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U/S; 10133 – Schedule Project Activities to Facilitate Effective Project Execution  Copy

U/S; 10133  -Schedule Project Activities to Facilitate Effective Project Execution 

 

Learning Unit1

US:10137, NQF LEVEL 4 WORTH 5 CREDITS

SCHEDULE PROJECT ACTIVITIES TO FACILITATE EFFECTIVE PROJECT EXECUTION

Unit Standard Purpose

Learners accessing this standard will be involved in project management teams or involved in building small project management teams. These projects may be technical projects, business projects or developmental projects and will cut across a range of economic sectors. This standard will also add value to learners who are running their own business and recognise that project management forms an integral component of any business. Learners acquiring this standard will be able to understand the purpose and process of scheduling, define and sequence project activities and develop a project schedule.

Learning Assumed to be in Place

Identifying, explaining and describing the purpose and process of scheduling.

Defining and gathering project activities from technical experts and within area of technical expertise.

Sequencing activities and estimating duration.

Developing a project schedule.

SESSION 1

SO 1

IDENTIFY, EXPLAIN AND DESCRIBE THE PURPOSE AND PROCESS OF SCHEDULING.

Learning Outcomes

(Assessment Criteria)

The importance and function of scheduling a project is described and explained.

Schedule development process is explained in accordance with established industry practices.

The differences and implications of project completion within the shortest possible time and at specified due date are explained.

 

Identify, explain and describe the purpose and process of scheduling.

 

The importance and function of scheduling a project is described and explained.

 

The project schedule is one of the most important tools in creating a successful project (usually after building a good team). However, the true value of the schedule is only achieved if several other tools are implemented and integrated. To develop a schedule, the team must establish a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and an Execution Plan for the work. This is usually an iterative process: the development of each element influences the others. Stated simply, the schedule places detailed activities from the WBS dictionary into their proper sequence, with appropriate relationships defined, consistent with the execution plan.

The schedule is an integral part of the project management system required on move projects. It is integrated with budget, resources, WBS, scope, and quality requirements to produce a virtual model of the project execution plan to guide the work and reflect progress and performance through the life of the project. Initial development of the execution plan, WBS, and detailed activities of the WBS dictionary usually precede initial development of the project schedule and budget. However, the integrated nature of these components makes the development of each piece an iterative and interdependent process, except on very simple projects.

The schedule serves as a management reporting tool as well as an implementation tool to help get the work done on time. The schedule contains activity durations, interdependencies, and constraints that help to identify conflicts and bottlenecks. When completed, the schedule produces a realistic and achievable timetable for executing the work, given the real-world constraints and limitations.

he schedule is also one of the most important tools in managing changes on the project. Because the activities in the schedule are tied together with logical relationships, the schedule allows the project team to accurately evaluate changes from the plan and identify the resulting impacts to time and resources throughout the entire project lifecycle. The schedule also provides the project team with a tool to evaluate alternative execution strategies to meet business objectives (e.g., reduce duration or costs) by adjusting resources and logic.

The schedule can also be a cost control tool for the project team. On nearly all projects, time is money. The schedule allows the project team to optimize resources to produce cost savings and is essential for determining productivity factors using earned value, allowing the project team to make better cost forecasts early in the project.

Schedule development process is explained in accordance with established industry practices.

 

Project scheduling is a mechanism to communicate what tasks need to get done and which organizational resources will be allocated to complete those tasks in what timeframe. A project schedule is a document collecting all the work needed to deliver the project on time.

But when it comes to creating a project schedule, well, that’s something few have deep experience with.

What and who is being scheduled, and for what purposes, and where is this scheduling taking place, anyway?

 

A project is made up of many tasks, and each task is given a start and end (or due date), so it can be completed on time. Likewise, people have different schedules, and their availability and vacation or leave dates need to be documented in order to successfully plan those tasks.

Whereas people in the past might have printed calendars on a shared wall in the water-cooler room, or shared spreadsheets via email, today most teams use online project scheduling tools. Typically, project scheduling is just one feature within a larger project management software solution, and there are many different places in the software where scheduling takes place.

For example, most tools have task lists, which enable the manager to schedule multiple tasks, their due dates, sometimes the planned effort against that task, and then assign that task to a person. The software might also have resource scheduling, basically the ability to schedule the team’s availability, but also the availability of non-human resources like machines or buildings or meeting rooms.

Because projects have so many moving parts, and are frequently changing, project scheduling software automatically updates tasks that are dependent on one another, when one scheduled task is not completed on time. It also generates automated email alerts, so team members know when their scheduled tasks are due or overdue, and to let the manager know when someone’s availability has changed.

The differences and implications of project completion within the shortest possible time and at specified due date are explained.

 

In addition to assigning dates to project activities, project scheduling is intended to match the resources of equipment, materials and labor with project work tasks over time. Good scheduling can eliminate problems due to production bottlenecks, facilitate the timely procurement of necessary materials, and otherwise insure the completion of a project as soon as possible. In contrast, poor scheduling can result in considerable waste as laborers and equipment wait for the availability of needed resources or the completion of preceding tasks. Delays in the completion of an entire project due to poor scheduling can also create havoc for owners who are eager to start using the constructed facilities.

Attitudes toward the formal scheduling of projects are often extreme. Many owners require detailed construction schedules to be submitted by contractors as a means of monitoring the work progress. The actual work performed is commonly compared to the schedule to determine if construction is proceeding satisfactorily. After the completion of construction, similar comparisons between the planned schedule and the actual accomplishments may be performed to allocate the liability for project delays due to changes requested by the owner, worker strikes or other unforeseen circumstances.

In contrast to these instances of reliance upon formal schedules, many field supervisors disdain and dislike formal scheduling procedures. In particular, the critical path method of scheduling is commonly required by owners and has been taught in universities for over two decades, but is often regarded in the field as irrelevant to actual operations and a time consuming distraction. The result is “seat-of-the-pants” scheduling that can be good or that can result in grossly inefficient schedules and poor productivity. Progressive construction firms use formal scheduling procedures whenever the complexity of work tasks is high and the coordination of different workers is required.

Formal scheduling procedures have become much more common with the advent of personal computers on construction sites and easy-to-use software programs. Sharing schedule information via the Internet has also provided a greater incentive to use formal scheduling methods. Savvy construction supervisors often carry schedule and budget information around with wearable or handheld computers. As a result, the continued development of easy to use computer programs and improved methods of presenting schedules hav overcome the practical problems associated with formal scheduling mechanisms. But problems with the use of scheduling techniques will continue until managers understand their proper use and limitations.

A basic distinction exists between resource oriented and time oriented scheduling techniques. For resource oriented scheduling, the focus is on using and scheduling particular resources in an effective fashion. For example, the project manager’s main concern on a high-rise building site might be to insure that cranes are used effectively for moving materials; without effective scheduling in this case, delivery trucks might queue on the ground and workers wait for deliveries on upper floors. For time oriented scheduling, the emphasis is on determining the completion time of the project given the necessary precedence relationships among activities. Hybrid techniques for resource leveling or resource constrained scheduling in the presence of precedence relationships also exist. Most scheduling software is time-oriented, although virtually all of the programs have the capability to introduce resource constaints.

This chapter will introduce the fundamentals of scheduling methods. Our discussion will generally assume that computer based scheduling programs will be applied. Consequently, the wide variety of manual or mechanical scheduling techniques will not be discussed in any detail. These manual methods are not as capable or as convenient as computer based scheduling. With the availability of these computer based scheduling programs, it is important for managers to understand the basic operations performed by scheduling programs. Moreover, even if formal methods are not applied in particular cases, the conceptual framework of formal scheduling methods provides a valuable reference for a manager. Accordingly, examples involving hand calculations will be provided throughout the chapter to facilitate understanding

 



SESSION 2

SO 2

DEFINE AND GATHER PROJECT ACTIVITIES FROM TECHNICAL EXPERTS AND WITHIN AREA OF TECHNICAL EXPERTISE.

Learning Outcomes

(Assessment Criteria)

Tasks specific to a project are identified and prioritized within objectives and scope of project.

Specific project activities are identified and gathered from technical experts.

Work breakdown structure is updated and matches the scope statement

Tasks and results are included in the activity description.

 

Define and gather project activities from technical experts and within area of technical expertise.

 

Tasks specific to a project are identified and prioritized within objectives and scope of project.

 

It is generally advantageous to introduce an explicit hierarchy of work activities for the purpose of simplifying the presentation and development of a schedule. For example, the initial plan might define a single activity associated with “site clearance.” Later, this single activity might be sub-divided into “re-locating utilities,” “removing vegetation,” “grading”, etc. However, these activities could continue to be identified as sub-activities under the general activity of “site clearance.” This hierarchical structure also facilitates the preparation of summary charts and reports in which detailed operations are combined into aggregate or “super”-activities.

More formally, a hierarchical approach to work task definition decomposes the work activity into component parts in the form of a tree. Higher levels in the tree represent decision nodes or summary activities, while branches in the tree lead to smaller components and work activities. A variety of constraints among the various nodes may be defined or imposed, including precedence relationships among different tasks as defined below. Technology choices may be decomposed to decisions made at particular nodes in the tree. For example, choices on plumbing technology might be made without reference to choices for other functional activities.

Of course, numerous different activity hierarchies can be defined for each construction plan. For example, upper level activities might be related to facility components such as foundation elements, and then lower level activity divisions into the required construction operations might be made. Alternatively, upper level divisions might represent general types of activities such as electrical work, while lower work divisions represent the application of these operations to specific facility components. As a third alternative, initial divisions might represent different spatial locations in the planned facility. The choice of a hierarchy depends upon the desired scheme for summarizing work information and on the convenience of the planner. In computerized databases, multiple hierarchies can be stored so that different aggregations or views of the work breakdown structure can be obtained.

The number and detail of the activities in a construction plan is a matter of judgment or convention. Construction plans can easily range between less than a hundred to many thousand defined tasks, depending on the planner’s decisions and the scope of the project. If subdivided activities are too refined, the size of the network becomes unwieldy and the cost of planning excessive. Sub-division yields no benefit if reasonably accurate estimates of activity durations and the required resources cannot be made at the detailed work breakdown level. On the other hand, if the specified activities are too coarse, it is impossible to develop realistic schedules and details of resource requirements during the project. More detailed task definitions permit better control and more realistic scheduling. It is useful to define separate work tasks for:

  • those activities which involve different resources, or
  • those activities which do not require continuous performance.

For example, the activity “prepare and check shop drawings” should be divided into a task for preparation and a task for checking since different individuals are involved in the two tasks and there may be a time lag between preparation and checking.

In practice, the proper level of detail will depend upon the size, importance and difficulty of the project as well as the specific scheduling and accounting procedures which are adopted. However, it is generally the case that most schedules are prepared with too little detail than too much. It is important to keep in mind that task definition will serve as the basis for scheduling, for communicating the construction plan and for construction monitoring. Completion of tasks will also often serve as a basis for progress payments from the owner. Thus, more detailed task definitions can be quite useful. But more detailed task breakdowns are only valuable to the extent that the resources required, durations and activity relationships are realistically estimated for each activity. Providing detailed work task breakdowns is not helpful without a commensurate effort to provide realistic resource requirement estimates. As more powerful, computer-based scheduling and monitoring procedures are introduced, the ease of defining and manipulating tasks will increase, and the number of work tasks can reasonably be expected to expand.

Specific project activities are identified and gathered from technical experts.

 

Project information management is a series of activities for gathering, analyzing, tracking and utilizing data on projects. These activities are also called steps that are consistently taken to provide project participants and stakeholders with all necessary information on their project. In this article, let’s talk about Information Gathering. The article briefly describes the four methods of gathering and managing project data.

When managing project information, managers need to do almost an interruptible task of gathering and distributing information on the activities and processes. This task turns around collecting project data that describes status, assignments and performance.

Actually these are the key information on any project. When you know current status of assignments and current level of team performance, you can make efficient decisions and solve ongoing problems. Besides, effective information gathering paves the way for further steps of project data management.

The first and foremost method for gathering and managing project information refers to organizing team meetings. By conducting consistent weekly internal meetings with your project team, you are likely to not only share current project status with the team and keep them aware of the short-term changes in schedules and project budget, but also to receive up-to-date progress information on individual assignments of each team member.

Following this method of project information management, you should conduct a team meeting 2 days before holding a formal customer meeting. Why? Because during the team meeting all team members will gain necessary information on project and will be aware of current project status.

Work breakdown structure is updated and matches the scope statement

At the same time that the choice of technology and general method are considered, a parallel step in the planning process is to define the various work tasks that must be accomplished. These work tasks represent the necessary framework to permit scheduling of construction activities, along with estimating the resources required by the individual work tasks, and any necessary precedence’s or required sequence among the tasks. The terms work “tasks” or “activities” are often used interchangeably in construction plans to refer to specific, defined items of work. In job shop or manufacturing terminology, a project would be called a “job” and an activity called an “operation”, but the sense of the terms is equivalent. The scheduling problem is to determine an appropriate set of activity start time, resource allocations and completion times that will result in completion of the project in a timely and efficient fashion. Construction planning is the necessary fore-runner to scheduling. In this planning, defining work tasks, technology and construction method is typically done either simultaneously or in a series of iterations.

The definition of appropriate work tasks can be a laborious and tedious process, yet it represents the necessary information for application of formal scheduling procedures. Since construction projects can involve thousands of individual work tasks, this definition phase can also be expensive and time consuming. Fortunately, many tasks may be repeated in different parts of the facility or past facility construction plans can be used as general models for new projects. For example, the tasks involved in the construction of a building floor may be repeated with only minor differences for each of the floors in the building. Also, standard definitions and nomenclatures for most tasks exist. As a result, the individual planner defining work tasks does not have to approach each facet of the project entirely from scratch.

While repetition of activities in different locations or reproduction of activities from past projects reduces the work involved, there are very few computer aids for the process of defining activities. For the scheduling process itself, numerous computer programs are available. But for the important task of defining activities, reliance on the skill, judgment and experience of the construction planner is likely to continue.

Tasks and results are included in the activity description.

An internal schedule is a schedule that is only of importance to the people who must directly abide by it. It has been noted that “groups often begin with a schedule imposed from the outside, but effective groups also develop an internal schedule that sets goals for the completion of micro-tasks”.[9] Unlike schedules for public events or publicly available amenities, there is no need to go to the time and effort of publicizing the internal schedule. To the contrary, an internal schedule may be kept confidential as a matter of security or propriety.

An example of an internal schedule is a workplace schedule, which lists the hours that specific employees are expected to be in a workplace, ensure sufficient staffing at all times while in some instances avoiding overstaffing. A work schedule for a business that is open to the public must correspond to the hours of operation of the business, so that employees are available at times when customers are able to use the services of the business. One common method of scheduling employees to ensure the availability of appropriate resources is a Gantt chart. Another example of an internal schedule is the class schedule of an individual student, indicating what days and times their classes will be held

A schedule may also involve the completion of a project with which the public has no interaction public prior to its completion. In project management, a formal schedule will often be created as an initial step in carrying out a specific project, such as the construction of a building, development of a product, or launch of a program. Establishing a project management schedule involves listing milestones, activities, and deliverables with intended start and finish dates, of which the scheduling of employees may be an element. A production process schedule is used for the planning of the production or the operation, while a resource schedule aids in the logistical planning for sharing resources among several entities.

In such cases, a schedule “is obtained by estimating the duration of each task and noting any dependencies amongst those tasks”. Dependencies, in turn, are tasks that must be completed in order to make other tasks possible, such as renting a truck before loading materials on the truck (since nothing can be loaded until the truck is available for things to be loaded on). Scheduling of projects, therefore, requires the identification of all of the tasks necessary to complete the project, and the earliest time at which each task can be completed. In creating a schedule, a certain amount of time is usually set aside as a contingency against unforeseen days. This time is called scheduling variance, or float, and is a core concept for the critical path method.

 



SESSION 3

SO 3

SEQUENCE ACTIVITIES AND ESTIMATE DURATION.

Learning Outcomes

(Assessment Criteria)

Predecessor/successor relationships are identified and distinguished as either mandatory or discretionary.

Basic networks are developed and documented.

Time duration estimates are sourced from responsible individuals and indicated on the basic network.

Sequence activities and estimate duration.

 

Predecessor/successor relationships are identified and distinguished as either mandatory or discretionary.

 

Sequence Activities is the process of identifying and documenting relationships among the project activities. So the fundamental reason for the sequence activities process is finalizing the interrelationship of activities to finish the project scope and achieve the task objectives.

The critical consequence of the Sequence Activities process is a Network Diagram. Network Diagram of a project represents the activities in boxes with activity ID and demonstrates the interrelationship of activities with bolts.

Each activity excluding the first and last ought to be associated with at least one predecessor and at least one successor activity with a proper logical relationship. A realistic project schedule ought to be apt by creating logical relationships. It might be essential to utilize lead or lag time between exercises to help a sensible and reachable undertaking plan. Sequencing can be performed by using software that is built for project management, manual or computerized procedures. The Sequence Activities process focuses on changing the project activities from a list to a diagram to go about as an initial step to distribute the schedule baseline.

Sequence activities is the process of identifying and documenting relationships among the project activities. In the project management, the key benefit of this type of process is that it defines the logical sequence of work to obtain the greatest efficiency given all project constraints.

In the project management process groups and knowledge area mapping the sequence activities fall under the planning process group and project time management knowledge areas. The project schedule development uses the outputs from the processes to define activities, sequence activities, estimate activity resources, and estimate activity durations in combination with the scheduling tool to produce the schedule model.

In the sequence activities data flow diagram, every activity and milestone except the first and last should be connected to at least one predecessor with a finish-to-start logical relationship and at least one successor with the finish-to-start or finish-to-finish logical relationship. Sequencing can be performed by using project management software or by using manual or automated techniques.

Moreover, the schedule management plan identifies the scheduling method and tool to be used for the project, which will guide how the activities may be sequenced.

Basic networks are developed and documented.

 

People who spend their time creating technical documentation hear that phrase quite often. It’s always nice to have your life’s work summed up in four simple words.

The truth is, nobody in their right mind sits in a comfortable chair with their favorite drink and reads a technical manual from beginning to end or glances through depictions of their company’s server rack for fun. Nobody reads documentation—until they need to.

But, as you’ll learn from this article, there are many circumstances where network documentation will become essential in your organization. Learn what you should start documenting and what value you’ll gain from these resources.

Network documentation is a technical record of the hardware, software, servers, directory structure, user profiles, data, and how it all works together.

Network documents should include any information that helps administrators and IT professionals to keep the network up and running smoothly. This information can be in any format you want (although you’ll see that we recommend diagrams and other visuals for quick reference and improved communication with non-technical employees).

What matters most is that the information is easily accessible and can be understood by all who need to refer to it.

Every network should have a customized manual of sorts with maps showing the network layout and written documentation on all the basic aspects of the network.

Although you or some other IT superhero might have a mental map of the network stored in your brain, having up-to-date written documentation is still vital. What happens if that IT superhero leaves all of a sudden? If you have adequate documentation, the learning curve for a new IT staff member will be much easier. The same applies to any IT contractors who might be called in to help with the network in the future. 

Network documentation can aid in other situations as well. A properly documented network should be able to help with disaster recovery. Any other IT professional should be able to come in and install and configure the same basic network from scratch using the documentation, for instance if the hardware becomes damaged or broken. The documentation can also help with security because during the auditing and documenting process, some security risks may become apparent.

Time duration estimates are sourced from responsible individuals and indicated on the basic network.

 

All project management activities have three unique attributes and these include duration, work effort, and resource.  It is important for project managers to carry out estimate activity durations to be able to plan activities based on its three attributes.

Estimate activity duration is a process in project management that involves analyzing different activity and estimates how long it takes to accomplish a certain task with the estimated amount of resources. The benefit of this particular process is that it provides the amount of time that each activity will require in order for it to be accomplished.

To make the estimate activity duration, it is important that you look into the necessary inputs such as the schedule management plan, activity list, activity attributes, resource calendars, project scope statement, risk register, resource breakdown structure, enterprise environmental structure and the organizational process assets. All of these things are necessary to come up  with a good estimate for each individual task involved in the project life cycle.

On the other hand, developing the project schedule requires several techniques.  The stability of the schedule of the activities depends on the accuracy of the duration of the entire project activities. This is the reason why estimation techniques like analogous estimating, parametric estimating and three points estimating are very crucial.  Project managers can also use reserve analysis and group decision-making techniques to be able to give a good estimate of the project activities. Seeking expert judgment is also crucial in this process.

All of these can lead to updates on the project documents as well as the activity duration estimates. Estimate activity duration is a critical step in project management because it helps project managers accurately and precisely creates estimates of the project activities. This will ensure that everything will be right on schedule.

 



SESSION 4

SO 4

DEVELOP A PROJECT SCHEDULE.

Learning Outcomes

(Assessment Criteria)

Activity lists are updated to contain relevant updated data.

The shortest time to complete the project is determined.

Resources required for activities are identified and documented per activity.

Start and finish dates are indicated according to requirements and duration and effort are differentiated.

Non-critical activities are identified and scheduled according to requirements.

Project schedule is developed within agreed time frames and format.

Develop a project schedule.

 

Activity lists are updated to contain relevant updated data.

 

Now that we know what we have to do to make the wedding a success, we need to focus on the order of the work. Sally sat down with all of the activities she had defined for the wedding and decided to figure out exactly how they needed to happen. That’s where she used the activity sequencing process.

The activity attribute list Sally created had most of the predecessors and successors necessary written in it. This is where she thought of what comes first, second, third, etc. Sally’s milestone list had major pieces of work written down, and there were a couple of changes to the scope she had discovered along the way that were approved and ready to go.

A Gantt chart is a type of bar chart, developed by Henry Gantt, that illustrates a project schedule. Gantt charts are easy to read and are commonly used to display schedule activities. These charts display the start and finish dates of the terminal elements and summary elements of a project. Terminal elements and summary elements comprise the work breakdown structure of the project. Some Gantt charts also show the dependency relationships (i.e., precedence network) between activities.

Gantt charts show all the key stages of a project and their duration as a bar chart, with the time scale across the top. The key stages are placed on the bar chart in sequence, starting in the top left corner and ending in the bottom right corner (Figure 10.8). A Gantt chart can be drawn quickly and easily and is often the first tool a project manager uses to provide a rough estimate of the time that it will take to complete the key tasks. Sometimes it is useful to start with the target deadline for completion of the whole project, because it is soon apparent if the time scale is too short or unnecessarily long. The detailed Gantt chart is usually constructed after the main objectives have been determined.

The shortest time to complete the project is determined.

In project management, developing an efficient schedule is very important. A good schedule will let the stakeholders of the project to use their time wisely to deliver results. Moreover, it also ensures that the project life cycle will be able to meet the necessary deadline.

To develop a schedule, project managers need to analyze activity sequences, resource requirements, durations and schedule constraints to create the project schedule. The advantage of this process is that by using different inputs and resources like schedule activities, duration, logical relationship and resource ability with the scheduling tool, it creates a schedule model with the planned dates for completing the project activities.

There are different  project management tools and techniques involved in developing a schedule and these include the schedule network analysis, critical path method, critical chain method, resource optimization techniques, modeling techniques, leads and lags, schedule compression and scheduling tool.

Once project managers are able to develop a schedule for their projects, it will lead to different yet critically important outputs which include generation of schedule baseline, project schedule, schedule data, project calendars, project document updates and project management plan updates. All of these outputs are necessary for schedule plan management.

Developing a project schedule is an iterative activity. This means that one activity cannot proceed without completing it. However, you can also assign tasks to schedules that are not constrained by time. Doing projects without following a schedule is like driving without having any idea on how you are going to get to your destination. The thing is that no matter the size of the project, having a good schedule is important in project management. An adequately planned schedule tells you when an activity should be done or when it should have been finished.

Resources required for activities are identified and documented per activity.

Activity resource requirements are defined as the types of resources for different activities involved in a particular project management package. It also involves the quantities, amount, skill level of the resources needed to be involved in the projects. This means that the staff, budget and amount of work  as well as the other requirements needed are indicated in a resource calendar. The resource calendar refers to a schedule that allows you to keep track of the activity resource requirements.

Organizing the resource requirements of projects with a lot of resources need a breakdown structure to categorize the different supplies needed for each activity. This means that hierarchical representation of resources is needed for each type and category of activity such as the staff and skills needed for each month.

There are different ways of displaying the activity resource requirements. One of the methods used is by using a resource histogram. This is a chart that shows the resource availability for each scheduled work needed for the project. The information provided by the activity resource requirement can be used to elaborate  the different attributes of activities that you develop when creating the resource calendars of the project management package.

In order to complete a project activity, you will need performer of the task, for instance, a software developer for a software project or civil engineer for a construction project. Materials that will be used to produce the project deliverable. For instance, cement, wood, steel etc. will be used during construction. Equipment will be used such as trucks, cranes to lift and place the materials. Estimate activity resources process provides the estimation of all these in a project. Once the activities are sequenced in sequence activities process, the type and quantity of needed resources are determined.

For instance, how many construction workers, how many civil engineers you will need for the construction project and the amount of the cement, steel, wood etc. that will be used during the project are determined during the Estimate activity resources process.

Start and finish dates are indicated according to requirements and duration and effort are differentiated.

 

The planning phase refines the project’s objectives, which were gathered during the initiation phase. It includes planning the steps necessary to meet those objectives by further identifying the specific activities and resources required to com­plete the project. Now that these objectives have been recognized, they must be clearly articulated, detailing an in-depth scrutiny of each recognized objective. With such scrutiny, our understanding of the objective may change. Often the very act of trying to describe something precisely gives us a better understanding of what we are looking at. This articulation serves as the basis for the development of requirements. What this means is that after an objective has been clearly articulated, we can describe it in concrete (measurable) terms and identify what we have to do to achieve it. Obviously, if we do a poor job of articulating the objective, our requirements will be misdirected and the resulting project will not represent the true need.

Users will often begin describing their objectives in qualitative language. The project manager must work with the user to provide quantifiable definitions to those qualitative terms. These quantifiable criteria include schedule, cost, and quality measures. In the case of project objectives, these elements are used as measurements to determine project satisfaction and successful completion. Subjective evaluations are replaced by actual numeric attributes.

After the project has been defined and the project team has been appointed, you are ready to enter the second phase in the project management life cycle: the detailed project planning phase.

Project planning is at the heart of the project life cycle, and tells everyone involved where you’re going and how you’re going to get there. The planning phase is when the project plans are documented, the project deliverables and requirements are defined, and the project schedule is created. It involves creating a set of plans to help guide your team through the implementation and closure phases of the project. The plans created during this phase will help you manage time, cost, quality, changes, risk, and related issues. They will also help you control staff and external suppliers to ensure that you deliver the project on time, within budget, and within schedule.

The project planning phase is often the most challenging phase for a project manager, as you need to make an educated guess about the staff, resources, and equipment needed to complete your project. You may also need to plan your communications and procurement activities, as well as contract any third-party suppliers.

Non-critical activities are identified and scheduled according to requirements.

 

The activity definition process is a further breakdown of the work package elements of the WBS. It docu­ments the specific activities needed to fulfill the deliverables detailed in the WBS. These activities are not the deliverables themselves but the individual units of work that must be completed to fulfill the deliverables. Activity definition uses everything we already know about the project to divide the work into activities that can be estimated. You might want to look at all the lessons learned from similar projects your company has done to get a good idea of what you need to do on the current one.

Expert judgment in the form of project team members with prior experience developing project scope statements and WBS can help you define activities. If you are asked to manage a project in a new domain, you might also use experts in that particular field to help define tasks so you can understand what activities are going to be involved. You may want to create an activity list and then have the expert review it and suggest changes. Alternatively, you could involve the expert from the very beginning and ask to have an activity definition conversation with him or her before even making your first draft of the list.

Sometimes you start a project without knowing a lot about the work that you’ll be doing later. Rolling-wave planning lets you plan and schedule only the portion that you know enough about to plan well. When you don’t know enough about a project, you can use placeholders for the unknown portions until you know more. These are extra items that are put at high levels in the WBS to allow you to plan for the unknown.

Project schedule is developed within agreed time frames and format.

No project plan or charter is complete without a project management timeline. Project management timelines provide a simple visual overview of a project from start to finish and lead to increased work efficiency among teams. As simple as timelines appear when you see them on paper, breaking down a project into an effective timeline may feel overwhelming, especially to novice project managers. So, if this is your first experience creating a project management timeline, or even your 563rd, use these eight no-fail steps to perfect your next timeline.

  1. Write a project scope statement.

Determining the scope of your project is another part of the project management process you need to complete before you can create your project timeline. A project scope statement outlines the deliverables you plan to produce by the end of a project.

As a quick example, let’s say you and your friends want to plant a garden. A scope statement could look something like this: We will produce a 100 sq. ft. vegetable garden that produces tomatoes, peppers, kale, potatoes, peas, green beans, and corn.

  1. Create a work breakdown structure (WBS)

To create a work breakdown structure (WBS), start from your scope statement and break your deliverable or deliverables into smaller pieces. You aren’t getting into tasks yet, just smaller deliverables. Another name for this section is the scope baseline, and each sub-deliverable is called a work package.

  1. Break each work package into tasks

Now you can make a to-do list for each work package. Think about the gap between your baseline and your goal. What needs to happen to get from the starting point to the desired end point? Take note of tasks that are similar across work packages. This process will help you determine dependencies in the next step.

 

End

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