Scheduling Techniques & Project Management

Scheduling Techniques & Project Management
Project management is the process by which a proposed project is developed

within a rigorous framework. The subset of project management that this lecture
will focus on is 'project scheduling', that is the process by which the various
activities that need to be undertaken during a projects lifetime should be
scheduled. There are a range of activity management tools that are commercially
available.
1. Project Scheduling
Project scheduling is concerned with the techniques that can be employed to
manage the activities that need to be undertaken during the development of a
project.
Scheduling is carried out in advance of the project commencing and involves:
identifying the tasks that need to be carried out;
estimating how long they will take;
allocating resources (mainly personnel);
scheduling when the tasks will occur.
nce the project is underway control needs to be e!erted to ensure that the plan
continues to represent the best prediction of what will occur in the future:
based on what occurs during the development;
often necessitates revision of the plan.
"ffective project planning will help to ensure that the systems are delivered:
within cost;
within the time constraint;
to a specific standard of quality.
Two project scheduling techniques will be presented, the #ilestone $hart %or
&antt $hart' and the (ctivity )etwork.
2. Milestone Charts
#ilestones mark significant events in the life of a project, usually critical activities
which must be achieved on time to avoid delay in the project.
#ilestones should be truely significant and be reasonable in terms of deadlines
%avoid using intermediate stages'.
"!amples include:
installation of equipment;
completion of phases;
file conversion;
1
cutover to the new system.
2.1 Gantt Charts
( &antt chart is a hori*ontal bar or line chart which will commonly include the
following features:
activities identified on the left hand side;
time scale is drawn on the top (or bottom) of the chart;
a horizontal open oblong or a line is drawn against each activity indicating
estimated duration;
dependencies between activities are shown;
at a review point the oblongs are shaded to represent the actual time spent (an
alternative is to represent actual and estimated by 2 separate lines);
a vertical cursor (such as a transparent ruler) placed at the review point makes it
possible to establish activities which are behind or ahead of schedule.
Project management tools incorporating &antt $harts include P+,)$" -$$T(,
.//01, #acProject and #icrosoft Project.
"!ample of a &antt $hart:
Figure 1: Example of a Gantt Chart
2hich tasks is ahead of schedule 3 2hich task is behind schedule 3
2
(lternative &antt $hart incorporating features commonly present in automated
tools:
Figure 2: Example of a Gantt Chart showing Project Management ool Features
&antt charts produced in this form are:
graphical;
easy to read;
easy to update.
There are no widely accepted standards for &antt charts. (utomated tools are
available which produce &antt charts directly from activity networks or from a full
definition of the tasks.
(utomated tools have features which assist the planning function including:
display of original and latest time for task;
display of person(s) allocated to tasks;
integration with other planning techniques (i.e. networks and milestones).
)ow try to create a &antt chart from the information presented in the &antt $hart
tutorial.
3. Activit !et"or#s
The foundation of the approach came from the Special Projects ffice of the 4S
)avy in ./56. ,t developed a technique for evaluating the performance of large
development projects, which became known as P"+T 7 Project "valuation and
+eview Technique. ther variations of the same approach are known as the
critical path method %$P#' or critical path analysis %$P('.
The heart of any P"+T chart is a network of tasks needed to complete a project,
showing the order in which the tasks need to be completed and the
dependencies between them. This is represented graphically:
Figure !: Example of an "cti#it$ %etwor&
The diagram consists of a number of circles, representing events within the
development lifecycle, such as the start or completion of a task, and lines, which
represent the tasks themselves. "ach task is additionally labelled by its time
duration. Thus the task between events 8 9 5 is planned to take : time units. The
primary benefit is the identification of the critical path.
The critical path ; total time for activities on this path is greater than any other
path through the network %delay in any task on the critical path leads to a delay in
the project'.
Tasks on the critical path therefore need to be monitored carefully.
The technique can be broken down into : stages:
1. Planning:
identify tasks and estimate duration of times;
arrange in feasible sequence;
draw diagram.
2. Scheduling:
establish timetable of start and finish times.
3. Analysis:
establish float;
!
evaluate and revise as necessary.
"
3.1 $iagram Sm%ols
Figure ': ($m)ols *sed in "cti#it$ %etwor&s
#
3.2 To Produce the $iagram
1. $here is a single start and end event;
2. $ime flows from left to right (so does the numbering sequence);
. %vents are given a unique number (activities then have a unique label i.e. head &
tail event numbers);
!. $he network can then be drawn taking into account the dependencies identified;
". 'orking from the start event forward( calculate the earliest times( setting the
earliest time of the first event to zero. )dd the *ob duration time to the earliest
event time to arrive at the earliest time for the successor event. 'here the
successor has more than one activity dependent on to the latest time is entered;
#. 'orking from the finish event backwards( calculate the latest times. +et the latest
time to the earliest time for the finish event. +ubtract *ob duration from the latest
time to obtain predecessor latest event times. 'here the predecessor event has
more than one arrow emanating from it enter the earliest time;
,. %vent slack is calculated by subtracting the earliest event time from the latest
event time;
-. .ritical path(s) are obtained by *oining the events with zero event slack.
3.3 &or#ed '(am)le
<ist of activities for the network:
Tas# *ocation =ependent n =uration
( 7 :
> 7 ?
$ 7 :
= ( 5
" $ @
A >, =, " ?
& ( /
Calculation o+ 'arliest Time,
4se the instructions presented in section :.@ and the the following diagram ..
,
Figure +: Calculation of Earliest (tart ime
2hat is the earliest time for event 8 3 ,f you are unsure, the answer is e!plained
here.
Solution to Calculation o+ 'arliest Start Time +or 'vent -

Activity Preceding ET Duration Calculated ET

2 4 " 8
1 4 0 6 6
4 3 2 5

So the earliest start time for event 8 is day 6 %by this time all the preceding
activites will have been completed'.
2hat is the earliest time for event 5 3 ,f you are unsure, the answer is e!plained
here.
Solution to Calculation o+ 'arliest Start Time +or 'vent .
This solution builds on the previous one 7 the earliest start time for event 8 was
day 6 therefore ...

-

2 5 3 9 12
! 5 8 6 14

So the earliest start time for event 5 is day .8 %by this time all the preceding

/
Calculation o+ *atest Time,
4se the instructions presented in section :.@ and the the following diagram ..
Figure ,: Calculation of -atest (tart ime
2hat is the latest time for event @ 3 ,f you are unsure, the answer is e!plained
here.
day 6 therefore ...


2 5 3 9 12
! 5 8 6 14

2hat is the latest time of event . 3 ,f you are unsure, the answer is e!plained
here.
day 6 therefore ...
10


2 5 3 9 12
! 5 8 6 14


11
$ra"ing the Critical Path,
Figure .: /rawing the Critical Path
(nalysis of the network allows the 'float' to be calculated, this is essentially the
amount of time an action can be delayed without delaying the overall project.
(ctivities on the critical path must be monitored very carefully. )ow try the
(ctivity )etwork tutorial.

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Project management is the process by which a proposed project is developed

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