Project Management

Project Management
The

on-going process of directing and coordinating all the steps in the development of an information system Goal to produce an IS that is acceptable to its end-user developed within the specified time frame and budget

Project Management...
Role recognize such factors and to eliminate/minimize their negative effects Players manages a project to develop an IS defines a projects activities and events estimates the time and cost necessary to complete each activity

Project Management...
Players (cont...) schedules and assigns the activities to specific members of the project team coordinates activities monitors events evaluates and reports on the progress of the activities and events

Project Scheduling
determining

the order in which activities will be performed, setting start and end times for each activity, and assigning specific tasks to team members SCHEDULING TOOLS
GANTT Charts PERT/ CPM Charts

GANTT Charts
GANTT

Charts

developed by Henry L. Gantt a horizontal bar that graphically illustrates a schedule horizontal axis : time vertical axis : activity length of the bar indicates duration of the activity

GANTT Charts...
GANTT

Charts (cont...)

positioning of the bar shows the start and end of the activity useful for tracking and reporting progress graphically displays a schedule often used to report progress because they present an easily understood picture of project status

GANTT Charts...

1. The completed portion of each bar is shaded.

GANTT Charts...
current date

2. A triangle or arrowhead indicator is used.

GANTT Charts...

3. A second bar shows the completed work.

GANTT Charts...
Problems

no indication of activity dependencies how an activity which is behind schedule can influence the entire project no. of hours per day required to complete an activity is not shown no. of people assigned is also not shown it can not determine how far ahead/behind schedule a project is

Create

a Gantt Chart

Task 1 Jan. 14 Feb 10 Task 2 Feb 19 Mar 18 Task 3 Mar 16 Apr. 24 Task 4 May 4 May 31 Task 5 Mar 19 Apr 14 Task 6 Apr 16 Jun 6 Task 7 May 16 July 14

PERT/ CPM Charts

PERT

(Program Evaluation Review Technique)

developed by the Navy Special Projects Office in 1950s to control the development of the Polaris submarine missile program(Three point estimate)

CPM

(Critical Path Method)

developed by the private industry at the same time as PERT to meet similar project management needs (Single point estimate)

PERT/ CPM Charts...

Charting

Conventions

Activity

- Describes each task

Shown as vectors -Line with an Event Represented as branches (lines) -Identified by letters - Start/end of an activity

PERT/ CPM Charts...

Event

displayed graphically as nodes, circle or rectangle identified as node in the network

Path

sequence of activities leading from the beginning node to the final node

PERT/ CPM Charts...

Dummy

Activities

indicated by dotted lines no labeled process description/time used to ensure continuity

Simultaneous

activity

serial arrangement means one after the other parallel format shows overlapping activities

PERT/ CPM Charts...

Concepts:

Optimistic time estimate completion time expected if everything went exactly as planned Pessimistic time estimate completion time expected if everything possible went wrong Most likely time estimate only if normal problems are encountered Critical Path defines the most sensitive part of the chart that may affect the schedule of the whole project (longest time to complete) Slack extra time to do an activity without affecting project schedules

Getting ET

the Estimated Time and Slack

= Optimistic + 4 x Most Likely + Pessimistic / 6 = Earliest Finish Latest

Slack/Float

Finish

PERT/ CPM Charts...

Rules in PERT/CPM Networks Each activity must be represented by its own branch on the chart. Direction of time flows is indicated by arrows. An activity line meeting an event node indicates activity completion. The length of an activity branch is not representative of the time the activity will take.

PERT/ CPM Charts...

Relationship

between activities are determined by the sequence of the branches. If several activities terminate at one node, no activities starting at that node may begin until all entering activities are completed. For analysis reason, no two activities are allowed to both start and end at the same nodes. If the project network would seem to require this, a dummy activity must be inserted. A dummy activity has no time, it merely preserves the proper sequencing in the network design.

PERT/ CPM Charts...

Steps

included: 1. determine the activities needed to complete the project 2. sequential relationship of these activities (try to establish as many simultaneous activities as possible 3. estimate the completion time for each activity 4. draw the PERT/CPM network, showing the relationship activities as determined in STEP 2

PERT/ CPM Charts...

Steps

included: 5. starting with the beginning node of the network, use the earliest start earliest finish relationships to determine the project completion time (Forward Pass) 6. moving to the end node of the network, use the latest start latest finish relationships to determine the activities on the critical path and the float for activities not on the critical path

PERT/ CPM Charts...

7. use the earliest time - earliest finish relationships in STEP 5 and the latest start latest finish relationships in STEP 6 to develop an activity time table for the project

Network Diagram The most common information shown is: The activity name The normal duration time The early start time (ES) The early finish time (EF) The late start time (LS) The late finish time (LF) The slack