Scribd
Upload
24 views37 pages

Ch06 Activity Planning

This document discusses activity planning and scheduling for software project management. It describes defining activities, constructing precedence networks, and using critical path method (CPM) to calculate earliest and latest start/finish times. CPM involves performing forward and backward passes through the network to determine floats, which indicate scheduling flexibility. The critical path is the longest path of activities, and any delay on it could delay the whole project.

Uploaded by

Srisha Prasad Rath
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
24 views37 pages

Ch06 Activity Planning

This document discusses activity planning and scheduling for software project management. It describes defining activities, constructing precedence networks, and using critical path method (CPM) to calculate earliest and latest start/finish times. CPM involves performing forward and backward passes through the network to determine floats, which indicate scheduling flexibility. The critical path is the longest path of activities, and any delay on it could delay the whole project.

Uploaded by

Srisha Prasad Rath
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 37

Software Project Management

Chapter Six

Activity planning
Scheduling
‘Time is nature’s way of stopping everything happening at
once’

Having
worked out a method of doing the project
identified the tasks to be carried
assessed the time needed to do each task

need to allocate dates/times for the start and end of each


activity
Activity networks
These help us to:
Ensure that the appropriate resources will be
available precisely when required.
Avoid different activities competing for the same
resources at the same time.
Calculate when costs will be incurred.
Produce a timed cash flow forecast.
Produce a detailed schedule showing which staff
carry out each activity.
Produce a detailed plan against which actual
achievement may be measured.
Plan the project during its life to correct drift from the
target.
Also
Activity plan will provide a target start and completion
date for each activity.
The start and completion of activities must be clearly
visible and ensure each activity to produce some
tangible product or ‘deliverable’.
The project will progress according to the plan.
In case of deviation, identify the cause and plan to
mitigate its effects.
Activity plan provides a means of evaluating the
consequences of not meeting the activity target dates
and guide to bring the project back to target.
Defining activities

Activity networks are based on some assumptions:


A project is:
Composed of a number of activities
May start when at least one of its activities is ready
to start
Completed when all its activities are completed
Defining activities -continued

An activity
Must have clearly defined start and end-points
Must have resource requirements that can be
forecast: these are assumed to be constant
throughout the project
Must have a duration that can be forecast
May be dependent on other activities being
completed first (precedence networks)
Identifying activities

Work-based approach:
draw-up a Work Breakdown Structure listing the work
items needed

Product-based approach:
list the deliverable and intermediate products of
project – product breakdown structure (PBS)
Identify the order in which products have to be
created
work out the activities needed to create the
products
Activity based work-breakdown structure
USDP product breakdown structure

USDP – Unified Software Development Process – Jacobson, Booch, Rambaugh


Hybrid approach
The final outcome of the planning
process
A project plan as a bar chart
Network Planning Model

Project scheduling techniques model the project


activities and their relationships as a network
In the network time flows from left to right.
Developed in 1950s.
Uses activity-on-arrow to visualize network.
Circles and arrows are used.
Technique is called precedence network.
PERT (program evaluation review technique)
CPM (critical path analysis)
Constructing Precedence Network
A project network should have only one start node.
A project network should have only one end node.
A node has a duration.
Links normally have no duration.
Precedents are the immediate preceding activities.
Time moves from left to right.
A network may not contain loop.
A network should not contain dangles.
A loop represents an impossible sequence

A dangle
Resolving a dangle
Activity on node Vs Activity on edge

Do B

Do A Do D
Do C

Do B
Do A

Do D
Do C
Annual maintenance contract project – Event based network
Annual maintenance contract project activity network - CPM
Drawing up a PERT diagram

No looping back is allowed – deal with iterations by


hiding them within single activities

milestones – ‘activities’, such as the start and end of


the project, which indicate transition points. They
have zero duration.
Lagged activities

where there is a fixed delay between activities e.g.


seven days notice has to be given to users that a
new release has been signed off and is to be
installed

7days
Acceptance Install new
testing release
20 days 1day
Types of links between activities

Finish to start

Software Acceptance testing


development

Start to start/ Finish to finish


Test prototype

2 days
Document
1 day Amendments
Types of links between activities

Start to finish

Operate temporary
system

Acceptance test Cutover to new


of new system system
Start and finish times
Latest
Earliest start finish
activity

Latest start Earliest finish


Activity ‘write report software’
Earliest start (ES)
Earliest finish (EF) = ES + duration
Latest start(LS) = latest task can be completed without
affecting project end Latest start = LF - duration
Example

earliest start = day 5 earliest finish = ?


latest finish = day 30 latest start = ?
duration = 10 days

Float = ES – EF – duration
What is it in this case?
‘Day 0’
Note that in the last example, day numbers used rather
than actual dates
Makes initial calculations easier – not concerned with
week-ends and public holidays
For finish date/times Day 1 means at the END of Day 1.
For a start date/time Day 1 also means at the END of
Day 1.
The first activity therefore begin at Day 0 i.e. the end of
Day 0 i.e. the start of Day 1
TE t TE+t

Earliest Duration Earliest


start (ES) finish (EF)
notation
Activity label, activity description

Latest Latest
Float
Start (LS) finish (LF)
TL-t TL -TE TL
Complete for the previous example
Forward pass
Start at beginning (Day 0) and work forward following chains.
Earliest start date for the current activity = earliest finish date
for the previous
When there is more than one previous activity, take the latest
earliest finish

EF = day 7

ES = day10

EF = day10
Example of an activity network
Complete the table
Activity ES duration EF
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
Backward pass
Start from the last activity
Latest finish (LF) for last activity = earliest finish (EF)
work backwards
Latest finish for current activity = Latest start for the
following
More than one following activity - take the earliest LS
Latest start (LS) = LF for activity - duration
Example: LS for all activities?
Complete the table
Activity ES Dur EF LS LF
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
Float

Float = Latest finish -


Earliest start -
Duration

FLOAT
ES LF
activity

Latest start Earliest finish


Complete the table
Act- ES Dur EF LS LF Float
ivity
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
Critical path
Note the path through network with zero floats
Critical path: any delay in an activity on this path will
delay whole project
Can there be more than one critical path?
Can there be no critical path?
Sub-critical paths
Free and interfering float
0 7w 7
B can be up to 3 days late
A
and not affect any
2 2 9 other activity = free float

0 4w
4w 44 7 1w 8 10 2w 12
BB D E
5 5 9 9 2 10 10 0 12

0 10w 10

A
0 0 10
B can be a further 2 days late – affects
D but not the project end date =
interfering float

You might also like

pFad - Phonifier reborn

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


Alternative Proxies:

Alternative Proxy

pFad Proxy

pFad v3 Proxy

pFad v4 Proxy