CSIT214/CSIT883
IT Project Management
Project schedule management
Project management framework
(review)
Scheduling
‘Time is nature’s way of stopping everything
happening at once’
Having
worked out a method of doing the project
identified the tasks to be carried
assessed the time needed to do each task
Now, need to allocate dates/times for the
start and end of each activity/task
3
Defining activities
A project is:
Composed of a number of activities
May start when at least one of its activities is ready to
start
Completed when all its activities are completed
A milestone is a significant event that normally has no
duration
It often takes several activities and a lot of work to
complete a milestone
They’re useful tools for setting schedule goals and
monitoring progress
Examples: obtaining customer sign-off on key
documents or completion4
of specific products
Defining activities (cont.)
An activity
Must have clearly defined start and end-points
Must have a duration that can be forecasted
May be dependent on other activities being
completed first (precedence networks)
5
Identifying activities
Activity-based approach:
list all activities, sub-activities (sub-sub-
activities and so on) for the project (Work
Breakdown Structure).
Product-based approach
list the deliverable and intermediate products
of project – product breakdown structure
(PBS)
Identify the order in which products have to be
created
work out the activities needed to create the
products 6
Hybrid approach
7
Estimating Activity Durations
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 and
does not normally equal duration
People doing the work should help create
estimates
An expert should review them
Activity networks
These help us to:
Assess the feasibility of the planned
project completion date
Identify when resources will need to be
deployed to activities
Calculate when costs will be incurred
This helps the co-ordination and motivation
of the project team
9
Activity networks (cont.)
Developing an activity network involves
evaluating the reasons for dependencies
and the different types of dependencies
Mandatory dependencies: inherent 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
Activity networks (cont.)
Network diagrams are the preferred
technique for showing activity sequencing
Schematic display of the logical relationships
among, or sequencing of, project activities
Two main formats are the arrow and
precedence diagramming methods
Activity networks (cont.)
Arrow diagramming method (ADM) (i.e., activity-on-arrow
network diagrams)
Activities are represented by arrows
Nodes or circles are the starting and ending points of activities
Precedence diagramming method (PDM)
Network diagramming technique in which boxes represent
activities
Types of dependencies or relationships between activities
Finish-to-start
Start-to-start
Finish-to-finish
Start-to-finish
Activity networks (cont.)
Activity networks (cont.)
Formulating a network planning model
Do B
Do A Do D
Do C
An (activity-on-node) network planning model (i.e. precedence
network) represents activities as nodes and their dependencies
as edges:
Should have only 1 start node and 1 end node.
Each node has a duration.
Edges normally have no duration.
Times move from left to right.
Should not contain loops.
Should not contain dangles.
Lagged activities
where there is a fixed delay between
activities e.g. seven days notice has to
be given to users that a new release
has been signed off and is to be
installed
7days
Acceptance Install new
testing release
20 days 1day
16
Types of links between activities
Finish to start
Software Acceptance testing
development
Start to start/ Finish to finish
Test prototype
2 days
Document
1 day Amendments
17
Start and finish times
Latest
Earliest start finish
activity
Latest start Earliest finish
Earliest start (ES)
Earliest finish (EF) = ES + duration
Latest finish (LF) = latest date when a
task can be completed without affecting
project end
18
Latest start (LS) = LF - duration
Example
earliest start = day 5 earliest finish = ?
latest finish = day 30 latest start = ?
duration = 10 days
Float = LF - ES - duration
What is it in this case?
19
Notation
Earliest Duration Earliest
start finish
Activity label, activity description
Latest Latest
Float
start finish
20
Complete for the previous example
21
Critical Path Method (CPM)
Network diagramming technique used to predict total project
duration
Critical path: series of activities that determine the earliest time
by which the project can be completed
The longest path through the network diagram and has the
least amount of slack or float; amount of time an activity may
be delayed without delaying a succeeding activity or the
project finish date
Calculating the critical path
Develop a good network diagram and add the duration estimates
for all activities on each path through the network diagram
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
Critical Path Method (cont.)
There can be more than one critical path if
the lengths of two or more paths are the
same
Project managers should closely monitor
performance of activities on the critical path to
avoid late project completion
Critical path can change as the project
progresses
Using Critical Path Analysis to Make
Schedule Trade-Offs
Free float
Amount of time an activity can be delayed
without delaying the early start of any
immediately following activities
Total float
Amount of time an activity may be delayed
from its early start without delaying the
planned project finish date
Forward pass
Determines the early start and finish dates
Backward pass
Determines the late start and finish dates
Forward pass
Start at beginning (Day 0) and work forward following chains.
Earliest start date for the current activity = earliest finish date
for the previous
When there is more than one previous activity, take the latest
earliest finish
EF = day 7
ES = day10
EF = day10
25
Pen and paper exercise
Draw an activity network using precedence network
conventions for the project specified as below.
Activity Duration Precedents
A 6
B 4
C 3 A
D 4 B
E 3 B
F 10
G 3 E, F
H 2 C, D
Pen and paper exercise
Fill in the earliest start and earliest finish dates for each activity
27
Forward pass
Example
0 6 6 9
0 4 4 8 9 11
0 10 4 7 10 13
28
Backward pass
Start from the last activity
Latest finish (LF) for last activity = earliest
finish (EF)
Work backwards
Latest finish for current activity = Latest
start for the following
More than one following activity - take the
earliest LS
Latest start (LS) = LF for activity - duration
29
Pen and paper exercise
Fill in the latest start and latest finish dates for each activity
30
Pen and paper exercise
Fill in the float for each activity
7 10
31
Critical path
Note the path through network with
zero floats
Critical path: any delay in an activity on
this path will delay whole project
Can there be more than one critical
path?
Can there be no critical path?
32
Float
Float = Latest finish - Earliest start - Duration
FLOAT
ES LF
activity
Latest start Earliest finish
SPM (5e) Activity planning© 33
The McGraw-Hill Companies,
2009
Critical path
Example
