Project Time and Cost Management

Introduction:
What is time management in project management?
Time management in project management is one of the most important components that helps project
managers stay on time delivering projects. Time management is equal to success in today’s world where no
deadline is negotiable, and therefore inadequacies are almost impossible to gloss over. Failures and successes
are equal to time management in these circumstances.
A project always has an official completion date. Every project needs a schedule to reach this deadline, and
each member of the team must manage their own and the team’s time accordingly

Meeting Deadlines: Efficient time management allows projects to stick to their obligations on the set time
frames. Through efficient task planning and organization, project managers can optimize resource division,
operational priority, and time discipline to guarantee timely project completion. It forgoes this and ends up
recognizing the milestones of the project team and the completion dates of the project itself too.
Resource Optimization: Good management of time offers all the possibilities to obtain maximum from
used resources as well. The budget stands to be both a benefit and a challenge for the project managers. On
the one hand, allocating time wisely enables the efficient use of the team members, equipment, and
budgetary resources. On the other hand, time management may be a hurdle. The aim of this is that it will
result in cost-efficiency and smoothen the project’s implementation.
Budget Adherence: Many times, budgets are the single most limiting factor in a project; however, mastering
this art is the key to ensuring the budget is not exceeded. Time delays during the project construction result
in extra expenses of adding additional labour costs, increased overhead, and penalties for the missed target
date. Correct use of time management techniques is the key factor in protecting the budget from running
beyond the limit.
Client Satisfaction: Clients and shareholders expect projects to be within their durations. Deadline meetings
or keeping within the deadline among clients accumulate client satisfaction and trust in our business. It
shows a firmly stipulated understanding and the intentions of the project team, that they can deliver what
they have committed within the given periods, which as a result can lead to the establishment of favourable
contacts and collective work.
Risk Mitigation: Importantly both time management and risk mitigation go hand in hand. Developing an
ability to see ahead and anticipate problems in the early stages of construction ensures that the project is not
delayed and the risks do not arise. A contingency plan includes components of time management strategies
as insulation against unexpected challenges, during which the project might progress due to the fact of being
able to adapt to uncertainties.
Quality Control: The implications of rushed projects are more errors and diminished quality. Proper time
management allows the team to allocate due time for each phase of the project, involving quality testing and
quality assurance. Such quality control attention focuses on the output being of quality higher and equal to
the stipulated standard.

Plan Schedule Management: The first step in the project time management is to create a plan that will be
published in a procedure, for project running and project progress controlling. This implies an identification
of the planning technique, the level of detail (that is the depth that is required for planning), and the standard
for development and monitoring of the effort schedule.
Define Activities: Consequently, the project manager in charge of this particular undertaking endeavours to
specify and describe all the exact resources and operations required to bring the project deliverables into
reality. The activities that eventually would shape the project work breakdown structure (WBS) are the most
elementary ones to be carried out and they are essential to the making of a detailed and exact project
schedule.
Sequence Activities: Next, the project activities have to be organized in order, and the sequence of their
tasks. The milestone process incorporates linking tasks, creating a logical sequence of operations, and
identifying project control mechanisms that can affect the project schedule.
Estimate Activity Durations: In this operation, the project team sets the time needed to complete every
activity of the task. They also take into account noteworthy elements such as resource availability, and
historical data to name but a few. The preparation of a timeline that is truly accurate is a fundamental part of
the process of planning a project by setting the right deadlines that can be achieved.
Develop Schedule: Scheduling is where project management depends. Taking the activity data, sequence
and duration estimates, and then turning this into an extensive project timeline is the major aim of the
process. So now the methods of the plans such as critical path analysis and Gantt charts as visualization are
common tools here which is telling the public.
Control Schedule: The last step consists of following and regulating the project schedule throughout the
lifecycle of the project. This means monitoring actual progress effects, comparing them with the approved
schedule, and if the need is actual then mocking a change. The objective is to maintain the project on
schedule and, if deviations manifest themselves, actions to restore the schedule should be performed to bring
the project back onto the original plan.

Project Scheduling:
A schedule in your project’s time table actually consists of sequenced activities and milestones that are
needed to be delivered under a given period of time.
Project schedule simply means a mechanism that is used to communicate and know about that tasks are
needed and has to be done or performed and which organizational resources will be given or allocated to
these tasks and in what time duration or time frame work is needed to be performed. Effective project
scheduling leads to success of project, reduced cost, and increased customer satisfaction. Scheduling in
project management means to list out activities, deliverables, and milestones within a project that are
delivered. It contains more notes than your average weekly planner notes. The most common and important
form of project schedule is Gantt chart.

Process :
The manager needs to estimate time and resources of project while scheduling project. All activities in
project must be arranged in a coherent sequence that means activities should be arranged in a logical and
well-organized manner for easy to understand. Initial estimates of project can be made optimistically which
means estimates can be made when all favorable things will happen and no threats or problems take place.
The total work is separated or divided into various small activities or tasks during project schedule. Then,
Project manager will decide time required for each activity or task to get completed. Even some activities are
conducted and performed in parallel for efficient performance. The project manager should be aware of fact
that each stage of project is not problem-free.
Problems arise during Project Development Stage :
 People may leave or remain absent during particular stage of development.
 Hardware may get failed while performing.
 Software resource that is required may not be available at present, etc.
The project schedule is represented as set of chart in which work-breakdown structure and dependencies
within various activities are represented. To accomplish and complete project within a given schedule,
required resources must be available when they are needed. Therefore, resource estimation should be done
before starting development.
Resources required for Development of Project:
 Human effort
 Sufficient disk space on server
 Specialized hardware
 Software technology
 Travel allowance required by project staff, etc.
Advantages of Project Scheduling:
There are several advantages provided by project schedule in our project management:
 It simply ensures that everyone remains on same page as far as tasks get completed, dependencies,
and deadlines.
 It helps in identifying issues early and concerns such as lack or unavailability of resources.
 It also helps to identify relationships and to monitor process.
 It provides effective budget management and risk mitigation.

CPM and PERT:

Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT):
Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) is a procedure through which activities of a project are
represented in its appropriate sequence and timing. It is a scheduling technique used to schedule, organize
and integrate tasks within a project. PERT is basically a mechanism for management planning and control
which provides blueprint for a particular project. All of the primary elements or events of a project have been
finally identified by the PERT. In this technique, a PERT Chart is made which represent a schedule for all the
specified tasks in the project. The reporting levels of the tasks or events in the PERT Charts is somewhat
same as defined in the work breakdown structure (WBS).
The PERT chart is used to schedule, organize and co-ordinate tasks within the project. the objective of PERT
chart is to determine the critical path, which comprises critical activities that should be completed on
schedule. This chart is prepared with the help of information generated in project planning activities such as
estimation of effort, selection of suitable process model for software development and decomposition of
tasks into subtasks.
Characteristics of PERT:
The main characteristics of PERT are as following:
 It serves as a base for obtaining the important facts for implementing the decision-making.
 It forms the basis for all the planning activities.
 PERT helps management in deciding the best possible resource utilization method.
 PERT take advantage by using time network analysis technique.
 PERT presents the structure for reporting information.
 It helps the management in identifying the essential elements for the completion of the project within
time.
 It specifies the activities that from the critical path.
 It describes the probability of completion of project before the specified date.
 It describes the dependencies of one or more tasks on each other.
 It represents the project in graphical plan form.
Advantages of PERT:
It has the following advantages:
 Estimation of completion time of project is given by the PERT.
 It supports the identification of the activities with slack time.
 The start and dates of the activities of a specific project is determined.
 It helps project manager in identifying the critical path activities.
 PERT makes well organized diagram for the representation of large amount of data.

Disadvantages of PERT:
It has the following disadvantages:
 The complexity of PERT is more which leads to the problem in implementation.
 The estimation of activity time are subjective in PERT which is a major disadvantage.
 Maintenance of PERT is also expensive and complex.
 The actual distribution of may be different from the PERT beta distribution which causes wrong
assumptions.
 It under estimates the expected project completion time as there is chances that other paths can
become the critical path if their related activities are deferred.
Critical Path Method for Project management:
Critical Path Method (CPM) is a method used in project planning, generally for project scheduling for the
on-time completion of the project. It helps in the determination of the earliest time by which the whole
project can be completed. There are two main concepts in this method namely critical task and critical path.
What is a Critical task in project management?
It is the task/activity that can’t be delayed otherwise the completion of the entire project will be delayed. It
must be completed on time before starting the other dependent tasks.
What is the Critical path in project management?
It is a sequence of critical tasks/activities and is the largest path in the project network. It gives us the
minimum time which is required to complete the entire project. The activities in the critical path are known
as critical activities and if these activities are delayed then the completion of the entire project is also
delayed.
Benefits of using the critical path method in project management:
 Show the project schedule visually.
 Highlight important tasks with CPM.
 Use CPM to find and handle risks.
 CPM helps the project team communicate better.
How to find the critical path in a project:
Step 1: Identify all tasks required to complete the project
Step 2: Determine the sequence of tasks
Step 3: Estimate the duration of each task
Step 4: Draw a network diagram
Step 5: Identify the critical path
Step 6: Calculate the float
Step 7: Monitor the critical path.

Dependencies in Project Management:

Project dependencies are like the building blocks of a project plan, guiding the order of tasks and how they
relate to each other. So, in project management, the meaning of depend/dependency indicates the
interrelationship between tasks or activities of a project. Knowing and implementing the chains of reactions
becomes a must-have ability to keep a project going in the right direction and ensure that the tasks are done
in the right sequence.
What are Dependencies in Project Management?
Dependencies in project management refer to the relationships between tasks or activities within a project,
where the completion of one task is dependent on the completion of another task. These dependencies dictate
the sequence in which tasks must be performed and can impact the overall timeline and success of the
project. Dependencies in project management are the interconnections between tasks or activities that dictate
the order in which they must be performed. Understanding and managing dependencies is critical for project
success because they influence the project timeline, resource allocation, and overall progress. By identifying
dependencies early, project managers can sequence tasks effectively, allocate resources efficiently, and
minimize delays, ensuring that the project progresses smoothly towards its objectives.
Types of Dependencies in Project Management:
When managing projects, project managers frequently run across several kinds of dependencies. The project
scheduling, resource allocation, and overall success can all be impacted by these dependencies. Here are
some typical dependencies and samples of each:

Discretionary Dependencies: Discretionary dependencies typically refer to dependencies in project

management or task scheduling that aren’t strictly required but are chosen based on discretion or preference.
For example, in a software development project, a discretionary dependency might be the decision to use a
particular library or framework for a specific task, even though other alternatives are available.
Mandatory Dependencies: Discretionary dependencies, also known as preferential or soft dependencies, are
dependencies that are based on the judgment or preference of the project team or stakeholders. Unlike other
types of dependencies, which are inherent to the nature of the work being performed, discretionary
dependencies are determined by factors such as resource availability, expertise, or organizational policies.
Example: In a software project, discretionary dependencies arise when the team chooses a programming
language based on their expertise, influencing task sequencing to prioritize coding and testing in the chosen
language, optimizing performance and mitigating risks.
External Dependencies: These mutualities usually originate from sources not in the domain of the project
team that contest different conditions involving external parties like suppliers, inputs, and regulators.
Example: If a project must contain a third-party software component, the development task (Task E) may be
later than it was expected to be because of the software provider as its schedule might be changed.
Internal Dependencies: The internal dependencies in the project team are in the team’s control and normally
involve the revision of schedules according to the speed of required tasks or the availability of resources
within the team.
Example: For a marketing campaign, sewing up promotional materials (Task F) by your team is an internal
predecessor way into the next task of making online ads (Task G). The design has to be over before the ads
can be written.
How to Manage Dependencies in Project Management?
Effective dependency management is necessary for project management success. The following are some
techniques for project management dependency management:

Identify Dependencies Early: It will be important, to start, by documenting and identifying the dependencies
that are a part of the pre-project planning phase. In this context, it entails knowing the task interdependencies
and realizing which ones require others before they can be completed.
Create a Dependency Matrix: Come up with a job mapping that clearly shows what tasks are interrelated to
one another. This matrix acts as a convenient visual representation, underlying all interdependencies between
different parts of the project making it easier for the project team to work with them.
Use Project Management Software: Maximize your adoption of software to manage business processes,
albeit you need tools with features for monitoring and tracking the dependencies. One more advantage of
these tools is their ability to deliver Gantt charts, dependency graphs, and other types of visual representation
that show the dependencies between tasks to project managers and workers.
Differentiate Between Types of Dependencies: Find out the many types of stretches: from the ones that
connect finish-to-start to start-to-finishes. Being aware of the specific character of each dependence allows
for adjusting and planning of activities according to the situation.
Prioritize Critical Dependencies: Identify crucial dependencies that can potentially result in seriously
disturbing the project schedule and/or outcome. Identify these critical interdependencies and dedicate
resources to them, including the most important tasks, to avoid their delayed fulfilment.
Establish Clear Communication: Emphasize the necessity of transparency while working in the project team.
Convey the message to staff members that they should recognize the dependencies among the tasks and how
the changes in the periods or task sequences will have an impact on this.