Chapter 6 Flashcards
includes processes required to manage the timely completion of the project.
Project Schedule Management
the process of establishing he policies/procedures and documentation for planning, developing, managing, executing, and controlling the project schedule
Plan Schedule Management
process of identifying and documenting the specific actions to be performed
Define Activities
process of identifying and documenting relationships among project activities
Sequence Activities
process of estimating number of work periods needed to complete individual activities with the estimated resources
Estimate Activity Duration
the process of analyzing activity sequences, durations, resource requirements, and schedule constraints to create the project schedule model for project execution and monitor and controlling.
Develop Schedule
Two types of scheduling methods
Critical path or agile approach
Iterative scheduling with backlog
Type of rolling wave plan based on adaptive life cycles
typically uses kanban systems, based on a theory of constraints and pull-based schedule concepts from lean manufacturing to limit a team’s work in progress in order to balance demand against the team’s delivery throughput.
On-Demand Scheduling
Tailoring the schedule
- Life cycle approach
- resource availability
- project dimensions
- technological support
shorter life cycles providing rapid feedback on sustainability of deliverables and generally manifest as iterative schedule on-demand, pull-based schedule
Adaptive approaches
Defines summary milestones schedule that will influence/manage the product schedule.
Project Charter
Release and iteration length
using adaptive life cycle: time boxed periods for releases; waves and iterations are specified.
durations during which the team works steadily toward completion of a goal. Helps to minimize scope creep as it forces teams to process essential features first, then other features as time permits.
Time-Boxed Periods
specifies level of acceptance range used in determining realistic activity durations estimates and may include an amount for contingency
Level of accuracy
variance threshold for monitored schedule performance may be specified to indicate an agreed-upon amount of variation to be allowed before some action needs to be taken.
Control Thresholds
Schedule management Tools & Techniques
- Expert Judgement
- Decomposition
- Rolling wave planning
- Meetings
defines activity process, defines final outputs as activities rather than deliverables
Decomposition
ITerative planning technique which the work to be accomplished in the near term is planned in detail, while the work in the future is planned at higher levels.
Rolling wave planning
Includes activity identifier and scope of work description for each activity in sufficient detail to ensure work description for each activity in sufficient detail for understanding
Activity lists
Activity Attributes- Initial Stage
- include unique activity identifier (ID), WBS ID, and activity label or name
_________have zero duration because they represent a specific point of event.
Milestone List
Used for constructing a schedule model in which activities are represented by nodes and are graphically linked by one or more logical relationships to show the sequence in which the activities are to be performed.
Precedence Diagramming method (PMD)
4 types of dependencies or logical relationships
Finish-to start (FS)- successor activity cannot start until a predecessor activity has finished. * Most Common
Finish-to-Finish (FF)- A successor activity cannot be finished until a predecessor activity has finished.
Start to Start (SS)- Activity cannot start until predecessor activity ends.
Start to finish (SF)- activity cannot finish until a successor activity has started * Rare
True or false: Two activities can have two logical relationships at the same time.
True- but not recommended between same activity.
Select relationships with the highest ________
Impact
_________are not recommended in logical relations.
Closed Loops
Dependency determination & Integration: characterized by attributes:
- Mandatory or discretional.
- Internal or external
The 4 attributes of dependency, 2 can by applicable at the same time.
Mandatory external dependence
Mandatory internal dependence
Discretionary dependencies
Discretionary dependencies.
Legally or contractually required or inherent in the nature of work. Involves physical limitations. Referred to as hard logic or hard dependencies. Determined by the team during the process of sequencing the activities
Mandatory Dependencies
Referred to as preferred logic, preferential logic, or soft logic. Establish based on knowledge of best practices within an application area or unusual aspect of the project where sequence is desired. Fully document as they can create arbitrary float values and can limit later scheduling options.
Discretionary Dependencies
Involves relationship between project and non-project activities. Usually outside project team’s control.
External dependencies
Lead and lag times do not replace_____
Schedule logic
Duration estimates should not include
Lead and lag times
Sequence Activity output: Path convergence
indicated by having activities with multiple predecessors activities
activities with multiple successor activities
Path Divergence
Factors that may influence duration estimates:
Constraints effort types of resources estimate work periods availability of resources /skill proficiency changes to driving resources
Factors to consider for estimating
law of diminishing return
number of resources
advances in technology
motivation of staff (Parkinson’s Law)
One factor used to determine the effort required to produce a unit of work increases while other factors remained fixed. A point will be reached at which additions to one factor start to yield progressively smaller or diminishing returns increased in output.
Law of diminishing returns
Work expands to fill the time for its completion
Parkinson’s law
Technique used for estimating the duration or cost of an activity or a project using historical data from similar activity or project. *parameters are used from previous projects as a basis for estimating future projects. Used when limited amount of detailed info about the project.
Analogue estimating
Technique in which the algorithm is used to calculate cost or duration based on historical data and project parameters.
Uses statistical relationships between historical data and other variables to calculate estimate for activity parameters.
Quantity of work x labor hours per unit of work
Parametric Estimating
defines approximate range for an activity duration
t(M)- most likely, (tO)- most optimistic, (tP) most pessimistic.
Three-point estimating
Formula for triangle of distribution- used when insufficient historical data or using judgment data.
Expected duration, tE
tE= (t0 + tP) /3
Method of estimating project duration or cost by aggregating the estimates of the lower level components of the WBS
Bottom-up Estimating
used to determine the amount of contingency and management reserves needed for the project
Reserve analysis
estimated duration within the schedule baseline, which is allocated for identified risks that are accepted. Included to account for schedule uncertainty
Contingency Reserves
specified amount of the project budget withheld for management control purposes and are reserved for unforeseen work that is within the scope
Management reserves
Quantitative assessments of the likely number of time periods that are required to complete and activity, phase, or a project.
Duration estimates
Amount/type of additional details supporting the duration estimates vary by application area. Supporting documents clear, complete, and easy to understand how duration estimates were derived.
Basis of estimates
Process of analyzing activity sequences, durations, resource requirements, and schedule constraints to create a schedule model with planned dates for completing project activity.
Develop project schedule.
Key steps to develop schedule:
- Define milestones
- identify sequence activities, and estimating durations
- confirm start/finish dates have no conflicts with resource calendars or assigned activities on other proj/tasks.
- Sched analyzed to determine conflict in logical relations and if resource leveling is required before schedule is approved and baselined.
Used to estimate the minimum project duration and determine the amount of schedule flexibility on the logical network paths within schedule model
Calculates early start, early finish, late start, late finish dates for all activities without regard to any resource limitations by performing a forward and backward pass analysis through the schedule network.
Critical Path method
measured by the amount of time that a schedule activity can be delayed or extended from its early start date w/out delaying the project finish date or violating a schedule constraint.
total float schedule flexibility.
caused when backward pass is calculated from a schedule constraint that is later than the early finish date that has been calculated during the forward pass calculation.
Positive float
caused when a constraint on the late dates is violated by duration and logic. Helps to find accelerated ways of bringing a delayed schedule back on track.
Negative float
used to adjust the start and finish dates of activities to adjust planned resource use to be equal or less than resource available.
Resource optimization
Techniques used to adjust the schedule model due to demand and supply of resources: (2)
Resource Leveling
Resource smoothing
A Resource optimization technique where the start and finish dates are adjusted based on resource constraints with the goal of balancing the demand for resources with available supply
*used when shared or critically required resources are available only at certain times or in limited quantities, or overallocated.
Resource leveling
A resource optimization technique used to adjust the activities of a schedule model such that the requirements for resources on the project do not exceed certain predefined resource limits.
- critical path does not change
- completion date may not be delayed.
Resource smoothing
the amount of time that a schedule activity can be delayed without delaying the early start date of any successor or violating a schedule constraint.
Free Float
Data analysis technique:
the process of evaluating the scenarios in order to predict their effect, positive, or negative, or project objectives.
What-if scenario Analysis
Data Analysis Technique:
performed using the schedule to compute the different scenarios.
Schedule Network analysis
Data Analysis Technique: Simulation Model
- the most common analysis used for the total project- Work risks and other sources of uncertainty are used to calculate possible schedule outcomes for the total project.
Monte Carlo Analysis
technique used to shorten the schedule duration w/out reducing project scope in order to meet schedule constraints, imposed dates, and other schedule objectives
schedule compression
Shortens the schedule duration for the least incremental cost by adding resources.
- Overtime, additional resources, expedite deliveries.
Crashing
activities or phases normally done in sequence are performed in parallel for at least a portion of their duration.
Fast Tracking
provides high-level summary timeline of the release schedule (3-6 months typical) based on the product roadmap and the product vision for the product’s evolution.
Agile Release planning
Determines the number of iterations or sprints in the release and allows the product owner and team to decide how much needs to be developed and how long it will take to have a releasable product base on business goals, dependencies, and impediments.
Agile Release planning
Product vision drives 1)_______. Product 1) ______ drives 2) ______ plan. 2) _____ established the 3) _________. 3) ________ plans schedules 4)_________ development.
1) roadmap
2) release
3) iteration
4) Feature
the approved version of the schedule model that can be changed only through formal change control procedures and is used as a basis for comparison to actual results.
Schedule baseline
Schedule data (4)
1) schedule milestone
2) Schedule activities
3) Activity Attributes
4) Documentation
Project management plan updates go through change control process via _____________
change request
process of monitoring the status of the project to update the project schedule and managing changes to the schedule baseline.
*schedule baseline is maintained throughout the project.
Control Schedule
works to be completed from iteration backlog
iteration breakdown charts
examines entire project performance over time to determine improvement or deterioration.
Trend Analysis
examines variances in planned versus actual start/finish dates, durations, and variance in float.
Variance analysis.
Control schedule Tools & techniques
Data Analysis
Critical path method
