Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Management of time
Managing your time - its your life
Gantt charts
Planning your project
Management of time
Managing your time - its your life
Gantt charts
Managing time
The nature of time We have a limited amount You can not get it back You can not store it It belongs to us as individuals like nothing else
In your PGT project will not need to manage money, people or resource (you may need to work with them)
URGENCY!
Done second Done first
Importance
Successful planning will make your life easier! How to Prioritise 1. Never run up to a dead-line
Then urgency is removed!
URGENCY!
Done second Done first
Importance
Done second
Done first
Importance
Take off the list things that are unnecessary or you will never do
Done second
Done first
Importance
Take off the list things that are unnecessary or you will never do
Done first
Importance
Done first
Importance
Importance
Management of time
Managing your time - its your life
Gantt charts
Planning your project
Increasing complexity
For a simple project such as the MSc Projects, we need something beyond a list of activities. To much complexity in a plan would not be worthwhile and might become a hinderance.
Imposed milestones
Project report deadline Experimental development
Experimentation
Perform measurement (1 wk) Data analysis (1 wk)
Generating Dissertation
Commissioning (1 wk)
Data handling
Investigate software platforms (2 wks) Select software - milestone Write software (2 wks)
Imposed milestones
Project report deadline Experimental development
Experimentation
Perform measurement (1 wk) Data analysis (1 wk)
Generating Dissertation
Commissioning (1 wk)
Data handling
Investigate software platforms (2 wks) Select software - milestone Write software (2 wks)
Notes:
I have a week free in week 11: this is known as float. Without float I am likely to have at least one hitch that leads to late delivery or compression of events at the end of the project (i.e. not enough writing time). I have added a couple of milestones at important times.
You may draw arrows showing dependencies, I have chosen not to here.
Your plans should have real dates, and may be for longer or shorter than 12 weeks
Notes:
I have added some arrows to indicate work flow and dependencies.
Notes: We can track progress: the black bars represent work completed
Notes: At the end of week 8 the project is about 1 week behind schedule. Now the float in week 11 no longer looks like a luxury
Notes: End of week 10, the experimental work is finished, and it looks like the project will end to plan
If the project deviates significantly from the original plan, it is as well to draft a second plan, optimising the rest of the activity. On the upside there is more interesting project management material to report if the project does not go to plan.
Key issues
Must have float
Otherwise you will be late on something or sacrifice quality
Set time aside for the important things Recommended reading Eli Goldratt Critical Chain (ISBN 0-88427-153-6)
Managing priorities
Driven by deadlines
Conclusion
Identify what needs to be done Identify when it needs to be done by Eliminate the unnecessary Plan with an appropriate level of complexity
Develop a plan which has float for all outputs using time priority
Try a few tools and use those which are sustainable for you
More information
http://www.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/studyskills/or ganising/index.html http://www.careers.manchester.ac.uk/students/employ able/skills/communication/resources/