Schedule Flashcards
What are dependencies?
Logical relationships between activities in a project
What is a lag?
What is a lead?
Lag: Waiting time inserted between activities
Lead: How soon an activity can start before its predecessor activity is completed
What are milestones?
Identified points in the project schedule where particular objectives should be met
According to the Process Groups model, what processes are involved in schedule management?
Plan Schedule Management
Define Activities
Sequence Activities
Estimate Activity Duration’s
Develop Schedule
Control Schedule
What are the results of a properly planned and managed project?
All or most deliverables are completed and delivered in the planned time-frames, within budget and with the agreed quality attributes
The number of changes to the project are within expectations
Project outputs are largely accepted and stakeholders seem satisfied
The cadence of development, testing, and implementation is appropriate to the specific project and to the development approach and life cycle selected
Measurements indicate the project is performing as planned
Project benefits can be realized in the timeframe they were planned for
What key artifact results from the Plan Schedule Management process?
Schedule management plan (formal or informal)
How is decomposition used in the Define Activities process? How is this different than decomposition done during the Create WBS process?
Work packages are being broken down into activities. In Create WBS, deliverables are being broken down into work packages (smaller deliverables).
What artifact results from the Sequence Activities process?
Project schedule network diagram
What do network diagrams show?
The network diagram shows just dependencies between activities
If estimates and leads and lags are added to the diagram later in the schedule management process, it can also show the critical path
If plotted out against time (is made calendar-based), the network diagram is a time-scaled schedule network diagram
What are the four types of logical relationships between activities in the precedence diagramming method?
Finish-to-start (FS): An activity must finish before the successor can start
Start-to-start (SS): An activity must start before the successor can start
Finish-to-finish (FF): An activity must finish before the successor can finish
Start-to-finish (SF): An activity must start before the successor can finish
What are mandatory dependencies?
The order in which activities must be done, due to the inherent nature of the work or as required by a contract
Also called hard logic
What are discretionary dependencies?
The order in which the organization has chosen to have work performed
Also called preferred, preferential, or soft logic
Define external dependencies and internal dependencies.
External: Dependencies based on the needs of a party outside the project
Internal: Dependencies based on the needs of the project; may be under the control of the project team
What artifacts result from the Estimate Activity Duration’s process (predictive environment)?
Activity attributes
Basis of estimates
Updates to project documents
What artifacts result from activity estimating in an adaptive environment?
Prioritized backlog of user stories
Coarse-grained estimates of user stories
Release goal focused on customer value
Target release date or release number
What are some inputs to Estimate Activity Durations?
Activity list and activity attributes
Assumption log
Lessons learned register
Resource breakdown structure
Resource requirements
Project team assignments
Resource calendars
Risk register
What is padding?
What is the problem with padding?
A pad is extra time or cost added to an estimate because the estimator does not have enough information or feels insecure about their estimating
Padding undermines the ability to develop a realistic schedule and budget
What is analogous estimating?
Analogous estimating uses expert judgment and historical information to estimate
What is required for bottom-up estimating?
An accurate WBS
What is parametric estimating?
Parametric estimating involves creating a mathematical equation using data from historical records or other sources, such as industry requirements or standard metrics, to create estimates
What is parametric estimating?
Parametric estimating involves creating a mathematical equation using data from historical records or other sources, such as industry requirements or standard metrics, to create estimates
What tools might an estimator use to create parametric estimates?
Regression analysis or a learning curve
What is the difference between triangular distribution and beta distribution?
Triangular distribution is a simple average giving equal weight to each of the three-point estimates when calculating the expected activity duration or cost; it uses the formula
(P + O + M)/3
Beta distribution is a weighted average that gives stronger consideration to the most likely estimate; it uses the formula (P + 4M + O)/6
What are some estimating techniques used in an agile environment?
Affinity estimating
T-shirt sizing
Planning Poker®
What is the difference between T-shirt sizing and Planning Poker®?
They are both adaptive estimating techniques, but T-shirt sizing assigns effort and number of user stories of each feature in terms of T-shirt sizes, while Planning Poker® uses cards to assign a relative unit (such as story points) to each user story with the goal of building an agreed-upon estimate of the work
What are the two types of reserves being evaluated in reserve analysis?
Contingency reserves
Management reserves
What is alternatives analysis?
Alternatives analysis involves evaluating the impact of each option on project constraints, including financial investment versus time saved and level of risk
This process will result in the determination of the best approach to completing project work within the constraints
What is fist of five?
A voting technique where team members show their level of support by holding up zero to five fingers. Voting is repeated until everyone in the group indicates their support by showing at least three fingers.
What is a schedule model?
The schedule model consists of all the project data that will be used to calculate the schedule, such as the activities, duration estimates, dependencies, and leads and lags. The project schedule is an output of the schedule model.
What is the critical path method?
Determining the longest duration path through the network diagram, the earliest and latest an activity can start, and the earliest and latest it can be completed
What is the near-critical path?
The path closest in duration to the critical path; the closer in length the critical and near-critical paths are, the more the risk to the project
Define total float, free float, and project float.
Total float: The amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying the project end date or an intermediary milestone
Free float: The amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying the early start date of its successor(s)
Project float: The amount of time the project can be delayed without delaying the externally imposed project completion date required by the customer or management (also referred to as positive total float)
What are the two formulas for calculating float?
Late start (LS) – Early start (ES)
Late finish (LF) – Early finish (EF)
What is the difference between crashing and fast tracking?
Crashing involves adding or adjusting resources in order to compress the schedule while maintaining the original project scope, while fast tracking involves compressing the schedule by doing more critical path activities in parallel
What is Monte Carlo analysis?
A technique that uses computer software to simulate the outcome of a project, based on the three-point estimates (optimistic, pessimistic, and most likely) for each activity and the network diagram
Monte Carlo analysis is also used as a risk management tool to quantitatively analyze risks
What is resource optimization?
Finding ways to adjust the use of resources
What is the difference between resource leveling and resource smoothing?
Resource leveling is a resource optimization technique that allows the project manager to level the peaks and valleys of the schedule from one month to the other, resulting in a more stable number of resources
Resource smoothing is a modified form of resource leveling, where resources are leveled only within the limits of the float of their activities, so the completion dates of activities are not delayed
On an agile project, what is the difference between a release and an iteration?
An iteration is a short, timeboxed development period, typically one to four weeks in duration
A release is a group of iterations that results in the completion of a valuable deliverable on the project
What are cumulative flow diagrams used for?
Tracking and forecasting the delivery of value
CFDs can help the project manager gain insight into project issues, cycle times, and likely completion dates
What is velocity?
The measure of a team’s capacity for work for each iteration, it allows the team to gauge how much work they will be able to do in the future based on the work they have completed in the past
What are some of the key outputs of the Develop Schedule process?
Project schedule
Bar charts
Milestone charts
Schedule baseline
Change requests
Schedule data
Project document updates
What are the main presentation formats for a schedule?
Network diagrams
Bar charts
Milestone charts
What do simple bar charts show?
Progress reporting and control; they are weak planning tools
What do milestone charts show?
High-level project status; they only show major events
What artifacts result from the Control Schedule process?
Work performance information
Schedule forecasts
Change requests
Updates to the schedule management plan, performance measurement baseline, and project documents
What is the purpose of re-estimating?
To make sure the project objectives can still be satisfied within the schedule, budget, and other project constraints
