SW Project Management
Project Schedule and Budget
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Dr. Jennifer Booker
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Grand finale

Developing the project schedule and
budget is the grand finale of the project
planning process – our ultimate goal
 We
just defined the tasks and estimated their
duration (effort)
 Now identify the sequence of tasks,
interdependencies, and staffing needs
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Project cost management
The budget is determined from the project
schedule, the cost assigned to tasks, and
other indirect costs or resources
 Project cost management includes

 Cost
estimating for tasks and their resources
 Cost budgeting for the whole project
 Cost control – define processes
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Rolling up costs

Since our tasks were organized into
phases and deliverables, we can roll up
(summarize) costs to any level desired
 Cost
per deliverable
 Cost per phase
 Cost of the whole project

The sponsor needs to approve these costs
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Developing project schedule

A key sanity check is that each of the
estimates for each task is really
reasonable according to the experts
in that activity
 GIGO
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applies here, not just to programming!
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Project schedule tools

Tools to show a project schedule include
 Gantt
chart
 Project network diagram
Activity On the Node (AON) diagram
 Critical path analysis
 PERT charts
 Precedence diagramming method (PDM)

 Critical
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chain project management (CCPM)
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Gantt chart

The Gantt chart is probably the most
widely used project management tool
 Time

is the X axis, from days to years
The current date is readily visible
 Tasks
are on the Y axis
Bars represent WBS tasks
 Milestones are diamond shapes
 An inset bar can show actual work progress

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Basic Gantt chart
ID
Task
Name
Aug 2009
Start
Finish
Duration
4
1
Task 1
8/4/2009
8/7/2009
4d
2
Task 2
8/5/2009
8/5/2009
1d
3
Task 3
8/6/2009
8/6/2009
1d
4
Task 4
8/7/2009
8/12/2009
3d 4h
5
Task 5
8/12/2009
8/12/2009
0d
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Project network diagram

Project network diagrams are also based
on the WBS, but also show more info on
task sequence or dependencies
 Many
also show when tasks must start or stop
in order not to affect project completion date
 This can help decide resource assignments
needed for critical tasks
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Activity On the Node

Activity On the Node (AON) diagrams
represent the flow of tasks needed to
complete the project
 Tasks
are nodes (boxes)
 Arrows show the order in which they occur

The duration of tasks isn’t directly visible
under AON, only time order
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Activity On the Node

Tasks can be predecessors, successors,
or in parallel
 Predecessor
tasks must occur before another
task
 Successor tasks must occur after another task
 Parallel tasks may occur at the same time as
another task
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Critical path analysis

Given an AON, critical path analysis
determines which activities are directly
connected to achieving the project
schedule
 They

are the critical path, which can change
Analytically, find the duration of each path
through the AON diagram
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Critical path analysis

The path with the longest duration is the
critical path (and the project duration)
 If
any tasks on the critical path are delayed,
the overall project completion will be delayed
 Tasks not on the critical path may have a
non-zero amount of slack or float, which is
the amount of duration they can slip without
affecting the project
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Critical path analysis

A manager might add resources to tasks
on the critical path, if that will actually help
finish them sooner
 This
technique can be called expediting or
crashing the project

Fast tracking the project is done by
making tasks parallel that weren’t
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PERT charts

PERT is the program evaluation and
review technique, developed in the 50’s
 Often

seen with CPM, or critical path method
A PERT chart also uses the AON graphic
notation, but uses a different approach for
estimation
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Styles of PERT nodes
Early Start
Duration
Early Finish
Task Name
Late Start
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Slack
Late Finish
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Task Name
Scheduled
Start
Scheduled
Finish
Actual Start
Actual Finish
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PERT charts

For each task, estimate the lowest
(optimistic), most likely, and highest
(pessimistic) durations, then use
 estimate

= (low + high + 4*likely)/6
The critical path analysis can be done
based on these estimates
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Precedence diagramming method

The precedence diagramming method
(PDM) adds to AON by showing the key
sequence relationships
 Finish
to start (most common, sequential)
 Start to start
 Finish to finish
 Start to finish
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PDM node relationships
Task A
Task C
Task B
Finish-to-start
Task D
Task E
Start-to-start
Task F
From Fig. 7.5
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Task G
Finish-to-finish
Task H
Start-to-finish
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PDM

PDM can also show lead and lag times for
activities
 Lead
time is an amount of time a task can
start before the end of its predecessor
 Lag time is the amount of time a task must
start after the end of its predecessor

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Hence lag time = negative lead time
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Critical chain project management



Critical chain project management (CCPM) is a
newcomer (Goldratt, 1997)
It assumes that all estimates are inflated
We still finish projects late because
 We
wait until the last minute (student syndrome)
 Projects fill the time available (Parkinson’s law)
 Resource contention
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CCPM

CCPM takes that buffer from each task,
and puts in in larger blocks where needed
 How?
Estimate tasks so that you only have
a 50% chance of completing them on time
 Then take half of the difference in task time,
and put that into a buffer at the end of the
project
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CCPM

Yes, you have to estimate each task twice
 Once
normally, and once for 50% chance
completion

CCPM also accounts for resource limits,
by identifying the resources for each task
and buffers for each type of resource
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PM software tools

There are several project management
software tools for developing and
managing schedules
 Microsoft
Project is the de facto standard
 Planner and OpenWorkBench are open
source tools

Ok, so Project doesn’t have much
competition…
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PM software tools
Often projects are planned in detail only a
few months in the future, a rolling wave
approach
 There’s an outline of the rest of the
project, particularly for planning long lead
time items

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Project budget

The budget is straightforward to develop,
once the schedule has been determined
 Determine
the type of resource(s) needed for
each task, and how many of them are needed
for its duration (0.1, 2.5, whatever)
 Find the cost of each resource type ($/hr),
and multiply that by how many and the
duration = cost per task
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Project budget
Check for overuse of resources – often not
recommended to use 155% of a person’s
time
 To find the cost of each resource*, assess
their typical annual salary**, divide by
2000 (hours per work year), and multiply
by 2.5 (to account for overhead expenses)

* This is a heuristic. ** You could look for salary surveys.
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Project budget

So if a software engineer averages
$60k/year, their hourly rate is about $30/hr
 Actually,
a normal work year is 40*52 = 2080
hours, but we’re just getting a rough estimate

Multiply by 2.5 to get a labor rate of $75/hr
 This
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is the ‘true cost’ in the text
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Other costs

Labor is the biggest cost on most projects,
but other costs should be considered
costs – are admin assistants,
facilities, insurance, etc. paid by the project,
or from overhead?
 Sunk costs – from previous bad projects
 Learning curve – might be covered by
prototypes
 Indirect
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Other costs
– most projects keep back a 1015% reserve from the total actual budget, in
anticipation of some cost overruns
 Project-specific hardware and software – plan
for infrastructure costs (servers, network
equipment, software) which aren’t part of
normal office & facility environment
 Travel, e.g. to the customer?
 Reserves
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Resource allocation
Again, make sure that individuals aren’t
scheduled for over 100% of their time
 Also consider resource leveling

 Are
there times when people are needed,
then not, then needed again?
 What will those people do in the middle?
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Baseline plan
Once all these issues have been identified
and agreed upon, you have the baseline
project schedule, which feeds the project
plan
 All measurements of ‘planned versus
actuals’ hinge upon this plan!

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