CHAPTER 9: PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Competences:
 Explain the concept of a project.
 Explain project management terms: earliest start time, earliest finish time, slack time, lag
time, float time, milestone, event, task, critical task, etc.
 Outline project management tools, techniques and models
 Use project management tools to facilitate the execution of projects: Gantt and PERT charts

Introduction
A typical project starts with someone having an idea and documenting the idea on paper. Projects
usually go through a number of phase‘s i.e. well-defined beginning, intermediaries and an end.
There are classified according to size and duration whereby:
o Medium projects have a small size and small time frame.
o Small projects have duration of more than one month.
o Large projects have duration of more than one year.

The duration of a project is determined by its complexity. A project starts when at least one of its
activities is ready to start. A project is completed when all of its activities have been completed. A
project should have some deliverables‘for ease of monitoring.

Often program and project are used interchangeably, but nominally, a program is a larger concept
than a project. A Program is a set of related Projects. Example the space shuttle program consists
of many flights which are each separately managed projects. This chapter is focused on
PROJECTS.

1. Definitions
A project is a planned process to achieve a specific objective through a well-defined set of
activities, budget and time frame. Also, a project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a
unique product or service
Project Management (PM) is a combination of techniques, procedures, people, and systems
focused on the successful completion of a project. It is also a discipline that will support the
planning, implementation, tracking, and control of projects.
Project management program permits the user to identify tasks, task relationships, resources, and
time requirements of a project. The constraints of a PM are: Scope, Time and Budget. The forth
constraint is Quality which is the core of each and every project.

2. Characteristics and resources needed for a project

Characteristics of a project include:
Well defined and achievable objectives or goals.
A time frame for which to achieve its goals.
Resources (types: budget, people, and material & facilities) are efficiently allocated for activities
in the various project phases.
Project is aimed at satisfying the customers.
Created once and must be sustainable.

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Types of resources needed for a project include:
People
Facilities
Equipment
Money
Materials

Examples of projects are:

Programming computer software or an App or web site.
Setting a computer network.
Creating an IS.
Constructing a bridge, house, and road.
Setting up a business, etc.

3. Concept and/or Notion of Project Planning

Project Planning involves understanding the fundamentals of a project:
What business situation is being addressed?
What do you need to do?
What will you do?
How will you do it?
How will you know you did it?
How well did you do?

4. Duties and Qualities of a Project Manager

A project manager is a qualified individual (or a firm) that directs, supervises, and co-ordinates a
project from beginning to end.
Some duties/activities of a project manager are the following:
Define the project, set manageable tasks, obtain resources, and build a team and motivate the
team to carry out the work on time.
Inform all stakeholders of progress on regular basis.
Asses and monitor risks to the project and mitigate/reduce/diminish/lighten them.
Be able to adapt to and manage changing conditions.

Qualities of project manager are:

Strong leadership ability. Contract management skills.
Ability to develop people. Problem solving and time management skills.
Excellent communication skills. Creative and critical thinking.

A project team is a group of professionals committed to achieving common objectives, who work
well together and who relate directly and openly with one another to get things done i.e. action
performed by a team towards a common goal. A team consists of more than one person each of
whom typically has different responsibilities and they success is the responsibility of all the
members.
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Team working is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results. Recent
development in management jargon outlines TEAM as TOGETHER EVERYONE ACHIVES
MORE.
Characteristics of effective teams consist of members who have:
A common purpose and clear goals; The willingness to share information;
The necessary skills and resources; Trust and support in each other;
A common approach to work; The willingness to take responsibility for
team actions.

Benefits of teamwork
Maximize strength of each member;
Increase in productivity and product quality and also decrease in the cost of production;
A balance work load as each member can help each other;
Can blame your teammate if the project goes bad;
Encouragement of skills, knowledge sharing and fast learning;
Education of group members on tolerance and understanding.

Disadvantages of teamwork
Never gets enough credit when the project goes well;
Not all members will have the same strengths and weaknesses;
Tasks/work not undertaken on time by some members can let the team down;
Conflicts in ideas can cause tensions and personality clashes can cause issues too;
Opposing views can cause arguments.

5. Project Management Life Cycle (PMLC)

These are the sequence of steps or phases to be completed when implementing a project and are not
a linear process. In each phase are the project activities that are carried out.
a. Project conception and Initiation:
At this phase the idea is carefully examined to determine whether or not it benefits the organization
and a decision making then decides if the project is feasible. The project manager works with the
business sponsor or the manager who wants the project implemented and other stakeholders. The
following are examined in this phase:
Analyzing the business needs/requirements in measurable goals.
Stakeholder analysis including users and support from personnel for the project.
Financial analysis of the cost and benefits including a budget.
Project charter (contract) including cost, tasks, deliverable, and schedules.

b. Planning and design:

At this stage all project activities and plan charter may be put in writing outlining the work to be
performed. It consists of the following sub-stages:
Determining how to plan.
Estimate the resource requirements for the activities.
Identifying deliverables and creating the work breakdown structure
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 Select the planning team
Risk planning.

c. Execution and construction:

In this phase, the project manager knows how many resources and how much budget is needed to
work the project. The project manager then assigns those resources and allocates budget to various
tasks and all the teams are informed of responsibilities. It involves the following process:
Coordinating people and resources.
Integrating project activities.
Performing the project activities in accordance with the project management plan.

d. Monitoring and Controlling:

Project managers compare project status and progress to the actual plan and other necessary actions
are taken to keep the project on track. If the client disapproves or request a specific change, the
team must then revert to the project planning phase and adjust the scope to match the new required
deliverables. Its activities include:
Measuring the ongoing project activities.
Monitoring the project variables (e.g. cost, effort, scope) against the project management plan
and the project performance baseline (where we should be).
Identifying corrective actions to address issues and risks properly (that is how can we get on
track again).

Project maintenance is an ongoing process and it includes continuing support of end-users,

correction of errors, and updates of the software.

e. Completion and finish point:

Here the project manager and project sponsor pull together the project team and those who have an
interest in the outcome of the project (stakeholders) to analyze the final outcome of the project. An
evaluation is done to highlight project success and/or learn from the project. The finish point
(closure) is the formal acceptance of the project. This phase consists of the following sub-stages:
Finalizing all activities across all of the process groups to formally close the project or a project
phase.
Completing and settling each contract and closing each contract applicable to the project or
project phase.
Formal acceptance of deliverables by customer

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 Major challenges in Project Management
Unrealistic deadlines. Personality conflict.
Communication deficit. Resource competition.
Scope change. Failure to manage risk.
Misunderstanding and/or Disagreement. Insufficient team skills
Bad weather.

6. Project Management Tools

PM tool is a piece of technology that is used for visually communicating information (e.g. phases,
tasks, resources) about a project. This visualization tool enables project managers to direct and
supervise the various tasks and schedules that are required for completing the project. PERT chart
and Gantt chart are the most popular project management tools today. They are both used to
schedule tasks, keep the project on schedule and ensure that the timeline is met in accordance with
the original project plan.
a. PERT chart
The term PERT stands for Program Evaluation and Review Technique.
A PERT chart is a project management tool used to schedule, organize, and coordinate tasks within
a project. A PERT chart represents a graphic illustration of a project as a network diagram or flow
chart consisting of numbered nodes (either circles or rectangles) representing events or milestones
in the project linked by labeled vectors (directional lines) representing tasks in the project.
Project managers can use PERT charts to:
Set a realistic timetable for project completion.
Make sure focus is maintained on the most critical tasks for the critical path – since the path
leads to the minimum time the project requires, any delays to these tasks will result in a delay to the
overall project.
Identify tasks that need to be shortened if the overall project time needs to be reduced.
Identify tasks that can be carried out simultaneously.
Identify slack time where certain tasks are not as time-critical to the overall deadline.
i. PERT Node
A PERT node is as follows and is use in drawing the PERT network diagram.

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 ii. PERT Terminologies
PERT event: a point that marks the start or completion of one or more activities. Consumes no
time and uses no resources.
Predecessor event: an event that immediately precedes some other event without any events
intervening. An event can have multiple predecessors‘ events and can be the predecessor of
multiple events.
Successor event: an event that immediately follows some other event without ant other
intervening events. An event can have multiple successor events and can be the successor of
multiple events.
Example: consider that you want to paint your room, the first thing you need to do is to remove the
layer of old paint and after that you can start painting. So we have activities as follows:
Activity #1 is removing the old paint.
Activity #2 is painting.
Since activity #2 can only start after activity #1 is done, we call activity #2 a successor and activity
#1 a predecessor.
PERT activity: the actual performance of a task which consumes time and requires resources
such as labor, materials, space, machinery. A PERT activity cannot be performed until the
predecessor event has occurred.
Task: this is any activity that consumes resources such as time and manpower.
Super task: one or more activities that no subtask can begin until the super task has begun and
the super task cannot end until all the subtasks have ended.

Examples:
An OS is a super task because for a computer to work, it must be loaded in the RAM first before
subtasks like Applications software‘s can be able to start.
In the construction industry, foundation and especially walls are the super tasks for it most start
before other subtasks like piping, wiring, plastering, and painting can be done.

Critical task: a task that must be completed on schedule for the project to finish on time.
Path: a set of sequentially connected activities in a project.
Critical path: a critical path is a series of tasks that must be completed on time for a project to
finish on schedule. Each task on a critical path is a critical task.
Lag: describes a delay in the link between a predecessor and a successor task. It tells the logical
relationship between the start and or finish of one activity and the start and or finish of a following
activity.
Lag time: it is the amount of time delay between the completion of one task and the start of its
successor task. A negative value against a lag is known as a lead.
Slack time: it is the amount of time an activity can be delayed from its early start without
delaying the project finish date. Also known as float time.
Floating task: a task that can be performed earlier or later in the schedule without affecting the
project duration.
Lead: a lead is observed when a task that should theoretically wait for its predecessor to finish
starts a little earlier.

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 Lead time: it the time that a successor is allowed to start before its predecessor goes to
completion.
Duration (D): it is the number of days (or hours) it will take to complete a task.
Early Finish date (EF): this is the earliest date that a task can be completed. The EF duration of
the last task(s) is the total duration of the project.
For any one task, EF = ES + Duration.
Early Start date (ES): is the earliest date on which a given task can start.
Effort: it is the number of labor units required to complete an activity or other project element.
Free Float or Slack Time (FF) or (ST): the amount of time an activity can be delayed without
delaying the ES date of any immediate successor activity. It can be calculated as follows:
FF = LS – ES or FF = LF - EF
Late Finish date (LF): is the last date a task can be completed without delaying the project.
Equals the EF of the last task(s).
Late Start date (LS): is the last date a task can be start without delaying the project. Calculated
as follows: LS = LF – Duration.
Dependency: a dependency between two tasks says that these two tasks are linked. The most
common kind of dependency is finish-to-start. This means that task A must be finished before task
B can start.
Fast tracking: it is performing more critical activities in parallel.
Risk: it is an event which has a probability of happening and whose effect may adversely impact
the project.
Forward pass: is a calculation performed on each task determining its early start date and early
finish date.
Backward pass: is a second calculation for each task on the project starting on the project finish
date and working backwards to the first task. It calculates the late finish date and late start date of
each task.
Total project duration: it is the length of time the whole project will take, all tasks start to
finish as calculated by the forward pass. It equals the length of the critical path.
Project finish date: is the number of days a project will finish.
Milestone: a significant event in the project usually the completion of a major component.

Example

The above figure represents a PERT chart for a project with five milestones (10 through 50) and six
activities (A through F). The project has two critical paths[path including tasks that must be
started or completed on time to avoid delays to the project]: activities B and C, or A, D, and F –

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giving a minimum project time of 7 months with fast tracking. Activity E is sub-critical, and has a
float of 1 month (That is, if it is delayed by 1 month, the project end will not be delayed).

b. Gantt chart
A Gantt chart is a bar chart used to illustrate a project schedule, including start and finish dates of
activities and a summary of activities of a project.
A Gantt chart is constructed with a horizontal axis representing the total time span of the project,
broken down into increments (for example, days, weeks, or months) and a vertical axis
representing the tasks that make up the project (for example, if the project is outfitting your
computer with new software, the major tasks involved might be: conduct research, choose software,
install software). Horizontal bars of varying lengths represent the sequences, timing, and time span
for each task.
Gantt charts may be simple versions created on graph paper or more complex automated versions
created using project management applications such as Microsoft Project or Excel.
Example:

Example of Gant chart with activities labeled Planning, Wireframing,… and days represented by
months
Gantt charts give a clear illustration of project status, but one problem with them is that they don't
indicate task dependencies [dependencies connections between tasks] - you cannot tell how one
task falling behind schedule affects other tasks. The PERT chart, another popular project
management charting method (presented on the next section), is designed to do this. Automated
Gantt charts store more information about tasks, such as the individuals assigned to specific tasks,
and notes about the procedures. They also offer the benefit of being easy to change, which is
helpful.
a. Advantages
Computer software can simplify construct and update a Gantt chart
Gives an easy to understand visual display of the scheduled time of a task or activity.
Shows the actual progress against the planned schedule
Rewards the project manager with more visibility and control over the project.
b. Disadvantages
It has some limitations for large projects, or projects having more than 30 activities
Gant chart doesn’t indicates task dependencies (i.e. connection between tasks)

c. Critical path method

In project management, a critical path is the sequence of project activities which add up to the
longest overall duration. A critical path includes tasks that must be started or completed on time
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to avoid delays to the project. It determines the end day of a project in that, if any of its task is late
by one day, then the project end date will be extended by one day.
The critical path method (CPM) is an algorithm for scheduling a set of project activities. Any
project with interdependent activities can use this method. Although the original CPM program and
approach is no longer used, the term is generally applied to any approach used to analyze a project
through network diagram (like PERT).
The essential technique for using CPM is to construct a model of the project that includes the
following (see figure 3):
1. A list of all activities required to complete the project
2. The time (duration) that each activity will take to complete,
3. The dependencies between the activities and
4. Logical end points such as milestones or deliverable items.

CPM calculates the longest path or critical path of planned activities to logical end points or to the
end of the project, and the earliest and latest that each activity can start and finish without making
the project longer. This process determines which activities are "critical" (i.e., on the longest path
or critical path) and which have "total float" (i.e., can be delayed without making the project
longer – they doesn’t figure on the critical path)
The critical path is calculated by following a path among the project task that is the longest
duration between connect (dependent) tasks and adding these durations together.

7. Difference between PERT chart and Gantt chart

PERT charts focus on the sequence of tasks and their dependencies between one another while
Gantt charts focus on the time required for each task. Other differences include the following:
PERT chart display critical and non-critical tasks whereas Gantt charts fail to show the critical
and non-critical tasks.
PERT chart produces more accurate expected time TE. This is because tasks in PERT charts will
have three representative time structures; optimistic time, most likely, and pessimistic. By
averaging these times, a manager can predict the time a task will take to complete more realistically
than the single time that Gantt charts provide.
Gantt charts are straightforward and are not made for projects which will experience change;
while PERT charts are complex and tolerate great deals of unknown.
Gantt charts focus on the time required to complete a task whereas a PERT chart focuses on
relationships between the tasks, the sequence of tasks, their dependencies between one another and
time.
Gantt charts handle sequence and duration while PERT charts manage large and complex
projects with variable duration tasks.
A PERT chart presents information in the form of a flow chart or network diagram while the
Gantt chart presents information in the form of a bar chart.

8. Report writing
Reports are documents which both give readers information and ask the reader to do something
with that information. Reports can be used:
To suggest new ideas and options;
To ask people to accept a point of view;
To influence decisions;
To ask people to make choices between alternative recommendations.

Therefore a well-structured and well written report can be a very influential document.
The Format of a Report
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1- Problem analysis/specification/introduction.
2- Design (technical specification).
3- Implementation (how the project was carried out).
4- Testing (how did you verify to ensure that the project is working as specified).
5- Evaluation (what problems did you encounter? How did you solve them?)

Exercice 1:
1. Define the following terms and expressions:
Project - Project management - slack time –milestone – Event – task - float time - critical task
2. Describe each of the PM constrains
3. Describe any 02 activities of a project manager

Exercice 2:
The following table shows the expected duration of each task. The task dependencies are shown.

a) Construct a PERT chart for the project.

b) Identify the critical path and hence the minimum time to completion.
c) Describe where there is slack time in the system.
d) Construct a Gantt chart for the software development project. Assume that the first task starts on
17th October 2015.

Exercice 3:

From the given PERT chart, evaluate:

1. The number of milestones in the project
2. 02 concurrent tasks
3. 02 dependent tasks
4. The total duration of the project

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