Time Management

Time management

Time management for timely completion of a project is not an easy thing to accomplish, with so many aspects to it, yet especially for projects that affect business operations and even profit; it is also a critical area.

The main processes of time management can be broken down into:

·  activity definition

·  activity sequencing, including the use of network diagrams

·  activity duration estimates

·  schedule planning and control.

Defining and sequencing activities

Activity definition involves identifying all of the specific activities or tasks for the project. A task is an element of work that is contained in the work breakdown structure found in the scope document that was developed at part of scope management.

Each task has:

·  an expected duration

·  an estimated cost

·  resource requirements.

Activity definition usually results in a very detailed work breakdown structure from which the project team has a complete understanding of the work that is required to achieve the project deliverables.

Activity sequencing

Activity sequencing involves identifying and documenting relationships between project activities. These relationships are also known as dependencies. Dependencies can be of three types:

·  mandatory, such as software testing that cannot occur until software is written

·  discretionary, for example if the project manager decides that ordering of certain resources will not be done until funds are made available

·  external, such as in the installation of a new computer system that may depend on the delivery of software from a vendor.

Once you have determined all of the task dependencies, the sequencing of the tasks can be done with something as simple as a list for small projects. However as the projects get larger the preferred method of showing the activity sequence is to use a network diagram.

Network diagrams

A network diagram is a schematic display of the logical relationships between tasks as shown in the simple example in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Example of a precedence diagram method (PDM) network diagram

There are several types of network diagrams, but those most commonly used are the PDM (as above) and the arrow diagram method (ADM).

Figure 2: An example of an ADM network diagram

It is outside of the scope of this topic to discuss these methods in detail, but basically, they are read from left to right and follow the same rules:

·  all predecessors must be to the left of their successor tasks

·  there are no loops or backward flow sequences

·  all nodes except ‘start project’ and ‘end project’ have at least one predecessor and one successor node and therefore there are no ‘orphan’ nodes

·  a path is a sequence of tasks from the start to the finish

·  each network may have several paths from start to finish.

The critical path is the sequence of tasks that forms the longest duration of the project, based on the task work estimates. A delay in any of the tasks and all tasks that are on this path affect the final completion date.

Estimating activity duration

After the sequence of tasks is set, the next thing is to estimate the duration of the activities. The duration is the actual time that is needed to do the work of a task plus the elapsed time of the activity. For example it may take two days or 14 hours of work to install a new server, but the duration of the activity may be four days because the assigned person may only do 3.5 hours a day on the task. The activity may also take longer because of public holidays and weekends.

To complete the duration estimates you need to know:

·  the detailed activity list

·  the sequence of the activities

·  the availability of resources

·  the skill levels of the personnel

·  any constraints and assumptions that have been made

·  any historical information from previous projects.

The results then are:

·  a detailed list of activity durations

·  a document describing the background of the estimates

·  updates to the work breakdown structure.

Schedule planning and control

Now we can put together the schedule using the outputs of all the previous time management activities. The desired result is to have a realistic project schedule that will provide a baseline for monitoring and measuring the project performance.

Tools available to help with this process are discussed briefly below and in more detail in a later topic.

Gantt charts

Gantt charts are the most common means for displaying project schedule information. Gantt charts use a list of tasks. Activities are represented as a series of horizontal bars under a calendar scale. Figure 3 is an example.

Figure 3: An example of a Gantt chart

Critical path and PERT analysis

Critical path analysis is a technique for calculating the duration of the project by analysing and calculating the duration of the longest path, the critical path, through the project.

PERT analysis is a technique that is used when there is a high degree of uncertainty about the individual activity duration estimates. PERT calculates the critical path method but uses a statistically weighted average duration estimates.

Schedule control

There are many reasons to amend of change a project schedule and many issues arise from doing so. This is why a realistic project schedule is important to successful project management. Strong leadership is important to make sure that project schedules are met.

There is constant pressure to shorten schedules and delivery dates, so you will need to have strong negotiation skills to maintain control of the project timetable.

The importance of correctly negotiated and realistic milestones in the scope document will be the measuring tool for any rescheduling requests. Requests for changes in the schedule should go through a change management process, be assessed for relevance and impact, and then approved by a properly implemented change control group.