Course Title:

BIT401: Software Project Management

 Unit 6: Activity Planning
Unit 6: Activity Planning

Introduction; Planning Objectives and timing; Project Schedules; Projects and

Activities; Sequencing and Scheduling Activities; Network Planning Models;
Formulating a Network Model; Adding the Time Dimension; The Forward Pass; The
Backward Pass; Identifying the Critical Path; Activity Float; Shortening the Project
Duration; Identifying Critical Activities; Activity-on-Arrow Networks
 Unit 6: Activity Planning
Unit 6: Activity Planning
 Introduction;
 Planning Objectives and timing;
 Project Schedules;
 Projects and Activities;
 Sequencing and Scheduling Activities;
 Network Planning Models;
 Formulating a Network Model;
 Adding the Time Dimension;
 The Forward Pass;
 The Backward Pass;
 Identifying the Critical Path;
 Activity Float;
 Shortening the Project Duration;
 Identifying Critical Activities;
 Activity-on-Arrow Networks
 Unit 6: Activity Planning
Introduction;
We learned techniques for forecasting the effort required both for the project as a
whole and for individual activities of for a project in <Unit-5:Software Effort
Estimation>. A detailed plan for the project, however, must also include a schedule
indicating the start and completion times for each activity. This will enable us to:
 ensure that the appropriate resources will be available precisely when required;
 avoid different activities competing for the same resources at the same time;
 produce a detailed schedule showing which staff carry out each activity;
 produce a detailed plan against which actual achievement may be measured;
 produce a timed cash flow forecast;
 re-plan the project during its life to correct drift from the target.
A project plan involves setting targets with start and completion dates for each
activity. Monitoring progress ensures timely delivery of activity products. Project
management involves identifying issues, understanding causes, and revising plans to
mitigate effects. The activity plan evaluates consequences of missing targets, offering
guidance on effective modifications to realign the project. It may also highlight
components needing close monitoring.
 Unit 6: Activity Planning
The Objectives of Activity Planning;
Besides providing project and resource schedules, activity planning aims to achieve a
number of other objectives as follows:
1. Feasibility assessment – Is the project possible within required timescales and
resource constraints? Project feasibility is not solely determined by estimated
work-years; completing a project quickly depends on staff availability and the
extent to which tasks can be done simultaneously.
2. Resource allocation – What are the most effective ways of allocating resources to
the project. When should the resources be available?
3. Detailed costing –How much will the project cost and when is that expenditure
likely to take place?
4. Motivation –Setting and monitoring targets boosts staff motivation, especially
when employees actively contribute to target establishment.
5. Coordination – When do the staff in different departments need to be available to
work on a particular project and when do staff need to be transferred between
projects?
 Unit 6: Activity Planning
When to Plan;
Project planning is as a dynamic and iterative process. Planning is not a one-time
activity but a continuous process. Each iteration aims to enhance the plan's detail and
accuracy based on the evolving understanding of the project and its environment.
 The focus of planning evolves as the project progresses. In the feasibility study
and project start-up phase, the primary goal is to estimate timescales and identify
risks related to meeting deadlines and staying within budget.
 As the project moves forward, emphasis shifts to the creation of detailed
activity plans. Activity plans are essential for ensuring the availability of
resources and maintaining control over cash flow.
 Continuous monitoring is crucial throughout the project lifecycle. Re-planning is
necessary to correct any deviations from the original plan. The goal is to ensure
alignment with time and cost targets.
 The ultimate aim of planning is to deliver the final product or service to the
customer.
 Monitoring and adjustments continue until the project's conclusion to guarantee
that the final deliverable meets or exceeds customer expectations.
 Unit 6: Activity Planning
Project Schedules:

What is project schedules and how we create project schedule?

 Unit 6: Activity Planning
Project Schedules: Before starting work on a project, it is crucial to create a detailed
project plan that outlines the start and end dates for each activity, along with the required
resources and their allocation. This detailed level of project plan is referred to as a project
schedule. Four main stages of Creating of a project schedule.
1. The first step is to decide on the tasks and their optimal order, constructing an
ideal activity plan. This plan outlines the ideal timing for each activity without
considering resource constraints. This activity plan is generated by <Steps:4 and
5 of Step Wise>.
2. After creating an ideal activity plan, the second step involves conducting an
activity risk analysis to identify potential problems. This analysis may lead to
adjustments in the initial plan and will likely impact how resources are allocated.
Activity risk analysis is generated by <Steps:6 of Step Wise> in <Unit:7>.
3. The third step is resource allocation. The expected availability of resources
might place constraints on when certain activities can be carried out, and our
ideal plan might need to be adapted to take account of this. Resource allocation
is generated by <Steps:8 of Step Wise> in Unit-7.
4. The final step is schedule production, which indicates planned start and
completion dates and a resource requirements statement for each activity.
 Unit 6: Activity Planning
Projects and Activities:

What we mean by a project and its activities?

 Unit 6: Activity Planning
Projects and Activities:
Defining activities:
 A project is composed of a number of interrelated activities.
 A project may start when at least one of its activities is ready to start.
 A project will be completed when all of the activities it encompasses have
been completed.
 An activity must have a clearly defined start and a clearly defined end-
point, normally marked by the production of a tangible deliverable.
 If an activity requires a resource (as most do) then that resource
requirement must be forecastable and is assumed to be required at a
constant level throughout the duration of the activity.
 The duration of an activity must be forecastable – assuming normal
circumstances, and the reasonable availability of resources.
 Some activities might require that others are completed before they can
begin (these are known as precedence requirements).
 Unit 6: Activity Planning
Identifying activities:
Essentially there are three approaches to identifying the activities or tasks that
make up a project –
1. Activity-based approach
2. Product-based approach
3. Hybrid approach.

Activity-based approach - The activity-based approach consists of creating a list of all

the activities that the project is thought to involve. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is used
in this approach. The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a systematic method for organizing
project tasks. Instead of a haphazard approach, it breaks down main tasks into lower-level
ones, creating a hierarchical structure. Activities are added to branches only if they contribute
to the task immediately above. Each branch should be detailed enough for project control but
not overly complex. The WBS ensures a complete, non-overlapping task catalog, and its
structure can be refined as the project progresses. It is advised to initially use a higher-level
WBS, refining it as information becomes available. Once tasks are identified, sequencing
determines the order of completion.
 Unit 6: Activity Planning
Identifying activities:
Activity-based approach –FIGURE: A fragment of an activity-based Work
Breakdown Structure
 Unit 6: Activity Planning
Identifying activities:
Product-based approach –It consists of producing a Product Breakdown
Structure and a Product Flow Diagram. The PFD indicates, for each
product, which other products are required as inputs. The PFD can therefore
be easily transformed into an ordered list of activities by identifying the
transformations that turn some products into others.
This approach is particularly appropriate if using a methodology such as
SSADM or USDP (Unified Software Development Process), which clearly
specifies, for each step or task, each of the products required and the activities
required to produce it.
In the USDP, products are referred to as artifacts – see Figure below – and the
sequence of activities needed to create them is called a workflow.
 Unit 6: Activity Planning
Identifying activities:
Product-based approach –
 Unit 6: Activity Planning
Identifying activities:
Hybrid approach – The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) in Figure 6.2 is
activity-focused, organizing tasks for project completion. In contrast, Figure
6.5 illustrates a product-based WBS, centered on final deliverables, with
associated activities for each product.
 Unit 6: Activity Planning
Identifying activities:
Hybrid approach – IBM recommend that the following five levels should be
used in a WBS:
 Level 1: Project.
 Level 2: Deliverables such as software, manuals and training courses.
 Level 3: Components, which are the key work items needed to produce
deliverables, such as the modules and tests required to produce the system
software.
 Level 4: Work-packages, which are major work items, or collections of
related tasks, required to produce a component.
 Level 5: Tasks, which are tasks that will normally be the responsibility of a
single person.
 Unit 6: Activity Planning
Sequencing and Scheduling Activities:
Sequencing and scheduling activities helps to ensure that tasks are carried out in a logical
order and within the specified timeframe. The process involves breaking down the project into
smaller, manageable tasks, determining their dependencies, and creating a timeline for
execution.
Throughout a project, we will require a schedule that clearly indicates when each of the
project’s activities is planned to occur and what resources it will need.

This combined sequencing–scheduling

approach might be quite suitable for small
project. However, on larger projects it is
better to separate out these two activities:
to sequence the tasks according to their
logical relationships and then to schedule
them taking into account resources and
other factors. Network Planning Models
are use for sequencing–scheduling
activities. An outline how we might present a schedule for a small project.
 Unit 6: Activity Planning
Network Planning Models:
Project scheduling techniques based on network models are:
1. Critical Path Method (CPM)
2. Program Evaluation Review Technique (PERT)
3. Activity-on-arrow
4. Precedence networks
5. Activity-on-node
Project scheduling techniques based on network models, such as the Critical Path Method
(CPM) and Program Evaluation Review Technique (PERT), originated in the 1950s.
These methods use a network representation where time progresses from left to right. In
the traditional activity-on-arrow approach, activities are depicted as arrows connecting
circles (nodes) that represent the potential start or completion of activities.
A more recent variation, known as precedence networks, utilizes activity-on-node
representation. In this approach, activities are nodes, and links between nodes signify
precedence or sequencing requirements. Precedence networks address some issues of the
activity-on-arrow representation and are widely adopted in modern computer
applications.
 Unit 6: Activity Planning
Formulating a Network Model:
Network model represent the activities and their interrelationships as a graph.
In activity-on-node, activities are representing as nodes (boxes) in the graph
and the lines between nodes represent dependencies.
Some rules for Network Model Construction are
1. A project network should have only one start node.
2. A project network should have only one end node.
3. A node has duration.
4. Links normally have no duration.
5. Precedents are the immediate preceding activities.
6. Time moves from left to right.
7. A network may not contain loops.
8. A network should not contain dangles.
 Unit 6: Activity Planning
Formulating a Network Model:
Some rules for Network Model Construction are
1. A project network should have only one start node - Using multiple starting nodes
in a network diagram is logically possible but discouraged due to potential confusion. Instead, it's
common to create a 'start' activity with zero duration and an actual start date, especially in situations
where more than one activity can commence when the project begins.
2. A project network should have only one end node.
3. A node has duration.
4. Links normally have no duration.
5. Precedents are the immediate preceding activities.
6. Time moves from left to right.
7. A network may not contain loops.
8. A network should not contain dangles.
 Unit 6: Activity Planning
Formulating a Network Model:
 Representing lagged activities
 Hammock activities -
 Labelling conventions
 Unit 6: Activity Planning
Formulating a Network Model:
 Labelling conventions

There are a number of different conventions for entering information on an activity-on-node

network. Here shown, is based on the British Standard BS 4335. There are 3 rows, top is
called Forward Pass and bottom is called Backward Pass, are time duration and will explain
both in next. Middle row is the activity label, usually a code developed to uniquely identify
the activity and may incorporate a project code. The activity description will normally be a
brief activity name such as ‘Test take-on module’.
 Unit 6: Activity Planning
Adding the Time Dimension:
The critical path approach aims to efficiently plan and manage a project by identifying the
optimal sequence of activities. It focuses on completing the project as quickly as possible and
pinpointing activities where delays may impact the project's overall end date or subsequent
activities' start dates. The method involves estimating the duration of each activity and
conducting a forward pass to determine earliest start dates and project completion, as well as a
backward pass to establish latest start dates and identify the critical path.
In practical application, software tools are commonly used for these calculations, particularly
for larger projects.
The provided description and example illustrate these concepts using a small project with
eight activities, each with estimated durations.

Where an actual start date is known, the calculations may be carried out using actual dates.
Alternatively we can use day or week numbers.
 Unit 6: Activity Planning
Adding the Time Dimension:

An example project specification with estimated activity

durations and precedence requirements

The precedence network for the example project

 Unit 6: Activity Planning
The Forward Pass:
The forward pass is carried out to calculate the earliest dates on which each activity may be
started and completed.
The forward pass and the calculation of earliest start dates
are carried out according to the following reasoning.
1. Activities A, B and F may start immediately, so the
earliest date for their start is zero.
2. Activity A will take 6 weeks, so the earliest it can finish
is week 6.
3. Activity B will take 4 weeks, so the earliest it can finish
is week 4.
4. Activity F will take 10 weeks, so the earliest it can
finish is week 10.
5. Activity C can start as soon as A has finished so its
earliest start date is week 6. It will take 3 weeks so the
earliest it can finish is week 9.
 Unit 6: Activity Planning
The Forward Pass:
6. Activities D and E can start as soon as B is complete so
the earliest they can each start is week 4. Activity D,
which will take 4 weeks, can therefore finish by week 8
and activity E, which will take 3 weeks, can therefore
finish by week 7.
7. Activity G cannot start until both E and F have been
completed. It cannot therefore start until week 10 – the
later of weeks 7 (for activity E) and 10 (for activity F).
It takes 3 weeks and finishes in week 13.
8. Similarly, Activity H cannot start until week 9 – the
later of the two earliest finish dates for the preceding
activities C and D.
9. The project will be complete when both activities H
and G have been completed. Thus the earliest project
completion date will be the later of weeks 11 and 13 –
that is, week 13.
The results of the forward pass are shown in Figure
 Unit 6: Activity Planning
The Forward Pass:
The results of the forward pass are shown in Figure

An example project specification

with estimated activity durations
and precedence requirements

The network after the forward pass

 Unit 6: Activity Planning
The Backward Pass:
The second stage in the analysis of a critical path network is to carry out a backward pass to
calculate the latest date at which each activity may be started and finished without delaying
the end date of the project.
The latest activity dates are calculated as follows.
1. The latest completion date for activities G and H is assumed to be
week 13.
2. Activity H must therefore start at week 11 at the latest (13 – 2) and the
latest start date for activity G is week 10 (13 – 3).
3. The latest completion date for activities C and D is the latest date at
which activity H must start – that is, week 11. They therefore have
latest start dates of week 8 (11 – 3) and week 7 (11 – 4) respectively.
4. Activities E and F must be completed by week 10 so their latest start
dates are weeks 7 (10 – 3) and 0 (10 – 10) respectively. (Mistake in Fig)
5. Activity B must be completed by week 7 (the latest start date for both
activities D and E) so its latest start is week 3 (7 – 4).
6. Activity A must be completed by week 8 (the latest start date for
activity C) so its latest start is week 2 (8 – 6).
7. The latest start date for the project start is the earliest of the latest start 7 10
dates for activities A, B and F. This is week zero. This is, of course, not
very surprising since it tells us that if the project does not start on time
it won’t finish on time.
 Unit 6: Activity Planning
The Backward Pass:
 Constructi

The network after the backward pass

 Unit 6: Activity Planning
Identifying the Critical Path:
Critical Path is the longest sequence of dependent tasks and determines the shortest possible
duration for the project.
The difference between an activity’s earliest start date and its latest start date (or, equally, the
difference between its earliest finish date and latest finish dates) is known as the activity’s
float – it is a measure of how much the start or completion of an activity may be delayed
without affecting the end date of the project. Any activity with a float of zero is critical in the
sense that any delay in carrying out the activity will delay the completion date of the project as
a whole. There will always be at least one path through the network joining those critical
activities – this path is known as the critical path.

The critical path

 Unit 6: Activity Planning
Identifying the Critical Path:
Significance of the critical path is two-fold.
 In managing the project, we must pay particular attention to monitoring
activities on the critical path so that the effects of any delay or resource
unavailability are detected and corrected at the earliest opportunity.
 In planning the project, it is the critical path that we must shorten if we are
to reduce the overall duration of the project.

The critical path

 Unit 6: Activity Planning
Activity Float:
Activity Float refers to the amount of time that a task can be delayed without delaying the
project. Activity float are of following types:
1. Total Float: It is the total amount of time that a task can be delayed without delaying the
entire project. In other words, it's the flexibility available for scheduling a task. Activities
A and C in Figure each have 2 weeks’ total float. Difference between its earliest start date
and its latest start date.
2. Free Float: The time by which an activity may be delayed without affecting any
subsequent activity. It is calculated as the difference between the earliest completion date
for the activity and the earliest start date of the succeeding activity.
3. Interfering float:
The difference between total float and free float.
This is quite commonly used, particularly in
association with the free float. Once the free fl oat
has been used (or if it is zero), the interfering float
tells us by how much the activity may be delayed
without delaying the project end date – even
though it will delay the start of subsequent
activities.
 Unit 6: Activity Planning
Shortening the Project Duration:
To shorten a project's overall duration, the focus should be on reducing the
durations of critical activities. This can involve allocating more resources,
such as working overtime or hiring additional staff. The critical path guides
where to save time, and attempting to shorten non-critical activities is
generally futile. By examining the critical path and making adjustments, like
reducing the duration of critical activities, it's possible to expedite the project.
However, there's a limit to reducing critical activity durations due to safety and
cost concerns. To achieve further time savings, consideration should be given
to optimizing work methods, increasing parallelism in the network, and
removing bottlenecks, while ensuring adherence to resource and quality
constraints.
 Unit 6: Activity Planning
Identifying Critical Activities:
The critical path identifies those activities which are critical to the end date of
the project; however, activities that are not on the critical path may become
critical.
As the project proceeds, activities will invariably use up some of their float
and this will require a periodic re-calculation of the network. As soon as the
activities along a particular path use up their total float then that path will
become a critical path and a number of hitherto (until a particular time) non-
critical activities will suddenly become critical. It is therefore common
practice to identify near-critical paths – those whose lengths are within, say,
10–20% of the duration of the critical path or those with a total float of less
than, say, 10% of the project’s uncompleted duration. The importance of
identifying critical and near-critical activities is that it is they that are most
likely to be the cause of delays in completing the project.
 Unit 6: Activity Planning
Activity-on-Arrow Networks:
In activity-on-arrow networks activities are represented by links (or arrows) and the nodes
represent events of activities (or groups of activities) starting or finishing. Figure illustrates
our previous example drawn as an activity-on-arrow network.
 Unit 6: Activity Planning
Activity-on-Arrow Networks:
Activity on Arrow (AOA) is a method used to represent and analyze the flow
of activities in a project. In AOA, activities are represented by arrows, and
nodes (or circles) represent events or points in time. The arrows connecting the
nodes indicate the dependencies between activities.

Activity-on-arrow network rules and conventions

Using dummy activities
Representing lagged activities
Activity labelling
Network analysis
 Unit 6: Activity Planning
Activity-on-arrow network rules and conventions:
1. A project network may have only one start node
2. A project network may have only one end node
3. A link has duration: A link represents an activity and, in general, activities take time to
execute. The network does not contain any reference to durations.
4. Nodes have no duration
5. Time moves from left to right
6. Nodes are numbered sequentially
7. A network may not contain loops
8. A network may not contain dangles
 Unit 6: Activity Planning
Using dummy activities:
A dummy activity in the context of Activity on Arrow diagrams is a symbolic
activity that has no duration and no resources associated with it. Dummy
activities are introduced to represent dependencies between tasks without
adding any time or resource constraints. They are often used to indicate that a
specific relationship exists between two activities without implying any actual
work.
Dummy activities are typically represented by dashed arrows in the AOA
diagram. They help in maintaining the correct sequence and dependencies
between activities, especially in situations where a finish-to-start relationship
is required, but the activities cannot be directly connected due to constraints.
For example, if Task A must finish before Task B can start, but there is no
direct relationship between the two, a dummy activity may be introduced to
show the logical dependency.
The dummy activity allows for the proper representation of the project
network and helps in identifying the critical path.
 Unit 6: Activity Planning
Using dummy activities: Example

Suppose that, in a particular project, it is necessary to specify a certain piece of hardware

before placing an order for it and before coding the software. Before coding the software it is
also necessary to specify the appropriate data structures, although clearly we do not need to
wait for this to be done before the hardware is ordered.
First figure is an attempt to model the situation described above, although it is incorrect in that
it requires both hardware specification and data structure design to be completed before either
an order may be placed or software coding may commence.
We can resolve this problem by separating the two (more or less) independent paths and
introducing a dummy activity to link the completion of ‘specify hardware’ to the start of the
activity ‘code software’. This effectively breaks the link between data structure design and
placing the order and is shown in second Figure.
These are problems that do not occur with activity-on-node networks.
 Unit 6: Activity Planning
Representing lagged activities:
Lag" refers to a delay or waiting time between the completion of one activity
and the start of another. Lagged activities in an Activity on Arrow (AOA)
network diagram are tasks that have a specific time delay or lag between their
completion and the start of the next dependent task.
Using the ladder technique to indicate lags.

We need to represent these with pairs of dummy activities as shown in Figure

above. Where the activities are lagged because a stage in one activity must be
completed before the other may proceed, it is likely to be better to show each
stage as a separate activity.
 Unit 6: Activity Planning
Activity labelling: Labeling Activities and Events
There are a number of differing conventions that have been adopted for
entering information on an activity-on-arrow network. Typically the diagram is
used to record information about the events rather than the activities. Activity
based information (other than labels or descriptions) is generally held on a
separate activity table.

Labelling nodes, adopted here, is to divide the node circle into quadrants and
use those quadrants to show the event number, the latest date and earliest date
by which the event should occur, and the event slack.
 Unit 6: Activity Planning
Network analysis:
Analysis proceeds in the same way as with activity-on-node networks,
although the discussion places emphasis on the events rather than activity start
and completion times.
Network analysis can be done using
1. The forward pass
2. The backward pass
3. Identifying the critical path
 Unit 6: Activity Planning
Network analysis:
1. The forward pass - The forward pass is carried out to calculate the earliest date on
which each event may be achieved and the earliest dates on which each activity may be started
and completed. The earliest date for an event is the earliest date by which all activities upon
which it depends can be completed.
 Unit 6: Activity Planning
Adding the Time Dimension:

An example project specification with estimated activity

durations and precedence requirements
 Unit 6: Activity Planning
1. The forward pass - The earliest date for an event is the earliest date by which all
activities upon which it depends can be completed.

The calculation proceeds according to the following

reasoning.
1. Activities A, B and F may start immediately, so the
earliest date for event 1 is zero and the earliest start
date for these three activities is also zero.
2. Activity A will take 6 weeks, so the earliest it can finish
is week 6 (recorded in the activity table). Therefore the
earliest we can achieve event 2 is week 6.
3. Activity B will take 4 weeks, so the earliest it can finish
and the earliest we can achieve event 3 is week 4.
4. Activity F will take 10 weeks, so the earliest it can
finish is week 10 – we cannot, however, tell whether or
not this is also the earliest date that we can achieve
event 5 since we have not, as yet, calculated when
activity E will finish.
 Unit 6: Activity Planning
1. The forward pass - The earliest date for an event is the earliest date by
which all activities upon which it depends can be completed.

The calculation proceeds according to the following

reasoning.
7. Activity E can start as early as week 4 (the earliest date
for event 3) and, since it is forecasted to take 3 weeks,
will be completed, at the earliest, at the end of week 7.
8. Event 5 may be achieved when both E and F have been
completed, that is, week 10 (the later of 7 and 10).
9. Similarly, we can reason that event 4 will have an
earliest date of week 9. This is the later of the earliest
finish for activity D (week 8) and the earliest finish for
activity C (week 9).
10. The earliest date for the completion of the project, event
6, is therefore the end of week 13 – the later of 11 (the
earliest fi nish for H) and 13 (the earliest finish for G).
The results of the forward pass are shown in Figure and Table
below
 Unit 6: Activity Planning
The Forward Pass:
The results of the forward pass are shown in Figure and Table below
 Unit 6: Activity Planning
Network analysis:
2. The backward pass -The second stage is to carry out a backward pass to calculate the
latest date at which each event may be achieved, and each activity started and finished,
without delaying the end date of the project. The latest date for an event is the latest date by
which all immediately following activities must be started for the project to be completed on
time. As with activity-on-node networks, we assume that the latest finish date for the project is
the same as the earliest finish date – that is, we wish to complete the project as early as
possible.

Figure 6.28 illustrates our network and Table 6.4 the activity table after
carrying out the backward pass – as with the forward pass, event dates are
recorded on the diagram and activity dates on the activity table.
 Unit 6: Activity Planning
Network analysis:
2. The backward pass -Figure 6.28 illustrates our network and Table 6.4 the activity table after
carrying out the backward pass – as with the forward pass, event dates are recorded on the diagram and
activity dates on the activity table.
 Unit 6: Activity Planning
Network analysis:
3. Identifying the critical path - The critical path is identified in a way similar to that
used in activity-on-node networks. We do, however, use a different concept, that of slack, in
identifying the path. Slack is the difference between the earliest date and the latest date for an
event – it is a measure of how late an event may be without affecting the end date of the
project. The critical path is the path joining all nodes with a zero slack.
 Unit 6: Activity Planning
CONCLUSION:
We learned the use of the critical path method and precedence networks to obtain an ideal
activity plan. This plan tells us the order in which we should execute activities and the earliest
and latest we can start and finish them. These techniques help us to identify which activities
are critical to meeting a target completion date.

In order to manage the project we need to turn the activity plan into a schedule that will
specify precisely when each activity is scheduled to start and finish. Before we can do this, we
must consider what resources will be required and whether or not they will be available at
appropriate times. As we shall see, the allocation of resources to an activity may be affected by
how we view the importance of the task and the risks associated with it. In the next chapters
we look at these aspects of project planning before we consider how we might publish a
schedule for the project.