Successful
Project Management
Where Are We Going?
CPM Scheduling Concepts and Practices
PMI KC Mid-America Chapter
Professional Development Days 2012
Overland Park Convention Center
10 September 2012
10:00 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.
© 2012 Phillip L. Thatcher
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Successful Project Management
Agenda
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Project Management Proverbs
Project Scope Checklist
Importance of Project Schedules
Project Network Diagrams
Task Dependencies
Critical Path Method (CPM)
Project Network Methodology
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Successful Project Management
Agenda (cont.)
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How to Shorten a Project Schedule
Resource Allocation and Leveling
Program Evaluation Review
Technique (PERT) – Time Estimating
How to Control your Project
“Golden Rule of Planning”
???Questions???
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Successful Project Management
Project Management Proverbs
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When things are going well,
something will go wrong.
When things appear to be getting
better, you’ve simply overlooked
something.
Projects progress quickly until they
become 90% complete, then stay at
90% complete forever.
Murphy and Parkinson are both alive
and well in your project.
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Successful Project Management
Project Management Proverbs (cont.)
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The most valuable and least word used by
Project Manager’s is “NO.”
What you don’t know hurts you.
No major project is ever installed on time,
within budget and with the same staff that
started it.
A user will tell you anything you ask about nothing more.
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Successful Project Management
Project Management Proverbs (cont.)
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If project content is allowed to change
freely, the rate of change will exceed the
rate of progress.
You cannot produce a baby in one month
by impregnating nine women.
The more ridiculous the deadline, the more
it will cost to try to meet it.
If it’s not written down, it never happened !!!
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Successful Project Management
Project Scope Checklist
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Project Objective(s)/Goal
Deliverables
Milestones
Technical Requirements
Limits and Exclusions
Reviews w/ customer
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Successful Project Management
1. Project Objectives
Specific
Measureable
Assignable
Realistic
Time Related
Example: “Design and publish an Operations
Manual for the newly installed X-Ray
equipment in the Radiology Department
in 8-months at a cost not to exceed $1,200.”
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Successful Project Management
2. Deliverables
Expected outputs after each phase of
the project.
Examples:
Defining – List of Specifications
Planning – Software Coding and a Technical Manual
Executing – Test Prototypes
Delivering – Final Tests and Approved Software
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Successful Project Management
3. Milestones
Significant event that occurs at a
specific point in time.
Must be easy for all project
participants to recognize.
Example: “Final testing complete by Oct 31.”
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Successful Project Management
4. Technical Requirements
Specifications that describe the
technological aspects of the project.
Example: “The equipment must be designed to
operate between 47-63 Hz.”
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Successful Project Management
5. Limits and exclusions
Defined limits of scope.
Define the boundaries of the project.
Example: “System maintenance and repair shall be
done only up to one month after final inspection
of the equipment.”
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Successful Project Management
6. Reviews with the Customer
Must include internal and external
customers.
The understanding and agreement of
expectations.
Example: “Does the project identify key
accomplishments, budgets, schedule, and
performance requirements?”
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Successful Project Management
Importance of Project Schedules
Delivering projects on time is the biggest
challenge
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Successful Project Management
Project Network Diagrams
•
Shows a logical flow of how activities are
sequenced
Constructing a Network Diagram
•
Terminology
•
•
Activity – an element that requires time.
It may or may not require resources.
Merge Activity – an activity with more
than one activities preceding it.
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Successful Project Management
Terminology (cont)
•
•
•
•
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Burst Activity – an activity with more than one
activity following it.
Event – a point in time when an activity is
started or completed.
Parallel Activities – activities that can take
place at the same time.
Path – a sequence of connected, dependant
activities.
Critical Path – the path with the longest
duration through the network.
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Successful Project Management
Activity-on-Arrow (AOA) Network Diagram
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Successful Project Management
Task Dependencies
Tasks must be defined and linked based upon
their start and finish dates
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Successful Project Management
Critical Path Method (PERT/CPM)
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Successful Project Management
Critical Path
•
•
Can there be more than one critical path?
Can the critical path change?
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Successful Project Management
Project Network Methodology
•
•
•
•
•
Define Activities - specify what
activities must be done
Sequence Activities - show how
activities are related
Estimate Activity Duration - how long
an activity takes to complete
Develop a Project Schedule
Control the Schedule - manage
changes promptly
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Successful Project Management
How to shorten a Project Schedule
• “Crashing” - Schedule Compression
Advantage - shortens completion
Disadvantage - often more cost
• “Fast Tracking” - parallel tasking
Doing sequential activities at the same time
• What-If Scenario Analysis
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Successful Project Management
“Crashing” Example
Project Data
Task A: 8-days, $1,000
Predecessor: None
Task B: 6-days, $150
Predecessor: None
Task C: 4-days, $400
Predecessor: Task A
Task D: 5-days, $500
Predecessor: Task B
Task E: 7-days, $800
Predecessor: Task C
Task F: 4-days, $250
Predecessor: Task D
Task G: 10-days, $1,500
Predecessor: Task E, F
Total Budget: $4,600
Goal
Calculate the most effective way to reduce this project to 22-days.
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Successful Project Management
Solution
1. Draw the project network diagram.
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Successful Project Management
2. Calculate the critical path.
Paths and durations for this project are:
Path 1: Start, A, C, E, G, Finish = 8 + 4 + 7 + 10 = 29 days
Path 2: Start, B, D, F, G, Finish = 6 + 5 + 4 + 10 = 25 days
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Successful Project Management
3. Calculate the crash cost per day for each critical task.
Normal time - crash time = days available for crashing
Crash cost - normal cost = cost of crashing
Cost of crashing/days available = crash cost per day
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Successful Project Management
4. Look for the activity on the Critical Path with the lowest
cost per unit. Crash it as required to reduce the project
duration.
5. Continually crash activities until desired combination of
time/cost for project is achieved.
6. Be aware that if dual critical paths are created,
multiple tasks must be crashed to continue to reduce
the project duration.
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Successful Project Management
After six crash iterations, the project duration was
reduced from the normal time of 29 days to the desired
crashed duration goal of 22 days.
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Successful Project Management
Final Solution
In this project, the lowest cost crashing solution is to
crash E, C, G, A, and D. This will reduce the schedule
to the desired 22 days.
There are many ways to crash a task and here we
added resources, at a cost. This allows the tasks on
the critical path to get finished quicker.
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Successful Project Management
Our demonstration resulted in $5,800 crash cost and 22
days. At this point we have met our goal and do not need
to crash any further.
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Successful Project Management
Resource Allocation and Leveling
“How do you have just the right amount of resource
available at just the right time?”
1. Resource needs will vary as the project
progresses.
2. Correct resources must be available at the right
time.
3. Resources must be scheduled evenly.
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Successful Project Management
Resource Leveling
... shifting tasks within their slack time to even out
demands on resources which are common to
different tasks.
Advantages:
• Less management is required when
resource use is constant.
• If the resource is people, leveling improves
morale.
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Successful Project Management
Resource Leveling Example
Task
Duration
(days)
Predecessor
(units)
Number of
Programmers
Required
A
10
n/a
5
B
5
n/a
5
C
10
B
10
D
10
A
5
E
15
D
5
F
5
D
5
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Successful Project Management
1. Determine the critical and other paths.
Path 1: A - D - E = 35 days
Path 2: B - C - F = 15 days
Path 3: A - D - F = 25 days
2. Plot resource loading against time for each
activity. Start with the CP:
• Task A uses 5 Programmers and takes days
1 through 10.
• Task D uses 5 Programmers and takes days
10 through 20, after its predecessor, A.
• Task E uses 5 Programmers and takes days
20 through 35, after its predecessor, D.
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Successful Project Management
2. (cont.) Path 2 and Path 3:
• Task B uses 5 Programmers and takes days
1 through 5, concurrently with A.
• Task C uses 10 Programmers and takes days
5 through 15, concurrently with A and D, and
after its predecessor, B.
• Task F uses 5 Programmers and takes days
20 through 25, concurrently with E.
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Successful Project Management
Total Resource Demand:
Days
Unleveled
Leveled
1...5
10
10
5...10
15
10
10...15
15
10
15...20
5
10
20...25
10
10
25...30
5
10
30...35
5
5
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Successful Project Management
Resource Diagram - Before Leveling:
Gantt Chart Per Initial Project Plan
Task Duration
Day
5
Day
10
Day
15
Day
20
Day
25
Day
30
Day
35
R=5
R=5
A
10
B
5
C
10
D
10
E
15
R=5
F
5
R=5
Day
40
Day
45
R=5 R=5
R=5
R =10
R = 10
R=5
R=5
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Successful Project Management
Resource Diagram – After Leveling:
Gantt Chart After Resources are Leveled
Task Duration
Day
5
Day
10
Day
15
Day
20
Day
25
A
10
B
5
C
10
D
10
E
15
R=5
F
5
R=5
Day
30
Day
35
Day
40
Day
45
R=5 R=5
R=5
R =5
R=5
R=5
R=5
R=5
R =5
R=5
R=5
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Successful Project Management
Program Evaluation and Review
Technique (PERT)
• Way of estimating duration times
• Uses “weighted average”
• Advantage - addresses risk
• Disadvantages - there are better ways,
confusion with PERT/CPM method
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Successful Project Management
PERT (3-point Estimate)
= Best time + 4X Average time +Worst time
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Example: Travel time to work each day
Best time = 17 minutes
Average time = 22 minutes
Worst time = 35 minutes
PERT = 17 +4(22) + 35
6
PERT = 23 minutes
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Successful Project Management
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Successful Project Management
How to control your Project
• Reality Checks “death march” projects
• Have regular meetings
• Waiting for meetings to start consumes 18-min
each day.
• Communicate revisions
• Know who has copies
• Let others know that you take your project
seriously
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Successful Project Management
“Golden Rule of Planning”
•
Get the persons who will do the
work, plan the work
They know more about the job
than anyone
• Remember - it’s their task, not
yours
Even though Project Managers are
responsible for developing the Project
Schedule, they must have inputs from
Team Members and the
Customer/Client.
•
•
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Successful Project Management
Project success depends upon:
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Top Management support
Clear Mission
Good Project Schedule/Plan
Good Client Support
Adequate Resources
Choosing the right team
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Successful Project Management
Project Managers must:
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Have good leadership skills
Lead my example
Help facilitate actions
Coordinate Activities
Communicate Effectively
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Successful Project Management
???QUESTIONS???
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