1. Project Management: Scheduling
Program Management - Schedule (CS340 John Knight 2005)

2. Milestones Part Of Top-down Approach
Break Large Project Into Small Problems, Each Of Which Can Be Estimated And Planned
A Milestone Is:
An Objectively Identifiable Point In A Project
Good Checkpoints Are:
Clear, Unambiguous, Crisp, Verifiable
Binary: Done Or Not Done
Program Management - Schedule (CS340 John Knight 2005)

3. Program Management - Schedule (CS340 John Knight 2005)
Milestones
Good Examples:
Design Document Reviewed And Signed-off By Management
System Software Successfully Passes Test Data Suite
Bad Examples:
Coding Is 90% Complete (In Terms Of Time, Or Loc? How Do You Know?)
I Have Designed The Program (What’s This Mean? In Your Head, Or On Paper? Has It Been Reviewed, Agreed Upon?)
Be Careful With This
Program Management - Schedule (CS340 John Knight 2005)

4. Program Management - Schedule (CS340 John Knight 2005)
Advice on Milestones
Small, One-person Projects:
Have A Milestone For Every Five Hours Of Work
At Least One Milestone Per Week For Multi-week Projects
(From Watts Humphrey, Introduction To The Personal Software Process)
Program Management - Schedule (CS340 John Knight 2005)

5. Milestones Must Be Visible To Management, Possibly Customer
Advice on Milestones
For Team Projects
Milestones Often Tied To Sign-off (After Review) Of Major Work-products, Such As:
Project Management Plan Document
Software Requirements Specification (SRS) Document
Architecture Document
Detailed Design Document
Stage 1 Code Released (Stage 2,...)
Final Product Released
Milestones Must Be Visible To Management, Possibly Customer
Program Management - Schedule (CS340 John Knight 2005)

6. Schedules and Gantt Charts
What Is A Schedule?
A Schedule Is
A Listing Of Planned Events
Properties:
Ordered By Time
Shows Dependencies Between Tasks
Might Show Assignment Of Tasks To Personnel
Planned Events Tied To Milestones
Program Management - Schedule (CS340 John Knight 2005)

7. Schedules and Gantt Charts
Schedules Must Be:
Realistic
Documented
Updated As Time Passes
Monitored
Schedule Must Embody Parallel Activities
Care Is Needed To Manage Simultaneous Work On Multiple Tasks
Developing A Schedule Assumes You Have A Way Of Estimating Effort...
Program Management - Schedule (CS340 John Knight 2005)

8. Advice on Using Schedules
Schedule Is A Major Risk:
Easy To Fool Yourself
Easy To Be Overly Optimistic
Remember Murphy’s Law!
Schedule Changes And Missed Milestones:
Might Make Original Schedule Unusable
Document Might Require Revision
Program Management - Schedule (CS340 John Knight 2005)

9. Advice on Using Schedules
Suggestions:
Make Sure Milestones Are Clearly Defined And Documented
If Schedule Needs Major Changes, Repeated All Or Part Of Your Planning Process
Do Not Change The Schedule Just To Make Things Look Better
Keep Copies Of Your Original Schedule And All Updates
Recognize That Schedule Has Slipped And Adjust Your Schedule If Needed
Recognize That You Need To Learn To Do A Better Job Next Time So Keep Old Schedules And Compare
Program Management - Schedule (CS340 John Knight 2005)

10. Program Management - Schedule (CS340 John Knight 2005)
Gantt Charts
A Tabular Notation To Document Schedule
Rows Represent Task Ids And Names (Listed In Order).
Columns—Many Variations And Many Optional Notations:
Start-date Column, End-date Column
Task Duration Column (How Long? Hours, Days, Etc.)
Task Assignment Column (Who Is Doing This?)
Task Completion: Percentage-complete Column, Or A Line Through The Task Bar
Timeline—May Be In Terms Of Days, Weeks, Months, Quarters, Etc.
In The Timeline, A Task Bar Indicates Duration Of Task.
Milestones (Aka Checkpoints) Shown Like A Task And A Task Bar, But With A Special Symbol.
Summary “Tasks” And Bars: Higher-level Name Showing A Collection Of Related Tasks (E.g. Requirements Analysis, Or Any “Phase” Or Spiral)
Vertical Line Showing Today's Date
Program Management - Schedule (CS340 John Knight 2005)

11. Program Management - Schedule (CS340 John Knight 2005)
Building Gantt Charts
Make List Of Tasks
Assign Each Task Tentative Start And Stop Dates (Or Durations)
Assign People Responsible For Each Task
List Important Milestones And Their Dates
If There Are More Than About ~15, Split Project Into Main Tasks & Subtasks
Make An Overall Gantt Chart For The Main Tasks With Sub-Gantt Charts For The Subtasks
Determine Time Resolution (Day, Week, Month)
Program Management - Schedule (CS340 John Knight 2005)

12. Tool Support For Gantt Charts
Microsoft Project:
Data File Standard: Mpx Files (“Ms Project Exchange”)
Visio (Drawing Tool In Olsson 001):
Known As “Project Timeline” Diagram
Can Import/export Data In Mpx Format
CS340 Web Page Has Documentation On Available Tools
Program Management - Schedule (CS340 John Knight 2005)

13. Program Management - Schedule (CS340 John Knight 2005)

14. Comments on Example Chart
Two “Summary” Tasks: Requirements Analysis And Requirements Specification (Note The Yellow Triangles On The Ends Of The Bars)
Timeline: Days In A Month
Duration Column: In Days, Hours
Purple-lines In Task Bars Indicate How Much Is Completed
Vertical Line Shows Today's Date. (Task 3 Is Late!)
Milestones: Black Diamonds, Duration Of Zero
“Who” Column Shows Personnel Assignments
Task Dependencies: Arrows From One Task To Another:
First Task Must Be Completed Before The Second Starts
Milestones Depend On Preceding Task(s)
Tool Automatically Adjusts Chart According To Durations, Dependencies
Program Management - Schedule (CS340 John Knight 2005)

15. How to Make a Project Schedule
Identify The Individual Component Tasks For Each Phase Or Spiral
Estimate The Size Of Tasks And Amount Of Time Required
Identify Dependencies Between Tasks:
What Inputs Are Required For Each Task?
In What Previous Task Are These Inputs Created?
Define Milestones:
High-level Milestones
Intermediate Milestones
Low-level Milestones (Separate Personal Schedule Document)
Program Management - Schedule (CS340 John Knight 2005)

16. How to Make a Project Schedule
Assign Tasks To Individual Team Members
Review The Schedule And Its Dependencies With All Involved To Ensure There Are No Conflicts, Disagreements, Or Misunderstandings
Review Schedule, Ensure It Includes All Tasks Required To Complete Project
INCLUDE SLACK TIME AT REGULAR INTERVALS
Program Management - Schedule (CS340 John Knight 2005)

17. PERT and Similar Techniques
Project Evaluation and Review Technique
CPM:
Critical Path Method
Many Other Variations
Applied To Many Fields, Like Construction
Developed In The 1950’s
Program Management - Schedule (CS340 John Knight 2005)

18. PERT and Similar Techniques
PERT Credited With Saving Time And Costs In The Polaris Submarine Project
Start With Another Model Of A Schedule That Shows:
Tasks And Their Dependencies
Potential Bottlenecks In The Schedule
Parts Of The Schedule That Can And Cannot "Slip" (Without Delaying The Entire Project).
Useful Resource:
Program Management - Schedule (CS340 John Knight 2005)

19. Modeling A Schedule Using PERT
The Model Is A Weighted Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG)
Tasks Or Activities Are Arcs Connecting Nodes
Nodes Are Milestones (Events Just Before And Just After Activities)
One Start Node
One Finish Node
Program Management - Schedule (CS340 John Knight 2005)

20. Modeling A Schedule Using PERT
Weights On Arcs Are Times To Complete Activity
Dependencies Between Tasks Are Shown By Creating A Path Through A Set Of Arcs And Nodes.
The DAG Clearly Shows:
Which Activities Must Be Done In Sequence
What Can Be Done In Parallel
Very Useful And Sophisticated Technique—We Just Look At A Small Part
Program Management - Schedule (CS340 John Knight 2005)

21. Program Management - Schedule (CS340 John Knight 2005)
PERT Example
Milestones for preparing for a party:
(A) Invitations Written And Mailed
(B) RSVPs Received
(C) Food And Drink Purchased
(D) Decorations In Place
(E) Food Prepared
(F) Preparations Inspected Before Guests Arrive
Program Management - Schedule (CS340 John Knight 2005)

22. PERT Example (continued)
Solid Arcs Represent Activities
Dashed Arcs Represent A Dependency But Not An Activity
Weight The Arcs With Information On Task Duration
Most Basic: Label With Time To Complete Task
Total Times:
To Proceed Through Milestones ABCEF, Time Would Be 13
To Proceed Through Milestones DF, Time Would Be 3
Program Management - Schedule (CS340 John Knight 2005)

23. Finding the Critical Path
Critical Path: The Longest Of All Paths From Start To Finish
This Clearly Establishes The Total Required Time To Complete The Project
Any Schedule Slippage On Activities On This Path Will Delay The Project
These Activities Referred To As "Bottlenecks".
Activities Not On The Critical Path May Slip Without Affecting Overall Schedule
Program Management - Schedule (CS340 John Knight 2005)

24. Finding the Critical Path
Manager Should Consider:
Doing Everything Possible To Avoid Delays For Activities On Critical Path
How? Start Early, And Apply Risk Analysis And Management!
Reassigning Resources From Non-critical Path Activities To Those On The Critical Path. (But Remember Brook’s Law)
Possibly Delay Activities Not On The Critical Path (If This Helps)
Lower Dependencies Between Tasks, If Possible
More Advanced PERT Techniques:
More Complex Representation Of Duration E.g. Optimistic/realistic/pessimistic
Trade-offs Between Schedule And Cost. Can We Spend More Money Somehow In Order To Complete Critical Tasks More Quickly?
Program Management - Schedule (CS340 John Knight 2005)