SCS2205

Data Science
Project Management

Lecture 8: Developing the Schedule

© NUST 2022 SCS2205 Slide 1

 Session Objectives


Estimating the resources required for each activity

Estimating the duration for each activity

Identifying the critical (longest) path of activities

Performing the steps in the project control process

Developing an updated project schedule

Determining approaches to controlling the project
schedule

© NUST 2022 SCS2205 Slide 2

 Introduction


A project is a collection of tasks that must be
completed in minimum time or at minimal cost.

Objectives of Project Scheduling
• Completing the project as early as possible by
determining the earliest start and finish of each
activity.
• Calculating the likelihood a project will be
completed within a certain time period.
• Finding the minimum cost schedule needed to
complete the project by a certain date.

© NUST 2022 SCS2205 Slide 3

 Introduction


A project is a collection of tasks that must be
completed in minimum time or at minimal cost.

Objectives of Project Scheduling
– Investigating the results of possible delays in activity’s
completion time.
– Progress control.
– Smoothing out resource allocation over the duration of
the project.

© NUST 2022 SCS2205 Slide 4

 Task Designate

Tasks are called “activities.”
• Estimated completion time (and sometimes costs)
are associated with each activity.
• Activity completion time is related to the amount of
resources committed to it.
• The degree of activity details depends on the
application and the level of specificity of data.

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 Identifying the Activities of a Project


To determine optimal schedules we need to
• Identify all the project’s activities.
• Determine the precedence relations among activities.

Based on this information we can develop
managerial tools for project control.

© NUST 2022 SCS2205 Slide 6

 Estimate Activity Resources

Resources include
• People, materials, equipment, facilities

Influence on the duration
• Availability of the resources
• Types of resources
• Sufficient quantities of resources for the activity durations
• Potential conflicts with other projects may cause

Involve person with expertise in resource estimate

Estimates influence costs

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 Identifying Activities, Example
KLONE COMPUTERS, INC.


KLONE Computers manufactures personal
computers.


It is about to design, manufacture, and market
the Klonepalm 2000 palmbook computer.

© NUST 2022 SCS2205 Slide 8

 KLONE COMPUTERS, INC

• There are three major tasks to perform:

– Manufacture the new computer.
– Train staff and vendor representatives.
– Advertise the new computer.
•
KLONE needs to develop a precedence relations
chart.
• The chart gives a concise set of tasks and their
immediate predecessors.

© NUST 2022 SCS2205 Slide 9

 KLONE COMPUTERS, INC

Activity
Activity Description
Description
AA Prototype
Prototypemodel
modeldesign
design
BB Purchase
Purchaseofofmaterials
materials
Manufacturing
Manufacturing CC Manufacture
Manufactureofofprototype
prototypemodel
model
activities
activities DD Revision
Revisionofofdesign
design
EE Initial
Initialproduction
productionrun
run
FF Staff
Stafftraining
training
Training
Trainingactivities
activities GG Staff
Staffinput
inputononprototype
prototypemodels
models
HH Sales
Salestraining
training
Advertising
Advertisingactivities
activities II Pre-production
Pre-productionadvertising
advertising
campaign
campaign
JJ Post-redesign
Post-redesignadvertising
advertisingcampaign
campaign 10
© NUST 2022 SCS2205 Slide 10
 KLONE COMPUTERS, INC

From the activity description

chart, we can determine
immediate predecessors for
each activity.
Activity A is an immediate predecessor
A B of activity B, because it must be competed
just prior to the commencement of B.

© NUST 2022 SCS2205 Slide 11

 KLONE COMPUTERS, INC

Precedence Relationships
Chart
Immediate Estimated
Activity Predecessor Completion Time
A None 90
B A 15
C B 5
D G 20
E D 21
F A 25
G C,F 14
H D 28
I A 30
J D,I 45

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 Estimate Activity Durations

Duration must be the total elapsed time
• Time for the work to be done plus any associated
waiting time

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 Establish Project Start and Finish
Times

Define the overall window for project completion

May not want to commit to a specific date
• Project not start until customer has approved the
contract
• Delay in contract signing may impact project start

Set finish time as number of days from project
start

© NUST 2022 SCS2205 Slide 14

 Develop Project Schedule

Prior activities for schedule development
• Estimate duration of each activity
• Establish overall window of time for the project

Develop the schedule timetable
• Earliest start and finish times based on estimated
start date
• Latest start and finish times based on required
completion date

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 Earliest Start and Finish Times

Earliest start time (ES)
• Earliest time at which a specific activity can begin

Earliest finish time (EF)
• Earliest time by which a specific activity can be
completed

EF = ES + Estimated Duration

Calculate forward through the network diagram

© NUST 2022 SCS2205 Slide 16

 Earliest Start Time / Earliest Finish
Time

Make a forward pass through the network as follows:

• Evaluate all the activities which have no immediate

predecessors.
• The earliest start for such an activity is zero ES = 0.
• The earliest finish is the activity duration EF = Activity
duration.
• Evaluate the ES of all the nodes for which EF of all the
immediate predecessor has been determined.
• ES = Max EF of all its immediate predecessors.
• EF = ES + Activity duration.
• Repeat this process until all nodes have been evaluated
• EF of the finish node is the earliest finish time of the project.
17

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 Latest start time / Latest finish time

Make a backward pass through the network as
follows:

• Evaluate all the activities that immediately precede the

finish node.
• The latest finish for such an activity is LF = minimal project
completion time.
• The latest start for such an activity is LS = LF - activity duration.
• Evaluate the LF of all the nodes for which LS of all the
immediate successors has been determined.
• LF = Min LS of all its immediate successors.
• LS = LF - Activity duration.
• Repeat this process backward until all nodes have been
evaluated.

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 “Identify Target Consumers”


Start date = 0

ES = Start date = 0

Duration = 3

EF = 0 + 3 = 3

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 “Develop Draft Questionnaire”


ES = EF Task 1 = 3

Duration = 10

EF = 3 + 10 = 13

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 Schedule Table ES and EF

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 Slack Times


Activity start time and completion time may be
delayed by planned reasons as well as by
unforeseen reasons.

Some of these delays may affect the overall
completion date.

To learn about the effects of these delays, we
calculate the slack time, and form the critical
path.

© NUST 2022 SCS2205 Slide 22

 The Critical Path

The critical path is a set of activities that have no slack,
connecting the START node with the FINISH node.


The critical activities (activities with 0 slack) form
at least one critical path in the network.


A critical path is the longest path in the network.


The sum of the completion times for the activities
on the critical path is the minimal completion time
of the project.

© NUST 2022 SCS2205 Slide 23

 Critical Path Through a Project

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 Gantt Charts

Gantt charts are used as a tool to monitor and control the
project progress.

A Gantt Chart is a graphical presentation that displays
activities as follows:
• Time is measured on the horizontal axis. A horizontal bar is
drawn proportionately to an activity’ s expected completion
time.
• Each activity is listed on the vertical axis.

In an earliest time Gantt chart each bar begins and ends
at the earliest startfinish the activity can take place.

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 Bar Chart Format


Gantt chart tool for
planning and scheduling

Activities on side

Time scale on top or
bottom

Estimated duration in bars

Automatically generated
in software systems

Can show relationships
between activities

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 Gantt Charts-
Monitoring Project Progress

Gantt chart can be used as a visual aid for
tracking the progress of project activities.


Appropriate percentage of a bar is shaded to
document the completed work.


The manager can easily see if the project is
progressing on schedule (with respect to the
earliest possible completion
times).

© NUST 2022 SCS2205 Slide 27

 r October November December Janua
T ask Nam e 9/10 9/17 9/24 10/1 10/8 10/15 10/22 10/29 11/5 11/12 11/19 11/26 12/3 12/10 12/17 12/24 12/31

Initiate
Product Description & Benefits
Charter
Project Proposal Approved 9/18

Plan
Scope Statement
Work Plan
Contract/Procurement Plan
QA Plan
Risk Plan
Project Plans Approved 9/27

Execute
Requirements
Analysis
Design
Coding
Testing
Maintenance
Controls
Status Reporting
Change Management
Communication Mgmt
Closing
Evaluation
Maintenance Turn-over

Terminology -
This is a schedule or Gantt chart,
not a WBS, not the project plan

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 Gantt Charts –
Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages.
• Easy to construct
• Gives earliest completion date.
• Provides a schedule of earliest possible start and finish
times of activities.


Disadvantages
• Gives only one possible schedule (earliest).
• Does not show whether the project is behind schedule.
• Does not demonstrate the effects of delays in any one
activity on the
start of another activity, thus on the project completion time.
29

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 Total Slack


Sometimes called float

The difference between EF time of last activity and
the project required completion time

Negative slack
• Lack of slack over the entire project
• Amount of time an activity must be accelerated

Positive slack
• Maximum amount of time that the activities on a
particular path can be delayed without jeopardizing on-
time completion

© NUST 2022 SCS2205 Slide 30

 Resource Leveling and Resource
Allocation

It is desired that resources are evenly spread
out throughout the life of the project.

Resource leveling methods (usually heuristics)
are designed to:
• Control resource requirements
• Generate relatively similar usage of resources over
time.

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 Project
Control
Process

Meetings occur
regularly

Gather data on
actual
performance

Record changes

Monitor progress

© NUST 2022 SCS2205 Slide 32

 Monitoring Project Progress –
Corrective Actions

A project may be found to be behind schedule,
and or experiencing cost overruns.

Management seeks out causes such as:
• Mistaken project completion time and cost estimates.
• Mistaken work package completion times estimates
and cost estimates.
• Problematic departments or contractors that cause
delays.

© NUST 2022 SCS2205 Slide 33

 Monitoring Project Progress –
Corrective Actions

Possible Corrective actions, to be taken whenever
needed.
• Focus on uncompleted activities.

• Determine whether crashing activities is desirable.

• In the case of cost underrun, channel more resources to

problem activities.

• Reduce resource allocation to non-critical activities.

© NUST 2022 SCS2205 Slide 34

 Incorporate Changes into Schedule

Changes may impact the schedule
• Initiated by customer or project team
• Result from unanticipated occurrence

Early change may have less impact than later
change

Manage requested changes
• Estimate impact
• Obtain customer approval
• Revise project plan, schedule, and costs

© NUST 2022 SCS2205 Slide 35

 Update Project Schedule

Generate forecasts for project finish
• Use actual finish dates of completed activities
• Enter project changes
• Update project schedule

Determine if any changes occur in critical path

© NUST 2022 SCS2205 Slide 36

 Scheduling in Technology Projects

Common problems
• Failure to identify all user requirements
• Failure to identify user requirements properly
• Continuing growth of project scope
• Underestimating learning curves for new software packages
• Incompatible hardware
• Poor selection of software
• Failure to perform all phases of the SDLC

© NUST 2022 SCS2205 Slide 37

 Scheduling in Technology Projects

Most automated systems perform scheduling
functions

Calculates at click of the mouse
• ES, EF, LS, and LF
• Total slack
• Critical path

Perform control functions

© NUST 2022 SCS2205 Slide 38

 Critical Success Factors

The person who will be responsible for performing the activity should estimate the
duration for that activity. This generates commitment from the person.

The estimated duration for an activity must be based on the types and quantities of
resources required to perform the activity.

Activity estimated durations should be aggressive yet realistic.

Activities should not be longer in estimated duration than the time intervals at which
the actual progress will be reviewed and compared to planned progress.

Project management involves a proactive approach to controlling a project to ensure
that the project objective is accomplished even when things do not go according to
plan.

Once the project starts, it is important to monitor progress to ensure that everything
is going according to plan.

The key to effective project control is measuring actual progress and comparing it
to planned progress on a timely and regular basis and taking any needed corrective
action immediately.

The key to effective schedule control is to address any paths with negative or
deteriorating slack values aggressively as soon as they are identified. A
concentrated effort to accelerate project progress must be applied to these paths.

© NUST 2022 SCS2205 Slide 39

 Thank You.

© NUST 2022 SCS2205 Slide 40