Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Project Scheduling
Identifying relationships among activities Project network diagrams Identifying critical paths and critical activities Determining activity slack times Gantt charts Project scheduling exercise Management of project schedules
Project Scheduling
Split project into tasks (= create a WBS) Estimate time and resources required to complete each task. Organize tasks concurrently to make optimal use of workforce. Minimize task dependencies to avoid delays caused by one task waiting for another to complete. Dependent on project managers intuition and experience.
MEM 612 Project Management
.Project Scheduling..
The scheduling process
Identify activities
Software requirements
Estimation
The single most important task of a project: setting realistic expectations. Unrealistic expectations based on inaccurate estimates are the single largest cause of failure.
Futrell, Shafer, Shafer, Quality Software Project Management
Estimation
Activities/task characterized by: Effort: how much work will the activity need to be completed Resources: how many resources will be working on the activity Duration: how long will the activity last for estimation technique provide (at least) two of the quantities specified above
MEM 612 Project Management
Effort
Your best shot for providing estimations (how complex/how much work does the activity require?) Measured in man/month (3 m-m = 1 person working for 3 months; 3 people working for one 1 month) Mind you though: communication increases the time to complete activities
Duration
How much time will the activity last for Measured in (work-)hours, (work-)days, (work)months, Calendar time != duration: calendar time includes non-working days, holidays, Usually:
A duration of 5 days == 40 hours (8 hours a day) = 1 calendar week (sat and sun rest time)
Scheduling
Once tasks (from the WBS) and size/effort (from estimation) are known: then schedule Primary objectives
Best time Least cost Least risk
Secondary objectives
Evaluation of schedule alternatives Effective use of resources Communications
MEM 612 Project Management
History
Late 1950s
Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)
U.S. Navy, Booz-Allen Hamilton, and Lockeheed Aircraft Probabilistic activity durations
Event
state resulting from completion of one or more activities consume no resources or time predecessor activities must be completed
MEM 612 Project Management
Network
diagram of nodes and arcs used to illustrate technological relationships
Path
series of connected activities between two events
MEM 612 Project Management
Critical Time
time required to complete all activities on the critical path
Predecessor
--a b b c, d e
MEM 612 Project Management
Figure 5-6b A Completed Sample AOA Network Showing the Use of a Dummy Task
Table 5-2 A Sample Problem for Finding the Critical Path and Critical Time
Activity a b c d e f g h i j Predecessor --a a a b, c d d, e f g, h Duration 5 days 4 3 4 6 4 5 6 6 4
Earliest start time (ES): the earliest time an activity can start Earliest finish time (EF): the earliest time an activity can finish (equals the activity's earliest start time plus the activity's duration time) Calculate ES and EF times by working forward through the network from beginning to end. Latest start time (LS): the latest time an activity can be started without delaying the entire project (equals the activity's latest finish time minus the activity's duration time) Latest finish time (LF): the latest time an activity can be finished without delaying the entire project (equals the minimum of the latest start times of all activities that start immediately after the activity being considered)
MEM 612 Project Management
PERT
Program Evaluation and Review Technique Based on idea that estimates are uncertain
Therefore uses duration ranges And the probability of falling to a given range
Uses an expected value (or weighted average) to determine durations Use the following methods to calculate the expected durations, then use as input to your network diagram
PERT
Start with 3 estimates
Optimistic
Would likely occur 1 time in 20
Most likely
Modal value of the distribution
Pessimistic
Would be exceeded only one time in 20
PERT Formula
Combined to estimate a task duration
PERT
Advantages
Accounts for uncertainty
Disadvantages
Time and labor intensive Assumption of unlimited resources is big issue Lack of functional ownership of estimates Mostly only used on large, complex project
Figure 5-24 A Gantt Chart of Sample Project Showing Critical Path, Path Connections, Slack, EST, LST, EFT, and LFT
Crashing of projects Crashing refers to a particular variety of project schedule compression which is performed for the purposes of decreasing total period of time (also known as the total project schedule duration). The diminishing of the project duration typically take place after a careful and thorough analysis of all possible project duration minimization alternatives in which any and all methods to attain the maximum schedule duration for the least additional cost. There are a number of standard and typical approaches to attempting to crash a project schedule. One of the most commonly utilized methods of crashing a project schedule involves minimizing the schedule activity durations while, at the same time, increasing the assignment of resources on schedule activities. Crashing is something which can be utilized to attempt to get the most value out of a project assignment. Essentially, it boils down to an attempt to get the most productivity out of the least time and expense. Crashing is also similar to schedule compression as well as schedule fast tracking.
Figure 5-25 A Gantt Chart of a Day Care Project Showing Expected Durations, Critical Path, Milestone, and Resource Requirements