Project Management

Project ManagementThe on-going process of directing and coordinating all the steps in the development of an information systemGoal to produce an IS that is acceptable to its end-user developed within the specified time frame and budget

Project Management...Rolerecognize such factors and to eliminate/minimize their negative effectsPlayersmanages a project to develop an ISdefines a projects activities and eventsestimates the time and cost necessary to complete each activity

Project Management...Players (cont...)schedules and assigns the activities to specific members of the project teamcoordinates activitiesmonitors eventsevaluates and reports on the progress of the activities and events

Project Schedulingdetermining the order in which activities will be performed, setting start and end times for each activity, and assigning specific tasks to team membersSCHEDULING TOOLSGANTT ChartsPERT/ CPM Charts

GANTT ChartsGANTT Chartsdeveloped by Henry L. Gantt a horizontal bar that graphically illustrates a schedulehorizontal axis : timevertical axis : activitylength of the bar indicates duration of the activity

GANTT Charts...GANTT Charts (cont...)positioning of the bar shows the start and end of the activityuseful for tracking and reporting progressgraphically displays a scheduleoften used to report progress because they present an easily understood picture of project status

GANTT Charts...1. The completed portion of each bar is shaded.

GANTT Charts...current date2. A triangle or arrowhead indicator is used.

GANTT Charts...3. A second bar shows the completed work.

GANTT Charts...Problemsno indication of activity dependencieshow an activity which is behind schedule can influence the entire projectno. of hours per day required to complete an activity is not shownno. of people assigned is also not shownit can not determine how far ahead/behind schedule a project is

Create a Gantt ChartTask 1 Jan. 14 Feb 10Task 2 Feb 19 Mar 18Task 3 Mar 16 Apr. 24Task 4 May 4 May 31Task 5 Mar 19 Apr 14Task 6 Apr 16 Jun 6 Task 7 May 16 July 14

PERT/ CPM ChartsPERT (Program Evaluation Review Technique)developed by the Navy Special Projects Office in 1950s to control the development of the Polaris submarine missile program(Three point estimate)CPM (Critical Path Method)developed by the private industry at the same time as PERT to meet similar project management needs (Single point estimate)

PERT/ CPM Charts...Charting ConventionsActivity - Describes each taskShown as vectors -Line with an EventRepresented as branches (lines) -Identified by letters - Start/end of an activity

PERT/ CPM Charts...Eventdisplayed graphically as nodes, circle or rectangleidentified as node in the networkPathsequence of activities leading from the beginning node to the final node

PERT/ CPM Charts...Dummy Activitiesindicated by dotted linesno labeled process description/timeused to ensure continuitySimultaneous activityserial arrangement means one after the otherparallel format shows overlapping activities

PERT/ CPM Charts...Concepts:Optimistic time estimate completion time expected if everything went exactly as plannedPessimistic time estimate completion time expected if everything possible went wrongMost likely time estimate only if normal problems are encounteredCritical Path defines the most sensitive part of the chart that may affect the schedule of the whole project (longest time to complete)Slack extra time to do an activity without affecting project schedules

Getting the Estimated Time and Slack

ET = Optimistic + 4 x Most Likely + Pessimistic / 6

Slack/Float = Earliest Finish Latest Finish

PERT/ CPM Charts...Rules in PERT/CPM NetworksEach activity must be represented by its own branch on the chart.Direction of time flows is indicated by arrows. An activity line meeting an event node indicates activity completion. The length of an activity branch is not representative of the time the activity will take.

PERT/ CPM Charts...Relationship between activities are determined by the sequence of the branches.If several activities terminate at one node, no activities starting at that node may begin until all entering activities are completed.For analysis reason, no two activities are allowed to both start and end at the same nodes. If the project network would seem to require this, a dummy activity must be inserted.A dummy activity has no time, it merely preserves the proper sequencing in the network design.

PERT/ CPM Charts...Steps included:1. determine the activities needed to complete the project 2. sequential relationship of these activities (try to establish as many simultaneous activities as possible3. estimate the completion time for each activity4. draw the PERT/CPM network, showing the relationship activities as determined in STEP 2

PERT/ CPM Charts...Steps included:5. starting with the beginning node of the network, use the earliest start earliest finish relationships to determine the project completion time (Forward Pass)6. moving to the end node of the network, use the latest start latest finish relationships to determine the activities on the critical path and the float for activities not on the critical path

PERT/ CPM Charts...7. use the earliest time - earliest finish relationships in STEP 5 and the latest start latest finish relationships in STEP 6 to develop an activity time table for the project

Network Diagram The most common information shown is:The activity name The normal duration time The early start time (ES) The early finish time (EF) The late start time (LS) The late finish time (LF) The slack

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