INTRODUCTION
In the planning phase of any project,
scheduling is a critical activity.
 Project scheduling is the process of
defining project activities, determining
their sequence , and estimating their
duration.
 To successfully complete a project ,
the project manager must be aware of
all the activities the project entails.

The project management team
manages and tracks these activities
through a process of decomposition,
meaning that the entire project is
broken down into more manageable
and controllable parts.
 A project manager follows a divide and
conquer strategy of breaking down a
project into components that can be
managed and controlled more easily
than the project in its entirety.
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Once the project components are
determined, the project management
team establishes a sequence for doing
the work associated with them. To
help determine how to sequence
these activities, the project manager
considers technical constraints, safety
of efficiency concerns, policies, the
availability of resources, and the need
to begin some task only after others
are completed.
Scheduling tools, such as network
diagrams, help the project manager
visualize the result of this planning
process, project management software
packages assist by offering powerful
tools to create, maintain and update
these charts.
 In addition to defining and sequence
activities, another important facet of
project scheduling is assigning
resources to those activities.

In most cases, resource availability
plays a major role in determining the
duration of a project. We are going to
focus on how to define and sequence
project activities.
 We are going to discuss the brief
overview of the importance and
challenges associated with project
scheduling.

The subsequent section discusses
specific techniques for breaking down a
complex project into more manageable
components and then determining the
sequence of activities for accomplishing
those components
 The first step in this process is the
creation of a work breakdown structure
(WBS), a chart detailing the project’s
specific components.
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The second step is to determine which
activities are needed to complete those
project components. The third step is to
determine how to sequence these
activities.
Throughout this discussion we will
highlight the different types of diagrams
used to graphically represents project
schedules , their benefits and drawbacks,
and how project management software
can help with the different project
scheduling activities.
Importance of Project Schedules

Managers often cite delivering projects on
time as one of their biggest challenges.

Schedule issues are the main reason for
conflicts on projects, especially during the
second half of projects.

Time has the least amount of flexibility; it
passes no matter what happens on a
project.

It is really possible to mention about
Project Schedules in every phases of
the project.

Schedules are important in the control
phase, when they are often used for
project tracking.

Without a clearly established project
schedule,managers can not accurately
plan activities.
Project Management Processes
Top Five Management Challenges
1.
Lack of clarity in scope of the project
2.
Shifting organizational priorities
3.
Project changes not well managed
4.
A lack of project management skills
5.
Training of project sponsors
Individual Work Styles and Cultural
Differences Cause Schedule Conflicts

Some people prefer to follow
schedules and meet deadlines while
others do not.

Different cultures and even entire
countries have different attitudes
about schedules.
Project Time Management Processes
Activity definition: Identifying the
specific activities that the project team
members and stakeholders must
perform to produce the project
deliverables.
 Activity sequencing: Identifying and
documenting the relationships
between project activities.
 Activity resource estimating:
Estimating how many resources a
project team should use to perform
project activities.

Activity duration estimating:
Estimating the number of work periods
that are needed to complete individual
activities.
 Schedule development: Analyzing
activity sequences, activity resource
estimates, and activity duration
estimates to create the project
schedule.
 Schedule control: Controlling and
managing changes to the project
schedule.
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TECHNIQUES FOR MANAGING PROJECT
SCHEDULES
Project managers will divide entire
project into discrete activities in order to
set up a schedule. These discrete
activities allows them to more easily
allocate time and resources, and thus
better estimate how long each activities
will take. This process of subdividing
tasks is called Decomposition.
Creating a Work Breakdown Structure
(WBS)
 The output that results from the
process of dividing the entire project
into manageable tasks (usually
presentedas a hierarchival chart or in
tabular form)
 The purpose of WBS is to serve as an
aid in illustrating the project’s scope
and describing the activities necessary
for creating various subcomponents of
the project.
Work Breakdown Structure
1.0
Requirements
Analysis
2.0
Stakeholder
Identification
3.0
Design
4.0
Prototype
Development
5.0
Testing
6.0
Implementation
WBS Inputs
Scope management plan
 Project scope statement
 Project manager’s experiences with
similiar projects
 Approved changes to the project
scope statement.
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WBS Tools and Techniques
The primary technique for building a
WBS is the process of decomposition.
This decomposition process of
breaking up a large project into
smaller parts.
 A scheduling technique in which the
team defers breaking down
components until they are further
clarified and the decomposition takes
place as the project progresses is
called Rolling wave planning.
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Another method is is to use the
phases of the systems development
life cycle (SDLC) or project life cycle
as level 1 deliverables. This method
has the advantage of assisting in
sequencing the different activities in
later phases of the planning stage.
Work Packages
The lowest level units illustrated in the WBS ,
used to estimate project schedule and
budget.
 In general, and dependent upon the size of
the project, a work package should be
relatively short in duration; that is, the
deliverable should be finishable within one or
two weeks.
 Another recommendation for the size of the
work packages is that they should all be
about the same size or should require about
the same efffort to produce.
 Finally, a work package should be specific
enought to be completed by one person or a
small, well-defined group.
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Templates
Another method of determining the
deliverables and individual work packages
needed to complete the project is the use
of templates.
 Templates are lists of activities established
during earlier projects.

Gantt Chart

A bar chart showing the start and end
dates for the activities of the project.
WBS Output
WBS itself
 WBS dictionary (provides details
about the individual components of the
WBS, such as a description of each
component, who is responsible for its
completion, a statement of work,
critical milestones, and preliminary
estimates of costs or resources
required.)
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Activity definition

In this stage, the different work
packages of the WBS are broken into
discrete activities, and the attributes of
these activities are defined, including
a description, resources requirements,
logical predecesoor or successor
activities, and the like.
Activity definition inputs
WBS
 WBS dictionary
 The project scope statement
 The project management plan
 Organizational process
assets(historical information,
procedures, and policies)
 Enterprise environmental factors
(availability of tools and resouces)

Activity Definition Tools and
Techniques
A central question in determining
activities is, when is a sufficient level of
detail reached?
 While there are no hard-and-fast rules for
when to stop decomposition, there are a
few guidelines.

Typically, an activity
 Can be performed by one person or a
well-defined group
 Has a single, clearly identifiable deliverable
 Has a know method or technique
 Has well-defined predecessor and
successor steps
 Is measurable so that the level of
completion can be determined
Another guideline for determining the
level of detail needed is the duration of
the activity
 Limiting the duration of an activity to
several hours or a few days, therefore,
helps to limit the negative impact of any
potential delays.

Also Expert judgement may be used to
better define project activities based on
the recollection of a project expert.
 For instance, a database manager knows
the detailed steps to be performed in
setting up certain database queries.

Activity Definition Outputs
Activity list
 Supporting detail (such as activity
attributes and milestones)
 Any requested changes to the project
scope statement and the WBS
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Activity Sequencing
The process of developing a network diagram
and updating activity list from the activity
definition phase.
 A network diagram is a schematic display that
illustrates the various activities in a project as
well as their sequential relationships.
 When determining the sequencing of
activities, it may be important in some
instances for activities that can be performed
in parallel to be scheduled simultaneously in
order to speed project completion.
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Activity Sequencing Inputs
The activities’ attributes (logical
predecessor or successor activities)
 The project scope statement
 The milestone list
 Approved change requests
 The product description (simply a
description of the product being
constructed)
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Activity Sequencing Tools and
Techniques
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The precedence diagramming method
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The arrow diagramming method
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Conditional diagramming method
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Network templates
Presedence Diagramming Method

A network diagramming technique that
uses boxes and rectangles connected by
arrows to represent activities and their
precedence relationships.
Four types of task dependencies
Arrow Diagramming Method

A network diagram consisting of arrows
to represent activities and their
precedence relationships and noodes to
represent milestones.
Network Template

A template developed from previous
projects used to shorten the
development time of network diagrams.
Dependency Determination
Mandatory Dependencies: Mandatory
Dependencies are specific to the nature of
the project work. Absolutely must happen in
the described manner. Referred to as ‘hard
logic’
 Discretionary Dependencies: Discretionary
dependencies are set by the project team
based on their experience. Also referred to as
soft logic, preferred logic, or preferential logic.
Here there may be a preferred order of
events that reduces cost, risk or time, but
other orders can be acceptable to the quality
of the product.
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External Dependencies: External
Dependencies link between the
project activities and activities external
to the project.

Leads time: The time required by one
task before another task can begin

Lag time: The time delay between the
completion off one task and the start
of the successor.
Activity Sequencing Outputs
Network diagrams
 Updates to the activity list
 Updates to the activity attributes list.
 Further change requests
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