MIS 578 Chapter 8: Scheduling Projects

Question 1

Activity

Answer 1

“A distinct scheduled portion of work performed during the course of a project.”

The building blocks of a project schedule are activities. An activity is “a component of project scope work performed during the course of a project.”

Question 2

For activities to be useful as schedule building blocks, they should have the following characteristics:

Answer 2

• Clear starting and ending points
• Tangible output that can be verified
• Scope small enough to understand and control without micromanaging
• Resources, other costs, and schedule that can be estimated and controlled
• A single person who can be held accountable for each activity (Often more than one person is required to complete the work; however, one person should be responsible.)

Question 3

Activities should be listed in what format?

Answer 3

Verb-noun format, such as “prepare budget,” or “build frame.”

Question 4

7 processes of time management

Answer 4

1. Plan schedule management—arranging how to develop, manage, execute, and control the project schedule
2. Define activities—a project planning process that identifies and determines specific actions to develop and deliver the project outcomes, such as products, services, or results
3. Sequence activities—determining the predecessor and successor relationships among the project activities
4. Estimate activity durations—the process of approximating the number of work periods needed to complete individual activities with estimated resources
5. Develop schedule—the process of analyzing activity sequences, durations, resource requirements, and schedule constraints to create the project schedule
6. Control schedule—the process of regulating changes to the project schedule

Question 5

Method to display activities

Answer 5

AOA - Activity on Arrow
ADM - Activity diagramming method
AON - Activity on node - most common
PDM - Precedence diagramming method - most common

Question 6

5 factors that may limit how fast a project can be completed

Answer 6

1) Logical order
2) Activity duration
3) Resource availability
4) Imposed dates
5) Cash flow

Question 7

Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM)

Answer 7

“a technique in which the scheduled activities are represented by nodes and are graphically linked by one or more logical relationships to show the sequence in which the activities are performed.”

Question 8

Predecessor Activity

Answer 8

“an activity that logically comes before a dependent activity in a schedule.”

Question 9

Successor Activity

Answer 9

“a dependent activity that logically comes after another activity in a schedule.”

Question 10

Finish-to-Start (FS)

Answer 10

“a logical relationship in which a successor activity cannot start until a predecessor activity has finished.”

The most common type of logical dependency.

Question 11

Lead

Answer 11

“the amount of time whereby a successor activity can be advanced with respect to a predecessor activity.”

Question 12

Lag

Answer 12

“the amount of time whereby a successor activity is required to be delayed with respect to a predecessor activity.”

Question 13

Duration

Answer 13

“the total number of work periods required to complete a schedule activity, usually expressed as workdays or workweeks.”

Question 14

Critical Path

Answer 14

Critical path is the sequence of activities that have no float.

“the sequence of activities that represents the longest path through the project, which determines the shortest possible duration.”

Question 15

Two methods to determine the critical path

Answer 15

1) Two-pass method

2) Enumeration method

Question 16

Forward pass

Answer 16

“a critical path method technique for calculating the early start and early finish dates by working forward through the schedule model from the project start.”

Question 17

Early Start date(ES)

Answer 17

“the earliest possible point in time on which uncompleted portions of a schedule activity can start, based upon the schedule network logic, the data date, and any schedule constraints.”

Question 18

Early finish date (EF)

Answer 18

“the earliest possible point in time on which uncompleted portions of a schedule activity can finish, based upon the schedule network logic, the data date, and any schedule constraints.”

Question 19

Late start date (LS)

Answer 19

“the latest possible point in time in which uncompleted portions of a schedule activity can start.”

Question 20

Late finish date (LF)

Answer 20

“the latest possible point in time when the uncompleted portions of a schedule activity can finish.”

Question 21

Float

Answer 21

Float = Late start (LS) - Early start (ES)

Question 22

Enumeration method

Answer 22

List (enumerate) all paths through the network. The path with the longest combined duration is the critical path.

Question 23

Monte Carlo Analysis

Answer 23

“a technique that computes, or iterates, the project cost or project schedule many times. . . to calculate a distribution of possible total projects costs or completion dates.”

Question 24

Baselining

Answer 24

Baselining is creating a “snapshot” of the project at the very beginning, so you can later status and input actual start, finish and durations. Allows for you to measure the performance of the project against a plan.

Question 25

Dependencies can be either mandatory or discretionary

Answer 25

Mandatory dependency - “a logical relationship between activities that that must happen—usually due to a physical or legal demand.”

Discretionary dependency - “a logical relationship between activities that is considered desirable, usually based upon experience or best practice.”

Question 26

Estimating activity duration

Answer 26

You can begin estimating activity durations once the activities have been defined and sequenced. Estimating activity durations is the process of approximating the number of work periods needed to complete individual activities with estimated resources.

Question 27

Free float

Answer 27

“the amount of time a schedule activity can be delayed without delaying the early start of immediately following schedule activities.”

Question 28

Gant Chart

Answer 28

A Gantt chart is a horizontal bar chart that shows each work activity on a separate line with the bar placed from the early start date to the early finish date for each activity on a timescale.