PROJECT MANAGEMENT, PMI APPROACH (PMP)
PROJECT TIME AND SCHEDULE MANAGEMENT
Resources:
Book: PMP in Depth by Dr. Paul Sanghera
Book: The PMP Exam, How to Pass on Your First Try By Andy Crowe
Project Management Lessons in Undergraduate Study
Work Experience
Sayed Ahmed
1
BSc. Eng. in CSc. & Eng. (BUET, Bangladesh)
MSc. in CSc. (University of Manitoba, Canada)
http://sayed.JustEtc.net
http://www.JustETC.net
sayed@justEtc.net, www.justEtc.net
Just E.T.C for Business, Education, Technology, and Entertainment Solutions
REFERENCES & RESOURCES

Book: The PMP Exam, How to Pass on Your First Try by Andy
Crowe
sayed@justEtc.net, www.justEtc.net

Book: PMP in Depth by Dr. Paul Sanghera
 Read on 2007
Read on 2007
A Project Management lessons in undergraduate study
Articles from the Internet
Work Experience




2
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
sayed@justEtc.net, www.justEtc.net
3
OUR SERVICES
sayed@justEtc.net, www.justEtc.net
4
PROJECT TIME MANAGEMENT PROCESS
sayed@justEtc.net, www.justEtc.net
1. Define Activities Required
2. Sequence Activities
3. Estimate Resources for the Activities
4. Calculate Duration of the Activities
5. Develop Schedule
6. Control Schedule
5
PROJECT TIME MANAGEMENT PROCESS

Process: Define Activities Required

List all the
sayed@justEtc.net, www.justEtc.net
activities
 functionalities
 modules
 components
 That you want to develop


When the project scope is defined


Work breakdown structure


use it to decompose the work into activity list
will be useful at this stage
List what modules, components the project will
handle
6
PROJECT TIME MANAGEMENT PROCESS

Process: Define Activities Required

List all the

For each activity


define
 properties
 assumptions
 quality requirements
 and output requirements
Input: Define Activities Required



sayed@justEtc.net, www.justEtc.net

functionalities/activities that are required for each of the
modules/components
Project scope statement
Work breakdown structure
Output: Define Activities Required




Project activities [activity list]
Activity attributes
milestone list
requested changes
7
PROJECT TIME MANAGEMENT PROCESS

Process: Define Activities Required

Tools




may be of good use here
Templates
 The Company may have them
 other project may have them
 and some standards like IEEE may define some templates
Rolling Wave Planning
 Many later aspects of the project


may not be understood
• at the beginning
Hence, initially decompose as much as possible


sayed@justEtc.net, www.justEtc.net
Decomposition
 Decompose work into smaller activities.
 Project team or the functional manager
and later with the progress, improve the decomposition
Expert Judgment
 Take help of other experts in the field
 Project team or the functional manager may be of good use here
8
PROJECT TIME MANAGEMENT PROCESS

Process: Sequence Activities
Find the order/sequence of the activities
Some activities may be dependent on the completion of
another activity – find them
 Some modules may be dependent on the completion of
another module – find them
 Sometimes, it may be the case






sayed@justEtc.net, www.justEtc.net


some activities/modules are not strictly dependent on another
activity
but may be preferable to start after another activity/module
[Best Practice]
Find them
In this step, you need to find the sequence
and then create a project network diagram
Note


module refers to a complete unit/component
where each module may have many activities
9
PROJECT TIME MANAGEMENT PROCESS

Process: Sequence Activities

Input
Mostly from the first step
 Project scope statement
 Activity list
 Activity Attributes
 Milestone List
 Approved change requests
sayed@justEtc.net, www.justEtc.net

10
PROJECT TIME MANAGEMENT PROCESS

Process: Sequence Activities

Tools
Precedence Diagram Method (PDM)
 Activities are represented by the nodes
 where arrows represent the dependencies


that exist between the activities
Arrow Diagramming Method (ADM)
 Activities are represented using arrows
 where nodes represent the connection points
 We can create dummy activities

sayed@justEtc.net, www.justEtc.net

with dotted arrows [not possible in PDM]
11
PROJECT TIME MANAGEMENT PROCESS

Process: Sequence Activities

Tools



Graphical Evaluative Review Technique (GERT):
 Like the PDM diagrams.
 Additionally, you can show dependencies among activities.
 Also, you can represent repeated processes.
Network Templates:
 Sub networks of another project in the organization may be
useful.
Dependency Determination:
 like mandatory dependencies [you can not break the
dependency]
 discretionary dependencies [best practices, the dependency
is not strict],
 and external dependencies [out of the scope of the project].
Apply leads and lags:
sayed@justEtc.net, www.justEtc.net

12
PROJECT TIME MANAGEMENT PROCESS

Process: Sequence Activities

Output
Project schedule network diagram
sayed@justEtc.net, www.justEtc.net

13
PROJECT TIME MANAGEMENT PROCESS

Process: Estimate Resources for the Activities

3rd: Then you need to identify

Process: Calculate Duration of the Activities


4th: Estimate duration for each activity
It may be





Process: Develop Schedule




5th: Develop the schedule
Project sequencing and time estimating will directly affect this
Several projects may require the same resource
Hence, the schedule should check when the resource is available


experience based
practical examples based
another completed project based
mathematical analysis based
sayed@justEtc.net, www.justEtc.net

the resource requirements of each activity
and schedule accordingly
Process: Control Schedule

6th: Monitor how the schedule is performing
14
PROJECT SCHEDULE DEVELOPMENT

In this phase, the following are determined
Project duration
 Project finish date
 Schedules of the activities

Input to the Phase






Activity List
Activity Attributes
Project Schedule Network Diagrams
Activity Duration
Activity Resource Requirements
Resource Calendars
sayed@justEtc.net, www.justEtc.net

15
PROJECT SCHEDULE DEVELOPMENT

Tools

Critical Path Model (CPM)

CPM is extensively used to determine the project duration
CPM method also helps
 to identify how much individual activities can slip


Crashing and Fast tracking



without affecting the total duration of the project
Crashing tries to add more resources into the project
 to ensure that the project will be finished on time or early.
 [Note: Fred's theory: adding resources to an already delayed project
will/may increase the delay]
Fast tracking tries to run multiple activities in parallel
 to ensure that the project will be finished on time or early
sayed@justEtc.net, www.justEtc.net

Resource Leveling


Apply the resource availability [and quantity] to the project duration
It may increase the project duration
 when sufficient resource [in quantity or at the right time] is not
available.
16
PROJECT SCHEDULE DEVELOPMENT

Critical Chain Method
It is almost similar to the Critical Path Method

Critical path method uses a concept called float

CPM first calculates the total duration and then calculates float

[HOW MUCH IT CAN SLIP] FOR EACH
ACTIVITY

CPM ensures that no activity exceeds its float

In Critical Chain Method

LATEST POSSIBLE START AND LATEST POSSIBLE FINISH DATES ARE DETERMINED
FOR EACH ACTIVITY


AFTERWARDS,

THE GOAL
BUFFERS ARE ADDED BETWEEN ACTIVITIES
IS NEVER TRY TO EXCEED THE BUFFER
Company Calendar

COMPANY CALENDARS
sayed@justEtc.net, www.justEtc.net

MAY BE USED TO CHECK THE COMPANY HOLIDAYS, OR
EVENTS


that may affect the project duration/schedule
Adjusting leads and lags
17
STEPS IN CPM MODEL

Using CPM Model [steps]

1. CPM uses

2. After building the diagram


how much an activity can slip without affecting the critical
path.
4. Calculate Early start


find the critical path
 [the path that takes the longest time from start to finish
considering all alternatives]
3. Calculate float


the arrow diagram method
 [activities and duration on arrows, nodes as connectors]
 to represent project activities and duration.
sayed@justEtc.net, www.justEtc.net

The earliest date an activity can start considering the
dependencies
5. Calculate Early finish

Early start date + duration – 1
18
STEPS IN CPM MODEL

6. Calculate Late Start:

7. Calculate Late Finish:


8. Calculate Free Float:


Amount of time an activity can be delayed without affecting
the dependent activities' early start date
9. Calculate Negative Float:


Late start date + duration – 1
Occurs when an activity's start date occurs before a
preceding activity's finish date
sayed@justEtc.net, www.justEtc.net

What is the last date an activity can start considering the
dependencies
When you have calculated all the values

the values will help greatly in the schedule control
19