Chapter 6

Project Time Management

Text book: Information Technology Project Management 8th edition

Dr. Deema ALShoaibi
Outlines
• The importance of project schedules.
• Planning schedule management.
• Defining Activities.
• Sequencing Activities
• Estimating Activity Resources
• Developing The Schedule
• Controlling The Schedule
1. The Importance Of Project Schedules

• Managers often cite the need to deliver projects on time as one of their biggest
challenges and the main cause of conflict.
• Perhaps part of the reason that schedule problems are so common is that time is
easily measured and remembered.
• People often compare planned and actual project completion times without taking
into account the approved changes in the project.
• Time is the variable that has the least amount of flexibility.
• Time passes no matter what happens on a project.
1. The Importance Of Project Schedules

• Individual work styles and cultural differences may also cause schedule conflicts.
• Some people prefer detailed schedules and emphasize task completion. Others
prefer to keep things open and flexible.
• Different cultures and even entire countries have different attitudes about
schedules.
• Project time management involves the processes required to ensure timely
completion of a project.
1. The Importance Of Project Schedules

• Seven main processes are involved in project time management:

1. Planning schedule management involves determining the policies, procedures, and
documentation that will be used for planning, executing, and controlling the project
schedule. The main output of this process is a schedule management plan.
2. Defining activities involves identifying the specific activities that the project team members
and stakeholders must perform to produce the project deliverables. An activity or task is an
element of work normally found on the work breakdown structure (WBS) that has expected
duration, cost, and resource requirements. The main outputs of this process are an activity
list, activity attributes, a milestone list, and project management plan updates.
3. Sequencing activities involves identifying and documenting the relationships between
project activities. The main outputs of this process include project schedule network
diagrams and project documents updates.
1. The Importance Of Project Schedules

4. Estimating activity resources involves estimating how many resources— people, equipment, and
materials—a project team should use to perform project activities. The main outputs of this
process are activity resource requirements, a resource breakdown structure, and project
documents updates.
5. Estimating activity durations involves estimating the number of work periods that are needed to
complete individual activities. Outputs include activity duration estimates and project documents
updates.
6. Developing the schedule involves analyzing activity sequences, activity
resource estimates, and activity duration estimates to create the project schedule. Outputs include
a schedule baseline, project schedule, schedule data, project calendars, project management plan
updates, and project documents updates.
7. Controlling the schedule involves controlling and managing changes to the project schedule.
Outputs include work performance information, schedule forecasts, change requests, project
management plan updates, project documents updates, and organizational process assets updates.
2. Planning Schedule Management
• The first step in project time management is planning how the
schedule will be managed throughout the life of the project.
• Project schedules grow out of the basic documents that initiate a
project.
• The schedule management plan, like the scope management plan, can be informal and broad
or formal and detailed, based on the needs of the project.
2. Planning Schedule Management
• In general, a schedule management plan includes the following information:
• Project schedule model development: Many projects include a schedule model, which contains project
activities with estimated durations, dependencies, and other planning information that can be used to produce a
project schedule.
• Level of accuracy and units of measure: It discusses how accurate schedule estimates should be and determines
whether time is measured in hours, days, or another unit.
• Control thresholds: Variance thresholds, such as ±10%, are established for monitoring schedule performance.
• Rules of performance measurement: For example, if team members are expected to track the percentage of
work completed, this section specifies how to determine the percentages.
• Reporting formats: It describes the format and frequency of schedule reports required for the project.
• Process descriptions: The schedule management plan also describes how all of the schedule management
processes will be performed.
3. Defining Activities
• Project work has not been defined in enough detail after planning scope management. It is
often necessary to describe activities in more detail as part of schedule management.
• Defining activities involves identifying the specific actions that will produce the project
deliverables in enough detail to determine resource and schedule estimates.
• The project team reviews the schedule management plan, scope baseline, enterprise
environmental factors, and organizational process assets to begin defining activities.
• Outputs of this process include an activity list, activity attributes, a milestone list, and
project management plan updates.
• The activity list is a tabulation of activities to be included on a project schedule.
3. Defining Activities
• The list should include the activity name, an activity identifier or number, and a brief
description of the activity.
• The activity attributes provide schedule-related information about each activity, such as
predecessors, successors, logical relationships, leads and lags, resource requirements,
constraints, imposed dates, and assumptions related to the activity. The activity list and
activity attributes should agree with the WBS and WBS dictionary.
• A milestone on a project is a significant event that normally has no duration. It of- ten takes
several activities and a lot of work to complete a milestone, but the milestone itself is a
marker to help in identifying necessary activities. Examples: completion and customer sign-
off of documents, such as design documents and test plans; completion of specific products,
such as software modules or installation of new hardware.
• The goal of defining activities is to ensure that the project team completely understands all
the work it must do as part of the project scope so they can start scheduling the work.
4. Sequencing Activities
• After defining project activities, the next step in project time management is sequencing
them or determining their dependencies.
• Inputs to the activity sequencing process include the schedule management plan, activity list
and attributes, project scope statement, milestone list, and organizational process assets.
• Dependencies:
• A dependency or relationship pertains to the sequencing of project activities or tasks.
Example: does a certain activity have to be finished before another can start?
• Determining these relationships or dependencies among activities is crucial for
developing and managing a project schedule.
4. Sequencing Activities
• There are three basic reasons for identifying dependencies among project activities:
• Mandatory dependencies are inherent in the nature of the work being performed on a
project. They are sometimes referred to as hard logic. For example, you cannot test code
until after the code is written.
• Discretionary dependencies are defined by the project team. For example, a project team
might follow good practice and not start the detailed design of a new information system
until the users sign off on all of the analysis work. Discretionary dependencies are
sometimes referred to as soft logic and should be used with care because they may limit
later scheduling options.
• External dependencies involve relationships between project and non-project activities.
For example, the installation of a new operating system and other software may depend on
delivery of new hardware from an external supplier. Even though delivery of the hardware
may not be included in the scope of the project, you should add an external dependency to it
because late delivery will affect the project schedule.
4. Sequencing Activities
• It is important that project stakeholders work together to define the activity dependencies in
their project.
• If the sequence of activities is not defined, project team cannot use some of the most
powerful scheduling tools available to project managers: network diagrams and critical path
analysis.
4. Sequencing Activities
• Network Diagrams:
• Network diagrams are the preferred technique for showing activity sequencing. A network
diagram is a schematic display of the logical relationships among project activities and
their sequencing.
• Some people refer to network diagrams as project schedule network diagrams or PERT
charts.
4. Sequencing Activities
• Network Diagrams:
• Note the main elements on this network diagram. The letters A through J represent activities
with dependencies that are required to complete the project.
• These activities come from the WBS and activity definition process described earlier.
• The arrows represent the activity sequencing or relationships between tasks. For example,
Activity A must be done before Activity D, and Activity D must be done before Activity H.

• activities are represented by arrows and connected at

points called nodes to illustrate the sequence of activities.
• A node is simply the starting and ending point of an
activity. The first node signifies the start of a project, and
the last node represents the end.
• Not every item on the WBS needs to be shown on the
network diagram; only activities with dependencies need
to be shown. However, some people like to have start and
end milestones and to list every activity. It is a matter of
preference.
4. Sequencing Activities
• Steps to create network diagrams:
1. Find all of the activities that start at Node 1. Draw their finish nodes, and draw arrows
between Node 1 and each of the finish nodes. Put the activity letter or name on the
associated arrow. If you have a duration estimate, write it next to the activity letter or name.
For example, A = 1 means that the duration of Activity A is one day, week, or other standard
unit of time. Be sure to put arrowheads on all arrows to signify the direction of the
relationships.
4. Sequencing Activities
• Steps to create network diagrams:
2. Continue drawing the network diagram, working from left to right. Look for bursts and merges. Bursts
occur when two or more activities follow a single node. A merge occurs when two or more nodes precede a
single node. For example, Node 1 is a burst because it goes into Nodes 2, 3, and 4. Node 5 is a merge
preceded by Nodes 2 and 3.
4. Sequencing Activities
• Steps to create network diagrams:
3. Continue drawing the network diagram until all activities are included.
4. As a rule of thumb, all arrowheads should face toward the right, and no arrows should cross on a network
diagram. You may need to redraw the diagram to make it look presentable.
4. Sequencing Activities
• Dependencies between
tasks have different
types.
4. Sequencing Activities
• The four types of dependencies or relationships between activities include:
• Finish-to-start dependency: A relationship in which the “from” activity or predecessor must finish before the “to” activity or
successor can start. For example, you cannot provide user training until after software or a new system has been installed. Finish-to-
start is the most common type of relationship or dependency, and AOA network diagrams use only finish-to-start dependencies.
• Start-to-start dependency: A relationship in which the “from” activity cannot start until the “to” activity or successor is started. For
example, on IT projects, a group of activities might start simultaneously, such as the many tasks that occur when a new system goes
live.
• Finish-to-finish dependency: A relationship in which the “from” activity must be finished before the “to” activity can be finished.
One task cannot finish before another finishes. For example, quality control efforts cannot finish before pro- duction finishes,
although the two activities can be performed at the same time.
• Start-to-finish dependency: A relationship in which the “from” activity must start before the “to” activity can be finished. This type
of relationship is rarely used, but it is appropriate in some cases. For example, an organization might strive to stock raw materials just
in time for the manufacturing process to be- gin. A delay in starting the manufacturing process should delay completion of stocking
the raw materials. Another example would be a babysitter who wants to finish watching a young child but is dependent on the parent’s
arrival. The parent must show up or “start” before the babysitter can finish the task.
5. Estimating Activity Resources
• Before you can estimate the duration for each activity, you must have a good idea of the
quantity and type of resources (people, equipment, and materials) that will be assigned to
each activity.
• The nature of the project and the organization will affect resource estimates.
• Expert judgment, an analysis of alternatives, estimating data, and project management
software are tools that can assist in resource estimating.
• Input help in estimating the activity resources:
• project’s schedule management plan, activity list, activity attributes, resource
calendars, risk register, activity cost estimates, enterprise environmental factors, and
organizational process assets such as policies regarding staffing and outsourcing.
6. Estimating Activity Durations
• After working with key stakeholders to define activities, determine their dependencies, and
estimate their resources, the next process in project time management is to estimate the
duration of activities.
• It is important to note that duration includes the actual amount of time worked on an
activity plus elapsed time. For example, even though it might take one workweek or five
workdays to do the actual work, the duration estimate might be two weeks to allow extra
time needed to obtain outside information.
• Do not confuse duration with effort, which is the number of workdays or work hours
required to complete a task.
• A duration estimate of one day could be based on eight hours of work or 80 hours of work,
assuming that multiple people are working on a task that day.
6. Estimating Activity Durations
• One of the most important considerations in making activity duration estimates is the
availability of resources, especially human resources.
• The outputs of activity duration estimates include the estimates themselves and project
documents updates.
• Duration estimates are often provided as a discrete number, such as four weeks; as a range,
such as three to five weeks; or as a three-point estimate. A three-point estimate includes an
optimistic, most likely, and pessimistic estimate, such as three weeks for the optimistic
scenario, four weeks for the most likely scenario, and five weeks for the pessimistic
scenario.
7. Developing The Schedule
• Schedule development uses the results of all the preceding project time management
processes to determine the start and end dates of the project and its activities.
• The ultimate goal of developing a realistic project schedule is to provide a basis for
monitoring project progress for the time dimension of the project.
• Several tools and techniques assist in schedule development:
• A Gantt chart is a common tool for displaying project schedule information.
• Critical path analysis is a very important tool for developing and controlling project schedules.
• Critical chain scheduling is a technique that focuses on limited resources when creating a project schedule.
• PERT analysis is a means for considering schedule risk on projects.
7. Developing The Schedule
• Calculating the Critical Path
• To find the critical path for a project, you must first
develop a good network diagram, which in turn requires
a good activity list based on the WBS.
• Once you create a network diagram, you must also
estimate the duration of each activity to determine the
critical path.
• Calculating the critical path involves adding the
durations for all activities on each path through the
network diagram. The longest path is the critical path.
7. Developing The Schedule
• Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)
• When there is a high degree of uncertainty about the individual activity duration estimates, the network
analysis Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) can
be used to estimate project duration. PERT applies the critical path method (CPM) to a weighted average
duration estimate.
• PERT uses probabilistic time estimates—duration estimates based on using optimistic, most likely, and
pessimistic estimates of activity durations—instead of one specific or discrete duration estimate, as CPM
does. To use PERT, you calculate a weighted average for the duration estimate of each project activity
using the following formula:
8. Controlling The Schedule
• The final process in project time management is controlling the schedule.

• Like scope control, schedule control is a portion of the integrated change control process in project
integration management. The goal of schedule control is to know the status of the schedule, influence the
factors that cause schedule changes, determine that the schedule has changed, and manage changes when they
occur.
Questions?