Project time management

Covered areas: Last 5 sessions

 Definition for project, PM , PM knowledge areas, PM Process
Groups , Project charter
 PM in IT Projects
 Integration management
 Scope management

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WHY Project time management?
• Time is the variable that has the least amount of flexibility

• The need to deliver projects on time

• Biggest challenges
• Main cause of conflict
• People often compare planned and actual project completion
times without taking into account the approved changes in the
project
• Time passes no matter what happens on a project!
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What is Project time management
• Involves the processes required to ensure timely completion of a
project
• 7 process:
1. Planning schedule management
2. Defining activities
3. Sequencing activities
4. Estimating activity resources
5. Estimating activity durations
6. Developing the schedule
7. Controlling the schedule

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Planning schedule management
• Planning how the schedule will be managed throughout the life of the
project
• The project charter often mentions planned project start and end
dates, which serve as the starting points for a more detailed schedule
• , and meetings to develop the schedule management plan

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 • Project management plan
• Project charter
Input • Enterprise environmental factors
• Organizational process assets

• Expert judgment
• Meetings
Process • Analytical techniques

• Schedule management plan

Output
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Schedule management plan includes
• Project schedule model development: Many projects include a
schedule model, which contains project activities with estimated
durations, dependencies, and other planning information that can be
used to produce a project schedule
• Level of accuracy and units of measure: This section discusses how
accurate schedule estimates should be and determines whether time
is measured in hours, days, or another unit

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Defining activities
• Involves identifying the specific actions that will produce the project
deliverables in enough detail to determine resource and schedule
estimates

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Activity Preceded by
A -
B -
C A
D B
E C,E
F C
G E,F
H G
I H
J H
K I,J

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Sequencing activities
• Sequencing activities or determining their dependencies

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 Dependencies
• A dependency or relationship affects to the sequencing of project activities
or tasks
• Mandatory dependencies are inherent in the nature of the work being
performed on a project(Hard logic)
• You cannot test code until after the code is written.
• Discretionary dependencies are defined by the project team(soft logic)
• A project team might follow good practice and not start the detailed design
until the users stop on all of the analysis work.
• External dependencies involve relationships between project and non-
project activities
• Installation of a new operating system and other software may depend on
delivery of new hardware from an external supplier
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Project Network Diagrams
• A project network diagram is a schematic display of the logical
relationships among, or sequencing of, project activities
• Two main formats are the arrow and precedence diagramming
methods

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 Arrow Diagramming Method (ADM)

• Also called activity-on-arrow (AOA) project network diagrams

• Activities are represented by arrows
• Nodes or circles are the starting and ending points of activities
• The first node signifies the start of a project, and the last
node represents the end.
• Every activity on the network diagram must be completed in
order to finish the project.
• Can only show finish-to-start dependencies

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Task Dependency Types

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Sample Activity-on-Arrow (AOA) Network
Diagram for Project X

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Steps to Create AOA Diagrams
1. Find all of the activities that start at node 1. Draw their finish nodes and
draw arrows between node 1 and those finish nodes. Put the activity
letter or name and duration estimate on the associated arrow.
2. Continuing drawing the network diagram, working from left to right. Look
for bursts and merges. Bursts occur when a single node is followed by two
or more activities. A merge occurs when two or more nodes precede a
single node
3. Continue drawing the AOA network diagram until all activities are
included on the diagram that have dependencies
4. As a rule of thumb, all arrowheads should face toward the right, and no
arrows should cross on an AOA network diagram

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Precedence Diagramming Method
(PDM)
• Activities are represented by boxes
• Arrows show relationships between activities
• More popular than ADM method and used by project management
software
• Better at showing different types of dependencies

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Sample PDM Network Diagram

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 Estimating activity resources
• Before estimating the duration for each activity, you must have a good idea
of the quantity and type of resources (people, equipment, and materials)
that will be assigned to each activity
• A resource breakdown structure is a hierarchical structure that identifies the
project’s resources by category and type

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Activity Preceded by Cost of activity
A - $1000
B - $1000
C A $2000
D B $3000
E C,E $2000
F C $1000
G E,F $1000
H G $2000
I H $3000
J H $4000
K I,J $1000

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Questions to answer when estimating
activity resources
• How difficult will specific activities be on this project?
• Is anything unique in the project’s scope statement that will affect resources?
• What is the organization’s history in doing similar activities?
• Has the organization done similar tasks before?
• What level of personnel did the work?
• Does the organization have people, equipment, and materials that are capable
and available for performing the work?
• Could any organizational policies affect the availability of resources?
• Does the organization need to acquire more resources to accomplish the work?
• Would it make sense to outsource some of the work?
• Will outsourcing increase or decrease the amount of resources needed and when they
will be available?
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Estimating activity durations
• After working with key stakeholders to define activities, determine
their dependencies, and estimate their resources, the next process in
project time management is to estimate the duration of activities.
• Duration vs. Effort
• Duration includes the actual amount of time worked on an activity +
elapsed time
• Effort is the number of workdays or work hours required to complete
a task. Effort does not equal to duration
• People doing the work should help create estimates, and an expert
should review them
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Activity Preceded by Duration Cost of activity
A - 1 $1000
B - 1 $1000
C A 2 $2000
D B 3 $3000
E C,E 2 $2000
F C 1 $1000
G E,F 1 $1000
H G 2 $2000
I H 3 $3000
J H 4 $4000
K I,J 1 $1000

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Developing the schedule
• Schedule development uses the results of all the preceding project
time management processes to determine the start and end dates of
the project and its activities.
• Ultimate goal is to create a realistic project schedule that provides a
basis for monitoring project progress for the time dimension of the
project
• Important tools and techniques include Gantt charts, PERT analysis,
critical path analysis, and critical chain scheduling
• Project time management processes often go through several
iterations before a project schedule is finalized
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 Gantt Charts
• Gantt charts provide a standard format for
• displaying project schedule information
• by listing project activities and their corresponding start and finish dates in a
calendar format
• Symbols include:
• A black diamond: milestones or significant events on a project with zero duration
• Thick black bars: summary tasks
• Lighter horizontal bars: tasks
• Arrows: dependencies between tasks
• The activities on the Gantt chart are driven by the deliverables on the
WBS

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Gantt Chart for Software Launch Project

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Milestones
• Many people like to focus on meeting milestones,
especially for large projects
• You create milestones in Gantt charts by entering tasks
with zero duration
• You can follow the SMART criteria in developing
milestones that are:
• Specific
• Measurable
• Assignable
• Realistic
• Time-framed

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 Critical Path Method (CPM)
• CPM is a project network analysis technique used to predict total project
duration
• A critical path for a project is the series of activities that determines the
earliest time by which the project can be completed
• The critical path is the longest path through the network diagram and has
the least amount of slack or float
• Slack or float is the amount of time an activity may be delayed without delaying a
succeeding activity or the project finish date

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Finding the Critical Path
• First develop a good project network diagram
• Add the durations for all activities on each path through the project
network diagram
• The longest path is the critical path

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Example of Determining the Critical Path
• Consider the following project network diagram. Assume all times are in
days.
C=2 4 E=1
A=2 B=5
start 1 2 3 6 finish

D=7 5 F=2

a. How many paths are on this network diagram?

b. How long is each path?
c. Which is the critical path?
d. What is the shortest amount of time needed to complete this
project? 35
Determining the Critical Path for Project X

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 More on the Critical Path
• Even though the critical path is the longest path, it represents the
shortest time required to complete a project
• If one or more activities on the critical path takes longer than
planned, the whole project schedule will slip unless corrective action
is taken
• Misconceptions:
• The critical path is not the one with all the critical activities; it only
accounts for time.
• There can be more than one critical path if the lengths of two or more
paths are the same
• The critical path can change as the project progresses
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Draw the Network (Arrow)
Activity Initial Node Final Node Estimated Duration
A 1 2 2
B 2 3 2
C 2 4 3
D 2 5 4
E 3 6 2
F 4 6 3
G 5 7 6
H 6 8 2
I 6 7 5
J 7 8 1
K 8 9 2

1. How long will it take to complete each path?

2. Which path is the critical path?
Using Critical Path Analysis to Make Schedule Trade-
offs
• Free slack or free float
• Total slack or total float
• Forward pass
• Backward pass

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Using Critical Path Analysis to Make Schedule Trade-
offs
• Knowing the critical path helps you make schedule trade-offs
• Free slack or free float is the amount of time an activity can be delayed
without delaying the early start of any immediately following activities
• Total slack or total float is the amount of time an activity may be delayed
from its early start without delaying the planned project finish date
• A forward pass through the network diagram determines the early start
and finish dates
• A backward pass determines the late start and finish dates

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Calculating Early and Late Start and Finish
Dates

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 Slack Times
• EST—Earliest Start Time
• Largest EFT of all predecessors
• EFT—Earliest Finish Time
• EST + duration for this task
• LFT—Latest Finish Time
• Smallest LST of following tasks
• LST—Latest Start Time
• LFT – duration for this task
• Slack—LFT – EFT or LST – EST
• Free slack/float = minimum value of all successors j(ESj) - EFi
Calculating Slack
Late Early Slack
Activity
Finish Finish (weeks)
A 4 4 0
B 10 10 0
C 25 7 18
D 16 16 0
E 30 30 0
F 30 12 18
G 32 32 0
H 35 34 1
I 35 35 0
J 39 39 0
K 41 41 0
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• Tasks A and B both precede Task C
• Assume that all duration estimates are in days
• Task A has an estimated duration of 5 days, Task B has an estimated duration of 10
days, and Task C has an estimated duration of 7 days
• There are only two paths through this small network diagram: Path A-C has a
duration of 12 days (5+7), and path B-C has a duration of 17 days (10+7)
• Because path B-C is longer, it is the critical path
• There is no float or slack on this path, so the early and late start dates, and finish
dates are the same
• However, Task A has 5 days of float or slack
• Its early start date is day 0, and its late start date is day 5
• Its early finish date is day 5, and its late finish date is day 10
• Both the free and total float amounts for Task A are 5 days
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 Exercise 01
Activity Predecessor Duration
A - 5
B A 4
C A 5
D B 6
E C 3
F D, E 4

• Find the total and free float/slack of each activity

• What is the critical path?
• What will happen if C is delayed by 1 more day? Will it affect the final
project date? Will it effect the successors early stating dates?
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 Exercise 02
Activity Predecessor Duration
A - 3
B A 4
C A 2
D B 5
E C 1
F C 2
G D, E 4
H F, G 3

• Draw AoA Network diagram

• Convert it to a PDM network diagram
• Find the total and free float/slack of each activity
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 Free and total float or slack for project X

• Convert the AoA diagram of project X to a PDM

• Calculate the Free and total slack to verify above values
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 Techniques for Shortening a Project Schedule
using the Critical Path
• Shorten durations of critical tasks by adding more resources or changing
their scope
• Crashing tasks by obtaining the greatest amount of schedule compression
for the least incremental cost
• Advantage - shortening the project time
• Disadvantage - often increases total project cost
• Fast tracking tasks by doing them in parallel or overlapping them
• Advantage - shortening the project time
• Disadvantage - can lengthen the project schedule because starting some tasks too
soon often increases project risk and results in rework

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 Leads and Lags
• Used in the network diagrams when developing project schedules
• Lead:
• The amount of time a successor activity can be advanced with respect to a predecessor
activity
• Lead is the overlap between first and second activities

• Lag:
• The amount of time a successor activity is required to be delayed with respect to a
predecessor activity
• The delay between the first and second activities.

Lead
Lag
Program Evaluation and Review Technique
(PERT)
• PERT is a network analysis technique used to estimate project
duration when there is a high degree of uncertainty about the
individual activity duration estimates
• PERT uses probabilistic time estimates based on using optimistic,
most likely, and pessimistic estimates of activity durations
• PERT weighted average formula:

optimistic time + 4* most likely time + pessimistic time

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 PERT Example
• What number of days should be included for the following activity:

Activity A:
Optimistic Estimate = 8 days
Most Likely Estimate = 10 days
Pessimistic Estimate = 24 days

PERT weighted average =

8 workdays + 4 * 10 workdays + 24 workdays = 12 days 6
• Instead of using the most likely duration estimate of 10 workdays, the project
team would use 12 workdays when doing critical path analysis.
 Main Advantages and Disadvantages of
PERT
• Main advantage – it attempts to address the risk associated with
duration estimates. Because many projects exceed schedule estimates,
PERT may help in developing schedules that are more realistic.
• Main disadvantages - it involves more work than CPM because it requires
several duration estimates, and there are better probabilistic methods
for assessing schedule risk.

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 Controlling the schedule
• The goal of schedule control is :
• To know the status of the schedule
• Influence the factors that cause schedule changes
• Determine that the schedule has changed
• Manage changes when they occur
• Reality Checks on Schedule:
• First review the draft schedule or estimated completion date in the
project charter
• Prepare a more detailed schedule with the team
• Make sure the schedule is realistic and followed
• Alert top management well in advance if there are schedule problems
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 Tools and techniques

• Performance reviews, where progress reports are often provided

• A schedule change control system, operated as part of the integrated
change control system described in Chapter 4, Project Scope Management
• A scheduling tool and/or project management software
• Variance analysis, such as analysing float or slack and using earned value, as
described in Chapter 7
• Adjusting leads and lags
• Schedule compression, such as crashing and fast tracking
• Resource optimization techniques, such as resource levelling, as described
in Project Human Resource Management chapter

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Thank
You! 55