Unit 4 Project Scheduling: Steps To Developing A Project Schedule
Unit 4 Project Scheduling: Steps To Developing A Project Schedule
Unit 4 Project Scheduling: Steps To Developing A Project Schedule
UNIT 4
Project Scheduling
Project schedule is prepared listing down step by step in sequential order the jobs involved in the
implementation of the project. The steps should be well-defined along with the required time to complete each
step.
This project schedule becomes a “tool” to ensure timely implementation of the project. When a final decision
has been taken to launch, the Project Manager is to entrust the jobs involved to personnel within the Project
Team with assigned responsibility to ensure that the steps are completed within the time-frame allotted and
within the budgeted cost.
A Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is used for estimating the project scope by breaking it down into easily
manageable components, or bites. WBS is the hierarchical list of project’s phases, tasks, and milestones.
A WBS is very useful in planning a project and makes a complex project more manageable. The WBS is
designed to help break down a project into manageable chunks that can be effectively estimated, managed and
supervised.
A WBS also provides the basis for a detailed duration and cost estimates. It gives accuracy in estimating a
project by calculating how much time and effort is required to accomplish a task or activity, thereby aggregating
to estimate the effort required to complete a superior component in the hierarchy.
Once the list of activities is identified, estimate the task duration for all activities as to how much effort by
duration is required to perform each activity. To estimate the task duration, make sure the activity is detailed
enough to estimate how much effort each activity or sub-activity will require to complete.
For example, to calculate how much time is required to complete the ‘Excavation’ for constructing the house,
you may need to know what is involved in doing excavation and how much time is required to complete each
activity in excavation. List the set of activities required to do excavation on the site and estimate the duration of
each activity.
Determine the personnel and non-personnel resources required to perform all activities. For example, the
excavation work may require the following resources: Project Manager – Work duration 16 hours Site Grading
Contractor – Work duration 80 hours.
Create a Resource Table of all resources who will work on the project
Assign or Allocate resources to activities
After identifying all the activities and timeline necessary to complete the project, we identify and define the
immediate predecessors of all activities. This will determine the sequence in which the activities may be
performed. For example, excavation work will be carried out before the steel erection can be done. Hence, the
predecessor to ‘1.2 Steel erection’ activity will be ‘1.1 Excavation’.
In a project, dependency is a link between tasks or activities or elements. There are four kinds of dependencies:-
Finish to Start (FS): A FS B = B can’t start before A is finished or B will start only after A is finished.
For example, concrete must cure before it can be used. Therefore, the builder pours the concrete, waits four
days and then builds the walls on the concrete.
Finish to Finish (FF): A FF B = B can’t finish before A is finished, i.e., B will finish only after A is finished.
For example, Foundations excavation cannot be completed unless the elevator pit excavation is complete.
Start to Start (SS): A SS B = B can’t start before A starts, i.e., B can start only if A has started.
For Example
Curing cannot be started unless pouring for the foundation has started. Start to Finish (SF): A SF B = B
can’t finish before A starts, i.e., B can finish only after A has started.
Pouring & curing is a parallel activity and Pouring can finish only after curing has started.
During the project planning phase, the project is estimated to list out the set of activities, tasks, and resources
required to complete the project. The project schedule is detailed enough to show each task to be performed, the
resource allocated to perform the task, the start and end date of each task and the duration in which the task will
be performed. During the lifecycle of a project, the project progress is monitored by the project schedule.
Network Analysis
The network analysis is a method used to analyze, control and monitoring of business processes and workflows.
Contrary to the work breakdown structure, a network diagram also considers the chronological order of
activities, milestones and tasks, their durations and dependencies and visualizes them graphically or as a table,
e.g. in a Gantt chart.
The network analysis enables project managers to take various factors into account when creating a project
plan:
1. Network Design Requirements |Identifying Customer Design Requirements: As a network designer you
need following steps to identify customer requirements:
Identify network applications and services that the organization wants to run in it network. Define the
organizational goals. Define the possible organizational constraints and limitations, these limitations may be
related to cost. Define the technical goals Define the possible technical constraints.
2. Describe the Existing Network-Characterizing the existing network is second step of the network design
methodology. In this step, you need to identify a network’s existing infrastructure and services that are currently
running. You can use the different tools to analyze existing network traffic, and toolsfor auditing and
monitoring network traffic.
3. Designing the Network Topology and Solutions The best approach to design the network topology is the
structure approach which allows you to develop the optimal solution with lower cost with fulfilling all
requirements of customer like capacity, flexibility, functionality, performance, scalability and availability You
can start the network designing process with information that you extract through:
4. Plan the network implementation In documentation you should have the step-by-step procedure of each
aspect of modular network and have the complete detail for implementation of each step. Documentation must
have rollback plan for each step, if something goes wrong you can back to previous step and after modification
you can re-implement that step again
5. Construct a prototype network A prototype network is a subset of the full design, tested in an isolated
environment. The prototype does not connect to the existing network. The benefit of using a prototype is that it
allows testing of the network design before it is deployed before affecting a production network. When
implementing a new technology such as IPsec, you might want to implement a prototype test before deploying
it to the operational network.
6. Fully Document the Design Documenting the project is the best practice and has a number of advantages
and future benefits.
7. Implement the Design In implementation phase network engineer implement the network’s designer
design. In this phase network engineer implement the documented steps, network diagram into real network.
8. Verify , monitor and modify as needed Once your network is fully implemented then your job to run and
operate the network properly, you have to monitor the network devices, traffic and other security aspects. You
can make the modification if you find something wrong with network operation during monitoring of network.
Also if you need to add some more services and feature you can add these services too.
Gantt Chart
A Gantt chart is a horizontal bar chart that visually represents a project plan over time. Modern gantt charts
typically show you the status of—as well as who’s responsible for each task in the project.
In other words, a gantt chart is a super-simple way to keep you out of a project pinch!
A Gantt chart is made up of several different elements. So let’s take a quick look at 8 key components so you
know how to read a gantt chart:
Task list: Runs vertically down the left of the gantt chart to describe project work and may be organized
into groups and subgroups
Timeline: Runs horizontally across the top of the gantt chart and shows months, weeks, days, and years
Dateline: A vertical line that highlights the current date on the gantt chart
Bars: Horizontal markers on the right side of the gantt chart that represent tasks and show progress,
duration, and start and end dates
Milestones: Yellow diamonds that call out major events, dates, decisions, and deliverables
Dependencies: Light gray lines that connect tasks that need to happen in a certain order
Progress: Shows how far along work is and may be indicated by % Complete and/or bar shading
Resource assigned: Indicates the person or team responsible for completing a task
The first project management chart was invented by Karol Adamiecki in 1896. So why isn’t it called an
Adamiecki chart? Good question!
1896: Karol Adamiecki creates the first project management chart: the Harmonogram, a precursor to the
modern gantt chart.
1931: Adamiecki publishes the Harmonogram (but in Polish with limited exposure).
1910-1915: Henry Gantt publishes his own project management system, the gantt chart.
Today: Gantt charts are the preferred tool for managing projects of all sizes and types.
Gantt charts are useful in almost any industry. Here are just a few examples of the types of teams and
companies that use gantt charts to plan, schedule, and execute their projects:
Construction
Consulting agencies
Marketing teams
Manufacturing
Human resources
Software development
Event planning
A gantt chart is like a front-row seat to the project action. All the tiny details you never noticed from the
nosebleed section suddenly come to life in full color right before your very eyes.
Usually, the project managers use this method for simplifying the project execution. In WBS, much larger tasks
are broken down to manageable chunks of work. These chunks can be easily supervised and estimated.
WBS is not restricted to a specific field when it comes to application. This methodology can be used for any
type of project management.
Construction of a WBS
Identifying the main deliverables of a project is the starting point for deriving a work breakdown structure.
This important step is usually done by the project managers and the subject matter experts (SMEs) involved in
the project. Once this step is completed, the subject matter experts start breaking down the high-level tasks into
smaller chunks of work.
In the process of breaking down the tasks, one can break them down into different levels of detail. One can
detail a high-level task into ten sub-tasks while another can detail the same high-level task into 20 sub-tasks.
Therefore, there is no hard and fast rule on how you should breakdown a task in WBS. Rather, the level of
breakdown is a matter of the project type and the management style followed for the project.
In general, there are a few “rules” used for determining the smallest task chunk. In “two weeks” rule, nothing is
broken down smaller than two weeks worth of work.
This means, the smallest task of the WBS is at least two-week long. 8/80 is another rule used when creating a
WBS. This rule implies that no task should be smaller than 8 hours of work and should not be larger than 80
hours of work.
One can use many forms to display their WBS. Some use tree structure to illustrate the WBS, while others use
lists and tables. Outlining is one of the easiest ways of representing a WBS.
There are many design goals for WBS. Some important goals are as follows:
WBS Diagram
In a WBS diagram, the project scope is graphically expressed. Usually the diagram starts with a graphic object
or a box at the top, which represents the entire project. Then, there are sub-components under the box.
These boxes represent the deliverables of the project. Under each deliverable, there are sub-elements listed.
These sub-elements are the activities that should be performed in order to achieve the deliverables.
Although most of the WBS diagrams are designed based on the deliveries, some WBS are created based on the
project phases. Usually, information technology projects are perfectly fit into WBS model.
In addition to the general use of WBS, there is specific objective for deriving a WBS as well. WBS is the input
for Gantt charts, a tool that is used for project management purpose.
Gantt chart is used for tracking the progression of the tasks derived by WBS.
The efficiency of a work breakdown structure can determine the success of a project.
The WBS provides the foundation for all project management work, including, planning, cost and effort
estimation, resource allocation, and scheduling.
Therefore, one should take creating WBS as a critical step in the process of project management.
A RAM is also called a Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed (RACI) matrix.
Responsible: Those who do the work to achieve the task. There is typically one role with a participation
type of Responsible, although others can be delegated to assist in the work required
Accountable: The one ultimately accountable for the correct and thorough completion of the deliverable
or task, and the one to whom Responsible is accountable. In other words, an Accountable must sign off
(Approve) on work that Responsible provides. There must be only one Accountable specified for each task or
deliverable
Consulted: Those whose opinions are sought; and with whom there is two-way communication
Informed: Those who are kept up-to-date on progress, often only on completion of the task or
deliverable; and with whom there is just one-way communication
A RAM can define what a project team is responsible for within each component of the Work Breakdown
Structure (WBS). It could also be used within a working group to designate roles, responsibilities and levels of
authority for specific activities. The matrix format shows all activities associated with one person and all people
associated with one activity. This ensures that there is only one person accountable for any one task to avoid
confusion.
Activity on Arrow (AoA)
The original form of network diagram that has effectively been superseded by the precedence diagram format.
In an activity-on-arrow network, activities are represented by a line between two circles. The first circle
represents the start of the activity and is known as the start event (sometimes called the i-node). The second
circle represents the finish of the activity and is known as the finish event (sometimes called the j-node).
Space is allowed in the circles for calculation results from critical path analysis. The calculated times are the
earliest event time (EET) and latest event time (LET). The earliest event time of the i-node is the earliest start of
the activity and the latest event time is the latest start. Similarly, the earliest event time and latest event times of
the j-node are the earliest and latest finishes of the activity.
The activity name is shown above the arrow and its duration is shown below. Its float is shown in brackets after
the duration.
A network diagram is created by connecting activities according to their dependence upon each other. For
instance, in the diagram below, activities 10-15 and 10-25 cannot start until 5-10 is finished. Activity 30-35
cannot start until both 20-30 and 25-30 are complete. Dotted lines are referred to as dummies. These simply
indicate a dependency between two events and are not activities.
Activity-on-arrow was in common use before the widespread use of computers for critical path analysis and so
the drafting and calculations were performed manually. The convention of numbering the nodes at intervals of 5
was to allow additional nodes to be added while retaining an element of numerical sequence.
Activity-on-Node (AoN)
Activity-on-node is a project management term that refers to a precedence diagramming method which uses
boxes to denote schedule activities. These various boxes or “nodes” are connected from beginning to end with
arrows to depict a logical progression of the dependencies between the schedule activities. Each node is coded
with a letter or number that correlates to an activity on the project schedule.
Typically, an activity-on-node diagram will be designed to show which activities must be completed in order
for other activities to commence. This is referred to as “finish-to-start” precedence – meaning one activity must
be finished before the next one can start. In the diagram below, activities A and D must be done so that activity
E can begin. It is also possible to create other variations of this type of diagram. For example, a “start-to-start”
diagram is one in which a predecessor activity must simply be started rather than fully completed in order for
the successor activity to be initiated.
An activity-on-node diagram can be used to provide a visual representation of the network logic of an entire
project schedule. Or, it can be used for any smaller section of the schedule that lends itself to being represented
as having a defined beginning and end. To keep the logic in the diagram simple, it may be most effective to
include only critical path schedule activities. The planned start date of each node may also be listed in the
diagram legend in accordance with the project management timeline.