Project Management Tools

Cost estimation models

Cost estimation tools

MS Project

Work breakdown structure (WBS)

Activity networks

Gantt chart

Workload chart

Graphs

Contents of a Project Plan: Coursework Overview

Introduction

Project Organisation

Risk Analysis

Quality management

Hardware/Software Resource Requirements

Work Breakdown

Work Packages Specifications

includes activities, deliverables

Project Schedule

including task dependencies, timings, resource allocation

Gantt Chart, Activity Network

Management and Reporting Tools

Project Planning

How can you plan reasonable estimates?

You need to find out answers to the key questions

You must or else you won’t be able to make a reasonable plan!

The key is software scope and then decomposition of functionality

Identify basic scope/requirements with the customer, prior to development of plan.

Very much a feasibility exercise

Identify the basic configuration (hardware and software functionality)

Decompose each major aspect of functionality

size, complexity, interface, performance constraints, resources

Separate the certain from the uncertain!

Don’t leave the uncertain until last!

Scope Definition

Is accomplished by conducting a requirements discovery and analysis exercise, the use of subject matter experts, and a stakeholder analysis

Requirements Discovery

Interviews

History documents

Research

PIECES (Performance, Information, Economics, Control, Efficiency, Service)

Other means e.g. survey, observe, focus group & collect doc.

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

After completing scope planning, the next step is to further define the work by breaking it into manageable pieces “Systems Analysis”

Good scope definition:

helps improve the accuracy of time, cost, and resource estimates

defines a baseline for performance measurement and project control

aids in communicating clear work responsibilities

What Is Project Scope Management?

Scope - refers to all (100%) the work involved in creating the products of the project and the processes used to create them

A Deliverable - is a product produced as part of a project, such as hardware or software, planning documents, or meeting minutes

Project scope management includes the processes involved in defining and controlling what is or is not included in a project.

Project Planning

Resource definition

Description, availability, start/end time required

Resources often take longer to “acquire”/utilise than one thinks!

Don’t leave “until nearer the time”

Project Activity Planning

Purpose of Activity Planning is to create a project schedule

Take the decomposition of the individual project tasks

produce the timing and sequence of the activities, e.g. WBS, WPS, Activity Network and Gantt Chart

Project Planning

Project scheduling co-ordinates parallel activities

trying to utilise the workforce optimally

objective is to ensure project is not delayed because of a critical task

decomposing tasks into an appropriate size is key in project scheduling

A detailed Project Schedule will include several charts

Project Activity Planning

First Stage is a decomposition of activities

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

As diagram (or Indented list)

A WBS is a task decomposition not a sequence diagram

Task hierarchy is by task function/type not timing

Then for each task activity, develop an individual Work Package Specification (WPS)

WBS Uses Throughout the Project

Guide the work of the entire project team

Facilitate communication

Aid the team in building the schedule and budget

Assigning the right person to the right task

Getting the project to a done state

Aid in quality control

Accountability

Reduce scope creep

Aid in budget and schedule progress reporting and performance reporting

Aid in examining alternative steps in building a product

Approaches to Developing WBSs

Using guidelines: some organizations provide guidelines for preparing WBSs

The top-down approach: start with the largest items of the project and break them down

The analogy/parallel approach: review WBSs of similar projects and tailor to your project

Work Breakdown Structure Example

Work Package Specification

Activity 1.1

Name: Analyse Exam Recording Requirements (AN-EX-REC-REQS)

Description: Perform an analysis of the requirements for the University Exam Recording subsystem of the Student MIS and specify its software requirements.

Duration: 1 week

Resources Needed:

Personnel: Senior Analyst and 1 Junior Analyst
Skill: Analysts familiar with current system & have skill in UML
Tools: Software Architect UML Modelling Tool
Travel: One 3-day system requirements review in San Diego

Work Product: Software Requirements specification for AN-EX-REC_REQS

Risks: Id and availability of appropriate users of current system (Risk Monitor/control)

Predecessors: None

Completion Criteria: Reviewed & signed off SRR for system EX-REC by Senior Project manager(Technical) and HOD Exams Office. (quality control)

Software Project Activity Planning

WPSs (Work Package Specification) analysis includes:

Completeness,

Consistency

Total and Sub Costs, Duration

Overall personnel resource requirements

Other resource requirements

Personnel and other Resource Conflicts

Risks, individual and aggregated

The WBS and individual WPSs may be refined during this process

The next task is to draw up an activity list and develop a detailed project schedule (as an Activity Diagram and Gantt Chart)

Activity Networks

An activity list is the first stage in developing the detailed project schedule

A project schedule can be presented in several forms:

Gantt Chart

Activity Network

It is very much the same information in a different form

Dependencies between tasks are shown

Analysis of the schedule is all about identifying the critical path

Any specific path of dependent activities in the project which must not be delayed

Its construction should be fairly straight forward from the activity list

A bit of trial and error (if hand drawn)

For large projects better with a hierarchy of network diagrams

High and low level decomposition

Analysing the Activity Network

Critical Path Method

The longest path through the network which cannot afford any delay

Key terms

Critical Event (has no ‘float’) (no delay)

Earliest Event Time (EET)

Latest Event Time (LET)

Determine EET/LETs and add to the activity network

Earliest event time -- The earliest possible time that an event can occur

Calculated by adding the duration of the intervening activity to the preceding event time. (If several activities terminate on an event node, the longest duration activity must be used)

Latest event time -- The latest possible time that an event can occur

Calculated by subtracting the duration of the subsequent activity from the subsequent event. (If two or more activities terminate on an event node, the shortest duration activity must be used)

Example

From the activity list

Construct an Activity Network

Add to the activity network the Earliest and Latest Event Times for each event

Activity List

Activity	Description	Preceding Activity	Duration (weeks)
A	Booking Process Requirements Analysis	-	3
B	Holiday System Data Modelling	-	4
C	Management Reporting Specification	A	2
D	Interface Design	A	3
E	Database Design and Interfacing	B	3
F	Code & Test Software	D, E	6
G	Customer Acceptance Testing	F	3
H	Site Installation Planning	C	4

Steps

1. Identify the milestones (go through each entry & label the milestones) – create a milestone for each unique combination of values e.g. A is M1, B is M2 etc.

2. Now draw the activity network – remember-

a) if activity has no preceding activity: starts from the “start” node

b) if activity does not form any part of a milestone, it goes straight to the “end” node

3. For the early times – walk through the diagram from left to right, if there are alternate paths, use the greater value

4. For the late times, ‘walk backwards’ through the diagram from right to left, if there are alternate paths, then use the lesser value

An activity network is a graphical depiction of an activity list (with early and late times added)

Times

Activities not on the critical path have flexible start times

The basic analysis of a constructed activity network is via the Critical Path Method (CPM). This essentially involves identifying the longest path through the network.

This longest path is known as the critical path, since any delays in the events on this path will mean that there is an overall delay in the project schedule and thus the ultimate deadline.

Critical Event

A Critical Event is defined as an event having identical earliest and latest event times or that has to be completed in the minimum possible time.

Earliest Event Time

The Earliest Event Time (EET) is the earliest possible time that an event can occur.

This is calculated by adding the duration of the intervening activity to the preceding event.

If several activities terminate on an event/milestone node then the longest duration activity is used.

Latest Event Time (LET)

The Latest Event Time (LET) is the latest possible time that an event can occur.

This is calculated by subtracting the duration of the subsequent activity from the subsequent event.

If two or more activities terminate on an event node, the shortest duration activity must be used.

Times

FLOAT

Total Float – is defined as the amount by which an activity can be delayed if all its preceding activities take place at their earliest possible times and the following activities are allowed to wait until their latest permissible times.

Analyse the event times

Fill in the activity and duration columns and complete the table in the following order

Earliest start (Early value at base of activity arrow for each activity)

Earliest finish = Earliest start + Duration

Latest finish (Late value at the head of the activity arrow for each activity)

Latest start = Latest finish – Duration

Total float = difference of either of the 2 ‘start’ or 2 ‘finish’ columns

Critical Path – activity path(s) where total float is zero

Or by looking at diagram – it is through the nodes with equal earliest and latest start times – use this as a double check

Table 1 Table 2 Table 3 Table 4 Table 5

Critical Event

A Critical Event is defined as

an event having identical earliest and latest event times or that has to be completed in the minimum possible time.

Past exam paper

The project manager in charge of a project is at the stage of having developed the outline task decomposition

for the project and wishes to do some initial project scheduling. This task decomposition is represented in the following activity list table

Activity	Description	Preceding Activity	Duration (weeks)
A	Booking Process Requirements Analysis	-	3
B	Holiday System Data Modelling	-	4
C	Management Reporting Specification	A	2
D	Interface Design	A	3
E	Database Design and Interfacing	B	3
F	Code & Test Software	D, E	6
G	Customer Acceptance Testing	F	3
H	Site Installation Planning	C	4

i) Construct an activity network [5]

ii) Add to the activity network the Earliest and Latest Event Times for each event [3]

iii) Construct a table that provides an analysis of the event times, and the project float. Also identify the Critical Path in this project. [5]

Float Table

Activity	Duration	Earliest Start	Earliest Finish	Latest Start	Latest Finish	Total Float
A	3	0	3	2	5	2
B	4	0	4	0	4	0
C	2	3	5	16	18	13
D	4	3	7	5	9	2
E	5	4	9	4	9	0
F	8	9	17	9	17	0
G	2	5	7	18	20	13
H	3	17	20	17	20	0

Activity network

Content

Describe how project managers use network diagrams to assist in activity sequencing

Understand the relationship between estimating resources and project schedules

Use a Gantt chart for planning and tracking schedule information

Project Time Management Processes

Activity definition: identifying the specific activities that the project team members and stakeholders must perform to produce the project deliverables

Activity sequencing: identifying and documenting the relationships between project activities

Activity resource estimating: estimating how many resources a project team should use to perform project activities

Importance of Project Schedules

Managers often cite delivering projects on time as one of their biggest challenges

Time has the least amount of flexibility; it passes no matter what happens on a project

Schedule issues are the main reason for conflicts on projects, especially during the second half of projects

Project Time Management Processes

Activity duration estimating: estimating the number of work periods that are needed to complete individual activities

Schedule development: analysing activity sequences, activity resource estimates, and activity duration estimates to create the project schedule

Schedule control: controlling and managing changes to the project schedule

Activity Definition

Project schedules grow out of the basic documents that initiate a project

Project charter includes start and end dates and budget information

Scope statement and WBS help define what will be done

Activity definition involves developing a more detailed WBS and supporting explanations to understand all the work to be done so you can develop realistic cost and duration estimates

Milestones

A milestone is a significant event that normally has no duration

It often takes several activities and a lot of work to complete a milestone

They’re useful tools for

setting schedule goals and,

monitoring progress

Examples include

obtaining customer sign-off on key documents or

completion of specific products

Using the Critical Path to Shorten a Project Schedule

Three main techniques for shortening schedules

Shortening durations of critical activities/tasks by adding more resources or changing their scope

Crashing activities by obtaining the greatest amount of schedule compression for the least incremental cost

Fast tracking activities by doing them in parallel or overlapping them

Importance of Updating Critical Path Data

It is important to update project schedule information to meet time goals for a project

The critical path may change as you enter actual start and finish dates

If you know the project completion date will slip, negotiate with the project sponsor

Critical Chain Scheduling

A method of scheduling that considers limited resources when creating a project schedule and includes buffers to protect the project completion date

Summary of Scheduling Techniques for Software Projects

The project schedule specifies time‑ sequencing dependencies among work activities and indicates opportunities for concurrent work activities

Techniques for schedule planning include

Activity Lists: can be generated from work package specs

Activity Networks: graphical illustrations of activity lists

Critical Path Networks: critical time dependencies and slack times

Gantt Charts: illustrates activity duration and start and stop times

Schedule Control

Perform reality checks on schedules

Allow for contingencies

Don’t plan for everyone to work at 100% capacity all the time

Hold progress meetings with stakeholders and be clear and honest in communicating schedule issues

Goals are to:

know the status of the schedule,

influence factors that cause schedule changes,

determine that the schedule has changed,

and manage changes when they occur

Tools and techniques include:

Progress reports

A schedule change control system

Project management software, including schedule comparison charts like the tracking Gantt chart

Performance management, such as earned value

Reality Checks on Scheduling

First review the draft schedule or estimated completion date in the project charter

Prepare a more detailed schedule with the project team

Make sure the schedule is realistic and followed

Alert top management well in advance if there are schedule problems

Using Software to Assist in Time Management

Software for facilitating communications helps people exchange schedule-related information

Decision support models help analyze trade-offs that can be made

Project management software can help in various time management areas

You must enter actual schedule information to compare planned and actual progress

(a) Discuss the purpose and importance of a work breakdown structure (WBS) in project management.

A WBS is a deliverable oriented grouping of the work involved in a project that defines the total scope of the project. Because most projects involve many people and many different deliverables, it is important to organise and divide the work into logical parts based on how the work will be performed. The WBS is a foundation document in project management - it provides the basis for planning and managing project schedules, costs, resources and changes. Can be shown as a task oriented family tree of activities, similar to an organisation chart, or shown in tabular form as an indented list of tasks. Shown in Gantt charts in MS Project.