Module 7 :

PROJECT SCHEDULING

INTRODUCTION

Projects are made up of sequential activities to create

a product. The WBS and the activity list serve as
the key input to the sequencing of project activities.

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 INTRODUCTION

Project time management is arranging, calculating and

predicting how long the activities will take to
complete, to create a project schedule and predict
when the project will end.

Project time management has several components that

are sequential:

INTRODUCTION

Activity Activity Activity

definition sequencing duration
estimating

Schedule Schedule Schedule

control execution development

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 ACTIVITY DEFINITION

The activity list is an output of activity definition, which

includes all the activities to be performed within the
project.

The list comes from the project scope, or a further

definition of it.

ACTIVITY DEFINITION
Remember that the WBS is a list of deliverables,
which can be broken down into work packages.
The activity list is a list of activities to create the
deliverable, or a breaking-down of the project
work.
The activity list is actually an extension of the WBS.
The WBS is comprised of all the components the
project will create, while the activities list is made
up of all the work required to create the
components within the WBS.

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 ACTIVITY SEQUENCING

When the activities list is completed, the activities must

be arranged in a logical sequence.

There are logical relationships between activities, but

there are also preferred relationships, and
relationships that are beyond the project’s control.

ACTIVITY SEQUENCING

The natural sequence between activities is called hard

logic or mandatory dependencies, whereas the
preferred sequence between activities is called soft
logic or discretionary dependencies.

External dependencies are relationships outside of the

project’s control.

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 ACTIVITY SEQUENCING
The popular method of doing activity sequencing is
the “sticky-notes” or “storyboard” approach. Sticky
notes indicated with the activities are stuck and
plotted on a board, and rearranged as desired.

In activity sequencing, consider the set milestones, as

well as document the attributes of each activity such
as preceding and succeeding activity, lead and
allowable lag times, and person responsible for the
activity.

ACTIVITY SEQUENCING
The precedence-diagramming method (PDM) also
known as AON or activity-on-node method is the
most common approach to network diagramming. It
is used by most project management information
systems.

The PDM puts the activities in boxes called nodes and

connects them with arrows. The arrows represent
the relationships and the dependencies of the
activities.

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 LOGIC DIAGRAM
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 Simplest kind of network

 Shows major relationships of tasks and their
precedence relationships (logical sequence)
Activities
or tasks

PERT/CPM
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 Refer more to “technique”or procedure rather than

diagrams or illustrations
 Both are called “critical path methods” – uses the
critical path to determine the various time elements
 PERT – uses a probabilistic approach
 Developed for projects with a lot of uncertainty
 Uncertainty is addressed via three (3) time estimates
 CPM – uses a deterministic approach
 Utilizes just one (1) time estimate

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 PERT/CPM
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 Network Development for PERT/CPM

 Duration (T) – period required for activity completion

 Early Start (ES) – earliest expected time to commence

 Late Start (LS) – latest expected time to commence

 Early Finish (EF) – earliest expected time for completion

 Late Finish (LF) – latest expected time for completion

 Slack (S) – range of allowable difference between the

time an activity can and should start/finish

Format:

PERT/CPM
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 Procedural Framework
1. 1. Define the project and all of its significant tasks/activities
1.  Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
2. 2. Develop precedence relationships among the activities
1.  Network Development
3. 3. Draw the network connecting all of the activities
1.  Network Development
4. 4. Assign time and/or cost estimates to each activity
1.  PERT/CPM & Network Analysis
5. 5. Compute longest time path through the network
1. (critical path) PERT/CPM
6. 6. Use the network to help in the planning, scheduling,
1. monitoring & control of the project

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 ACTIVITY SEQUENCING
Example of a PDM network

B D

F
A

ACTIVITY SEQUENCING

Four different types of relationships:

 Finish-to-start
 Start-to-start
 Finish-to-finish
 Start-to-finish

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 ACTIVITY SEQUENCING
Finish-to-start
Activity A must complete before Activity B begins.
(most common and preferred because it is
“conservative”)

A
B

ACTIVITY SEQUENCING
Start-to-start
Activity A must start before Activity B can start. This
allows activities to happen in tandem without
needing to complete the preceding activity.

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 ACTIVITY SEQUENCING
Finish-to-finish
Activity A must complete before Activity B is
completed. Both activities also happen in tandem,
but with the restriction that B cannot finish until A
finishes first.

ACTIVITY SEQUENCING
Start-to-finish
Activity A starts, depending on when Activity B can
finish. Also called just-in-time scheduling. Rarely
used.

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 ACTIVITY SEQUENCING

Lead time is choosing to start Activity B before

Activity A is completed. It decreases project
duration, but may entail additional risks.

Lag time is choosing to start Activity B for a time

period after Activity A is completed. It increases
project duration.

ACTIVITY DURATION
ESTIMATING
Activities are carried out by using resources. Thus, the
duration of an activity is dependent on the
capabilities, capacities and availability of
resources.

Labor resources depending on capability, may have

critical unavailability e.g., those who are highly-
skilled may not always be available.

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 ACTIVITY DURATION
ESTIMATING

The project manager must be able to negotiate for

the availability of resources, which may involve
tradeoffs between keeping costs low, and
outsourcing the activity. There is a substantial cost in
terms of time and effort for planning and sourcing
critical resources.

ACTIVITY DURATION
ESTIMATING
Activities are carried out by a combination of
resources: skilled labor, unskilled labor, equipment
and tools. This essentially is the “crew” or “team”
that will have a specific quantifiable output for the
activity.

Knowing the scope, and the quantity of output

needed, the duration of the activity can be
determined.

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 ACTIVITY DURATION
ESTIMATING
Example:

A team of 1 skilled and 2 unskilled labor can produce 10

widgets per day.

If there are 100 widgets as deliverables, then the

duration of the activity is 10 days.

If the duration of the activity is limited to 5 days, then we

need 2 teams.

ACTIVITY DURATION
ESTIMATING
Note that the duration can be lengthened or
shortened by changing the number of teams,
because the total effort remains the same.

1 skilled + 2 unskilled in 10 days = 30 man-days

2 skilled + 4 unskilled in 5 days = 30 man-days

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 ACTIVITY DURATION
ESTIMATING
Teams must have an optimal composition, to have an
optimal and realistic production rate.

Adding resources in a team, will not necessarily

translate to proportional increases in output. There
is a point in which the cost of the additional
resource cannot be justified by less-than-optimal
increase in output.

This is the law of diminishing returns.

ACTIVITY DURATION
ESTIMATING

Cost of resources

Value of output

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 ACTIVITY DURATION
ESTIMATING
The duration of the activity can be estimated in two
ways:

 Parametric estimating applies the concept of team

composition and production rates and the
mathematical derivation of activity duration.

 Analogous estimating uses historical information to

predict activity duration.

ACTIVITY DURATION
ESTIMATING
Reserve time may be added to activity durations
based on assessed risks and uncertainties. Thus,
optimal productivity rates, or optimal activity
durations may be increased due to added reserve
time.

However in project execution, Parkinson’s Law holds

that “work expands so as to fill the time available
for its completion.”

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 ACTIVITY DURATION
ESTIMATING
In some cases, it may be necessary to determine:
 the most optimistic activity duration

 the most likely activity duration

 the most pessimistic activity duration

The “average” of the three, may be used as the “final”

duration of the activity; or the combinations of three
durations for all activities are used to determine the
most likely project end-date, or the probability of the
project ending at a particular date. (PERT)

SCHEDULE DEVELOPMENT

The project during execution may be restricted by

constraints, such as weather conditions, government
regulations, wanting to take advantage of certain
opportunities, schedules of vendors or related
projects, milestones, predetermined project
deadline.

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 SCHEDULE DEVELOPMENT

There are four time constraints to consider:

 Start no earlier than (more common)

 Start no later than
 Finish no later than (more common)
 Finish no earlier than

SCHEDULE DEVELOPMENT

Project constraints are determined by reviewing

assumptions made during initiating; by reviewing
identified risks; and by examining attributes of the
activities that may bring about constraints:
 who is responsible for each activity

 where and when activities will take place

 nature of activities

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 SCHEDULE DEVELOPMENT
Illustration of mathematical analysis – schedule
development (simplified)

ACTIVITY DURATION PRECEDENCE

RELATIONSHIP
A 2 start
B 3 A
C 5 A,B
D 6 B,C
E 4 C
F 8 D,E

SCHEDULE DEVELOPMENT

2 3 5 10 6 16

16 8 24
0 2 2 B D

10 4 14 F
A
5 5 10

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 SCHEDULE DEVELOPMENT

2 3 5 10 6 16

16 8 24
0 2 2 B D

10 4 14 F
A
5 5 10

SCHEDULE DEVELOPMENT
The critical path is the sequence of activities that do
not have “float” or “slack” - activities on the critical
path should not be delayed, otherwise the project
end date will be delayed.

The critical path is the path with the longest duration,

which is the entire project duration.

Activities with float, allows some amount of delay

without delaying the entire project.

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 SCHEDULE DEVELOPMENT

There can be more than one critical path in a project.

It is possible for the critical path to change, should

delays happen on non-critical paths and all float
was consumed.

SCHEDULE DEVELOPMENT
Project duration may be compressed or extended due
to several considerations:

Project “fast-tracking” means rearranging activities

that they happen in tandem rather than in
succession, reducing project duration. This increases
risk of rework in the project.
Project “crashing” means adding more resources to
critical-path activities to reduce project duration.
This increases project cost.

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 SCHEDULE DEVELOPMENT

Due to the critical availability of some resources, the

project duration may change due to the
reassignment of resources to more critical activities.

This is called “resource-levelling” heuristics (rule-of-

thumb).

SCHEDULE DEVELOPMENT
Resource-levelling:
o Some resources cannot do two tasks at the same

time, rather do one task at a time.

o Some resources are taken off non-critical path

activities, and applied to critical path activities.

o Utilizing “non-working hours” such as weekends,

evenings, etc., as working hours.

o Changing resources such as labor and equipment

with faster production rates.

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 SCHEDULE DEVELOPMENT
After the project network diagram has been obtained,
the project schedule can be retranslated into a
format that is easier to understand for interface
with clients and working teams.

One popular format is the bar chart or Gantt chart,

usually indicated with milestones such as dates of
delivery of high-level deliverables, etc.

SCHEDULE DEVELOPMENT

The project schedule also serves as input for the

development of periodic schedules such as daily or
weekly “to-do” lists.

The periodic schedules lists down all activities,

quantity of work and deliverables scheduled only
for that period.

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 SCHEDULE EXECUTION AND
CONTROL
The project manager must constantly be alert to
deviations in the project schedule, what caused them
and what can be done to “normalize” it so that the
project end-date is accomplished.

There may be acceptable changes in the project

schedule; make sure it goes through proper change
control so that completion expectations are
updated.

GANTT CHARTS
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 Henry Gantt – WW II
Milestone
Task Duration

Tasks Description

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Timeline

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 47

SCHEDULES & PROJECT CONTROL

PROJECT SCHEDULES
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 Basic use of schedules

 To ________
allocate resources
 To estimate costs

 To track project performance

 Planning & Scheduling Charts

 Gantt Charts
 Logic Diagrams

 PERT – Project Evaluation & Review Technique

 CPM – Critical Path Method

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 PROJECT SCHEDULES
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 Typical problems associated with schedules

 submitted for compliance only
 no definite/realistic basis

 may be correct but not used

 may be used but not updated

 may be updated but not accurate

 when any of these apply, schedules lose their

capacity to be used for project
___________.
control

SCHEDULE DEFICIENCIES
50

 schedules with time scales too big

 schedules with work items too few
 both fail to capture essence of work

 schedules with time scale too small

 schedules with work items too many
 both provide too much information

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 SCHEDULE DEFICIENCIES
51

 ___________
Front-loaded schedules

 unrealistically
raises expectations on contractor’s
progress early in the project
 yields much deficiency in terms of accomplishment

SCHEDULE DEFICIENCIES
52

 _________
End-loaded schedules

 unrealistically
lowers expectations on contractor’s
progress early in the project
 provides false sense of accomplishment

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 THE S-CURVE
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 the S-Curve is a statistically derived indicator of

expected project progress. USE IT.

THE S-CURVE
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MEASURING FINANCIAL PROGRESS

 S-Curve
a management (financial) planning and financial scheduling
tool
 presented in graphical form through an S-shaped curve
superimposed on a prepared bar-chart
 for the CONTRACTOR – critical for cash flow management &
internal monitoring of costs
 for the OWNER – critical for monitoring of Contractor’s
progress

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 S-CURVE PREPARATION
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1. prepare network and conduct required analysis/ establish

sequence of works required
2. develop bar chart based on the network
3. tabulate the cost of the items along the work item description
4. calculate the % weight of each item by dividing the cost of
the work by the total project cost
5. tabulate the % weight of each item beside the cost of each
item; this must total 100%
6. based on the network, establish the projected cost of work
per defined periods of time

S-CURVE PREPARATION
56

7. express the projected cost accomplishment as a % of the

total cost of the concerned work item
8. (you may) indicate the percentages along the proper time
period on the bars of the work items
9. calculate the total project financial accomplishment per time
period
10. calculate the cumulative project financial accomplishment ;
and
11. plot out the cumulative project financial accomplishment

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 TIME MANAGEMENT
57

How to determine Slippage and “Days” of Delay

% planned accomplishment

actual accomplishment

slippage

“days” of delay

Time

DEVELOPING THE CASH-FLOW DIAGRAM

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From the S-curve, the planned accomplishment curve

can be used to predict billings at particular points in
time. With a determinate billing process, the actual
cash inflow for the cash-flow diagram can be
predicted.
From the cost estimate / budget and the schedule,
planned expenses can also be determined for the
same points in time, to obtain the cash outflow for
the cash-flow diagram. Cash-flow problem points
or “deficits” can be determined.

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