Chapter 5 – Time Management

Question 1

Milestones

Answer 1

• Significant event
	- No duration
• Takes:
	- Several activities
	- A lot of work
		~ To complete a milestone
• Useful tools for:
	- Setting schedule goals
	- Monitoring progress
• Examples:
	- Obtaining customer sign-off on key documents
	- Completion of specific products
• SMART:
	- S – Specific
	- M – Manageable, measurable
	- A – Actionable
	- R – Relevant, realistic
	- T – Timebound

Question 2

Sequencing Activities

Answer 2

• Involves:
- Reviewing activities
- Determining dependencies
• Dependency/relationship:
- Sequencing of project activities or tasks
• MUST determine dependencies
- In order to use critical path analysis

Question 3

Mandatory dependencies

Answer 3

• Nature of the work
• Hard logic
• Examples:
	- Writing codes
	- Testing codes

Question 4

Discretionary dependencies

Answer 4

• Defined by the project team
• Soft logic
• Used with care
- May limit later scheduling options

Question 5

External dependencies

Answer 5

• Involves relationship between:
	- Project activities
	- Non-project activities
• Example:
	- Receiving permission from another organization

Question 6

Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM)

Answer 6

• Activity on Node (AON)
	- Activities represented by boxes
• Arrows
	- Relationship between activities
• More popular than ADM

Question 7

Activity Duration Estimating

Answer 7

• Duration:
	- Actual amount of time worked on activity + elapsed time
• Effort:
	- Number of workdays or work hours
		~ Required to complete a task
	- Does not normally equal duration
• People doing the work:
	- Help create estimates
		~ Reviewed by an expert

Question 8

Critical Path Method (CPM)

Answer 8

• Network diagramming method
	- To predict total project duration
• Critical path:	
• Slack / float:
	- Amount of time an activity may be delayed without delaying:
		~Succeeding activity
		~Project finish date

Question 9

Critical path

Answer 9

• Determines the earliest time
	- Project can be completed
• Longest path
• Least amount of slack or float
• Not the one with all the critical activities
	- Only accounts for time
• Example:
	- Growing grass
• If the lengths of two or more path are the same:
	- Can be more than 1 critical path
• Critical path can change

Question 10

Free slack / free float

Answer 10

• Amount of time an activity can be:
- Delayed without delaying the early start of any immediately following activities
• Formula:
- ES of next activity - EF of current activity

Question 11

Total slack / total float

Answer 11

• Amount of time an activity can be:
- Delayed from its early start without delaying the planned project finish date
• Formula:
- LS of current activity - LF of next activity

Question 12

Forward pass

Answer 12

• Determines:

- Early Start (ES)
- Finish dates

Question 13

Backward pass

Answer 13

• Determines:

- Late Start (LS)
- Finish dates

Question 14

Using the Critical Path to Shorten a Project Schedule

Answer 14

• Adding more resources / changing their scope
• Crashing:
- Obtaining the greatest amount of schedule compression
~ For the least incremental cost
• Fast tracking:
- Doing them in parallel
- Overlapping them

Question 15

Importance of Updating Critical Path Date

Answer 15

• Meet time goals for a project
• Critical path:
	- May change as you enter actual start and finish dates
• If project completion date will slip:
	- Negotiate with the project sponsor

Question 16

Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)

Answer 16

• Network analysis technique
• Used to:
	- Estimate project duration
		~ When there is a high degree of uncertainty
• Uses probabilistic time estimates:
	- Duration estimates based on using:
		~ Optimistic
		~ Most likely
		~ Pessimistic estimates of activity durations
		~ Three-point estimate

Question 17

Schedule Control Suggestions

Answer 17

• Perform reality checks on schedule
• Allows for contingencies (incident, possibility)
• Don’t plan for everyone:
- To work at 100% capacity all the time
• Hold progress meetings with stakeholders
- Be clear and honest
~ In communicating schedule issues

Question 18

Controlling the Schedule

Answer 18

• Goals:
	- Know the status of the schedule
	- Influence factors
		~ That cause schedule changes
	- Determine that the schedule has changed
	- Manage changes when they occur
• Tools and techniques:
	- Progress reports
	- Schedule change control system
	- Project management software
		~ Tracking Gantt Chart
	- Variance analysis
		~ Analyzing float or slack
	- Performance management
		~ Earned value

Question 19

Reality Checks on Scheduling

Answer 19

• Review:
	- Draft schedule
	- Estimated completion date in the project charter
• Prepare:
	- More detailed schedule
		~ With the project team
• Make sure schedule is:
	- Realistic
	- Followed
• Alert top management well in advance
	- If there are schedule problems

Question 20

Working with People Issues

Answer 20

• Strong leadership:
	- Helps projects succeed more
		~ Than good PERT charts
• Project managers should use:
	- Empowerment
		~ Ability to give orders
		~ Ability to assign positions
	- Incentives
		~ Benefits that motivate or encourages one to do something
	- Discipline
		~ Practice of training people to obey rules
	- Negotiation