Project Management © 2004 D. J. Foreman

Introduction What makes a successful project? All tasks included Project completed on time Quality maintained Constraints upheld Decision points clearly visible © 2004 D. J. Foreman

Graphical Tools Gantt Chart shows dependencies with time relationships Pert Chart shows dependencies without time relationships © 2004 D. J. Foreman

Example – the 'student business' schedule

Terms -1 Schedule set of tasks and their sequence Task non-divisible piece of work Current date today's date As-of date separates past and future, (shown as a vertical bar). Allows schedule to 'float' in time and/or be used as a template. Use with "Force future tasks after As-of Date" or an equivalent option. © 2004 D. J. Foreman

Terms -2 Link (FF, SS, FS,SF) (sequential) joining of tasks Status current state of a task Dependency a timing relation between tasks Predecessor task that comes earlier Successor task that comes later Conflicts attempt to simultaneously use exclusive resources © 2004 D. J. Foreman

Terms -3 Duration length of a task/project Completion amount of task finished Critical Path set of consecutive tasks with no delays allowed Milestone task event at a specific date/time has zero duration Span/summary task synopsizes sub-tasks © 2004 D. J. Foreman

Terms -4 Resource people, materials, etc Slack (positive) permissible delay Slack (negative) time that must be recovered to prevent lateness Baseline record of original schedule Future Tasks begin in the future Fixed Tasks specific start/end dates/lengths © 2004 D. J. Foreman

Getting Started Load the default schedule from my web page File / Save as… your name File / Task Info Change start date to specified date Rename tasks Change any other data as needed © 2004 D. J. Foreman

Task Scheduling-1 ASAP Start on 'as-of date', or as soon as possible thereafter Fixed Start/end dates locked-in ALAP Start as late as possible © 2004 D. J. Foreman

Task Scheduling-2 Must Start task must begin on this date Must Finish task must end on this date Critical succeeding tasks cannot start until this task finishes. Required dates may be in trouble. © 2004 D. J. Foreman

Types of Links (and delays) FS FS SS SS FF FF © 2004 D. J. Foreman

Gantt View Fields Field Values Status critical path late complete resource overscheduled delayed (overscheduled resources) scheduled must start (on/after) must finish (on/after) ASAP, ALAP © 2004 D. J. Foreman

Gantt View Fields 2 Field Values ID numeric code to identify the task Slack amount of time before a task is late Duration time to complete a task (date) Effort resource requirement (hours, days, weeks) Dates start, end, late WBS Work Breakdown Structure - identifies tasks based on their position in the schedule OBS Organization Breakdown Structure - identifies tasks by resource group, cost center, or accounting code © 2004 D. J. Foreman

Types of tasks Duration Driven Fixed time to complete Independent of resources Effort Driven Based on resources Time based on applied resources (not used in our projects) Split Assignment Allows for interruptions No effect on duration-driven tasks (same amount of 'work time' involved) Interrupt extends duration for effort- driven tasks © 2004 D. J. Foreman

Priorities & Resource Levelling delaying tasks to resolve conflicts graphical view of resource availability have resource availability data Priorities determine which tasks get shifted during auto-leveling. Resource leveling Histograms Resource calendars Task Priorities © 2004 D. J. Foreman