project mgm fundamental end term question
TRANSCRIPT
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program
A program is a collection of projects
A program is a collection of related projects that share a
common goal or purpose
Portfolio
A portfolio is a collection of projects that share some
common link to one another .
PROJECT.
A project is Sequenceof Unique, Complex and Connected Actiitie! having One
"oal and that goal must be Completed #$ a Specific Time, %it&in 'udget, and
according to Specification!.
Project Cla!!ification #$ C&aracteri!tic!
( T&e project profile determine! t&e cla!!ification of t&e project.
T&e cla!!ification define! t&e extent to %&ic& t&e project management
met&odolog$ i! to #e u!ed.
( )an$ organi*ation! &ae c&o!en to define a cla!!ification of project! #a!ed
on !uc& project c&aracteri!tic! a! t&e!e+
( Ri! -E!ta#li!& leel! of ri! &ig&, medium, lo%/
( 'u!ine!! alue -E!ta#li!& leel! &ig&, medium, lo%/
( 0engt& -E!ta#li!& !eeral categorie! i.e., 1 mont&!, 1 to 2mont&!, 2 to 34 mont&!, etc./
( Complexit$ -E!ta#li!& categorie! &ig&, medium, lo%/
( Tec&nolog$ u!ed-E!ta#li!& !eeral categorie! %ell5e!ta#li!&ed,
u!ed , #a!ic familiarit$, unno%n, etc./
( 6epartment! affected-E!ta#li!& categorie! one, fe%, !eeral, all/
( Co!t
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Scope Creep Any C&ange in t&e Project that was not in the Original Planbecause;
Market conditions are dynamic
Competition can introduce something new or new version
Management may decide to come before the competitors if necessary
7ope Creep Is the result of a Project Team )em#er8!getting 'e&ind Sc&edule;
reporting that h/she is On Sc&edule but hoping to get back on schedule by thene!t Report 6ate
Effort Creep Is the result of the team member"s working but not making progress
proportionate to the work e!pended
Always seems to be #$% complete work progressed but not clear completion
9eature Creep &hen the team members arbitrarily add features and functions to the
deliverables that they think the customers would want to have
Actiit$ 1+ :riting a Project Oerie% Statement
'elect an activity you are planning. Again you can use the activity you chose in
Activity ( and/or ) or select a new one. *ust make sure it meets the criteria for a
project+
Answer the following ,uestions. -ou may want to write down your answers.
(. &hat problem will this activity solve or what opportunity will it e!ploit -ou
may use your answer from Activity ).0
). &hat is your project goal
1. &hat is your project objective
2. &hat are your criteria for success
$. &hat assumptions do you bring to this project
3. &hat are the potential risks and obstacles
4ere5s an e!ample6
The activity is "taking a course in project management."
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(. The problemis that your employer would like you to take on more
management duties, but you don't yet have the experience or knowledge.
The opportunityis that your employer will pay for your tuition!
). -ourgoalis6 7Complete an online course in project management at the
8niversity of &ashington by the end of *une of this year with a grade of 1.9 or
better and be able to write a scope definition a :roject verview 'tatement and a&ork
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approach. -ou can encounter a number of faulty approaches in companies. 'ome
projects use no approach whatsoever to risk management. >hey are either ignorant
running their first project or they are somehow confident that no risks will occur in
their project which of course will happen0. 'ome people blindly trust the project
manager especially if he usually it is a man0 looks like a battered army veteran who
has been in the trenches for the last two decades. :rofessional companies make risk
management part of their day to day operations and include it in project meetings and
the training of staff.
Rule 4+ he first step in project risk management is to identify the risks that are present in
your project. >his re,uires an open mind set that focuses on future scenarios that
may occur. >wo main sources e!ist to identify risks people and paper. :eople are your
team members that each bring along their personal e!periences and e!pertise. ther
people to talk to are e!perts outside your project that have a track record with the
type of project or work you are facing. >hey can reveal some booby traps you will
encounter or some golden opportunities that may not have crossed your mind.
Interviews and team sessions risk brainstorming0 are the common methods to
discover the risks people know. :aper is a different story. :rojects tend to generate a
significant number of electronic0 documents that contain project risks. >hey may notalways have that name but someone who reads carefully between the lines0 will find
them. >he project plan business case and resource planning are good starters.
Another categories are old project plans your company Intranet and specialised
websites.
Are you able to identify all project risks before they occur :robably not. 4owever if
you combine a number of different identification methods you are likely to find the
large majority. If you deal with them properly you have enough time left for the
une!pected risks that take place.
Rule 1+ Communicate A#out Ri!!
?ailed projects show that project managers in such projects were fre,uently unaware
of the big hammer that was about to hit them. >he frightening finding was that
fre,uently someone of the project organisation actually did see that hammer but
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didn5t inform the project manager of its e!istence. If you don5t want this to happen in
your project you better pay attention to risk communication.
A good approach is to consistently include risk communication in the tasks you carry
out. If you have a team meeting make project risks part of the default agenda and
not the final item on the list+0. >his shows risks are important to the project manager
and gives team members a 7natural moment7 to discuss them and report new ones.
Another important line of communication is that of the project manager and project
sponsor or principal. ?ocus your communication efforts on the big risks here and make
sure you don5t surprise the boss or the customer+ Also take care that the sponsor
makes decisions on the top risks because usually some of them e!ceed the mandate
of the project manager.
Rule =+ Con!ider 'ot& T&reat! and Opportunitie!
:roject risks have a negative connotation6 they are the 7bad guys7 that can harm your
project. 4owever modern risk approaches also focus on positive risks the project
opportunities. >hese are the uncertain events that beneficial to your project and
organisation. >hese 7good guys7 make your project faster better and more profitable.
8nfortunately lots of project teams struggle to cross the finish line being overloadedwith work that needs to be done ,uickly. >his creates project dynamics where only
negative risks matter if the team considers any risks at all0. Make sure you create
some time to deal with the opportunities in your project even if it is only half an hour.
Chances are that you see a couple of opportunities with a high pay@off that don5t
re,uire a big investment in time or resources.
Rule >+ Clarif$ O%ner!&ip
'ome project managers think they are done once they have created a list with risks.
4owever this is only a starting point. >he ne!t step is to make clear who is responsible
for what risk+ 'omeone has to feel the heat if a risk is not taken care of properly. >he
trick is simple6 assign a risk owner for each risk that you have found. >he risk owner
is the person in your team that has the responsibility to optimise this risk for the
project. >he effects are really positive. At first people usually feel uncomfortable that
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they are actually responsible for certain risks but as time passes they will act and
carry out tasks to decrease threats and enhance opportunities.
wnership also e!ists on another level. If a project threat occurs someone has to pay
the bill. >his sounds logical but it is an issue you have to address before a risk occurs.
specially if different business units departments and suppliers are involved in your
project it becomes important who bears the conse,uences and has to empty his
wallet. An important side effect of clarifying the ownership of risk effects is that line
managers start to pay attention to a project especially when a lot of money is at
stake. >he ownership issue is e,ually important with project opportunities. ?ights over
une!pected0 revenues can become a long@term pastime of management.
Rule 2+ Prioriti!e Ri!!
A project manager once told me 7I treat all risks e,ually.7 >his makes project life
really simple. 4owever it doesn5t deliver the best results possible. 'ome risks have a
higher impact than others. >herefore you better spend your time on the risks that
can cause the biggest losses and gains. Check if you have any showstoppers in your
project that could derail your project. If so these are your number ( priority. >he
other risks can be prioritised on gut feeling or more objectively on a set of criteria.
>he criteria most project teams use is to consider the effects of a risk and the
likelihood that it will occur. &hatever prioritisation measure you use use it
consistently and focus on the big risks.
Rule ?+ Anal$!e Ri!!
8nderstanding the nature of a risk is a precondition for a good response. >herefore
take some time to have a closer look at individual risks and don5t jump to conclusions
without knowing what a risk is about.
Bisk analysis occurs at different levels. If you want to understand a risk at an
individual level it is most fruitful to think about the effects that it has and the causes
that can make it happen. ooking at the effects you can describe what effects take
place immediately after a risk occurs and what effects happen as a result of the
primary effects or because time elapses. A more detailed analysis may show the order
of magnitude effect in a certain effect category like costs lead time or product ,uality.
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Another angle to look at risks is to focus on the events that precede a risk
occurrence the risk causes. ist the different causes and the circumstances that
decrease or increase the likelihood.
Another level of risk analysis is investigate the entire project. ach project manager
needs to answer the usual ,uestions about the total budget needed or the date the
project will finish. If you take risks into account you can do a simulation to show your
project sponsor how likely it is that you finish on a given date or within a certain time
frame. A similar e!ercise can be done for project costs.
>he information you gather in a risk analysis will provide valuable insights in your
project and the necessary input to find effective responses to optimise the risks.
Rule @+ Plan and he other rules have helped you to map prioritise and understand risks. >his will help
you to make a sound risk response plan that focuses on the big wins.
If you deal with threats you basically have three options risk avoidance risk
minimisation and risk acceptance. Avoiding risks means you organise your project insuch a way that you don5t encounter a risk anymore. >his could mean changing
supplier or adopting a different technology or if you deal with a fatal risk terminating
a project. 'pending more money on a doomed project is a bad investment.
>he biggest category of responses are the ones to minimise risks. -ou can try to
prevent a risk occurring by influencing the causes or decreasing the negative effects
that could result. If you have carried out rule D properly risk analysis0 you will have
plenty of opportunities to influence it. A final response is to accept a risk. >his is a
good choice if the effects on the project are minimal or the possibilities to influence it
prove to be very difficult time consuming or relatively e!pensive. *ust make sure that
it is a conscious choice to accept a certain risk.
Besponses for risk opportunities are the reverse of the ones for threats. >hey will
focus on seeking risks ma!imising them or ignoring them if opportunities prove to be
too small0.
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Rule + Regi!ter Project Ri!!
>his rule is about bookkeeping however don5t stop reading0. Maintaining a risk log
enables you to view progress and make sure that you won5t forget a risk or two. It is
also a perfect communication tool that informs your team members and stakeholders
what is going on rule 10.
A good risk log contains risks descriptions clarifies ownership issues rule $0 and
enables you to carry our some basic analyses with regard to causes and effects rule
D0. Most project managers aren5t really fond of administrative tasks but doing your
bookkeeping with regards to risks pays off especially if the number of risks is large.
'ome project managers don5t want to record risks because they feel this makes it
easier to blame them in case things go wrong. 4owever the reverse is true. If you
record project risks and the effective responses you have implemented you create a
track record that no one can deny. ven if a risk happens that derails the project.
Eoing projects is taking risks.
Rule 3B+ Trac Ri!! and A!!ociated Ta!!
>he risk register you have created as a result of rule # will help you to track risks and
their associated tasks. >racking tasks is a day@to@day job for each project manager.
Integrating risk tasks into that daily routine is the easiest solution. Bisk tasks may becarried out to identify or analyse risks or to generate select and implement
responses.
>racking risks differs from tracking tasks. It focuses on the current situation of risks.
&hich risks are more likely to happen 4as the relative importance of risks changed
Answering this ,uestions will help to pay attention to the risks that matter most for
your project value.
>he (9 golden risk rules above give you guidelines on how to implement risk
management successfully in your project. 4owever keep in mind that you can always
improve. >herefore rule number (( would be to use the *apanese =aiFen approach6
measure the effects of your risk management efforts and continuously implement
improvements to make it even better.
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&ttp+%%%.!lide!&are.net'adarAlamproject5mangement5c&p53534
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:'S
:'Sis a hierarchical and incremental decomposition of the project into phases
deliverables and work packages. It is a tree structure which shows a subdivision of
effort re,uired to achieve an objective; for e!ample a program project and contract.
>he re!ource #reado%n !tructureR'S0 is a hierarchical list of resources related
by function and resource type that is used to facilitate planning and controlling ofproject work.G(H>he Besource
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Although the second answer is a little better it doesn"t say anything about the ,uality
of the ($9 pages that have been written nor does it say anything about the re@
estimate of the remaining work. And so we see that an acceptable answer must state
what has been actually completed approved not just written in our e!ample0 and
what remains to be done along with an estimate to completion. Bemember you
always know more tomorrow than you do today. After working through about half of
the activity the activity manager should be able to give a very accurate estimate ofthe time re,uired to complete the remaining work.
A simple metric that has met with some success is to compute the proportion of tasks
completed as a percentage of all the tasks that make up the activity. ?or e!ample
suppose the activity has si! tasks associated with it and four of the tasks are
complete; the ratio of tasks complete to total tasks is 2/3 that is the activity is 33
percent complete. ven if work had been done on the fifth task in this activity
because the task is not complete on the report date it cannot be counted in the ratio.
>his metric certainly represents a very objective measure.
Although it may seem somewhat inaccurate it is a good techni,ue. his same approach can be used to measure the
earned value of an activity.
'ounded
ach activity should have a clearly defined start and end event. nce the start event
has occurred work can begin on the activity. >he deliverable is most likely the end
event that signals work is closed on the activity. ?or e!ample using the systems
documentation e!ample the start event might be notification to the team member
who will manage the creation of the systems documentation that the final acceptance
tests of the system are complete. >he end event would be notification to the project
manager that the customer has approved the system documentation.
6eliera#le
>he result of completing the work that makes up the activity is the production of a
deliverable. >he deliverable is a visible sign that the activity is complete.
>his sign could be an approving manager"s signature a physical product or document
the authoriFation to proceed to the ne!t activity or some other sign of completion.
Co!tTime E!timate
ach activity should have an estimated time and cost of completion.
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Accepta#le 6uration 0imit!
&hile there is no fi!ed rule for the duration of an activity we recommend that
activities have a duration of less than two calendar weeks. >his seems to be a
common practice in many organiFations. ven for long projects where contractors may
be responsible for major pieces of work they will generate plans that decompose their
work to activities having this activity duration. >here will be e!ceptions when the
activity defines process work such as will occur in many manufacturing situations.
>here will be e!ceptions especially for those activities whose work is repetitive and
simple. ?or e!ample if we are going to build $99 widgets and it takes (9 weeks to
complete this activity we are not going to decompose the activity into $ activities with
each one building (99 widgets. >here is no need to break the $99@widget activity
down further. If we can estimate the time to check one document then it does not
make much difference if the activity re,uires two months to check 299 documents or
four )@week periods to check (99 documents per period. >he danger you avoid is
longer@duration activities whose delay can create a serious project@scheduling
problem.Actiit$ he work effort could be
contiguous but it can be scheduled otherwise for a variety of reasons. -ou can choose
to schedule it in parts because of resource availability but you could have scheduled it
as one continuous stream of work. Belated to activity independence is the temptation
to micromanage an activity.
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breakdown. >he planning team is then divided into as many Identifying :roject
Activities K( groups as there are first@level activities. ach group then makes a list of
the activities that must be completed in order to complete the first@level activity.
>o do this they proceed as follows6
(. 'omeone in the group identifies an activity and announces it to the group. If the
group agrees then the activity is written on a slip of paper and put in the middle ofthe table. >he process repeats itself until no new ideas are forthcoming.
). >he group then sorts the slips into activities that seem to be related to one another.
>his grouping activity should help the planning team add missing activities or remove
redundant ones.
1. nce the team is satisfied it has completed the activity list for the first level
breakdown the members are finished. ach group then reports to the entire planning
team the results of its work.
2. ?inal criti,ues are given missing activities added and redundant activitiesremoved.
Dariation in Actiit$ 6uration
>here are several causes of variation in the actual activity duration6
Dar$ing !ill leel!.ur strategy is to estimate activity duration based on using
people of average skills assigned to work on the activity. In actuality this may not
happen. -ou may get a higher@ or lower@skilled person assigned to the activity
causing the actual duration to vary from planned duration. >hese varying skill levels
will be both a help and a hindrance to us.
Unexpected eent!. Murphy lives in the ne!t cubicle and will surely make his
presence known but in what way and at what time we do not know. Bandom acts of
nature vendor delays and incorrect shipments of materials traffic jams power
failures and sabotage are but a few of the possibilities. fficiency of work time. very
time a worker is interrupted it takes more time to get up to the level of productivity
prior to the time of the interruption. -ou cannot control the fre,uency or time of
interruptions but you do know that they will happen. As to their effect on staff
productivity you can only guess. 'ome will be more affected than others.
)i!tae! and mi!under!tanding!. Eespite all of your efforts to be complete andclear in describing the work to be performed you simply will miss a few times. >his
will take its toll in rework or scrapping semicompleted work.
Common cau!e ariation. Apart from all of these factors that can influence activity
duration the reality is that durations will vary for no reason other than the statistical
variation that arises because the duration is in fact a random variable. It has a natural
variation and nothing you do can really decrease that variation. It is there and it
must be accepted.
:OR PACA"E.
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'lack was defined in Chapter 3 as the amount of delay e!pressed in units of time that
could be tolerated in the starting time or completion time of an activity without
causing a delay in the completion of the project. Becall that slack is the difference
between the '@? window of an activity and its duration. ?or e!ample if the '@?
window is 2 days and the duration of the activity is 1 days its slack is 2 O 1 or ( day.
'lack can be used to alleviate the over@allocation of resources. &ith this approach
one or more of the project activities are postponed to a date that is later than their
early start date but no later than their late finish date. In other words the activities
are rescheduled but remain within their '@? window.
&hen you are seeking to level resources having free slack can come in handy.
?ree slack as mentioned in Chapter 3 is the amount of delay that can be tolerated in
an activity without affecting the ' date of any of its successor activities. &hen you
need to resolve the Lstack@up of activities on the schedule first look to see if any of
the activities has free slack. If any of them do and if rescheduling the activity to that
later start date will solve the resource overallocation problem you are done. If movingthe start date of the activity does not resolve the over@allocation you have to use
total slack and at least one other activity will have its early start date delayed.
S&ifting t&e Project 9ini!& 6ateJot all projects are driven by the completion date.
?or some resource availability is their most severe constraint. n these projects the
critical path may ?inaliFing the 'chedule and Cost his case
could very well mean that the parallel scheduling on the activity network diagram that
moved the original finish date to an earlier one needs to be reversed. >he start@to@
start and finish@to@finish dependencies might need to be set back to the linear finish@
to@start type.
In some cases a project is of a low enough priority within the organiFation that it is
used mostly for fill@in work. In that case the completion date is not significant and
doesn"t have the urgency that it does in a time@to@marketproject. ?or most projects
however moving the finish date to beyond a desired date is the least attractive
alternative.
If you find yourself caught between over@allocated resources on a schedule that
cannot be acceptably leveled and a firm fi!ed completion date you may
have to consider reducing the scope of the project. Consider delaying some of thefeatures to the ne!t release as one way of resolving the issue. In saying this we"re
referring to the concepts introduced regarding the scope triangle in Chapter (.
Smoot&ing
ccasionally limited overtime is re,uired to accomplish the work within the scheduled
start and finish dates of the activity. vertime can help alleviate some resource over@
allocation because it allows more work to be done within the same scheduled start
and finish dates. &e call this smoothing and through its use we eliminate resource
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over@allocations which appear as spikes in the resource loading graphs. In effect
what we have done is move some of the work from normal workdays to days that
otherwise are not available for work.
>o the person doing the work it is overtime.
actiit$
An activity is a defined chunk of work
Activity refers to the process of parsing a project into a number of individual tasks
which must be completed before the deliverables can be considered completed.
Activity definitions rely on a number of specific input processes
'i! Methods for the stimation of Activity Euration in :roject Management
(. 'imilarity to other activities O >his techni,ue is used on all of our projectsspecifically when it comes up to the Eesign Eevelopment phase of a project. ur
typical design process for each project is as follows6a. Conceptual design with preliminary program budget 19 days0
b. 'chematic design with preliminary budget tied to feasibility study 39 days0
c. $9% Eesign Eevelopment E/E0 with revised preliminary budget 39 to #9 days0
d. (99% Eesign Eevelopment with final E/E budget 39 days0
e. $9% Construction Eocuments with C/E
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tasks from other projects and compare area to relevant scope and develop a
somewhat accurate forecast. An e!ample of this is the fire suppression systems as
both projects had a similar fire suppression system we were able to use historicaldata on both projects using a formula of historical outputs based on area and siFe of
the structures.1. 'eeking !pert Advice O ver the past ten years there has been an increase in the
awareness of reen Technologyand the use of systems integration in building
structures. ur management team has now adopted a standard procedure in whichwe seek the advice from vendors that are specific to an emerging technology that we
might not have sufficient historical data on. &ith the 19 story residential project weasked to help define tasks and duration with the development of an integrated
building automation system that included fingerprint technologies for keyless access
and 4PAC monitoring and efficiency control.2. Applying the Eelphi >echni,ue O ur management group uses this techni,ue
primarily when estimating electrical and mechanical systems. Eue to the specificnature of these systems a small task group would be assigned to estimate the
duration involved in these tasks. n the military installation there was a redundant
four pipe mechanical system with a back up generation plant the task groupconsisted of electrical and mechanical engineers that individually assessed the tasks
involved and estimated duration and then collectively discussed their findings. >heywould then repeat the procedure similarly to the Eelphi techni,ue and would then
report their findings to the management group.$. Applying the >hree@:oint >echni,ue O >his techni,ue is used often within our
management team in estimating the duration of tasks specific to site development
building structure and interior installations. In many instances the circumstancesinvolving a project may vary depending on location resources available and the other
project specific variables therefore we would develop a preliminary task list with
projected duration based on some historical data from previous projects and then wewould use the Eelphi techni,ue to finaliFe a projected duration. 'ince there is a
diversity of skills and professional affiliations within our management group we havefound that the averages are very close to the actual estimates.
3. Applying the &ide@echni,ue O &hen determining the duration of atask that we do not have historical data or e!pert advice our group would employ the
&ide@
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The Critical Path Method (CPM)
Quality Tools>Tools of the Trade> 16: The Critical Path Method (CPM)
In the Activity Diara! descri"ed in the #revious article$ a net%or& of tas&s %ere set u# to sho% the
de#endent se'uence of activities %ithin a #roect The Critical Path Method can "e a##lied to such as
net%or& to ans%er the !ost co!!on 'uestion as&ed of #roect !anaers: *o% lon %ill the overall
#roect ta&e+
,o!e -#roect !anae!ent- co!#uter #rora!s$ such as Microsoft Proect$ %ill calculate the critical #ath
for you .ou can also do it "y hand or "uild a s#readsheet to calculate it$ usin the !ethod descri"ed"elo%
How does it work?
In the Activity Diara! descri"ed in the #revious article$ a net%or& of tas&s %ere set u# to sho% %hich
tas&s needed co!#letion "efore other tas&s could "e started A very co!!on ne/t ste# is to add ti!ins to
sho% ho% lon each tas& %ill ta&e and then to identify the critical #ath$ %hich is the route throuh thenet%or& that %ill ta&e the lonest a!ount of ti!e
Tas&s %hich are not on the critical #ath have !ore lee%ay$ and !ay "e sli##ed %ithout affectin the end
date of the #roect This is calledslackorfloat
Tas&s on the critical #ath have no slac& and this feature !ay "e used to actually identify the critical #ath Itis also 'uite co!!on to have !ore than one critical #ath: indeed$ the #erfectly "alanced #roect
is allcritical #ath
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A critical #ath
It !ay "e #ossi"le to reduce the critical #ath of a #roect (and conse'uently #ull in the co!#letion date) "y
rearranin so!e tas&s %hich have an o#tional se'uence or "y !ovin &ey #eo#le onto tas&s in the critical
#ath so you can reduce the ti!e for these tas&s
How do you do it?
1 0uild an Activity Diara!$ as descri"ed in the #revious article$ includin esti!atin the ti!e re'uired
(or duration) for all tas&s Include a s#ace on each tas& card for early and late start and finish dates or
ti!es (ti!es$ rather than dates$ are re'uired for tas&s %here hours or !inutes are sinificant)
The early start and early finish are si!#ly the earliest ti!es that a tas& can start or finish The late
start and late finish are the latest ti!es that a tas& can start or finish
,tartin %ith the tas&s at the "einnin of the diara!$ co!#lete the early start and early finish for each
tas& in turn$ follo%in the arro%s to the ne/t tas&$ as in the fiure "elo% The early start of a tas& is the
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sa!e as the early finish of the #recedin tas& If there is !ore than one #redecessor tas&$ then there are
several #ossi"le early start fiures ,elect the largestof these The early finish for each tas& is e'ual to the
early start #lus the duration of the tas& The final calculation is for the earliest co!#letion ti!e for the
#roect This is calculated in the sa!e %ay as the early start date
Calculatin the early start and finish
2 ,tartin %ith the tas&s at the end of the diara!$ calculate the late start and late finish for each tas& in
turn$ follo%in the arro%s in the reverse direction to the #revious tas&$ as in the diara! "elo% The late
finish is the sa!e as the late start of the succeedin tas& (for the final tas&s in the #roect$ this is e'ual to
the earliest co!#letion date) If there is !ore than one successor tas&$ then there are several #ossi"le late
fiures ,elect thesmallest of these The late start for each tas& is the late finish !inus the duration of the
tas& The final calculation is for the earliest co!#letion ti!e for the #roect This is calculated in the sa!e
%ay as the early start date
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Calculatin the late start and finish
3 .ou no% have$ for each tas&$ the earliest and latest ti!es that it can start and finish 4o% find the slac&ti!e (or -float-) for each tas& "y su"tractin the early start fro! the late start The slac& ti!e is the a!ount
of ti!e the tas& can "e sli##ed "y %ithout affectin the end date of the #rocess The critical #ath can no%
"e identified as all #aths throuh the net%or& %here the slac& ti!e is 5ero
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Calculatin the slac& and findin the critical #ath
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Project constraintsare anything that restricts or dictates the actions of the projectteam. That
can cover a lot of territory. The triple constraintstime, resources, and quality - are the big hitters,
and every projecthas one or two, if not all three, of the triple constraintsas aprojectdriver.
Project Parameters/ Project Constraints
1. Scope
2. Quality
3. Cost
4. Time
5. Resources
Scope: It defnes:
a. The Boundarieso the Project
. !hat will be done and "hat will not be done#
c. It can e a ocument o! "nderstandin# $ Project $nitiatin#ocument$ Project Re%uest &orm
d. This doc%&ent is the &oundationor all Project 'ork to ollo"
Quality:There are (T'es o %alit'
Product Quality:The %alit' o eli)erablesro& the Project* %alit'Mana+e&ent is one ,rea that sho%ld not e co&ro&ised
Process Quality: The -%alit' o the Project *ana#ement Process itsel(ho" "ell the Project Mana+e&ent Process !ors and ho" it can e i&ro/ed
Time: C%sto&er 0ecifes a Time!rameor eadline"ithin "hich a Project&%st e co&leted
Costand Timeare $n)ersely related to one an other
Ti&e can e red%ced %t cost increases as a res%lt
Ti&e can not e $n)entoried* it is Consumed"hether "e %se it or not P.Ms are s%osed to %se this so%rce in the &ost +,ecti)eand
Producti)e *anner
Cost: It is the Bud#etthat has een estalished or the Project
+arlyand $n!ormal sta#e in the lie o a Project ie C'cle
The dollar cost is an other /ariale that defnes the roject
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I&ortant or rojects that create eli)erables"hich are soldCommercially or #i)en to outside party
Project Mana+ers reare a Proposal !or a Projected 'ork thatincl%des an esti&ate o the Total Cost o! t-e Project
C%sto&er has the Ri#-tto .ppro)e/ Reject an' Proosal
Resources:These are the .ssets
ied or ariale
-%i&ents* Ph'sical acilities
In/entor'
That ha/e imited .)ailabilities can e Sc-eduledor can eeased ro& an o%tside art'
Peopleare the *ajor Resource
>he classic set of project parameters includes the following ones6
:roject scope O actual working content that a project embraces;
:roject time O duration of a project and life@span of its results;
:roject integration O a variety and type of participation and collaboration that aproject demands from different concerned groups;
:roject ,uality O specifications on project efficiency capabilities and
effectiveness of its results;
:roject risks O severity and probability of destructive influence that e!isting
negative factors can put on a project e!ecution;
:roject costs O determination of money that a project will most likely consume
to be completed;
Triple Con!traint! GConentional
Triple Con!traint! 5)odern
T&e Scope Triangle
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:rojects are dynamic systems that must be kept in e,uilibrium. Jot an easy task as
we shall see+ ?igure (.( illustrates the dynamics of the situation.
>he geographic area inside the triangle represents the scope and ,uality of theproject. ines representing time cost and resource availability bound scope and
,uality. >ime is the window of time within which the project must be completed. Cost
is the dollar budget available to complete the project. Besources are any consumablesused on the project. :eople e,uipment availability and facilities are e!amples.
J>
&hile the accountants will tell us that everything can be reduced to dollars and they
are right we will separate resources as defined here. >hey are controllable by the
project manager and need to be separately identified for that reason.
>he project plan will have identified the time cost and resource availability needed todeliver the scope and ,uality of a project. In other words the project is in e,uilibrium
at the completion of the project planning session and approval of the commitment ofresources and dollars to the project. >hat will not last too long however. Change is
waiting around the corner.
>he scope triangle offers a number of insights into the changes that can occur in thelife of the project. ?or e!ample the triangle represents a system in balance before
any project work has been done. >he sides are long enough to encompass the areagenerated by the scope and ,uality statements. Jot long after work begins something
is sure to change. :erhaps the customer calls with an additional re,uirement for afeature that was not envisioned during the planning sessions. :erhaps the market
opportunities have changed and it is necessary to reschedule the deliverables to an
earlier date or a key team member leaves the company and is difficult to replace. Anyone of these changes throws the system out of balance.
Project )anagement
:roject management is a set of tools templates and processes designed to answerthe following si! ,uestions6
&hat business situation is being addressed by this project
&hat do you need to do
&hat will you do
4ow will you do it
4ow will you know you did it
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4ow well did you do
:roject management is an organiFed common@sense approach that utiliFes the
appropriate client involvement in order to deliver client re,uirements that meete!pected incremental business value.
Project management is a methodical approach to planning and guiding projectprocesses from start to finish. According to the Project Management Institute, the
processes are guided through five stages: initiation, planning, executing, controlling, and
closing. Project management can be applied to almost any type of project and is widely
used to control the complex processes of software development projects.
A project network
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A project networkis a graph (flow chart depicting the sequence in which
a project's terminal elements are to be completed by showing terminal elements and their
dependencies. !t is always drawn from left to right to reflect projectchronology.
Contents of the :roject :roposal
ach organiFation will have a prescribed format for its project proposal but most
proposals will have sections similar to the ones in the list that follows. -ou will see a
remarkable resemblance to the topics we have covered in Chapters 1 through D.
Bightly so for the project proposal is a restatement of all the planning work that has
been done so far.
'acground.>his brief description details the situation that led to the project
proposal. It often states the business conditions opportunities and any problemsgiving rise to the project. It sets the stage for later sections and puts the project in
the conte!t of the business.
O#jectie.>his is another short section that gives a very general statement of what
you hope to accomplish through this project. Avoid jargon because you don"t know
who might have reason to read this section. 8se the language of the business not the
technical language of your department. >he objective should be clearly stated so that
there is no doubt as to what is to be done and what constitutes attainment of the
objective.
Oerie% of approac&to be taken. ?or those who might not be interested in thedetails of how you are going to reach your objective this section provides a high@level
outline of your approach. Again avoid jargon whenever possible. Nive a brief
statement of each step and a few sentences of supporting narrative. his is the
roadmap of all the project work. &e have found Nantt charts useful for presentations
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of schedule data. >hey are easily understood and generally intuitive even for people
who are seeing them for the first time.
Time and co!t !ummar$. It is our practice to include a summary page of time and
cost data. >his usually works best if done as a Nantt chart. ften the data will have
been stated over several pages and is brought together here for easy review and
comment by the customer.
Appendice!.&e reserve the appendi! for all supporting data and details that are not
germane to the body of the proposal. Anticipate ,uestions your customer might have
and include answers here. Bemember that this is detail beyond the basic description
of the project work. 'upporting information is generally found here.