TIME

MANAGEMENT
 Time Processes
Activity Definition

Schedule Control

Activity Sequencing

Schedule Development
Duration Estimation
 Project Time Management Processes

 Identifying and documenting the

activities so that the project
objective will be met
 Processes include:
 Activity sequencing

 Activity duration estimating

 Schedule development

 Schedule control
 Activity Definition
• WBS
• Scope statement
• Historical data & expert Inputs
judgment
• Constraints & assumption

• Decomposition Tools & Techniques

• Templates

• Activity List (including all

activities)
• Updated WBS
Outputs
 Work Breakdown Structure
 “Project best understood by breaking it down into its parts”

 Deliverable-Oriented Grouping of project elements

 Defines the total scope of the project

 Start at top, progressively break work down (tree structure)

 Packages give clear work assignments

WBS Example
 Activity Sequencing
 Involves identifying and documenting interactive
and logical relationships
 Activity Sequencing
• Activity list
• Product description
• Mandatory dependencies Inputs
• Discretionary dependencies
• External dependencies
• Milestones

 Precedence Diagramming Method

(PDM)
Tools & Techniques
 Arrow Diagramming Method
(ADM)
 Condition Diagramming Method
 Network templates

• Project network diagrams

• Activity list updates
Outputs
 Activity Sequencing
 Review activities & determine dependencies
 Mandatory dependencies: inherent in the nature
of the work; hard logic
 Discretionary: defined by the project team; soft
logic
 External: involve relationships between project
and external activities
 Must determine dependencies to use critical
path analysis
 Task Dependency Types

Ref: MS Project 2003

 Precedence Diagramming Method
(PDM)
 Activities are represented by boxes
 Arrows show relationships between activities
 More popular than ADM method as used by PM software
 Better at showing different types of dependencies
 In PDM, finish-to-start is the most common relationship
 Activity Diagramming Method
(ADM)
 Also called activity on arrow (AOA)
 Uses arrows to represent activities
 Connects activities with nodes
 Uses only finish-to-start dependencies
 May require dummy activities to define relationships
 Conditional Diagramming Method
 Allows for looping and conditional
branching
 Graphical Evaluation and Review
Technique (GERT)
 System Dynamic models

Network Templates

• Standardized networks to speed up preparation

of project network diagrams
• Portions of a network are often called subnets or fragnets
• Useful when a project includes several identical features
 Activity Duration Estimating

 Activity duration estimating involves assessing the

number of work periods likely to be needed to
complete each identified activity.
 The person or group on the project team who is most
familiar with the nature of a specific activity should
make or at least approve the estimate. 
Activity Duration Estimating
• Updated Activity list
• Network Diagram
• Historical information Inputs
• Resource Capabilities &
Requirement
• Identified risk Constraints
Assumptions

 Expert
Tools & Techniques
 Analogous
 Quantitatively bases
 Reserve

• Duration Estimates & Basis

• Activity list updates
Outputs
 Exercise
 Develop a critical path diagram and determine
 the duration
 the critical path
 slack times

Activity Prec. Weeks

Assess customer's needs A - 2
Write and submit proposal B A 1
Obtain approval C B 1
Develop service vision and goals D C 2
Train employees E C 5
Quality improvement pilot groups F D, E 5
Write assessment report G F 1
 Time Estimates/Pert Duration
Calculation for Single Activity
Immediate
Task Predecesors Optimistic Most Likely Pessimistic
A None 3 6 15
B None 2 4 14
C A 6 12 30
D A 2 5 8
E C 5 11 17
F D 3 6 15
G B 3 9 27
H E,F 1 4 7
I G,H 4 19 28

Expected Time= Opt. Time + 4(Most Likely Time) + Pess. Time

6
 Schedule Development
Estimating
 People doing the work must estimate

PM’s Role
 Provide team with info
 Check estimate

 Formulate reserve
Schedule Development
• Activity List Update
• Duration Estimates
• Calendars Inputs
• Risk management plan

• CPM Tools & Techniques

• PERT
• Compression

• Schedule Mgmt. Plan

• Schedule Outputs
• Resource Requirements
 Other Topics
 Critical Path Method
 Program Evaluation and Review Technique
 Monte Carlo Simulation
 Slack
 Duration Estimate
 Resource Leveling Heuristics
 CPM
 Calculates deterministic early and late start
and finish date.
 Single estimate.
 Focus of CPM is on calculating float.
 Activity A: LF =15, EF = 5
 LF – EF = 15 – 5 = 10
 PERT/ Crashing
 Weighted average duration estimate
 Optimistic, Pessimistic and Most Likely
 PERT is seldom used today.
 But very popular for cost estimating obtaining
MEAN and standard deviation (P.4L.O technique)
 Schedule Compression
 Two techniques are mentioned
 Crashing and Fast Tracking
 Crashing
 Focus on reducing costs

 Focus is on critical path

Crashing (Duration Compression)

 Analyze cost and schedule trade-offs
 Determine most compression for least cost.

 (Crash Cost – Normal Cost)/(Crash time – Normal

time)
 Fast Tracking
 Focus is on “parallel processing”

 Half way through design we start coding

phase.
 Risky-If the design is changed we have to
start the coding phase again from scratch.
 Schedule Control
 Schedule updates: any modification to the schedule
information used to manage the project

 Revisions: special categories of schedule update and

are changes to the start and finish dates.

 Rebase lining: When a schedule delay is too severe.

Is needed to provide realistic data to measure
performance.
 Schedule Control
• Schedule Management Plan
• Resources Requirements
• Progress Report Inputs
• Schedule

• Change Control Tools & Techniques

• Reporting
• Measurement Systems

• Activity List (include all

activities)
• Updated WBS
Outputs
 Glossary
 Heuristics: rules of thumb or guidelines that have been learned
through experience and trial and error
 Time constrained schedule: A project schedule that is fixed.
 Resource constrained scheduling: is a special case of resource
leveling where the heuristic involved is a limitation on the
quantity of resources available
 Critical Chain: A combination of the project’s critical path and
the scare resources that together constitute the constrains that
needs to be managed
 Theory of constraints: The tendency by those persons
responsible for executing activities to be too conservative in
their duration estimating, resulting in extended project
durations and overestimation of the required production
resources such as staff specialists or unique equipment
 Sample Questions
1.- The estimate for a task is O= 3 days, P= 7
days, M=4 days. What is the standard
deviation for this task?
a) 5/6 of a day

b) 2/3 of a day

c) 1 ½ days

d) 5 2/3 days
 Explanation

The standard deviation is computed by

(P-O)/6. Therefore, the answer is:
= (4)/6=2/3 of a day
 Sample Questions
2.- A heuristic is best described as a:
a) Control tool

b) Scheduling method

c) Planning tool

d) Rule of thumb
 Sample Questions
3.- Which estimating method uses one time
estimate for each task?
a) PERT

b) CPM

c) Monte Carlo

d) Control charts
 References
 PMBOK, 2000 PMI