Understand Schedule and Resource Optimisation

Question 1

2.3.2 schedule and resource

Answer 1

2.3.2

Question 2

Describe ways to create and maintain a schedule (critical park, Gantt chart)

Answer 2

Used to monitor a project
Understand the significance of having a verified scope for the solid foundation for any further scheduling process to be conducted

The network : optimising the dependencies between activities
The Gantt chart : monitoring the progress
Histogram: managing resources, allocations and availability

Question 3

Differentiate between critical path and critical chain as scheduling techniques

Answer 3

Critical path - activities and their duration - the longest path of activity duration being the critical path

Critical chain - resources doing the task rather than the task itself. Re-balances resource estimating and shares it amongst the activity

Question 4

Describe how resources are categorised and allocated to a linear life cycle schedule

Answer 4

Resources are categorised in different ways:
Fixed costs - remain the same throughout the project
Variable costs - depending on how much work is complete

Linear life cycle = funds are released at decision gates, when the cost spent to date are understood and cost forecast for the future are approved through updated the business case

Question 5

Describe how resources are categorised and allocated to an interactive life cycle schedule

Answer 5

Interactive lifecycle = does not start with a full spec of requirements, so can be difficult to understand the resource requirements

At each iteration, design modifications may be required, new function capabilities added = potentially requiring skill specific resource that may not be readily available or deployed on the project

Planning is required to ensure that the resource is fully utilised during its available time

Request for resource at short notice may be required to prevent delays

Question 6

Differentiate between resource smoothing and resource levelling

Answer 6

Smoothing: time limited scheduling - we don’t have enough time (the end date has changed or the overall duration has reduced) = provide more resource particularly to critical path activities to shorten their duration (iterative process)

Levelling: we don’t have enough resource to do the work as scheduled (we have to move activities to points in the schedule where resource may be under-utilised

If activities have float, we can use the float to bring resources.into line with availability ( if you use all available float and continue to level, the project duration will extend)