Schedule Flashcards
What is the purpose of the project schedule?
Provide a detailed plan for how and when the project will deliver the results defined in the scope
After your schedule is approved it is the what?
Schedule baseline
Why should the project schedule be flexible?
To adjust for knowledge gained
To increase your understanding of risks
To add value to activities
What are the project schedule processes that make up project schedule management?
Estimate activity durations Sequence activities Develop schedule Define activities process Plan schedule management Control schedule
What are some trends and emerging practices in the project schedule management process?
Adaptive planning
Iterative scheduling with a backlog
On-demand scheduling
What is Iterative scheduling with a backlog?
A form of adaptive planning. A form of rolling wave planning that charts requirements that may be vague during the initial planning phase. Welcomes changes throughout development life cycle.
What is on-demand scheduling?
A form of adaptive planning. Limits your project team’s work to balance demand against delivery. Pulls work from a backlog as resources become available. Utilizes on demand scheduling for projects that evolve the product incrementally
What are some tailoring considerations for the project schedule management process?
Life cycle approach
Resource availability
Project dimensions
Technology support
What are some key questions to ask when tailoring for project schedule management?
“What is the most appropriate life cycle approach that provides an appropriately detailed schedule?”
“What are the factors influencing durations (such as the correlation between available resources and their productivity)?”
“How will the presence of complexity, technological uncertainty, product novelty, pace, or progress tracking impact the desired level of control?”
“Is technology used to develop, record, transmit, receive, and store project schedule model information and it it readily accessible?”
How does a predictive life cycle approach project schedule management?
Develops long term roadmaps for many similar projects under one broad schedule
How does an adaptive/agile life cycle approach project schedule management?
Uses short cycles to undertake work, review the results and adapt the schedule as needed
What does the plan schedule management process do?
It establishes policies, procedures, and documentation for planning, developing, managing, and controlling your project schedule.
What does the schedule management plan outline?
How you allocate resources and prioritize activities
What documents can be affected by the schedule management plan?
Project management plan
Assumption log
Risk register
Lessons learned register
What are the inputs to the schedule management plan process?
Organizational process assets
Enterprise environmental factors
Project management plan
Project charter
What is the configuration management plan?
Describes the configurable items of the project, identifies items that will be updated so that the product of the project remains consistent.
What are the outputs to the schedule management plan process?
Schedule management plan
What are some tools and techniques for the schedule management plan process?
Expert judgement
Meetings
Data analysis (alternative analysis)
What is the purpose of the estimate activity durations process?
Creating duration estimates clarifies the time to complete an activity, monitor performance, and report delays. Establish deadlines and timeline.
What factors are there to consider in the estimate activity durations process?
Law of diminishing returns, number of resources, advances in technology, motivation of staff.
What is analogous estimating?
Uses past data from a similar activity
What is parametric estimating?
Uses a statistical relationship between historical data and other variables to calculate an estimate for activity parameters.
What is three point estimating?
A formula to better estimate durations. tE=(tO+tM+tP)/3. Where M= most likely, O=optimistic, P=pessimistic, and E=Expected
What is bottom up estimating?
Done by aggregating the lower-level components of the work breakdown structure. The work within the activity is decomposed into more detail. The detailed durations are estimated and then these estimates are summed up.
What are inputs to the estimate activity durations process?
Project documents
Organizational process assets
Project management plan
Enterprise environmental factors
What are outputs to the estimate activity durations process?
Project documents updates
Basis of estimates
Duration estimates
What are tools and techniques for the estimate activity durations process?
Three point estimating Bottom up estimating Meetings Expert judgement Analogous estimating Parametric estimating Data analysis Decision making
What is alternatives analysis?
Used to compare various levels of resource capability or skills, scheduling compression techniques, different physical tolls.
What is reserve analysis?
Used to determine the amount of contingency and management reserves needed for the project. Also called schedule reserves, are put aside for known risks and account for schedule uncertainty.
What is the purpose of the develop schedule process?
Create a schedule model with planned dates for completing activities. Helps analyze activity sequences, durations, resource requirements, and schedule constraints.
What is the critical path method?
Used to estimate the least possible amount of time to complete a project and to determine the amount of flexibility within the schedule.
Define float.
Flexibility
How is the critical path method done?
First create the network diagram, then add a legend to each activity, performing a forward pass, and finishing with a backward pass
What is resource optimization?
Used to adjust activities according to resource availability
What is resource levelling?
Used when limits on the available resources is paramount. Adjustments are made to the project schedule according to resource availability and may affect the critical path.
What is resource smoothing?
Used when the time constraint takes priority. The project’s critical path is not changed. Activities may only be delayed within their free and total float.
What is schedule compression?
Technique to shorten or accelerate the schedule without reducing the project scope in order to meet constraints, imposed dates or other objectives.
What is crashing?
Technique to shorten the schedule duration by adding resources
What is fast tracking?
Technique in which activities or phases normally done in sequence are performed in parallel. May result in rework and increased risk.
What are inputs to the develop schedule process?
Agreements Enterprise environmental factors Organizational process assets Project documents Project management plan
What are outputs to the develop schedule process?
Project management plan updates Project documents updates Project calendars Schedule data Project schedule Schedule baseline Change requests
What are tools and techniques used for the develop schedule process?
Resource optimization Project management information systems Schedule compression Leads and lags Schedule network analysis Critical path method Data analysis Agile release planning
What is the purpose of the control schedule process?
Allows you to create work performance information, schedule forecasts, and make changes and updates to existing documents
What are the inputs to the control schedule process?
Work performance data
Project documents
Project management plan
Organizational process assets
What are the outputs to the control schedule process?
Project documents updates Work performance information Schedule forecasts Change requests Project management plan updates
What are tools and techniques used in the control schedule process?
Project management information system Data analysis Critical path method Schedule compression Resource optimization Leads and lags
What is earned value analysis?
When schedule performance measurements are used to compare the current project work to the original schedule baseline
What is the iteration burndown chart?
Tracks the work that remains in the iteration backlog. It includes lines that represent the ideal remaining work, the actual remaining work, and the forecasted remaining work.
What is variance analysis?
Looks at planned versus actual variances in the schedule
