Project Time Management

Whenever we work in a project , the project is generally targeted either for a market or to automate some process at the back-office which needs immediate attention.

If the project is not delivered on time not only there is a financial loss incurred it also lead to a great damage in image of the party who failed to deliver.

When we talk about commercial project we always talk about them in three 

paradigms : COST , QUALITY and TIME.

TIME is the most talked about factor whenever a project is unsuccessful , even when a project is successful most of the time we see project managers cribbing about the schedule part. Have you ever thought why most of the time we cry about schedule , why most of the time there are schedule overruns?

The reasons:

a. Its easy to measure time.

b. Time passes very quickly

c. We never take into account scope when we talk about time

d. Most of the time when scope changes , the change in schedule is overlooked.

So how can you make sure you do a proper scheduling for your project so that overruns can be avoided?

To do a proper scheduling you need to follow certain sub-process

    

Activity Definition Process

Activity Sequencing Process

Activity Duration Estimation Process

Schedule Development Process

Schedule Control Process

Following are characteristics of an activity

An activity always 

a. Consumes time

b. Requires Resources

c. Incur cost

Step 1 to schedule a project is defining the activity.

Now that we know what an activity is.

We should understand how can we define an activity.

An activity is identified by DECOMPOSITION and is related to at-least one of the rows of WBS.

WBS and Activity have a n...n relationship.

Now that we have identified the activities ,step 2 is sequencing these.To do this first understand the dependencies between the activities.

Dependencies are of three types

There are two ways in which the dependencies can be identified better:

a. Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM)

b. Activity Diagramming Method (ADM)

 Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM) : This is also called Activity on Node(AoN)

The precedence diagram method is a tool for scheduling activities in a project plan. It is a method of constructing a project schedule network diagram that uses boxes, referred to as nodes, to represent activities and connects them with arrows that show the dependencies.

Critical tasks, noncritical tasks, and slack time

Shows the relationship of the tasks to each other

Allows for what-if, worst-case, best-case and most likely scenario

Key elements include determining predecessors and defining attributes such as

An arrow diagramming method (ADM)

This  is a network diagramming technique in which activities are represented by arrows.

It is used for scheduling activities in a project plan.

The precedence relation between activities is represented by circles connecting to one or more arrows. The length of the arrow represents the duration of the relevant activity.

Sometimes a "dummy task" is added, to represent a dependency between tasks, which does not represent any activity.

This is not widely used these days.

Once , we have identified the activities and sequenced them properly, now we need to do Step 3, that is activity duration estimation.

In this step we estimate the time required for the individual activity.

We add relax time to this .

The relax time is added for contingency purpose and should not be disclosed to the team members.

Now that we have identified the activities , sequenced them appropriately and have also have came up with the estimation for duration.

Now, we need to take up Step 4 ,Scheduling the project.

Resource distribution should be done evenly.

Once the schedule is created , it should be revisited , if required it should be crunched.

Always remember ,

Adding resource may not help all the time

9 women cannot get pregnant to deliver baby in 1 month.Resources if required should be added at correct place.

Schedule can be crunched taking into consideration:

a. Leveling of resource : add less resources at start, add more during middle and slowly reduce ,use inverse for schedule.

b.Fast Tracking:Dangerous but may be used. Start modules in parallel.

c. Least incremental Cost: Schedule and resource should be redefined using the least-incremental cost approach.

d. What-if analysis and simulation 

What-if analysis is a brainstorming approach that uses broad, loosely structured questioning to:

Postulate potential upsets that may result in accidents or system performance problems

Ensure that appropriate safeguards against those problems are in place. 

We have learnt 

a. What an activity is

b. how to sequence them

c. Estimate the activities

d. Create a schedule for the project

but then,SCHEDULE SHOULD WORK IN REALITY. The scope of the project changes , the requirement changes so obviously we cannot say that the schedule won't change ever.

Schedule also goes through changes and for that purpose we have step 5 schedule control.

The first , foremost and most important thing is COMMUNICATE the changes in schedule early and clearly to the stake-holder and to do this you need to track the project closely.

Following the above process can help you be on time.

Thats all about the project time management for now.