Project Planning

Question 1

What is project planning?

Answer 1

• Breaking down the work into parts and assign these to project team members
• Anticipate problems that might arise and prepare tentative solutions to those problems.

Question 2

What is project scheduling (3 points)

Answer 2

How to organize the project in tasks - how and when they will be executed.

Estimate calendar time needed

Estimate resources needed to complete each task.

Question 3

What are the activities of project scheduling

Answer 3

Split project into tasks

Organize tasks

Minimize task dependencies.

Question 4

What are the components of project activities (tasks)?

Answer 4

A duration (days/months)
An effort estimate (persondays)
deadline
defined end-point (successful tests, etc)

Question 5

Milestones vs deliverables

Answer 5

Milestones are points in the schedule against which you can assess progress
Deliverables: work products delivered to the customer.

Question 6

What is work breakdown structure

Answer 6

hierarchical tree struscture of deliverables and tasks that need to be performed to complete a project.

Question 7

What does WBS contain?

Answer 7

A description of all significant work.

A clear task decomposition for assignment of responsibilities.

A framework for scheduling, budgeting, and expenditure tracking.

Question 8

What are the two main ways to organize the representation of work?

Answer 8

By functional responsibilities.

According to life-cycle phases, showing each phase as a top-level breakdown.

Question 9

What is a Gantt chart

Answer 9

A timeline chart (also called a Gantt chart) is a horizontal bar chart which helps to plan, coordinate, and track specific tasks in a project.

Question 10

Finish to start (FS)

Answer 10

Task B cannot start until task A finishes

Question 11

Start to start (SS)

Answer 11

Task B cannot start until A starts

Question 12

Finish to finish (FF)

Answer 12

task b cannot finsih until task a finishes

Question 13

Start To finish

Answer 13

task B cannot finish until A starts

Question 14

Steps in building an activity on node network

Answer 14

Identify the specific activities and their duration.
How many days it takes to finish an activity (task)

Determine the proper sequence of the activities.

Construct a network diagram.

Estimate the time required for each activity.
Earliest start/finish and latest start/finish.

Determine the critical path.

Update the graph as the project progresses.

Question 15

What is identifying activities (Node Network)

Answer 15

This consists in identifying the activities that are required to complete the project.

Question 16

What is determining the activity sequence (Node Network)

Answer 16

This is determinitng the order of the activities, this is usually paired with the identification process; some others will require more analysis to figure out order

Question 17

Construct the network diagram.

Answer 17

This means showing the sequence of serial and parallel activities.

Question 18

Estimate time required for activities

Answer 18

commonly used unit of time for activity completion, but any consistent measure is fine

Question 19

The 4 types of time quantities for an activity

Answer 19

Earliest start time (ES)

Earliest finish time (EF)

Latest start (LS)

Latest finish (LF)

Question 20

What is earliest start time

Answer 20

The earlierst time at whcih teh eactivity can start given that its precedent activities must be completed first.

Question 21

Earliest finish time (EF)

Answer 21

Equal to the earliest start time for the activity plus the time required to complete the activity.

Question 22

Latest start time (LS)

Answer 22

Equal to the latest finish time minus the time required to complete the activity

Question 23

What is latest finish time (LF)

Answer 23

The latest time at which the activity can be completed without delaying the project.

Question 24

What is the forward pass rule

Answer 24

Used to determine earliest times:

Earliest start date for the current activity = earliest finish date for the previous

When there is more than one previous activity, take the latest earliest finish

Question 25

What is the backward pass

Answer 25

Used to determining the latest times

The latest start and finish times are the latest times that an activity can start and finish without delaying the project.

Start from the last activity:

Latest finish (LF) for last activity = earliest finish (EF).

Work backwards:

Latest finish (LF) for current activity = Latest start for the following
More than one following activity - take the earliest LS.

Latest start (LS) = LF for activity – duration.

Question 26

What is a float

Answer 26

The difference between the earliest start date (ES) and the latest start date (LS).

Float is a measure of how much the start or completion of an activity may be delayed without affecting the end date of the project.

zero float means it’s critical - any delay will affect completion of entire project