Project Management Training - Scheduling (2)

Evaluating the Trade off Triangle

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Time Scope

Budget, Time and Goal. Balance among three aspects.

Working with What If Scenarios

Direct question is not good, what if is better


Defining your project

A clear project definitions are important
1. Clear up misconceptions
2. prevent scope creep
3. preserves a record

Characteristics of a clear definition: STORM
Specific
Time limited
Owned (resource allocation, department involved)
Realistic
Measurable (How do we know we are done)

Distribute final definition to your team and client.

Generating the WBS

WBS= project outline

Top Down Bottom Up

Estimating Durations

People who will do the work should estimate the duration

Most Likely = 10 days
Optimistic = 7 days
Pessimistic = 20 days

(4 * M) + O + P
duration = ----------------
6

Adding dependencies

No lag
Lag
Lead (negative lag)


Utilizing constraints

As soon as possible
As late as possbile

Fixed Constraints (Fixed Start/End)

Start No Earlier Than
Start No Later Than: Availability of a contractoer or supplies, or beginning of a fiscal quarter
Finish No Earlier Than
Finish No Later Than

Calculating the critical path

know your project finish date and optimal schedule
know which tasks to focus your resources and funding on
see how to best assign your resources.

Assigning your resources


assign resources to normal tasks
not assign resources to summaries

Reasons to assign resources in your Gantt chart
give your resources a picture of their role in the project
a timeline of when tasks must be completed
avoid overbooking your resources

Resource Leveling: act of delaying tasks for overbooked resources to the next available time slot.

Things to consider when assigning resources:
1. Which tasks are critical?
2. What skills are needed for each task?
3. What skills so your resources have?
4. Therefore, which resource can do which task? if some tasks can only be completed by one or two people, assign them first.
5. Give your resources equal work.

Non-collaborative
collaborative
committee
duration based

Not all resources work at the same rate.


Tracking your projects

baseline
baseline: a snapshot of the project that will not change
actuals: the actual dates that tasks started and finished
baseline vs. actuals: comparion between plan and reality
variance: the difference between the baseline and actuals

Project Tracking and Managing Variance

Questions about tracking:

How frequently will you update?
Who will update - team members or an individual
What standard reports will be used?
How often will team meetings be held?
Have you allocated time for managing variance?

cutting scope
re-evaluate dependencies
leveling resources