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Computing 3 Management
Lecture 3
Managing IT Project: Time
Semester 1, 2021 Dr Rabiul Hasan
The University of Sydney
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Source:
Schwalbe, K, Information Technology Project Management (9th Edition). Cengage Learning, 2019
Recapture From Lecture 2
We discussed Managing IT Project Scope:
Goal, objectives, deliverables, and scope Processes of project scope management Collecting requirements
Creating WBS
Validating and controlling project scope
The University of Sydney
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What Will We Do Today ?
Lecture
-Time Management – Network Diagram – CPM
– PERT
Class activities
– Critical Thinking / Problem Solving – Tools to use: https://padlet.com
https://answergarden.ch
Assessment – Test: ?
– Assignment: ?
Tutorial Updates: ? Start working on your project
Announcement (if any): The University of Sydney
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Learning Objectives
Discuss the importance and processes of project time management
Describe how IT project managers use network diagrams and dependencies to assist in activity sequencing
Explain how various tools and techniques help project managers perform activity duration estimates
Discuss Gantt chart for planning and controlling project schedule
Describe how the Program Evaluation and Review Technique
(PERT) affect schedule development
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Why Project Time Management ?
Delivering project on time as one of biggest challenges in IT project.
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
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Project Time Management Overview
Source: A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, Fifth Edition (PMBOK® Guide) © 2013 Project Management Institute
The University of Sydney
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Project Time Management Processes
Plan schedule management: determining the policies, procedures, and documentation that will be used for planning, executing, and controlling the project schedule
Define activities: identifying the specific activities that the project team members and stakeholders must perform to produce the project deliverables
Sequence activities: identifying and documenting the relationships between project activities
Estimate activity resources: estimating how many resources a project team should use to perform project activities
Estimate activity durations: estimating the number of work periods that are needed to complete individual activities
Develop the schedule: analyzing activity sequences, activity resource estimates, and activity duration estimates to create the project schedule
Control the schedule: controlling and managing changes to the project schedule
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Process 1: Plan Schedule Management
The University of Sydney Source: A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, Fifth Edition (PMBOK® Guide) © 2013 Project Management Institute Page 8
Process 2: Defining Activities
An activity or task is an element of work normally found on the work breakdown structure (WBS) that has an expected duration, a cost, and resource requirements
Activity definition involves developing a more detailed WBS and supporting explanations to understand all the work to be done so you can develop realistic cost and duration estimates
The University of Sydney Source: A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, Fifth Edition (PMBOK® Guide) © 2013 Project Management Institute Page 9
Activity Lists and Attributes
An activity list is a tabulation of activities to be included on a project schedule that includes
– theactivityname
– anactivityidentifierornumber
– abriefdescriptionoftheactivity
Activity attributes provide more information such as predecessors, successors, logical relationships, leads and lags, resource requirements, constraints, imposed dates, and assumptions related to the activity
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Milestones
A milestone is a significant event in a project that occurs at a point in time.
It often takes several activities and a lot of tasks to complete a milestone
They’re useful tools for setting schedule goals and monitoring progress
Any example of a milestone?
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Process 3: Sequencing Activities
Involves reviewing activities and determining tasks dependencies
You must determine dependencies in order to use critical path analysis
The University of Sydney Source: A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, Fifth Edition (PMBOK® Guide) © 2013 Project Management Institute Page 12
Three types of Dependencies
Mandatory dependencies: essential in the nature of the work being performed on a project, sometimes referred to as hard logic
Discretionary dependencies: defined by the project team, sometimes referred to as soft logic and should be used with care since they may limit later scheduling options
External dependencies: involve relationships between project and non-project activities
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Network Diagrams
Network diagrams are the preferred technique for showing activity sequencing
A network diagram is a graphic display of the logical relationships among, or sequencing of, project activities
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Network Diagram for a Project
Activity On the Node (AON)
Activity-On-Arrow (AOA)
Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM)
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Activity On the Node (AON) Network Diagram
Activity
Estimated Duration
Predecessor
A
5
None
B
4
A
C
5
B
D
6
B
E
7
D
F
3
C,D
G
6
D
H
7
F,G
I
8
E,G
J
3
H,I
F
H
ABGJ
C
D
E
I
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Activity-On-Arrow (AOA)
Activities are represented by arrows
Nodes or circles are the starting and ending points of activities Can only show finish-to-start dependencies
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Process for Creating AOA Diagrams
1. Find all 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. Continue drawing the network diagram, working from left to right. Look for bursts and merges. Bursts occur when a single node is followed by two or more activities. A merge occurs when two or more nodes precede a single node
3. Continue drawing the project network diagram until all activities are included on the diagram that have dependencies
4. As a rule of thumb, all arrowheads should face toward the right, and no arrows should cross on an AOA network diagram
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Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM)
Activities are represented by boxes
Arrows show relationships between activities
More popular than AOA and used by project management software
Better at showing different types of dependencies
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PDM – Task Dependency Types
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PDM Network Diagram – Example
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Process 4: Estimating Activity Resources
Before estimating activity durations, you must have a good idea of the quantity and type of resources that will be assigned to each activity; resources are people, equipment, and materials
Consider important issues in estimating resources
– Howdifficultwillitbetodospecificactivitiesonthisproject? – Whatistheorganization’shistoryindoingsimilaractivities? – Aretherequiredresourcesavailable?
A resource breakdown structure is a hierarchical structure that identifies the project’s resources by category and type
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Estimating Activity Resources
Estimate Activity Resources is the process of estimating the type and quantities of material, human resources, equipment, or supplies required to perform each activity.
The University of Sydney Source: A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, Fifth Edition (PMBOK® Guide) © 2013 Project Management Institute Page 23
Process 5: Estimating Activity Duration
Duration includes the actual amount of time worked on an activity plus elapsed time
Effort is the number of workdays or work hours required to complete a task Effort does not normally equal duration
The University of Sydney Source: A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, Fifth Edition (PMBOK® Guide) © 2013 Project Management Institute Page 24
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
– anestimatethatincludesanoptimistic,mostlikely,andpessimistic 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 analysis.
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Lead Time and Lag Time
Lead:Whenthefirstactivity Lag:Whenthefirstactivity
is still running and second activity starts, this is called Lead. The balance of time for the first activity is known as Lead Time. Lead Time is the overlap between the first and second activity.
completes, if there is then a delay or wait period before the second activity starts, this is called lag and the delay is known as the Lag Time. Lag Time is the delay between the first and second activity.
The University of Sydney https://pmstudycircle.com/2013/02/lead-time-and-lag-time-in-project-scheduling-network-diagram/ Page 26
Process 6: Developing the Schedule
Ultimate goal is to create a realistic project schedule that provides a basis for monitoring project progress for the time dimension of the project.
The University of Sydney
Source: A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, Fifth Edition (PMBOK® Guide) © 2013 Project Management Institute
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Gantt 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
Symbols include:
– Ablackdiamond:amilestones
– Thickblackbars:summarytasks
– Lighterhorizontalbars:durationsoftasks – Arrows:dependenciesbetweentasks
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Gantt Chart for Software Launch Project
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Adding Milestones to Gantt Charts
Many people like to focus on meeting milestones, especially for large projects
Milestones emphasize important events or accomplishments on projects
Normally create milestone by entering tasks with a zero duration, or you can mark any task as a milestone
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Sample Tracking Gantt Chart
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Critical Path Method (CPM)
CPM is a network diagramming technique used to predict total project duration
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 may be delayed without delaying a succeeding activity or the project finish date
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Calculating the Critical Path
Develop a good network diagram
Add the duration estimates for all activities on each path
through the network diagram
The longest path is the critical path
If one or more of the activities on the critical path takes longer than planned, the whole project schedule will slip unless the project manager takes corrective action
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Calculate Critical Path – Example
The University of Sydney Source: A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, Fifth Edition (PMBOK® Guide) © 2013 Project Management Institute Page 34
Class Exercise 1: Calculate Critical Path
Identify the number of paths available to complete the project?
Which path is the Critical Path?
Using the critical path, how long will it take to complete the project? What is the earliest time to complete the project?
Any advantages/disadvantages of using CPM in project ?
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Class Exercise 1: Solution
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Critical Path
The critical path is not the one with all the critical activities; it only accounts for time
There can be more than one critical path if the lengths of two or more paths are the same
The critical path can change as the project progresses
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Calculating Early and Late Start and Finish Times
A forward pass through the network diagram determines the early start and finish dates
A backward pass determines the late start and finish dates
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Shortening a Project Schedule
Shortening durations of critical activities/tasks by adding more resources or changing their scope
Crashing activities by obtaining the greatest amount of schedule compression for the least incremental cost
Fast tracking activities by doing them in parallel or overlapping them
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Critical Chain Scheduling
Critical chain scheduling
– amethodofschedulingthatconsiderslimitedresourceswhencreatinga project schedule and includes buffers to protect the project completion date
Attempts to minimize multitasking
– whenaresourceworksonmorethanonetaskatatime
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Would You Do Multitasking in IT Project Management?
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Buffers and Critical Chain
A buffer is additional time to complete a task
In traditional estimates, people often add a buffer to each task
and use it if it’s needed or not
Critical chain scheduling removes buffers from individual tasks and instead creates
– aprojectbufferoradditionaltimeaddedbeforetheproject’sduedate
– feedingbuffersoradditionaltimeaddedbeforetasksonthecriticalpath
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Example of Critical Chain Scheduling
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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
– durationestimatesbasedonusingoptimistic,mostlikely,andpessimistic
estimates of activity durations, or a three-point estimate
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PERT Formula and Example
PERT weighted average =
optimistic time + 4X most likely time + pessimistic time
6
Short form of the formula: Expected E = (O+4M+P)/6
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PERT Example 1
Example:
PERT weighted average =
8 workdays + 4 X 10 workdays + 24 workdays 6
where optimistic time= 8 days most likely time = 10 days, and pessimistic time = 24 days
= 12 days
Therefore, you’d use 12 days on the network diagram instead of 10 when using PERT for the above example
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Process 7: Control Schedule
Control Schedule is the process of monitoring the status of project activities to update project progress and manage changes to the schedule baseline to achieve the plan.
The University of Sydney Source: A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, Fifth Edition (PMBOK® Guide) © 2013 Project Management Institute Page 47
Control Schedule– Suggestions
Perform reality checks on schedules
Allow for contingencies
Don’t plan for everyone to work at 100% capacity all the time
Hold progress meetings with stakeholders and be clear and honest in communicating schedule issues
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Reality Checks on Scheduling
First review the draft schedule or estimated completion date in the project charter
Prepare a more detailed schedule with the project team
Make sure the schedule is realistic and followed
Alert top management well in advance if there are schedule problems
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Summary Schedule
&
Detailed Schedule
Source: A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, Fifth Edition (PMBOK® Guide) © 2013 Project Management Institute
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Discussion on group projects
Project groups finalised on Canvas. Project selection strategy
Others:
Access to lecture recording Access to tutorial practices
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Discussion on group projects
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Lecture Summary
Project time management is often cited as the main source of conflict on projects, and most IT projects exceed time estimates
Project Time Management processes include – Planschedulemanagement
– Defineactivities
– Sequenceactivities
– Estimateactivityresources – Estimateactivitydurations – Developschedule
– Controlschedule
The University of Sydney
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