PROJECT SCHEDULING
Question 1: What Is a Project Scheduling?
A project schedule is the conversion of a project action plan into operating
timetable. A project schedule communicates what tasks need to get done and which
organizational resources will be allocated to complete those tasks in what
timeframe.
In short, in project management, a schedule is a listing of a project's milestones,
activities, and deliverables, usually with intended start and finish dates. That means
Scheduling is carried out in advance of the project commencing and involves:
• identifying the tasks that need to be carried out;
• estimating how long they will take;
• allocating resources (mainly personnel);
• scheduling when the tasks will occur.
The basic approach of all scheduling techniques is to form a network of activity
and event relationships. This network should graphically portray the sequential
relations between the tasks in a project. Tasks that must precede or follow other
tasks are then clearly identified, in time as well as function.
The project schedule should be updated on a regular basis in order to gain a better
understanding of the project's current status. The project schedule must be
accessible to every team member. So it must be comprehensive and easy to
understand.
Purpose of project scheduling:
The main purpose of project scheduling is to represent the plan to deliver
the project scope over time. A project schedule, in its simplest form, could be a
chart of work elements with associated schedule dates of when work elements and
milestones (usually the completion of a deliverable) are planned to occur.
Benefits of project scheduling in project management
Project scheduling provides the following benefits:
Assists with tracking, reporting on, and communicating progress.
Ensures everyone is on the same page as far as tasks, dependencies, and
deadlines.
Identifies so called critical activities that, if delayed, will delay the project
completion time.
Illustrates which tasks may run, or must be run, in parallel to achieve the
predetermined project completion date.
Helps highlight issues and concerns, such as a lack of resources.
Helps identify task relationships.
Can be used to monitor progress and identify issues early.
What are the steps of project scheduling process :
The project scheduling process can be broken down into eight manageable steps.
Follow these
1. Plan schedule management
To establish the procedures, company policies, and documentation guidelines
that will govern your project.
To outline resources available for the project and the contingencies that may
arise.
To make lists project stakeholders, itemizes individuals who must approve the
schedule, and lists others who need to receive a copy.
This document also establishes who has the authority to make schedule changes
and a project communication plan to alert the team of changes made during the
course of the project.
2. Define the project activities
This can be as simple as creating a list of tasks that must be completed in order
to deliver your project. In the case of complex projects, it may be helpful to
organize these tasks in the form of a chart visualizing tasks and their sub-tasks.
Activities should also be measurable, easily estimated, and related to both
a project deliverable and a budgeted cost.
3. Determine dependencies
Carefully identify which tasks rely on others to be completed.
It’s important to correctly define all your dependencies so you can schedule
accurately and avoid project delays.
4. Sequence activities
After you’ve established project dependencies among your activities, you can
sequence them.
At this point, you aren’t assigning any time to your activities in terms of work
hours or due dates. Instead, you’re focusing on the order in which all project
activities should be done so that the most efficient flow is created.
5. Estimate resources
Each activity in your project will require resources in the form of personnel,
subcontractor costs, tools (physical and/or digital tools like software programs),
and workspace.
Estimate the resources needed for each project activity.
6. Estimate durations
This step is very important. How long will each project activity take?
Underestimating will, of course, put you behind schedule and ultimately
frustrate your customer.
Overestimating could leave team members or other resources sitting idle
as they wait for antecedent tasks to be completed. The best way to
estimate duration is to use data from similar previous jobs.
If you don’t have any data to work from and there’s no industry standard
to which you can refer, an estimate based on the average of the best,
worst, and most likely scenarios.
7. Develop the project schedule
At this point, you should have all the information you need to develop your
project schedule. Taking into consideration
the duration
resource requirements of each activity
dependencies and proper sequence
assign start dates and due dates for each activity.
There are multiple models and formulas for developing the project schedule, take
the time to find a method that works well for you.
8. Monitor and control
Unlike the rest of the project scheduling steps, Step 8 is ongoing.
As a project manager, you’ll be monitoring and controlling your project
schedule for the duration of the project.
This step involves running reports and assessing the progress of a
project against the schedule, managing performance, and communicating with
the team.
Top 7 Scheduling Methods for Projects:
Critical Path Method (CPM)
Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)
Line of Balance (LOB)
Q Scheduling.
Resource Oriented Scheduling.
Last Planner System (LPS)
Gantt Chart.
Two project scheduling techniques will be presented, the Milestone Chart (or
Gantt Chart) and the Activity Network
Gantt Charts
A Gantt chart is a type of bar chart that illustrates a project schedule, named after
its inventor, Henry Gantt, who designed such a chart around the years 1910–1915.
Modern Gantt charts also show the dependency relationships between activities
and the current schedule status.
A Gantt chart is a horizontal bar or line chart which will commonly include the
following features:
activities identified on the left hand side;
time scale is drawn on the top (or bottom) of the chart;
a horizontal open oblong or a line is drawn against each activity indicating
estimated duration: dependencies between activities are shown;
at a review point the oblongs are shaded to represent the actual time spent
(an alternative is to represent actual and estimated by 2 separate lines);
a vertical cursor (such as a transparent ruler) placed at the review point
makes it possible to establish activities which are behind or ahead of
schedule.
The bar or Gantt Chart is a widely used simple project scheduling technique.
Advantages include:
Direct correlation with time.
Straight forward relationship with projects involving a limited number
of tasks.
Straight forward integration of subtasks having separate scheduling
charts.
Time schedule is flexible and is expanded to show tasks of shorter
nature.
Progress against the plan is easily reflected.
Disadvantage includes:
That it does not convey the complex interrelationships that may occur
between tasks.
Problem: 1
Problem:3
Some activities and relevant data of a project are given below:
Time Estimate (in weeks)
Activity Predecessor(s) Optimistic(a Most
Pessimistic(b)
) likely(m)
A — 4 12 5
B — 14 18 16
C — 16 20 18
D A 2 6 4
E C 5 9 7
F C 7 11 9
G B, D, E 12 22 17
Now fulfill the following requirements from the above data:
a. Draw the network.
b. Find the expected activity time, variances and slacks.
c. Find the critical path and expected completion time.
d. Find the probability the project will be done in 30 weeks.
e. Find the completion time corresponding to 95% possibility.
