Chapter Three

Project Schedule
Management
PROJECT SCHEDULE MANAGEMENT
Schedule management includes the processes required to ensure timely
completion of the project. But before a project schedule is created, a project
manager should typically have a work breakdown structure (WBS), the time
estimate for each task, and a resource list with availabilities for each resource.
➢ Setting overall completion dates must be done by the project team and key
stakeholders.

The schedule development process should generate a project schedule that

meets the following criteria:
✓ Complete— the schedule must represent all the work to be done.
This is why the quality and completeness of the WBS is so important.
✓ Realistic— the schedule must be realistic with regard to time expectations and
the availability of beneficiaries to participate
✓ Accepted— the schedule must have "buy-in" from team members and
stakeholders, especially the beneficiaries.
3

Importance of Project Schedule:

➢ Ensure project success
➢ Describes guidance and pathway for a project to run
➢ When what is to be finished
➢ Assists with tracking, reporting, and communicating progress
➢ Ensures everyone is on the same page with tasks, dependencies, and
deadlines
➢ Highlights issues and concerns, such as a lack of resources
 Schedule management consists of:

Input Process Output

✓ WBS ✓ Plan - Define activity sequence

✓ Schedule Baseline
✓ Historical Information and duration, develop schedule
✓ Schedule variance
✓ Beneficiary Calendar ✓ Do –Communicate and update
report
Information Schedule Progress
✓ Schedule updates
✓ Resource Planning ✓ Check – Monitor schedule
variances
✓ Adapt – Update the schedule
 Cont…
▪ Most commonly used schedule management methods are Gantt charts and
network diagrams

Gannt Charts Network Diagrams

▪ Visually shows duration of ▪ Show order of activities

tasks Time ▪ Visually shows
▪ Visually shows time dependencies between
overlap between tasks tasks
 Activity-on-Arrow Network Diagram

What is the A-O-A Network?

➢ It is a network diagramming technique in which activities are
represented by arrows.
➢ The start and end of each node or event is connected to an arrow.
➢ Between the two nodes lies an arrow that represents the activity.
 Network Diagram
AoA Elements

Activity (arrow) Dummy Activities

Work elements or task When two chains of activities have a
common node yet they are at least partly
independent of each other
Event (node)
The start and/or Finish of one or Critical path
more activities path that has the longest duration
 Activity

individual operation which utilizes resources and has an end

and a beginning
➢ Predecessor: must be completed immediately prior to the
start of another activity
➢ Successor: cannot be started until one or more of other
activities are completed
➢ Concurrent: can be done at the same time
➢ Dummy : does not consume any kind of resource
 Event
a point in time signifying the completion of some activities and the
beginning of new ones
➢ Burst: more than one activity leaves an event
➢ Merge: more than one activity comes and joins
➢ Merge & Burst: may be merge and burst event at the same
time
 Dummy activity

✓ C start after completion of B and D

✓ E start after completion of D

show the logical dependencies between the activities

 Rule on Drawing AoA

➢ Before an activity may begin, all activities preceding it must be

completed
➢ Time flows from left to right
➢ Each activity is represented by one and only one arrow
➢ Head nodes always have a number higher that of the tail node
➢ Has one starting and only one ending event
 Errors in Network Diagram

Redundancy: when dummy is introduced,

when it is not required

Dangling: activity got disconnected

before the completion of all activities in a
network

Looping: can be formed if an activity were

represented as going back in line.
 Example 1
➢ Draw an Activity-on-Arrow Network Diagram
 Example 3
➢ Draw an Activity-on-Arrow Network Diagram
 E x e r c i s e
➢ Draw an Activity-on-Arrow Network Diagram
 E x e r c i s e
➢ Draw an Activity-on-Arrow Network Diagram
 What is the A-O-N Network ?
• The Activity-on-Node uses similar logic to Activity-on-Arrow but it is
represented differently.

• show each activity as a node and arrows show the immediate predecessor
activities. Activity
ES LS
Duration
EF LF

TF
 Cont…
• The Activity Early Start (E.S) It is the earliest time that an activity can start with.

• The Activity Early Finish (E.F) It is the earliest time that an activity can finish with.

E.F = E.S + Duration (D)

• The Activity Late Finish (L.F) It is the latest time that an activity can finish with.

• The Activity Late Start (L.S) It is the latest time that an activity can start with.

L.S = L.F - Duration (D)

 Cont…

• The Activity Total Float (T.F)

Any activity with a zero float is on the critical path (C.P).

T.F = L.F – E.F (or) = L.S – E.S

Critical path (C.P) is the path that has the longest duration where
activities have zero float
 Forward Pass:
• Now, we can start with a forward pass to determine the early start and
early finish dates, and on the last activity, the overall time to finish the
whole project. It is an additive move through the network from start to
finish.

1) ES is marked zero, which means that it is the very first day of the
project

2) We add ES to the duration for each activity to find EF.

 Cont…
3) Then, we carry the EF time to the nodes immediately succeeding
the recently completed nodes (predecessors)

4) At a merge point, we pass the highest EF time of predecessors to

the successor activity

5) When the forward pass is done, we can generate all ES and EF

times for all the activities. The EF of the last activity gives us the overall
duration of the project
 Backward pass
• After we complete the forward pass process for all the activities, we can start
backward pass by moving from the last activity to the starting activities. It is a
subtractive move through the network from finish to the start.

1) Late Finish (LF) for the last activity is passed from EF. Then, we subtract LF from
the activity duration to find the Late Start (LS)

2) Now, it is possible to compute slacks for each activity. It is the difference between
LS and ES, or between LF and EF. Both calculations will generate the same result.

3) Then, we carry back the LS time to the nodes immediately preceding the
successor node.
 Cont…
4) Then, we subtract LF times from the duration of activities to find the
LS for these predecessors

5) At a burst point, we pass the lowest LS time of successors to the

predecessor activity as its LF time.

6) When the backward pass is done for all the activities, we can
generate all LS and LF times as well as slack times for all of them.
Thus, we can determine the critical path where the total slack is zero.
25

Simple Project consisting of 5 Tasks

Activity A Activity B
ES LS ES LS

EF 7 LF EF 5 LF

TF TF
Activity D
ES LS

EF 3 LF
Activity C TF

ES LS

EF 2 LF
TF

Activity E
ES LS

EF 3 LF
TF
26

Project Start Date & Task Durations are known

Activity A Activity B
LS ES LS
0
EF 7 LF EF 5 LF

TF TF
Activity D
ES LS

EF 3 LF
Activity C TF

ES LS

EF 2 LF
TF

Activity E
ES LS

EF 3 LF
TF
27

Early Finish = Early Start + Duration Activity

ES Duration
LS
Activity A Activity B EF LF
LS ES LS
0
7 LF EF 5 LF
TF
7
TF TF
Activity D
ES LS

EF 3 LF
Activity C TF

ES LS

EF 2 LF
TF

Activity E
ES LS

EF 3 LF
TF
28

Early Start With Single Predecessor Activity

ES Duration
LS
Activity A Activity B EF LF
LS
0 LS 7
7 5 LF
TF
7 LF 12
TF TF
Activity D
ES LS

EF 3 LF
Activity C TF

LS
7
2 LF
9
TF

Activity E
ES LS

EF 3 LF
TF
29

Early Start With Multiple Predecessors Activity

ES Duration
LS
Activity A Activity B EF LF
LS
0 LS 7
7 5 LF
TF
7 LF 12
TF TF
Activity D
LS
12
3 LF
15
Activity C TF

LS
7
2 LF
9
TF

Activity E
ES LS

EF 3 LF
TF
30

Start-to-Start Relationships (A to E) Activity

ES Duration
LS
Activity A Activity B EF LF
LS
0 LS 7
7 5 LF
TF
7 LF 12
TF TF
Activity D
LS
12
3 LF
15
Activity C TF

LS
7
2 LF
9
TF

Activity E
LS
0
3 LF
3
TF
31

Completed FORWARD Pass Activity

ES Duration
LS
Activity A Activity B EF LF
LS
0 LS 7
7 5 LF
TF
7 LF 12
TF TF
Activity D
LS
12
3 LF
15
Activity C TF

LS
7
2 LF
9
TF

Activity E
LS
0
3 LF
3
TF
32

Start the BACKWARD Pass Activity

ES Duration
LS
Activity A Activity B EF LF
LS
0 LS 7
7 5 LF
TF
7 LF 12
TF TF
Activity D
LS
12
3
15 15
Activity C TF

LS
7
2 LF The last activity
9
TF
Early Finish (EF)
will default to be
the Late Finish
(LF).
Activity E
LS
0
3 LF
3
TF
33

Late Start (LS) = Late Finish (LF) - Duration Activity

ES Duration
LS
Activity A Activity B EF LF
LS
0 LS 7
7 5 LF
TF
7 LF 12
TF TF
Activity D
12 12
3
15 15
Activity C TF

LS
7
2 LF
9
TF

Activity E
LS
0
3 LF
3
TF
34

Activity
Late Starts with Single Successors
ES Duration
LS
Activity A Activity B EF LF
LS
0 7 7
7 LF 5 TF

7 12 12
TF TF
Activity D
1212 1212
3
1515 1515
Activity C TF

7 10
2
9 12

Activity E
LS
0
3 LF
3
TF
35

Activity
Late Start with Multiple Successors
ES Duration
LS
Activity A Activity B EF LF
0 0 7 7
7 5 TF

7 7 12 12
TF TF Activity D
1212 1212
3
1515 1515
Activity C TF

7 10
2
9 12
TF

Activity E
00 LS
3
33 LF
TF
36

Finish-to-Finish Relationships (D to E) Activity

ES Duration
LS
Activity A Activity B EF LF
0 0 7 7
7 5 TF
7 7 12 12
TF TF
Activity D
12 12
3
15 15
Activity C TF

7 10
2
9 12
TF

Activity E
0 12
3
3 15
TF
37

Completed BACKWARD Pass Activity

ES Duration
LS
Activity A Activity B EF LF
0 0 7 7
7 5 TF
7 7 12 12
TF TF
Activity D
12 12
3
15 15
Activity C TF

7 10
2
9 12
TF

Activity E
0 12
3
3 15
TF
38

Total Float (TF) = Late Finish (LF) – Early Finish (EF) Activity

ES Duration
LS
Activity A Activity B EF LF
0 0 7 7
7 5 TF
7 7 12 12
0
0 Activity D
12 12
3
15 15
Activity C 0

7 10
2
9 12
3

Activity E
0 12
3
3 15
12
39

Activity
Critical Path – Tasks with zero Total Float (TF)
ES Duration
LS
Activity A Activity B EF LF
00 00 77 77
7 5 TF
77 77 1212 1212
0 0 00 Activity D
1212 1212
3
1515 1515
Activity C 00
77 10
10
2
99 12
12
33

Activity E
00 1212
3
33 1515
12
12
40

Activity
Activity on Node: Example ES Duration
LS
EF LF
TF
 E x e r c i s e
➢ Draw an Activity-on-Node Network Diagram Activity

ES Duration
LS
Activity Preceded by Duration
/week EF LF
TF
A -- 2
B -- 4
C A 3
D B 6
E A 4
F B 1
G C, D 2
H G, F 5
I E 4
J H, I 6