Ch.6 Time management

Question 1

What is the process of time management?

Answer 1

• Plan Schedule management
• Define activities
• Sequence activities
• Estimate activity resources
• Estimate activity duration
• Develop schedule
• Control schedule

Question 2

What are the key output of the plan schedule management process?

Answer 2

Schedule management plan

Question 3

What are the key outputs of the define activities process?

Answer 3

• Activity list
• Activity attributes
• Milestone list

Question 4

What are the key outputs of the sequence activities process?

Answer 4

• Network diagrams

- Update to the project documents

Question 5

What are some of the key outputs of the estimate activity resources process?

Answer 5

• Activity resources requirements

- Resource breakdown structure (RBS)

Question 6

What are the key outputs of the estimate activity durations process?

Answer 6

• Activity duration estimates

- Updates to project documents

Question 7

What does the develop schedule process involve?

What are some of its key outputs?

Answer 7

Creating a project schedule that is bought into, approved, realistic, and formal.

• Project Schedule
• Schedule baseline
• Updates to the project management plan and project documents

Question 8

What are the key outputs of the control schedule process?

Answer 8

• Work performance information
• Schedule forecasts
• Change requests

Question 9

What are the four types of logical relationships between activities in the precedence diagramming method?

Answer 9

• Finish-to-start (FS): an activity must finish before the successor can start
• Start-to-start (SS): An activity must start before the successor can start.
• Finish-to-finish (FF): An activity must finish before the successor can finish.
• Start-to-finish (SF): An activity must start before the successor can finish.

Question 10

What are mandatory dependencies?

What are discretionary dependencies?

Answer 10

Mandatory: The order in which acivites must be done, due to the inherent nature of the work; also called “hard logic”.

Discretionary: The order in which the organization has chosen that activities be performed also called “preferred,” “preferential,” or “soft logic”

Question 11

What are external dependencies?

What are internal dependencies?

Answer 11

External: dependencies based on the need of a party OUTSIDE the project.

Internal: dependencies based on the needs of the project may be under the control of the project team.

Question 12

What is lag?

What is lead?

Answer 12

Lag: Waiting time inserted between activities.

Lead: How soon an activity can start before its predecessor activity is completed.

Question 13

What is resource breakdown structure?

Answer 13

An organizational chart or table showing identified resources, organized by category and type.

Question 14

How does a schedule modal differ from a schedule?

Answer 14

The schedule modal consists of all the project data that will be used to calculate the schedule, such as the activities, dependencies, leads and lags, etc.

The project schedule is the output of the schedule model– this refers to the final, printed dates that make up the schedule that becomes the baseline and part of the project management plan.

Question 15

What is critical path?

What is the near-critical path?

Answer 15

Critical: The longest path through the network diagram.

Near-critical: The path closest in length to the critical path.

Question 16

How does the critical path help us to manage project?

Answer 16

It shows the project manager the shortest time in which the project can be completed.

It shows the project manager where to focus his or her time.

It is used in compressing or adjusting the schedule.

Question 17

Define total float, and project float.

Answer 17

Total Float: the amount of time and activity can be delayed without delaying the project end date or an intermediary milestone.

Free float: The amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying the early start date of its successor(s)

Project float: The amount of time the project can be delayed without affecting the project’s required end date.

Question 18

What are the two formulas for calculating float?

Answer 18

LS - ES

OR

LF - EF

Question 19

What are the methods that can be used to compress a schedule?

Answer 19

• Crashing

- Fast tracking

Question 20

What is crashing?

Answer 20

Adding or adjusting resources in order to compress the schedule while maintaining the original project scope

Question 21

What is fast tracking?

Answer 21

Compressing the schedule by doing more critical path activities in parallel

Question 22

What is the critical chain method?

Answer 22

A schedule network analysis tool that builds in buffers at critical milestones.

Question 23

What is re estimating?

Answer 23

Estimating the project again after planning to make sure you can still meet the end date, budget, or other objectives, and adjusting the project if you cannot

Question 24

What is resources optimization?

Answer 24

Finding ways to adjust the use of resources

Question 25

What is resources levelling?

Answer 25

A resource optimization technique that keeps that amount of resources used for each time period constant, resulting a more stable level of resources and a longer project duration.

Question 26

What is resource smoothing?

Answer 26

A modified form of resource leveling, where resources are leveled only within limits of the float of their activities, so that the completion of activities are not delayed.

Question 27

What is the schedule baseline?

Answer 27

The approved version of the schedule model, along with any approved changes, used to measure project schedule performance.

Question 28

What are the main presentation formats for a schedule?

Answer 28

• Network diagrams
• Bar charts
• Milestone charts

Question 29

What do network diagrams show?

Answer 29

Dependencies (logical relationships) between activities

How project activities will flow from beginning to end.

Network diagrams may also be used to determine the critical path.

Question 30

What do simple bar charts show?

Answer 30

Project schedule or project status

Question 31

What do milestones chart show?

Answer 31

High-level project status

Question 32

What is Monte Carlo analysis?

Answer 32

A schedule network analysis technique used to simulate the project to determine the likelihood that the project will be completed by a specific date or for a specific cost.

Also used to perform quantitative risk analysis to determine the overall level of risk on the project.