Chapter 5: Project Planing -> Schedule & cost management

Question 1

Project Schedule Management Processes (Predictive Approach)

Answer 1

1) Planning schedule management: (What do we need to do here?)
2) Defining the activities: (What is it relating to?)
3) Sequencing the activities: (In which order?)
4) Estimating activity resources: (What do we need to get it done?)
5) Estimating activity duration: (How long will it take?)
6) Developing the schedule: (How does it look over time?)
7) Controlling the schedule: (Recurringly: Are we still good to go?)

Question 2

Defining activities

Answer 2

-Activity list
-Activity attributes
-Milestone list
-Change requests
-Project management plan updates

Question 3

Creating the Activity List and Attributes

Answer 3

*The activity list is a tabulation of activities to be included on a project schedule
*It should include the activity name, an activity identifier or number, and a brief description of the activity
*The activity attributes provide 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
*Both should be in agreement with the WBS and WBS dictionary and be reviewed by key project stakeholders

Question 4

Milestones

Answer 4

*A milestone is a significant point or event in a project
*It often takes several activities and a lot of work to complete a milestone, but the milestone itself is like a marker to help identify necessary activities
*There is usually no cost or duration for a milestone
*Project sponsors and senior managers often focus on major milestones when reviewing projects
*Sample milestones for many key projects include
-Sign-off key documents
-Completion of specific products
-Completion of important process-related
work, such as awarding a contract to a
supplier

Question 5

Sequencing activities

Answer 5

*Sequencing activities involve evaluating the dependencies (or relationships) between activities, for example:
-Does a certain activity have to be finished
before another can start?
-Can the project team do several activities in
parallel?
-Can some activities overlap?
*You must determine dependencies in order to use critical path analysis

Question 6

Activities on Arrow Network Diagram (AOA)

Answer 6

*Activities are represented by arrows
*Circles are the starting and ending points of
activities
*Network diagram represents activities that
must be done to complete the project
*Every activity on the network diagram must be
completed for the project to finish
*Not every items on the WBS needs to be on
the network diagram; only activities with
dependencies need to be shown on the
diagram

Question 7

Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM)

Answer 7

*Activities are represented by boxes
*Arrows show relationships between activities
*More popular than AOA method and used by
project management software
*Better at showing different types of
depedencies

Question 8

Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM)

Answer 8

*Activities are represented by boxes
*Arrows show relationships between activities
*More popular than the AOA method and used
by project management software
*Better at showing different types of
dependencies

Question 9

Task dependencies

Answer 9

*Finish-to-start dependency: Task B cannot
start until task A finishes
*Start-to-start dependency: Task B cannot start
until task A starts
*Finish-to-finish dependency: Task B cannot
finish until A finishes
*Start-to-finish dependency: Task A cannot
finish until task A starts

Question 10

Finish-to-start dependency

Answer 10

*A relationship in which the “from” activity or predecessor must finish before the “to”
activity or successor can start.
*For example, you cannot provide user training until after software or a new system has been installed. Finish-to-start is the most common type of relationship or dependency, and AOA network diagrams use only finish-to-start dependencies

Question 11

Start-to-start dependency

Answer 11

*A relationship in which the “from” activity cannot start until the “to” activity or successor is started.
*For example, in a media campaign, a group of activities might start simultaneously, such as Social Media / Internet postings, TV adds and Radio commercials

Question 12

Finish-to-finish dependency

Answer 12

*A relationship in which the “from” activity must be finished before the “to” activity can
be finished. One task cannot finish before another finishes.
*For example, quality control efforts cannot finish before
production finishes, although the two activities can be performed at the same time.

Question 13

Start-to-finish dependency

Answer 13

*A relationship in which the “from” activity must start before the “to” activity can be
finished. This type of relationship is rarely used, but it is appropriate in some cases.
*For example, an organization might strive to stock raw materials just in time for the manufacturing process to begin. A delay in starting the manufacturing process should delay completion of stocking the raw materials. Another example would be a babysitter who wants to finish watching a young child but is dependent on the parent’s arrival. The parent must show up or “start” before the babysitter can finish the task

Question 14

Estimating activity resources

Answer 14

*Before estimating activity durations, you must have a good idea of the quantity and type of resources that will be assigned to each activity; resources are people, equipment & materials.
*Consider important issues in estimating resources
-How difficult will it be to do specific activities
on this project?
-What is the organization’s history in doing
similar activities?
-Are the required resources available?
*A resource breakdown structure is a
hierarchical structure that identifies the
project’s resources by category and type

Question 15

Estimating activity duration

Answer 15

*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
*Effort does not normally equal duration
*Example: I will spend 20 hours reading a book (effort) spread over a period of 2 months (duration)
*People doing the work should help creates estimates and an expert should review them

Question 16

Three point estimate

Answer 16

*Instead of providing activity estimates as a discrete number, such as four weeks, it’s often helpful to create a three-point estimate
-An estimate that includes an optimistic, most
likely, and pessimistic estimate, such as three
weeks for the optimistic, most likely, and
pessimistic estimate
*Three points estimates are needed fot Monte Carlo simulations

Question 17

Monte Carlo Simulation

Answer 17

*Generates hundreds/thousands of probable performance outcomes based on probability distributions for cost and schedule on individual activities.

Question 18

Developing the project schedule

Answer 18

*Schedule development uses the results of all the preceding project time management processes to determine the start and end dates of project activities and of the entire project
*The resulting project schedule is often shown on a Gantt Chart, a standard format for displaying project schedule information by listing project activities and their corresponding start and finish dates in a calendar format.
*The ultimate goal of schedule development is to create realistic project schedule that provides a basis for monitoring project progress for the time dimension of the project

Question 19

Critical Path Analysis

Answer 19

*Critical Path Method /Critical Path Analysis
*It’s a network diagramming network used to predict total project duration
*A critical path for a project is the series of
activities that determine the earliest time by which the project can be completed
*It is the longest past through the newtork diagram and has the least amount of slack or float
-Slack of float: the amount of time an activity
may be delayed without delaying a
succeeding activity or the project finish date
*The longest path or the path containing the critical tasks is what is driving the completion date for the project
*The critical path shows the shortest time in which a project can be completed

Question 20

Calculating the critical path

Answer 20

*First, develop a good network diagram
*Add the duration estimates for all activities on each path through the network diagram
*The 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

Question 21

Schedule Compression Techniques

Answer 21

*Crashing: is a technique for making cost and schedule trade-offs to obtain the greatest amount of schedule compression for the least incremental cost
-It is two critical tasks each takes two weeks
and it will take $100 to shorten Task 1 by a
week and $1000 to shorten task 2 by a week
shorten task 1

*Fast tracking: involves doing activities in parallel that you would normally do in sequence
-Instead of waiting for Task 1 to be totally
finished before starting task 2, start task 2
when task 1 is halfway done
*Schedule compression often backfires by causing cost, human resource and quality problems which lead to even longer schedules

Question 22

Critical Chain Scheduling

Answer 22

*Critical Chain Scheduling is a method of scheduling that considers limited resources when creating a project schedule and includes buffers to protect the project completion date
*It uses the Theory of Constraints (TOC), a management philosophy developed by Eliyahu M. Goldratt and introduced in his book “The Goal”
*It attempts to minimize multitasking which occurs when a resource works on more than one task at a time

Question 23

Buffers

Answer 23

*A buffer is additional time to complete a task
*Murphy’s Law: if something can go wrong it will
*Parkinson’s Lax: states that work expands to fill the time allowed
*In traditional estimates, people often add a buffer to each task and use it if it’s needed or not

Question 24

Controlling the schedule

Answer 24

*Perform reality checks on schedules
*Allow for contigencies
*Don’t plan for everyone to work at 100% capacity all the time
*Hold progress meetings with stakeholders and be clear and honest in communicating schedule issues

Question 25

Schedule Planning (Agile/hybrid project)

Answer 25

*Instead of creating a detailed schedule for all of the activities required to complete an entire project, agile teams focus on the most valuable work they can complete with each iteration
*This approach is often called time-boxing
-A timebox is a previously agreed upon time
period during which a team works towards
completion of a goal. A sprint for example is
a timebox of 30 days or less
*What about dependencies?
-Ideally, one scrum team can perform all the
work in their scrum backlog. If there are
dependencies within backlog items, the
the team should identify those and work on
them accordingly
-When there are multiple Scrum teams, you
can hold a Scrums of Scrums, where
representatives from each team meet to
coordiante efforts and dependencies

Question 26

Kanban Method (agile)

Answer 26

*Kanban is the Japanese for visual board
*Visualizes work flowing continuously through the system
*Sets limits to work in progress (WIP)
*Does not use time boxing
*Focuses on cycle time

Question 27

Project Cost Management

Answer 27

*Project cost management includes the processes required to ensure that a project team completes a project within an approved budget
*The main planning tasks are
-Planing cost management
-Estimating Costs
-Determining the budget
*The main documents produce include:
-Cost management plan
-Cost estimate
-Cost performance baseline

Question 28

Planning Cost Management

Answer 28

*The purpose of this process is to determine the policies, procedures, and documentation for planning, managing, executing and controlling project costs
*Possible Contents of a Cost Management Plan:
-Units of measure, such as staff hours or
days or a lump sum amount, currency to be
used, inflation assumptions, etc.
-Level of precision for cost estimates, such as
how to round numbers
-Level of accuracy such as +/-10%
-Organizational procedure links
-Control thresholds for monitoring cost
performance, such as a percentage deviation from the baseline pllan
-Rules of performance measurement, especially if earned value management is used
-Reporting formats and frequency for cost
reports
*Cost management plans like scope and schedule management plans can be informal and broad or formal and detailled

Question 29

Estimating Costs

Answer 29

*Project managers must take cost estimates seriously if they want to complete projects with budget constraints
*It’s important to know the types of cost estimates, how to prepare cost estimates, and the typical problems associated with them
*Project team normally prepare cost estimates at various stages of a project, and these estimates should be fine-tuned as time progresses
*It is also important to provide supporting details for the estimates, including ground rules and assumptions
*A large percentage of total project costs are often labor costs, so it is important to do a good job estimating labor hours and cost
*If possible, estimate costs by major WBS categories
*Create a cost model “the excel-sheet”: easy for making changes & documentation

Question 30

Cost estimating techniques

Answer 30

*Analogous estimates / top-down estimates: use the actual costs of a previous, similar project as the basis for estimating the costs of the current project. This techniques requires a good deal of expert judgment and is generally less costly than other are, but it can also be less accurate
*Bottom-up estimates: involve estimating individual activities and summing them to get a project total. This approach can increase the accuracy of the cost estimate, but it can also be time intensive and therefore expensive to develop.
*Parametric modeling: uses project characteristics in a mathematical model to estimate project costs

Question 31

Technical problems with cost estimates

Answer 31

*Estimates are down to quickly
*People like estimating experience
*Human beings are biased toward underestimation
*Management desires accuracy

Question 32

Determining the budget

Answer 32

*Project cost budgeting involves allocating the project cost estimate to tasks over time
*The tasks are based on the work breakdown structure for the project
*The main goal of the cost budgeting process is to produce a cost baseline

Question 33

Cost Planning for an agile/hybrid project

Answer 33

*Unlike predictive projects, for agile projects there is often not total project budget or detailed cost estimate for the entire project for agile project
*There is some estimating involved when using an agile approach, but instead of using hours or dollars, most estimates are done in a relative fashion
-Relative estimates: are created by comparing
work or grouping it by equivalent difficulty
based on factors