Project Time
Management
3.2
3 tools commonly used in
project management
help with good time management
WORKPLAN
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
CALENDAR
Gantt chart
CRITICAL PATH METHOD (CPM)
each tool is used in combination with others for the best time
management during the life of the project.
Work Breakdown Structure
ALL activities that will take place during the course of
your project should be written down in a work plan.
Highlight the main phases (e.g. preparation, setting
up, implementation, evaluation, and termination). A
more detailed identification of main tasks or activities
(level two) must be elaborated to ensure the phase is
completed.
Work Breakdown Structure
Setting up activities:
Recruitment of team members;
Induction of team members to the organization
and to the project proposal and plan;
Team-building activities
Networking; and
Identifying suppliers, etc.
then go to next level (3) and breakdown each of the main
activities into a set of sub-activities
Work Breakdown Structure
Sub-activities:
Recruitment of team members to achieve the
project goal
Write up job descriptions;
Circulate positions among existing staff of
volunteers in the organization:
Advertise position in community and regional
newspapers;
Work Breakdown Structure
Sub-activities:
Seek help from a recruitment agency if necessary;
Set a deadline for CV submissions;
Collect all CVs
Shortlist about five potential candidates fro each
position available;
Set up interviews;
Draw up interview panel;
Select an interview panel;
Work Breakdown Structure
Sub-activities:
Design or use an existing human resource tool to
evaluate candidates;
Conduct interviews;
Make a decision as a panel;
Contact successful candidate to arrange the first
working day and induction process;
Set up a work station for new team member; and
Contact unsuccessful candidates with a thank you letter
WBS
There should be a detailed/elaborated discussion among
volunteer workers and committees so that there is a full
agreement about decisions to be made.
Once you have all the detailed activities you can begin to
arrange them into the formal tool known as the WBS.
WBS
The WBS will help the project manager/project in-charge
identifying which tasks should take place before other tasks. It
is important to identify:
The time required for each activity to be completed;
Number of people required for each task; and
What function they will serve on the project, for example,
book-keeper, engineer, community facilitator, etc.,
inventory in-charge
What is WBS?
The WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE will help ensure that the
rest of the tools are effective. The more details that are
included in compiling this tool the better. Combining different
tools with WBS will facilitate project implementation. The WBS
diagram wills how clearly all the activities that must take
place for the project successful.
WBS
diagram
Why is a WBS necessary?
It helps to divide the project into small work packages,
tasks or activities
It helps project managers/ in charges to identify the
required tasks;
It helps to obtain consensus on the work to eb done;
and
It helps to make sure that tasks or activities match the
time-frames or schedule and cost estimates.
How do you compile a WBS?
Once you have a list of all the activities, you should
put them into a diagram. This diagram is known as
the WBS.
The following diagram is an example of what a WBS will
look like.
Selection Workshop 1 Research/ Faciliation Workshop 2 Capacity
of Project info. of access Building
area gathering to land
List of Identify and Baseline Scan gov’t and Workshop Devlop
nonprofit materials for
criteria for integrate study of options to
organisation
several reps into PSC beneficiaries (NPO) beneficiaries capacity
beneficiaries Programmes building
Integrate Present Baseline Identify land PSC facilitates Organise
interaction
with CSO projects to study of land needs between training for
benficiaries rights programme and beneficiary
service providers
groups
Identify and Wks Submit Identify
meet proceedings research support orgs.
potential report to PSC govt. and
groups NPOs
Form evaluation Prepare report Beneficiaries
project steering of the wks group selects
comm. (PSC)
proceedings option
The WBS will help complete a calendar or Gant chart in coming up
with a realistic budget. It is useful to identify the start and end dates
for each activity to be able to identify the activities that overlap.
Some overlapping activities migth cause a delay and can out you
behind schedule and are referred to as lag time actvities. Identifying
critical points of the project is very important to minimize delays or in
some instances fast-track certain activities.
Completing these steps is very important to give the project
plan to all relevant stakeholders or parties. You should get
their approval, comments, additions or changes. This will be
a good opportunity for all volunteers, beneficiaries and
other stakeholders to give their comments and fine tune the
Gantt Chart. Through this process a strong sense of
ownership might be noted.
The CALENDAR or Gantt Chart
All work plans need to have a calendar to make sure they are
completed on time. In project management this is a bar chart,
known as a Gantt chart.
It is used to schedule all the activities before the start of the
project. A bar chart is a tool that lays out all the tasks horizontally,
allowing all members or stakeholders to get and overall view of
the time frames expected for the project to be completed. You
should develop a Gantt chart for the main activities. Then specify
this further into sub-activities so that all team members
understand the dealdines for their activties.
The CPM
The CRITICAL PATH METHOD or CPM is used to determine the length of a
project and to identify the activities that are critical to complete a
project. The following steps should be followed to draw a CPM
diagram:
Specify the individual activities;
Determine the flow of activities, for example, what activity should
follow another;
Estimate the competion time for each activity; and
Identify the critical path of the project.
The critical path refers to which activities must take place before
another activity can take place.
The CPM
Updating chart during the project will make it easier to see
what project activities are taking longer (or shorter) than
expected.
If one of the activities that is critical to a number of
activities takes longer, you will encounter problems and
might have to negotiate for a longer time period to deliver
the project.
