IT

Project Management
INFT-3112

Dr. Kashif Munir

[email protected]
Project Time Management
Lecture #
11 & 12
 Last Lecture
recap
• Understand the elements that make good project scope
management important
• Describe the strategic planning process, apply different project
selection methods, such as a net present value analysis, a
weighted scoring model, and a balanced scorecard, and
understand the importance of creating a project charter
• Explain the scope planning process and contents of a scope
statement
• Discuss the scope definition process and construct a work
breakdown structure using the analogy, top-down, bottom-up,
and mind mapping approaches
• Understand the importance of scope verification and scope
 Lecture Outline
• Understand the importance of project schedules and good project time
management
• Define activities as the basis for developing project schedules
• Describe how project managers use network diagrams and dependencies
to assist in activity sequencing
• Explain how various tools and techniques help project managers perform
activity duration estimating and schedule development
• Use a Gantt chart for schedule planning and tracking schedule information
• Understand and use critical path analysis
• Describe how to use several techniques for shortening project schedules
• Discuss how reality checks and people issues are involved in controlling
and managing changes to the project schedule
Opening Case
 Conflict Intensity Over the Life of a Project
0.40

Scope 0.35

Conflict Intensity
0.30
Schedules

Cost
0.25 Average
Total Conflict
Priorities
Manpower
0.20 Technical opinions
Procedures

Quality
0.15 Cost
Personality conflicts
0.10
0.05
0.00
Project Early Phases Middle Phases End Phases
Formation
 Project Time Management Processes
• Project time management involves the processes required
to ensure timely completion of a project. Processes
include:
• Activity definition
• Activity sequencing
• Activity duration estimating
• Schedule development
• Schedule control
 Activity Definition
• Project schedules grow out of the basic document that
initiate a project
• Project charter includes start and end dates and budget
information
• Scope statement and WBS help define what will be done
• Activity definition involves developing a more detailed
WBS and supporting explanations to understand all the
work to be done so you can develop realistic duration
estimates
 Activity Sequencing
• Involves reviewing activities and determining dependencies
• Mandatory dependencies: inherent in the nature of the work;
hard logic
• Discretionary dependencies: defined by the project team; soft
logic
• External dependencies: involve relationships between project
and non-project activities
• You must determine dependencies in order to use critical
path analysis
 Project Network Diagrams
• Project network diagrams are the preferred technique for
showing activity sequencing
• A project network diagram is a schematic display of the
logical relationships among, or sequencing of, project
activities
Sample Activity-on-Arrow (AOA) Network
Diagram for Project X

Note: Assume all durations are in days; A=1 means Activity A has a duration of 1 day.
 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
• Can only show finish-to-start dependencies
 Process for Creating 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 project 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
 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
Task Dependency Types
 Sample PDM Network Diagram

• Sample precedence diagramming method (PDM) network diagram for Project X

 Activity Duration Estimating
• After defining activities and determining their sequence, the next
step in time management is duration estimating
• Duration includes the actual amount of time worked on an activity
plus elapsed time
• Effort is the number of workdays or work hours required to
complete a task. Effort does not equal duration
• People doing the work should help create estimates, and an expert
should review them
 Schedule Development
• Schedule development uses results of the other time management
processes to determine the start and end date 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, critical path
analysis, and critical chain scheduling
 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
Gantt Chart for Project X

Note: We already studied this chart in chapter 01

 Gantt Chart for Software Launch Project

Note: Gantt Chart for

Software Launch Project
 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
Sample Tracking Gantt Chart
 Lecture Outline
• Understand the importance of project schedules and good project time
management
• Define activities as the basis for developing project schedules
• Describe how project managers use network diagrams and dependencies
to assist in activity sequencing
• Explain how various tools and techniques help project managers perform
activity duration estimating and schedule development
• Use a Gantt chart for schedule planning and tracking schedule information
• Understand and use critical path analysis
• Describe how to use several techniques for shortening project schedules
• Discuss how reality checks and people issues are involved in controlling
and managing changes to the project schedule
 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 (slow) or float (fast)
 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
 Simple 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?
Determining the Critical Path for
Project X
 More on the Critical Path
• 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
 Using Critical Path Analysis to Make
Schedule Trade-offs
• Knowing the critical path helps you make schedule trade-offs/
business or project
• 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
Calculating Early and Late
Start and Finish

Free Slack
Free Slack = Minimum ES of
Successor – Activity ES – Duration
of Activity
Techniques for Shortening a Project
Schedule
• Crashing tasks by obtaining the greatest amount of schedule
compression for the least incremental cost
• Shorten durations of critical tasks by adding more resources or
changing their scope
• Fast tracking tasks by doing them in parallel or overlapping them
Crashing and Fast Tracking
Original
schedule

Shortened
duration thru
crashing

Overlapped
Tasks or fast
tracking
 Many Horror Stories
Related to Project
Schedules
• Creating realistic schedules and sticking to them is a key challenge of
project management
• Crashing and fast tracking often cause more problems, resulting in longer
schedules
• Organizational issues often cause schedule problems.
Importance of Updating Critical Path
Data
• It is important to update project schedule information
• The critical path may change as you enter actual start and finish dates
• If you know the project completion date will slip, negotiate with the
project sponsor
 Controlling Changes to
the Project Schedule
• Perform reality checks on schedules
• Allow for contingencies
• Don’t plan for everyone to work at 100% capacity all the time
• Hold progress meetings with stakeholders and be clear and honest in
communicating schedule issues
 Any question?
Lecture recap
• Understand the importance of project schedules and good project time
management
• Define activities as the basis for developing project schedules
• Describe how project managers use network diagrams and dependencies to
assist in activity sequencing
• Explain how various tools and techniques help project managers perform
activity duration estimating and schedule development
• Use a Gantt chart for schedule planning and tracking schedule information
• Understand and use critical path analysis
• Describe how to use several techniques for shortening project schedules
• Discuss how reality checks and people issues are involved in controlling and
managing changes to the project schedule
 End of
Lecture #
11 & 12
 Home work
1. Why do you think schedule issues often cause the most conflicts on projects?
2. Deadline TBA
Create the Project Plan for the project you want to work on as Final Year Project. And Submit the followings
Project Charter with project details
WBS
3. Deadline TBA
Create the Project Plan for the project you want to work on as Final Year Project. And Submit the
followings
Gantt Chart
Critical Path Diagram CPD
Calculate Free Slack and Total Slack from above CPD
4. Study this paper:
Gonen, A., 2007, December. Estimating project completion times-simulation and analytic approach.
In 2007 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management (pp.
1032-1036). IEEE.