Topic 4: Project schedule development and tracking Flashcards
What is project scheduling?
The process of defining project activities, determining
their sequence, and estimating their duration.
When is a project schedule typically created?
During the project initiation and planning phases.
What are the top challenges in project scope?
- Lack of clarity in scope of the project
- Shifting organizational priorities
- Project changes not well managed
- A lack of project management skills
- Training of project sponsors
What is the ‘cone of uncertainty?’
A progressively more detailed and accurate projection of the project schedule and duration as the project manager or project team specifies project deliverables and activities in more detail.
What are the processes in the project schedule management process?
- Plan Schedule Management
- Define Activities
- Sequence Activities
- Estimate Activity Duration
- Develop Schedule
- Control Schedule
What are rough order of magnitude (ROM) estimates?
Important but inexact estimates occurring very early in a project’s life cycle—that may be used to justify a
project’s consideration.
What are Budgetary estimates?
Estimates that occur later as the various project components are specified in greater detail.
What are definitive estimates?
Estimates that are developed when the project’s resources and activities are highly detailed - and therefore only have a minor degree of potential error.
What is a work breakdown structure?
A WBS is a way to illustrate the project’s scope and as a launching point for describing the activities necessary for creating the various subcomponents of the project.
What is a work breakdown structure similar to?
A product breakdown structure.
What are the inputs a PM uses to create a WBS?
- The project management plan
- Project scope statement
- Documented requirements
- Other factors
What is the primary process for creating a WBS?
Decomposition.
What is ‘rolling wave planning’?
A scheduling technique in which the team defers breaking down components until they are further clarified and the decomposition takes place as the project progresses.
What are different methods for working out the high level deliverables in the WBS
- Breaking down by major deliverables
- Use the phases in the System Development Lifecycle as a guide
- Breaking down by functional areas
What is the ideal time for a work package within a work breakdown structure
No less than 8 hours, no longer than 80.
What is a Gantt Chart
Gantt charts help teams to plan work around deadlines and properly allocate resources. Projects planners also use Gantt charts to maintain a bird’s eye view of projects. They depict, among other things, the relationship between the start and end dates of tasks, milestones, and dependent tasks.
What is a scope baseline?
A document containing the WBS and the WBS Dictionary that specifies the deliverables and components of a project and serves to measure any deviations from that baseline during project execution..
What is a WBS dictionary?
A document that accompanies the WBS and provides additional information about the individual components of the WBS.
What does the defining activities stage involve?
In this stage, the different work packages of the WBS are broken down into discrete activities, and the attributes of these activities are defined, including a description, resource requirements, logical predecessor or successor activities, and the like.
What are the tools and techniques a PM can use to define activities in a WBS?
- Decomposition - decompose work packages into activities.
- Templates
- Prior experience
- Expert input
- Rolling wave planning
What is a work package?
A work package can be thought of as a sub-project, which, when combined with other work package units, form the completed project.
What are the typical features of an activity?
- Can be performed by one person or a well-defined group
- Has a single, clearly identifiable deliverable
- Has a known method or technique
- Has well-defined predecessor and successor steps
- Is measurable so that the level of completion can be determined
What is a network diagram?
A network diagram is a schematic display that illustrates the various activities (or tasks) in a project
as well as their sequential relationships
What is a dependency?
The process of determining relationships and logical sequence among activities.
What does ‘Sequencing activities’ involve?
The process of determining relationships and logical sequence among activities.
What is the relationship between sequencing and dependency?
Dependency influences the sequence of activities (e.g. to put a roof on a house, you generally need walls first).
What are ways to speed up a projects completion?
- Fast Track (making activities parallel)
- Crashing (more people)
- Reduce scope
What are some factors that influence sequencing?
- Technical requirements and specifications
- Safety and efficiency
- Preferences and policies
- Resource availability
What is the precedence diagram method?
A network diagramming technique that uses boxes connected by arrows to represent activities and their precedence relationships.
This is the method with the arrows and boxes Shaun showed us in class.
What are the 4 kinds of task dependencies?
S = Start, F = Finish
S to S - the start of one activity depends on the start of another.
S to F - basically doesn’t happen, successor cant finish until the predecessor starts.
F to F - completion of the successor depends on the completion of the predecessor.
F to S - most common, one doesn’t start till another finishes.
What is lead time?
The amount of time by which a successor activity can be accelerated.
What is lag time?
The time delay between the completion of one task
and the start of the successor.
