LECTURE 5

Planning tools in project

management
Responsible for managing:

 The work - all the necessary activities must be accomplished in the

desired sequence.
 Human resources – needs to direct & motivate.
 Communications – ensures everybody has the information they need.
 Quality – performance criteria must be realized.
 Time – project must be completed on time.
 Costs- must be completed within budget.
[all these within the law]
Integrative management
techniques
The project manager is the single point of responsibility
Different models for executing role:
 Project manager – the “boss” – makes all decisions. Disadvantages:
limited access, fear, keep in good books, sweep problems under carpet
 Rules and procedures. Disadvantage – often inflexible. Manager must
ensure people are conversant with rules.
 Planning, scheduling and budgeting. Best plans are thwarted through
acts of nature.
 Ad hoc or regular meetings
 Full-time liaison person – project co-ordinator
 Second in-charge – also a project manager, deals with minor problems.
 Assistants to project manager – assigned to different sections of
projects (electrical, civil, structural, etc.)
Skills required of a project
manager
 Planning skills  Marketing skills (sell project
to sponsors)
 Manage stress  Lateral thinker
 “ people  Problem-solver (creative)
 “ time  Good communicator (speak,
write)
 Apply technical knowledge
 Administrative skills
 Manage safety (accurate record-keeping)
 Good calculation skills
 Organizing ability (time, people, (ability to estimate)
resources, tools, etc.)
 Ethical thinker & doer
 Set up systems (beware of short-cuts)
 Analyse data / information  Work in and manage a team
 Leader
 Think logically (inductive & deductive
reasoning – environmental impact)  Motivate people

 Manage conflict  Handle responsibility

 Decision-maker
 Delegate
 Make value judgments (assess quality)
Work Breakdown Structure
 Hierarchal decomposition of work into different levels
to develop clear deliverables and objectives
 Defines all the things a project needs to accomplish,
organized into multiple levels, and displayed graphically
Gantt Charts
 A visual view of tasks scheduled over time
 Useful way of showing what work is scheduled to be done
on a specific day
 Able to see:
 The start date of the project
 What the project tasks are
 Who is working on each task
 When tasks start and finish
 How long each task will take
 How tasks group together and overlap
 The finish date of the project.
Gantt Charts
 Gantt Charts
Planning and scheduling with Gantt charts

Civil

Buildings

Equipment

Instrumentation

Commission

Does not reveal relationships between activities that may be crucial.

E.g. if one of the activities is delayed, which other activities are
affected?
 Critical Path Method (CPM)
 Graphical display of projects activities
 Estimates of how long the project will take
 Indication of which activities are the most critical for
timely completion
 Indication of how long an activity can be delayed without
lengthening the project

Makes use of network diagram

Composed of a number of arrows and nodes

Example: Open a new shop
Order
2 furniture 4
Locate facilities

Setup
1 Re-model furniture
6
Interview
3 5 Move in
Hire & train

Convention: A-O-A (activity on arrow)

A path is a sequence of activities that leads from the

starting node to the finishing node. E.g. 1-2-4-5-6 is a
path. What are the paths in this network?
Length of path – sum of estimated times for all activities on path
Critical path path that has the longest duration

Critical activities – all activities on critical path

Paths shorter than critical path – “slack”
Network conventions
Network diagram shows sequence in which tasks have to be done

1 a
c
3 4

2 b

Both a and b must be completed before c

is started
Both a and b must be completed before either c
or d can be started
4
1 a c

3
2 b d
5
1
a 2
c 4
b
This is a DUMMY activity
3

Both a and b must be completed

before c can be started
 Here a and b must both precede activity c, but the
start of activity d is dependent only on completion
of b, not on completion of a.
4
1 3 c
a

2 4 5
b d

For reference purposes, nodes are numbered

typically from left to right.
2 b 3
a c
1 d
6
e
4 g
f 5

Start and end arrows are sometimes used for increased clarity
Deterministic time estimates
Example 1

6 weeks
8 weeks
2 4

11 weeks 3 weeks
1
6
4 weeks 5
3 1 week
9 weeks

Determine: 1-2-4--6 : 18 weeks

1-2-5-6 : 20 weeks
• The length of each path 1-3-5-6 : 14 weeks
• The critical path 1-2-5-6
• The expected length of the project
• Amount of slack time for each path
A computing algorithm

Many real networks contain hundreds, even thousands, of

activities
An algorithm provides 4 items of information:
1. ES the earliest time an activity can start, assuming
all preceding activities start as early as possible
2. EFthe earliest time the activity can finish
3. LS the latest time an activity can start and not delay
the project
4. LF the latest time the activity can finish without
delaying the project.
For any activity: (i) EF = ES + t
(ii) ES for activities at nodes with one entering arrow is
equal to EF of the entering arrow. For multiple entering
arrows it will be the highest EF of the entering arrow.

6 weeks
8 weeks 2 4

3 weeks
1 11 weeks
6
4 weeks 1 week
3 9 weeks
5

Compute ES and EF for each activity

For each activity LS = LF - t
For nodes with one leaving arrow, LF for arrows entering
that node equals LS of the leaving arrow. For nodes with
multiple leaving arrows, LF for arrows entering that node
equals the smallest LS of leaving arrows.

6 weeks
8 weeks 2 4

3 weeks
1 11 weeks
6
4 weeks 1 week
3 9 weeks
5

Compute LS and LF for each activity

Slack time can be computed either by:
Slack = LS – ES or Slack = LF – EF

6 weeks
8 weeks 2 4

3 weeks
1 11 weeks
6
4 weeks 1 week
3 9 weeks
5

Compute the slack for each activity

 Schedule
Early Late
Activity Time ES EF LS LF Slack
1-2 8 0 8 0 8 0
1-3 4 0 4 6 10 6
2-4 6 8 14 10 16 2
2-5 11 8 19 8 19 0
3-5 9 4 13 10 19 6
4-5 3 14 17 16 19 2
5-6 1 19 20 19 20 0