UKAI 2063

Accounting
Information Systems II
Lecture 4
Project Management 2

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 Lecture 4 Outline

Project management tools and techniques:

network diagram, work breakdown structure (WBS)
and Gantt charts

Project management software - MS Project

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Project Management Overview

• Project Management
• A successful project must be completed on time, within budget, and
deliver a quality product that satisfies users and meets requirements
• Project manager or project leader
• Project coordinator

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Project Management Overview

• Project managers typically perform four main tasks:

• Project planning – identifying all project tasks, estimating the completion
time and cost.
• Project scheduling – timetable, selecting the members of the project team.
• Project monitoring and controlling – supervising the project’s team
workload, monitor the progress, evaluate the result and take corrective
action.
• Project reporting – progress reports to management, users and project team.

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Project Planning

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Project Planning

• Identifying Tasks
• One important variable is the size of the project, because the amount of
work increases dramatically as project scope increases
• A project that is twice as large will be much more than twice as complex

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Project Planning

• Identifying Tasks
• Multiple interactions can lead to
misunderstandings and delay
• Project creep
• The capabilities of project team
members also affect time
requirements
• Brooks Law

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Project Planning

• Estimating Task Completion Time and Cost

• Person-days
• Some tasks can be divided evenly so it is possible to use different
combinations of time and people, up to a point
• In most systems analysis tasks, however, time and people are not
interchangeable

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Project Planning

• Estimating Task Completion Time and Cost

• Best-case estimate (B)
• Probable-case estimate (P)
• Worst-case estimate (W)
• Weight
• Expected task duration:
(B+4P+W)
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• Eg. A project manager might estimate that a file-conversion task
could be completed in as few as 20 days or could take as many as 34
days, but most likely will require 24 days. Using the formula, the
expected task duration is 25 days, calculated as below:

(20+4(24)+34)/6 = 25
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Project Planning

• Factors Affecting Time and Cost Estimates

• Project size and scope
• IT resources
• Prior experience with similar projects or systems
• Applicable constraints

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Project Scheduling

• A project schedule is a specific timetable

• Project scheduling also involves selecting and staffing the project
team, assigning specific tasks to team members, and arranging for
other necessary resources
• Must balance task time estimates, sequences, and personnel
assignments
• Several graphical planning aids can help

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Gantt Charts

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 Gantt Charts
Schedule bar chart
• Originally designed by Henry Gantt, who used it as a visual aid for
planning and controlling his ship building projects.
• These charts, with bars representing activities, show activity start and
end dates, as well as expected durations.
• Bar charts are relatively easy to read, and are frequently used in
management presentations.

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PERT/CPM Charts

• The Program Evaluation Review Technique (PERT)

• Critical Path Method (CPM)
• The distinctions between the two methods have disappeared over
time, and today the technique is called either PERT, CPM, or
PERT/CPM

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PERT/CPM Charts

• Overview of PERT/CPM
• PERT/CPM is called a bottom-up technique
• Project tasks
• Once you know the tasks, their duration, and the order in which they must
be performed, you can calculate the time that it will take to complete the
project

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PERT/CPM Charts

• PERT/CPM Tasks
• Task box
• Task ID
• Task name
• Task Duration
• Start Day/Date
• Finish Day/Date

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Activity box

The activity box indicates where to position

the values in the activity box.

There are different notations of activity box

being used.
ES Duration EF
Activity identifier and description
LS Float LF
Activity box

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Define the terms used in an activity box
Earliest start (ES): the earliest time when an activity can
start.

Earliest finish (EF): the earliest time when an activity

can finish.

Latest start (LS): the latest time when an activity can

start.

Latest finish (LF): the latest time when an activity can

finish.

Duration: the time needed to complete an activity.

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Activity durations

Time units can be expressed as hours, days,

weeks, months depending on the length of the
activities and the project.

An activity’s duration will run from the start

to the finish of the activity.

An activity’s duration is linked to resources –

increasing the resources will obviously shorten
the duration.
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Activity float
Activity float, also called slack, is a measurement of
flexibility or inherent surplus time in an activity’s scheduling,
e.g. how many working days the activity can be delayed or
extended before it will effect the completion date of the project or
any target finish dates.

Float is calculated by either of the two equations:

Float = latest start (LS) - earliest start (ES)

Float = latest finish (LF) - earliest finish (EF)

The critical path is defined as the series of activities which

have zero float.
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PERT/CPM Charts

• Critical Path
• Slack time
• If any task along the critical path falls behind schedule, the entire project is
delayed
• A critical path includes all tasks that are vital to the project schedule
• If necessary, a project manager can reassign resources to keep the project on
schedule

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Activity Preceding Duration
activity (weeks)
A -- 4
B -- 6
C A,B 7
D B 8
E B 5
F C 5
G D 7
H D,E 8
I F,G,H 4
Project “Let’s Try”

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First, build a structure of the diagram based on the logical
relationships as defined.

C F

B I

D G

E H

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Second, assign durations to all activities.
4

A
7 5

C F
6 4
B I
8 7

D G

5 8

E H

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Third, do a forward pass
To calculate the early start date (ES) and early finish date
(EF) for all the activities.

Assuming the project starts at day 0, the EF of an activity is

calculated by adding the activity duration to the ES, using the
formula:

EF = ES + duration

When many activities lead into one activity on the forward

pass, take the highest EF value to calculate the ES of the
succeeding activity.

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Let’s complete the forward pass.

0 4 4

A
6 7 13 13 5 18

C F
0 6 6 22 4 26
B I
6 8 14 14 7 21

D G

6 5 11 14 8 22

E H

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Fourth, do a backward pass.
To calculate the late start date (LS) and late finish date
(LF) of each activity.

If the late finish date (LF) for the last activity is not
assigned, use the early finish date, i.e. LF = EF.

When many activities lead into one activity on the

backward pass, take the lowest LS value to calculate the LF
of the preceding activity.

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Let’s complete the backward pass.

0 4 4

A
6 6 10
6 7 13 13 5 18

C F
10 4 17 17 4 22
0 6 6 22 4 26
B I
0 0 6 6 8 14 14 7 21 22 0 26

D G
6 0 14 15 1 22

6 5 11 14 8 22

E H
9 3 14 14 0 22

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Last, identify the activities where activity float = 0, and
then highlight the critical path.
0 4 4

A
6 6 10
6 7 13 13 5 18

C F
10 4 17 17 4 22
0 6 6 22 4 26
B I
0 0 6 6 8 14 14 7 21 22 0 26

D G
6 0 14 15 1 22

6 5 11 14 8 22

E H
9 3 14 14 0 22

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PERT/CPM Charts

• Comparing Gantt Charts and PERT/CPM

• Although a Gantt chart offers a rapid overview that graphically displays the
timing, duration, and progress of each task, many project managers find
PERT/CPM charts more helpful for scheduling, monitoring, and controlling
projects
• PERT/CPM and Gantt charts are not mutually exclusive techniques

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Project Risk Management

• Every IT project involves risks that systems analysts and project

managers must address
• Risk management
• Steps in Risk Management
• Develop risk management plan
• Identify the risks
• Risk identification

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Project Risk Management

• Steps in Risk Management

• Analyze the risks
• Qualitative risk analysis
• Quantitative risk analysis
• Create a risk response plan
• Monitor risks

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Project Risk Management

• Risk Management Software Tools

• Most project management software programs, such as Microsoft Project,
contain various tools that a project manager can use
• The IT team can make a recommendation regarding the risks
• Depending on the nature and magnitude of the risk, the final decision might
be made by management

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Project Monitoring and Control

• Monitoring and Control Techniques

• The project manager must keep track of tasks and progress of team
members, compare actual progress with the project plan, verify the
completion of project milestones, and set standards and ensure that they are
followed
• Structured walkthrough
• Called design reviews, code reviews, or testing reviews

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Project Monitoring and Control

• Maintaining a Schedule
• Maintaining a project schedule can be a challenging task
• The better the original plan, the easier it will be to control the project
• If enough milestones and frequent checkpoints exist, problems will be
detected rapidly
• Project managers often spend most of their time tracking the tasks along the
critical path

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Project Reporting

• Project Status Meetings

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Project Reporting

• Project Status Reports

• A project manager must report regularly to his or her immediate supervisor,
upper management, and users
• Should explain what you are doing to handle and monitor the problem
• Most managers recognize that problems do occur on most projects; it is
better to alert management sooner rather than later

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Project Management Software

• Project Management Software

Examples
• Microsoft Office Project
• Open Workbench
• Open-source software

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Project Management Software

• A Sample Project Using Microsoft Project and Open Workbench

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Project Management Software

• A Sample Project Using Microsoft Project and Open Workbench

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Keys to Project Success

• Business Issues
• The major objective of every system is to provide a solution to a business
problem or opportunity
• A system that falls short of business needs also produces problems for users
and reduces employee morale and productivity

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Keys to Project Success

• Budget Issues
• Cost overruns typically result from one or more of the following:
• Unrealistic estimates
• Failure to develop an accurate TCO forecast
• Poor monitoring of progress and inadequate reaction to early signs of problems
• Schedule delays due to unanticipated factors
• Human resource factors

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Keys to Project Success

• Schedule Issues
• Problems with timetables and project milestones can indicate a failure to
recognize task dependencies, confusion between effort and progress, poor
monitoring and control methods, personality conflicts among team
members, or turnover of project personnel

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Keys to Project Success

• Successful Project Management

• When problems occur, the project manager’s ability to handle the situation
becomes the critical factor
• Sometimes, when a project experiences delays or cost overruns, the system
still can be delivered on time and within budget if several less critical
requirements are trimmed

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Keys to Project Success

• Successful Project Management

– If a project is in trouble because of a lack of resources or organizational
support, management might be willing to give the project more commitment
and higher priority
– A typical response is to push back the completion date
– Option only if the original target date is flexible and the extension will not
create excessive costs or other problems

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Still got time for one more technique?

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Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

The WBS is a deliverable-oriented

hierarchical decomposition of the work to be
executed by the project team, to accomplish
the project objectives and create the required
deliverables.

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Figure: WBS levels

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WBS characteristics
The WBS organizes and defines the total scope of the project.
The WBS subdivides the project work into smaller, more
manageable pieces of work, with each descending level of the
WBS representing an increasingly detailed definition of the
project work.

The planned work contained within the lowest-level WBS

components, which are called work packages, can be
scheduled, cost estimated, monitored, and controlled.

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Decomposition of the upper level WBS components requires
subdividing the work for each of the deliverables or
subprojects into its fundamental components, where the WBS
components represent verifiable products, services, or results.

Each component should be clearly and completely defined and

assigned to a specific performing organizational unit that
accepts responsibility for the WBS component’s completion.

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The numbering system

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Why a breakdown of work is necessary?
In planning a project, the project manager must structure the
work into small elements that are:

Manageable, in that specific authority and responsibility

can be assigned.

Independent, or with minimum interfacing with and

dependence on other ongoing elements.

Integratable so that the total package can be seen.

Measurable in terms of progress.

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 Acknowledgements
This PowerPoint presentation contains
materials complied from various sources.
Credits are hereby given to their respective
owners. Please refer to the reading list for
details.

Reminder
The lecture slides serve only as a quick
learning guide. Students are required to refer
to the main textbook for detailed elaboration.

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