Project Planning and

Scheduling
Name: Ayomide Okunlola
Title: MGMT 183 - Project Planning and Scheduling
Instructor – Ayomide Okunlola

[email protected]
Week #3 - Winter Semester, January 2023
 Project Schedule Management

“The processes required to accomplish timely

completion of the project”
Recap from Week 2
 Introduction to Project Schedule Management

• Once the project scope is defined, the next step is to create a

schedule. A schedule is a list of activities, arranged in logical
order and containing the time that each should be started and
completed.
• Schedules may also contain information such as the cost and
required resources for each activity. The development of a
schedule is beneficial for the following reasons:
o It allows the project team to make commitments to its stakeholders about the final
delivery date as well as interim deliverables.
o Everyone involved in the project is able to see their efforts within the context of
the whole project and understand the connections and inter-dependencies that
may exist.
o It provides an established project timeline that may be used to track the progress
of the project. This established timeline is known as a baseline.
 Plan Schedule Management:

• Process of establishing the policies, procedures, and

documentation for planning, developing, managing, executing,
and controlling the project schedule.

o The processes:
o Define Activities – Week 3 Topic
o Sequence Activities
o Estimate Activity Durations
o Develop Schedule
o Control Schedule

Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute, Inc., 2017. Page 173-230
 PLAN SCHEDULE MANAGEMENT ITTO
Tools & Techniques

• Project charter
• Project management plan
• Scope management plan
• Development approach Inputs Outputs • Schedule management plan
 Expert judgment
• Organizational process assets
 Data analysis
• Enterprise environmental factors
 Meetings

Estimate
Plan Schedule Define Sequence Develop Control
Activity
Management Activities Activities Schedule Schedule
Durations

Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute, Inc., 2017. Page 179

PMI, PMBOK, PMP, and CAPM are registered marks of

Project Management Institute, Inc.
 The triple constraint

• The “iron triangle” is a very popular metaphor pointing out

that the project manager is asked to reach a reasonable
trade-off among various concurrent, heterogeneous, and
visible constraints.
Define Activities
 Project Schedule Planning

• Project Schedule Management includes the processes required to manage the

timely completion of the project.

• Process of establishing the policies, procedures, and documentation tor planning,

developing, managing, executing, and controlling the project schedule.
 DEFINE ACTIVITIES
Tools & Techniques

• Activity list
• Project management plan
• Activity attributes
• Schedule management plan
• Scope baseline • Milestone list
 Expert judgment
• Enterprise environmental factorsInputs Outputs • Change requests
 Decomposition
• Organizational process assets • Project management plan
 Rolling wave planning updates
– Schedule baseline
 Meetings – Cost baseline

Estimate
Plan Schedule Define Sequence Develop Control
Activity
Management Activities Activities Schedule Schedule
Durations

Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute, Inc., 2017. Page 183

PMI, PMBOK, PMP, and CAPM are registered marks of

Project Management Institute, Inc.
 • Process of identifying the specific and documenting
actions to be performed to produce the project
deliverables
• The key benefit of this process is that it decomposes
DEFINE work packages into schedule activities that provide a
basis for estimating, scheduling, executing, monitoring,
ACTIVITIES and controlling the project work.
• This process is performed throughout the project.
• Work packages are decomposed into activities
• Provides a basis for estimating, scheduling, executing,
and monitoring and controlling the project work
 Define Activities Introduction

Project schedules grow out of the basic documents that initiate a project. The
project charter often mentions planned project start and end dates, which serve as
the starting points for a more detailed schedule. The project manager starts with the
project charter and then develops a project scope statement and WBS. Using this
information with the scope statement, WBS, WBS dictionary, project management
plan, and other related information, the project team begins to develop a schedule

by first clearly defining all the activities it needs to perform . As defined

in the PMBOK® Guide– Sixth Edition, an activity is a distinct, scheduled

portion of work performed during the course of a project.

Input, Tools & Techniques, and
Outputs
Data Flow Diagram
DEFINE ACTIVITIES: INPUTS

1. PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN components include but are not limited to:

a) Schedule management plan - Defines the schedule methodology, the duration of waves
for rolling wave planning, and the level of detail necessary to manage the work
b) Scope baseline - The project WBS, deliverables, constraints, and assumptions documented
in the scope baseline are considered explicitly while defining activities
DEFINE ACTIVITIES: INPUTS
3. ENTERPRISE ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS that can influence the Plan Define
Activities process include but are not limited to:
a. Organizational culture and structure
b. Published commercial information from commercial databases, and
c. Project management information system (PMIS).

4. ORGANIZATIONAL PROCESS ASSETS that can influence the Define Activities

process include but are not limited to:
d. Lessons learned repository containing historical information regarding activity lists used
by previous similar projects,
e. Standardized processes,
f. Templates that contain a standard activity list or a portion of an activity list from a
previous project, and
g. Existing formal and informal activity planning-related policies, procedures, and
guidelines, such as the scheduling methodology, that are considered in developing the
activity definitions.
DEFINE ACTIVITIES: TOOLS AND
TECHNIQUES
1. EXPERT JUDGMENT
Expertise should be considered from individuals or groups with specialized knowledge of similar
past projects and the work being performed.

2. DECOMPOSITION
Decomposition is a technique used for dividing and subdividing the project scope and project
deliverables into smaller, more manageable parts. Activities represent the effort needed to
complete a work package. The Define Activities process defines the final outputs as activities rather
than deliverables, as done in the Create WBS process. The activity list, WBS, and WBS dictionary
can be developed either sequentially or concurrently, with the WBS and WBS dictionary used as the
basis for development of the final activity list. Each work package within the WBS is decomposed
into the activities required to produce the work package deliverables. Involving team members in
the decomposition can lead to better and more accurate results.
DEFINE ACTIVITIES: TOOLS AND
TECHNIQUES
3. ROLLING WAVE PLANNING
Rolling wave planning is an iterative planning technique in which the work to be
accomplished in the near term is planned in detail, while work further in the future is
planned at a higher level.
It is a form of progressive elaboration applicable to work packages, planning packages, and
release planning when using an agile or waterfall approach. Therefore, work can exist at
various levels of detail depending on where it is in the project life cycle. During early strategic
planning when information is less defined, work packages may be decomposed to the known
level of detail. As more is known about the upcoming events in the near term, work packages
can be decomposed into activities.

4. MEETINGS
Meetings may be face-to-face, virtual, formal, or informal. Meetings may be held with team
members or subject matter experts to define the activities needed to complete the work.
 DEFINE ACTIVITIES: OUTPUTS
1. ACTIVITY LIST
The activity list includes the schedule activities required on the project. For projects that use rolling
wave planning or agile techniques, the activity list will be updated periodically as the project
progresses. The activity list includes an activity identifier and a scope of work description for each
activity in sufficient detail to ensure that project team members understand what work is required
to be completed.

2. ACTIVITY ATTRIBUTES
Activity attributes extend the description of the activity by identifying multiple components
associated with each activity. The components for each activity evolve over time. During the initial
stages of the project, they include the unique activity identifier (ID), WBS ID, and activity label or
name. When completed, they may include activity descriptions, predecessor activities, successor
activities, logical relationships, leads and lags, resource requirements, imposed dates, constraints,
and assumptions. Activity attributes can be used to identify the place where the work has to be
performed, the project calendar the activity is assigned to, and the type of effort involved. Activity
attributes are used for schedule development and for selecting, ordering, and sorting the planned
schedule activities in various ways within reports.
DEFINE ACTIVITIES: OUTPUTS

3. MILESTONE LIST
A milestone is a significant point or event in a project. A milestone list identifies all project
milestones and indicates whether the milestone is mandatory, such as those required by
contract, or optional, such as those based on historical information. Milestones have zero
duration because they represent a significant point or event

4. CHANGE REQUESTS
Once the project has been baselined, the progressive elaboration of deliverables into
activities may reveal work that was not initially part of the project baselines. This may result
in a change request. Change requests are processed for review and disposition through the
Perform Integrated Change Control process
DEFINE ACTIVITIES: OUTPUTS

5. PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN UPDATE

Any change to the project management plan goes through the organization’s change control
process via a change request. Components that may require a change request for the project
management plan include but are not limited to:
a. Schedule baseline: Throughout the project, work packages are progressively elaborated
into activities. This process may reveal work that was not part of the initial schedule
baseline, necessitating a change to delivery dates or other significant schedule
milestones that are part of the schedule baseline.
b. Cost baseline: Changes to the cost baseline are incorporated in response to approved
changes in schedule activities.
UNDERSTANDING THE ACTIVITY
LIST…
CREATING THE ACTIVITY LIST & ATTRIBUTES
• The activity list is a tabulation of activities to be included on a project
schedule.
• The list should include the activity name, an activity identifier or number,
and a brief description of the activity.
• The activity attributes provide schedule-related information about each
activity, such as predecessors, successors, logical relationships, leads and
lags, resource requirements, constraints, imposed dates, and assumptions
related to the activity.
• The activity list is created by identifying the activities required to create
each work package on the WBS, and any activity and its attributes must be
in alignment with the WBS and WBS dictionary
UNDERSTANDING THE ACTIVITY
LIST…
Why are activities only created for the work
packages, and not for all deliverables on the
WBS?
• A work package is the lowest level item of work in a WBS, and that a WBS
includes all project work. Further, when a deliverable is decomposed into
smaller deliverables (and eventually the work packages), all work required
for a deliverable is included in its sub-deliverables, known as the WBS 100%
rule. Therefore, if you complete all activities required to complete all work
packages, then you complete all work required for the project. The image in
the next slide, demonstrates this principle. In this example, if the kiosk
cabinet, kiosk computer, kiosk touchscreen, kiosk biometric scanner, and
kiosk software are all completed, then the patient kiosk will be completed.
WBS 100% Rule
Sample Activity List & Attributes
Sample Activity List & Attributes
Report on Pilot Course Activity List

Kristin and her team developed dozens of activities that would be used later for
creating the project schedule. The image above provides an example of how they
reviewed a work package, “Report on pilot course,” and developed a
list of activities required to build that work package. Note that unlike the
deliverables described within the WBS, which are listed as nouns, activities are
all listed using a verb and then a noun, using verbs such as review, create,
develop, interview, write, distribute, and analyze.
Thank you!

FlemingCollegeToronto.ca
Recap from Week 2
MS Project
MS Project is a tool to help you to plan projects,
manage and update project information, and
communicate the status once the project is
under way.
• The details of the project tasks and associated
resources are entered into the system as a new
project.
• The system will then display the data in such a way
that the relationships of the tasks and their time
scales can clearly be seen and potential problem
areas identified.
 Understanding Project Management

At the heart of every project management system is a scheduling algorithm. When

scheduling resources and parameters are entered into it, the scheduling algorithm
produces a project schedule that would be impossible for you to produce
manually.
In Microsoft Project, however complex your project may be, you can vary only
information regarding tasks or resources.
The information you provide is fed into the “Black Box” or algorithm, to provide
you with a schedule in the form of a Gantt chart, Network Diagram Chart, or
Resource Graph. In summary,
MS Project
MS Project Language:
Some common terms are illustrated below:

In the illustration two tasks have a relationship. Task A is the predecessor task, and Task B is
the successor task. Both of these tasks are considered to be non-critical because they both
have flexibility. Let’s focus on Task A. EA marks the earliest possible time Task A can start. SS
marks the scheduled start time for Task A. By default, all tasks are scheduled to start at the
earliest possible time, unless you specify otherwise.
MS Project Creating Tasks
Building a task list
• Tasks are the most basic building blocks of any project’s plan.

• They represent the work to be done to accomplish the goals of the project.
• Tasks describe work in terms of dependencies, duration, and resource requirements.
• Summary tasks, subtasks, and milestones - generally called activities or work packages.

• On this topic:
• Creating tasks, entering task durations and dates, entering milestone tasks, creating summary
tasks, linking tasks to create dependencies, switching task scheduling from manual to automatic,
checking a plan’s duration and finish date, and documenting task information.
• Every task in a plan is given an ID number, but the number does not necessarily represent the
order in which tasks occur.
• Every task in Project has one of two scheduling modes that controls how the task is scheduled:
• Manual (the default) or Automatically scheduled.
Naming Tasks

• Naming the task is the first step in creating a task.

• Develop good practices about how you name tasks in your plans.
• Task names should be recognizable and make sense to those who will perform the tasks and to other
stakeholders who will read the task names.

• Use short verb phrases that describe the work to be done, such as “Edit manuscript.”
• Use descriptive phrases that communicate the required work and make sense to you and others who will
perform the work or review the plan.

• If tasks will be organized into an outline, don’t repeat details from the summary task name in the
subtask name unless it adds clarity.

• If tasks will have resources assigned to them, don’t include resource names in the task names.

• You can edit task names later - don’t have to be exactly right when you’re initially entering them into
a plan.
Enter task durations and dates

• A task’s duration represents the amount of time you expect it will take to
complete the task.
• Project can work with task durations that range from minutes to months.
• Depending on the scope of your plan, you’ll probably want to work with task durations on the
scale of hours, days, and weeks.
• Project uses standard values for minutes and hours for durations:
• 1 minute equals 60 seconds, and 1 hour equals 60 minutes.
• For the durations of days, weeks, and months, you can use Project’s defaults (for
example, 20 days per month) or define your own values in the Project Options
dialog box.
 Manage time-related settings

Use the Schedule tab of the

Project Options dialog box
An Example; task durations

• Assume that a plan has a project calendar with working time defined as 8:00 A.M.
through 5:00 P.M., with one hour off for lunch breaks, Monday through Friday,
leaving nonworking time defined as evenings (after 5:00 P.M.) and weekends.
• If you estimate that a task will take 16 hours of working time, you could enter its duration as 2d to
schedule work over two 8-hour workdays.
• You should then expect that starting the task at 8:00 A.M. on a Friday means that it will not be
completed until 5:00 P.M. on the following Monday.
• No work would be scheduled over the weekend because Saturday and Sunday have been defined as
nonworking time.
• We shall use default values: 8 hours per day, 40 hours per week, and 20 days per month.
Time formats

• Automatically scheduled tasks always have a duration (one day by default).

• Manually scheduled tasks, however, do not initially have any duration. A task’s duration is essential for
Project to schedule a task, so it makes sense that a manually scheduled task, which is not scheduled by
Project, does not require a duration.
• With manually scheduled tasks, you can enter regular duration values by using the abbreviations shown
in the preceding table—for example, 3d for three days. You can also enter text values, such as Check
with Bob or Sometime next quarter.
• Such text values are replaced with the default one-day duration value when you convert a task from
manual to automatic scheduling. Project will not allow you to enter a text value (such as Check with
Bob) for an automatically scheduled task’s duration, start, or finish value.
Automatic Scheduling, elapsed time
• When you create an automatically scheduled task, Project adds a question mark (?)
after the one-day duration to indicate that the duration is an estimate - you need to
determine the task’s correct duration later.
• You can flag any task as having an estimated duration. Select the task, and on the Task tab, in the
Properties group, click Information, and then select the Estimated check box.

• You could schedule tasks to occur during nonworking and working time.
• To do this, enter an elapsed duration to a task. You enter elapsed duration by preceding the duration
abbreviation with an e.

• You might use an elapsed duration for a task that goes on continuously rather than just
during normal working hours.
• For instance, a construction project might have the tasks Pour foundation concrete and Remove
foundation forms.
• Create a task called Wait for concrete to cure, because you don’t want to remove the forms until the concrete has cured. The task
Wait for concrete to cure should have an elapsed duration because the concrete will cure over a contiguous range of days,
whether they are working or nonworking days. If the concrete takes 48 hours to cure, you can enter the duration for that task as
2ed, schedule the task to start on Friday at 9:00 A.M., and expect it to be complete by Sunday at 9:00 A.M.
Enter milestone tasks
• In addition to entering tasks to be completed, you might want to account for an
important event for your project’s plan, such as the end of a major phase of the project.
• Create a milestone task.

• Examples –
• Completion of a phase of work
• Imposed upon the plan - such as a deadline by which to apply for funding.

• Because the milestone itself doesn’t normally include any work, milestones are normally
represented as tasks with zero duration.
• To visually distinguish milestones, their Gantt chart symbol appears as a diamond rather
than a bar.
• You can flag any task of any duration as a milestone.
Creating summary tasks
• A summary task is made up of and summarizes the subtasks indented below it in
the plan’s outline.
• When the summary tasks are sequenced over time, the highest-level summary tasks
are called phases.

• Organizing a project’s plan in an outline helps you and your stakeholders

think in terms of major work items or phases.
• For example, in book publishing projects - Editorial, Design, and Production phases.
• You create an outline by indenting and out-denting tasks.
• Summary tasks are automatically scheduled and not manually scheduled by default.
• Duration of an automatically scheduled summary task is the span of working time from the earliest start
date to the latest finish date of its subtasks. If you directly edit the duration of an automatically scheduled
summary task, or its start or finish date, it will be switched to a manually scheduled task.
Practice Tasks
1. To enter task names

2. To insert a new task within a task list

3. To delete a task

4. To enter task duration

5. To calculate the duration of a manually scheduled task

6. To enter a milestone task

7. To mark a task of any duration as a milestone

8. To promote a task to a summary task

9. To insert a new summary task within a task list

10. To demote a summary task to a task

 Thank you!
Thank you!

FlemingCollegeToronto.ca