PROJECT TIME MANAGEMENT

• Project time management includes all the

processes that need to be adopted to ensure
the timely completion of the project.
• And it includes
– Activity Definition
– Activity Sequencing
– Activity Duration & Estimating
– Activity Scheduling & Development
– Activity Schedule & Control
 Activity Definition
• Is the processes of determining the specific
activities that need to be executed to achieve
objectives
• Activity definition produces all the list of
activities that comprise the project work.
• It involves product analysis and takes further
the WBS to come up with the lists.
 Activities and related terms in common use:

• An activity is an operation or process that

consumes time for its completion.
• Dummy activities are activities which have zero
duration and consume no resource. They are
introduced into a network diagram for a logical
purpose.
• Hammock or a summary of activity is bundle of
activities used to gather a number of sub-
activities into one master activity.
• A milestone is a key event time when some
critical events happen. Example could be
project completion day, meeting, delivery of
specific critical output, phase transition, etc.
Generally a milestone activity doesn’t need
resource and time
 Activity sequencing
• is the processes of determining the job logic. It
determines the dependencies, sequences and
overlaps that activities need to be executed to
achieve the project time constraint. Generally, activity
sequencing and dependencies is determined by
1. Mandatory requirements (hard logic): are dependencies
that are inherent to the nature of the project work. For
example, one can’t execute foundation concrete casting
without having excavating the pits for foundation;
2. optional requirements (preferred (soft) logic):
are dependencies established based on factors
such as resource availability, familiarity with the
processes, etc. For example, walling works in
first floor can be executed parallel with structural
works on fourth floor, as long as there is enough
resource is available.
3. External requirements: are dependency requirements
that link project works with non project works. For
example, getting a construction license may be an
external dependency to most construction work.
These dependencies result in four different relationship
types:
– Start-to-Start (SS)
– Finish-to-Finish (FF)
– Start-to-Finish (SF)
– Finish-to-Start (FS):
 Start-to-Start (SS)

• The start of the subsequent activity is some

relationship dependent on the start of its
predecessor. The relationship can be
established based on lead or lag time. In the
example below, start of activity B lag five days
after start of activity A.
●
Trench Excavation

A 10
 Finish-to-Finish (FF)

• Finish-to-Finish (FF): The finish of the

subsequent activity is some relationship
dependent on the finish of its predecessor.

●
Lay Asphalt
A 15

• FF -5
 Start-to-Finish (SF)

• The finish of the subsequent activity is some

relationship dependent on the start of its
predecessor.

●
Test new system
A 15

• SF -25
 Finish-to-Start (FS):

The start of the subsequent activity is some

relationship dependent on the finish of its
predecessor.

●
Plaster Walls

A 15

SF -5
 Activity duration Estimating
• An activity’s duration is dependent on the amount
of job to be done, amount and productivity of
resource to be deployed.
• Dij=Aij /Pij Nij
•  Where Aij is the amount of work to be done(eg
100cubic meter of common excavation),), Pij is the
average productivity of a standard crew in this
task (measured in units if work per unit time), and
Nij is the number of crews assigned to the task
• The following important rules apply to the estimation of
activity durations:
i) Evaluate activities one at a time, independently of all others.
For a given activity, assume that materials, labor, equipment
and other needs will be available when required,
ii)For each activity assume a normal level of manpower and/or
equipment. Compute the estimate duration by applying a
crew or equipment production rate to the total number of
units of work to done. It is highly advisable to use the
optimum resource needed for the execution of the activity.
Ex. Activity duration to pour 230 m2 of slab formwork, assuming a
production rate of 1.5 m2/hr /crew can be established as follows
Duration = quantity/productivity
= 230 m2/ 12 m2/day = 17.5 days
III. If time units of working days are being used,
assume a normal working day. Do not consider
overtime or multiple shifts unless this is a usual
procedure or a part of the standard work day.
IV. Be advised that productivity follows a learning
curve whereby it is low near the start to the
task until adjustments, goes with best
productivity for some time and as the work is
to be finished, productivity reduces.
 Duration Estimation Methods
There are about three activity duration estimation techniques
employed in projects:
1. One-time estimate
– based on past experience on execution of a similar project or average
time
2. Three-time estimate:
– often used in projects not familiar. uses three estimates as
1. optimistic time (To) which assumes everything goes according to plan
2. most likely time (Tm) that assumes normal condition
3. a pessimistic estimate (Tp) which envisages most things may go wrong
• Thus, the expected time of completion (Te)
Te ₌ To+4Tm+Tp

6
3. Trapezoidal distribution estimate
– estimate takes into account a leaner learning
curve as build up to a pick productivity followed
by sustained pick productivity and then a
rundown in productivity as things windup to
completion
 Procedures in duration estimates
• Estimate the quantity of work to be done
• Decide the labor, equipment and material
constants (unit productivity)
• Assess the optimum resource deployment:

•Estimate the activity completion period

 Quantity of work 
 Completion period 
 Unit productivi ty X Re source earmarked 
• Eg Amount concrete work is 120 m3, in build
up phase 30m3,peak period 60m3 and run
down 30m3. there productivity and no. crew is
0.147m3/hr(2),0.2m3/hr(1)and 0.12m3/hr(2)
 Schedule development:
• Is the process that executes the interactions fixed in
sequencing and the durations to establish the start and
finish time of each and every activity and the overall
project.
• A variety of scheduling techniques are available
– The Bar Charts
– Line of Balance Chart
– The Networking Schedule Technique
• The Critical Path Method (CPM),
• The Performance Evaluation & Review Technique (PERT)
• Critical Chain Method
 Bar chart
• Bar charts present the project schedule plotted to a
horizontal line scale. The bar lines represent the time
period allocated to each operation and the relationship
between the commencement and completion of each
can be readily observed
 Advantages of Bar chart:

• Useful to report information to people who are concerned about a

project but may not be involved in day-today management.
• A simple format and readily understood at all levels of management,
• It can provide a quick, visual overview of a project in convenient way
to monitor job progresses, schedule equipment and crews and record
project advancement.
• Disadvantages:
• Interdependencies among activities are difficult to show. The bar
chart itself doesn’t provide a basis for ascertaining which activities
are critical and which are floaters.
• It is not an adequate planning and scheduling tool because it doesn’t
portray a detailed, integrated and complete plan of operations.
 Disadvantages:

• Interdependencies among activities are

difficult to show. The bar chart itself doesn’t
provide a basis for ascertaining which
activities are critical and which are floaters.
• It is not an adequate planning and scheduling
tool because it doesn’t portray a detailed,
integrated and complete plan of operations.
The Line of Balance Scheduling Technique

Reading Assignment
 The Networking Schedule Technique

• The Critical Path Method (CPM)

– This method calculates the minimum completion
time for a project along with the possible start and
finish times for the project activities
 CPM Network analysis Fundamentals
Network elements
•Event or Milestone
–A point in time when certain conditions have been fulfilled,
such as the start or completion of one or more activities
–Unlike an activity, does not consume time or resources
–Hence, expresses a state of being
–Activities take place between events
•Activity
–An item of work that consumes time and resources to
produce some result

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 Dummy Activity
• This activity does not involve
consumption of resources, and therefore
does not need any time to be
‘completed’.
• It is used to define interdependence
between activities and included in a
network for logical and mathematical
reasons as will be shown later.

27
Illustration of event, activity, and dummy activity

A B

10 30 50

C D

20 40 60

28
 Event Timings, Activity Timings and Associated Terms

• Event timing and associated terms

– Earliest Event time (EET) is the earliest time that an event can
take place.
• usually is the start of the project itself, is taken as zero
• the EET of the subsequent event is calculated by adding the activity duration to it
– Latest Event Time (LET) is the latest time that an event can occur
without affecting the on time completion of the project.
• Start and finish times
– Earliest Start Time of an activity (i,j) [EST(i,j)]
• This is the earliest that the activity (i,j) can be started, i.e., all the
necessary preconditions are met.
– Earliest Finish Time of an activity (i,j) [EFT(i,j)]
• This is the earliest that an activity can be completed. Mathematically, the
relationship can be expressed as
• EFT (i,j)= EST(i,j) + D(i,j)
29
• Latest Finish Time of an activity (i,j) [LFT(i,j)]
– the latest time that an activity needs to be
completed in order that there is no delay in the
project completion.
• Latest Start Time of an activity (i,j) [LST(i,j)]
– the latest time when an activity must be started, in
order that there is no delay in the project
completion.

LST(i,j) = LFT(i,j) – D(i,j)

30
• Critical Path
– The series of activities all of which must finish on
time for the whole project to finish on time
– Sometimes described as the longest path through
a network, hence the shortest project time
– A critical path has zero float
– A critical path assumes that the network logic is
sound

31
• Float or Slack Time
– The additional time available to complete a non-
critical activity
• Leads and Lags
– An imposed modification of the logical
relationship between activities
– To accelerate or delay the apparent natural order

32
 Total Float
• Total Float in an activity (i,j) [TF(i,j)]
• Total float is the amount of time by which the
start of an activity may be delayed without
causing a delay in the completion of the
project. This is calculated as (TF(i,j) = [LST(i,j)]–
[EST(i,j)]) or ([LFT(i,j)]– [EFT(i,j)])

33
 Free Float
• Free float is the amount of time by which the
start of an activity may be delayed without
delaying the start of a following activity.
• Free Float = (Earliest start time of the
following activity – Duration of the activity –
Earliest start time of the activity) that is Free
Float = TEj- TEi -D

34
 Independent Float
• It is defined as the difference in Total Float and
Free Float. In other words: Interference Float=
Total Float – Free Float.

35
 Forward and Backward Pass
• The forward pass moves from the ‘start’ node towards the
‘finish’ node, and basically calculates the earliest occurrence
times of all events.
• Considering that the project starts at time zero, the earliest
occurrence time at each node is found by going from node to
node in the order of increasing node numbers keeping in
mind the logical relationships between the nodes as shown by
the connecting arrows.
• The earliest occurrence time for any node can be estimated
from the (maximum) time taken to reach that node from the
different incoming arrows.

36
 EXAMPLE 1
Task ID Duration Dependency

A 7
B 3

C 6 A
D 3 B
E 3 D,F
F 2 B
G 3 C
H 2 E,G

37
 Network of the example
C
2
A
6 3 G
3
7
H
A
B D 6 E 7 8
1
4
3 4 3 3 2
F
2
5

38
 Network of the example
C
2 6
3
G
A 3
7
H
A
B D 6 E 7 8
1
4
3 4 3 3 2
F
2
5

39
 Computations
Act. Duration EST EFT LST LFT TF

A 7 0 7 0 7 0
B 3 0 3 7 10 7
C 6 7 13 7 13 0
D 3 3 6 10 13 7
E 3 6 9 13 16 7
F 2 3 5 11 13 8
G 3 13 16 13 16 0
H 2 16 18 16 18 0
40
 EXAMPLE 2
Activity Duration Dependency
A 3 -
B 4 -
C 3 -
D 0 B
E 4 C,B
F 0 G
G 5 A
H 4 F ,E
 G(5)
4 5
A(3) F(0)
E(4)
1
C(3)
3 6 7
H(4)

B(4) A A(0)
2
Act. Duration EST EFT LST LFT TF

A 3
B 4
C 3
D 0
E 4
F 0
G 5
H 4
 Example 3
Notation Activity Duration (days) Dependency

A Procurement of Piles 5 -

B Excavation 3 -

C Drive Piles 4 A,B

D Build Formworks (pile cap) 3 -

E Procure steel re-bars 2 -

F Place formworks (Pile cap) 1 D,C&E

G Place Re-bars 2 F

H Pour Concrete 1 G
 Quiz(10%)(G4)
Activity Duration Dependency
A 3 -
B 4 A
C 3 A
D 4 A
E 5 C
F 2 B
G 5 F,E,D

1 Draw the network diagram.

2 Find the critical path and the project duration.
3 calculate EET,EFT,LST,LFT,&TF
 Quiz(10%)(G1)
Activity Duration Dependency
A 120 -
B 20 -
C 40 B
D 30 C
E 50 D,F
F 60 B

1 Draw the network diagram.

2 Find the critical path and the project duration.
3 calculate EET,EFT,LST,LFT,&TF