5

Developing the Schedule

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 Chapter concepts
• Estimate the resources • Prepare a project schedule
required and the duration • Identify and explain the critical
for activities path
• Determine the earliest start • Discuss the project control
and finish times for process
activities • Develop updated schedules
• Determine the latest start based on actual progress and
and finish times for changes
activities • Discuss and apply approaches
• Explain and determine total to control the project schedule
slack • Explain agile project
management
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 Estimate Activity Resources

• Resources include
• People, materials, equipment, facilities
• Influence on the duration
• Availability of the resources
• Types of resources
• Sufficient quantities of resources for the activity durations
• Potential conflicts with other projects may cause
• Involve person with expertise in resource estimate
• Estimates influence costs

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 Estimate Activity Durations

• Duration must be the total elapsed time

• Time for the work to be done plus any associated waiting
time

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 Student Discussion Explain the statement:

The estimated duration should be aggressive

yet realistic.

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 Possible responses to • Durations should not be too
Student Discussion short to try to win the
• Explain the statement: contract
• Inflated estimated durations
The estimated duration is not good practice
should be aggressive yet • Project manager may not be
realistic. able to negotiate shorter
durations
• Some activities will take
longer and others shorter
durations than planned
• As the project progresses,
level of confidence for
accuracy increases

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 Estimate Activity Durations

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 Establish Project Start and Finish Times

• Define the overall window for project completion

• Contractor may not want to commit to a specific date
• Project not start until customer has approved the contract
• Delay in contract signing may impact project start
• Set finish time as number of days from project start

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 Develop Project Schedule

• Prior activities for schedule development

1. Estimate duration of each activity
2. Establish overall window of time for the project
• Develop the schedule timetable
3. Earliest start and finish times based on estimated start date
4. Latest start and finish times based on required completion
date

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 Earliest Start and Finish Times

• Earliest start time (ES)

• Earliest time at which a specific activity can begin
assuming all predecessors have been completed

• Earliest finish time (EF)

• Earliest time by which a specific activity can be
completed

© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 Forward Pass

• Calculate forward through the network diagram

• Earliest start time Rule
 If an activity has only a single immediate predecessor, its
ES equals the EF of the predecessor
 If an activity has multiple immediate predecessors, its ES is
the maximum of all the EF values of its predecessors

ES = Max {EF of all immediate predecessors}

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 Forward Pass

• Earliest finish time Rule

 The earliest finish time (EF) of an activity is the sum of its
earliest start time (ES) and its Estimated duration

EF = ES + Estimated Duration

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 Earliest Start and Finish Times Calculation

• Why is the ES for “Dress Rehearsal” 10?

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 “Identify Target Consumers”

• Start date = 0
• ES = Start date = 0
• Duration = 3
• EF = 0 + 3 = 3

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 “Develop Draft Questionnaire”

• ES = EF Task 1 = 3
• Duration = 10
• EF = 3 + 10 = 13

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 “Pilot-Test Questionnaire”

• ES = EF Task 2 = 13
• Duration = 20
• EF = 13 + 20 = 33

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 “Review Comments & Finalize Questionnaire”

• ES = EF Task 3 = 33
• Duration = 5
• EF = 33 + 5 = 38

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 “Prepare Mailing Labels,” "Print Questionnaire," "Develop Data
Analysis Software," and "Develop Software Test Data"
• ES = EF Task 4 = 38
• Task 5
• Duration = 2
• EF = 38 + 2 = 40
• Task 6
• Duration = 10
• EF = 38 + 10 = 48
• Task 7
• Duration = 12
• EF = 38 + 12 = 50
• Task 8
• Duration = 2
• EF = 38 + 2 = 40
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 “Mail Questionnaire & Get Responses”

• Latest of Tasks 5 and 6 = 48

• ES = EF Task 6 = 48
• Duration = 65
• EF = 48 + 65 = 113

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 “Test Software”

• Latest of Tasks 7 and 8 = 50

• ES = EF Task 7 = 50
• Duration = 5
• EF = 50 + 5 = 55

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 “Input Response Data”

• Latest of Tasks 9 and 10 = 113

• ES = EF Task 9 = 113
• Duration = 7
• EF = 113 + 7 = 120

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 “Analyze Results”

• ES = EF Task 11 = 120
• Duration = 8
• EF = 120 + 8 = 128

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 “Prepare Report”

• ES = EF Task 12 = 128
• Duration = 10
• EF = 128 + 10 = 138

• Project not complete in

required time

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 Schedule Table ES and EF

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 Latest Start and Finish Times

• Latest start time (LS)

• Latest time by which a specific activity must be
started

• Latest finish time (LF)

• Latest time by which a specific activity must be
completed

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 Backward Pass

• Calculate backward through the network diagram

• Latest finish time Rule
• If an activity is an immediate predecessor for just a single
activity, its LF equals the LS of the activity that immediately
follows it
• If an activity is an immediate predecessor to more than one
activity, its LF is the minimum of all LS values of all activities
that immediately follow it

LF = Min {LS of all immediate following activities}

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 Backward Pass

• Latest start time Rule

• The latest start time (LS) of an activity is the
difference of its latest finish time (LF) and its activity
time

LS = LF – Estimated Duration

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 Latest Start and Finish Times Calculation

• Why is the LF for “Print Posters & Brochures” 20?

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 “Prepare Report”

• Required completion = 130

• LF = Complete date = 130
• Duration = 10
• LS = 130 – 10 = 120

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 “Analyze Results”

• LF = LS Task 13 = 120
• Duration = 8
• LS = 120 – 8 = 112

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 “Input Response Data”

• LF = LS Task 12 = 112
• Duration = 7
• LS = 112 – 7 = 105

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 “Test Software” and “Mail Questionnaire & Get
Responses”
• LF = LS Task 11 = 105
• Task 9
• Duration = 65
• LS = 105 – 65 = 40
• Task 10
• Duration = 5
• LS = 105 – 5 = 100

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 "Develop Data Analysis Software" and "Develop
Software Test Data"
• LF = LS Task 10 = 100
• Task 7
• Duration = 12
• LS = 100 – 12 = 88
• Task 8
• Duration = 2
• LS = 100 – 2 = 98

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 “Prepare Mailing Labels” and "Print
Questionnaire”
• LF = LS Task 9 = 40
• Task 5
• Duration = 2
• LS = 40 – 2 = 38
• Task 6
• Duration = 10
• LS = 40 – 10 = 30

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 “Review Comments & Finalize Questionnaire”

• LF = Earliest LS of Tasks
5, 6, 7, and 8 = 30
• LF = LS Task 6 = 30
• Duration = 5
• LS = 30 – 5 = 25

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 “Pilot-Test Questionnaire”

• LF = LS Task 4 = 25
• Duration = 20
• LS = 25 – 20 = 5

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 “Develop Draft Questionnaire”

• LF = LS Task 3 = 5
• Duration = 10
• LS = 5 – 10 = -5

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 “Identify Target Consumers”

• LF = LS Task 2 = -5
• Duration = 3
• LS = -5 – 3 = -8
• Start date = 0

• Project is 8 days late at

start

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 Schedule Table LS and LF

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 Total Slack

• Sometimes called float

• The difference between the project required completion
time and the EF time of last activity
• Negative slack
• Lack of slack over the entire project
• Amount of time an activity must be accelerated
• Positive slack
• Maximum amount of time that the activities on a particular
path (critical path) can be delayed without jeopardizing on-
time completion by the required completion time

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 Total Slack

• Shared among all the activities on critical path

• Total Slack = LF – EF or
Total Slack = LS - ES

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 How much slack is in this
Student Discussion project to put up new
wallpaper?

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 Possible responses to • The total completion time is 20
Student Discussion days
• How much slack is in this • The tasks take 15 days (7 + 5 + 3)
project to put up new • The project has 5 days of slack
wallpaper?

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 Critical Path

• Longest (most-time consuming) path in the overall

network diagram
• Any delay in critical path activities delays the whole
project
• Critical path activities have zero or negative values of
total slack
• Noncritical path activities have positive values of
total slack

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 Critical Path Through a Project

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 Change in Slack for Critical Path

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 Free Slack

• Time a specific activity can be postponed without

delaying the ES of its immediate successor activities
• Calculation:
Always a positive value

Free SlackActivity = Min ESSuccessors – ESActivity–

DurationActivity

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 Calculation of Free Slack

• FS(Activity 5) = Min ES(Activity 9)- ES(Activity 5)-

Duration(Activity 5) = 48 - 38 - 2
FS(Activity 5) = 8
Activity 5 can be delayed up to 8 days without affecting the
ES of activity 9

• FS(Activity 8) = Min ES(Activity 10)- ES(Activity 8)-

Duration(Activity 8) = 50 – 38 - 2
FS(Activity 8) = 10
Activity 8 can be delayed up to 10 days without affecting the
ES of activity 10
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