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Description
Flashcards by minal Kotwal, updated more than 1 year ago
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Created by minal Kotwal
almost 8 years ago
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| Question | Answer |
| Developing project schedule: - The WBS identifies the activites and tasks that must be completed in order to prvide project scope and deliverables - Estimates provide a forecasted duration for each of these activities. They are based on the characteristics of the activity, the resources assigned, and the support - Gantt chart can be used for planning. Estimates for the tasks or activities in the WBS are represented using a bar across a horizontal time axis | Different techniques for scheduling: 1. WBS and Gantt chart 2. Critical path analysis 3. Critical chain project management (CCPM) 4. PERT analysis 5. Precedence Diagramming method (PDM) |
| Network diagram: - Project netowrk diagrams includes serveral useful tools for planning, scheduling and monitorinf a project's progress - Project network disgrams use WBS as a basis to provide visual representation of the workflow of activities and tasks | |
| - But project network diagrams also provide valueable information about the logical sequnce and dependencies among the various activities and tasks - Also, a completion date or project deadline should be developed based on a sound estimate pricess rather than guesstimating a target date or a randomly set date - They also provide info concering when specific tasks must start and finish, and what activities may be delayed without affecting the deadline - PM can make decisions regarding scheduling and resource assignments to shorten the time required for those critical activities thatt will inpact the project deadline - Critical path is calculated using the network diagram | The language of critical path anaysis: - Activity - task or a set of tasks, uses resources and time - Event - identifiaible state resulting from completion of one or more activities. Consumes no resource or time, predecessor activties must be completed. - Milestone- identifiable and noteworkthy events that mark significant progress - Network - dirgram of (activties) and arrorws (directions) that show the relationaship of activities -Path - a series of connected activities betwen 2 events - Criticial path - set of activities on a path that if delayed will delay the completion date of project - Critical time - time required to complete all activties on the critical path |
| Building the network: Two ways of displaying a project network: 1. Activties on arrows (AOA) network - the activities are shown as arrows and events as notes - Difficult to draw but show the technical relationship of the activities well 2. Activities on node (AON) network - Each task is shown as a node and the technological relationship is shown by the arrows AON network usaully associated with CPM AOA network usuaully associated with PERT | |
| Manageral implications - Primary attention of the PM should be to the activities on the critical path - If anything delays one of these activites, the project will be late - Projects are easier to manage when there is project slack | next |
| Resources: - Projects compete with each other for resources: 1. if a resource is used but not consumed, which project must wait to use the resource 2. if resource is consumed during use, may not be available for other projects or other other projects must wait for replacement In either case, one project must wait, one is delayed. - Likely different activities compete for resources - Trade-offs must be made | Critical chain project management (CCPM) - CCPM based on the idea that people often inflate or add cushioning to their time estimates in order to give themselves a form of safety to compensate for uncertainty - poeple may build safety into each task |
| 1. First you may inflate an estimate if your work is depended upon someone else For example, you may add a cushion to your time estimates if you believe there’s a good chance your work will be delayed if the person you are depending on will not finish his or her task or work on time. 2. Second, you may increase an estimate of an activity because of pessimism arising from a previous experience where things did not go as planned 3. Third a project sponsor or customer may not be happy with a proposed schedule and therefore decides to cut the schedule gloablly by say 20% - If you know this is going to happen, you may inflate your estimates by 25 percent just to guard against the cut. Why do projects still finish late? | Student's syndrome: - Many people tend to wait until the last minute before they begin to work on a task - This is often referred to as student’s syndrome, as many students procrastinate and then begin working on an assignment right before it’s due—regardless of how much time is available. If things don’t go exactly as planned, the task or assignment ends up being late. - Student syndrome effort increases as milestone date approaches |
| Parkinson's law: - This law states that workds expands to dill the time available For example, an individual or a team assigned to complete a particular task will rarely report finishing early because there is no incentive to do so. They may be afraid that management will cut their estimates next time or the individual or team waiting for them to complete their task won’t be ready. As a result, the safety built into an estimate disappears. Any time saved by completing a task early is wasted while any overruns get passed along. | Parkinson's law states that - when a task is accomplished, stop working on it - don't strecth it out and attempt to make it last longer - use that extra time to apply to the next task If this occurs frequently, maybe it is time to re-evaluate the method you are using to gauge time estimates. |
| Resource contention A third reason why safety does not ensure projects will be completed on time bc it has to do with multitasking of resource , called resource contention. - A project team member is often assigned more than one project. This person will be required to attend meetings, traiing, or be pulled off one project task to work on another -As a result, this person can become a constraint to the project because he or she is no longer able to devote time and energy to tasks on the critical path. Subsequently, the task takes longer, and so does the project. | - Goldratt's CCPM follows - Instead of adding safety to each task, put that safety in form of buffers where needed the most - This would be in the form of feeder buffers, resource buffers, and a buffer at the end of the project. |
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