Professional Documents
Culture Documents
2 - Activity Planning
2 - Activity Planning
Dr. C. Constantinides
Computer Science and Software Engineering
Concordia University
Scheduling
Having
worked out a method of doing the project
identified the tasks to be carried
assessed the time needed to do each task
WHAT to do.
WHY do it.
HOW to do it.
WHEN to do it
WHO is to do it.
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11
Resource allocation
What are the most effective ways of allocating resources to the
project? When should resources be available?
Staff coordination.
Detailed costing
After allocating resources, we can obtain good estimates of
costs.
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13
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Task 1
Subtask 1.1
Work package 1.1.1
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By functional responsibilities.
According to life-cycle phases, showing each phase as a toplevel breakdown.
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16
Second-level elements
Defined for each phase of the life cycle: inception, elaboration,
construction, transition.
Third-level elements
Focus on the activities that produce the artifacts of each phase.
17
Activity networks
These help us to:
Assess the feasibility of the planned project completion date
Identify when resources will need to be deployed to activities
Calculate when costs will be incurred
This helps the co-ordination and motivation of the project team
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Identifying activities
Work-based approach
Draw-up a Work Breakdown Structure listing the work items
needed
Product-based approach
List the deliverable and intermediate products of project
product breakdown structure (PBS)
Identify the order in which products have to be created
Work out the activities needed to create the products
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Precedence networks
(or activity-on-node networks)
A graph (network), where
Nodes represent activities.
Edges represent precedence (or sequencing) requirements.
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Duration
ES
Activity description
LS
EF
LF
Float
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2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Identify activities
The activities are the tasks required to complete the
project.
It is helpful to list the tasks in a table that in later steps
can be expanded to include information on sequence
and duration.
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Duration (weeks)
Hardware selection
Software design
Install hardware
Code & test software
File take-on
Write user manuals
User training
Install & test system
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4
3
4
3
10
3
2
Precedents
A
B
B
E, F
C, D
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3wks
29
Earliest start
activity
Latest start
Earliest finish
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3wks
36
Work backwards:
Latest finish (LF) for current activity = Latest start for the
following
More than one following activity - take the earliest LS.
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3wks
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Float
The difference between an activitys earliest start date
(ES) and its latest start date (LS) (or the difference
between earliest and latest finish dates) is known as the
activitys float.
Float = LF - ES duration.
FLOAT
LF
ES
activity
LS
EF
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Critical path
2wks
3wks
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Example
Consider an activity where:
Earliest start (ES) = day 5.
Latest finish (LF) = day 30.
Duration = 10 days.
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Activity-on-arrow networks
A graph (network), where
Edges represent activities (may also include durations).
Nodes represent events of activities (or groups of activities),
starting or finishing.
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52
Duration (weeks)
Hardware selection
Software design
Install hardware
Code & test software
File take-on
Write user manuals
User training
Install & test system
6
4
3
4
3
10
3
2
Precedents
A
B
B
E, F
C, D
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60
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Earliest start
date
Earliest
finish date
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
0
0
6
4
4
0
10
9
6
4
9
8
7
10
13
11
6
4
3
4
3
10
3
2
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To remember:
Latest Date (Event) = Earliest of
{LS of all following activities}
LF(activity) = Latest Date (Event) in which the
activity terminates at.
LS(activity) = LF(activity) Duration(activity)
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68
11
70
Duration
(weeks)
Earliest start
date
Latest
start date
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
6
4
3
4
3
10
3
2
0
0
6
4
4
0
10
9
2
3
8
7
7
0
10
11
6
4
9
8
7
10
13
11
8
7
11
11
10
10
13
13
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73
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75
2 mo.
2 mo.
2 mo.
2 mo.
2 mo.
2 mo.
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Notation
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80
2.
3.
4.