PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Unit-III

Project Planning and Scheduling

Planning Fundamentals
One distinguishing feature of projects is that each is
tailored towards some unique end-item or end-result.

That uniqueness implies that every project must be

defined a new scheme created telling everyone involved
what to do.

Deciding and specifying what they have to do is the

function of project definition, the output of which is a
project plan.

Making sure they do it right is the function of project

control.
Planning Fundamentals
Three things occur in the planning and control process:

1. During the conception and definition phase, a plan is

prepared specifying the project requirements, work
tasks, responsibilities, schedules, and budgets;

2. During the execution phase the work in the plan is

performed and project progress is tracked and
assessed, if necessary.
3. Corrective action is taken or the requirements or plan
are revised.
Planning Fundamentals
PLANNING STEPS
Top management authorises planning to begin shortly
after a business need, contract request, or request for
proposal (RFP) has been received.
This authorisation releases funds so that an initial plan,
schedule, and budget can be prepared for inclusion in the
project proposal.
Approval of the project or signing the contract justifies
full-scale funding and work authorisation for the entire
project, and, starting with the definition of detailed
system requirements, the preparation of a detailed
project master plan.
Planning Fundamentals
PLANNING STEPS
For internal projects, the project charter will be released
to announce and briefly describe the project to
stakeholders.

A project manager, if not already assigned or involved, is

now identified to oversee the planning process, which
proceeds from here on and elaborates on the initial plan
as prepared for the proposal, business case study, or
charter.
Project Charter
The project charter is a proclamation that management
has approved a project and given the project manager its
backing.

Organisations use it to announce and formally authorise

the start of internal projects.

The charter is created upon project approval, based upon

the feasibility study.

The purpose of the charter is to describe the project to

stakeholders in the organisation and establish the project
manager’s authority to gather and make use of resources.
Project Charter
It includes a variety of information, whatever is necessary
to give a good overview of the project; for example, it can
describe the project objectives, scope, stakeholders and
their stakes, estimated budget and schedule, risk,
assumptions and constraints, resources, and key roles and
the people responsible for filling them.
Often the charter contains sections similar to the project
plan.
Sometimes the charter is used as the project plan,
although more commonly it is somewhat brief, several
pages at most, and provides only an overview of a more
comprehensive project plan.
Planning Fundamentals
PLANNING STEPS
Because every project is somewhat different there is
never an a priori, established way that specifies how each
and every project should be done.

New projects pose new questions, and the purpose of

planning is to answer them.

For starters, the project team needs to answer questions

regarding what, how, by whom, in what order, for how
much, and by when.
Planning Fundamentals
PLANNING STEPS
The formalised planning process answers these questions
in the following steps:
1. What, for how much and by when?
2. How?
3. Who?
4. When, in what order?
5. How much and when?
6. How well?
7. Repeat: How much, When, and How well?
Planning Fundamentals
PLANNING STEPS
The formalised planning process answers these questions
in the following steps:
1. What, for how much and by when?
Define the project objective, project scope, and
system requirements.
These specify the project deliverables, end-item, and
other sought results, as well as the time, cost, and
performance targets.
The scope and requirements include criteria the
customer will use to determine the acceptability of
deliverables or end-items at project completion.
Planning Fundamentals
PLANNING STEPS
2. How?
Define the specific work activities, task, or jobs to be
done to achieve the objectives and requirements.
The activities must include everything necessary to
create and deliver the promised end-item or
deliverables, including activities for planning, control,
and administration of the project.
Planning Fundamentals
PLANNING STEPS
3. Who?
Create the project organisation that will perform and
manage the work.
This involves identifying the departments,
subcontractors, and managers that will comprise the
project, and specifying their responsibilities.

4. When, in what order?

Prepare a budget and resource plan that allocates
funding and other resources to support work activities
as necessary according to the project schedule.
Planning Fundamentals
PLANNING STEPS
3. Who?
Create the project organisation that will perform and
manage the work.
This involves identifying the departments,
subcontractors, and managers that will comprise the
project, and specifying their responsibilities.

4. When, in what order?

Prepare a budget and resource plan that allocates
funding and other resources to support work activities
as necessary according to the project schedule.
Main Tools in Project Management
1. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)- An initial planning tool that is needed to develop
a list of activities, activities sequences and a realistic budget.
2. Network Diagram- A “big picture” visual aid that is used to estimate project duration,
identify activities that are critical for timely project completion, identify areas where
slack time exists, and develop activity schedules.
3. Gantt Charts- A visual aid used to plan and monitor individual activities.
4. Risk Management- Analyses of potential failure or problem, assessment of their
liklihood and consequences, and contingency.
 Background
• Role of Managers in large scale projects
(planning, scheduling, monitoring, and controlling)

• Management science techniques have been applied to major projects

(50 Yrs)

• CPM- 1957 (Developed by Kelly and Walker to assist in building and

maintenance of chemical plants.)

• PERT-1958 (US navy developed for to plan and control the Polaris
missile program.
Importance of PERT/CPM
PERT and CPM Answers-
 When will the entire project be completed?
 What are the critical activities or tasks in the project, (delay
the entire project)
 Which are the noncritical activities, (can run late without
delaying the whole project’s completion time?)
 What is the probability that the project will be completed by a
specific date?
 At any particular date, is the project on schedule, behind
schedule, or a head of the schedule?
 On any given date, is the money spent equal to, less than, or
greater than the budgeted amount?
 NETWORK TECHNIQUES

PERT CPM

 Both use same calculations, almost similar

 Main difference is probabilistic and deterministic in time
estimation
 Gantt Chart also used in scheduling
 CPM/PERT
• PERT stands for Program Evaluation and Review Technique.

• CPM stands for Critical Path Method.

• PERT/CPM is used to plan the scheduling of individual activities that make up a project.

• PERT/CPM-Can determine:
 The earliest/latest start & finish times for each activity,
 The entire project completion time and
 The slack time for each activity.
• PERT and CPM are similar in their basic approach, they do differ in the way activity times
are estimated.
• PERT- Three times are combined to determine the expected activity completion time and its
variance (Probabilistic Technique).
(Optimistic, Pessimistic and Most likely times)
• CPM- Deterministic approach. It uses two/one time estimate, the normal time and the crash
time, for each activity
 CPM/PERT
• PERT- Event Oriented (Prepares network from Events)
• CPM- Activity Oriented (Prepares network from
Activities)

• PERT- Event Oriented so not related to cost

• CPM- Activity time Oriented so related to cost

• PERT- Provides an allowance for uncertainty

• CPM- Does not
CPM
 Finding the critical path is a major part of controlling a project.

 The activities on the critical path represent tasks that will delay
the entire project if they are delayed.

 Manager gain flexibility by identifying noncritical activities and

re-planning, re-scheduling, and re-allocating resources such as
personnel and finances
 Project Network
• A project network can be constructed to model the precedence of the
activities.
• The arcs of the network represent the activities.
• The nodes of the network represent the start and the end of the activities.
• A critical path for the network is a path consisting of activities with zero
slack. And it is always the longest path in the project network .
 Terminologies used in Network Diagram

Activities:- Project steps consume resources and/or time. Any portions of project (tasks) which
required by project, uses up resource and consumes time–may involve labor, paper work,
contractual negotiations, machinery operations.
AOA -Activity on Arrow (showed as arrow),
AON – Activity on Node
Events:- The starting and finishing of activities, designated by nodes in the AOA convention.
Network (precedence) diagram: Diagram of project activities that shows sequential
relationships by use of arrows and nodes. Or Combination of all project activities
PRECEEDIN SUCCESSOR
G Activity

EVENT
DEFINITION OF TERMS IN A NETWORK
 An activity carries the arrow symbol, .
(This represent a task or subproject that uses time or resources)

• A node (an event), denoted by a circle ,

(Marks the start and completion of an activity, which contain a number
that
helps to identify its location.)
For example activity A can be drawn as:

A
1 2
3 days

This means activity A starts at node 1 and finishes

at node 2 and it will takes three days
 Terminologies used in Network Diagram
Activities are classified as :

(i) Critical activities: In a network diagram, critical activities are those which if consume more than their estimated time, the
project will be delayed. An activity is called critical if its earliest start time plus the time taken by it is equal to the latest
finishing time.

(ii) Non-critical activities: Such activities have provision (float or slack) so that, even if they consume a specified time over and
above the estimated time, the project will not be delayed.

(iii) Dummy activities. When two activities start at the same instant of time, the head events are joined by a dotted arrow and
this is known as a dummy activity. Dummy activity does not consume time. A dummy activity may be non-critical or critical. It
becomes a critical activity when its earliest start time (EST) is same as its latest finishing time (LFT).

(c) Critical Path: It is that sequence of activities which decide the total project duration. Critical path is formed by critical
activities. A critical path consumes maximum resources. It is the longest path and consumes maximum time. A critical path has
zero float. The expected completion dates cannot be met, if even one critical activity is delayed. A critical path reveals those
activities which must be manipulated by some means or the other if the scheduled completion dates are to be met.

Slack:- Allowable slippage for a path; the difference between the length of a path and the length of the critical path.
EMPHASIS ON LOGIC IN NETWORK CONSTRUCTION
 Construction of network should be based on logical or
technical dependencies among activities
 Example: Before activity ‘Approve Drawing’ can be
started the
activity ‘Prepare Drawing’ must be completed
 Common error – build network on the basis of time logic
(a feeling for proper sequence ) see example below

WRONG !!!

CORRECT

ACTIVITY
 Activity Proceed from left to Right
( Tail of arrow- Start Activity & Head of arrow-
Completion)

 Length is not important ( Length & Duration- No

relation)

 Arrow may be Straight (H, V or Bent but not Broken)

 Activities are properly identified by using

 Shortened description (Design, Paint,Fix, etc)
 Alphabetical code ( A, B, C….etc.)
 Pairs of numbers of the events linked by activity (1-2, 2-3, 2-4,
…etc.)

 Duration of activity are written below ( Hr, Day, Week, etc..)

ACTIVITY RELATIONSHIP

A B

• Activity B can not start until activity A is

completed
• A- Preceding activity, B-Succeeding activity
ACTIVITY RELATIONSHIP

D
C
E

• Activity D & E can not start until activity C is

completed
• D &E- Started Simultaneous- Concurrent between
themselves,
• D & E are Succeeding to activity C
ACTIVITY RELATIONSHIP

K M

L N

• Activity M & N can not start until activity K &L are

completed
• K & L- Preceding activity, M & N-Succeeding activity
• M&N- Started Simultaneous- Concurrent between
themselves (K& L= ?)
ACTIVITY RELATIONSHIP

P R

Q S

• Activity R can not start until activity P & Q are

completed
• Activity S can not start until activity Q is over ( i.e. P may
not be over)
• R is Succeeding to activities P & Q while
S is Succeeding to activities Q
 ACTIVITY RELATIONSHIP- DUMMY

• A project consist of Four activities A, B, C, D. Activities B

& C depends on activity A while D depends on B & C.
Draw the network for project.
B

A D

• Error/confusion- Common Start & Common Finish

point- Dummy
 ACTIVITY RELATIONSHIP- DUMMY

• A project consist of Four activities A, B, C, D. Activities B

& C depends on activity A while D depends on B & C.
Draw the network for project.

• Gen. Rule: Two activities can not have common starting &
finish point. They can have common start or finish point,
but not both.
A B D

C
1. The following table gives the activities of a construction project and time duration

Activity 1-2 1-3 2-3 2-4 3-4 4-5

Duration 20 25 10 12 6 10

1. Draw the network for the project

2. Find the critical path.
2. Following table gives the activity in a construction project and time duration.

Activity Preceding activity Normal time

1-2 - 20
1-3 - 25
2-3 1-2 10
2-4 1-2 12
3-4 1-3, 2-3 5
4-5 2-4, 3-4 10

1. Draw activity network of the project

2. Determine critical path and the project duration
 Activity A B C D E F G H I J
Precedence - - A B A C,D E E F,G H,I
Duration 4 6 9 10 12 15 18 8 3 18

Activity A B C D E F G H I J K
Precedence - - - A B B C D E H,I F,G
Duration 7 9 10 13 19 20 5 1 15 17 22