CHAPTER 6:

PROJECT
MANAGEMENT
FOR INFORMATION
SYSTEM
PROJECT TIME MANAGEMENT
IMPORTANCE OF PROJECT SCHEDULES

◊ Managers often cite delivering projects on time as one of their

biggest challenges
◊ Time has the least amount of flexibility; it passes no matter what
happens on a project
◊ Schedule issues are the main reason for conflicts on projects,
especially during the second half of projects

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INDIVIDUAL WORK STYLES AND CULTURAL
DIFFERENCES CAUSE SCHEDULE CONFLICTS

◊ One dimension of the Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator focuses on

peoples’ attitudes toward structure and deadline
◊ Some people prefer to follow schedules and meet deadlines while
others do not (J vs. P)
◊ Difference cultures and even entire countries have different attitudes
about schedules

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PROJECT TIME MANAGEMENT PROCESSES
◊ Planning schedule management: determining the policies, procedures, and
documentation that will be used for planning, executing, and controlling the project
schedule
◊ Defining activities: identifying the specific activities that the project team members and
stakeholders must perform to produce the project deliverables
◊ Sequencing activities: identifying and documenting the relationships between project
activities
◊ Estimating activity resources: estimating how many resources a project team should use
to perform project activities
◊ Estimating activity durations: estimating the number of work periods that are needed to
complete individual activities
◊ Developing the schedule: analyzing activity sequences, activity resource estimates, and
activity duration estimates to create the project schedule
◊ Controlling the schedule: controlling and managing changes to the project schedule
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PROJECT
TIME
MANAGEME
NT
SUMMARY

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PLANNING DEFINING
SCHEDULE
ACTIVITIES
MANAGEMENT
◊ The project team uses expert judgment, ◊ An activity or task is an element of
analytical techniques, and meetings to work normally found on the work
develop the schedule management plan breakdown structure (WBS) that has
◊ A schedule management plan includes: an expected duration, a cost, and
◊ Project schedule model development resource requirements
◊ The scheduling methodology (CPM, Gantt ◊ Activity definition involves developing
Chart, Calendar, etc)
◊ Level of accuracy and units of measure
a more detailed WBS and supporting
◊ Control thresholds
explanations to understand all the
◊ work to be done so you can develop
Rules of performance measurement
◊
realistic cost and duration estimates
Reporting formats
◊ Process descriptions

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ACTIVITY LISTS
MILESTONES
AND ATTRIBUTES
◊ An activity list is a tabulation of ◊ A milestone is a significant event that
activities to be included on a project normally has no duration
schedule that includes ◊ It often takes several activities and a
◊ the activity name lot of work to complete a milestone
◊ an activity identifier or number ◊ They’re useful tools for setting
◊ a brief description of the activity schedule goals and monitoring
◊ Activity attributes provide more progress
information such as predecessors, ◊ Examples include obtaining customer
successors, logical relationships, sign-off on key documents or
leads and lags, resource completion of specific products
requirements, constraints, imposed
dates, and assumptions related to
the activity
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SEQUENCING THREE TYPES OF
ACTIVITIES DEPENDENCIES

◊ Involves reviewing activities and ◊ Mandatory dependencies: inherent in

determining dependencies the nature of the work being
◊ A dependency or relationship is the performed on a project, sometimes
sequencing of project activities or referred to as hard logic
tasks ◊ Discretionary dependencies: defined
◊ You must determine dependencies by the project team., sometimes
in order to use critical path analysis referred to as soft logic and should be
used with care since they may limit
later scheduling options
◊ External dependencies: involve
relationships between project and
non-project activities

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NETWORK ARROW DIAGRAMMING
DIAGRAMS METHOD (ADM)

◊ Network diagrams are the preferred ◊ Also called activity-on-arrow (AOA)

technique for showing activity network diagrams
sequencing ◊ Activities are represented by arrows
◊ A network diagram is a schematic
◊ Nodes or circles are the starting and
display of the logical relationships
among, or sequencing of, project ending points of activities
activities ◊ Can only show finish-to-start
◊ Two main formats are the arrow and dependencies
precedence diagramming methods

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PROCESS FOR CREATING AOA DIAGRAMS

◊ Find all of the activities that start at node 1. Draw their finish nodes and draw
arrows between node 1 and those finish nodes. Put the activity letter or name and
duration estimate on the associated arrow
◊ Continuing drawing the network diagram, working from left to right. Look for bursts
and merges. Bursts occur when a single node is followed by two or more activities.
A merge occurs when two or more nodes precede a single node
◊ Continue drawing the project network diagram until all activities are included on the
diagram that have dependencies
◊ As a rule of thumb, all arrowheads should face toward the right, and no arrows
should cross on an AOA network diagram

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SAMPLE ACTIVITY-ON-ARROW (AOA)
NETWORK DIAGRAM FOR PROJECT X

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PRECEDENCE DIAGRAMMING METHOD (PDM)

◊ Activities are represented by boxes

◊ Arrows show relationships between activities
◊ More popular than ADM method and used by project management software
◊ Better at showing different types of dependencies

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SAMPLE PDM NETWORK DIAGRAM

13
TASK DEPENDENCY TYPES

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ESTIMATING ACTIVITY DURATION
ACTIVITY
ESTIMATING
RESOURCES
◊ Before estimating activity durations, you ◊ Duration includes the actual amount
must have a good idea of the quantity of time worked on an activity plus
and type of resources that will be elapsed time
assigned to each activity; resources are
people, equipment, and materials ◊ Effort is the number of workdays or
◊ Consider important issues in estimating work hours required to complete a
resources task
◊ How difficult will it be to do specific ◊ Effort does not normally equal
activities on this project?
◊
duration
What is the organization’s history in doing
similar activities? ◊ People doing the work should help
◊ Are the required resources available? create estimates, and an expert
◊ A resource breakdown structure is a should review them
hierarchical structure that identifies the
project’s resources by category and type

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DEVELOPING THE
GANTT CHARTS
SCHEDULE
◊ Uses results of the other time ◊ Gantt charts provide a standard
management processes to format for displaying project schedule
determine the start and end date of information by listing project activities
the project and their corresponding start and
◊ Ultimate goal is to create a realistic finish dates in a calendar format
project schedule that provides a ◊ Symbols include:
basis for monitoring project ◊ A black diamond: a milestones
progress for the time dimension of ◊ Thick black bars: summary tasks
the project
◊ Lighter horizontal bars: durations
◊ Important tools and techniques
of tasks
include Gantt charts, critical path
analysis, and critical chain ◊ Arrows: dependencies between
scheduling, and PERT analysis tasks

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GANTT CHART
FOR SOFTWARE
LAUNCH
PROJECT

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SMART Sample Tracking Gantt Chart
CRITERIA

Milestones
should be
◊ Specific
◊ Measurable
◊ Assignable
◊ Realistic
◊ Time-framed

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CRITICAL PATH CALCULATING THE
METHOD (CPM) CRITICAL PATH
◊ CPM is a network diagramming ◊ First develop a good network diagram
technique used to predict total project ◊ Add the duration estimates for all
duration activities on each path through the
◊ A critical path for a project is the series network diagram
of activities that determines the ◊ The longest path is the critical path
earliest time by which the project can
be completed ◊ If one or more of the activities on the
◊ The critical path is the longest path critical path takes longer than
through the network diagram and has planned, the whole project schedule
the least amount of slack or float will slip unless the project manager
◊ Slack or float is the amount of time an takes corrective action
activity may be delayed without
delaying a succeeding activity or the
project finish date
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DETERMINING THE CRITICAL PATH FOR
PROJECT X

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 USING CRITICAL PATH ANALYSIS
TO MAKE SCHEDULE TRADE-OFFS
◊ Free slack or free float is the
amount of time an activity can be
delayed without delaying the
early start of any immediately
following activities
◊ Total slack or total float is the
amount of time an activity may
be delayed from its early start
without delaying the planned
project finish date
◊ A forward pass through the
network diagram determines the
early start and finish dates
◊ A backward pass determines the
late start and finish dates
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22
USING THE CRITICAL IMPORTANCE OF
PATH TO SHORTEN A UPDATING CRITICAL
PROJECT SCHEDULE PATH DATA
◊ Three main techniques for shortening ◊ It is important to update project
schedules schedule information to meet time
◊ Shortening durations of critical goals for a project
activities/tasks by adding more ◊ The critical path may change as you
resources or changing their scope enter actual start and finish dates
◊ Crashing activities by obtaining the ◊ If you know the project completion
greatest amount of schedule date will slip, negotiate with the
compression for the least project sponsor
incremental cost
◊ Fast tracking activities by doing
them in parallel or overlapping
them

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 A AND B.
CRITICAL CHAIN MULTITASKING
SCHEDULING EXAMPLE
◊ Critical chain scheduling
◊ a method of scheduling that
considers limited resources
when creating a project
schedule and includes buffers
to protect the project
completion date
◊ Uses the Theory of Constraints
(TOC)
◊ a management philosophy
developed by Eliyahu M.
Goldratt and introduced in his
book The Goal.
◊ Attempts to minimize multitasking
◊ when a resource works on
more than one task at a time

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 BUFFERS AND EXAMPLE OF CRITICAL
CRITICAL CHAIN CHAIN SCHEDULING
◊ A buffer is additional time to
complete a task
◊ Murphy’s Law states that if
something can go wrong, it will
◊ Parkinson’s Law states that work
expands to fill the time allowed
◊ In traditional estimates, people
often add a buffer to each task and
use it if it’s needed or not
◊ Critical chain scheduling removes
buffers from individual tasks and
instead creates a project buffer or
additional time added before the
project’s due date
◊ feeding buffers or additional time
added before tasks on the critical
path

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 CONTROLLING THE
SCHEDULE CONTROL
SCHEDULE
◊ Perform reality checks on schedules. ◊ Goals are to know the status of the
◊ Allow for contingencies. schedule, influence factors that cause
◊ Don’t plan for everyone to work at 100 schedule changes, determine that the
percent capacity all the time.
◊
schedule has changed, and manage
Hold progress meetings with stakeholders
and be clear and honest in communicating changes when they occur
schedule issues. ◊ Tools and techniques include
◊ Progress reports
◊ A schedule change control system
◊ Project management software, including
schedule comparison charts like the
tracking Gantt chart
◊ Variance analysis, such as analyzing float or
slack
◊ Performance management, such as earned
value (chapter 7)
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REALITY CHECKS ON WORKING WITH
SCHEDULING PEOPLE ISSUES
◊ Review the draft schedule or ◊ Strong leadership helps projects
estimated completion date in succeed more than good PERT charts
the project charter. ◊ Project managers should use
◊ Prepare a more detailed ◊ empowerment
schedule with the project team. ◊ incentives
◊ Make sure the schedule is
◊ discipline
realistic and followed.
◊ negotiation
◊ Alert top management well in
advance if there are schedule
problems.

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THANK
YOU !