BUS 421

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

WEEK 10
NOVEMBER 18, 2024
TIME PLANNING

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Introduction
• Scheduling
• Deconstruction of a project
• Constructing a time plan
• Gantt Charts

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Introduction
”The plan is nothing, planning is everything!”

Detailed planning:
• The most likely scenarios
• Possible eventualities (answers to ‘what happens if…’)
• Deconstruct project into constituent parts
• Compile a plan and then schedule
• Use a Gantt chart
• Tension: the need to plan and the need to get on with it
• What to include in the plan is the ‘art’ of managing a project

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Project Scheduling
• Project scheduling requires us to follow some carefully
laid-out steps, in order, for the schedule to take shape.
• an output of a schedule model that presents linked
activities with planned dates, durations, milestones, and
resources.
• Project planning:
• The identification of the project objectives and the
ordered activity necessary to complete the project
including the identification of resource types and
quantities required to carry out each activity or task.

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Project Scheduling
• Knowing when activities will be carried out
• Necessary resources have to be in place for critical
activities
• Constraints: people are not available, long lead times,
clashes with other projects
• May be necessary to re-plan

• Resource capability – ability and limitations

• Resource pool – available resources to draw from Limitations
• Resource capacity – volume Reiterations

• Resource calendar – when resources are available

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Deconstruction of a project
• Graphical techniques are preferred
– The greatest potential for involving others
• The production of plans is not an end in itself. It
provides the opportunity for the planner to:
– Analyse the project system
– Reveal opportunities for improvement and problem
prevention
– Set out the basis on which the project will proceed
– Communicate

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6.1 Deconstruction of a project (Continued)

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Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
• The breaking down of large activities into
comprehensible or manageable units of work is a
fundamental part of project management.
• ‘chunking’
• ‘unbundling’
• A hierarchical series of activities
– Independent, but part of the whole
– Activities can be work packages
– Delivery of activities/work packages must be
coordinated

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Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

Work Packages: a hierarchical series of activities, which are

independent units, but at the same time still part of the whole.
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Organisational breakdown structure (OBS)
• Identifying the human resources needed to carry
out work packages
• Broken down into:
– Groups (functions/departments)
– Individuals
– Contractors

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Organisational breakdown structure (OBS)

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Product breakdown structure (PBS)

Definition: is the physical deconstruction of a required product

into its constituent parts
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Constructing a time plan
• How long will it take to complete the project?
• How precise do you need to be?
• How long did it take last time?
• What could cause significant delay?
• What other tasks might get in the way?
• Estimates are guesses
• Beware treating these numbers in a scientific way
• Estimation continues through the project lifecycle
• The nearer the completion, the more certainty
about time, resources and costs

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Constructing a time plan (Continued)

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‘Activity-on-node’ Technique
– Activities (from WBS)
– In logical sequence
– With estimated duration
– And the dependency

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4 Ways of Logical Activity Linkages

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Constructing a time plan (Continued)

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Constructing a time plan (Continued)

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Constructing a time plan (Continued)

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Network Diagram—Serial Sequential Logic

Example: Term Paper Assignment

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Serial Activities
Serial activities are those that flow from one to the next, in
sequence.
Project Activities Linked in Series

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Network Diagram – Nonserial Sequential Logic

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Concurrent Activities
When the nature of the work allows for more than one
activity to be accomplished at the same time, these
activities are called concurrent, and parallel project
paths are constructed through the network.

Activities Linked in Parallel (Concurrent)

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Merge Activity

Activity D can only begin following the completion of

activities A, B, and C.

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Burst Activity

Activities B, C, and D can only begin following the

completion of activity A.

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Project Scheduling Terms (1 of 4)
• Project Network Diagram: Any schematic display of the
logical relationships of project activities.
• Path: A sequence of activities defined by the project
network logic.
• Event: A point when an activity is either started or
completed.
• Node: One of the defining points of a network; a junction
point joined to some or all of the other dependency lines
(paths).

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Project Scheduling Terms (2 of 4)
• Predecessors: Those activities that must be completed
prior to initiation of a later activity in the network.
• Successors: Activities that cannot be started until
previous activities have been completed. These activities
follow predecessor tasks.
• Earliest start time (EST): The earliest possible date the
uncompleted portions of an activity can start.
• Latest start time (LST) : The latest possible date that an
activity may begin without delaying a specified milestone.

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Project Scheduling Terms (3 of 4)
• Forward pass: Network calculations to determine
earliest start/earliest finish for an activity through working
forward through each activity in network.
• Reverse pass: Network calculations to determine late
start/late finish for uncompleted tasks through working
backward through each activity in network.
• Merge activity: An activity with two or more immediate
predecessors.
• Burst activity: An activity with two or more immediate
successors.

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Project Scheduling Terms (4 of 4)
• Float: The amount of time an activity may be delayed
from its early start without delaying the finish of the
project.
• Critical path: The path through project network with the
longest duration.
• Critical Path Method: A network analysis technique
used to determine the amount of schedule flexibility on
logical network paths in project schedule network and to
determine minimum project duration.
• Resource-limited schedule: Start and finish dates
reflect expected resource availability.
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Critical Path Method

• Analysing the network – Critical Path Method:

• Critical path: the longest path from end to end
which determines the shortest project length
• Earliest start time EST
– Determined by activities preceding the event
• Latest start time LST
– The latest time all preceding activities will need to
be complete
• Total float
– The difference between EST and LST

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Duration Estimation Models
• PERT: program evaluation and review technique
• Definition: PERT is a method of analyzing the tasks involved
in completing a project, especially the time needed to
complete each task, and to identify the minimum time needed
to complete the total project.
• Mathematical derivation—Beta distribution
– Most likely (m)
– Most pessimistic (b)
– Most optimistic (a)
• Two assumptions used to convert m, a, and b into time
estimates (TE) and variances
2
a + 4m + b æ b - a ö
ActivityDuration = TE = Activity Variance = s 2 = ç ÷
6 è 6 ø

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Activity Duration Estimates (1 of 2)
Activity Duration Estimates for a Project
Durations are listed in weeks

Activity Description Optimistic Most Likely Pessimistic

A Contract signing 3 4 11
B Questionnaire design 2 5 8
C Target market ID 3 6 9
D Survey sample 8 12 20
E Develop presentation 3 5 12
F Analyze results 2 4 7
G Demographic analysis 6 9 14
H Presentation to client 1 2 4

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 Activity Duration Estimates (2 of 2)
Estimated Project Activity Times Using Beta Distribution
Durations are listed in weeks

TE (1: 4 : 1 ratio ) / 6
T E start fraction left parenthesis
Activity Description 1:4:1 ration right parenthesis over 6

A Contract signing 5
B Questionnaire design 5
C Target market ID 6
D Survey sample 12.7
E Develop presentation 5.8
F Analyze results 4.2
G Demographic analysis 9.3
H Presentation to client 2.2

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Critical Path Method (CPM)

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Critical Path Method

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Critical Path Method
• Analysing the network (1)
• Draw network and name/number each activity
• Mark durations (place in bottom left hand box)
• Forward pass
– Start with zero for first activity EST (start)
– Place EST in top left hand box
– Subsequent activity cannot start till previous is complete, that is,
previous EST plus its duration
– Work through network from left to right filling in all ESTs
– Where there is more than one previous activity, there are as many
ESTs, but subsequent activity cannot start until all have been
completed; therefore, take the highest EST
– Complete the network to EST (finish)

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Critical Path Analysis

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Critical Path Analysis
• Analysing the network (2)
• Reverse pass
– Start at the end of the network
– LST is the same as EST (finish)
– LST for preceding activity is LST succeeding activity
less the duration (place in top right hand box)
– Work through network from right to left filling in all LSTs
– Where there is more than one subsequent activity,
there are as many LSTs, take earliest/lowest LST
– Completing the network gives the LST (start) which
should be the same as EST (start)

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Critical Path Analysis

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Critical Path Analysis
• Calculate float
– Float = LST − EST
– Place in bottom right hand box
– If there is no float, the activity is critical (any delay
will delay the project as a whole)
– Following all the float = 0 boxes gives the critical
path

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Critical Path Analysis

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Network with Laddering Effect

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Network with Laddering Effect

Activity Length Predecessor

A 10 --

B 18 A

C 14 A

D 20 B, C

Laddered means: Durations and precedence requirements are shown in the

table. Each of these activities can be conveniently laddered into two sub-activities
of equal duration. The first half of each activity serves as the predecessor to its
second half and the first half of the original following activity.

Time expected TE will be: 5+9+20 = 34

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Gantt charts
• A Gantt chart illustrates the relationship between
activities and time

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Gantt charts (Continued)
• Example
Activity Time
Project start 2/5
1 Carry out literature review 2/5–20/6
2 Arrange visits 20/7–4/7
3 Prepare questionnaire 4/7–25/7
4 Review questionnaire 25/7–8/8
5 Deliver questionnaire 8/8–26/9
6 Analyse results 26/9–2/11
7 Write up 2/11–9/12
Hand-in date 9/12

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Using Gantt charts (Continued)

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Using Gantt charts (Continued)
• The Gantt chart or linked-bar chart
• Establishes a level of logic
• Conventions: time goes from left to right, activities
arranged top to bottom in order of occurrence
• Viewing the forward schedule
– Start at a given date and follow forward to determine the
end date
• Viewing the backward schedule
– Look at required completion date and work back to find
start date

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Gantt charts (Continued)
• If both dates are fixed, activities may be
shortened to fit
• Additional conventions
• Logical links indicated with arrows
• The head of the arrow indicates an activity that
cannot proceed until the activity at the tails is
completed
• Diamonds represent milestones

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Gantt charts (Continued)

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Gantt charts (Continued)
• Positives
– Simple to draw and read
– Good for static environments
– Provides an overview of project activities
– Widely used
– Graphical interface for most project planning
software

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Gantt charts (Continued)
• Limitations
– Difficult to update manually
– Does not equate time and cost
– Does not help in optimising resource allocation
– Tendency to be perceived as a ‘statement of
reality’ or certainty, whereas it is really a
statement of ‘how it might be done’, recognising
the uncertainty that managers in projects have to
deal with, the nature of estimating, the quality of
input information

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