Chapter 5 Flashcards
A distinct, scheduled portion of work performed during the course of a project
Activity
Information that provides schedule-related information about each activity, such as predecessors, successors, logical relationships, leads and lags, resource requirements, constraints, imposed dates, and assumptions related to the activity.
Activity attributes
A tabulation of activities to be included on a project schedule
Activity list
A network diagramming technique in which activities are represented by arrows and connected at points called nodes to illustrate the sequence of activities
Activity-on-arrow (AOA) approach or Activity-diagramming-method (ADM)
The estimates that use the actual cost of a previous, similar project as the basis for estimating the cost of the current project
Analogous estimates or Top-down estimates
Cost estimates created by estimating individual activities and summing them to get the project total
Bottom-up estimates
Additional time to complete an activity, added to an estimate to account for various factors
Buffer
An occurrence when two or more activities follow a single node on a network diagram
Burst
A time-phased budget that project managers use to measure and monitor cost performance
Cost baseline
A technique for making cost and schedule trade-offs to obtain the greatest amount of schedule compression for the least incremental cost
Crashing
A method of scheduling that takes limited resources into account when creating a project schedule and includes buffers to protect the project completion date
Critical chain scheduling
The series of activities that determine the earliest time which the project can be completed; it is the longest path through the network diagram and has the least amount of slack or float
Critical path
A network diagramming technique used to predict total project duration and show the amount of schedule flexibility on the network paths within the schedule model
Critical path method (CPM) or Critical path analysis (CPA)
The sequencing of project activities
Dependency or relationship
The dependencies that are defined by the project team
Discretionary dependencies
The actual amount of time spent working on an activity plus elapsed time
Duration
The number of workdays or work hours required to complete an activity
Effort
The dependencies that involve relationships between project and non-project activities
External dependencies
A schedule compression technique where you do activities in parallel that you would normally do in sequence
Fast-tracking
Additional time added before activities on the critical path that are preceded by non-critical path activities
Feeding buffers
A standard format for displaying project schedule information by displaying project activities and their corresponding start and finish dates in a calendar format
Ghantt charts
When an activity requires a gap in time before it can start.
Lag
When an activity can overlap a preceding one
Lead
The dependencies that are inherent in the nature of the work being performed on a project
Mandatory dependencies
A situation when two or more nodes precede a single node on a network diagram
Merge
A significant point or event in a project
Milestone
Quantitative risk analysis technique that provides a probability distribution for outcome values for the whole project
Monte Carlo simulation
When a resource works on more than one activity at a time
Multitasking
If something can go wrong, it will.
Murphy’s Law
A schematic display of the logical relationships among, or sequencing of, project activities
Network diagram
The starting and ending point of an activity-on-arrow diagram
Node
A technique that uses project characteristics (parameters) in a mathematical model to estimate project costs
Parametric modelling
Work expands to fill the time allowed
Parkinson’s Law
A network diagramming technique in which boxes represent activities
Precedence diagramming method (PDM)
A network analysis technique used to estimate project duration when there is a high degree of uncertainty about the individual activity duration estimates
Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)
The additional time added before a project’s due date to account for unexpected factors
Project buffer
The amount of time an activity may be delayed without delaying a succeeding activity or the project finish date
Slack or Float
Work that is done in support of operational, functional, or project performance. These are not part of the schedule (activities are shown on the schedule). These include many management functions such as things done to manage the team, run a production line, or build relationships.
Task
A management philosophy that states that any complex system at any point in time often has only one aspect or constraint that is limiting its ability to achieve more of its goal
Theory of Constraints (TOC)
An estimate that includes an optimistic, most likely, and pessimistic estimate.
Three point estimate
