Schedule Management Ch 6 Flashcards
What are the components of Schedule Management?
- 1 Plan schedule management: process of establishing the policies, procedures and documentation for planning, developing, managing and controlling the project schedule
- 2 Define activities: process of identifying and documenting the specific actions to be performed to produce the project deliverables
- 3 Sequence activities: Process of identifying and documenting relationships among the project activities
- 4 Estimate activity duration: process of estimating the number of work periods needed to complete individual activities with the estimated resources
- 5 Develop schedule: process of analyzing activity sequences, durations, resource requirements and schedule constraints to create the project schedule model for project execution and monitoring and controlling
- 6 Control schedule: Process of monitoring the status of the project to update the project schedule and manage changes to the schedule baseline
What is the project schedule a result of?
Selecting scheduling method, then project-specific data (activities, planned dates, durations, resources, dependencies and constraints) are entered into a scheduling tool and create a schedule model for the project.
What is Iterative Scheduling With a Backlog?
Form of Rolling Wave Planning and used in Agile
Key benefit: welcomes changes throughout the development life cycle
The requirements are documented as user stories that are prioritized and refined just before construction and the product features are developed using time boxed periods of work
What is On-Demand Scheduling?
Team members pull work from queue when they have time
Does NOT rely on a schedule that was developed previously but pulls work from a backlog to be done immediately as resources become available
Used for projects that evolve the project incrementally in operational or sustainment environments or where tasks may be made relatively similar in size and scope or can be bundled by size and scope
Define: Plan Schedule Management (6.1)
process of establishing the policies, procedures and documentation for planning, developing, managing and controlling the project schedule
Key benefit: provides guidance and direction on how the project schedule will be managed
Inputs: Plan Schedule Management
Project charter
Project Management Plan:
- scope management plan
- development approach
EEFs
OPAs
Tools/Techniques: Plan Schedule Management
Expert Judgement
Data Analysis (alternatives analysis)
Meetings
Outputs: Plan Schedule Management
Schedule Management Plan
What is a Schedule Management Plan?
Establishes the criteria and activities for developing, monitoring and controlling the schedule
Define: Define Activities (6.2)
process of identifying and documenting the specific actions to be performed to produce the project deliverables
Key benefit: it decomposes work packages into schedule activities that provide basis for estimating, scheduling, executing, monitoring and controlling the project work
Inputs: Define Activities
Project management plan:
-Schedule management
plan
-scope baseline
EEFs
OPAs
What is Scope Baseline?
The project WBS, deliverables, constraints and assumptions documents in the scope baseline are considered when defining activities
Tools/Techniques: Define Activities
Expert Judgement
Decomposition
Rolling Wave Planning
Meetings
What is Rolling Wave Planning?
Iterative project planning in waves as the project proceeds and later details become clearer. Work to be done in the near term is based on high level assumptions and high level milestones are set. As work progresses the milestones, risks and assumptions become more reliable and work further in the future is planned at a higher level
Outputs: Define Activities
Activity List
Activity Attributes
Milestone List
Change Requests
Project Management Plan UPDATES:
- schedule baseline
- cost baseline
What are Activity Attributes?
Identifying multiple components associated with each activity.
- Initially includes unique activities identifier (ID), WBS IS and activity label/name
- When completed, includes activity descriptions, predecessor activities, successor activities, logical relationships, leads and lags, resource requirements, imposed dates, constraints and assumptions
Define: Sequence Activities (6.3)
Process of identifying and documenting relationships among the project activities
Key benefit: defines the logical sequence of work to obtain greatest efficiency give all project constraints
Inputs: Sequence Activities
Project Management Plan:
-Schedule management
plan
-Scope baseline
Project Documents:
- activity attributes
- activity list
- assumption log
- milestone list
EEFs
OPAs
Tools/Techniques: Sequence Activities
Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM)
Dependency Determination and Integration
Leads & Lags
Project Management Information System (PMIS)
What is Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM):
technique used for creating a schedule model where activities are represented by nodes and are graphically linked by one or more logical relationships to show the sequence in which the activities are to be performed
4 relationships
What is Finish-to-Start (FS)
successor activity cannot start until predecessor activity has finished.
E.G. The foundation for the house must be finished (A) before the framing can start (B)
Most common
What is Finish-to-finish (FF)
Successor activity (Activity A) cannot finish before a predecessor activity (activity B) has finished
E.G. Writing a document (predecessor) is required to be finished before you can edit the document (successor)
What is Start-to-Start (SS)
Successor activity (Activity A) cannot start until a predecessor activity (activity B) has started
E.G. Cannot level out concrete (successor) until you begin to pour the concrete (precessor) begins
What is Start-to-Finish (SF)
Successor activity (Activity A) must start before (Activity B) has finished
E.G. A new system (successor) must start before an old one is replaced. ONLY example of this
Least common
What kind of relationship is: “The foundation for the house must be finished (A) before the framing can start (B)”?
Finish-to-Start
What kind of relationship is “A new system (successor) must start before an old one is replaced. ONLY example of this”?
Start-to-Finish
What kind of relationship is “Cannot level out concrete (successor) until you begin to pour the concrete (precessor) begins”?
Start-to-Start
What kind of relationship is
“Writing a document (predecessor) is required to be finished before you can edit the document (successor)”?
Finish-to-Finish
What is Dependency Determination and Integration?
Dependencies categorized as mandatory, discretionary, internal or external
Can be two things
What is a Mandatory Dependency?
legally or contractually required or inherent in the nature of work
Often involve physical limitations
E.G. construction projects where it’s impossible to build structures until the foundation has been built
What is a Discretionary Dependency?
Established based on knowledge of best practices
Preferred logic, preferential logic or soft logic
E.G. Best practice is that during construction that you start with electrical work after finishing the plumbing. This isn’t required but performing them in this sequence reduces overall project risk
What is an External Dependency?
involve relationship between project activities and non project activities (usually outside of team’s control)
E.G. the testing of project software is dependent on when the software is delivered
What is an Internal Dependency?
Involve a precedence relationship between project activities and are generally inside the project team’s control
E.G. Team cannot test a machine until they assemble it
What is a Lead?
lead in or jumpstart. Amount of time a successor activity can be advanced with respect to a predecessor activity
What is a Lag?
Amount of time a successor activity will be delayed with respect to predecessor activity
Output: Sequence Activities
Project Schedule Network Diagrams
Project Document UPDATES:
- activity attributes
- activity list
- assumption log
- milestone list
What is a Schedule Network Diagram?
graphical relationship of the logical relationships/ dependencies, among the project schedule activities
Define: Estimate Activity Durations (6.4)
process of estimating the number of work periods needed to complete individual activities with the estimated resources
Key benefit: provides the amount of time each activity will take to complete
Inputs: Estimate Activity Durations
Project Management Plan:
-schedule management
plan
-scope baseline
Project Documents
EEFs
OPAs
Tools/Techniques: Estimate Activity Durations
Expert Judgement
Analogous Estimating
Parametric Estimating
3 Point Estimating
Bottom up Estimating
Data Analysis Techniques
Decision Making
Meetings
What is Analogous Estimating?
“analogy” of past to estimate
technique for estimating duration or cost of an activity (budget, duration, complexity, etc) of a project using historical data from a similar project
Often used when there’s a little detail on the project
What is Parametric Estimating?
technique in which an algorithm is used to calculate cost or duration based on historical data and project parameters
Uses a statistical relationship between historical data and other variables
E.G. if assigned resource is capable of installing 25 meters of cable per hour, the duration required to install 1,000 meters is 40 hours (1,000/25 meters per hour= 40 hours)
What is 3 Point Estimating?
helps to define an approximate range for an activity’s duration:
Expected duration (E)= (O + M +P) /3
- Most Likely (M)
- Optimistic (O)
- Pessimistic (P)
Use when there’s insufficient historical data
What is Bottom Up Estimating?
“Bottoms up” of WBS
estimating project duration or cost by aggregating the estimates of the lower-level components of the WBS.
What is Reserve Analysis?
used to determine the amount of contingency and management reserved needed for the project. Used to account for schedule uncertainty.
Estimated duration within the schedule baseline
Outputs: Estimate Activity Durations
Duration Estimates
Basis of Estimates
Project Document UPDATES:
- activity attributes
- assumption log
- lessons learned register
Define: Develop Schedule (6.5)
Process of analyzing activity sequences, durations, resource requirements and schedule constraints to create the project schedule model for project execution and monitoring and controlling
Key benefit: generates a schedule model with planned dates for completing project activities
Iterative process
Inputs: Define Schedule
Project Management Plan:
-schedule management
plan
-scope baseline
Project Documents (activity attributes, activity list, assumption log, basis of estimates, lessons learned register, etc)
Agreements
EEFs
OPAs
Tools/Techniques: Define Schedule
Schedule network Analysis
Critical Path Method
What is Schedule Network Analysis?
Iterative process. Used until a viable schedule model is developed.
Used to generate the project schedule model. It employs several other techniques (critical path method, resource optimization techniques and modeling techniques).
What a Critical Path?
sequence of activities that represents the longest path through a project, which determines the shortest possible duration.
Has the least total float (usually 0)
How is the Critical Path Method used in scheduling?
Used to estimate the minimum project duration and determine the amount of schedule flexibility on the logical network paths within the scheduled model
What is Total Float
amount of time that a schedule activity can be delayed or extended from its early start date without delaying the project finish date/end date
What is Positive Total Float?
caused when the backward pass is calculated from a schedule constraint that is latter than the early finish date that has been calculated during forward pass calculation
What is Negative Total Float?
caused when a constraint on the late dates is violated by duration and logic.
Negative float analysis helps to find possible accelerated ways of bringing a delayed schedule back on track
What is Free Float?
amount of time that a schedule activity can be delayed without delaying the early start date of the next activity/ between activities
What is Resource Leveling?
start and finish dates are adjusted based on resource constraints with the goal of balancing the demand for resources with the available supply.
Used when shared resources are available only at certain times/limited quantities, are over allocated or there is a need to keep resource usage at a constant level
Often causes critical path to change
What is Resource Smoothing?
adjusts the activities of a schedule model such that the requirements for resources on the project do not exceed certain predefined resource limits. Activities may only be delayed within their free and total float
Critical path is NOT changed and the completion date may not be delayed
What is Monte Carlo?
Simulation used to model the probability of different outcomes in a process that cannot easily be predicted due to random variables.
Used to predict the probability of different outcomes when the intervention of random variables is present.
Most common simulation
What is Crashing?
Technique used to shorten the schedule duration for the least incremental cost by adding resources
E.G. paying OT to get the job done
What is Fast Tracking?
Schedule compression technique in which activities/phases normally done in sequence are performed in parallel for a portion of their duration
What is Agile Release Planning?
provides a high-level summary timeline of the release schedule (3-6 months) based on the product roadmap and the product visions for the product’s evolution
Shows customer which feature will be available at end of each iteration
Outputs: Define Schedule
Schedule Baseline
Project Schedule
Schedule Data
Project Calendars
Change Requests
Project Management plan UPDATES
Project Document UPDATES
What is a Schedule Baseline?
approved version of a schedule model that can only be changed through a formal change control
What do Bar Chart/Gannt Charts show and how are they used?
Used to present project status to upper management
High level detail
Shows start & end dates, duration and order, precedence relationships and % completion
What do Milestone Charts show and how are they used?
Shows major milestone deliverables and provides summary level view of project milestones
Uses icons/symbols
Used to show upper management
What do Project Schedule Network Diagrams show and how are they used?
show activities and relationships without a time scale
“logic diagrams”
Communicates the project status in terms of activities in relation to each other
Define: Control Schedule (6.6)
Process of monitoring the status of the project to update the project schedule and manage changes to the schedule baseline
Key benefit= schedule baseline is maintained throughout project
If an Agile Approach is used, what is the focus of Control Schedule?
Determining current status of schedule by (comparing total amount of work delivered and accepted against the estimates of work completed for the time cycle)
Conducting retrospectives
Reprioritizing (backlog)
Determining the rate at which the deliverables are produced, validated and accepted (velocity) in the given time per iteration (agreed-upon work cycle duration, typically 2-4 weeks)
Determining that the schedule changed
Managing actual changes as they occur
Inputs: Control Schedule
Project Management Plan
Project Documents
Work Performance Data
OPAS
Tools/Techniques: Control Schedule
Data Analysis
Critical Path Method
Project Management System
Resource Optimization
Leads & Lags
Schedule Compression
What is Earned Value Analysis?
Schedule performance measurements such as schedule variance (SV) and schedule performance index (SPI) are used to assess the magnitude of variation to the original schedule baseline
What is Earned Value?
the measure of work performed expressed in terms of the budget authorized for that work
What is an Iteration Burndown Chart?
graphical representation and projection of remaining unfinished work in that Iteration.
Outputs: Control Schedule
Work Performance Information
Schedule Forecasts
Change Requests
Project Management Plan UPDATES
Project Document UPDATES
