Project Management Project Time Management Activity Sequencing and

Project Management

Project Time Management • Activity Sequencing and Network Diagrams • Activity on Arrow (AOA) Network Diagrams • Precedence Diagram Method (PDM) • Gantt Charts • Critical Path Method (CPM) • Gantt. Project Tool

Activity Sequencing and Network Diagrams • Review activities and determine dependencies of project activities or tasks • Determine dependencies in order to use critical path analysis • Network diagrams are used for showing activity sequencing • A network diagram is a schematic display of the logical relationships among, or sequencing of, project activities 3

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) 4

Activity on Arrow (AOA) Network Diagrams • Also called Arrow Diagramming Method (ADM) • A network diagram in which activities are represented by arrows • ADM is used for scheduling activities in a project plan • 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 7

Project Network Diagrams • Also called Precedence Diagram Method (PDM) • A visual representation technique that depicts the activities involved in a project • Communicate the flow of project execution • Identify missing activities: When an activity is not identified, it’ll never be done. • Identify dependencies: Each activity is dependent on some other activity. When a dependency is not identified, the project will be delayed until such a time that identification occurs • Identify critical activities: Certain activities have a greater impact on project schedule than others. This is known as the Critical Path Method (CPM) • Create a project schedule: The final goal is to create a practical and robust project schedule.

Project Network Diagrams • Task Dependency types

Project Network Diagrams

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 11

Gantt Charts • Microsoft Project

Milestones of Gantt Charts • Milestones emphasize accomplishments for large projects • Create milestone by entering tasks that have a zero duration 13

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 14

Critical Path Method (CPM) 15

Critical Path Method (CPM) • Three main techniques for shortening schedules: – Shortening the duration of critical activities or 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 16

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 17

Gantt. Project Tool 18

Action Items • Create your network diagram • Create a Gantt chart for your project • Due day: 10/03/2014, Friday