Chapter 6

Project Time Management

 Project time management
• Project time Management involve the processes required to
ensure timely completion of projects. There are 6 main steps
in PTM:
1. Defining activities: identifying the specific activities that the
project team members and stakeholders must perform to
produce the project deliverables.
Activity or task is the element of work found on WBS that has
some duration ,cost and resource requirements.
• The main outputs of this process are an activity list, activity attributes, and
milestone list.
2. Sequencing activities: identifying and documenting the
relationships between project activities
• The main outputs of this process include project schedule
network diagrams and project document updates. • 2
 Project Time Management
3. Estimating activity resources: estimating how many resources
(people, equipment and material) a project team should use
to perform project activities
• The main outputs of this process are activity resource
requirements, a resource breakdown structure, and project
document updates.

4. Estimating activity durations: estimating the number of work

periods that are needed to complete individual activities.
• Outputs include activity duration estimates and project
document updates.

• 3
 Project Time Management
5. Developing the schedule: analyzing activity sequences,
activity resource estimates, and activity duration estimates
to create the project schedule
• Outputs include a project schedule, a schedule baseline,
schedule data, and project document updates.

6. Controlling the schedule: controlling and managing changes

to the project schedule
• Outputs include work performance measurements,
organizational process assets updates, change requests,
project management plan updates, and project document
updates.

• 4
Resource Breakdown Structure

• 5
Figure 6-1. Project Time Management
Summary

• 6
 Defining Activities
• 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

• 7
 Activity Lists
• An activity list is a tabulation of activities to
be included on a project schedule that
includes:
– The activity name
– An activity identifier or number
– A brief description of the activity

• 8
 Activity attributes
• The activity attributes provide more schedule related
information about each activity, such as:
– Predecessors
– Successors,
– resource requirements
– and assumptions related to the activity.
• The activity list and activity attributes should be in agreement
with the WBS and WBS dictionary.
• Information is added in activity attributes as it becomes
available, such as resource requirements that are determined
in later processes
• Many project teams use an automated system to keep track
of all of this activity-related information.
• 9
 Milestones
• A milestone is a significant event that normally has
no duration
• It often takes several activities and a lot of work to
complete a milestone
• Milestones are useful tools for setting schedule goals
and monitoring progress
• Examples include obtaining customer sign-off on key
documents such as design documents or completion
of specific products such as software modules or
increments.
• Not every deliverable or output created for project is
really a milestone. • 10
 Sequencing Activities
• After defining project activities the next step is
sequencing activities or determining their
dependencies
• A dependency or relationship is the sequencing of
project activities or tasks
• You must determine dependencies in order to use
Network Diagrams and critical path analysis

• 11
 Three types of Dependencies
• Mandatory dependencies: inherent in the nature of
the work being performed on a project, sometimes
referred to as hard logic
– For example, you cannot test code until after the code is
written.
• 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
– For example, a project team might follow good practice and
not start the detailed design of a new information system
until the users sign off on all of the analysis work.

• 12
 Three types of Dependencies
• External dependencies: involve relationships
between project and non-project activities
– The installation of a new operating system and
other software may depend on delivery of new
hardware from an external supplier. Even though
the delivery of the new hardware may not be in
the scope of the project, you should add an
external dependency to it because late delivery
will affect the project schedule.

• 13
 Network Diagrams
• Network diagrams are the preferred technique
for showing activity sequencing
• A network diagram is a diagrammatic display
of the logical relationships among, or
sequencing of, project activities

• 14
 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
• The first node signifies the start of a project, and the last node
represents the end of a project.
• These activities come from WBS and activity definition
process
• Not all activities on WBS are shown on networks diagrams.
• Only activities with dependencies represented on Network
diagrams

• 15
 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. Continue 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.

• 16
Sample Activity-on-Arrow (AOA)
Network Diagram for Project X
Activity Name Duration Predecessor
A 1 -
B 2 -
C 3 -
D 4 A
E 5 B
F 4 B
G 6 C
H 6 D, E
I 2 G
J 3 H, F, I

• 17
Figure 6-2. Sample Activity-on-Arrow (AOA)
Network Diagram for Project X

• 18
Class Activity: Draw AOA Network
Diagram
Activity Name Predecessor Duration
A - 2
B - 6
C - 4
D A 3
E C 5
F A 4
G B, D, E 2

• 19
• 20
Class Activity: Draw AOA Network
Diagram

• 21
Class Activity: Draw AOA Network
Diagram

• 22
• 23
• 24
• 25
• 26
• 27
• 28
• 29
• 30
 Draw AON Diagram
Activity Name Predecessor Duration
A - 1
B - 2
C - 3
D A 4
E B 5
F B 4
G C 6
H D, E 6
I G 2
J F, H, I 2

• 31
• 32
 Estimating Activity Resources

• Before estimating activity durations, you must have a good

idea of the quantity and type of resources that will be assigned
to each activity;
• resources are people, equipment, and materials
• It is important that people involved in estimating resources
should have prior experience and expertise in similar projects
• In addition to provide a basis for estimating activity durations,
estimating activity resources provide vital information for:
•Estimating cost
•Human resource management
•Procurement management
• 33
 Estimating Activity Resources
• A resource breakdown structure is a hierarchical
structure that identifies the project’s resources by
category and type
• For example in IT Projects Resource Categories might
include
•Programmers
•Testers
•analysts

• 34
Resource Breakdown Structure

• 35
 Activity 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 is not normally equal to Duration
• People doing the work should help create estimates,
and an expert should review them

• 36
 Three-Point Estimates
• Instead of providing activity estimates as a discrete
number, such as four weeks, it’s often helpful to
create a three-point estimate
– An estimate that includes an optimistic, most
likely, and pessimistic estimate, such as three
weeks for the optimistic, four weeks for the most
likely, and five weeks for the pessimistic estimate

• 37
 Program Evaluation and Review
Technique (PERT)
• A network analysis technique used to estimate
project duration when there is a high degree of
uncertainty about the individual activity duration
estimates. PERT applies the critical path method
(CPM) to a weighted average duration estimate.
• To use PERT, you calculate a weighted average for the
duration estimate of each project activity using the
following formula:

• 38
 Developing the Schedule
• Uses results of the other time management
processes to determine the start and end date of the
project
• activity sequences, activity resource estimates, and
activity duration estimates
• 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

• 39
 Critical Path Method (CPM)
• CPM is a network diagramming 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
or float
• Slack or float is the amount of time an activity may
be delayed without delaying a succeeding activity or
the project finish date

• 40
 Calculating the Critical Path
• First develop a good network diagram
• Add the duration estimates for all activities on each
path through the network diagram
• The longest path is the critical path
• If one or more of the activities on the critical path
takes longer than planned, the whole project
schedule will slip unless the project manager takes
corrective action

• 41
Figure 6-8. Determining the Critical Path for
Project X

• 42
 More on the Critical Path
• 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

• 43
 Using Critical Path Analysis to
Make Schedule Trade-offs
• 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 • 44
• 45
• 46
• 47
• 48
• 49
• 50
• 51
• 52
• 53
• 54
• 55
• 56
• 57
• 58
• 59
• 60
• 61
• 62
• 63
• 64
• 65
• 66
• 67
• 68
 Using the Critical Path to Shorten a Project
Schedule
• Three main techniques for shortening schedules
– Shortening durations of critical activities/tasks by
adding more resources or changing their scope
– Crashing activities by obtaining the greatest
amount of schedule compression for the least
incremental cost. i.e. cost schedule trade offs
– Fast tracking activities by doing them in parallel or
overlapping them

• 69
 CONTROLLING THE
SCHEDULE
• Progress reports
• A schedule change control system, operated as part of the integrated change
control system .
• A scheduling tool and/or project management software, such as Project 2007 or
similar software
• Schedule comparison bar charts, such as the Tracking Gantt chart
• Variance analysis, such as analyzing float or slack
• What-if scenario analysis, which can be done manually or with the aid of software
• Adjusting leads and lags
• Schedule compression, such as crashing and fast-tracking described earlier in this
chapter
• Performance measurement, such as earned value, described in Chapter 7, Project
Cost Management
• Resource leveling, as described in Chapter 9, Project Human Resource
Management
• 70