Project Schedule

Management
 Learning Objectives
• Understand the importance of project schedules
and management.
• Define activities and use network diagrams and
dependencies to assist in activity sequencing
• Explain how various tools and techniques help
project managers to perform activity duration
estimating
• Use a Gantt chart for planning and tracking
schedule information, find the Critical path for the
project and to understand its importance.
 Learning Objectives
• Understand how CPM and PERT affect
schedule development
• Describe how project management software can
assist in project schedule management.
 Scheduling
• The purpose of scheduling is to aid project
implementation in order to optimize efficiency.
• Project schedule assign a duration to the project
activities and the activities are sequenced in a
logical order.
– Schedule defines the start and end dates of the
project and its activities.
• Managers often cite delivering projects on time
as one of their biggest challenges.
Importance of Project Schedules
• Time has the least amount of flexibility; it passes
no matter what happens on a project.
• Schedule issues are the main reason for
conflicts on projects, especially during the
second half of projects.
Conflict Intensity Over the Life of
a Project
0.40
0.35
Conflict Intensity

0.30
Schedules
0.25 Average
Total Conflict
Priorities
Manpower
0.20 Technical opinions
Procedures
0.15 Cost
Personality conflicts
0.10
0.05
0.00
Project Early Phases Middle Phases End Phases
Formation
 Project Scheduling

The process of defining project activities,

determining their sequence, and
establishing their duration
 What is Project Schedule Management

• Process required to manage timely completion

of a project.
• Process involved in the project schedule
management include:
– Plan schedule management
– Activity Definition
– Activity sequencing
– Activity resource estimating
– Activity duration estimating
– Schedule development
– Schedule control
 Plan Schedule Management
• The process of establishing the policies,
procedure, and documentation for planning,
developing, managing, executing, and
controlling the project schedule.
Inputs Tool and Outputs
Techniques
Project management plan Expert Judgment Schedule management
plan
Project charter Analytical techniques

Enterprise environmental Meetings

factors
Organizational process
assets
 Activity Definition
• Process to identify specific actions that need to be
performed to produce project deliverables
• Activities are smaller decomposed components of the
project work packages, which represent the work
necessary to complete the work package.

Inputs Tools & Techniques Outputs

Enterprise Decomposition Activity list
environmental factors
Organizational process Templates Activity attributes
assets
Scope baseline Expert Judgement Milestone list
Project management
plan
 Tools & Techniques for Activity
Definition
• Decomposition
– Subdividing project work package into smaller, more
manageable components in order to provide better
management control.
– Involve team members. This can lead to better and
more accurate results.
• Templates
– An activity list, or a portion of an activity list
from a previous project, often use as a
template for a new project.
 Tools & Techniques for
Activity Definition
• Expert Judgment
– Experienced person from project team or
sometime outside person having vast
experience .
 Activity Definition: Outputs
• An activity list is a tabulation of activities to be
included on a project schedule. The list should
include:
– The activity name
– An activity identifier or number
– A brief description of the activity
• Activity attributes provide more information about
each activity, such as predecessors, successors,
logical relationships, leads and lags, resource
requirements, constraints, imposed dates, and
assumptions related to the activity.
 Milestones
• Milestones are typically major accomplishments
of the project and mark the completion of major
deliverables or some other key event in the
project.
– A milestone is a significant event that normally has
no duration.
– Also called check-points or gates.
• Milestones are useful tools for setting schedule
goals and monitoring progress.
– Examples include completion and customer sign-off
on key documents, completion of prototype, system
testing etc.
 SMART Criteria
• Milestones should be:

– Specific

– Measurable

– Assignable

– Realistic

– Time-framed
 Activity Sequencing
• Involves identifying and documenting the logical
relationships among the project activities.

Inputs Tools & Techniques Outputs

Project scope statement Precedence diagram Project schedule network
method (PDM) diagram
Activity list Arrow diagram methods Activity list (updates)
(ADM)
Activity attributes Dependency Activity attributes
Determination (updates)
Milestone list Lead and Lags
Enterprise environmental
factors
Organizational process
assets
 Activity Sequencing
• A dependency or relationship relates to
the sequencing of project activities or
tasks.

• Use project network diagrams for showing

activity sequencing

• Must determine dependencies in order to

use critical path analysis.
 Dependency Determination
• Relationships between the activities in which
one activity is dependent on another to complete
an action
• Four types of dependencies exists:
– Mandatory dependencies
– Discretionary dependencies
– External dependencies
– Internal dependencies
 Dependency Determination
Mandatory Dependencies
– Inherent in the nature of the work being performed on a
project or as per contract
– Also referred to as hard logic.
• Ex: you can not test code until after the code is written.

• Discretionary Dependencies
– Defined by the project team and referred to as soft logic or
preferred logic.
– Should be used with care since they may limit later scheduling options.
• Ex: Project team not start detailed design of a new IS until
the users sign off on all of the analysis work.
 Dependency Determination
• External Dependencies
– Involves relationship between project and non-
project activities.
• Ex: installation of a new operating system and other
software may depend on delivery of new hardware from
an external vendor.
• Internal Dependencies:
– Dependency internal to the project or the
organization.
– May be outside of your control
• Ex: before implementing a new time tracking system in your
maintenance shop, the operations department has decided to
study the business rules regarding time tracking.
 Project Network Diagrams
• Technique for showing activity sequencing.
• Schematic display of the logical relationships
among, or sequencing of, project activities.

• Two main formats are:

– Arrow diagram method (ADM) or activity-on-arrow

(AOA) .
– Precedence diagramming method (PDM) or Activity
on Node (AON).
Sample Activity-on-Arrow (AOA)
Network Diagram for Project X

• In AOA or ADM
• Arrows are used to
represents activities
• Direction of the arrows
indicate the
relationships and
sequence
• Only Finish to Start
relationships can be
shown
• Dummy activities may
be required to show a
dependency
Sample Precedence Diagram Method
(PDM)

23
 PDM or AON
• In precedence diagramming model:
• Boxes represents activities
• Arrows represents dependencies
• Relationship can be four types:
• Finish to Start (FS)
• Start to Start (SS)
• Finish to Finish (FF)
• Start to Finish (SF)
 Lags & Leads
Lags: amount of time a successor activity will be
delayed with respect to predecessor activity
resulting in added positive time.
Ex: there is a delay between pouring concrete
and drying
Leads: amount of time a successor activity can be
advanced with respect to predecessor activity,
resulting in subtracted or negative time.
Also called negative lags.
Ex: a reviewer can start reviewing a document
before the author has entirely completed writing.
Information Technology Project Management, Fourth Edition 25
 Precedence Diagramming Method
(PDM) Cont..
• Four type of dependencies exist in PDM:
 Task Dependency Relationships
• Finish-to-Start (FS)
• Most common relationship
• Predecessor task to complete before the start of successor
task (from activity—must finish before the successor—or to
activity—can start)
• B cannot start till A finishes
• A: Construct fence; B: Paint Fence
• Start-to-Start (SS)
• The predecessor activity must start before the successive
activity can start.
• Tasks are closely related in nature and should be started but
not necessarily completed at the same time
• B cannot start till A starts
• A: Pour foundation; B: Level concrete
Task Dependency Relationships
• Finish-to-Finish (FF)
• Predecessor task and the successor task be completed at
nearly the same time.
• B cannot finish till A finishes
• A: Add wiring; B: Inspect electrical
• Start-to-Finish (SF)
• Predecessor activity must start before the successor activity
can finish.
• This logical relationship is seldom used.
• B cannot finish till A starts
 Activity Resource Estimating
• Estimates the type and quantities of material,
people, equipment, or supplies required to
perform each activity.
• Consider important issues in estimating
resources:
– How difficult will it be to complete specific
activities on this project?
– What is the organization’s history in doing
similar activities?
– Are the required resources available?
 Activity Resource Estimating
Inputs Tools & Techniques Outputs
Enterprise Expert judgment List of activity
environmental factors resource requirements

Organizational process Alternatives analysis Activity attributes

assets (updates)
Activity list Project management Resource breakdown
software structure

Activity attributes Bottom-up estimating Requested changes

Resource availability Published estimating Project

data document(updates)

Project management
plan
Activity Resource Estimating : Tools
& Techniques
• Alternative analysis
– Identify alternative methods of activity
accomplishment.
• Project Management Software
– Software has the capability to help plan, organize,
and manage resource pools and develop
resource estimates.
– Depending upon the sophistication of the
software, resource breakdown structure, resource
availability, resource calendar can be defined
Activity Resource Estimating : Tools
& Techniques
• Bottom-up Estimating
– Process of estimating individual schedule activity
costs and then adding them together to come up
with a total estimate for the work package.
– This is an accurate means of estimating, provided the
estimates at the schedule activity level are accurate.
Outputs of Estimate Activity Resources
• Activity Resource Requirements
– Identifies the types and quantities of resources
required for each activity in a work package
– Determines the estimated resources for each work
package by aggregating their requirements like the
types and the quantities
• Resource Breakdown Structure
– Is a hierarchical structure of resources by category
and type
• Project Document Updates
– The project documents that may be updated include:
• Activity list
• Activity attributes
• Resource calendars
 Activity Duration Estimating
• Process of estimating the number of work periods
needed to complete individual activities with estimated
resources.
• Uses information on the activity scope of work, required
resource types, estimated resource quantities, and
resource calendars, as well as historical information.
• Should take into consideration the input data’s quality
and availability
 Activity Duration Estimating
Inputs Tools & Techniques Outputs
Enterprise environmental Expert judgment Activity duration
factors estimates
Organizational process Analogous estimating Activity attributes
assets (updates)
Project scope statement Parametric estimating
Activity list Three-point estimates
Activity attributes Reserve analysis
Activity resource Group decision making
requirements techniques
Resource calendar
Project management
plan
 Analogous Estimating
(Top-Down Estimating)
• Uses the parameters from a previous, similar
project as the basis for estimating the same
parameter for a future project
• Uses historical information and expert judgment
• Less costly and time consuming than other
techniques
• Top-down techniques are useful when you're
early in the project Planning processes and are
just beginning to flesh out all the details of the
project.
 Parametric Estimating
• A quantitatively based estimating method
• Uses a statistical relationship between historical
information and other variables to calculate an
estimate for activity parameters.
 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 (O), most likely (M),
and pessimistic (P) estimate , such as three weeks for the
optimistic, four weeks for the most likely, and five weeks
for the pessimistic estimate.

• Three-point estimates are needed for PERT

estimates and Monte Carlo simulations.
E = (O + P + 4M) / 6
 Group Decision-Making
Techniques
• Group decision-making techniques include
brainstorming and the Delphi or nominal
group techniques.
• These techniques get your team members
involved and will help improve the accuracy of
your estimates
 Reserve Analysis
• Contingency reserves—also called buffers or
time reserves in the PMBOK® Guide—means a
portion of time (or money when you're estimating
budgets) that is added to the schedule to
account for risk or uncertainty.
• Contingency reserves are calculated for known
risks that have documented contingency or
mitigation response plans to deal with the risk
event should it occur.
Activity Duration Estimating

Duration includes the actual amount of time

worked on an activity plus the elapsed time
 Elapsed vs. Effort Time
• Two types of time estimates used in
project management
– Elapsed time
– Effort time
• Two estimates are related to each other
– Larger the effort involved the longer it will take
• Two estimates measures different
quantities even though both are expressed
in unit of time
 Elapsed Time
• If someone says it will take him a week to do a
particular task, he is probably offering an
elapsed-time estimate. They generally mean
that it will take him one work week to get a task
done, not that it will take them 40 hours.
 Schedule Development
• Schedule development means determining the start and
finish dates for the project activities.

• Ultimate goal is to create a realistic project schedule that

provides a basis for monitoring project progress for the
time dimension of the project.
• Often presented graphically or in tabular form
• Graphically presented using:
– Milestone charts
– Bar charts
– Project schedule network diagrams
 Schedule Development: Inputs,
Tools & Techniques, and Outputs
Inputs Tools & Techniques Outputs
Organizational process Mathematical analysis Project Schedule
assets (CPM, PERT..)
Activity list & attributes Duration compression Supporting details
(crashing, fast tracking..)
Project network diagram Project management Resource requirements
software (updates)
Resource requirements Schedule baseline
Constraints Project management
plan (updated)
Activity duration Requested changes
estimates
Project management
plan
 Schedule Control
• The control schedule process is a method of
monitoring the status of the project to update
project progress and deal with the changes to
the schedule baseline.
• It is concerned with:
– Determining the current status of the project
– Influencing the factors that create schedule changes
– Determining that the project schedule has changed
– Managing the actual changes as they occur
 Schedule Control: Inputs, Tools &
Techniques, and Outputs
Inputs Tools & Techniques Outputs
Schedule management Progress reporting Schedule data (updates)
plan
Schedule baseline Schedule change control Schedule baseline
system (updates)
Performance reports Performance Performance
measurement measurements
Approved change Project management Requested changes
requests software
Variance analysis Recommended
corrective actions
Activity list (updates)
Project management
plan (updates)
 Gantt Charts or Bar Charts
• Gantt charts provide a standard format for
displaying project schedule information by listing
project activities and their corresponding start
and finish dates in a calendar format.
• Two axes:
– One represents the activities and the other
represents the time required for completion of the
individual activities.

• Developed by Henry L. Gantt.

Gantt Chart for Software Launch
Project
Symbols include:
Black diamonds:
Milestones
Thick black bars:
Summary tasks
Lighter
horizontal bars:
Durations of tasks
Arrows:
Dependencies
between tasks
 Network Based Scheduling

Two popular network scheduling techniques:

• Critical Path Method (CPM)

• Programme Evaluation Review Technique (PERT)

Arrow Diagramming Method (ADM)
• Also called activity-on-arrow (AOA) network
diagram
• Constructing a project network diagram using
arrows to represent the activities and
connecting them at nodes to show the
dependencies

• Nodes or circles are the starting and ending

points of activities.

• Sometime requires dummy activities to define

logical relationship correctly.
• Activity:
– Any identifiable job that has a beginning and
an end. An Activity consumes time, manpower
and material resources.
• Event:
– Also called node
– It is the beginning or end of an activity.
– Represented by circle
– Circles placed at the beginning and at the end
of an activity are called events.
Relationship Among Activities
1. Concurrent activities: activities that can be carried out
concurrently are called concurrent activities. Two
activities can be carried out concurrently since they do
not depend on each other.

2. Preceding Activity: for a given activity that occurs

immediately before it, is its preceding activity.

3. Succeeding Activity: for a given activity, the activity that

follows immediately after it, is its succeeding activity.
4. Dummy Activity: imaginary activity included in a
network.

Does not consume resources.

Included in a network to maintain the network logic and

to avoid ambiguity.

Represented by a dotted arrow.

Sample Activity-on-Arrow (AOA)
Network Diagram for Project X
 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. Continuing drawing the network diagram, working from

left to right. Look for bursts and merges. A burst occurs
when a single node is followed by two or more activities.
A merge occurs when two or more nodes precede a
single node.
 Process for Creating AOA
Diagrams (Cont..)
3. Continue drawing the project network diagram
until all activities that have dependencies are
included in the diagram.

4. As a rule of thumb, all arrowheads should face

toward the right, and no arrows should cross in
an AOA network diagram.
Activity ‘A’ must be completed before activity ‘B’
can begin

Activities ‘A’ and ‘B’ are concurrent

activities i.e. they can be performed
concurrently.

Activities ‘A’ and ‘B’ can be performed

concurrently. But activity ‘C’ can start only
after both the activities ‘A’ and ‘B’ are
completed.

Activities ‘B’ and ‘C’, can be performed

concurrently. But both can start only after
activity ‘A’ is completed.
Activities ‘A’ and ‘B’ are concurrent activities.
Similarly, activities ‘C’ and ‘D’ are also concurrent
activities. But, ‘C’ and ‘D’ can start only after both
‘A’ and ‘B’ are completed.

‘E’ is a dummy activity. Activity ‘D’ can start after

‘C’ is completed. But for activity ‘B’ to start, both
‘A’ and ‘C’ should be completed.
 Rules for Drawing Network
Diagrams
• All activities shall be represented by way of straight
arrows pointing towards the right.
– Flow of network from the left towards the right
• There shall not be any criss-crossing of arrows.
• The arrows of a network shall not form
loops.

• There shall not be

unnecessary dummy
activities in the network
• Example
– Activity ‘A’ and ‘B’ are concurrent activities.
– Activity ‘C’ follows activity ‘A’.
– Activity ‘D succeeds activity ‘A’ and ‘B’.
– C and D are the last activities.
Draw a network diagram.
Example cont…

Fig: A Fig: B
• Example
– A and B are concurrent activities; activities ‘D’
follows activity ‘B’.
– Activity ‘C’ succeeds activities ‘A’ and ‘B’
– ‘C’ and ‘D’ are the last activities.
Draw a network diagram; use dummy activities
if required.
Fig A: without dummy activity Fig B: with dummy activity
• Application of dummy activity (more..)
– As per network logic two activities can not have
common start and common finish points. They can
have either a common start points or a common finish
point, but not both.
 Precedence Diagramming
Method (PDM)
• PDM is a visual representation technique that
depicts the activities involved in a project.
• Also called Activity-on-Node (AON).
• A network diagramming technique in which
activities are represented by a rectangle box
called the activity node
• Arrows shows relationship between activities
• Useful for visualizing certain types of time
relationships or dependencies
Node Format
 Critical Path
• A critical path is the longest path (time-wise)
connecting the initial and final events.
• 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 can be
delayed without delaying the early start date of any
immediately following activities.
 Critical Path Method (CPM)

• Critical Path Method is a project management

technique that analyzes what activities have the
least amount of scheduling flexibility (i.e., are the
most mission-critical) and then predicts project
duration schedule based on the activities that fall
along the “critical path.”
– Activities that lie along the critical path cannot be
delayed without delaying the finish time for the entire
project.
 Critical Path Method (CPM)
• If one or more of the activities on the
critical path takes longer than planned, the
whole project schedule will slip
• A tool to that helps to combat project
schedule overruns.
 Steps in CPM Project Planning

1. Specify the individual activities

2. Determine the sequence of those activities
3. Draw a network diagram
4. Estimate the completion time for each activity
5. Identify the critical path (longest path through
the network)
6. Update the CPM diagram as the project
progress
Critical Path?
Q. Figure given below represent the network of a project.
The duration of each activity in days is given along the
respective activity. Identify all the paths through the
network. Find the critical path and the project duration
Out of the seven paths, C-> J-> M-> L-> has the longest duration
and this is the critical path. The project duration is the duration of
the critical path, which is equal to 50.
• All the path in a network other than critical
path is called non-critical paths.
– Non critical path may have only non-critical
activities or a combination of both critical and
non-critical activities.
 Finding Critical Path in Large
Network
• Identification of critical path through
observation suitable for smaller networks.
• In large network systematic approach is
required to identify critical path
– The method use to identify critical path have
two component:
• Forward pass computation
• Backward pass computation
 Forward Pass and Backward Pass
• Forward pass computation
– Method of computation of starting time of events
– Computation begins from the initial events and move
towards the final events
– This series of computation is done to arrive at the
Earliest Start Time (TE) of all the events
• Backward pass computation
– Method of computation of the finishing time of events
– Computation begins from the final event and moves
towards the initial event
– The series of computation is done to arrive at the
Latest Finish Time (TL) of all the events
Critical Path: by using forward pass and
backward pass
Find out the Earliest Start Time of events (TE) of events 1 to 8 shown
in the figure.
Critical Path: by using forward pass and
backward pass
Critical Path: by using forward pass and
backward pass
 Slack Time and Critical Path

• Slack time (or Slack) of an event is the difference between the Latest
Finish Time(TL) and the Earliest Start Time (TE) of that event
• Path connecting events with zero slack is the critical path and activities
lie on critical path are called critical activities
Critical Path
 Activity Float Analysis

 Free time available for an activity is called ‘float’.

 Float or Slack is the amount of time an activity can
delay the early start of the project without affecting the
planned finish date of the project.
 Activities lies on critical path have zero float or slack.
 Two kinds of float exists:
 Total Float
 Free Float
 Activity Float Analysis

 Total float represents the maximum time by which the

completion of an activity can be delayed without
affecting the project completion time.
 Free float of an activity is the delay that can be
permitted in an activity so that succeeding activities in
the path are not affected.
 Forward Pass and Backward Pass
Methods
 Forward pass:
 Determines the early start and early finish dates for
each activity.
 Starting at the earliest point of the project schedule
network diagram.
 An early start is the earlier time a task can start.
 An early finish is the earlier time a task can finish.
 Forward Pass and Backward Pass
Methods
 Backward Pass
 Determines the late start and late finish for each task.
 The late start is the latest time a task can start for the
task to be completed without changing the end date of
the project.
 The late finish is the latest time a task can finish for the
task to be completed without changing the end date for
the project.
 Calculate the backward pass by starting at the latest
point of the project schedule network diagram.
Example
 Program Evaluation and Review
Technique (PERT)

 PERT is a network analysis technique used to estimate

project duration when there is a high degree of
uncertainty about the individual activity duration
estimates.

 PERT uses probabilistic time estimates:

 Duration estimates based on using optimistic, most

likely, and pessimistic estimates of activity durations, or
a three-point estimate.
 PERT Formula and Example
 PERT weighted average =
optimistic time + 4X most likely time + pessimistic time
6
 Example:
PERT weighted average =
8 workdays + 4 X 10 workdays + 24 workdays = 12 days
6
where:
optimistic time= 8 days
most likely time = 10 days
pessimistic time = 24 days
Therefore, you’d use 12 days on the network diagram instead of 10 when
using PERT for the above example.
 PERT and CPM are similar techniques.
 Difference is CPM uses the most likely duration to
determine the project duration while PERT uses
expected value (weighted average) to determine project
duration.
 Expected value is calculated using three time estimates
for activity duration.
 Schedule Compression
 Used to shorten the project schedule without changing
the project scope.

 Compression is simply shortening the project schedule

to accomplish all the activities sooner than estimated.

 Two main techniques for shortening project schedules:

 Crashing

 Fast tracking
 Schedule Compression
 Crashing : Schedule compression technique in which
cost and schedule tradeoffs are analyzed.

 Determine how to obtain the greatest amount of

compression for the least incremental cost.

 Crash the schedule to add resources or limit project

requirements, or changing the sequence of tasks.

 Fast tracking: Schedule compression technique by

doing activities in parallel or overlapping them.

 Can result in rework and increased risk.

 Resource Leveling

 A project management technique used to examine

unbalanced use of resources (usually people or
equipment) over time, and for resolving over-
allocations or conflicts.
 In project management software, leveling means
resolving conflicts or over allocations in the project
plan by allowing the software to calculate delays and
update tasks
 Project management software leveling requires
delaying tasks until resources are available
 Quiz
 You cannot start editing a technical report until
someone else completes the first draft. What types of
dependencies does this represents?
 Start-to-Start
 Finish-to-Start
 Finish-to-Finish
 Start-to-finish

95
Questions?