MECH 3170 Ch. 6 - Schedule Management Flashcards
What does 6.1 Plan Schedule Management result in?
A Schedule Management Plan that provides the processes for how the project schedule will be managed
What should the schedule management plan include?
Scheduling methodology to be used; Rules for schedule units of measure; Level of accuracy; Schedule baseline; procedures for how to manage schedule variances; reporting formats
What is 6.2 Define Activities?
The process of identifying and documenting the specific actions to be performed to produce the project deliverables
What does 6.2 Define Activities involve, and what process group is it?
It is Planning group. It involves taking the work packages from WBS and breaking them down into activities that are required to produce work package deliverables. Each activity identified needs to be small enough to estimate, schedule, monitor, and manage
What do you need to help 6.2 Define Activities (P)?
Scope baseline (project scope statement, WBS, WBS dictionary) and project team
What does 6.2 Define Activities (P) result in?
An activity list and project milestones
What are project milestones? Give examples.
Significant events (check points) within the project schedule that are not work activities. Example: deliverable due date, critical design review meeting, etc.
What is involved with 6.3 Sequence Activities (P)?
Involves placing all activities in order.
What is a common tool for 6.3 Sequence Activities (P)?
The Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM) also known as Schedule Network Diagram
What are the 4 relationship types that can be illustrated using PDM (Precedence Diagramming Method)? What is the most common?
Finish - Start (FS) - Successor activity cannot start until a predecessor activity has finished. MOST COMMON;
Finish - Finish (FF);
Start - Start (SS);
Start - Finish (SF)
What are the types of dependencies in Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM)?
Mandatory (Hard Logic) Dependency;
Discretionary (Soft Logic) Dependencies;
External Dependencies;
Internal Dependencies;
What are Manadatory (Hard Logic) Dependencies (PDM)?
Dependencies that are contractually/legally required or are inherent to the nature of the work (eg. you must design before you construct)
What are Discretionary (Soft Logic) Dependencies (PDM)?
Dependencies that are determined by the PM and could be changed if needed.
What are External Dependencies (PDM)?
Dependencies that re based on the needs of someone outside of the project (eg. government of suppliers)
What are Internal Dependencies (PDM)?
Dependencies that are determined by the PM or project team.
What is Lead?
An amount of time that may be used to indicate that an activity can start before its predecessor activity is completed. Example, landscaping can start 2 weeks before completion of building construction.
What is Lag?
An amount of time inserted between activities. Example, framing can only begin 3 days after the foundation is poured
What is 6.4 Estimate Activity Durations (P)?
The process of estimating the number of work periods needed to complete individual activities with estimated resources.
What does 6.4 Estimate Activity Durations (P) result in?
A realistic project time estimate.
To create realistic estimates, what do you need?
You need to:
Have estimates created by people who will be doing (or are familiar with) the work;
Provide the estimators with access to activity resource requirements, resource calendars, OPA’s, EEF’s
What are the 4 main types of estimating techniques in 6.4 Estimate Activity Durations (P)?
One-Point Estimating
Analogous Estimating
Parametric Estimating
Three-Point Estimating
Talk about One-Point Estimating
One estimate is submitted for each activity;
May be based on expert judgement, historical info, or guessing;
Problems are: can force people to pad estimates, hides important info about risks and uncertainties, often results in a schedule no one believes, often results in the estimators working against the PM to protect themselves;
Therefore, one-point estimates should only be used for projects that don’t require a detailed, highly reliable schedule.
Talk about Analogous Estimating
AKA top-down estimating. Uses recent historical info and expert judgement to predict the future. Example: The last 5 single-family home construction projects took 6 months to complete, so we will use this as our estimate.
Can be used at activity or project/phase level.
Parametric Estimating
Uses statistical relationships between variables to calculate estimates;
Often relies on ‘standard times’ for labour hour estimates;
Measurements must be scalable to be accurate.
Example:if it took me two hours to mow my one acre yard last week and this week I’m mowing four acres, I could estimate that it will take eight hours to mow.
However, if the first one hour was spent transporting my tractor and preparing it to mow, the estimate would need to be scaled appropriately: 1 hour for transporting and then four hours to mow, for a total of five hours.