What is project time management?
The processes and methods required to create and manage appropriate schedules to complete the project; the processes required to ensure timely completion of a project.
List the seven time management processes.
Plan schedule management; define activities; sequence activities; estimate activity resources; estimate activity durations; develop schedule; control schedule.
What is an activity (task)?
An element of work normally found on the WBS that has an expected duration, cost, and resource requirements.
What are the outputs of defining activities?
Activity list (name, number, brief description); activity attributes (predecessors, successors, relationships, resources, constraints, imposed dates, assumptions); milestone list (significant events with no duration).
What does sequencing activities mean?
Determining the dependencies, or relationships, between project activities or tasks.
Give the three reasons for creating dependencies, with an example of each.
Mandatory (hard logic): inherent in the work — you cannot test code until it is written. Discretionary (soft logic): best practice — no detailed design until users sign off the analysis. External: project and non-project activities — installing software depends on hardware delivery from a supplier.
What are the two network diagram formats, and what is the key drawback of ADM?
Arrow Diagramming Method (ADM / activity-on-arrow) and Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM). ADM can only show finish-to-start dependencies.
What are bursts and merges in an AOA diagram?
A burst occurs when a single node is followed by two or more activities; a merge occurs when two or more nodes precede a single node.
What is a dummy activity?
An activity with no duration and no resources, occasionally needed on AOA diagrams to show logical relationships; drawn as a dashed arrow.
State the four task dependency types.
Finish-to-start: B cannot start until A finishes. Start-to-start: B cannot start until A starts. Finish-to-finish: B cannot finish until A finishes. Start-to-finish: B cannot finish until A starts.
Give three reasons PDM is preferred over AOA.
Most project management software uses PDM; PDM avoids the need for dummy activities; PDM shows different dependencies, whereas AOA uses only finish-to-start.
What is estimating activity resources?
Estimating the type and quantities of material, human resources, equipment, or supplies required to perform each activity.
What is a resource breakdown structure?
A hierarchical structure that identifies the project's resources by category and type (e.g. programmers → COBOL programmers, Java programmers).
Define effort, duration and elapsed time.
Effort: number of work units required. Duration: total time without holidays or non-working days. Elapsed time: calendar time including holidays and non-working days.
What are the tools for schedule development, and what is a Gantt chart?
Gantt chart, critical path method, critical chain scheduling. A Gantt chart lists project activities and their start and finish dates in a calendar format.
What do the Gantt chart symbols mean?
Black diamonds: milestones. Thick black bars: summary tasks. Lighter horizontal bars: durations of tasks. Arrows: dependencies between tasks.
What is the critical path?
The series of activities that determines the earliest time by which the project can be completed — the longest path through the network diagram, i.e. the shortest time the project can be completed.
Define free slack and total slack.
Free slack: time an activity can be delayed without delaying the early start of any immediately following activities. Total slack: time an activity may be delayed from its early start without delaying the planned project finish date.
Give the formulas for total slack and free slack.
Total slack = LS − ES = LF − EF. Free slack = early start of next task − early finish of current task.
What do the forward pass and backward pass determine?
The forward pass determines the early start and finish dates; the backward pass determines the late start and finish dates.
What is crashing, and what is its main disadvantage?
Making cost and schedule trade-offs to obtain the greatest schedule compression for the least incremental cost. Its main disadvantage is that it often increases total project costs.
What is fast tracking, and what is its main disadvantage?
Doing activities in parallel that you would normally do in sequence. It can lengthen the schedule because starting tasks too soon increases risk and results in rework.
What is critical chain scheduling?
A method that considers limited resources when creating a project schedule, adding duration buffers to maintain focus on the planned activity durations.
What is multitasking, and why does critical chain scheduling minimize it?
A resource working on more than one task at a time. It can delay task completions and often involves wasted setup time, which increases total duration.
What are a project buffer and feeding buffers?
Project buffer: additional time added before the project's due date. Feeding buffers: additional time added before tasks on the critical path.
What are the goals of schedule control?
To know the status of the schedule; influence the factors that cause schedule changes; determine that the schedule has changed; manage changes when they occur.