Assessment 2 BSBPMG410 Apply project time management techniques

Apply project time management

techniques
Q&A
Answer the following questions and complete the projects below:

1. List three pieces of software that are available to assist in developing a Work Breakdown
Structure (WBS). Give three examples of facets of business that a well-organised WBS
can help with.
The development of a WBS should be a team effort and be a culmination of multiple inputs and
perspectives for your project. Brainstorming sessions are helpful to develop a WBS as they get
everyone involved and do not rely on technology. Although it is easy to do using note cards,
sticky notes or a whiteboard, it is not translated into an electronic format very easily. There is
mind-mapping software available to assist with the development of a WBS. By using this
method, a project manager can assign budget and duration estimates easily.
The software that is available includes:
➢ MindView

➢ WBS Schedule Pro

➢ XMind

➢ FreeMind Commented [PM1]: Satisfactory Work

➢ MindMeister.

2. In relation to project time management explain dependencies in no more than 50 words.

What are the four types of dependency relationships? Briefly, explain what a Gantt chart
is in no more than 100 words. Draw what simple Gantt chart should look like for a project
of your choice.

A Gantt chart is a visual representation of a project schedule that shows you what has to be done
within your project and when it needs to be done by. By laying out the project tasks and events
in the order they should be completed in, the Gantt chart helps to sequence those events and
tasks. It will show the project activities displayed against time and the time is broken down into
increments; days, weeks or months. To the left of the chart is the list of activities and along the
top, there is a suitable time scale. The activities are represented by bars, and the position and
length of that bar reflects the start date, duration and end date of each activity. This chart uses
the horizontal lines to show the amount of work that is done in certain periods of time in relation
to the amount of time that was originally planned for those periods.

Bsbpmg410 Assessment 2 - Geyse Fideles

Assessment 2 BSBPMG410 Apply project time management techniques

W/C 1st W/C 8th W/C 15th W/C 22nd W/C 29th W/C 6th
Briefing
Research
Writing
Editing
Distribution

3. According to https://www.pmi.org/about/learn-about-pmi/what-is-project-
management: “A project is temporary in that it has a defined beginning and end
in time, and therefore defined scope and resources”. Choose a project of your
choice. Create a simple project schedule for your example project.

Project: Community Library

North Melbourne
Vari
Revis Perce
A anc
ed nt
Es ct e
Estim Com Curre Sta
t. Completi ua Remai
Ta Assign ate plete nt tus
Activity/Task H on Target l ning (Cal
sk ed To (Calc (Calc Statu Dat
ou Date H Hours cula
ulate ulate s e
rs ou ted
d d
rs Fiel
Field) Field)
d)

Project Totals m/d/yy 0 0%

Initiation Phase

Land Site survey and 1st

approval November
1 Survey 8 2017 8 0 0 0 0%
Design plans
completions & 1st
approval architec November
2 t 24 2017 24 0 0 0 0%
Engineering plan
completion & 1st
approval Enginee November
3 r 24 2017 24 0 0 0 0%

Planning Phase

Material supply
contracts written and 1st
signed December
4 Logistic 16 2017 30 14 0 0 0%
HR contracts written 1st
and signed December
2017
5 HR 16 16 0 0 0 0%

Bsbpmg410 Assessment 2 - Geyse Fideles

Assessment 2 BSBPMG410 Apply project time management techniques

Equipment contracts 1st

written and signed December
2017
6 Logistic 16 12 -4 0 0 0%
IT project software 1st
approved & December
implement 2017
7 IT 48 45 -3 0 0 0%
WHS policies and 1st
procedures December
completed 2017
8 WHS 25 25 0 0 0 0%
Quality controls and 1st
checks documented December
& approved 2017
9 QA 16 16 0

Supervision and 1st

meeting schedule December
adopted 2017
10 PM 20 20 0

Material
specifications 1st
documents December
11 QA 20 2017 18 -2

Execution & Control

Phase

Foundation 1st
excavation PM & March201
12 completed QA 72 8 72 0 0 0 0%
Foundation
framework and
pipeline completed &
approved 1st
13 PM&QA 72 April 2018 72 0 0 0 0%
Foundations
completed and
approved 1st April
14 PM&QA 24 2018 30 6 0 0 0%
Wall framework Carpent 26th
15 er&QA 8 May2018 8 0 0 0 0%
Windows Carpent 25th
er&QA June2018
16 24 24 0 0 0 0%
Finished walls Carpent
er&QA 25th June
17 24 2018 24 0 0 0 0%
Roof Carpent
er&QA 30th July
18 16 2018 16 0 0 0 0%
Ceiling Carpent
er&QA 30th July
19 16 2018 16 0 0 0 0%
Floor finishes Tiler&Q 30th July
20 A 16 2018 20 4 0 0 0%
Lighting and
electrical Eletricia 30th July
21 n&QA 16 2018 16 0 0 0 0%

Bsbpmg410 Assessment 2 - Geyse Fideles

Assessment 2 BSBPMG410 Apply project time management techniques

Toilet and basin Carpint

2 fittings and tiles er/Plum 30th July
2 ber&QA 48 2018 50 2
Shelving and desk 15th
Carpint August
23 er&QA 16 2018 16 0
IT implementation 30thJuly
24 IT 24 2018 24 0
Furnishings Designe 30th July
25 r 24 2018 24 0

Final inspection and 30th

completion PM&Co Septembe
26 uncil 10 r2018 10 0
25st
PM&co October20
27 Final payment uncil 10 18 10 0 0 0 0%
30st
HR contracts closed october20
28 off HR 24 18 24 0 0 0 0%
30st
2 PM&co October20
9 Final meetings uncil 30 18 40 10
70 73
TOTALS 7 4 +27 0 0 0%

4. List four ways you can communicate the schedule to stakeholders. What is a
communication plan? Provide a sample of a communication plan. Give one
benefit of having a communication plan in place.

Throughout your project, it will be necessary to communicate with the stakeholders

regularly. You should ensure that you have a communication plan in place that assists
in keeping the stakeholders up-to-date with the project. By having a communication
plan in place, you and your project team will know when to communicate with the
stakeholders and how to do it effectively. You should aim to keep the stakeholders well
informed and to understand exactly what they desire. In most cases, you should try and
keep the communication process as a two-way exchange; don’t just talk, listen too. Your
project schedule is something that needs communicating with the stakeholders, and you
should choose the most advantageous communication channel to ensure it is effective.
Ask yourself:
➢ Who are the stakeholders?

➢ What are the objectives for communication?

➢ What is the strategy for communicating?

Bsbpmg410 Assessment 2 - Geyse Fideles

Assessment 2 BSBPMG410 Apply project time management techniques

5. In relation to measure, record and report progress of activities based on agreed

schedule give six examples of methods of the measurements of progress. List at
least six things that should be included in a progress report.

➢ The overall status of your project

➢ Your project summary

➢ The key issues

➢ Any identified risks

➢ The tasks that are involved in your project

6. What is project baseline variance? What five pieces of information does a

baseline include? List one way you can assess the progress of a project.

A baseline contains a group of primary reference points including:

➢ Start dates

➢ Finish dates

➢ Duration estimates

➢ Work estimates

➢ Cost estimates.

Your baseline should include your best estimates as it will be used throughout your
project to assess its progress. The process of assessing your project’s progress involves
constantly tracking your project and monitoring your schedule. You may need to
compare a position or status within your project with an earlier version of it. It is
possible to view your baseline data alongside the current planned data, the actual data
and the variance between them.

7. When forecasting the impact of change, what questions should you consider?
Give at least two examples. In the process of identifying the impact of change
on the schedule, when would you need to update task status? Give two
examples.

Consider the following questions:

➢ What will happen to the project if the change is not implemented?

Bsbpmg410 Assessment 2 - Geyse Fideles

Assessment 2 BSBPMG410 Apply project time management techniques

➢ If this change is implemented, what other areas of the project will

be affected?

➢ Does the positive impact of this change outweigh the negative

impact?

➢ Is there another change that can be implemented rather than this

one?

8. In order to assess the effectiveness of time management, you will need to review
the performance of your project. Explain how you would do this in no more than
200 words. Provide an example. When reviewing your project’s performance,
what questions should you consider? Give two examples.
The method that you will need to use to review the performance of your project may
depend on the stage at which you are conducting it. Are you looking at the whole,
completed project? Or are you at the stage within your project where you have just
achieved an agreed milestone? Although you may think it simply involves looking at
the time, cost and scope of your project, it sometimes isn’t that straightforward. When
reviewing the performance of your project, you will need to establish whether you
delivered what was expected, within the budget and time frame given. Also, you should
look into whether the client/customer was satisfied.
Once you have decided what you really want to review in terms of project performance,
you will need to identify your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). These KPIs will tell
you whether your project is being successful and, if so, to what degree. They will enable
you to assess the performance of your project in terms of the achievement of the desired
objectives.

When reviewing project performance, consider the following questions:

➢ Was your scheduling successful?
➢ Did you reach your intended goals?

9. Give three examples of time management issues that may occur within a project.
Explain how you would respond to each issue in no more than 100 words.

Time management issues

Effective time management has a positive effect on the productivity of a project team.
Issues with time management can leave your project taking much longer than expected.

1 - Overcomplicated time management systems

Bsbpmg410 Assessment 2 - Geyse Fideles

Assessment 2 BSBPMG410 Apply project time management techniques

2 - Taking on too much

3 - Failure to manage distractions

10. Company XYZ is a construction company building two story houses. What
would be the impact of their poor or excellent time management on:
i. project resources
Resource (project management) In project management terminology, resourcesare
required to carry out the project tasks. They can be people, equipment, facilities,
funding, or anything else capable of definition (usually other than labour) required for
the completion of a project activity.
ii. project cost
The process of managing project costs is an activity for estimating costs,
developing project budget and controlling spending. The project cost management
process includes the following key steps: CostEstimation.
iii. project risk
Project risk management is an important aspect of project management. According to
the Project Management Institute's PMBOK, Risk management is one of the ten
knowledge areas in which a project manager must be competent.

11. In Project Management, one method in resource estimating is:

- Bottom up estimating
Explain this method in less than 50 words.
Bottom-up estimating is a project management technique in which the people who are
going to do the work take part in the estimating process. Typically those people are the
project team members. They work with you, the project manager, to developestimates at
the task level in the work breakdown structure (WBS).

12. Answer the following questions in relation to techniques used to measure,

record and report progress of activities:
a. Read an article on:
How to measure the state of your project (e.g.
https://www.projecttimes.com/articles/how-to-measure-the-state-of-your-
project.html), and explain "project triple".

Bsbpmg410 Assessment 2 - Geyse Fideles

 Assessment 2 BSBPMG410 Apply project time management techniques

How do the executives know that what is being delivered is what they originally agreed
to? How does management make decisions during delivery? How does the team remain
aligned on the priority items? Project status is the key.
Some example questions that project status should answer are:
1. Will the project be delivered when we expect it?
2. Do we have the budget to complete the project?
3. Will it deliver what the users expect?
4. Will the quality of the final product be sufficient?
Some example decisions that project status supports are:

• Decide the project isn't going to meet expected ROI and thus cancel it
• Decide the project needs additional investment and can still meet anticipated ROI
• Change resources on the project
• Decide what scope to keep or change

The challenge with project status is to know what information should be collected,
consolidated and reported to best support management and executives. This article
discusses a framework and considerations for measuring project status. Objectives and
metrics are suggested. Each organization would modify these objective and metrics to
apply to the characteristics of their own organization.

13. Identify at least two tools and techniques for managing project time and outline
their particular applications in no more than 200 words each.
Bar charts
Within project scheduling, a bar chart can be used to manage the dates of the individual
processes within your project. Each individual process of your project will be
represented by a single bar; processes that have agreed dates are represented by dark,
bold bars, and the processes with dates that have not been agreed are represented by a
thin, lightly coloured bar. Gantt Charts are a type of bar chart that are commonly used
within project scheduling.

Critical chain management

This method builds on the analysis that is done using critical path and resource levelling
techniques, and it is used when these levelling techniques have delayed the end date of
your project. Chain management reprioritises the project work and provides simple
tracking principles that can accelerate your project. Within this method, the tracking
approach is shifted to concentrate on the critical resource.

14. Identify at least two techniques and in no more than 200 words each, explain
how they are used to measure, record and report the progress of activities. You
may use the internet to research your answer if needed.

Bsbpmg410 Assessment 2 - Geyse Fideles

Assessment 2 BSBPMG410 Apply project time management techniques

PERT is a planning and control tool used for defining and controlling the tasks
necessary to complete a project. PERT charts and Critical Path Method (CPM) charts
are often used interchangeably; the only difference is how task times are computed.
Both charts display the total project with all scheduled tasks shown in sequence. The
displayed tasks show which ones are in parallel, those tasks that can be performed at
the same time. A graphic representation called a "Project Network" or "CPM Diagram"
is used to portray graphically the interrelationships of the elements of a project and to
show the order in which the activities must be performed.

PERT planning involves the following steps:

1. Identify the specific activities and milestones. The activities are the tasks of the
project. The milestones are the events that mark the beginning and the end of
one or more activities.
2. Determine the proper sequence of activities. This step may be combined with
#1 above since the activity sequence is evident for some tasks. Other tasks may
require some analysis to determine the exact order in which they should be
performed.
3. Construct a network diagram. Using the activity sequence information, a
network diagram can be drawn showing the sequence of the successive and
parallel activities. Arrowed lines represent the activities and circles or "bubbles"
represent milestones.
4. Estimate the time required for each activity. Weeks are a commonly used unit
of time for activity completion, but any consistent unit of time can be used. A
distinguishing feature of PERT is it's ability to deal with uncertainty in activity
completion times. For each activity, the model usually includes three time
estimates:
o Optimistic time - the shortest time in which the activity can be
completed.
o Most likely time - the completion time having the highest probability.
o Pessimistic time - the longest time that an activity may take.

15. For an actual project you are involved with or a fictitious one as outlined to you
by your assessor, create a project schedule showing tasks, deliverable
milestones, sequence, dependencies and time estimates. Attach a copy of this
schedule to your workbook.

Project: Community Library

North Melbourne
Vari
Revis Perce
A anc
ed nt
Es ct e
Estim Com Curre Sta
t. Completi ua Remai
Ta Assign ate plete nt tus
Activity/Task H on Target l ning (Cal
sk ed To (Calc (Calc Statu Dat
ou Date H Hours cula
ulate ulate s e
rs ou ted
d d
rs Fiel
Field) Field)
d)

Bsbpmg410 Assessment 2 - Geyse Fideles

Assessment 2 BSBPMG410 Apply project time management techniques

Project Totals m/d/yy 0 0%

Initiation Phase

Land Site survey and 1st

approval November
1 Survey 8 2017 8 0 0 0 0%
Design plans
completions & 1st
approval architec November
2 t 24 2017 24 0 0 0 0%
Engineering plan
completion & 1st
approval Enginee November
3 r 24 2017 24 0 0 0 0%

Planning Phase

Material supply
contracts written and 1st
signed December
4 Logistic 16 2017 30 14 0 0 0%
HR contracts written 1st
and signed December
2017
5 HR 16 16 0 0 0 0%
Equipment contracts 1st
written and signed December
2017
6 Logistic 16 12 -4 0 0 0%
IT project software 1st
approved & December
implement 2017
7 IT 48 45 -3 0 0 0%
WHS policies and 1st
procedures December
completed 2017
8 WHS 25 25 0 0 0 0%
Quality controls and 1st
checks documented December
& approved 2017
9 QA 16 16 0

Supervision and 1st

meeting schedule December
adopted 2017
10 PM 20 20 0

Material
specifications 1st
documents December
11 QA 20 2017 18 -2

Execution & Control

Phase

Foundation 1st
excavation PM & March201
12 completed QA 72 8 72 0 0 0 0%
Foundation
framework and
pipeline completed &
approved 1st
13 PM&QA 72 April 2018 72 0 0 0 0%

Bsbpmg410 Assessment 2 - Geyse Fideles

Assessment 2 BSBPMG410 Apply project time management techniques

Foundations
completed and
approved 1st April
14 PM&QA 24 2018 30 6 0 0 0%
Wall framework Carpent 26th
15 er&QA 8 May2018 8 0 0 0 0%
Windows Carpent 25th
er&QA June2018
16 24 24 0 0 0 0%
Finished walls Carpent
er&QA 25th June
17 24 2018 24 0 0 0 0%
Roof Carpent
er&QA 30th July
18 16 2018 16 0 0 0 0%
Ceiling Carpent
er&QA 30th July
19 16 2018 16 0 0 0 0%
Floor finishes Tiler&Q 30th July
20 A 16 2018 20 4 0 0 0%
Lighting and
electrical Eletricia 30th July
21 n&QA 16 2018 16 0 0 0 0%
Toilet and basin Carpint
2 fittings and tiles er/Plum 30th July
2 ber&QA 48 2018 50 2
Shelving and desk 15th
Carpint August
23 er&QA 16 2018 16 0
IT implementation 30th July
24 IT 24 2018 24 0
Furnishings Designe 30thJuly
25 r 24 2018 24 0

Final inspection and 30th

completion PM&Co Septembe
26 uncil 10 r2018 10 0
25st
PM&co October20
27 Final payment uncil 10 18 10 0 0 0 0%
30st
HR contracts closed october20
28 off HR 24 18 24 0 0 0 0%
30st
2 PM&co October20
9 Final meetings uncil 30 18 40 10
70 73
TOTALS 7 4 +27 0 0 0%

Bsbpmg410 Assessment 2 - Geyse Fideles