Project Management

Lecture Notes

A schedule is a timetable for a plan and cannot be established until the plan has been developed. To create a schedule you must first estimate the types and quantities of resources required to perform each specific activity in order to estimate how long the activity will take. Resources include people, materials, equipment, facilities, and so forth. When estimating the types and quantities of resources required for each specific activity, consult someone who has expertise or experience with the activity. Estimated resources required for an activity will influence the estimated duration to perform the activity. These include:

· Availability of the resources

· Types of resources

· Sufficient quantities of resources for the durations of the activities

· Potential conflicts with other projects that may cause a delay in the project

Estimated activity resources will also be used later for estimating activity costs and determining the project budget.

Activity Durations

The duration estimate for each activity is the total elapsed time for the work to be done plus any associated waiting time. An activity’s duration estimate must be based on the quantity of resources expected to be used on the activity. The estimate should be aggressive, yet realistic. Once the types and quantities of resources are estimated for each activity, estimates can be made for how long it will take to perform each activity.

The estimated duration for each activity must be the total elapsed time—the time for the work to be done plus any associated waiting time. It is a good practice to have the person who will be responsible for performing a specific activity estimate the duration for that activity. This builds buy-in from the person and generates commitments. Designate an experienced individual to estimate the durations for all the activities for which the organization or subcontractor is responsible in large projects.

Estimated duration should be aggressive yet realistic. Inflating estimated durations in anticipation of the project manager’s negotiating shorter durations is not a good practice. Throughout the performance of the project, some activities will take longer than their estimated duration, others will be done in less time than their estimated duration, and a few may conform to the estimated duration exactly.

Develop Project Schedule

Once you have an estimated duration for each activity in the network and have established an overall window of time in which the project must be completed, you must determine (based on durations and sequence) whether the project can be done by the required completion time. At this point you will develop a project schedule that provides a timetable for each activity and shows the earliest times (or dates) at which each activity can start and finish, based on the project estimated start time (or date) and the latest times (or dates) by which each activity must start and finish in order to complete the project by its required completion time (or date).

Earliest start time (ES) is the earliest time at which a specific activity can begin, calculated on the basis of the project estimated start time and the estimated durations of preceding activities. Earliest finish time (EF) is the earliest time by which a specific activity can be completed, calculated by adding the activity’s estimated duration to the activity’s earliest start time.

EF = ES + Estimated Duration

Calculate forward through the network diagram from the beginning of the project to the end of the project. Remember that the earliest start time for a specific activity must be the same as or later than the latest of all the earliest finish times of all the activities leading directly into that specific activity.

Latest finish time (LF) is the latest time by which a specific activity must be completed in order for the entire project to be finished by its required completion time. It is calculated on the basis of the project required completion time and the estimated durations of succeeding activities. Latest start time (LS) is the latest time by which a specific activity must be started in order for the entire project to be finished by its required completion time. It is calculated by subtracting the activity’s estimated duration from the activity’s latest finish time.

LS = LF – Estimated Duration

Calculate backward through the network diagram from the end of the project to the beginning of the project

Slack

Total slack is sometimes called float. Total slack is the difference between EF time of last activity and the project required completion time. Calculate total slack for each of the activities by finding the difference between the EF of the activity and the LF of the activity, or the difference between the ES and the LS of the activity.

· Negative slack indicates a lack of slack over the entire project and the amount of time an activity must be accelerated to complete the project by the required completion time.

· Positive slack indicates the maximum amount of time the activities on a particular path can be delayed without jeopardizing on-time completion of the project.

· If the total slack is zero, the activities on the path do not need to be accelerated but cannot be delayed.

Free slack is the amount of time a specific activity can be postponed without delaying the earliest start time of its immediately succeeding activities. Calculate free slack by finding the lowest of the values of total slack for all the activities entering into a specific activity and then subtracting it from the values of total slack for the other activities also entering into that same activity.

Project Control Process

The project control process starts with establishing a baseline plan that shows how the project scope will be accomplished on schedule and within budget. Once the customer and the contractor or project team agree on this baseline plan, the project work can be performed. Then it is necessary to monitor the progress to ensure that everything is going according to the plan.

The project control process involves regularly gathering data on project performance, comparing actual performance to planned performance, and taking corrective action immediately if actual performance is behind planned performance. This process must occur regularly throughout the project. First, establish regular reporting meetings to compare actual to planned progress. Next, gather data on actual performance. Finally, record information about the changes made to the project scope, schedule, and budget.

The key to effective project control is measuring actual progress and comparing it to planned progress on a timely and regular basis and immediately taking any needed corrective action. According to Montes-Guerra, Gimena, Pérez-Ezcurdia, Díez-Silva, & Mauricio (2014), “With regard to techniques and tools that are included in the bodies of knowledge and standards, traditional techniques are suggested but supported by computer tools or software management systems. This validates the usefulness of these techniques still in force and the need to include information technology as support for project managers” (p. 182). Project management is a proactive approach to controlling a project to ensure that the project objective is accomplished, even when things do not go according to plan.

Some activities will be completed on time, some will be finished ahead of schedule, and others will be finished later than scheduled. The actual finish times (AFs) of completed activities will determine the earliest start and earliest finish times for the remaining activities in the network diagram, as well as the total slack. Throughout a project, changes may occur that have an impact on the schedule. Changes might be initiated by the customer or the project team, or they might be the result of an unanticipated occurrence. Changes requested early in the project may have less impact on schedule and budget than if they are requested later in the project.

When the customer requests a change, the contractor or project team should estimate the impact on the project schedule and budget and then obtain customer approval before proceeding. If the customer approves the proposed revisions to the project schedule and budget, then any additional activities, revised estimated durations, and revised estimated resources and associated costs should be incorporated into the project schedule and budget. With respect to the project schedule, changes can result in the addition or deletion of activities, resequencing of activities, changes to estimated durations for specific activities, or a new required completion time for the project.

An updated project schedule can be generated regularly that forecasts whether the project will finish ahead of or behind its required completion time. Once data have been collected on the actual finish times of completed activities and the effects of any project changes, an updated project schedule can be calculated. Earliest start and finish times for the remaining, uncompleted activities are calculated by working forward through the network, but they are based on the actual finish times of completed activities and the estimated durations of the uncompleted activities. The latest start and finish times for the uncompleted activities are calculated by working backward through the network.

Schedule control requires four steps:

1. Analyzing the schedule to determine which areas may need corrective action

2. Deciding what specific corrective actions should be taken

3. Revising the plan to incorporate the chosen corrective actions

4. Recalculating the schedule to evaluate the effects of the planned corrective actions

If the planned corrective actions do not result in an acceptable schedule, these steps need to be repeated.

Agile Project Management

Agile project management was developed in the information technology industry as a way of increasing efficiency, productivity, and responsiveness to customers. Many projects with highly uncertain scopes, tasks, task precedence relationships, and/ or resources are difficult to handle with traditional planning tools. Better planning in such cases does not lead to better outcomes. An agile approach that maximizes productivity and quality within the resource and time constraints can be superior whether or not the project is IT related. (Nicholls; Lewis, & Eschenbach, 2015, abs)

Agile project management is an approach to reduce product development time while minimizing risk through continuous interaction between the customer and small self-organizing teams that produce increments of working product features in short time iterations while rapidly adapting to changes in requirements. The roles of the participants involved in the scrum approach include:

· A product owner, also referred to as the customer representative, is responsible for defining the customer requirements and product features and for ensuring that the development team delivers an end product with the required features.

· The development team develops, delivers, and demonstrates working product increments (portions or modules of the overall end product that is being developed) for specific product features or requirements during a fixed timeframe, called a sprint, also referred to as an iteration.

· A Scrum master is a facilitator for the Scrum development process during a sprint whose primary job is to take actions to remove or reduce any obstacles, barriers, or constraints that are impeding progress of the development team toward accomplishing their work tasks and that may negatively impact the successful production and demonstration of a deliverable working product increment by the end of the sprint time.

The agile project management process includes establishing the rationale, description, funding amount, and target completion date for the final end product (deliverable) and authorizing the project. Next is defining the product requirements and creating an ordered product backlog of prioritized specific requirements and product features. At the beginning of each sprint the product owner and the development team have a sprint planning meeting to select a set of requirements or features from the top of the product backlog that will be released to the team and that can be produced and demonstrated by the team during the fixed timeframe for the sprint cycle. At the start of each day the development team has a daily Scrum meeting, also referred to as the daily standup as these meetings are usually limited to 15 minutes. Each team member is expected to come prepared to state what they did the previous day, what they plan to do today, and any obstacles that are impeding their work.

At the end of the sprint, there is a sprint review meeting at which the development team reviews the work that has been accomplished as well as which items were not completed. At the end of the sprint, there is also a sprint retrospective meeting during which the Scrum team, including the product owner, evaluates performance during the sprint regarding what went well and what could be improved in future sprints.

References

Gido, J. and Clements, J. (2015). Successful Project Management (6th ed.). Cengage Learning

Montes-Guerra, M., Gimena, F. N., Pérez-Ezcurdia, M. A., & Díez-Silva, H. M. (2014). The Influence of Monitoring and Control on Project Management Success. International Journal of Construction Project Management, 6(2), 163-184.

Nicholls, G. M., Lewis, N. A., P.E.M., & Eschenbach, Ted, PE,P.E.M., T.G.E. (2015). Determining When Simplified Agile Project Management is Right for Small Teams. Engineering Management Journal, 27(1), 3-10