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Chapter 6: Project Time Management - Coggle Diagram
Chapter 6: Project Time Management
Importance of Project Schedules
Time has the least amount of flexibility; it passes no matter what happens on a project
Schedule issues are the main reason for conflicts on projects, especially during the second half of projects
Managers often cite delivering projects on time as one of their biggest challenges
Project Time Management Processes
Planning schedule management: determining the policies, procedures, and documentation that will be used for planning, executing, and controlling the project schedule
Defining activities: identifying the specific activities that the project team members and stakeholders must perform to produce the project deliverables
Sequencing activities: identifying and documenting the relationships between project activities
Estimating activity resources: estimating how many resources a project team should use to perform project activities
Estimating activity durations: estimating the number of work periods that are needed to complete individual activities
Developing the schedule: analyzing activity sequences, activity resource estimates, and activity duration estimates to create the project schedule
Controlling the schedule: controlling and managing changes to the project schedule
Planning Schedule Management
The project team uses expert judgment, analytical techniques, and meetings to develop the schedule management plan
Schedule management plan
Project schedule model development
The scheduling methodology
Level of accuracy and units of measure
Control thresholds
Rules of performance measurement
Reporting formats
Process descriptions
Defining Activities
An activity or task is an element of work normally found on the work breakdown structure (WBS) that has an expected duration, a cost, and resource requirements
Activity Lists and Attributes
activity list include
the activity name
an activity identifier or number
a brief description of the activity
Activity attributes
provide more information such as predecessors, successors, logical relationships, leads and lags, resource requirements, constraints, imposed dates, and assumptions related to the activity
Activity definition involves developing a more detailed WBS and supporting explanations to understand all the work to be done so you can develop realistic cost and duration estimates
Sequencing Activities
Involves reviewing activities and determining dependencies
A dependency or relationship is the sequencing of project activities or tasks
You must determine dependencies in order to use critical path analysis
Three types of Dependencies
Mandatory dependencies: inherent in the nature of the work being performed on a project, sometimes referred to as hard logic
Discretionary dependencies: defined by the project team., sometimes referred to as soft logic and should be used with care since they may limit later scheduling options
External dependencies: involve relationships between project and non-project activities
Network Diagrams
Network diagrams are the preferred technique for showing activity sequencing
A 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
Arrow Diagramming Method (ADM)
Also called activity-on-arrow (AOA) 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
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
Developing the Schedule
Uses results of the other time management processes to determine the start and end date of the project
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, and PERT analysis
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
Symbol include
A black diamond: a milestones
Thick black bars: summary tasks
Lighter horizontal bars: durations of tasks
Arrows: dependencies between tasks