Chapter 6

Project Time Management

 Project time management
• Project time Management involve the processes required to
ensure timely completion of projects. There are 6 main
process in PTM:
1. Defining activities: identifying the specific activities that the
project team members and stakeholders must perform to
produce the project deliverables.
Activity or task is the element of work found on WBS that has
some duration ,cost and resource requirements.
• The main outputs of this process are an activity list, activity attributes, and
milestone list.
2. Sequencing activities: identifying and documenting the
relationships between project activities
• The main outputs of this process include project schedule
network diagrams and project document updates. •2
 Project Time Management
3. Estimating activity resources: estimating how many resources
(people, equipment and material) a project team should use
to perform project activities
• The main outputs of this process are activity resource
requirements, a resource breakdown structure, and project
document updates.

4. Estimating activity durations: estimating the number of work

periods that are needed to complete individual activities.
• Outputs include activity duration estimates and project
document updates.

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 Project Time Management
5. Developing the schedule: analyzing activity sequences,
activity resource estimates, and activity duration estimates
to create the project schedule
• Outputs include a project schedule, a schedule baseline,
schedule data, and project document updates.

6. Controlling the schedule: controlling and managing changes

to the project schedule
• Outputs include work performance measurements,
organizational process assets updates, change requests,
project management plan updates, and project document
updates.

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Resource Breakdown Structure

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Figure 6-1. Project Time Management
Summary

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 Defining Activities
• 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

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 Activity Lists
• An activity list is a tabulation of activities to
be included on a project schedule that
includes:
– The activity name
– An activity identifier or number
– A brief description of the activity

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 Activity attributes
• The activity attributes provide more schedule
related information about each activity, such as:
– Predecessors
– Successors,
– resource requirements
– and assumptions related to the activity.
• The activity list and activity attributes should be in agreement
with the WBS and WBS dictionary.
• Information is added in activity attributes as it becomes
available, such as resource requirements that are determined
in later processes
• Many project teams use an automated system to keep track of
all of this activity-related information.
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 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
• Milestones are useful tools for setting schedule goals
and monitoring progress
• Examples include obtaining customer sign-off on
key documents such as design documents or
completion of specific products such as software
modules or increments.
• Not every deliverable or output created for project is
really a milestone. •10
 Sequencing Activities
• After defining project activities the next step is
sequencing activities or determining their
dependencies
• A dependency or relationship is the sequencing of
project activities or tasks
• You must determine dependencies in order to use
Network Diagrams and critical path analysis

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 Three types of Dependencies
• Mandatory dependencies: inherent in the nature of
the work being performed on a project, sometimes
referred to as hard logic
– For example, you cannot test code until after the code is
written.
• Discretionary dependencies: defined by the project
team; sometimes referred to as soft logic and should
be used with care since they may limit later
scheduling options
– For example, a project team might follow good practice and
not start the detailed design of a new information system
until the users sign off on all of the analysis work.

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 Three types of Dependencies
• External dependencies: involve relationships
between project and non-project activities
– The installation of a new operating system and
other software may depend on delivery of new
hardware from an external supplier. Even though
the delivery of the new hardware may not be in
the scope of the project, you should add an
external dependency to it because late delivery
will affect the project schedule.

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 Network Diagrams

• Network diagrams are the preferred technique

for showing activity sequencing
• A network diagram is a diagrammatic display
of the logical relationships among, or
sequencing of, project activities

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 Arrow Diagramming Method (ADM)
• Also called activity-on-arrow (AOA) network diagrams
• Activities are represented by arrows
• Nodes or circles are the starting and ending points of activities
• The first node signifies the start of a project, and the last node
represents the end of a project.
• These activities come from WBS and activity definition
process
• Not all activities on WBS are shown on networks diagrams.
• Only activities with dependencies represented on Network
diagrams

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 Process for Creating AOA Diagrams
1. Find all of the activities that start at node 1. Draw their finish
nodes and draw arrows between node 1 and those finish
nodes. Put the activity letter or name and duration estimate on
the associated arrow.
2. Continue drawing the network diagram, working from left to
right. Look for bursts and merges. Bursts occur when a single
node is followed by two or more activities. A merge occurs
when two or more nodes precede a single node.
3. Continue drawing the project network diagram until all
activities are included on the diagram that have dependencies.
4. As a rule of thumb, all arrowheads should face toward the right,
and no arrows should cross on an AOA network diagram.

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Sample Activity-on-Arrow (AOA)
Network Diagram for Project X
Activity Name Duration Predecessor
A 1 -
B 2 -
C 3 -
D 4 A
E 5 B
F 4 B
G 6 C
H 6 D, E
I 2 G
J 3 H, F, I

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Figure 6-2. Sample Activity-on-Arrow (AOA)
Network Diagram for Project X

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Class Activity: Draw AOA Network
Diagram
Activity Name Predecessor Duration
A - 2
B - 6
C - 4
D A 3
E C 5
F A 4
G B, D, E 2

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Class Activity: Draw AOA Network
Diagram

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Class Activity: Draw AOA Network
Diagram

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