PROJECT TIME MANGEMENT

Project time management includes the following processes required to ensure timely completion
of the project

i. Activity Definition: identifying the specific activities that must be performed to produce the
various project deliverables.

ii. Activity Sequencing: identifying and documenting activity dependencies

iii. Activity Duration Estimation: estimating the number of work periods, which will be needed
to complete individual activities

iv. Schedule Development: analyzing activity sequences, activity durations and resource
requirements to create the project schedule

v. Schedule Monitoring and Control: controlling changes to the project schedule

ACTIVITY DEFINITION

Activity definition involves identifying and documenting the activities that are required to
be performed to produce the deliverables to meet the project objectives.

The major tool for activity definition is project WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE

WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE

 WBS is a task oriented family tree of activities that organize, define and display the work
to be accomplished.
 WBS is the picture of the project subdivided into hierarchical units of work. At the
highest level of hierarchy project is shown. In the next level project major subdivisions
are shown. Each major subdivision is further subdivided into additional levels, as
required to identify in sufficient detail all the works involved in the project
 WBS identifies the entirety( total Scope) of work involved in the project and establishes
a hierarchy of works to be accomplished for a project completion
 Formation of WBS is done by subdividing the project into successively smaller work
elements until the lowest level to be controlled is reached
 For each of the work elements of WBS, cost and budgets and schedule can be
established and responsibility assigned to specific project personnel
PROJECT WBS LEVELS

Project WBS are broadly divided into five levels arranged in a descending hierarchical order

 Sub-project level
 Task level
 Work package level
 Activity level
 Operations level

HIERARCHIAL LEVELS OF WBS

 Sub projects- are groups of major works which can be carried out independently without
interference from other works

 Tasks- are subdivisions of sub-projects. Tasks are identifiable and deliverables of major work

 Work Packages are subdivisions of tasks. Each work package contains a sizeable,
identifiable, measurable, cost and controllable package of work. The methodology of
execution of work package is called method statement

 Activities are subdivisions of work packages and consume time and total resources
(workforce, material and equipments). Activities can be subdivided into sub activities

 Operations are work content of the activities. One of more operations are required for the
completion of the activity. Operations are usually not considered in the network modeling
and analysis.

WBS AS PROJECT MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUE

 WBS is a tool to prepare detailed project schedule ( Time Planning)

 WBS provides a detailed illustration of Project Scope and hence defines the total project
Scope. Work not included in WBS is outside the project scope

 WBS facilitates cost estimates and budgets

 WBS facilitates assignment of tasks and responsibilities to project personnel

 WBS helps to track the schedule and monitor the time performance

 WBS is not an unstructured listing of activities

 WBS items are assigned under unique identifiers called account codes.
  Outputs from WBS are

 Charts with account codes

 Activity listing with activity codes

ACTIVITY SEQUENCING

The process of activity sequencing involves identifying and documenting the dependencies(logical
relationships) between the individual activities.

 In construction projects, these logical relationships are established based on the

construction technology and work methodology adopted for the execution of the activities.
 Example-For the activity deep excavation of below ground structures(basements),the
construction technology adopted could be;
 Open excavation with shoring and strutting
 Sheet piles
 Secant piles
 Diaphram walls
 The construction methodology is based on the steps involved in construction processes
followed for the above construction technology options.

TYPES OF ACTIVITY DEPENDENCIES

Activity sequencing is influenced by three types of dependencies

 Mandatory dependencies
physical dependencies necessarily to be followed from technical considerations.
 Discretionary dependencies
selecting a particular dependency where in alternate sequences are available.
 External dependencies
Execution of the activity depends on certain preparatory processes or constraints which are
not part of the construction activity.

Activity Sequencing by PDM (Precedence Diagramming Method)

TYPES OF LOGICAL RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN ACTIVITIES

There are four types of logical relationships (or dependency links) that may exist between the
activities.

 Finish to Start relationship (FS)

  Start to Start relationship (SS)
 Finish to Finish relationship (FF)
 Start to Finish relationship (SF)

The logical relationships could be incorporated with lags and leads to obtain overlapping
relationships between the activities.

 Lag is the certain amount of delay for successor activity with respect to predecessor activity
 Lead means acceleration of successor activity with respect to predecessor activity.

DEPENDENCY RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN ACTIVITIES

Finish to Start relationship

A
Activity A must complete before start of B

B
Activity B must complete before start of C

 Finish the predecessor activity before the start of successor activity

 The start of the successor activity depends upon the completion of predecessor activity
 FS is the most commonly used relationship

Finish to start relationships with overlaps

 It is always not possible to use FS relationships and same amount of paralleling of activities
or incorporation of constraints is required with the use of lags/leads in relationships.

Finish to start relationship with lags

A
( FS + X days )

B
( FS +X days ) X
  Finish to start with X days of lag. Successor Activity B must start X days after completion of
predecessor activity A.
Example: Deshuttering of slab form work to be done after 7 days to gain strength. Here lag
is used to incorporate a constraint.

Finish to Start relationship with lead

(FS-X days)
B

 Finish to Start with X days of lead.

 Start of successor Activity B is accelerated by X days before the finishing of predecessor
Activity A.

Example : Horizontal waterproofing (below raft slab in basements ) is accelerated by X-days

before finishing of plain concrete(PCC) base. In other works certain amount of overlapping
between the PCC activities and waterproofing activity below the raft slab.

START TO START RELATIONSHIP

The start of the successor Activity B depends upon the start of predecessor Activity A.

Activity B can start only after A has started.

Start to Start relationship with lag

A ( SS + X days )

B
X
Successor Activity B can start after X days of start of predecessor activity A

Example: In the construction of sewer line, after certain length of trench excavation the
placement of base concrete for the sewer pipe can be started.

Finish to Finish relationship

 The completion of the successor activity depends upon the finishing of the predecessor
activity A.
 The activity A must complete before activity B can finish.
 Activity A and Activity B must complete at same time.

Finish to finish relationship with lag

AA

(FF + X days)

The successor activity B can be completed after X-days of completion of predecessor Activity A

Example: commissioning of equipment /plant can be completed after X days of Testing /Trial
run activity.

START TO FINISH RELATIONSHIP

 The completion of successor Activity B depends upon star

 of the predecessor Activity A. A
 Not commonly used relationship
 Activity B cannot complete until Activity A has started. SF
B
Start to finish relationship with lag

(SF + X days)
B

 Start of activity A can be with a lag of X-days with respect to the finishing of Activity B

SUMMARY POINTS ON ACTIVITY RELATIONSHIPS

 Activity sequencing shall be done in such a way that start of every activity has a logical
relationship to a predecessor and finish of every activity has a logical relationship to a
successor activity.( Except the first activity and the last activity which will not have
predecessor and successor respectively)
 An activity shall be totally completed or partially completed to enable another activity
to start.
 FS ( Finish to Start ) is most commonly used relationship. However to enable to
incorporate certain amount of parallelism or to incorporate constraints, overlapping
relationships can be done with the use of lags or leads along with the relationships.

ACTIVITY SEQUENCING BY PDM

 Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM) is a method of constructing project network in

which nodes represent activities and arrows connecting the nodes show the
dependencies.
 This technique is also called activity on node (AON) and this method is used by most
project management software packages

Characteristics of PDM (Activity on Node) Network

 Each activity is represented by rectangular box called Node

 Arrows connecting the nodes show order of work flow direction

  Generally sequencing is from left to right

 Connectivity of arrows indicates dependency relationships

 Nodes with no arrow entering to the left indicate beginning activity of the project. They
have no preceding activity

 Nodes with no arrows leaving from the right indicate finishing activity of the project. They
have no succeeding activity.

 The position of node in PDM network is not related time in which the activity takes place.
Network is not drawn to any time scale.

REPRESENTATION OF NODE

The rectangular box of the node is partitioned to incorporate

 Activity ID number

 Activity Description

 Activity Duration

 Early Start (ES) and Early Finish (EF)

 Late Start (LS) and Late Finish (LS)

 Float

Concept of Early Start and finish and Late Start and Finish Times in PDM

ES: EARLY START TIME

 An activity early start time is the earliest time it can begin based on the early
completions of the preceding activities
 For activities that begin at the start project which have no predecessors, early start time
is assigned zero. For all other activities, the early start time is the latest early finish time
 of its immediate predecessor activities because all the predecessor activities must be
completed before activity under consideration can be started
 For beginning activities: ES = 0
 For other activities: ES= Max of early finishes of all immediate predecessors

EF:EARLY FINISH TIME

An activity’s early finish time is the earliest time at which an activity can end.
The Early Finish Time of each activity is the Early Start Time plus the activity duration.
EF= Early start time + Duration of the activity
The Early Finish Time of a given activity becomes the Early Start Time of its immediate
successor activities.

FORWARD PASS CALCULATIONS

 The process of calculation of early start and early finish of all the activities with the
indicated activity sequence and considering the estimated durations of the activities is
called FORWARD PASS calculations.
 The result of this calculation is the determination of ES and EF of the individual activities
and the total project duration

BACKWARD PASS CALCULATIONS

 The calculations called ‘ Backward Pass’ is done to determine the activity’s late start and
late finish times, without exceeding the project duration, obtained in the Forward Pass
calculations
 The Backward Pass calculations are done beginning at the end activity of the project
o Late Finish time (LF)
o For finish activities: LF= Early Finish Time
o For other activities: LF = Minimum of late starts of all immediate successors

Late Start time (LS) LS= LF- Activity duration

Equations for ES,EF,LS, LF for 4 dependencies conditions

FINISH TO START RELATIONSHIP
 Forward Pass ESj = EFi + FSij
EFj = ESj + Dj

Backward Pass LFj = LSk - FSjk

LSj = LFj - Dj

FINISH TO FINISH RELATIONSHIP

Forward Pass EFj = EFi + FFij

Esj =EFj- Dj

Backward Pass LFj = LFk - FFjk

LSj = LFj – Dj
LSk = LFk - Dk

START TO START RELATIONSHIP

Forward Pass ESj = ESi + SSij

Efj = ESj + Dj

Backward Pass LSj = LSk - SSjk

LFj = LSj + Dj

START TO FINISH RELATIONSHIP

Forward Pass EFj = ESi + SFij

= ESj + Dj

Backward Pass LSj = LFk – SFjk

= LFj – Dj
LFj = LSj + Dj
Concepts of Slack (Float),
 Critical activities and Critical Path in Project PDM Network

 For all the activities, establish early start (ES) and early finish (EF) through Forward Pass and
Late Start (LS) and Late Finish (LF) through Backward Pass calculations

 Examination of each of the activity’s early start and Late start would indicate the following
situations

o Late start time is greater than early start time

o Early start time is equal to Late start time

o Late finish time is greater than early finish time

o Early finish time is equal to late finish time.

 Difference Late Start Time and Early Start time (or Late Finish Time and Early finish time) is
called the Slack Time of the Activity or Float time of activity.

 Float= LS – ES when LS > ES

 Float = LF- EF when LF > EF
 Float = 0 when LS = ES and LF = EF

 The amount of slack time available indicates the extent of the time criticality of the activity.
 Activities with no slack time are called critical activities and any delay of such activities will
cause slippage in the planned project duration.
 Activities with slack time are called non- critical activities and they can slip their early start
times equal to their slack time without causing slippage (extension) of total project
duration. However criticality depends upon the amount of slack and same activity could be
near critical.
 The path along the network connecting the critical activities is called critical path and it is
the longest path of activities in the network. Slack times are not additive along the path and
is specific to the concerned activity .
 PDM for Bored Cast In Situ Piling Work
ACTIVITY PREDECESSOR
ID ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION DURATION ACTIVITIES
1 Installing concrete batching plant 4 -
2 Mobilise and install piling rig 3 -
3 Make pile bores 2 2
4 Arrange reinforcement steel 2 -
5 Set reinforcement fabrication yard 1 -
6 Fabricate pile reinforcement 1 4,5
Place pile reinforcement and tremmie
7 concreting 1 1,3,6
8 Prepare pile test setup 14 7
9 Pile testing and dismantle test setup 4 8
10 Place pile cap shuttering 1 9
11 Place pile cap reinforcement 1 10
12 Cast Pile Cap 1 11

ACTIVITY IDENTIFICATIONS, SEQUENCING AND DURATIONS

FS= 0 FS= 0
Install Concrete Place rft cage and Prepare Pile
1 Batching Plant FS= 0 7 tremmie concreting 8 test setup
4d FS= 0 1d 14d

FS= 0
FS= 0 FS= 0
mobilise and Make Pile bores Pile Testing and Place Pile Cap
2 install piling rig 3 9 dismantle test setup 10 Shuttering
3d 2d 4d 1d

FS= 0
FS= 0
Arrange Rft Steel FS= 0 Place Pile Cap Cast Pile Cap
4 11 Reinforcement 12
2d 1d 1d
Fabricate Rft
6 Cages
1d
Set Rft
5 fabrication yard
1d FS= 0
CALCULATION OF EARLY START AND EARLY FINISH BY FORWARD PASS

FS= 0 FS= 0
0 Install Concrete 4 FS= 0 5 Place rft cage and 6 6 Prepare Pile 20
1 Batching Plant 7 tremmie concreting 8 test setup
4d FS= 0 1d 14d

FS= 0
FS= 0 FS= 0
0 mobilise and 3 3 Make Pile bores 5 20 Pile Testing and 24 24 Place Pile Cap 25
2 install piling rig 3 9 dismantle test setup 10 Shuttering
3d 2d 4d 1d

FS= 0
FS= 0
0 Arrange Rft Steel 2 FS= 0 25 Place Pile Cap 26 26 Cast Pile Cap 27
4 11 Reinforcement 12
2d 1d 1d
2 Fabricate Rft 3
6 Cages
1d
0 Set Rft 1
5 fabrication yard
1d FS= 0

CALCULATION OF LATE START, LATE FINISH BY BACKWARD PASS

FS= 0 FS= 0
0 Install Concrete 4 FS= 0 5 Place rft cage and 6 6 Prepare Pile 20
1 Batching Plant 7 tremmie concreting 8 test setup
1 4d 5 FS= 0 5 1d 6 6 14d 20

FS= 0
FS= 0 FS= 0
0 mobilise and 3 3 Make Pile bores 5 20 Pile Testing and 24 24 Place Pile Cap 25
2 install piling rig 3 9 dismantle test setup 10 Shuttering
0 3d 3 3 2d 5 20 4d 24 24 1d 25

FS= 0
FS= 0
0 Arrange Rft Steel 2 FS= 0 25 Place Pile Cap 26 26 Cast Pile Cap 27
4 11 Reinforcement 12
2 2d 4 25 1d 26 26 1d 27
2 Fabricate Rft 3
6 Cages
4 1d 5
0 Set Rft 1
5 fabrication yard
3 1d 4 FS= 0
 CRITICAL PATH AND CRITICAL ACTIVITIES
FS= 0 FS= 0
0 Install Concrete 4 FS= 0 5 Place rft cage and 6 6 Prepare Pile 20
1 Batching Plant 7 tremmie concreting 8 test setup
1 4d 5 FS= 0 5 1d 6 6 14d 20

FS= 0
FS= 0 FS= 0
0 mobilise and 3 3 Make Pile bores 5 20 Pile Testing and 24 24 Place Pile Cap 25
2 install piling rig 3 9 dismantle test setup 10 Shuttering
0 3d 3 3 2d 5 20 4d 24 24 1d 25

FS= 0
FS= 0
0 Arrange Rft Steel 2 FS= 0 25 Place Pile Cap 26 26 Cast Pile Cap 27
4 11 Reinforcement 12
2 2d 4 25 1d 26 26 1d 27
2 Fabricate Rft 3
6 Cages
4 1d 5
0 Set Rft 1
5 fabrication yard
3 1d 4 FS= 0

Results of network analysis of Piling Work presented on ACTIVITY TABLE

May 22, '05
ID Task Name Duration Early Start Early Finish Late Start Late Finish Start Slack Critical F
1 BORED CAST-INSITU PILING 27 days Fri 5/27/05 Mon 6/27/05 Fri 5/27/05 Mon 6/27/05 0 days Yes
2 INSTALL CONCRETE BATCHING PLANT 4 days Fri 5/27/05 Tue 5/31/05 Sat 5/28/05 Wed 6/1/05 1 day No
3 MOBILIZE AND INSTAL PILING RIG 3 days Fri 5/27/05 Mon 5/30/05 Fri 5/27/05 Mon 5/30/05 0 days Yes
4 MAKE PILE BORES 2 days Tue 5/31/05 Wed 6/1/05 Tue 5/31/05 Wed 6/1/05 0 days Yes
5 ARRANGE RFT STEEL 2 days Fri 5/27/05 Sat 5/28/05 Mon 5/30/05 Tue 5/31/05 2 days No
6 SET RFT FABRICATION YARD 1 day Fri 5/27/05 Fri 5/27/05 Tue 5/31/05 Tue 5/31/05 3 days No
7 FABRICATE RFT CAGES 1 day Mon 5/30/05 Mon 5/30/05 Wed 6/1/05 Wed 6/1/05 2 days No
8 PLACE RFT CAGES IN TREMIE CONCRETING
1 day PILES
Thu 6/2/05 Thu 6/2/05 Thu 6/2/05 Thu 6/2/05 0 days Yes
9 PREPARE PILE TEST SETUP 14 days Fri 6/3/05 Sat 6/18/05 Fri 6/3/05 Sat 6/18/05 0 days Yes
10 PILE TESTING AND DISMANTLE 4 days Mon 6/20/05 Thu 6/23/05 Mon 6/20/05 Thu 6/23/05 0 days Yes
11 PLACE PILE CAP SHUTTERING 1 day Fri 6/24/05 Fri 6/24/05 Fri 6/24/05 Fri 6/24/05 0 days Yes
12 PLACE PILE CAP RFT 1 day Sat 6/25/05 Sat 6/25/05 Sat 6/25/05 Sat 6/25/05 0 days Yes
13 CAST PILE CAP 1 day Mon 6/27/05 Mon 6/27/05 Mon 6/27/05 Mon 6/27/05 0 days Yes

Results of network analysis of Piling Work presented as BAR CHART

AA

B
B