Engineering Management & Economy

[HE 304]
Lecture 3
The principles of project management

3-1 The Project Life Cycle

The US Project Management Institute has adopted the project life cycle
proposed by "Morris", who divided projects into four phases or stages:

1-Feasibility stage: includes the development of the project in the formal

drafting of feasibility studies and strategic designs, and the stage of approvals
on all of the above.

2- Planning & Design Stage: including all basic designs and calculate all of the
cost and schedule of the project and the drafting of terms of the contract the
conditions and the detailed plans.

3- Production: Consisting of execution, procurement for civil works,

installations and tests.

4- Turning Over: This includes ending of construction, operation, final

inspection, and maintenance period.

Each of these phases is shown in Figure 1:

 Figure 3-1. Projects life cycle

3-2 Elements of project management

Project management consists of the following elements:

1- Scheduling

2- Budget

3- Resources

4- Monitor progress

5- Reports

3-3 Task Relationship

There are four kinds of logical relationships that link tasks with each other:
1- Finish to Start (FS): Subsequent job begins after the end of the previous task
directly

2- Start to Start (SS): Subsequent task begins with the beginning of the previous
task directly

3- Finish to Finish (FF): Subsequent job ends with the end of the previous task
directly

4- Start to Finish (SF): Previous task begins at the end of the subsequent task
directly

The logical relationships between tasks are shown in figure 3-2.

Figure 3-2. Logical relationships between tasks

The start-to-finish relationship seems to be the model that causes the most
confusion for students of the Project Management, Say you’re building a new
gas pipeline. You would first finish construction and implementation of the new
pipeline before you would begin shutting down and breaking down the old
pipeline. Similarly, implementation of a new accounting system has to be
completed before you can begin turning off the old system.

To represent any construction function, figure 3-3 is used to clarify the ends and
beginnings of tasks
 Early Start (E.S.) Period (P.) Early Finish (E.F.)

Task

Late Start (L.S.) Period (P.) Late Finish (L.F.)

Figure 3-3. Representation of early and late tasks

E.F. = E.S. + P.
L.F. = L.S + P.

3-4 Total Float (T.F.):

The period of time allowed for the activity to be delayed without affecting the
total period of the project.

T.F. = L.F. – E.F.

OR = L.S- E.S.

3-5 Free Float (F.F.):

The period required for the cumulative non-critical activities of the whole
project.

F.F = E.S (Subsequent Task) – E.F ( Previous Task)