering projects on time as one of their
biggest challenges
ƒ Time has the least amount of flexibility; it passes no matter what
happens on a project
ƒ Schedule issues are the main reason for conflicts on projects,
especially during the second half of projects
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Project Time Management Processes
ƒ Planning schedule management: determining the policies,
procedures, and documentation that will be used for planning,
executing, and controlling the project schedule
ƒ Defining activities: identifying the specific activities that the
project team members and stakeholders must perform to
produce the project deliverables
ƒ Sequencing activities: identifying and documenting the
relationships between project activities
ƒ Estimating activity resources: estimating how many resources
a project team should use to perform project activities
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 Figure 6-1: Project Time Management
Project Time Management Processes
Summary
ƒ Estimating activity durations: estimating the number of work
periods that are needed to complete individual activities
ƒ Developing the schedule: analyzing activity sequences, activity
resource estimates, and activity duration estimates to create the
project schedule
ƒ Controlling the schedule: controlling and managing changes to
the project schedule

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Planning Schedule Management Defining Activities

ƒ The project team uses expert judgment, analytical techniques, ƒ An Activity or Task is an element of work normally found on
and meetings to develop the schedule management plan
the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) that has an expected
ƒ A schedule management plan includes: duration, a cost, and resource requirements
ƒ Project schedule model development
ƒ Activity definition involves developing a more detailed WBS
ƒ The scheduling methodology
and supporting explanations to understand all the work to be
ƒ Level of accuracy and units of measure done so you can develop realistic cost and duration estimates
ƒ Control thresholds
ƒ Rules of performance measurement
ƒ Reporting formats
ƒ Process descriptions
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Activity Lists and Attributes Milestones

ƒ An Activity List is a tabulation of activities to be included on a ƒ A Milestone is a significant event that normally has no duration
project schedule that includes ƒ It often takes several activities and a lot of work to complete a
ƒ the activity name milestone
ƒ an activity identifier or number ƒ They’re useful tools for setting schedule goals and monitoring
ƒ a brief description of the activity progress
ƒ Activity Attributes provide more information such as ƒ Examples include obtaining customer sign-off on key documents
predecessors, successors, logical relationships, leads and lags, or completion of specific products
resource requirements, constraints, imposed dates, and
assumptions related to the activity
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 Sequencing Activities
ƒ Involves reviewing activities and determining dependencies
ƒ A dependency or relationship is the sequencing of project
activities or tasks
ƒ You must determine dependencies in order to use critical path
analysis
Project Management
Network Diagrams
ƒ Network diagrams are the preferred technique for showing
activity sequencing
ƒ A network diagram is a schematic display of the logical
relationships among, or sequencing of, project activities
ƒ Two main formats are the arrow and precedence diagramming
methods
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Arrow Diagramming Method (ADM)
ƒ Also called activity-on-arrow (AOA) network diagrams
ƒ Activities are represented by arrows
ƒ Nodes or circles are the starting and ending points of activities
ƒ Can only show finish-to-start dependencies
Project Management
Three types of Dependencies
ƒ Mandatory dependencies: inherent in the nature of the work
being performed on a project, sometimes referred to as hard logic
ƒ 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
ƒ External dependencies: involve relationships between project
and non-project activities
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Figure 6-2: Network Diagram for Project X
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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
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 Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM)
ƒ Activities are represented by boxes
ƒ Arrows show relationships between activities
ƒ More popular than ADM method and used by project
management software
ƒ Better at showing different types of dependencies
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Figure 6-4: Sample PDM Network Diagram
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Activity Duration Estimating
ƒ Duration includes the actual amount of time worked on an
activity plus elapsed time
ƒ Effort is the number of workdays or work hours required to
complete a task
ƒ Effort does not normally equal duration
ƒ People doing the work should help create estimates, and an
expert should review them
Project Management
Figure 6-3: Task Dependency Types
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Estimating Activity Resources
ƒ 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
ƒ Consider important issues in estimating resources
ƒ How difficult will it be to do specific activities on this project?
ƒ What is the organization’s history in doing similar activities?
ƒ Are the required resources available?
ƒ A resource breakdown structure is a hierarchical structure that
identifies the project’s resources by category and type
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Three-Point Estimates
ƒ Instead of providing activity estimates as a discrete number,
such as four weeks, it’s often helpful to create a three-point
estimate
ƒ 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
ƒ Three-point estimates are needed for PERT and Monte Carlo
simulations
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 Developing the Schedule Gantt Charts
ƒ Uses results of the other time management processes to ƒ Gantt charts provide a standard format for displaying project
determine the start and end date of the project
schedule information by listing project activities and their
ƒ Ultimate goal is to create a realistic project schedule that corresponding start and finish dates in a calendar format
provides a basis for monitoring project progress for the time
ƒ Symbols include:
dimension of the project
ƒ A black diamond: a milestones
ƒ Important tools and techniques include Gantt charts, critical path
analysis, and critical chain scheduling, and PERT analysis ƒ Thick black bars: summary tasks

ƒ Lighter horizontal bars: durations of tasks

ƒ Arrows: dependencies between tasks

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Figure 6-6: Gantt Chart for Software Launch

Figure 6-5: Gantt Chart for Project X
Project

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Adding Milestones to Gantt Charts SMART Criteria

ƒ Many people like to focus on meeting milestones, especially ƒ Milestones should be

for large projects ƒ Specific
ƒ Milestones emphasize important events or accomplishments on ƒ Measurable
projects
ƒ Assignable
ƒ Normally create milestone by entering tasks with a zero
ƒ Realistic
duration, or you can mark any task as a milestone
ƒ Time-framed

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 Best Practice Figure 6-7: Sample Tracking Gantt Chart
ƒ 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:
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
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Critical Path Method (CPM) Calculating the Critical Path Method (CPM)
ƒ CPM is a network diagramming technique used to predict total ƒ First develop a good network diagram
project duration ƒ Add the duration estimates for all activities on each path
ƒ A critical path for a project is the series of activities that through the network diagram
determines the earliest time by which the project can be ƒ The longest path is the critical path
completed
ƒ If one or more of the activities on the critical path takes longer
ƒ The critical path is the longest path through the network diagram than planned, the whole project schedule will slip unless the
and has the least amount of slack or float project manager takes corrective action
ƒ Slack or float is the amount of time an activity may be delayed
without delaying a succeeding activity or the project finish date

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Figure 6-8: Determining the Critical Path

More on Critical Path Method (CPM)
Method (CPM) for Project X
ƒ A project team at Apple computer put a stuffed gorilla on the
top of the cubicle of the person currently managing critical task
ƒ The critical path is not the one with all the critical activities; it
only accounts for time
ƒ Remember the example of growing grass being on the critical
path for Disney’s Animal Kingdom
ƒ There can be more than one critical path if the lengths of two or
more paths are the same
ƒ The critical path can change as the project progresses
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 Using Critical Path Analysis to make schedule Figure 6-9: Calculating early and late start
Trade-offs and finish dates
ƒ 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
ƒ 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
ƒ A forward pass through the network diagram determines the
early start and finish dates
ƒ A backward pass determines the late start and finish dates
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Table 6-1: Free and Total Float or Slack for Using the Critical Path to shorten a Project
Project X Schedule

ƒ Three main techniques for shortening schedules

ƒ Shortening durations of critical activities/tasks by adding
more resources or changing their scope

ƒ Crashing activities by obtaining the greatest amount of

schedule compression for the least incremental cost

ƒ Fast tracking activities by doing them in parallel or

overlapping them

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Importance of updating Critical Path data Critical Chain Scheduling

ƒ It is important to update project schedule information to meet ƒ Critical Chain Scheduling

time goals for a project ƒ a method of scheduling that considers limited resources when
ƒ The critical path may change as you enter actual start and creating a project schedule and includes buffers to protect the
project completion date
finish dates
ƒ If you know the project completion date will slip, negotiate ƒ Uses the Theory of Constraints (TOC)
with the project sponsor ƒ a management philosophy developed by Eliyahu M. Goldratt
and introduced in his book The Goal.
ƒ Attempts to minimize multitasking
ƒ when a resource works on more than one task at a time
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 Figure 6-10.a and b. Multitasking Example Buffers and Critical Chain
ƒ A buffer is additional time to complete a task
ƒ Murphy’s Law states that if something can go wrong, it will
ƒ Parkinson’s Law states that work expands to fill the time
allowed
ƒ In traditional estimates, people often add a buffer to each task
and use it if it’s needed or not
ƒ Critical chain scheduling removes buffers from individual tasks
and instead creates
ƒ a project buffer or additional time added before the project’s
due date
ƒ feeding buffers or additional time added before tasks on the
critical path
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Figure 6-11: Example of Critical Chain Program Evaluation and Review Technique
Scheduling (PERT)

ƒ PERT is a network analysis technique used to estimate project

duration when there is a high degree of uncertainty about the
individual activity duration estimates

ƒ PERT uses probabilistic time estimates

ƒ duration estimates based on using optimistic, most likely,
and pessimistic estimates of activity durations, or a three-
point estimate

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Program Evaluation and Review Technique

Schedule Control Suggestions
(PERT) Formula and Example
ƒ PERT weighted average = ƒ Perform reality checks on schedules
optimistic time + 4X most likely time + pessimistic time
6
ƒ Allow for contingencies
ƒ Example: ƒ Don’t plan for everyone to work at 100% capacity all the time
PERT weighted average = ƒ Hold progress meetings with stakeholders and be clear and
8 workdays + 4 X 10 workdays + 24 workdays = 12 days
honest in communicating schedule issues
6
where optimistic time = 8 days
most likely time = 10 days, and
pessimistic time = 24 days
Therefore, you’d use 12 days on the network diagram instead of
10 when using PERT for the above example
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 Controlling the Schedule Reality Check on Scheduling
ƒ Goals are to know the status of the schedule, influence factors that ƒ First review the draft schedule or estimated completion date in
cause schedule changes, determine that the schedule has changed, the project charter
and manage changes when they occur
ƒ Prepare a more detailed schedule with the project team
ƒ Tools and techniques include
ƒ Make sure the schedule is realistic and followed
ƒ Progress reports
ƒ Alert top management well in advance if there are schedule
ƒ A schedule change control system
problems
ƒ Project management software, including schedule comparison
charts like the tracking Gantt chart
ƒ Variance analysis, such as analyzing float or slack
ƒ Performance management, such as earned value (chapter 7)
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Working with People Issues Using Software to assist in Time Management

ƒ Strong leadership helps projects succeed more than good ƒ Software for facilitating communications helps people exchange
PERT charts schedule-related information

ƒ Project managers should use ƒ Decision support models help analyze trade-offs that can be
ƒ empowerment made

ƒ incentives ƒ Project management software can help in various time

management areas
ƒ discipline
ƒ negotiation

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Words of cautions on using Project

Chapter Summary
Management Software
ƒ Project Time Management is often cited as the main source of
ƒ Many people misuse project management software because they conflict on projects, and most IT projects exceed time
don’t understand important concepts and have not had training estimates
ƒ You must enter dependencies to have dates adjust automatically ƒ Main processes include
and to determine the critical path
ƒ Plan schedule management
ƒ Define activities
ƒ You must enter actual schedule information to compare planned
ƒ Sequence activities
and actual progress
ƒ Estimate activity resources
ƒ Estimate activity durations
ƒ Develop schedule
ƒ Control schedule
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