FIT426. Project Management .

Lecture 6

TIME MANAGEMENT
How important is “time”?
 Time has the least flexibility
 Passes no matter what happens to the project
 Delivering project on time is difficult
 What affects time?
 Individual characteristics
 Cultural differences
 Scope changes in project
Processes in Time Management

Resource Determinin
Definition Sequencing Scheduling Controlling
estimating g duration
Figure 6-1. Project Time Management Summary

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Definition Definitio
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 An activity (or task) is an element of work

 Normally in WBS
 Has duration, cost, and resource needs
 Schedules grow out of documents that initiate a
project
 Project charter – start/end dates, and budget
 Scope and WBS define what will be done
 Involves developing
 Detailed WBS with explanations of work to be done
 Develop realistic cost and duration estimates
Definition (cont’d) Definitio
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 In developing task details

 Create activity list
 Activity attributes
 Milestones
 Activity list includes: ID, Name and description
 Activity attributes provide more information from
above
 Predecessors and successors
 Leads and lags
 Resources requirements and constraints
Definition (cont’d) Definitio
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 A milestone is a significant event of the project

 Usually, don’t have a duration associated to it
 Several WBS activities made a milestone
 Milestones are good for setting
 Schedule goals
 Targets for team and as performance measures
 Reporting for upper management
 Examples
 Customer sign-off on key documents
 Complete a feature
Definition (cont’d) Definitio
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 Milestones should always be SMART

 Specific
 Measurable
 Assignable
 Realistic
 Time-framed
Sequencing Definitio
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 Determine an order for all the activities to be

undertaken
 Need to consider dependencies of activities
 Dependencies is needed to determine critical path
 Types of dependencies
 Mandatory
 Discretionary
 External
Apply lead and lag Definitio
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 Lags: a lag is inserted waiting time between

activities
 Leads: a lead may be added to start an activity
before the predecessor activity is completed
Showing Sequence Definitio
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 A network diagram is a display of activities and

their sequences
 Two methods
 Arrow
 Precedence diagramming
Showing Sequence (cont’d) Definitio
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Resourcing Definitio
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 You need to have

 Good idea of the quantity and
 Type of resources to be assigned to each activity
 Consider the following
 How difficult will it be to complete specific activities on
this project?
 What is the organization’s history in doing similar
activities?
 Are the required resources available?
Determining Duration Definitio
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 Duration includes
 Actual amount of time worked on an activity
 Elapsed time
 Effort is the number of workdays or work hours
required to complete a task
 Effort does not normally equal duration
 People doing the work should help create
estimates, and an expert should review them
 Use 3-point estimate in PERT
 Resource Determi
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 Expert Judgment
 Recommend maximum activity durations, suggest
specific assumptions to make
 Analogous Estimating
 Analogous estimating uses historical information and
expert judgment. E.g. the last five projects similar to
this one each took 5 months, so this one should also
3 point estimate
 Adds estimation of uncertainty and risk to
duration estimate to improve accuracy
 The person estimating the activity provides an
Optimistic (O), Pessimistic (P) and Most likely
(M) estimate for each activity
 PERT = (O+4M+P)/6
 Standard Deviation = (P-O)/6
 Variance = [(P-O)/6]^2
 Useful when project teams facing a new type of
activity
 Resource Determi
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 Parametric Estimating
 Use mathematical model based on such measures as time
per linear meter or time per installation.
 Useful in industries that use standard estimating units for
work
 Reserve analysis
 Duration estimates may include contingency reserves,
(sometimes referred to as time reserves or buffers) into the
overall project schedule to account for schedule
uncertainty. The contingency reserve may be a percentage
of the estimated activity duration.
 As more precise information about the project becomes
available, the contingency reserve may be used, reduced, or
eliminated..
Scheduling Definitio
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 Previous projects are good references!

 Always create a realistic schedule
 The first tool for monitoring progress
 Consequences of unrealistic schedule is BIG!
 Many different tools
 Gantt charts
 Critical path analysis
 Critical chain scheduling
 PERT analysis
Scheduling (cont’d) Definitio
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Gantt Charts Definitio
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 Time schedule in a table format

 Overview of project timeline
 Shows major tasks and milestones
 Focus on ordering and length of activities
 Displays ordering of tasks
 Displays dependencies between tasks
 Assigns an estimated time to each task
 Can assign staff to tasks
Building a Gantt Chart Definitio
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 Decide on major tasks

 Decide on major milestones
 Work out ordering of tasks
 Work out dependencies between tasks
 Plot tasks and milestones on chart
 Add staff availability and adjust
 Consider other factors and adjust
 Holidays, availability of resources, other commitments,
extra time for contingencies
Building an Activity Network
 Determine major tasks, length of task
 Determine dependencies between tasks (logical,
staff, resource)
 Plot tasks and dependencies on chart
 Work forwards from start date to calculate end
date
 Work backwards from end date to calculate
earliest finishing times
 Identify critical path and float
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Scheduling (cont’d) Definitio
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 Technique to predict total project duration

 A critical path is series of activities that
determines the earliest project completion time
 Is the longest path in a network diagram
 Has the least amount of slack or float
 Slack (or float) is the amount of time an activity
can be delayed without delaying
 a succeeding activity
 the project finish date
 Resource Determi
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Calculating the Critical Path Definitio
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 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

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Using Critical Path Analysis to Make Schedule
Trade-offs
 Free slack or free float is the amount of time an
activity can be delayed without delaying the early
start of any immediately following activities
 Total slack or total float is the amount of time an
activity may be delayed from its early start without
delaying the planned project finish date
 A forward pass through the network diagram
determines the early start and finish dates
 A backward pass determines the late start and
finish dates Definitio
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Figure 6-9. Calculating Early and Late Start and Finish Dates

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Table 6-1. Free and Total Float or Slack for Project X

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Task dependencies and length

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Forward pass with earliest times

If more than 1
preceding box - use
latest date

Wk 0
Wk 13

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Backward pass with latest times

Wk 13
If more than
7 10
1 preceding
box - use
earliest date

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Float and critical path

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Using the Critical Path to Shorten a Project Schedule

 Three main techniques for shortening schedules

 Shortening durations of critical activities/tasks by
adding more resources or changing their scope
 Crashing activities by obtaining the greatest amount of
schedule compression for the least incremental cost
 Fast tracking activities by doing them in parallel or
overlapping them

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Importance of Updating Critical Path Data

 It is important to update project schedule

information to meet time goals for a project
 The critical path may change as you enter actual
start and finish dates
 If you know the project completion date will slip,
negotiate with the project sponsor

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Critical Chain Scheduling Definitio
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 Critical chain scheduling

 A method of scheduling that considers limited
resources when creating a project schedule and
includes buffers to protect the project completion date
 Uses the Theory of Constraints (TOC)
 A management philosophy developed by Eliyahu M.
Goldratt and introduced in his book The Goal
 Attempts to minimize multitasking
 When a resource works on more than one task at a time

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Figures 6-10a and 6-10b. Multitasking Example
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Buffers and Critical Chain Definitio
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 A buffer is additional time to complete a task

 Murphy’s Law states that if something can go
wrong, it will
 Parkinson’s Law states that work expands to fill the
time allowed
 In traditional estimates, people often add a buffer
to each task and use it if it’s needed or not
 Critical chain scheduling removes buffers from
individual tasks and instead creates:
 Project buffers or additional time added before the
project’s due date
 Feeding buffers or additional time added before tasks on
the critical path
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Figure 6-11. Example of Critical Chain Scheduling

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Scheduling (cont’d) Definitio
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 PERT is a network analysis technique to estimate

project duration
 Good when there is a high degree of uncertainty in
activity duration
 Uses probabilistic time estimates
 Remember the three-point estimate?
 Calculate PERT duration by averaging the total of
 1x Optimistic time
 4x most likely time
 1x Pessimistic time
PERT Formula and Example Definitio
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 PERT weighted average =

optimistic time + 4X most likely time + pessimistic time
6
 Example:
PERT weighted average =
8 workdays + 4 X 10 workdays + 24 workdays = 12 days 6
where optimistic time = 8 days
most likely time = 10 days, and
pessimistic time = 24 days

Therefore, you’d use 12 days on the network diagram instead of

10 when using PERT for the above example

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Controlling Definitio
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 Everything has to be monitored

 Check your schedule regularly
 Hold progress meetings with stakeholders and team
 Best practices
 Always allow for contingencies
 Never plan for everyone to work at 100%
 Everyone should stick to the schedule (just like the
project plans!)
 Empower your team in the right way helps keep health
of project in place
TIME MANAGEMENT IN
AGILE METHODS
Agile Approaches to Time Management

 Time-boxing
 Short cycles
 Short tasks
 Kanban boards
Time-boxing – in DSDM

 A FIXED period of time in which you aim to

achieve an objective
 3 different levels: Project, Increment and
Development
 A development timebox should be 2 to 4
weeks, maybe 6
 Roughly - 60% Must haves, 20% Should haves 20%
Could haves
 Accept that you won’t do everything you plan
 May have to drop some lower priority tasks
 Therefore estimation must be ‘reasonable’
Timeboxing approach
 A development timebox has 5 main stages:
1. Kick off plan how to deal with requirements identified
meeting
2. Investigation of the products to be delivered
3. Refinement development of the products including
testing and reviews
4. Consolidation finish off work and final testing,
completion of documents and merging with previous
products
5. Close out review what has been achieved
MoSCoW Prioritisation
• Must have
 No point in delivering on target date without it
 Not legal or unsafe without it
• Should have
 Important, but not vital
 Painful to leave out, but the solution is still viable
• Could have
 Wanted or desirable but less important
 Less impact if left out (compared to Should have)
• Won’t have this time
 Requirements that can be delivered later
Prioritising

 As a rule of thumb the division of priorities within

a timebox should be

Must Have Approx 60% of effort

Should Have Approx 20% of effort
Could Have Approx 20% of effort

 The estimated effort in the Must Haves should

never be above 75%
How might a project look?

8m
A Project

Feasibility 2m 3m 2m 1m
Incr. One Incr. Two Incr. Three
Foundations

T.BOX 1m T.BOX 1m T.BOX 1m

Control is achieved at the lowest

2wk 2wk level of timeboxing
t.box t.box
High level Timeboxing

Increment One Increment Two Increment Three

M
S
S S M
M
C C
C
Short cycles
 A principle used in many agile approaches is to
make time slots short and focussed
 At a project level reducing cycle time allows you to
produce something for the customer quicker
 At a team level, reducing the time for each task
helps to manage the problems of estimation and
keeps tasks on track
 Parkinson’s law – work expands to fill the time available
for its completion
 Student’s syndrome – people only start to work hard at
the last possible moment before a deadline. This leads to
wasting buffers built into individual task estimates
Pomodoro approach
 Developed by Francesco Cirillo
 Work in uninterrupted 25 minute sessions called
Pomodoros
 At the end of each Pomodor there is a short break
 After every set of 3 or 4 Pomodoros there is a
longer break

 http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/
Short tasks
 Break big tasks down into small sections
 Easier to estimate small tasks than big tasks
 Quicker to complete
 Easier to tell when they’re complete
 But don’t do this too early in the process
 initial planning is done with ‘coarse-grained’ tasks
 estimate fine-grained tasks just before you do them
 Breaking tasks into smaller tasks only helps up to a
point – sometimes it can hinder (may take extra time to
estimate, may start creating tasks that don’t need to be
done)
Wall charts and Kanban boards
 XP has a practice called the ‘informative workspace’ –
can see how the project is going at a glance
 Kanban boards are one way of doing this (Kanban is a
Japanese process control method used in factories for
‘just-in-time’ “pull” production)
 Tasks are represented by cards/post-it-notes
 Areas on the board are labelled i.e. ‘To do’, ‘Doing’, ‘Done’
 Tasks are small – so you maintain a good ‘workflow’
 As each individual/team takes on a task they move the
post-it-note. As each task is finished they take another task
 Columns have ‘limits’ to manage process flow
 Example Leankit software tool
Anderson’s 6 Kanban principles
 Visualise - The workflow of knowledge work is
inherently invisible. Visualising work flow and making
it visible is core to understanding how work proceeds.
 Limit WIP - Limiting work-in-process implies that a pull
system is implemented on parts or all of the workflow.
The pull system acts as the main stimuli for continuous,
incremental and evolutionary changes. Each state in
the workflow is limited and new work is “pulled” into
the activity when there is capacity
 Manage flow - The flow of work through each state in
the workflow should be monitored, measured and
reported. This is so the system can be evaluated.
 Make policies explicit - Until the mechanism of a
process is made explicit it is often hard or impossible to
hold a discussion about improving it. This is more likely
to facilitate consensus around improvement suggestions.
 Implement feedback loops – Collaborate to review flow
of work and demand versus capability measures, metrics
and indicators coupled with anecdotal narrative
explaining notable events.
 Improve collaboratively, evolve experimentally (using
models and the scientific method) The Kanban method
encourages small continuous, incremental and
evolutionary changes that stick.
Kanban Board example
Kanban board example
Kanban board example
Summary
 Time management essentially means
 Developing a schedule
 Sticking to the schedule during execution
 Identifying issues in schedule
 Updating schedule as project progresses
 Workshop 5
 Learn how to calculate CPM
 Learn about Gantt chart and PERT
 Read accompanying textbook slides NOW!