Schedule Management Flashcards
What is the primary goal of project schedule management?
To ensure timely completion of a project
This involves a series of processes including planning, defining activities, and controlling the schedule.
List the processes involved in project schedule management.
- Planning schedule management
- Defining activities
- Sequencing activities
- Estimating activity resources
- Estimating activity durations
- Developing the schedule
- Controlling the schedule
Why is delivering projects on time considered a major challenge?
Time has the least amount of flexibility; it passes regardless of project circumstances.
What is a milestone in project management?
A significant event that normally has no duration
Milestones are useful for setting schedule goals and monitoring progress.
Define mandatory dependencies.
Dependencies inherent in the nature of the work being performed on a project, sometimes referred to as hard logic.
What are discretionary dependencies?
Dependencies defined by the project team, sometimes referred to as soft logic.
What is the purpose of network diagrams in project management?
To show activity sequencing and the logical relationships among project activities.
What does the arrow diagramming method (ADM) represent?
Activities are represented by arrows, with nodes indicating the start and end points.
What is the precedence diagramming method (PDM)?
A network diagramming technique where boxes represent activities and show types of dependencies.
Fill in the blank: Duration includes the actual amount of time worked on an activity plus _______.
elapsed time.
What is a three-point estimate?
An estimate that includes optimistic, most likely, and pessimistic estimates.
What is the main goal when developing a project schedule?
To create a realistic project schedule that serves as a basis for monitoring project progress.
What does a Gantt chart display?
Project activities along with their corresponding start and finish dates in a calendar format.
What do black diamonds represent on a Gantt chart?
Milestones.
What is the critical path in project management?
The series of activities that determine the earliest time by which the project can be completed.
True or False: The critical path can change as the project progresses.
True.
What is free slack or free float?
The amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying the early start of any immediately following activities.
What does the forward pass determine in project scheduling?
The early start and finish dates.
What is total slack or total float?
The amount of time an activity may be delayed from its early start without delaying the planned project finish date.
What is free slack or free float?
Amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying the early start of any immediately following activities
Example: Installation of electrical wiring can be delayed by 3 days without affecting subsequent tasks.
What is total slack or total float?
Amount of time an activity may be delayed from its early start without delaying the planned project finish date
Example: Software testing can be delayed by 5 days without extending the project’s finish date.
What does the forward pass determine in project scheduling?
The early start and finish dates for project activities
Example: Foundation pouring can start on day 10 and finish on day 16.
What does the backward pass determine in project scheduling?
The late start and finish dates for project activities
Example: Testing and validation must start no later than day 32.
What are the main techniques for shortening project schedules?
- Shortening durations of critical activities/tasks
- Crashing activities
- Fast tracking activities
Crashing involves obtaining the greatest amount of schedule compression for the least incremental cost.
