SOFTWARE PROJECT

MANAGEMENT
Course Title
 Course Instructor: Atif Iqbal

Software Project Management

• Revision of previous lecture
 Course Instructor: Atif Iqbal

Project Management
• Work Breakdown Structure
• What it stands for
• When its created
• Who creates it
• Guidelines for creating it
• Its constraints
• What it Work Package
• Different approaches in creating WBS
• What are its benefits
LECTURE: 04
SPM
 Course Instructor: Atif Iqbal

Project Time Management

• Project Management Framework
 Course Instructor: Atif Iqbal

Project Time Management

 Course Instructor: Atif Iqbal

Project Time Management

 Course Instructor: Atif Iqbal

Project Time Management

• Time Management
• Project time management is the efficient use of time by means of
good organization, efficient productivity, and proper planning
 Course Instructor: Atif Iqbal

Project Time Management

• Time Management
• Project managers, who are tasked with overseeing projects from
start to finish, utilize these time management skills to complete
their work in the most efficient, cost-effective ways possible

• What Project Manager do in Time Management

• Project Manager may develop a sequenced list of tasks that need
to be completed, then track employee progress through those
steps
• He may even implement changes to projects when necessary to
make better use of time
• He may keep notes on what went well or needs improvement to
utilize for future projects
 Course Instructor: Atif Iqbal

Project Time Management

• Time Management
• Time is a terrible resource to waste
• Every delivery that you are supposed to make is time-bound
• Without proper time management, a project can head towards a disaster
• It is not just the time of the project manager, but it is the time
management of the project team
• During scheduling, activities are estimated and durations are
determined based on the resource utilization
 Course Instructor: Atif Iqbal

Project Time Management

• Time Management
• In addition to the estimate and resource allocation, cost always
plays a vital role in time management
• This is due to the fact that schedule over-runs are quite expensive
 Course Instructor: Atif Iqbal

Project Time Management

• Time Management
• There are steps in the Time Management Process:
• Defining Activities
• Sequencing Activities
• Resource Estimating for Activities
• Duration and Effort Estimation
• Development of the Schedule
• Schedule Control
 Course Instructor: Atif Iqbal

Project Time Management

• Time Management Process
• Defining Activities:
• High-level requirements are broken down into high-level tasks or
deliverables
• These high-level tasks/deliverables are broken down into activities and
presented in the form of WBS (Work Breakdown Structure)
 Course Instructor: Atif Iqbal

Project Time Management

• Time Management Process
• Sequencing Activities:
• In order to manage the project time, it is critical to identify the activity
sequence
• The activities identified in the previous step should be sequenced based
on the execution order
• When sequencing, the activity interdependencies should be considered
• Activities interdependencies (i.e. activities sequencing) is determined by
calculating Critical Path Analysis (CPM)
 Course Instructor: Atif Iqbal

Project Time Management

• Time Management Process
• Resource Estimating for Activities:
• The estimation of amount and the types of resources required for
activities is done in this step
• Depending on the number of resources allocated for an activity, its
duration varies
• Therefore, the project management team should have a clear
understanding about the resources allocation in order to accurately
manage the project time
 Course Instructor: Atif Iqbal

Project Time Management

• Time Management Process
• Duration and Effort Estimation:
• This is one of the key steps in the project planning process
• Estimates are all about the time (duration), this step should be
completed with a higher accuracy
• For this step, there are many estimation mechanisms in place, so your
project should select an appropriate one
• Most of the companies follow either WBS based estimating or Function Points based
estimates.
• Once the activity estimates are completed, critical path of the project
should be identified in order to determine the total project duration
• This is one of the key inputs for the project time management
 Course Instructor: Atif Iqbal

Project Time Management

• Time Management Process
• Development of the Schedule:
• Activity sequence, duration of each activity and the resource
requirements/allocation for each activity are the most important factors
• In case if you perform this step manually, you may end up wasting a lot
of valuable project planning time
• There are many software packages, such as Microsoft Project, that will assist you to
develop reliable and accurate project schedule.
• As part of the schedule, you will develop a Gantt chart in order to
visually monitor the activities and the milestones
 Course Instructor: Atif Iqbal

Project Time Management

• Time Management Process
• Schedule Control:
• No project in the practical world can be executed without changes to the
original schedule
• Therefore, it is essential for you to update your project schedule with
ongoing changes
LECTURE: 04 (CONTINUES…)

ITPM
 Course Instructor: Atif Iqbal

Project Time Management

• Gantt Chart
• 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

• It is a bar graph that helps in planning and monitoring:

• Project Development
• or Resource Allocation
 Course Instructor: Atif Iqbal

Project Time Management

• Gantt Chart
• A Gantt chart is a graphical representation of the duration of tasks
against the progression of time
 Course Instructor: Atif Iqbal

Project Time Management

• Gantt Chart
• Gantt Charts are useful tools for planning and scheduling projects
• Gantt charts allow you to assess how long a project should take
• Gantt charts lay out the order in which tasks need to be carried out
• Gantt charts help manage the dependencies between tasks
• Gantt charts determine the resources needed
• Gantt charts are useful tools when a project is under way
• Gantt charts monitor progress.
• You can immediately see what should have been achieved at a point in time
• Gantt charts allow you to see how remedial action may bring the project
back on course
• While they may require frequent updating, they are easy to maintain
 Course Instructor: Atif Iqbal

Project Time Management

• Gantt Chart
 Course Instructor: Atif Iqbal

Project Time Management

• Gantt Chart
• 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
 Course Instructor: Atif Iqbal

Project Time Management

• (Gantt Chart) Milestones
• Milestones are significant events on a project that normally have
zero duration
• You can follow the SMART criteria in developing milestones that
are:
• Specific
• Measurable
• Assignable
• Realistic
• Time-framed
 Course Instructor: Atif Iqbal

Project Time Management

• Sample Tracking Gantt Chart
 Course Instructor: Atif Iqbal

Project Time Management

• Techniques for Shortening a Project Schedule
• 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
• Fast tracking tasks by doing them in parallel or overlapping them

• Crashing and fast tracking often cause more problems,

resulting in longer schedules
 Course Instructor: Atif Iqbal

Project Time Management

• Techniques for Shortening a Project Schedule

Original
schedule

Shortened
duration thru
crashing

Overlapped
Tasks or fast
tracking
 Course Instructor: Atif Iqbal

• Lecture ends