PROJECT MANAGEMENT

TOOLS AND
TECHNIQUES
What is Project Management?
Project Management is the process of
defining, Planning ,organizing, leading
and controlling the development of an
Information System Project.

The goal of Project Management is to

deliver an Information System that is
acceptable to Users and is developed
on time and within budget
PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROCESS
PHASES

1. INITIATING THE PROJECT

2. PLANNING THE PROJECT
3. EXECUTING THE PROJECT
4. CLOSING DOWN THE PROJECT
 1. PROJECT INITIATION

The first phase of Project Management

Process in which activities are performed
to asses the Size, Scope, and Complexity
of the Project and to establish procedures
to support later Project activities.
 PROJECT INITIATION ACTIVITIES
1. ESTABLISHING THE PROJECT INITIATION TEAM

2. ESTABLISHING A RELATIONSHIP WITH

CUSTOMER

3. ESTABLISHING PROJECT INITIATION PLAN

4. ESTABLISHING MANAGEMENT PROCEDURES

5. ESTABLISH PROJECT MANAGEMENT

ENVIRONMENT AND PROJECT WORKBOOK

Depending on the Project some of these Initial

Activities may be unnecessary and some may be
very involved.
 2. PROJECT PLANNING
The Project Planning provides an overall framework
for managing Project Costs and schedules.

Project Planning takes place at the beginning and at

the end of each Project Phase.

Project Planning involves defining clear, discrete

Activities or Tasks and the work needed to
complete each Activity.

IF YOU FAIL TO PLAN, YOU PLAN TO FAIL!

 2. PROJECT PLANNING
Project Planning involves defining clear,
discrete Activities or Tasks and the work
needed to complete each Activity.

An ACTIVITY is any work that has a beginning

and an end. And requires the use of Project
resources including people, time and money.

Activities are the basic units of work that Project

Manager Plans, monitors so Activities should be
relatively small and manageable.
 2. PROJECT PLANNING ACTIVITIES
1. Describing Project Scope, Alternatives and
feasibility
2. Dividing the Project into manageable tasks (WBS)
3. Estimating and creating a Resources Plan
4. Developing a Preliminary Project Schedule
5. Developing a Project Communication Plan
6. Determining Project Standards and Procedures
7. Identifying and Assessing Project Risks
8. Developing a Statement of Work
9. Setting a Baseline Project Plan.
2.1 DESCRIBING PROJECT SCOPE, ALTERNATIVES AND FEASIBILITY

PURPOSE: Is to understand the content and complexity

of the Project.

2.2 DIVIDING THE PROJECT INTO MANAGEABLE TASKS (WORK

BREAKEDOWN STRUCTURE)

Project must be divided into manageable tasks and then logically order
them to ensure a smooth evolution between tasks.

The definition of tasks and their sequences is referred as the Work

Breakedown Structure (WBS).

WBS is essential in Planning and executing the Project because it is the

foundation for developing the Project Schedules
(PERT / and GANNT chart) for identifying Milestones in the
Scheduling and for managing Costs.
Work BreakedownStructure (WBS)
2.3 ESTIMATING RESOURCES AND CARRYING A RESOURCE PLAN

PURPOSE
Is to estimate Resource Requirements for each project Activity
and use this information to create a Project Plan.

2.4 DEVELOPING A PRELIMINARY SCHEDULE

Using the information on Tasks and Resources availability to assign TIME

ESTIMATES to each Activity in the WBS.

TIME ESTIMATES will allows you to create Target Starting and Ending
Dates for the Project.

The Preliminary Schedule may be represented as a GANTT Chart or as a

Network Diagram (ie. PERT/CPM Chart.
2.5 DEVELOPING A COMMUNICATION PLAN

PURPOSE
Is to outline the communication procedures among Management,
Project team members and the Customer.

2.6 DETERMINING PROJECT STANDARD AND PROCEDURES

Specify various Project Deliverables are produced and tested by you

and your Project team.

Setting Project Standards and Procedures for work acceptance is a way

to assure the development of a high quality System.
2.7 IDENTIFYING AND ASSESSING RISK
PURPOSE
Is to identify sources of Project Risk and to estimate the
consequences of those Risks.

Risk might arise from the use of new technology, availability of

critical resources, team member inexperience with technology
or business area etc.

YOU SHOULD CONTINUALLY TRY TO IDENTIFY AND ASSESSS

PROJECT RISK.

2.8 CREATING A PRELIMINARY BUDGET

You need to create a Preliminary Project budget that outlines the
Planned expenses and Revenues associated with the Project.

The Preliminary Budget will be used for Project Justification.

2.9 DEVELOPING A STATEMENT OF WORK

Developed primarily for the Customer. It outlines work that

will be done and clearly describes what the Project will
deliver.

It is useful since all parties have a clear understanding of the

intended Project Size, Duration and outcomes.

2.10 SETTING A BASELINE PROJECT PLAN

The Baseline Project Plan provides an estimate of the

Projects tasks and Resource requirements and is used to
guide the next project phase Execution.

As new information is acquired during Project Execution, the

Baseline Plan will be continue to be updated.
 3. EXECUTING THE PROJECT

The third Phase in Project Management Process in which the

Plans created in the prior Project Phases are put to action.

If you develop a high quality Project Plan, it is much more

likely that the Project will be successfully executed.

KEY ACTIVITIES OF PROJECT EXECUTION

1. 1. EXECUTING BASELINE PROJECT PLAN

2. MONITORING PROJECT PROGRESS AGAINST THE BASELINE
PLAN
3. MONITORING CHANGES TO BASELINE PLAN
4. MAINTAINING THE PROJECT WORKBOOK
5. COMMUNOCATING THE PROJECT STATUS.
 4. CLOSING DOWN THE PROJECT

The final Phase of Project Management process which

focuses on bringing a Project to an end.

Closedown is a very important activity since a Project is

not complete until it is closed and it is at closedown that
projects are deemed a success or failure.

Projects can conclude with a natural or unnatural

termination.

Natural termination occurs when the requirements of the

Project have been met and thus the Project completed and
is a success.

An Unnatural termination occurs when the Project is

stopped before natural completion.
 4. CLOSING DOWN THE PROJECT

PROJECT CLOSEDOWN ACTIVITIES

1. Closing Down the Project

2. Conducting Post-project Review
3. Closing the Customer Contract
REPRESENTING & SCHEDULING PROJECT PLANS

The Most commonly used methods are :-

GANTT CHART

NETWORK DIAGRAMS (PERT/ CPM)

 GANTT CHART

A graphical representation of a Project that shows each task as

a horizontal bar whose length is proportional to its time for
completion.

A GANTT Chart is a horizontal bar chart that illustrates a

Project schedule.

In the GANTT Chart Time is displayed on the horizontal axis

and the Tasks/ Activities are arranged vertically from top to
bottom, in order of their start dates.

A detailed GANTT Chart for a large project might be quite

complex and hard to understand. To simplify the chart Project
manager can combine related activities into one Task.
 GANTT CHART
A graphical representation of a Project that shows each
task as a horizontal bar whose length s proportional to its
time for completion.

GANTT CHART do not show how tasks must be ordered

(precedence) but simply show when a task should begin
and should end

GANTT Chart is often more useful to for depicting relatively

simple projects or sub projects of a large project, the
activities of a single worker, or for monitoring the progress
of activities compared to scheduled completion dates..
GANTT CHART
 NETWORK DIAGRAM
Is a graphical depiction of Project tasks and their inter-
relationships.

The distinguishing feature of a Network Diagram is that the

ordering of Tasks is shown by connecting with its
predecessor and successor tasks. tasks.

Network Diagramming is a Critical Path Scheduling

Technique used for controlling resources.

CRITICAL PATH SCHEDULING

A scheduling technique whose order and duration of a
sequence of task activities directly affect the Completion
Date of a Project
 NETWORK DIAGRAM
You would use a Network Diagram when Project Tasks:-

Are well defined and have clear beginning and end

point

Can be worked on independently of other tasks

Are ordered

Serve the purpose of project

 PROGRAM EVALUATION REVIEW
TECHNIQUE (PERT)
One of the most difficult and most error prone activities when
constructing a Project Schedule is the determination of the
TIME DURATION for each task within a Work Breakdown
Structure (WBS), specially when there is a high degree of
complexity and uncertainty about a task.

PERT is a technique used to calculate the Expected Time for a

tasks.

PERT is a technique that uses Optimistic time (O), Pessimistic

time (P) and Realistic Time (R) estimates to calculate the
EXPECTED TIME (ET) or a particular task.
 PROGRAM EVALUATION REVIEW
TECHNIQUE (PERT)
PERT is a technique that uses Optimistic time (o),
Pessimistic time (p) and Realistic Time (r) estimates
to calculate the EXPECTED TIME (ET) or a particular
task.

The Optimistic time (o) and Pessimistic time (p)

reflects the minimum and maximum possible
periods of time for an activity to be completed.

The Realistic time (r) or the Most likely time , reflects

the Project managers Best Guess of the amount
of time required for a task completion.
 PROGRAM EVALUATION REVIEW
TECHNIQUE (PERT)
CALCULATING EXPECTED COMPLETION TIME (ET)

o + 4r + p
ET = -------------------
6
Because the expected Completion time should be
closer to the realistic time (r), it is typically weighed
Four times more than the Optimistic time (o) and the
Pessimistic time (p). Once you add these values
together , it must be divided by 6 to determine the
Expected Time for a task.
 HOW TO CONSTRUCT A NETWORK
DIAGRAM (PERT / CPM)
DEVELOPING A NETWORK DOAGRAM IS A FOUR STEP
PROCESS:-

1. Identify each Project Activity to be completed

2. Determine Time estimates and calculate Expected

Completion Time for each Activity

3. For each Activity, identify the immediate predecessor

Activities

4. Enter the Activities with connecting arrows based on

Dependencies and calculate Start and End times based on
Duration and Resources.
 PERT CHART SYMBOLS
PERT Chart is consisted of TASKS and EVENTS.
An EVENT is called a Milestone, representing a point in time,
such as the Start or Completion of a Task.

A circle or a Rectangle shape NODE is used to represent an

EVENT.

Every PERT Chart has one Beginning and one End NODE that
represents the Start and Finish of a Project.

The Earliest and Latest Time is both Zero in Starting Event.

A TASK also called Activity, is depicted by an ARROW

Connecting Events. A Dashed Arrow represents a
DUMMY TASK which is the dependancty between two events
without requiring ant resource.
 PERT CHART SYMBOLS
SLACK TIME:-
The Slack Time available for any Task is equal to the
difference between the Earliest completion Time (ECT) and
the Latest Completion Time (LCT)

SLACK TIME = (LCT ECT)

CRITICAL PATH
Is a sequence of Dependent Tasks that have the Largest sum
of Estimated Time (ET). IT is the Path that has no Slack Time
built in.

The Critical Path on PERT chart is shown with thick Dark line.

To find the Critical Path begin with identifying all

alternative paths that exist from Event 1 to the Final
Event.
GANTT CHART vs PERT CHART
 GANTT CHART vs PERT CHART
GANTT chart visually shows the duration of Tasks whereas a
PERT chart visually shows the sequence dependencies between
tasks.

GANTT visually shows the Time overlap of Tasks whereas a

Network does not show time overlap but does show which tasks
could be done in parallel.

Some form of GANTT chart can visually show Slack Time

available within an Earliest Start and Latest finish time..

Most Project Managers find PERT very helpful for scheduling,

monitoring and controlling Projects.

PERT is recommended for Large Projects with high intertask

dependencies and the GANTT chart for simpler Projects.

Most Project Management Case Tools nowadays (eg. MS-Project

) allow the best feature of PERT to be incorporated into
GANTT Charts.