Project Planning and Control

Elly Win
(M.Sc. Shipping Management, WMU;
PhD Logistics, KMOU)

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 Contents
 WBS—to show the scope and structure of the work in the project
 CBS—to illustrate the breakdown of costs
 OBS—to show the teams and resources to be used to carry out the work
 RAM—to allocate task responsibilities to the resources
 Network Diagram—to plot the task dependencies
 Estimating—to predict the duration of each task
 Critical Path Analysis—to calculate the project duration and the most
critical tasks
 Gantt Chart—to plot the tasks against the project timescale
 Resource Histogram—to illustrate the number of resources used against
the timescale.

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 Project Planning
 Project Management plan describes HOW I plan
manage the changes to
– Scope
– Time
– Cost
– Issues
– Risk
– Quality
– Communication
– Resources

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 Project Plan

 It is a procedure or a set of procedures.

 It describes
– the steps to be taken,
– Who will take them
– When and
– how

It is a living document, and evolves as the project evolves.

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 Key deliverables in a Project
Management Plan
 Project management approach  Major Milestones and
 Work Breakdown Structure their target dates
 Budget  Resources
 Scheduled start and finish dates  Risk management plan
 Responsibility  Open issues
charts/Assignments
 Pending decisions
 Change Control Plan/system
 Project organisation chart
 Performance Measurement
Baselines

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  The plan is nothing; the planning is everything.”
(Dwight Eisenhower)

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 Step 1: (i) Work Breakdown Structure
(WBS)
 The WBS shows the scope of the project, i.e., the
total work content and what will be the exclusions
from the scope.
 It is a useful visual aid and can be used in
brainstorming sessions.
 There is no time implied in the WBS.

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 WBS: How to do

 Identify the tasks in the project and put them into sensible

groups.

 Add Task Reference numbers to the WBS.

 Identify the lowest level (or simple tasks), that will be taken and

are not broken down any further in the WBS.

TWO sets of IDENTIFIERS are: Task References and Task IDs

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 WBS: Rules of Thumb

 There is no rule as to the number of levels that a WBS has

 Always start with Project Management as the first Deliverable
 There should be no more than 10 top-level deliverables
 Use a noun: object naming convention
 Each sub-component must have a deliverable---- the lowest
level of sub-division with a deliverable is called a ‘work
package’
 Each and every sub-component must be assignable to one and
only one person..
 Do not break the work into any finer detail than you intend to
track or is of value – do not micro-manage

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 Work Breakdown Structure:
Project to decorate a room

 Project includes laying a new carpet, painting the

walls, ceiling and woodwork, and installing some
new furniture
Decorate

Prepare
Design Painting Lay carpet Furnish
room

Paint walls Paint Order Install

Buy paint
& Ceiling woodwork furniture furniture

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 Work breakdown structure with task references

The task references show the parent-child relationships between the tasks.
The industry standard conventions for numbering conventions is based on
hierarchical references. In this, the number of digits in the reference number
reflects the task’s position in the hierarchy.

Decorate

4 Prepare
1 Design 2 Painting 3 Lay carpet 5 Furnish
room

2.2 Paint
2.3 Paint 5.1 Order 5.2 Install
2.1 Buy paint walls &
woodwork furniture furniture
Ceiling

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 STEP 2: Cost Breakdown Structure
The purpose of CBS is to provide a pictoral view of the costs in the projects.
The task is labelled with the estimated cost.
The total cost of the tasks in the project can be summarised. E.g the total costs
of painting is £200; the total cost of furnishing, £900.

This shows where

the main cost of the
project lies, and can
be seen easily
where the largest
savings can be
made.

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 Task Ids

 Task Ids are used when

working out task
dependencies.
 Task references is used
to show the task
hierarchy.

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 Step 3: Organisational Breakdown Structure

 The Organisational Breakdown Structure (OBS)

shows the resources required by the project.
 It is drawn using a hierarchy to denote the
reporting lines.
 OBS can be based on the WBS.
– Skills required and the tasks

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 OBS

Project Manager

Interior Painter &

Carpet fitter Labourer
Designer Decorator

Figure: Organisational Breakdown Structure

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 Step 4: Responsibility Assignment
Matrix
 The Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM) uses both the WBS and the OBS
to assign task to resources
 A key is used to denote the way on which the resource is involved in the task.

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 Step 5: Network Diagrams

 Network diagrams shows the project tasks in a

diagrammatic form.
 It helps in the calculation of project duration and
identification of some project risks.
 Consider
– Dependencies between the tasks (Finish-to-Start)
dependency where the next task cannot start until the
previous one has finished.

A B
Finish-to-start dependency

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 Task dependency for decorating a
room

The diagram is also known as a ‘precedence Network’ or

‘PERT Chart”.

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 Dependency
Network

B
D E F

C
A
I

G H

Figure: Network Diagram for decorating a room

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 Step 6: Estimating
Estimate the duration of each activity in the network.
Effort needed to complete a task and the duration that
the task will take will be different.
Number of days in a year 365
Weekend days 104 Percentage of available
time= 211/253 = 83%
Bank days 8
Number of working days per year 253 80-90% is a standard
Annual leave 25 percentage for the
Training courses 10 project planning
Sick leave 5
Company meetings 2
Number of days worked per year 211

Table of working days per year

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 Estimating the duration
 Subjective estimating: has a very low level of
accuracy, usually at the Conception Phase
 Comparative estimating: compare the project with
previous project (Definition Phase)
 Parametric estimating: use historical data or
parameter to create an estimate, e.g., the number
of walls
 Bottom-up estimating: estimate each task in the
low-levels of WBS.

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 Step 7: Critical Path Analysis or
Method
 Critical Path Analysis uses simple addition and
subtraction on the ‘nodes’ of the precedence
network.
 AON (activity on node) is a method of drawing
networks in which activities are drawn as boxes
(which are the nodes), and arrows are used to
define the relationships between them.

Earliest Duration Earliest

Start Time Finish Time
Task Identifier (Activity Number, Activity
Activity On Node
description) Convention
Latest Start Total Float Latest
Time Finish Time

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 Meanings

 The Earliest Start Time is the soonest that the task can start
 The Duration is the length of time that the task will take
 The Earliest Finish Time is the soonest that the task can finish
 The Latest Start Time is the latest that the task can start
 The Latest Finish Time is the latest that the task can finish
 The Total Float is the amount of delay that could occur on the
task before the project end date is delayed as a consequence.
For example, if the Total Float is zero then the task cannot be
delayed without affecting the whole project

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 Forward pass and backward pass

 First, carry out forward pass, i.e from left to

right to find the Earliest Start Time, and Earliest
Finish Time.
 Second carry out a backward pass, i.e., from
right to left to find the Latest Finish Time, the
float, and the Latest Start Time.

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 The steps of network analysis
1. Enter the duration of each task.
2. Start with a 0 for the Earliest Start of the first task
3. Perform the Forward Pass:
1. For each task, Earliest Finish = Earliest Start + Duration
2. Earliest Start of next task = Earliest Finish of preceding task
3. When there is a choice for Earliest Start, take the highest value
4. For the last task, the Latest Finish = Earliest Finish
5. Perform the Backward Pass:
– For each task, Latest Start = Latest Finish-Duration
– Latest Finish of preceding task = Latest Start of next task
– When there is a choice for Latest Finish, take the lowest value.
 6. For each task, Total Float = Latest Start-Earliest Start.
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 Forward Pass (1,2,3)and Backward Pass (4)

1 2

3 4 Backward pass

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 The critical path
 The Critical Path of the network is the longest
path through the network.
 It is the line that joins activities with minimum
float (zero total float), in the previous network,
it’s the path that joins A, C and D.
 It is called the critical path because any delay in
any of the activities will delay the whole project.
 Thus, this shows the Project Manager the more
risky tasks in the project.

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 Free Float
 Free float is defined as the amount a task can be
delayed without affecting the next activity in the
network.
 Free Float is always less than or equal to Total Float,
so if a task has zero Total Float then Free Float will
also be zero.
 Free Float occurs only when one task in the network is
dependent on two or more tasks
 Note: Slack, also called float, is the amount of time
a task can slip before it bumps into another task.

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 Free float
 Task B has a Free Float
of 1 because the Earliest
Start of Task D is
caused by the Earliest
Finish of Task C.
 So if Task C is painting
the walls of a room,
Task B is painting the
ceiling and Task C is
laying the carpet, then
Task B can be delayed
one day if necessary

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 Example
 Task durations for decorating a room

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  Network for decorating a room

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 Benefits of a network diagram
 when project events don’t go according to plan,
you can easily see the impact of the problem on
the project. For example, in the Figure, if we
cannot buy the paint in one day, as perhaps it has
to be ordered and will take a week, this will delay
the whole project.
 The network can be used to show delays on the
project; take a copy of the baseline version and
then the current version can be used as a
comparison.

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 Step 8: Gantt chart
 This information can now be entered into a Gantt Chart.
“A Gantt chart, also known as a bar chart or schedule,
named after the engineer Henry Gantt, shows the
activities of a project mapped against a timescale.”
 It also estimate the resources required.
 This provides a useful map of the project.
 The critical path is drawn on the chart first. (Bold)
 Then each non-critical activity is added using the
earliest finish time and duration.
 The total float of each non-critical activity is shown in
the hatched boxes.
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 Step 8: Gantt chart

 So immediately it is clear that the activity which has the greatest effect on
the project duration is the waiting time for delivery of the furniture. If the
Project Manager wants to reduce the project duration, there will not be
much to be gained from reducing the duration of the non-critical activities.
 If the furniture could be delivered on the day after ordering it, then the
critical path would be very different
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 Reducing the project duration
 The activity which has the greatest effect on the project duration
is the waiting time for delivery of the furniture.
 If the Project Manager wants to reduce the project duration, there
will not be much to be gained from reducing the duration of the
non-critical activities. If the furniture could be delivered on the
day after ordering it, then the critical path would be very
different:

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 Gantt Chart
 Gantt Chart shows the time relationships between
tasks in a project.
 Two lines are usually used to show the time
allocated for each task, and the actual time taken.

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As at the end of week 10 Key
Estimated
Weeks

Tasks 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Actual

1. Offer computer/arrange
finance

2. Agree delivery dates

3. Select site

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 Gantt Chart using Microsoft project

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 Step 9: Resource management
 To make sure that the project has enough
resources available to carry out the tasks each day
of the plan, a resource histogram is drawn.
 A histogram is a frequency chart of the number of
resources used per day in the project.

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 Resource Histogram

1. Draw a critical path first.

2. Task H, waiting for furniture
to be delivered, is a
‘dummy’ task introduced to
make the precedence
network more accurate.
3. It does not need any
resources to carry it out

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 Adjusted Resource histogram

 Day 4 needs four people.

 However, if the number of resources available is two, re-planning is required.
 Check which tasks are causing a problem, and whether they can be moved (i.e
whether they have any total float). Task B has three days of total float so it can be
moved to start one day later without much risk.
 This is known as resource-limited scheduling - scheduling activities so that the
maximum resource level is never exceeded during the project.
 If the resource- limited scheduling increase the project duration, it is known as
resource leveling.
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 Exercise-1
 Identify the critical path

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 Exercise 2
 A project has been identified to contain the following
list of activities, along with the required times for
completion.
Activity Time (days) Immediate a. Draw the critical path diagram.
Predecessors
b. Show the critical path
A 1 —
B 4 A
C 3 A
D 7 A
E 6 B
F 2 C, D
G 7 E, F
H 9 D
I 4 G, H
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 References
 The practical guide to project management (p.23)
 Project Management: how to plan and deliver a
successful project (p.21)

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  Add $10,500 per annum to the profit figures to produce the following
cash flows for each proposal.

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 Other Definitions
 Critical Path – the path through the network
where the tasks have NO FLOAT. If any one of
these tasks is even one day late, it will delay the
whole project. These are the CRITICAL TASKS.
 FLOAT- those tasks that are NOT on the Critical
Path will have more flexibility in when you can
start them. There is room to manoeuvre.

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 Constructing the network (AON version)

 Begin with the Node called “START” and end

with the Node called “END”.
 Activities are represented by rectangles called
“NODE”.
 The ARROW shows the precedence relationships:
predecessors or successors.

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 Activity Network (AON Format)

1a 3a 2a

3b 2b
START 1b END

3d

1c 2c
3c

2d

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 Forward Pass
Early Start (ES) Early Finish EF
7 12
12 13
C5

4 7 F1
7 10

B3 17 20
D3
I3 END
11 17
17 20
0 4 4 11 G6

START A4 E7 11 13

H2

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 Forward Pass
 Start on day ‘0’.
 Add the time the task takes, which give the Early Finish
day of that task. ( 0, 4) , 4 if the Early Finish of that task.
 The duration can be written above the node in the middle of
the ES and EF or can be inserted in the Node with the task
ID.
 When there are two tasks going into one task, take the
HIGHER of the two numbers.
 Once completed the Forward Pass, how long the project
will take can be seen.
 The resources, weekends, and holidays, etc., are not taken
into account.

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