1. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Successful IT Projects By Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie www.thomsonlearning.co.uk/fasttrack Chapter 5

2. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Lecture 5 Project planning I: activities and schedules

3. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Learning outcomes Produce a work breakdown structure (wbs) Construct a project activity network diagram Analyse a project’s critical path Discuss the use of project management applications

4. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Structure of the lecture PMI’s project time management processes Project planning process –Provide a statement of work (SOW) –Create a WBS –Develop a project schedule Activity network diagrams –Activity on node (AoN) –Activity on arrow (AoA) Gantt charts Use of project management applications

5. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Project time management processes (PMBOK Guide 2004) Activity definition Activity sequencing Activity resource estimation Activity duration estimation Schedule development Schedule control

6. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie The project planning process 1.Develop a statement of work (SOW) 2.Identify the project tasks 3.Create a work breakdown structure (WBS) 4.Identify the milestones 5.Estimate effort/duration of each task 6.Identify the resources required for each task 7.Create the project schedule

7. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Identify the project tasks Produce an initial task list by using one or more of the following: –Project lifecycles –Functional specialisation Organisational roles Knowledge areas –Project objectives –Project deliverables –Information from past projects

8. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Create a work breakdown structure (WBS) A breakdown of the project tasks in a hierarchical tree structure A typical six-level WBS would have the following levels: –Total programme –Project –Task –Sub-task –Work package –Effort

9. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Work package Each work package described with the following information: –What work needs to be done –Who is responsible for carrying out the work –What deliverables and milestones will result –Dependencies on other tasks –Effort/duration (or start and completion dates) –How the work is to be carried out (methods to be used) –The hardware, software and tools required –Any special skills required

10. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Example of a WBS Project Tasks Requirements Capture 1100 Requirements Analysis 1200 System Design 2000 Coding 3000 Testing 4000 Delivery to Operations 5000 Unit & Integration Testing 4100 User Acceptance Testing 4300 Function & System Testing 4200 Requirements Specification 1000 Interviews 1110 Documentation 1130 Observation 1120

11. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Example of a WBS Project Tasks Requirements Capture 1100 Requirements Analysis 1200 System Design 2000 Coding 3000 Testing 4000 Delivery to Operations 5000 Unit & Integration Testing 4100 User Acceptance Testing 4300 Function & System Testing 4200 Requirements Specification 1000 Interviews 1110 Documentation 1130 Observation 1120 Project box, node or root node Nodes or tasks Sub-tasks Terminal node (no further decomposition to be carried out)

12. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Numeric format for a WBS 1000 Requirements specification 1100 Requirements capture 1110 Interviews 1120 Observation 1130 Documentation 1200 Requirements analysis 2000 System design 3000 Coding 4000 Testing 4100 Unit & integration testing 4200 Function & system testing 4300 User acceptance testing 5000 Delivery to operations

13. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Identify the milestones A milestone occurs on the completion of a task that produces a deliverable that significantly contributes to the project’s progress (for example the system design) Milestones are events, not tasks Project funding can be linked to milestones

14. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Estimate effort/duration of each task A bottom-up approach by adding together the effort for all the tasks Measured typically in person-days or person-hours Measures the time needed to complete a task, not the elapsed time (which measures the time that elapses from starting a task to completing it)

15. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Effort estimation table (EET) Note trailing ‘_’ for lowest level tasks with no sub-tasks.

16. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Identify the resources required for each task Resources include: –People –Equipment –Facilities –Services –Materials For example software, hardware, office space and staff

17. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Create the project schedule Tasks to create the project schedule: –Establish the task dependencies –Identify the critical path –Examine the task scheduling –Allocate resources –Set project time data –Establish project completion date –Establish cost schedule –Get customer approval and project team member’s agreement to the schedule

18. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Activity network diagrams Show the sequencing relationship among tasks Two types: –Activity-on-Node (AoN) –Activity-on-Arrow (AoA)

19. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Activity-on-Node (AoN) diagrams A Task name B An AoA node: DC A Earliest start date B Duration C Latest start date D Slack

20. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Linked nodes 1 Literature search 40 DC 41 Literature review 20 DC 1 + 40 = 41

21. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Multiple dependencies 60 System design 10 DC 70 Coding 30 DC 60 Interface design 5 DC

22. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Depicting milestones in an AoN diagram From page x of AoN diagram M1 User acceptance testing 16 2 18 User training 2 M3 20 15 Field testing M4 35 5 Software rollout 1 Produce user training manual 15 M2 3 milestones

23. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Calculating the latest start date 60 System design 10 D65 70 Coding 30 D75 60 Interface design 5 D70 75 - 10 = 65 75 - 5 = 70

24. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Calculating the ‘slack’ 60 System design 10 565 70 Coding 30 575 60 Interface design 5 1070 75 - 70 = 5

25. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Activity-on-Arrow (AoA) diagrams An AoA node: N E L E Earliest time (optimistic, shortest time) L Latest time (pessimistic, longest time) N Node Id

26. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Simple AoA diagram 1 5 8 4 10 13 Observation 5 days

27. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie An example of an AoA chain 12 Systems design 10 days 3 15 days Requirements analysis

28. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Branching 12 B 3 5 A 12 4 C 3

29. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Merging 1 2 E 3 D 4 F

30. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Dummy node 3 5421 A B 12 C 5 D 3 3 Dummy node

31. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Single start and end nodes 4 469 10751 A B C D E 5H 3 5 4 F 5 I 2 1 2 G 4 2 3 0 8 J 8 K L 3 Start node End node

32. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Representing the critical path in AoN diagrams 20 15 Field testing M4 35 5 Software rollout 1 2 Establish field testing plan 18 0 0 From page z of AoN diagram Use of double arrows to mark critical path

33. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Critical path calculation 247 6531 A B C D E 5H 3 0 5 4 F 5 I 2 1 2 G 4

34. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Calculating the critical path 247 6531 A B C D E 5H 3 0 5 4 F 5 I 2 1 2 G 4 PathDuration A, C, G11 B, D, G 9 B, E 9 B, F, H12 B, F, I, (Dummy)11

35. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Critical path identified 247 6531 A B C D E 5H 3 0 5 4 F 5 I 2 1 2 G 4 Use of bold arrows to mark critical path

36. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Task precedence table

37. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Tasks against project timescales RT3T2T1C M IDSD SQL D TD RT3T2T1C M IDSD SQL D TD Day 15101520 M Using earliest start dates Using latest start dates

38. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Initial resource allocation RMT3 TD IDSD SQL C T2 T1D Omar Jane Over allocation of resources Day 15101520 Day 15101520

39. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Floated resource allocation RMT3TD IDSD SQL C T2 T1D Jane Omar M Day 151015 Day 151015

40. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Resource smoothing The APM defines resource smoothing as the “scheduling of activities, within the limits of their float, so that flucuations in individual resource requirements are minimised. …the project completion date may not be delayed.” www.apm.org.uk/RtoT.asp/

41. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Resource levelling The APM defines resource levelling as the “scheduling of activities so that predetermined resource levels are never exceeded. Note: this may cause the minimum overall or specified project duration to be exceeded.” www.apm.org.uk/RtoT.asp/

42. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Mapping the project schedule onto time Set project start date Set project weekly hours for resources Establish project completion date If necessary, adjust project completion date (for example by using extra resources, more experienced staff and better technology) Establish cost schedule Get customer approval Get project team members’ agreement to the schedule

43. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Gantt charts Excellent way to present your project plans Plot the activities/tasks against calendar dates Can show parallel activities Can show resource allocation Can also show project progress

44. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Example of a Gantt chart

45. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Jane Adjusted Gantt chart

46. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Use of planning tools

47. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Uses and Advantages of AoN and AoA diagrams AoN Network DiagramsAoA Network Diagrams Uses: - Is used more typically in computing - Is utilised in project management software applications Advantages: - All the required information about an activity appears in one box - Allows a greater variety of links and various types of dependencies (for example finish-to-start lag) - Does not require dummy activities (and so keeps the number of activities to the real number) Uses: - Is used in engineering and construction Advantages: - There’s a logical resemblance to a bar chart - Events are explicitly shown - Easier to check calculations manually - Easier to find critical path - Can be adjusted to show passage of time - Better at representing relationships with multiple precedents - Dummy activities can be used to simplify complex project interactions

48. Successful IT Projects slides © 2007 Darren Dalcher & Lindsey Brodie Summary The project planning process: –Identifying tasks –Creating a WBS –Scheduling the tasks AoN diagrams AoA diagrams –Identifying a project’s critical path –Establishing a project completion date Gantt charts