Project Scheduling and HR Planning

Network Diagram
A network diagram is a sequence of steps (activities) that
are linked together in the logical sequence they need to
be carried out.
Provides the project team a consensus of understanding
of how the project should be implemented
Planning should not be done alone, it's a group activity,

Boosts efficiency of understanding and communication

Facilitates important buy-in from the whole Project Team.

Example: Network Diagram

No looping back is allowed deal with iterations

by hiding them within single activities

Types of activity dependency

Finish to start (FS)

The following activity starts when the previous one has been
finished
Default type of dependency (e.g. in MS Project)

Software
development

Acceptance testing

Start to start (SS)

When one activity starts another has to start as well

Finish to finish (FF)

when one activity finishes the other must finish too

Test prototype

SS
1 day

Document
Amendments

FF
2 days
You could use these with lags.
E.g. documentation of the changes to the
prototype starts 1 day after the testing and
finishes 2 days after testing has been completed

Start to finish (SF)

An activity will end when another activity starts

Operate temporary
system

Acceptance test
of new system

Cutover to new
system

Nature of dependency
Mandatory dependency

Inherent in the nature of work to be performed on a project

Relationship is unavoidable
E.g.You cannot hold a training class until the training materials
are ready

Discretionary dependency

Defined by the project team

E.g. The project team follow good practice and does not start
detailed design work until stakeholders sign off on all the
analysis work

External dependency

Relationship between project and non-project activities

E.g. Installation of new software might depend on delivery of
new hardware from external supplier

Critical path method (CPM)

The critical path method (CPM), is a mathematically based
algorithm for scheduling a set of project activities.
A critical path for a project is the series of activities
that determines the earliest time by which the project can
be completed
Forward pass

How early can we complete this project?

Backward pass

How late can we start any activity without delaying the

project?

Start and finish times

Latest Finish (LF)
= latest task can be completed
without affecting project end time
Earliest start (ES)

activity

Latest start
= LF - duration
Earliest start = day 5

Latest finish = day 30

Duration = 10 days
10

Earliest finish (EF)

= ES +duration

Earliest finish = ?
Latest start = ?

Activities
Earliest
start

Duration

Earliest
finish

Activity label, activity description

Latest
start

11

Total Float

Latest
finish

Forward pass

Start at beginning (Day 0) and work forward

Earliest start date for the current activity = earliest finish
date for the previous

When there is more than one previous activity, take the latest
earliest finish

EF = day 7
ES
ES == day10
day 7
EF = day10
12

How early can the project be completed?

13

11

10

10

13

Backward pass

Start from the last activity and work backwards

Latest finish for current activity = Latest start for the
following activity

More than one following activity - take the earliest LS

Latest start (LS) = LF for activity - duration

LF = day 67

LS = day 7

LS = day 6
14

How late can we start any activity without

delaying the project?

15

11

11

11

11

13

10

10

13

10

10

10

13

Total float (Total Slack)

Represents the amount of time an activity can be delayed

without delaying the project.
Total float = LF - ES - duration or LS- ES or LF-EF

16

Example: Total float

0
2

0
3

0
0

17

10

10

9
2

11
8

11

11

10

10

10

11
2

13
13

13

Critical path

Any delay in an activity on the critical path will delay

whole project
Methods to find the critical path

18

Find the longest path through the network diagram

Calculate total float for each activity on the WBS using a
network diagram. Critical path is the one with all activities
with 0 floats

Example: critical path

0

0
3

0
0

19

10

10

9
2

11
8

11

11

10

10

10

11
2

13
13

13

More about critical paths

If one of more activities on the critical path takes longer

than planned, the whole project schedule will slip unless
corrective action is taken
The critical path may change as you enter actual start and
finish dates during project execution

20

Free float (Free Slack)

The time an activity can be delayed without affecting

any other activity.
Free Float = ES for following activity - EF for the
current activity

21

Free float: example

Consider activity D.
The starting date can be delayed 3 weeks without
affecting the project end day.
However, the start date of H will be affected
(4+3+4=11).
6

9
2

7
22

The free float for activity D

= 9 - 8 = 1.
D can only be delayed for up to 1 day without
affecting H.

11
8

11

11

11
2

13

CPM vs PERT

CPM is for repeated projects

23

Assume an accurate estimate of duration activity

PERT - "Project Evaluation and Review Technique"

Risk-based approach for duration estimation

Estimation in activity duration

Optimistic time = 4 days

24

Pessimistic time = 10 days

Three-point estimating in PERT

Most likely time (m), Optimistic time (a),

Pessimistic (b)
Expected activity duration

te = (a + 4m +b) / 6

Standard deviation of activity duration

25

s = (b-a)/6

Example

Joe, a network engineer, has been asked to give a time

estimate for setup of a new Cisco switch that he has
never worked with before.
How long will it take for Joe to configure, test, and
deploy the switch?

26

The last time he did something similar with an earlier model of

Cisco switch, it took him a total of 40 hours, so Joe assigned a
most likely estimate of 40 hours.
But now that Joe has done it once and he expects this process
to be similar, he might be able to get it done faster, so Joe's
optimistic estimate is 20 hours.
But recently Joe read an article stating that Cisco had
completely changed the configuration module for this upgrade,
so it may take longer than it did last time; Joe therefore assigns
a pessimistic estimate of 56 hours.

27

Task B

Example
Task A

Task C

Task

10

12

16

10

14

20

24

38

te

What is the expected project duration?

What is the standard deviation for expected project duration?
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Task B
Task A

E(A+B) = E(A) + E(B)

V(A+B) = V(A) + V(B) + COV(A,B)

Task C

Task

te

10

12

16

12.66

10

14

10.33

20

24

38

25.66

Critical path = (A, C)

Expected end time = 12.66+25.66 = 38.32
Std dev (Expected end time) = sqrt (12+32) = 3.16

29

Likelihood of meeting a target

Expected end time = 38.32

Assume the day-of completion follows the normal
distribution (Why?)
The chance of project completion by this time is 50%

38.32
30

Table of Normal Distribution

31

Assessing the likelihood

Say the project deadline is 42 days

What is the probability that of completing the project by
the deadline?

z = (T te)/s
= (42-38.32)/3.16
= 1.164

The deadline is 1 standard

deviation above the expected
duration
32

38.82

42

Graph of z values

Probability of meeting the deadline is 100-15% = 85%

Note: The STANDARDIZE calculation in Excel can be used to 33
calculate the Z value.

Schedule development

Uses the results of the other time management processes

(activity definition, sequencing, estimating) to determine the
start and end date of the project
Determines the planned start and completion dates for each
activity listed on the WBS.

34

Gantt chart

A type of bar chart that illustrates a project schedule

Activity network with start and end days

35

Project milestones

Significant important events on a project

E.g. Sign-off of key documents, completion of specific products,

completion of important process-related work (e.g. awarding a
contract to supplier)

Often used by project sponsors or senior managers to

assess and monitor the project progress
No cost or duration is associated with a milestone

36

Major milestones

The major milestones give

visibly or progress to
people external to the
project.

37

E.g. project sponsors and

customers.

Milestone

Milestone Goal

Concept approval

Feasibility studies and basic system concepts

have been approved by management and the
project is authorized to proceed to detailed
requirements definition.

Requirements review

Requirements specifications are complete,

correct, approved and suitable for input to
design.

Preliminary design review

The architectural design satisfies all product

requirements, is approved and is suitable for
input into the detailed design process.

Critical design review

Detailed designs fully implement the system

architecture, are approved and are suitable for
input into the development of code.

Test plan review

Test plans are adequate for the testing of all

product features, are approved and are suitable
for input to the development of test cases and
test procedures.

Test readiness review

Developed and unit tested software has been

passed by the test team and is suitable for input
into integration testing.

System test review

The software product has passed system

testing and is suitable for input into acceptance
testing.

Operational readiness review

The software product has passed acceptance

testing and is suitable for deployment in its
target production environment.

Product operational

The software is in use in its target operational

environment.

http://www.chambers.com.au/glossary/milestone.php

Minor milestones

Minor milestones are the

monitoring points you as
project manager use to
maintain control of day to
day activities.
Give the team a sense of
achievement by
demonstrating progress on
a daily or weekly basis

38

Milestone

Milestone Goal

Document outline complete

A document outline has been

produced describing the format,
content and objectives of each
major section of a large
document.

Document complete

A document such as an Software

Requirements Specification has
passed peer review.

Technical investigation complete

The investigation of a technical

issue is complete and a summary
of the main issues and conclusions
has been presented and approved.

Compile complete

A program compiles without

errors.

Software module complete

A small program or function has

been completed and unit tested.

Software product build complete

The software product (or one of

its components) has been built an
it runs (not necessarily without
errors).

Test case complete

A small unit of testing has been

completed and test results
recorded.

Bug fix complete

A bug identified in a Software

Anomaly Report (SAR) has been
fixed and the SAR closed out.

Techniques for shortening a project

schedule (schedule analysis)

Knowing the critical path helps you make schedule tradeoffs

Techniques

39

Replace a team member with a more skilled person

Shortening durations of critical tasks by changing their scope
Delay tasks with positive float and move resource to work
with tasks on critical path.
Crashing
Fast tracking

Crashing

For each task in the critical path, look for the task that
could be done faster if more resources were added.
Goal:

40

Look for the task that would deliver the most compression for
the least incremental cost

Crashing the schedule: Software

development example
Effort driven:
As resources are added to or removed from
a task, the task duration is adjusted but the
total work on the task stays the same.

Duration =

Work
Resource unit

Add 1 more programmer

to task 11

41

Duration is
shortened by 1
day

Fast tracking

Look for activities in the critical path that can be done in

parallel
May involve the need to add more resources
To perform two tasks in parallel, the input of one task
should not depend on the output of another task

42

Fast tracking: Software development

example

Design and code can be performed in parallel

43

What if we perform design and coding in

parallel?

44

Human Resource Management Planning

Team building activities

Keeping team members motivated

Reward/Recognition
Tangible (e.g. cash, gifts)
Intangible (e.g. praise, favorably mention in monthly report or meetings, training)

Training

45

Acquire the skills required for the project

When people feel that theyre growing professionally, they stay more involved
and get more excited by their work.

Staffing Management Plan

46

Allocating individuals to activities

Factors

Availability - who is free?

Criticality - put more experienced, safer, staff on the critical
activities
Risk
Training - by allocating challenging tasks to relatively
inexperienced staff

Based on the capability of the resource and the effort, we

can create duration/time estimates for each activity

47

References

Information Technology Project Management, 7th Edition

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Chapter 6