CPETECET 470 Project Management

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CPET/ECET 470Project Management

• Class 3 - Planning Scheduling

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Course Topics

• Focus
• Understanding project planning and control
• Specific Topics
• Planning
• Definition of Work
• Scheduling
• Budgets
• Measuring Progress/Controlling Cost
• Easy to do
• Your role in the process
• Risk Management
• Risk Evaluation
• Risk Mitigation

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Stages of Planning
Define Ultimate Goal
Construct Statement of Work
Define Work Breakdown Structure
Create Summary Level Schedule
Create Detailed Schedule
Define Budgets
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Work Definition Levels
SOW Requirement
SOW
SOW/WBS Overlap
SOW WBS
Upper Level WBS Element
Cost Account
WBS Schedule
WBS/Schedule Overlap
Work Package
Schedule
Task
Schedule
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Responsibility Assignment Matrix

• Responsibility Assignment matrix (RAM) is an
  integration of the Program Organization Chart
  (Organizational Breakdown Structure) and the CWBS
• The RAM ties the work to the responsible person
• Establishes responsibility for WBS elements
• Assigns the Cost Account Manager (CAM)

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Assigning Work
Assignment of a single work element to a single
team allows better control and Facilitates
rollup of efforts In both directions.
WBS
control account
ORGANIZATION
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RAM The Cost Account Manager

• Empowered by the
• Management Team
• Understand the baseline
• Manage assigned effort
• Technical
• Schedule
• Cost
• Report monthly variance analysis

COST
SCHEDULE
TECHNICAL
CAM
COST ACCOUNT MANAGER (CAM)
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Myth 4

• I dont need a schedule, because I already know
  what needs to be done.
• Maybe you do
• However, you need the schedule to communicate to
  others what needs to be done
• The team needs a vehicle to keep you informed of
  their plans

LESSON The schedule is a communication tool
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Top Level Schedules

• Work scope, ownership, interrelationships, time
  durations are all key data needed prior to
  schedule development
• This is the time and place to document key
  program objectives, assumptions, groundrules, and
  constraints
• This will be the vehicle for communicating to the
  program team members and other stakeholders
• The top level plan must be developed by the CIPT
• Collectively the team will provide information
  that you or other individual team members may
  miss
• This also establishes ownership of the plans at
  an early stage
• The top level plan should be developed down to
  the cost account level determined by the RAM

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Top Level Schedules 5 Easy Steps

• List Program Tasks
• Brainstorming is a good method to generate this
  list
• All schedules should follow the WBS
• Note Updates to the WBS should be expected as a
  result of the scheduling process.
• Start with major deliverables and key milestones
• Sequence Tasks
• This is simply putting the tasks in the order
  they will occur
• Identify Relationships between tasks
• This requires team members who are cognizant of
  the processes involved
• Assign Durations to Tasks
• Analyze plan against program objectives

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Now that you have an overall plan,

• It is time to flesh out the details
• But how much detail?
• Too much detail becomes unmanageable, and makes
  the plan difficult to use
• But, if the plan has too little detail, it is
  difficult to anticipate the development of
  problems

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Detail the Schedule

• It is imperative that the team members who will
  do the work are involved in the detail planning
  phase to the extent possible. As with the top
  level planning,
• This increases the probability of an accurate and
  complete plan
• Engages team in the process early and increases
  ownership
• FACT Planning/scheduling is an iterative
  process
• Many iterations are normally made during the
  initial planning
• Be sure to allow enough time, and do not rush the
  process
• As new information arise, assumptions will change
• This process is laying the groundwork for a solid
  program plan
• Stimulates inter- and intra- team discussions
• Surfaces risk areas
• Identifies resource issues
• Surfaces required inputs from others

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Detail the Schedule

• The initial organizing and planning done to this
  point (WBS, RAM, Top Level Schedule) is used as
  the guidance to initiate detail planning of the
  cost accounts
• Each CAM must take this guidance (at the cost
  account level) and detail plan the work assigned
  to him/her.
• Break down each cost account into work packages
  and tasks
• Define duration and resources needed for
  completion of each task
• Define completion criteria for each task
• Define task interrelationships
• Most difficult step
• Where most plans fail to capture the reality of
  what needs to happen
• Is the most common cause of a schedule that needs
  a miracle at the end to be successful during
  execution

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Work Package Characteristics

• Subset of cost account
• Detailed plan made for near term work (work
  packages)
• Future work is not detailed planned (planning
  packages)
• Reasonably short in duration
• Consistent with top level schedules
• Discrete and Measurable
• Exit criteria is a product, accomplishment or
  event
• Generate drawing package
• Conduct design review
• Assemble power supply
• Work packages must be 100 complete prior to
  closing the package

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Developing Detail Plans 7 Easy Steps

• List Program Tasks
• Start with the Top Level Program Schedule
• Identify the products from your cost account
• Identify tasks required to develop the products
• Identify all inputs needed to perform your work
  as a milestone
• Sequence Tasks
• Identify Relationships between tasks
• Involve any team members who will be performing
  the required tasks
• Assign Durations to Tasks
• Assign Earned Value Method to Tasks
• Assign Resources to Tasks
• Populate the custom category fields attached to
  each task

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Assigning Durations Earned Value

• Tip Apply a single unit of duration throughout
  plan (i.e. weeks, days, hours)
• Task durations should not exceed 6 weeks
• Goal is to have tasks span no more than two
  fiscal months
• Earned Value (EV) Techniques
• Method How Value is Earned
• 0/100 Zero EV at start, 100 EV finish
• 50/50 50 EV at start, 50 EV at finish
• Percent Complete Subjective
• Level of Effort EV taken based on passing of
  time
• Apportioned Based on progress of a related task

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Assigning Resources

• Applying resources to the planned work
• Determine the type of resources needed for
  completing each task and how long each one is
  needed to complete the activities.
• The duration of any activity is usually
  influenced by the amount of resources assigned to
  it and the duration of most programs is
  influenced by the quality of the resources
  assigned to them.

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Defining Task Interrelationships

• Remember that the devil is in the details?
• This is the details
• Knowing how tasks relate to each other is
  critical to a good plan
• This knowledge must be resident within those
  planning the effort. The knowledge comes from
  experience, wisdom and careful consideration

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Myth 5

• I dont have to put that task on the schedule.
  It is inferred from the phase of the program that
  it occurs in.
• Inference is based on your level of cognizance,
  at the present time. Others will be using the
  schedule to manage their work
• Program team members change throughout the life
  of the program
• All program efforts must be on the plan, at some
  level
• If it is not on the schedule, it will likely be
  forgotten .until it is too late, causing
  regression

Truth The schedule should document the plan
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Dos and Donts

• Do identify any inputs that you require to
  perform your task as a milestone on you detail
  plan
• Dont constrain start/finish dates of tasks
• Dont link summary tasks
• Dont use lead/lag as a substitute for thorough
  planning
• Do ensure Task titles are descriptive
• Do use a consistent unit for durations
• Do start planning early.it is never too early
• Do involve the team in the early development of
  the schedule

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Schedule Analysis

• What is schedule analysis?
• Identifying the Critical Path
• Forward and backward pass analysis
• Identifying slack
• Crashing the schedule

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Analyze the Plan

• It is important to analyze any plan to determine
• The overall health of the plan
• Level of detail
• Proper scheduling techniques applied
• Compliance with significant milestones
• The viability of the plan
• Amount of margin in the plan
• Changes in the plan
• Areas of the plan that require action
• Current and potential problem areas
• Progress against the plan
• Schedule position

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Myth 6

• I do not need a schedule because I already know
  what the critical path is.
• You may have a sense of what the critical path is
• When you prepare a detail schedule, items that
  you did not expect or were not watching will
  surface on the critical path
• Action must be taken to move these items off the
  CP
• The individuals performing the work will plan for
  details that you may not be aware of

Truth The critical path must be managed, not
dictated
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The Critical Path Definition

• A set of activities which determine the earliest
  completion of the project, where any delay in any
  activity will delay the project by an equivalent
  amount
• The path(s) in the task network with zero slack
• The path with the longest duration through the
  network

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Critical Path Exercise

• Sum the times along each path in a network to
  determine the overall duration of each path.
• The longest path in the network is the critical
  path.
• The project cannot end before the critical path
  ends.
• What is the critical path of the following
  network?
• How long will this project take to complete?

Task G 6 days
Task C 3 days
Task A 3 days
Task D 7 days
Task H 1 day
Task F 5 days
Task E 4 days
Task B 2 days
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Critical Path for an Entire Project

• All tasks are compared to the latest task in the
  project. If a delay in a task would impact this
  date then the task is considered critical

Critical Path 0 7 5 4 0 16 days
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Critical Path for multiple sets of tasks

• Each chain of tasks calculates critical path
  separately within its own set of tasks. A
  critical path is calculated for each finish task
  within the project. A task is considered
  critical if it impacts the end of its network of
  tasks.
• The example shows two chains of connected tasks
  within a single project, each calculating
  critical path from the finish tasks.

Critical Path 0 7 5 4 0 16
days Critical Path 0 6 9 15 days
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Critical Path Analysis (CPA)

• The Key Concept used by CPA is that a subset of
  project activities, which make up the longest
  path through the activity network, control the
  entire project
• If these "critical" activities could be
  identified and assigned to responsible persons,
  management resources could be optimally used by
  concentrating on the few activities which
  determine the fate of the entire project
• Non-critical activities can be replanned,
  rescheduled and resources for them can be
  reallocated flexibly, without affecting the whole
  project
• There are three steps to performing Critical Path
  Analysis
• Forward Pass
• Backward Pass
• Float Calculation

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Forward Pass

• The forward pass is calculation of the Earliest
  Start and Earliest Finish dates for each task in
  the network
• Early Start Date the date at which the task's
  predecessors have all been completed
• Early Finish Date the Early Start Date plus the
  task duration
• A typical format of reflecting these dates in a
  network is

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Forward Pass - Exercise

• Start with the first task in the path and
  calculate the Early dates
• Assume the project starts on Day 1 of the Project

ES
EF
ES
EF
Task G 6 days
Task C 3 days
ES
EF
Task A 3 days
ES
EF
ES
EF
Task H 1 days
Task D 7 days
ES
EF
Task F 5 days
ES
EF
ES
EF
Task B 2 days
Task E 4 days
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Forward Pass - Exercise

• Start with the first task in the path and
  calculate the Early dates
• We will do the first two tasks together

Day 4
Day 6
ES
EF
Task G 6 days
Task C 3 days
Day 1
Day 3
Task A 3 days
ES
EF
ES
EF
Task H 1 days
Task D 7 days
ES
EF
Task F 5 days
ES
EF
ES
EF
Task B 2 days
Task E 4 days
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Backward Pass

• The backward pass is calculation of the Latest
  Start and Latest Finish dates for each task in
  the network
• Late Start Date the date after which the task
  causes slippage of the project end date. It is
  determined by starting at the end of the project
  and working backwards
• A typical format of reflecting these dates in a
  network is

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Backward Pass - Exercise

• Start with the last task in the path and
  calculate the Latest Dates
• The Early Finish of the last task on the CP is
  equal to its Latest Finish

LS
LF
LS
LF
LS
LF
LS
LF
LS
LF
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Backward Pass - Exercise

• Start with the last task in the path and
  calculate the Latest Dates
• We will do the first two tasks together

Day 7
Day 12
Task G 6 days
Day 10
Day 15
LS
LF
Day 16
Day 16
LS
LF
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Forward and Backward Pass

• Review the Critical Path
• What do you Notice about the Early and Late Dates?

EARLY DATES LATE DATES on the CRITICAL PATH
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What is slack?

• The time between a tasks planned completion date
  and its need date
• The time available to delay the completion of an
  activity without impacting the project end date
• Useful to help to determine the impact of tasks
  slippage on the overall program schedule
• Slack is used to prioritize tasks for resource
  allocation (the less slack, the higher the tasks
  priority because it is more critical)
• The difference between a tasks Earliest dates
  and its Latest Start / Finish dates
• Also referred to as Float

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SLACK Calculation - Exercise

• How much Slack (or Float) does each task have?
• Slack LF - EF

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SLACK Defined

• TOTAL SLACK The amount of time that the finish
  date of a task can be delayed without delaying
  the finish date of the project
• FREE SLACK The amount of time a task can be
  delayed before its successor task is delayed
• Use the Free Slack to determine whether a task
  has any time available for a delay
• Slack Values
• By definition, a task with 0 slack is considered
  a critical task.  If a critical task is delayed,
  the project finish date is also delayed
• A negative slack value indicates the amount of
  time that must be saved so that the project
  finish date is not delayed

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SLACK Example

• TOTAL SLACK The amount of time that the finish
  date of a task can be delayed without delaying
  the finish date of the project
• Task I can be delayed 3 days before Task D is
  effected
• FREE SLACK The amount of time a task can be
  delayed before its successor task is delayed
• Task I can be delayed 2 days before Task L is
  effected

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Crashing the schedule

• Efforts to accelerate a project schedule are
  commonly grouped under the term "crashing" the
  schedule. Maybe this term was coined to suggest
  that there is always some price for driving a
  project to completion sooner than normal. There
  are a number of ways to improve the schedule
• Add people to the schedule. Additional staff must
  be added early in a project or they will slow it
  down while learning the ropes. If you add people,
  you may also need to add staff for supervision
  and coordination
• Improve productivity and work longer hours. A
  good team atmosphere with management support can
  help make this happen. Without positive
  nourishment of this process, you could lose your
  team to attrition
• Review schedule dependencies and look for
  opportunities to overlap tasks or make serial
  tasks concurrent or parallel activities. This
  requires greater coordination and sometimes
  involves increased risks which need to be managed
  carefully
• Review the project scope and remove or delay
  features or functionality from the project
  critical path
• Consider innovative approaches such as a
  different development methodology, alternative
  technologies, or out-sourcing options
• When Crashing a schedule, consider the cost of
  crashing, and balance time and cost to avoid
  waste of resources

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Establishing the Baseline

• Once the plan has been analyzed and adjusted to
  reflect program objectives, the next step is to
  Baseline it
• Baselining captures a snapshot of the plan
  (schedule and budgets) at a point in time
  particularly at the launch of a program
• The baseline is established in order to initiate
  the Control process
• The baseline allows measurement of progress
  against and/or deviations from the original plan
• This comparison is useful in the analysis of the
  overall project

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In Summary

• Planning is fundamental to program management
• Planning should be initiated early in the program
  life cycle
• Program Managers facilitate the planning effort
• The Schedule Analyst will support the PM in this
  role
• The plan should be developed by those who will
  execute the plan
• The schedule is the tool to plan, manage and
  report all program data

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Class 3 Assignment
Dont Worry About This

• Answer questions 12-5, 12-6 and 12-13 through
  12-16
• Due Monday
• Use Microsoft Project to assist you in providing
  answers if you want (good practice to learn the
  software)
• Read ahead paragraphs 15.4 15.5