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    Software Project Management: Muneer Ahmed Shaikh

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    Madan Lal
    This document discusses key aspects of project time management including network diagrams, critical path finding, and the critical path method. It defines activities, dependencies, and milestones. It explains two types of network diagrams - activity-on-arrow and precedence diagramming methods. The critical path is the longest path through a network diagram determining the earliest a project can finish. Calculating the critical path involves adding activity durations on each path to identify the longest.

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    Software Project Management: Muneer Ahmed Shaikh

    Uploaded by

    Madan Lal
    42 views24 pages
    This document discusses key aspects of project time management including network diagrams, critical path finding, and the critical path method. It defines activities, dependencies, and milestones. It explains two types of network diagrams - activity-on-arrow and precedence diagramming methods. The critical path is the longest path through a network diagram determining the earliest a project can finish. Calculating the critical path involves adding activity durations on each path to identify the longest.

    Original Title

    Lecture - 11

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    This document discusses key aspects of project time management including network diagrams, critical path finding, and the critical path method. It defines activities, dependencies, and milestones. It explains two types of network diagrams - activity-on-arrow and precedence diagramming methods. The critical path is the longest path through a network diagram determining the earliest a project can finish. Calculating the critical path involves adding activity durations on each path to identify the longest.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    42 views24 pages

    Software Project Management: Muneer Ahmed Shaikh

    Uploaded by

    Madan Lal
    This document discusses key aspects of project time management including network diagrams, critical path finding, and the critical path method. It defines activities, dependencies, and milestones. It explains two types of network diagrams - activity-on-arrow and precedence diagramming methods. The critical path is the longest path through a network diagram determining the earliest a project can finish. Calculating the critical path involves adding activity durations on each path to identify the longest.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 24

    Software Project Management

    Lecture 11
    Muneer Ahmed Shaikh
    Topic
    • Network Diagram
    • Critical path Finding
    Project Time Management Processes
    Project Time Management Processes
    Project Time Management Processes
    • Activity definition: identifying the specific activities/tasks that
    the project team members and stakeholders must perform to
    produce the project deliverables
    • Activity sequencing: identifying and documenting the
    relationships between project activities
    • Activity resource estimating: estimating how many resources
    a project team should use to perform project activities
    • Activity duration estimating: estimating the number of work
    periods that are needed to complete individual activities
    • Schedule development: analyzing activity sequences, activity
    resource estimates, and activity duration estimates to create
    the project schedule
    • Schedule control: controlling and managing changes to the
    project schedule

    Project Time Management 5


    Activity Definition
    • Project schedules grow out of the basic
    documents that initiate a project
    – Project charter includes start and end dates and
    budget information
    – Scope statement and WBS help define what will be
    done
    • Activity definition involves developing a more
    detailed WBS and supporting explanations to
    understand all the work to be done so you can
    develop realistic cost and duration estimates
    Project Time Management 6
    Activity Definition
    • The basis for creating a project schedule is
    derived from four project time management
    processes
    – Activity definition – further defining the scope
    – Activity sequencing – further defining the time
    – Activity resource and activity duration (further
    defining the time and cost)

    7
    Milestones
    • A milestone is a significant event in the course of a project that is
    used to give visibility of progress in terms of achievement of
    predefined goals.
    – Not every deliverable or output created for a project is a
    milestone
    • It often takes several activities and a lot of work to complete a
    milestone
    • They’re useful tools for setting schedule goals and monitoring
    progress
    • Here are a few common project milestone examples: Completing
    key project deliverables like the first version of your app. The start
    date or end date of an important project phase like the 'planning
    phase' or 'designing phase' An important event that greenlights
    the project like project sponsor 8approval.
    Activity Sequencing

    • After defining project activities, the next step is activity sequencing


    – Involves reviewing the activity list and attributes, project scope
    statement, milestone list and approved change requests to
    determine the relationships between activities
    • A dependency or relationship is the sequencing of project
    activities or tasks
    • You must determine dependencies in order to use critical path
    analysis
    9
    Three Types of Dependencies
    • Mandatory dependencies: inherent in the nature
    of the work being performed on a project,
    sometimes referred to as hard logic
    • Optional dependencies: defined by the project
    team; sometimes referred to as soft logic and
    should be used with care since they may limit later
    scheduling options
    – Don’t start detailed design work until users sign-off on
    all the analysis – good practice but can delay project
    • External dependencies: involve relationships
    between project and non-project activities
    – Delivery of new hardware; if delayed can impact project
    schedule

    Project Time Management 10


    Network Diagrams
    Network Diagrams

    • Network diagrams are the preferred technique


    for showing activity sequencing
    • A network diagram is a schematic display of
    the logical relationships among, or sequencing
    of, project activities
    • Two main formats are The arrow and
    Precedence diagramming methods

    Project Time Management 12


    Sample Activity-on-Arrow (AOA)
    Network Diagram for Project X

    13
    Project Time Management
    Arrow Diagramming Method (ADM)

    • Also called activity-on-arrow (AOA) network


    diagrams
    • Activities are represented by arrows
    • Nodes or circles are the starting and ending
    points of activities
    • Can only show finish-to-start dependencies
    • Can omit activities that have no dependencies

    Project Time Management 14


    Process for Creating AOA Diagrams
    1. 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
    2. Continue 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 head a single node
    3. Continue drawing the project network diagram until all
    activities are included on the diagram that have dependencies
    4. As a rule of thumb, all arrowheads should face toward the right,
    and no arrows should cross on an AOA network diagram

    Project Time Management 15


    Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM)

    • More popular than ADM method and used by


    project management software
    • Activities are represented by boxes
    • Arrows show relationships between activities
    • Better at showing different types of
    dependencies

    Project Time Management 16


    Task Dependency Types

    17
    Project Time Management
    Sample PDM Network Diagram

    18
    Project Time Management
    Critical Path
    Critical Path Method (CPM)
    • CPM is a network diagramming technique
    used to predict total project duration
    • A critical path for a project is the series of
    activities that determines the earliest time by
    which the project can be completed
    • The critical path is the longest path through
    the network diagram and has the least
    amount of loose or glide
    • Slack or float is the amount of time an activity
    may be delayed without delaying a
    succeeding activity or the project finish date
    Project Time Management 20
    why critical path is important
    • "The critical path is just a fancy way of saying,
    ‘How long does each task take before you can
    finish the project? Then use this information
    to figure out the project's end date.’ If a task
    takes longer than anticipated, the end date is
    pushed back.
    Calculating the Critical Path

    • First develop a good network diagram


    • Add the duration estimates for all activities on
    each path through the network diagram
    • The longest path is the critical path
    • If one or more of the activities on the critical
    path takes longer than planned, the whole
    project schedule will slip unless the project
    manager takes corrective action

    Project Time Management 22


    Determining the Critical Path for Project X

    23
    Project Time Management

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