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Project Planning: Schedule and Cost Management Flashcards

1
Q

Project Schedule Management definition

A

involves the processes required to ensure timely completion of a project

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2
Q

What do we need to do here?

A

1.Planning schedule management
–> determining the policies, procedures, and documentation that will be used for planning, executing, and controlling the project schedule

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3
Q

What is it relating to?

A
  1. Define activities
    –> identifying the specific activities that the project team members and stakeholders must perform to produce the project deliverables
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4
Q

In which order?

A
  1. Sequencing activities
    –> identifying and documenting the relationships between project activities
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5
Q

What do we need to get it done?

A

4.Estimating activity resources
–> estimating how many resources a project team should use to perform project activities

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6
Q

How long will it take?

A

5.Estimating activity durations
–> estimating the number of work periods that are needed to complete individual activities

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7
Q

How does it look over time?

A
  1. Developing the schedule
    –> analyzing activity sequences, activity resource estimates, and activity duration estimates to create the project schedule
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8
Q

Recurringly: are we still good to go?

A

7.Controlling the schedule
–> controlling and managing changes to the project schedule

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9
Q

activity (or “tasks”)

A

is a distinct, scheduled portion of work performed during the course of a project.

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10
Q

The goal of the defining activities process is..

A

to ensure that project team members have a complete understanding of all the work they must do as part of the project scope so that they can start scheduling the work.

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11
Q

the activity list

A

is a tabulation of activities to be included on a project schedule

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12
Q

What should be included in an activity list?

A

-the activity name
-an activity identifier
-number
-a brief description of the activity

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13
Q

The activity attributes provide

A

schedule-related information about each activity
for example: predecessors, successors, logical relationships, leads and lags, resource requirements, constraints, imposed dates, and assumptions related to the activit

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14
Q

Activity list and attributes should be in agreement with..

A

the WBS and WBS dictionary and be reviewed by key project stakeholders

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15
Q

milestone

A

is a significant point or event in a project
–> is like a marker to help identify necessary activities

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16
Q

how much time it take to complete a milestone

A

There is usually no cost or duration for a milestone
–> takes several activities and a lot of work to complete a milestone

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17
Q

Sample milestones for many projects include:

A

-Sign-off of key documents
-Completion of specific products
-Completion of important process-related work, such as awarding a contract to a supplier

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18
Q

Who focuses on the major milestone project?

A

project sponsors and senior managers

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19
Q

sequencing activities

A

involves evaluating the dependencies (or relationship) between activities

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20
Q

determine dependencies

A

in order to use critical path analysis

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21
Q

critical path

A

for a project is the series of activities that determine the earliest time by which the project can be completed.

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22
Q

3 types of dependencies

A

-Mandatory dependencies
-Discretionary dependencies
-External dependencies

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23
Q

mandatory dependencies

A

are inherent in the nature of the work being performed on a project

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24
Q

Discretionary dependencies

A

are defined by the project team

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25
External dependencies
involve relationships between project and non-project activities
26
Network diagram
are the preferred technique for showing activity sequencing --> is a schematic display of the logical relationships among, or sequencing of, project activities
27
Two main formats are:
-The arrow diagramming: Activity-On-Arrow (AOA) approach, also known as the Arrow Diagramming Method (ADM) -The Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM)
28
Process for Creating AOA Diagrams
1. Find all of the activities that start at node 1. Draw their finish nodes and draw arrows between node 1 and those finish nodes. Put the activity letter or name and duration estimate on the associated arrow 2. Continuing drawing the network diagram, working from left to right. Look for bursts and merges 3.Continue drawing the project network diagram until all activities that have dependencies are included in the diagram. 4. As a general rule, all arrowheads should point to the right and no arrows should intersect on an AOA network diagram.
29
Bursts
occur when a single node is followed by two or more activities
30
Merge
occurs when two or more nodes precede a single node
31
Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM)
-Activities are represented by boxes -Arrows show relationships between activities -More popular than AOA / ADM method and used by project management software -Better at showing different types of dependencies
32
Before estimating activity durations, you must have...
a good idea of the quantity and type of resources that will be assigned to each activity; resources are people, equipment, and materials
33
A resource breakdown structure
is a hierarchical structure that identifies the project’s resources by category and type
34
Consider important issues in estimating resources
-How difficult will it be to do specific activities on this project? -What is the organization’s history in doing similar activities? -Are the required resources available?
35
A resource breakdown structure
is a hierarchical structure that identifies the project’s resources by category and type
36
Duration
includes the actual amount of time worked on an activity plus elapsed time
37
Effort
is the number of workdays or work hours required to complete a task
38
does effort equal duration?
Effort does not normally equal duration Example: “I will spend 20 hours reading a book ( ́effort ́), spread over a period of 2 months ( ́duration ́)”
39
three-point estimate
an estimate that includes an optimistic, most likely, and pessimistic estimate, such as three weeks for the optimistic, four weeks for the most likely, and five weeks for the pessimistic estimate
40
Three-point estimates are needed for ...
Monte Carlo simulations
41
Monte Carlo Simulation
Generates hundreds / thousands of probable performance outcomes based on probability distributions for cost and schedule on individual activities.
42
Schedule development
uses the results of all the preceding project time management processes to determine the start and end dates of project activities and of the entire project
43
The resulting project schedule is often..
shown on a Gantt chart, a standard format for displaying project schedule information by listing project activities and their corresponding start and finish dates in a calendar format
44
The ultimate goal of schedule development is to..
create a realistic project schedule that provides a basis for monitoring project progress for the time dimension of the project
45
Critical path method (CPM)
is a network diagramming technique used to predict total project duration
46
A critical path for a project
is the series of activities that determine the earliest time by which the project can be completed.
47
The longest path or the path containing the critical tasks
is what is driving the completion date for the project
48
critical path
It is the longest path through the network diagram and has the least amount of slack or float
49
Slack or float
is the amount of time an activity may be delayed without delaying a succeeding activity or the project finish date
50
Schedule Compression Techniques
-crashing -Fast tracking
51
crashing
is a technique for making cost and schedule trade-offs to obtain the greatest amount of schedule compression for the least incremental cost
52
Fast-tracking
involves doing activities in parallel that you would normally do in sequence
53
Schedule compression often backfires..
by causing cost, human resource, and quality problems, which lead to even longer schedules
54
Critical chain scheduling
is a method of scheduling that considers limited resources when creating a project schedule and includes buffers to protect the project completion date
55
Theory of Constraints (TOC)
a management philosophy developed by Eliyahu M. Goldratt and introduced in his book “The Goal” --> It attempts to minimize multitasking,
56
Buffers
is additional time to complete a task
57
A project buffer
is additional time added before the project’s due date to account for unexpected factors
58
Controlling the schedule
-Perform reality checks on schedules -Allow for contingencies (imprevu) -Don’t plan for everyone to work at 100% capacity all the time -Hold progress meetings with stakeholders and be clear and honest in communicating schedule issues
59
Schedule Planning for an Agile/Hybrid Project
-agile teams focus on the most valuable work they can complete within each iteration. --> time boxing
60
time boxing
is a previously agreed upon time period during which a team works towards completion of a goal. A sprint, for example is a timebox of 30 days or less.time boxing
61
What about dependencies for agile/ Hybrid projects?
-Ideally, one Scrum team can perform all the work in their scrum backlog. If there are dependencies within backlog items, the team should identify those and work on them accordingly. -When there are multiple Scrum teams, you can hold a Scrum of Scrums, where representatives from each team meet to coordinate efforts and dependencies.
62
Kanban Method (visual board)
-Visualizes work flowing continuously through the system -Sets limits to work in progress (WIP) -Does not use time-boxing -Focuses on cycle time
63
Project Cost Management
-includes the processes required to ensure that a project team completes a project within an approved budget
64
The main planning tasks (project Cost management) are
1)planning cost management 2)estimating costs 3)determining the budget
65
The main documents (project cost management) produced include
-cost management plan -a cost estimate -a cost performance baseline
66
Planning cost management the purpose
is to determine the policies, procedures, and documentation for planning, managing, executing, and controlling project costs
67
Possible Contents of a Cost Management Plan:
-Units of measure -Level of precision for cost estimates - Level of accuracy -Organizational procedure links -Control thresholds for monitoring cost performance -Rules of performance measurement -Reporting formats and frequency for cost reports
68
cost management plans (also the scope and schedule management plans)
can be informal and broad or formal and detailed
69
Importance of cost estimation
-Project managers must take cost estimates seriously if they want to complete projects within budget constraints - the types of cost estimates, how to prepare cost estimates, and typical problems associated with themcost estimate -prepare cost estimates at various stages of a project, and these estimates should be fine-tuned as time progresses - important to provide supporting details for the estimates, including ground rules and assumptions (sometimes called the basis of estimates) -A large percentage of total project costs are often labor costs, so it is important to do a good job estimating labor hours and costs
70
Cost Estimating Techniques
-Analogous estimates -Bottom-up estimate -Parametric modeling
71
Analogous estimates
Top-down estimates, use the actual cost of a previous, similar project as the basis for estimating the cost of the current project. This technique requires a good deal of expert judgment and is generally less costly than others are, but it can also be less accurate
72
Bottom-up estimates
involve estimating individual activities and summing them to get a project total. This approach can increase the accuracy of the cost estimate, but it can also be time intensive and, therefore, expensive to develop
73
Parametric modeling
uses project characteristics (parameters) in a mathematical model to estimate project costs
74
Typical Problems with Cost Estimates
-Estimates are done too quickly -People lack estimating experience -Human beings are biased toward underestimation - Management desires accuracy
75
Determining the budget (project cost budgeting)
-involves allocating the project cost estimate to tasks over time -The tasks are based on the work breakdown structure for the project -The main goal of the cost budgeting process is to produce a cost baseline
76
Project Budget Components
-Project budget -management reservce -cost baseline -control Accounts -Contingency -Work Package -Cost Estimates -Activity Contingency Reserve -Activity Cost estimate slide page 56
77
Cost Planning for an Agile/Hybrid Project
-for agile projects there is often no total project budget or detailed cost estimate for the entire project for agile project. -There is some estimating involved when using an agile approach, but instead of using hours or dollars, most estimates are done in a relative fashion
78
Relative estimates
are created by comparing work or grouping it by equivalent difficulty based on factors like risk, complexity, and required labor.

Project management (7 decks)

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