What is Time Management?
Project Time Management includes the process required to manage the timely completion of the project“
Plan Schedule Management
To establish the policies, procedures and documentation for managing , the project schedule
Define Activities
To identify and document the specific actions to be performed.
Sequence Activities
To identify and document relationships among the project activities.
After Activity lists are created, they need to be logically sequenced to
Identify the optimal duration of the Project
Identify the Critical Path
Plan resource and material of the project
Sequence of activities can be done using Manually Software such as MS Project
Project Network diagrams are the most convenient representations of project activities sequencing
Dependency Determination
Mandatory Dependencies
Logical relationships inherent in the set of activities
Also called hard logic
Discretionary Dependencies
Dependencies which are defined by the project team or the performing organization
Also called preferred logic or soft logic
These dependencies need documentation as they may impact scheduling options later on in the project.
External Dependencies
Represents relationship between project and non project Activities. E.g. Project requiring government approval
Sequence Activities-PDM
Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM or AON-Activity on Node)
Finish-to-Start (F-S)- The Finish date of the predecessor task determines the start date of the successor.
Start-to-Start (S-S)- the Start date of predecessor task determines the start date of successor.
Sequence Activities-Lead and Lag
Lead and Lags are represented to suggest the delays or leads between two activities
Lead time: The overlap between tasks that have a dependency
Lag time: The delay between tasks that have a dependency
Estimate Activity Resources
To estimate the type and quantities of material, human resources, equipment, or supplies required.
Estimate Activity Duration
To estimate the number of work periods needed to complete individual activities with estimated resources
Analogous Estimation
- Uses a similar past project to estimate the duration or cost of your current project.
- Thus the root of the word: analogy.
- Considered a combination of historical information and expert judgment
- Less Accurate
- E.g if it cost $7,100 to develop a website a few months ago and you are responsible for developing a new similar website, you estimate it to cost $7,100.
Parametric Estimating
- Uses the relationship between variables to calculate the cost or duration.
- For example, in the previous project, cost of concreting per cubic meter was $100.
- Then you can determine total cost of current similar project by using previous information.
Three Point Estimating
- Manager: Usually how long does it take to complete the engine design?
- Engineer: About 5 days.
- Manager: Great. And what if there were problems… unexpected issues come up, and there are new things that we haven’t thought up of arise?
- Engineer: Well, in that case, it might take as long as 10 days, worst case! Manager:
- I see. And how about if everything goes smoothly. No hiccups, and no problems? What’s the best case?
- Engineer: Then I could get it done in just 3 days flat.
Triangular Distribution:
E = (5 + 10 + 3) / 3 = 18/3 = 6 Days.
Beta Distribution:
E = (3 + 4*5 + 10) / 6 = (3 + 20 + 10) / 6 = 33/6 = 5.6 Days.
Estimate Activity Duration-Tools and Techniques
Three-point estimates
To mitigate the risks on the estimation techniques, project manager uses three-point estimates be created
Based on these three estimates, an average can be created to predict how long the activity should take.
Three-point estimates is the new name for the PERT( Program Evaluation and Review technique)
Develop Schedule
To analyze activity sequence, duration, resource requirement, and schedule constraint to create the project schedule.
Schedule Outputs
Project Schedule-It can be presented graphically:
Milestone Chart
Bar Chart
Project Schedule Network Diagram
Schedule Baseline
Schedule Data
Project document updates
Activity Resource Requirement
Calendar
Risk Register
Develop Schedule Output
1. Collection of information for describing and controlling the schedule
2. At least the schedule milestones, schedule activities, activity attributes and documentation of
3. All identified assumptions and constraints
4. Resource requirements by time period
5. Alternative schedules such as best-case or worst case
6. Scheduling of contingency reserves
Critical Path Method
Calculates a single deterministic early and late finish date for each activity based on specified sequential network logic and a single duration estimate
Forward calculation= (ES + Duration) – 1
Backward calculation= (LF - Duration) + 1
Critical Path analysis
Nature of Critical path
- Critical path changes while tracking
- Changes while change in scope of works
- Multiple Critical
- Changes while monitoring paths
Network Diagram Calculation
Calculating Float in PND:
Float or sack is the amount of time a delayed task can postpone the project’s completion.
The three different types of float are as follows.
Miscellaneous Concepts
Crashing
1.This approach adds more resource to complete the activity on the critical path
2.In this case, the cost increases as more resource used for the same work
3.Crashing always does not work
4.Activities which has fixed timing cannot be reduced like drying time of a concrete
Fast Tracking
1.This method changes the relationship of activities
2.With this method, activities that normally would have been in sequence are allowed to be done in parallel or with some overlap.
3.This can be accomplished by changing the relation of activities from FS to SS or by adding lead time to down team activities
Miscellaneous Concepts
Resource Leveling
1.Start and Finish dates are adjusted based on resource constraints
2.Used when critical resources are shared
Resource Smoothing
The activities are adjusted in such a manner that requirements for the resources does not exceed
a predetermined
Critical Chain Method
1.The critical chain method aims to eliminate Parkinson’s Law by eliminating bottlenecks that hold up the project progression
2.In this method, deadlines associated with individual tasks are removed, and the only date that matters is the promised due date of the project deliverables
3.It works to modify schedule based on availability of resources rather than the pure sequence of activities
4.This method first requires the discovery of the critical path and then applies available resources to determine the true resources limited schedule
5.Based on the availability of resources the critical path may be completely different than the CPM
6.This method evaluates each activity’s latest possible start and finish dates. Thus giving the project managers to manage buffer activity duration
7.Buffers can be added to point where non-critical chain meet critical chain called feeder buffers and also at end of the project called project buffer
8.The buffers are then monitored for consumption
Control Schedule
To monitor the status of project activities to update project progress and manage changes to the schedule baseline
