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Activivity Planning in Software Project Management

A document for activity planning in SPM

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kaizen335
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28 views

Activivity Planning in Software Project Management

A document for activity planning in SPM

Uploaded by

kaizen335
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Software Project Management

Chapter Six

Activity planning

SPM (5e) Activity 1


planning
Scheduling

‘Time is nature’s way of stopping everything happening at


once’
Having
• worked out a method of doing the project
• identified the tasks to be carried
• assessed the time needed to do each task
need to allocate dates/times for the start and end of each
activity

SPM (5e) Activity 2


planning
Activity networks

These help us to:


• Assess the feasibility of the planned project
completion date
• Identify when resources will need to be deployed to
activities
• Calculate when costs will be incurred
This helps the co-ordination and motivation of the
project team

SPM (5e) Activity 3


planning
Defining activities

Activity networks are based on some assumptions:


• A project is:
• Composed of a number of activities
• May start when at least one of its activities is
ready to start
• Completed when all its activities are completed

SPM (5e) Activity 4


planning
Defining activities -continued

• An activity
• Must have clearly defined start and end-points
• Must have resource requirements that can be
forecast: these are assumed to be constant
throughout the project
• Must have a duration that can be forecast
• May be dependent on other activities being
completed first (precedence networks)

SPM (5e) Activity 5


planning
Identifying activities

• Work-based: draw-up a Work Breakdown Structure


listing the work items needed
• Product-based approach
• list the deliverable and intermediate products of
project – product breakdown structure (PBS)
• Identify the order in which products have to be
created
• work out the activities needed to create the
products

SPM (5e) Activity 6


planning
Hybrid approach

SPM (5e) Activity 7


planning
The final outcome of the planning
process
A project plan as a bar chart

SPM (5e) Activity 8


planning
PERT vs CPM

Do B
PERT

Do A Do D

Do C
CPM
Do B
Do A

Do D
Do C
SPM (5e) Activity 9
planning
Drawing up a PERT diagram

• No looping back is allowed – deal with iterations by


hiding them within single activities

• milestones – ‘activities’, such as the start and end of


the project, which indicate transition points. They
have zero duration.

SPM (5e) Activity 10


planning
Lagged activities

• where there is a fixed delay between activities e.g.


seven days notice has to be given to users that a new
release has been signed off and is to be installed

7days
Acceptance Install new
testing release
20 days 1day

SPM (5e) Activity 11


planning
Types of links between activities

• Finish to start

Software Acceptance testing


development

• Start to start/ Finish to finish

Test prototype

2 days

Document
1 day Amendments
SPM (5e) Activity 12
planning
Types of links between activities

• Start to finish

Operate
temporary
system

Acceptance test Cutover to new


of new system system

SPM (5e) Activity 13


planning
Start and finish times
Latest
Earliest start finish
activity

Latest start Earliest finish


• Activity ‘write report software’
• Earliest start (ES)
• Earliest finish (EF) = ES + duration
• Latest finish (LF) = latest task can be completed without
affecting project end Latest start = LF - duration

SPM (5e) Activity 14


planning
Example

• earliest start = day 5 • earliest finish = ?


• latest finish = day 30 • latest start = ?
• duration = 10 days

Float = LF - ES - duration
What is it in this case?

SPM (5e) Activity 15


planning
‘Day 0’
• Note that in the last example, day numbers used rather
than actual dates
• Makes initial calculations easier – not concerned with
week-ends and public holidays
• For finish date/times Day 1 means at the END of Day 1.
• For a start date/time Day 1 also means at the END of
Day 1.
• The first activity therefore begin at Day 0 i.e. the end of
Day 0 i.e. the start of Day 1

SPM (5e) Activity 16


planning
Earliest Duration Earliest
start finish
notation
Activity label, activity description

Latest Latest
Float
start finish

SPM (5e) Activity 17


planning
Complete for the previous example

SPM (5e) Activity 18


planning
Forward pass
• Start at beginning (Day 0) and work forward following chains.
• 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 =
day10
EF =
day10
SPM (5e) Activity 19
planning
Example of an activity network

SPM (5e) Activity 20


planning
Complete the table

SPM (5e) Activity 21


planning
Backward pass
• Start from the last activity
• Latest finish (LF) for last activity = earliest finish (EF)
• work backwards
• Latest finish for current activity = Latest start for the
following
• More than one following activity - take the earliest LS
• Latest start (LS) = LF for activity - duration

SPM (5e) Activity 22


planning
Example: LS for all activities?

SPM (5e) Activity 23


planning
Complete the table

SPM (5e) Activity 24


planning
Float

Float = Latest finish -


Earliest start -
Duration

FLOAT
LF
ES
activity

Latest start Earliest finish


SPM (5e) Activity 25
planning
Complete the table

SPM (5e) Activity 26


planning
Critical path
• Note the path through network with zero floats
• Critical path: any delay in an activity on this path will
delay whole project
• Can there be more than one critical path?
• Can there be no critical path?
• Sub-critical paths

SPM (5e) Activity 27


planning
Free and interfering float
0 7w 7
B can be up to 3 days late
A
and not affect any
2 2 9 other activity = free float

0 4w
4w 44 7 1w 8 10 2w 12
BB D E
5 5 9 9 2 10 10 0 12

0 10w 10

A
0 0 10
B can be a further 2 days late – affects
D but not the project end date =
interfering float
SPM (5e) Activity 28
planning

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