Project Scheduling & Tracking (Week 3)
Project Scheduling & Tracking (Week 3)
(Week 3)
Felicity Tracking.. How would you?
Breaking down information to track
Picking items to build
Typical roles in team
Class black board..
Project Scheduling & Tracking
(Week 3)
Planning, Estimating, Scheduling
Process WBS
a.k.a Activity-oriented
Ex: Requirements, Analysis, Design, Testing
Typically used by PM
Product WBS
a.k.a. Entity-oriented
Ex: Financial engine, Interface system, DB
Typically used by engineering manager
Hybrid WBS: both above
This is not unusual
Ex: Lifecycle phases at high level with component or
feature-specifics within phases
Rationale: processes produce products
Product WBS
Process WBS
WBS
List of Activities, not Things
List of items can come from many sources
SOW, Proposal, brainstorming, stakeholders, team
Describe activities using bullet language
Meaningful but terse labels
All WBS paths do not have to go to the same level
Do not plan more detail than you can manage
Work Packages (Tasks)
Top-Down
Bottom-Up
Analogy
Rolling Wave
1st pass: go 1-3 levels deep
Gather more requirements or data
Add more detail later
Post-its on a wall
WBS Techniques
Analogy
Base WBS upon that of a similar project
Use a template
Analogy also can be estimation basis
Pros
Based on past actual experience
Cons
Needs comparable project
Sequence the Work Activities
Milestone Chart
Gantt chart
Network Techniques
CPM (Critical Path Method)
PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique)
Gantt Chart
Advantages:
- Easy to understand
- Easy to change
Disadvantages:
- only a vague description of the project
- does not show interdependency of activities
- cannot show results of an early or late start
of an activity
Network Techniques
9 B 5
11 8
Start A D E End
9 7
C
CPM
Critical Path Method (CPM) tries to answer the following
questions:
1. What is the duration of the project?
2. By how much (if at all) will the project be delayed if any
one of the activities takes N days longer?
3. How long can certain activities be postponed without
increasing the total project duration?
Critical Path
Sequence of activities that have to be executed one after
another
Duration times of these activities will determine the overall
project time, because there is no slack/float time for these
activities
If any of the activities on the critical path takes longer than
projected, the entire project will be delayed by that same
amount
Critical path = Longest path in the precedence network
(generally, the longest in time)
Critical Path
9 B 5
11 8
Start A D E End
9 7
C
9 B 5
11 8
Start A D E End
9 7
C Task slack time = LS ES
Slack time maximum - or -
allowable delay for a Task slack time = LF - EF
non-critical activity. Task B has 2 time units of slack time
ACTIVITY 1 (Tracking)
Q1. Based on the following table, calculate the ES, EF, LS, LF times
and slack for each activity. In addition, identify the critical path and the
amount of time needed to complete the project
Q2. Based on the following table, calculate the ES, EF, LS, LF
times and slack for each activity assuming a expected
completion time of 16 weeks. Can the project still be
completed on time? If necessary, identify the activities you
would concentrate on to get the project back on schedule.