IT
Project Time
IST4055
Chapter 6
Now that you have the Scope and Work Breakdown Structures done, we address the other 2 aspects of the triple constraint – time and money.
Focus here is looking at the entire project, sequence the steps, and then cost them.
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Importance of Project Schedules
Managers often cite delivering projects on time as one of their biggest challenges
Average time overrun from 1995 CHAOS report was 222%; improved to 84% in 2004 study; 74% in 2012 study; down to 51% in 2016
Time is the most precarious element of the triple constraint:
Time has the least amount of flexibility; it passes no matter what!
Scope and cost can be adjusted; time goes on regardless of what you do or don’t do.
Traditionally IT project managers have underestimated the amount of time needed to complete the tasks – they are overly confident in their abilities to get the job done and sometimes are too simplistic in their approach. You must be realistic in the time constraint. Note also that it might take you 10 hours, but you also may be working on other projects or doing daily operations too…..so time is how long and over what period of time – 10 hours spread over 60 hours.
Schedule issues are the main reason for conflicts on projects, especially during the second half of projects. So where are we now with time overruns?
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Attitudes toward deadlines
Cultures have different attitudes about time
Individual Work Styles and Cultural Differences Cause Schedule Conflicts
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One dimension Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator focuses on peoples’ attitudes toward structure and deadlines
Some people prefer schedules and deadlines while others do not
Difference cultures and countries have different attitudes about schedules/time
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Time Robbers
Task rework
Calls, texts, e-mail
Land mail
Incomplete work
Lack of needed authority
Inefficient change procedures
Waiting on people
Day-to-day administration
Too many levels of review
Casual office conversations
Poorly run meetings
Micromanagement
Those activities that at first seem to be short and unobtrusive but when they are all added together can completely fill an entire work day
It is important to realize that some time increments can lead to major time wasters. This slide covers some time robbers that occur in your everyday work life.
In addition to the ones listed on the slide you can add
Poorly motivated or educated customers
Vague goals and objectives
Poor time management
Ill defined project scope
Company politics
Working on under-funded projects
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Project Time Management
Activity Definition
Activity Sequencing
Project Time Management describes the processes and methods required to create and manage appropriate schedules to complete the project:
Activity Definition – identifies the lowest level of work on the WBS, “work packages”, that needs to be performed to create the finished product deliverable; 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
Activity Sequencing – identifying and documenting the logical and sometimes physical relationships among schedule activities; what needs to be done before something else can be done? What can occur together? What can be done at anytime?
It includes planning schedule meeting (policies, procedures, documentation), define activities, sequencing, estimating resources, durations, develop schedule, and control schedule
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Where Do Schedules Come From?
Schedules come from the tasks (WBS) that need to be completed to meet the objectives of the project within the scope, time, and costs. You must use the WBS as a starting point to the schedule, then you break them down into work packages (group like tasks together). Once this is completed, you assign task sequences in order to build the schedule.
Attributes – includes items like predecessors, successors, logical relationships, leads and lags, resource requirements, constraints, imposed dates, assumptions
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Step 0. Build the WBS
Step 1. Define Activities
Step2. Identify Attributes
Step3. Sequence Activities
Step 1. Defining Activities
1) assigned to one person who is held responsible for the completion of the task,
2) generate time and cost estimates accurately
3) scheduled
4) tracked on some metrics
Create activity list-name, identifier, description
Each activity is decomposed into smaller and smaller units until the deliverable can be:
Depending on the technique used to create the WBS (refer to chapter 5), typically the work packages are built by decomposing parent activities down into smaller and smaller units of work.
The 100% rule is in affect; all of the work packages defined must add up to 100% of the total scope of the project and Not all of the work packages will be defined at the same level of detail.
With this done, it becomes easier to place a duration and cost on the work packages. It also facilitates creation of the schedule for the purpose of tracking it.
Activity list: Include the activity name, an activity identifier or number, a brief description of the activity
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Activity Characteristics
Measureable
Start-End
Time and Costs
One Deliverable
This slide describes the characteristics of activities.
Status and/or completion is measurable and can be reported easily at any time
Start and end events are clearly defined and easily communicated
Each activity has a single deliverable
Time and cost is easily estimated
Activity duration is within acceptable limits no longer than 10 work days. This is not a hard unbreakable rule but a suggested guideline that no activity be defined with an effort longer than two weeks.
Work assignments are independent, you shouldn’t need to interrupt the work in the middle of an activity due to another activity not working as planned
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Step 2. Activity Attributes
Predecessors-Successor relationship: project task that upon completion is followed by another task (successor)
Lead and lags: lead-overlap between two tasks; lag – time break between predecessor and successor tasks
Constraints/assumptions/resources
Imposed dates
Activity Attributes:
Predecessors-a project task that, upon completion, is followed by another task
Successors-project task that cannot start until another task finishes
Logical relationships
leads and lags
Lead This is an overlap between two tasks that are linked by a dependency
lag - manually specified time break between predecessor and successor tasks
resource requirements – what does it take to complete this task??
constraints
Imposed dates – dates beyond our control
Assumptions
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Step 3. Activity Sequencing
Mandatory dependencies: inherent in the nature of the work; write software and then test
Discretionary dependencies: defined by the project team; offer the most flexibility
External dependencies: based on work being performed by an entity outside of the organization
This step involves identifying and documenting the logical and sometimes physical relationships among schedule activities ; there are dependencies that are mandatory, some are discretionary, some are external.
Advantages of proper sequencing
Provides a consistent framework for repeatable project successes
Effectively illustrates the interdependence of all tasks
Clearly denotes the dates that resources need to be available
Determines milestone and project completion dates
Identifies critical path activities that if delayed will delay the project completion date
Identifies which activities are not on the critical path and thus can be delayed if needed without affecting the project completion date
Identifies resource availability
Shows which tasks can or are being done in parallel
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Why Use?
Clearly denotes date resources need to be available.
Determines milestones and completion dates
Identifies critical path activities that if delayed delay the whole project.
Illustrates interdependence of tasks
Identifies what activities can be delayed if necessary without delaying project
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Advantages
Date Resources Needed
Interdependencies/delayed if needed
Milestones/completion dates
Critical path activities
Schedules
Activity on Arrow Method
Precedence Diagram Method
Lines=activities
Circles=start/end points
Boxes=activities
Lines-dependencies
Regardless of which scheduling method is chosen, they all strive to graphically demonstrate the sequential relationships between activities.
This slide shows two techniques of activity sequencing are the precedence diagram method and the activity on arrow diagramming method
Arrow Diagramming Method (ADM) - Also called activity-on-arrow (AOA) project network diagram; Activities are represented by lines with arrows; Nodes or circles are the starting and ending points of activities; Key Drawback: Can only show finish-to-start dependencies; Lines with arrows represent tasks; Circles with words or numbers represent the begin or end of a task
Precedence Diagram Method – Boxes represent activities (nodes); lines with arrows the dependencies; Begin and end
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Estimate Activity Resources
How difficult/complex will it be to complete specific activities on this project?
What is the organization’s history in doing similar activities?
Are the required resources available? Internal or External?
Do we have the right person with the right task?
You must have a good idea of the quantity and type or level of resources that will be assigned to each activity. This slide presents you with some questions to ask and answer.
As happens with many of the processes discussed in this course, activity resource estimating, activity duration estimating, and cost estimating generally occurs at the same time on many projects
Techniques include Expert judgment; Analogous (similar project); and Alternatives analysis (what is available, deadlines like during break, etc)
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Activity Duration Estimating
After defining activities, determining their sequence, assigning appropriate resources, the next step in time management is duration estimating
Duration includes the effort (actual amount of time worked on an activity) plus elapsed time
This slides presents the difference between duration and actual effort. Most IT workers multi-task working on more than one project so it may take only 8 hours to complete an activity but will take 40 hours of duration to find time to get the 8 hours of work accomplished.
Duration is over what period of time you will work on the project, sometimes called elapsed time.
Actual effort is the actual amount of time you worked on the project.
Three point estimate – optimistic, most likely and pessimistic
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Activity Duration Estimating: Methods
This slides presents the difference between duration and actual effort. Most IT workers multi-task working on more than one project so it may take only 8 hours to complete an activity but will take 40 hours of duration to find time to get the 8 hours of work accomplished.
Duration is over what period of time you will work on the project, sometimes called elapsed time.
Actual effort is the actual amount of time you worked on the project.
Three point estimate – optimistic, most likely and pessimistic
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Methods
WBS
Historical
Analogy
Expert
Effort
Unit
Control the Schedule
Progress reports
Schedule change control system
Software tools like MS Project; comparison tools for variance analysis
Schedule compression or fast tracking
Performance measurements
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Review draft schedule
Work with the project team
Make sure it is realistic & followed
Alert management in advance if there are schedule problems
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Working with People
Demonstrate leadership in working with the project team
Motivation – things one might do to motivate people
Empowerment – give them a sense of control; involve them in decision making; listen to their point of view
Incentives – what form can incentives take? Money? Time off? Verbal praise?
Discipline – positive reinforcement for staying on target and in budget; how do you help them manage time and be disciplined on this project when they are also working on other projects
Negotiation – try to find a win/win solution to issues that arise
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