Project Management Gantt Chart Project Management What is

Project Management & Gantt Chart

Project Management What is a Project? Network Diagrams Critical Path Method Gantt Chart

What is a Project?

What is a Project? One Time Effort Identifiable Start/End Points Specific Objectives Multiple Tasks Resources from Across the Organization Risk and Uncertainty Responsibility

Personnel Roles Project Sponsor Overall responsibility Champion Gives approvals Project Team Leader Day-to-day responsibility to get project done Directs the team in the process of the project Individual Contributor of unique expertise Responsible for specific tasks

Network Diagrams

Purpose of Network Diagrams A network diagram is a schematic display of the logical relationships among, or sequencing of, project activities • Review activities and show activity sequencing • Determine dependencies of project activities • Perform critical path analysis

Network Diagrams Two popular network diagrams: • Activity on Arrow (AOA) network diagrams or Arrow diagramming method (ADM) • Project network diagrams or Precedence Diagram Method (PDM)

Activity on Arrow (AOA) Network Diagrams • Also called Arrow Diagramming Method (ADM) • A network diagram in which activities are represented by arrows • Precedence relationships between activities are represented by circles connected by one or more arrows • The length of the arrow represents the duration of the activity • ADM only shows finish-to-start relationships, meaning that each activity is completed before the successor activity starts • Sometimes a "dummy task" is added, to represent a dependency between tasks, which does not represent any actual activity. Such a dummy task often has a completion time of 0

Activity on Arrow (AOA) Network Diagrams

Activity on Arrow (AOA) Network Diagrams 11

Project Network Diagrams • Also called Precedence Diagram Method (PDM) • PDM allows the overlapping of concurrent activities • Identify activities: When an activity is not identified, it’ll never be done • Identify starting date: When will the activity start? • Identify duration: How long will the activity last? • Identify dependencies: Each activity is dependent on some other activity Identify the type of the activity • Identify resource: quantity and type of resources that will be assigned to each activity • Identify critical path: Certain activities have a greater impact on project schedule than others. This is known as the Critical Path Method (CPM)

Project Network Diagrams • Activity Dependency Types

Project Network Diagrams

Critical Path Method

Critical Path Method (CPM) • CPM is to predict total project duration • A critical path for a project is the series of activities that determines the earliest time by which the project can be completed. • The critical path is the longest path through the network diagram and 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 or the project finish date 16

Critical Path Method (CPM) 17

Critical Path Method (CPM) • Three main techniques for shortening schedules: – Shortening the duration of critical activities 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 18

Gantt Chart

Gantt Charts • Gantt charts provide a standard format for displaying project schedule information by listing project activities and their corresponding start and finish dates in a calendar format • Symbols include: – Black diamonds: Milestones – Thick black bars: Summary tasks – Lighter horizontal bars: Durations of tasks – Arrows: Dependencies between tasks 20

Gantt Charts • Microsoft Project

Milestones of Gantt Charts • Milestones emphasize accomplishments for large projects • Create milestone by entering tasks that have a zero duration 22

Gantt. Project Tool • GPL-licensed (free software) Java based, project management software that runs under the Windows, Linux and Mac OS X • Download: http: //www. ganttproject. biz/ • Handbook: http: //www- mdp. eng. cam. ac. uk/web/CD/engapps/project/ganttproject. pdf • Tutorial: https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=5 r. HCSa 5 ad 34&feature=youtu. be 23

Gantt. Project Tool 24