Kap 9 - Estimating, scheduling and budgeting Flashcards
How is activity duration estimated?
Explain how the approximated beta distribution can be used to estimate activity duration.
- Most optimistic (a) - the minimum time this activity would take to complete if everything went exactly as expected without any difficulties or problems whatsoever.
- Most likely (m) - the most likely duration assuming normal conditions.
- Most pessimistic (b) - the expected duration if major difficulties are encountered.
If you use triangular distribution E (WP duration) = (a+m+b)/3
If you use pert/beta distribution E = (a+4m+b)/6
The weighted average technique (also known as three-point
estimation) is a type of probabilistic method. In short, we assume that the activity’s duration follows a given statistical distribution and then take the average.
What are the four different types of activity dependencies?
(F-F, S-S, F-S, S-F)
Explain the standard labelling of activities in a network diagram for scheduling.
What is meant by the critical path in a network diagram?
The critical path in a network diagram represents the sequence of tasks or activities that determine the shortest duration needed to complete a project. Tasks on the critical path have zero slack or float, meaning there’s no room for delay in their completion without extending the project’s duration.
Explain how to make and read a Gantt chart.
What is the difference between an early start and a late start Gantt chart?
This chart displays the schedule with a focus on starting tasks as early as possible. A late start Gantt chart focuses on starting tasks as late as possible without affecting the project’s completion date.
What is a milestone and what are its characteristics?
A milestone is a special event in the life of a project to which you want to draw added attention. Milestones are events and therefore have no duration. The description in a milestone box describes the stage reached rather than a particular job to perform. Milestones are normally represented on a Gantt chart by a different symbol, often a diamond.
What is the differences between a network diagram and a Gantt chart? What are their strengths and weaknesses and which method should we use?
Explain how a network diagram can be used to estimate the duration of a project.
Explain how to make and read a resource profile. Explain how resource utilization is calculated. What is its importance?
Resource utilization profiles are important as they help optimize resource allocation, identify overloads or underutilization, forecast future needs, monitor project performance, aid decision-making, and manage project costs efficiently.
What is the difference between resource smoothing and full resource leveling?
Resource smoothing adjusts non-critical tasks within the project’s slack to balance resources without changing the project duration, while full resource leveling adjusts the entire schedule, including critical tasks, potentially extending the project duration, to resolve resource conflicts.
What is the purpose of project crashing and how is it done?
Project crashing- adding resources to selected activities
- In project crashing, additional resources are assigned to one or more critical path activities. That is, for an increase in costs it is possible to decrease the overall project duration.
- To conduct project crashing, the project manager must decide which activities to crash and in what order.
- The choice of activities to crash is limited to activities on the critical path; these are the activities that determine the total duration of the project.
- The basis for deciding which critical activities to crash when a choice is available is cost, more specifically cost slope in monetary units/time period.
What is the purpose of project budgeting?
What are the four phases of project budgeting?
Project budgets are used by managers to fix in advance the resources that a project will use. Budgets represent the planned cost of a project at inception. Project budgeting is all about allocating resources to a project. This includes the process that determines how much money (or other resources, for example labour) will be allocated to a project. The preparation of a budget results in a time-phased plan summarising the planned expenditures and incomes (and therefore the cash flow) throughout the life of the project.
What are the three different methods for cost estimation according to Gardiner (2005)?
