Project Time Management Chapter 6

Overview Take Notes:

The success or failure of a project depends upon the feasibility of the project plan. A realistic
schedule is the responsibility of the project manager! Failure to establish and adhere to a well-
paced timetable decreases a project’s likelihood of success. That is why the Project Manager
must set an achievable End Date and ensure that the team can meet it.

When problems arise (and they invariably do) the team can work together, “brainstorming”
to find alternative means to an end. These proactive planning sessions enhance the team’s
sense of cohesiveness. Furthermore, such sessions can curtail many problems before the
project is underway and diminish the impact of any complications that do arise. When
unforeseen delays occur, the team can help to get the project schedule back on track by
compressing the project schedule through fast tracking or crashing.

The importance of a well-planned project is never realized more fully than when the team
experiences the rush to completion. The final tasks to accomplish project completion
depend on the plans and motivations set forth during the project planning stages. Effective
project management is two-fold: it requires both adequate time to plan—and based on the
results of those plans, adequate time to implement.

Project Management Implementation (PMI) includes six processes of time management

theory for planning and controlling a project schedule. Though in reality most project
managers use some type of software to assist with scheduling, this exam is requiring you
to manually draw network diagrams when you answer questions about network diagrams and
scheduling. Because of this, you will need to know some things that normally go on
behind the scenes when using software for project management.

6.1 Define Activities: The Define Activities process identifies the specific activities necessary
for the completion of the project deliverables.

6.2 Sequence Activities: This process identifies the interrelationships between individual
project activities, and then documents them using a Network Diagram. Modern project
management tools automate the process of identifying interactivity logical relationships. For
the PMP Exam, you need to know how to use manual tools to identify these sequences.

6.3 Estimate Activity Resources: is the process of determining the type and quantities of
material, people, equipment, or supplies (physical resources) needed. It develops a
resource hierarchy call “Resource Breakdown Structure.”
6.4 Estimate Activity Durations is the process of estimating time durations for each defined
activity resource, which will serve as an essential input for the Develop Schedule process.

6.5 Develop Schedule: is the process used to create the project schedule based on activity
sequences, durations, resource requirements, and schedule constraints. The project
schedule is developed as the result of many detailed iterations and progressive elaborations
across the entire planning phase.

6.6 Control Schedule: is the process of monitoring the status of the project to update project
progress and manage changes to the schedule baseline. Schedule changes are identified
using various tools, including variance analysis.

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Following table describes Time Management Inputs, tools & techniques and outputs.
Take Notes:
Inputs Tools & Techniques Outputs
Scope Baseline Decomposition Activity list
6.1 Define EEF Rolling wave planning Activity attributes
Activities OPA Templates Milestone list
Expert judgment
Activity list Precedence diagramming Project Schedule network
method (PDM) diagrams
Activity attributes Dependency determination Project Document Updates
6.2 Sequence
Activities Milestone list Applying leads and lags
Project scope statement Schedule network templates
OPA
Activity list Expert judgment Activity resource requirements
Activity Attributes Alternatives analysis Resource breakdown structure
6.3 Estimate Resource calendars Published estimating data Project document updates
Activity Resources
EEF Bottom-up estimating Project Document Updates
OPA Project management software
Activity list Expert judgment Activity duration estimates
Activity attributes Analogous estimating Project document updates
6.4 Estimate Activity resource requirements Parametric estimating
Activity Durations Resource calendars Three-point estimates
Project scope statement Reserve analysis
EEF, OPA
Activity list Schedule network analysis Project schedule
Activity attributes Critical path method Schedule baseline
Schedule network diagrams Critical chain method Schedule data
Activity resource requirements Resource leveling Project document updates
6.5 Develop Resource calendars What-if scenario analysis
Schedule
Activity Duration estimates Applying leads and lags
Project scope statement Schedule compression
EEF Scheduling tool
OPA
Project management plan Performance reviews Performance measurements
Project schedule Variance analysis OPA updates
Work performance information Project management software Change requests
6.6 Control OPA Resource leveling PM Plan updates
Schedule What-if scenario analysis Project document updates
Adjusting leads and lags
Schedule compression
Scheduling tool

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6.1 Define Activities Take Notes:

The process of Define Activities logically follows the Create Work Breakdown Structure
(WBS) process. The WBS identifies the total of all project work in terms of deliverables.
To adhere to this definition, WBS should identify work using descriptive nouns, instead
of action-oriented verbs. The Define Activities process is applied to convert WBS work
packages (lowest level elements) into action-oriented activities.

The Define Activities process identifies the specific activities necessary to complete the
project deliverables. The primary deliverable from the Define Activities process is the
project's Activity List; the Activity List becomes an extension of the WBS. It will also
result in the determination of milestones to be used on the project.

The primary Tool & Technique used to create the Activity List is "decomposition" This is
basically the same decomposition method used to create the WBS. The difference is
that, in Define Activities, decomposition is used to further subdivide Work Packages into
easily manageable activities, so that the final Output is described in terms of activities,
rather than deliverables. These tasks represent what is needed to complete a Work
Package.

Ideally, Define Activities is applied immediately following Create WBS. In real-world

practice, however, the two processes are many times applied simultaneously. In many
projects, Rolling Wave Planning can be an effective tool to support activity definition.

In Rolling Wave Planning, only near-term work is planned in detail, leaving future work
summarized with less detail. As future work draws nearer, detailed planning is
performed.

At a minimum, the Activity List should include:

 Project name
 Project manager
 Date for document
 Project phases
 Project deliverables or milestones
 Project Work Packages
 Project activities (associated with Work Packages)

Typically, additional information such as the duration of the activity, start date, end
date, and resources assigned is also shown on an Activity List.

6.2 Sequence Activities

Sequence Activities is the process of identifying the interrelationships between
individual project activities, then documenting them by using, that is generically
termed a Network Logic Diagram. This essential step must be accurately performed
prior to the development of a realistically achievable schedule. Project Network
Logic Diagrams are often referred to as Program Evaluation and Review Technique
Charts (PERT), though this is not an accurate label.

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Methods to Draw Network Diagrams: The Precedence Diagramming Method

Take Notes: (PDM), the Arrow Diagramming Method (ADM), and the Graphical Evaluation &
Review Technique (GERT) methods are in usage to draw network diagrams.
PMBOK Guide and most scheduling software use PDM method to create network
diagrams.

Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM) or Activity-on-Node (AON) in this

method, nodes (or boxes) are used to represent activities, and arrows show
activity dependencies

PDM drawing can have four types of logical relationships between activities:
 Finish-to-start (FS): An activity must finish before the successor can
start (most common). Example: You must finish digging a hole before
you can start the next activity of planting a tree.
 Start-to-start (SS): An activity must start before the successor can start.
Example: You must start designing and wait for two weeks lag in order
to have enough of the design completed to start coding.
 Finish-to-finish (FF): An activity must finish before the successor can
finish. Example: You must finish testing before you can finish
documentation.
 Start-to-finish (SF) An activity must start before the successor can finish (rarely
used).

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GERT A modification to the network diagram drawing method allows loops

between activities. The easiest example is when you have an activity to design a Take Notes:
component and then test it. After testing, it may or may not need to be redesigned.

Types of Dependencies The sequence of activities is determined based on the

following dependencies:
Mandatory Dependency (Hard Logic) The dependency is inherent in the
nature of the work being done or required by the contract (e.g., you must
get approval before you can start working).
Discretionary Dependency (Preferred, Preferential, or Soft Logic): This
dependency is determined by the project team. Discretionary dependencies
can be changed if needed, while the other types of dependencies cannot
easily be changed. Discretionary dependencies are important when analyzing
how to shorten or re-sequence the project to decrease the project duration
(fast track the project).
External Dependency This dependency is based on the needs or desires of a
party outside the project (e.g., government or suppliers).

APPLYING LEADS AND LAGS

To accurately define the logical relationship between many project schedule

activities, the team will need to apply leads and/or lags. The best time to first apply
leads and lags is now, during Sequence Activities.
Leads: Lead time may be viewed as an overlap between tasks. For example, in
finish-to-start dependency with a ten-day lead, the successor activity can start
ten days before the predecessor has finished. Lead time allows project teams to
add realism and flexibility to their schedule.

Lags: Lag time is waiting time. For example, if Activity A involves pouring concrete
that requires four days to set, then Activity B may have a four-day lag ... meaning
Activity B cannot start until four days after Activity A is finished. Lead time is
termed "negative lag" in some software programs.
PDM CONVENTIONS
When properly constructed and annotated, Network Diagrams can communicate
an enormous amount of essential information. During planning, this helps the
project team in creating the project schedule, obtaining resources, and in
identifying risks. Here is the way information is typically annotated on PDM
Network Diagrams (Activity-on-Node or AON).

ES Duration EF

Activity

LS Float LF

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Start date and Finish Dates of an Activity: The dates on which an activity can start
Take Notes: and finish.

Early start
This is the earliest time that an activity can start. An activity near the end of the
path will start early only if all of the previous activities in the path also started
early. If one of the previous activities in the path slips, that will push it out.

Early finish
This is the earliest time that an activity can finish. It’s the date that an activity will
finish if all of the previous activities started early and none of them slipped.

Late start
This is the latest allowable time that an activity can start. If an activity is on a path
that’s much shorter than the critical path, then it can start very late without
delaying the project – but those delays will add up quickly if other activities on its
path also slip!

Late finish
This is the latest allowable time that an activity can finish. If an activity is on a
short path and all of the other activities on that path start and finish early, then it
can finish very late without causing the project to be late.

Forward Pass and Backward Pass

If you know early start dates of activities, you can add duration to start dates and
calculate Early Finish dates of respective activities. This is known as “forward
pass.”

If you know late finish dates and successive activities, calculating late start dates
by deducting the duration from finish dates is known as “backward pass.”

Example: A module has four activities and each activity is “finish to start” each
dependent on the preceding one. The dependencies are depicted as A1  A2 
A3  A4. Activity durations are estimated as A1:5 days; A2: 6 days; A3: 3 days;
and A4: 3 days. Consider a company that has no Saturdays, Sundays and no
holidays just for this period.

A. If Project early start date is next month 1st. (This means it can’t start any
time before that) Following picture shows forward pass to calculate rest of
activities and project finish date.

th
As per the above diagram – Project’s early finish date is the 17 . This means the
Project can’t finish before that date.
If a project Late Finish date is next month on the 30th. (That means it can’t finish
later than that date.) Following picture shows “backward pass” to calculate rest of

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activities and project start date.

Take Notes:

th
As per the above diagram – Project’s Early Start date is the 14 . This means the
Project can’t delay any more than that date. A later start date delays the project
finish date.

Network Diagram: A project network is a graph (flow chart) depicting the sequence
in which a project's activities are to be completed by showing activities and their
dependencies. A Network diagram also shows concurrent paths of activities. The
following diagram is an example of network diagram.

The Network Diagram above depicts 3 different paths:.

1. Start  A  Finish
2. Start  B  D  F  Finish
3. Start  C  E  Finish
Critical Path: Project completion requires that each individual sequence of activities
be completed on each available path of the network diagram. “Path Duration” is the
sum of all activities on a given path. . “Critical Path” is the path which has longest
duration among available paths. If an activity on the critical path is delayed by a day,
the entire project will be delayed by one day.

Critical Path is the longest duration path through a network diagram; it determines
the shortest time to complete the project.

Float or Slack: is the amount of time that a task in a project network can be delayed
without causing a delay to:
 subsequent tasks (free float)
 Project completion date (total float). Total Float is assigned to a path rather
than to a project. If a network diagram has 4 paths then there will 4 Total
Floats.

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Steps to identify Float or Slack when activity durations and dependencies are
Take Notes: provided:

1. Draw network diagram using provided dependencies (Precedence Diagram

Method (PDM / AON).

2. Fill-in Duration information for all activities.

3. Find all possible paths and identify Critical path (s).

4. Forward pass #1 – Identify ES, EF for activities on CP.

5. Backward pass #1 - Finish details (LS is ES, LF is EF, and Float is 0) on CP.

6. Non-Critical path forward passes – Identify ES, EF for activities on all Non
Critical Paths.

7. Non-Critical path Backward Passes– Identify LS, LF for activities on all Non
Critical Paths.

8. Find Floats for each activity (LF – EF or LS – ES).

6.3 Estimate Activity Resources

After the activities have been sequenced, it is time to determine the type and
quantity of resources required.. Resources include equipment and materials, as
well as people. Resources must be allocated and coordinated to prevent common
problems such as shortages resources and appropriations.

The identified resource requirements will affect the project schedule. Remember
the difference between duration and effort? Duration is the length of time the
activity will take, while effort is the labor applied to the task.

In a perfect world, all of the needed resources for a project would be available
whenever the Project Manager says so. In the real world, however (and on your
PMP exam), the availability of project resources fluctuate, due to the demands of
other projects, the demands of ongoing operations, personal lives, vacations, sick
days, and more.

Resource Pool: The availability of the project resource pool must be evaluated. If
certain activities require a worker with a highly specialized skill, these activities are
resource-dependent. Should the worker not be available for the timeframe of the
required activity, one of several things must happen:

The project manager must negotiate to make the resource available for the
activity in the project schedule. The project may incur additional costs by finding
other resources to complete the scheduled work.

There are two calendar types that will affect the project:

The project calendar this calendar shows when work is allowed on the project. For
example, a project may require the project team to work nights and weekends so
as not to disturb the ongoing operations of the organization during working hours.
In addition, the project calendar accounts for holidays, working hours, and work
shifts that the project will cover.

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Take Notes:
The resource calendar The resource calendar controls when resources, such as
project team members, consultants, and SME's are available to work on the
project. It takes into account vacations, other commitments within the
organization, or restrictions on contracted work, overtime issues, and so on.

6.4 Estimate Activity Durations

How Is Estimating Performed? Activities can be estimated using the following techniques:

One-Point Estimate When estimating time using a one-point estimate, the estimator
submits one estimate per activity. For example, one estimate claims that the activity
will take five weeks. The time estimate can be made based on expert judgment, by
on historical information, or even by on a guessing (educated, or otherwise).
Analogous Estimating (Top-down) can be submitted for a project or an activity.
Analogous estimating uses expert judgment and historical information to predict
the future.

Parametric Estimating calculates projected times for an activity based on historical

records from previous projects and other information. The result is an activity
estimate based on measures like time per line of code, time per linear meter, or
time per installation.

Three-Point Estimates (PERT analysis, Program Evaluation and Review

Technique) with the three-point technique, estimators give an optimistic (t o),
pessimistic (t p), and most likely (tm) estimate for each activity. This ultimately
provides a risk-based expected duration estimate by taking the average or a weighted
(using the PERT technique) average of the three estimates. Following 3 formulas are
important.

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The end result of estimating activities provides three things:

Take Notes:
Activity duration estimates Activity duration estimates gauge the amount of time
required to complete each work package. Duration estimates should acknowledge
the range of variance. For example, an activity whose duration is expected to last
one week (five work days) may also have a range of variance of (one work week ±
three days). This means the work can take up to eight work days, or as little as two
work days.

Bases of estimates: Any assumptions made during the estimation process should
be identified. Furthermore, you should document any historical information,
subject matter experts, or commercial estimating databases that were used. They
may be needed for future reference or bibliographical purposes..

Activity list updates: During the estimating process, the activities list may be found
to be incomplete. The Project Manager should confirm that the new work
packages are reflected in the activity list for the project.

Reserve Analysis: Project management is required to have a reserve to

accommodate the risks that remain in the project after the completion of risk
management activities. Often in the risk management process, an initial reserve is
estimated, and then the Plan Risk Responses process is performed to reduce the
risk, followed by the creation of a revised reserve. Project planning is iterative.

There can be two types of reserves added: contingency reserves (also called time
reserves or buffers) and management reserves. The contingency reserves are for
the risks remaining after the Plan [Planned?] Risk Responses process. The
management reserves are any extra amount of funds to be set aside to cover
unforeseen risks.

6.5 Developing the Project Schedule

Now that the estimates for the activities are completed, it’s time to work some
magic and see how long the entire project will take. The Project Manager
specifically pursues the start date, and more importantly, the completion date.
Projects that don’t provide realistic schedules aren’t likely to get approved. Or
worse, the project is approved, but most likely fails, because the project team is
not able to meet the unrealistic schedule.

The creation of the project schedule is iterative. It’s rare for a schedule to be
created, approved, and implemented without some iterative examination,
arrangement, and management input—though on smaller projects it may be
possible.
Evaluating the Project Constraints & Assumptions

Constraints restrict when and how the project may be implemented. They are
added to a project for a purpose, not just to rush the work to completion. It’s
important to understand why the constraint has been imposed. Project
constraints can also include milestones.
Assumptions are beliefs held to be true, but that may not necessarily be so. They
are factored into the project and should be documented and accounted for. False
assumptions can cause a project schedule to fail miserably. Utmost care should be
given to provide project assumptions.

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Creating the Project Schedule

Take Notes:
The project manager, the project team, and possibly even the key stakeholders evaluate
these assumptions, and apply the techniques discussed to create a feasible schedule for
the project. The point of the project schedule is to complete the project scope in the
shortest possible amount of time, while incurring no exceptional costs, risks, or loss of
quality. This calendar-based approach is approach relies on both the project network
diagram and the accuracy of time estimates.

Mathematical analysis is the process of factoring theoretical early and late start dates and
theoretical early and late finish dates for each activity. These theoretical scheduling
variables should be applied to determine the outside ranges for a project’s length, as well
as its theoretical start and end dates, based on given scenarios.

The most common approach to calculating when a project may finish is by using the
Critical Path Method. It uses a “forward” and “backward” pass to reveal which activities
are considered critical.

Float, or slack, is the amount of time a delayed task can delay the project’s completion.

Applying Schedule / Duration Compression

Schedule or Duration compression is also a mathematical approach to scheduling. The

trick with duration compression, as its name implies, is calculating ways the project be
completed done sooner than expected.

To apply duration compression, the performing organization can rely on two different
methods. These methods can be used independently or together and are applied to
activities or the entire project based on need, risk, and cost. The methods are:

Crashing This approach adds more resources to activities on the critical path to complete
the project earlier. When crashing a project, costs are added as the labor expenses
increase. Crashing doesn’t always work. Consider activities that have a fixed duration and
won’t finish faster with additional resources. The project manager must also consider the
expenses in relation to the gains of completing on time.

Fast Tracking This method changes the relationship of activities. With fast tracking,
activities that would normally be done in sequence are allowed to be done in parallel or
with some overlap. Fast tracking can be accomplished by changing the relation of activities
from FS to SS or by adding lead time to downstream activities.

Using a Project Simulation

Project simulations allow a Project Manager to examine the feasibility of the project
schedule under different conditions, variables, and events. For example, the project
manager can see what would happen to a project if activities were delayed, vendors
missed shipment dates, and external events affected the project.

Simulations are often completed with the Monte Carlo analysis. The Monte Carlo analysis,
named after the world-famous gambling city, predicts how scenarios may work out given
any number of variables. The process doesn’t actually churn out a specific answer, but a
range of possible answers. When Monte Carlo is applied to a schedule, it can examine, for
example, the optimistic completion date, the pessimistic completion date, and the most
likely completion date for each activity in the project.

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As you can imagine in a typical network diagram, there are likely thousands, if not
Take Notes: millions, of combinations of tasks that complete early, late, or as expected. Monte
Carlo analysis shuffles these combinations, usually through computer software, and
offers a range of possible end dates coupled with an expected probability for
achieving each end date.

Using Resource Leveling Heuristics

First off, a heuristic is a fancy way of saying “rule of thumb.” A resource leveling
heuristic is a method to flatten the schedule when resources are over-allocated.
Resource leveling can be applied using different methods to accomplish different
goals. One of the most common methods is to ensure that workers are not
overextended on activities.

Using the Critical Chain Method (CCM)

The Critical Chain Method aims to eliminate Parkinson’s Law by eliminating

bottlenecks that hold up project progression. In the critical chain method (CCM)
deadlines associated with individual tasks are removed, and the only date that
matters is the promised due date of the project deliverable. CCM works to modify
the project schedule based on the availability of project resources rather than the
pure sequence of events as in the critical path method.

CCM first requires the discovery of the critical path but then applies available
resources to determine the true resource-limited schedule. Based on the availability
of resources to complete the project work, the critical path is often different than
what it would have been using the pure CPM approach.

CCM scheduling evaluates each activity’s latest possible start and finish date. This
allows project managers to manage the buffer activity duration—that is, the
activities that are not on the critical path—but their completion contributes to the
start of critical path activities. In other words, the focus is on completing each
activity in order to complete the entire project by the promised end date.

Examining the Project Schedule

The project schedule includes, at a minimum, a date for when the project begins
and a date when the project is expected to end. The project schedule is considered
proposed until the resources needed to complete the project work have been
ascertained. In addition to the schedule, the Project Manager should include all of
the supporting details. Project schedules can be presented in many different
formats, such as the following:

Project Network Diagram illustrates the flow of work, the relationship between
activities, the critical path, and the expected project end date. Project Network
Diagrams, when used as the project schedule, should have dates associated with
each project activity to show when the activity is expected to start and end.

Bar charts set against a calendar, bar charts depict the start and end dates for the
project, as well as the activity’s duration. Easy-to-read and popular, scheduling
bar charts is also called Gantt charts.

Milestone charts set against a calendar, these charts plot out the high-level
deliverables and external interfaces, such as a customer walkthrough. Milestone
charts are similar to a Gantt chart, but with major accomplishments only.

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6.6 Controlling the Project Schedule Take Notes:

Throughout a typical project, events occur that may require updates to the project
schedule. Schedule control entails the three processes described below.

The project manager works with the factors that can cause schedule change in an
effort to confirm that the changes have been agreed upon. Factors to consider
include project team members, stakeholders, management, customers, and
project conditions.

The Project Manager examines the work results and conditions to determine
whether the schedule has changed.

The Project Manager manages actual changes in the schedule.

Applying a Schedule Control System

A schedule control system is a formal approach to managing changes to the project

schedule. It considers the conditions, reasons, requests, costs, and risks of making
changes. It includes methods of tracking changes, approval levels based on
thresholds, and the documentation of approved or declined changes. The schedule
control system process is part of integrated change management.

Measuring Project Performance

Poor performance may result in schedule changes. Consider a project team that is
completing a work on time, but all of the work results are unacceptable. The
project team may be rushing through their assignments to meet their deadline. To
compensate for this, the project may be changed to allow for additional quality
inspections, and more time for activity completion.

Examining the Schedule Variance

The project manager must actively monitor the variances between when activities
are scheduled to end and when they actually end. An accumulation of differences
between scheduled and actual dates may result in a schedule variance.

Updating the Project Schedule

So what happens when a schedule change occurs? The project manager must
ensure that the project schedule is updated to reflect the change, document the
change, and follow the guidelines within the schedule management plan. Any
formal processes, such as notifying stakeholders or management, should be
followed.

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