Chapter 9: Time

Agenda
• What is Time Management?
• What are the Processes?
Project Time Management
• Processes required to ensure timely completion of the project
Project Time Management
Consists of the following processes according to PMBOK (5th Edition):

1. Plan Schedule Management (new)

2. Define Activities
3. Sequence Activities
4. Estimate Activity Resources
5. Estimate Activity Durations
6. Develop Schedule
 Time Management Concepts
List of project Activities
Activity List
Activity attributes
Milestone list
Project Schedule Network diagrams
Activity resource requirements
Resource breakdown structure
Activity duration estimates
Project schedule
Schedule baseline
Communicated with stakeholders
Predecessor and successor activities, logical
relationships, lead and lags, constraints, resources,
and assumptions.
Help synchronize a schedule with stakeholder’s
expectations for timely project completion
Helps create accurate project schedule
Helps estimate the type and quantities of people,
material, equipment, and supplies
Hierarchically categorizes available resources
Parametric estimating, analogous or experience
based estimating, three-point (PERT) method for
estimating, and Delphi approach
Activities Vs. Tasks
• An activity is an element of work performed during the course of a
project.
• An activity normally has an expected duration, an expected cost, and
expected resource requirements.
• Activities can be subdivided into tasks.
PMBOK Time Processes
• PMBOK processes for time management are introduced in the next
few slides.
• The comprehensive details of scheduling are covered in a future
week.
1. Plan Schedule Management
• New process in the PMBOK 5th Edition.
• Describes how the PM should go about:
• Establishing policies, procedures, and documentation for planning
• Establishing plans for creating, managing, executing, and controlling the
project schedule
• Provides guidance and direction on how the project schedule will be
managed throughout the project. 
2. Define Activities
• The WBS work packages are turned into activities, which are the
actions required to produce the deliverables.
• High level WBS activities are decomposed in order to refine the
deliverables to the point where their cost and schedule can be
estimated.
3. Sequence Activities
• This defines the order in which activities must be carried out and the
relationships between them.
4. Estimate Activity Resources
• Resources include people and materials, such as cash, equipment, or
supplies.
• The types and quantities of resources re­quired to complete the
activity are estimated.
5. Estimate Activity Durations

• The time required to complete each activity is estimated.

Compressing Duration by Adding resources
• To compress duration it is logical to add more resources. But this
might create a problem.
• The extra human communications required to add another member
to a programming team takes valuable communication effort.
• Brooks Law “Adding Resources to Late Project makes it Later”

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Example

Brook's law "Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later."

By Fred Brooks, author of "The Mythical Man-Month."
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Impact of Communications
Impact of Communication

Months

Resources

More resources should decrease duration. BUT additional co-ordination is

required subsequently the Effort increases even more.

Communication Effort = n (n-1) / 2

Number of people = 3. 3(3-1)/2 = 3 * 2/2 = 3
Number of people = 4 4(4-1)/2 = 4 * 3/ 2 = 6
6. Develop Schedule
• All of the preceding steps are combined to develop the project
schedule.
• The schedule is an output of the network diagram, which is the focus
of Chapter 10—Network.
Time Management Planning
Process
Define Activities
 
 
Sequence Activities
Estimate Activity Resources
 
Estimate Activity Durations
Develop Schedule
 
Output Deliverables
• Activity List
• Activity attributes
• Milestone list
• Project Schedule Network
diagrams
• Activity resource requirements
• Resource breakdown structure
• Activity duration estimates
• Project schedule
• Schedule baseline
Resources Planning
• Determining what resources (people, equipment, materials) are
needed in what quantities to perform project activities.
• This is an important time management topic
• It is covered in human resources management, and cost estimation.
• Resource planning considers:
• The type of resource (human, computers, concrete) needed
• Quantity of resource needed.
• Performance level of resource should be explicitly defined.
 How do we identify Resource Requirements?
Inputs
¨ Work Breakdown Structure Tools and Techniques
¨ Historical information ¨ Expert judgment
¨ Scope statement ¨ Alternatives identification
¨ Resource pool description ¨ Project management software
¨ Organizational policies
¨ Activity duration estimates

Outputs
¨ Resource requirements

Ref: PMBOK
Estimating Resources : Top Down
• A rule of thumb to estimate the number of resources
• Calculating Team Size (FTE)
Full Time Equivalent resources on the project
• Take the Square Root of Effort
• Square Root of 40 person-months
= 6.5 people

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* Ref: Barry Boehm – Cocomo Model

Estimate at Package Level – Bottom Up
More Accurate
• Resource requirements for each work package or activity (at the
lowest level of the WBS)
• Description of the types of resources
• Quantity of each

Graduation
Party Project
Conclusion
• In this chapter we introduced key processes leading to the creation of
the schedule.
• Control Schedule is not a planning activity.
• We will introduce it when we cover project monitoring and control.