Chapter 3:

Project Time Management

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 Importance of Project Schedules
• Managers often cite delivering projects on time as
one of their biggest challenges
• Time has the least amount of flexibility; it passes
no matter what
• Schedule issues are the main reason for conflicts
on projects, especially during the second half of
projects

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 Project Time Management
Processes
• Project time management involves the
processes required to ensure timely completion
of a project. Processes include:
– Activity definition
– Activity sequencing
– Activity duration estimating
– Schedule development
– Schedule control

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 Activity Definition
• Project schedules grow out of the basic
document that initiate a project
– Project charter includes start and end dates and
budget information
– Scope statement and WBS help define what will be
done
• Activity definition involves developing a more
detailed WBS and supporting explanations to
understand all the work to be done so you can
develop realistic duration estimates

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 Activity Sequencing
• Involves reviewing activities and determining
dependencies
– Mandatory dependencies: inherent in the nature of
the work; hard logic
– Discretionary dependencies: defined by the project
team; soft logic
– External dependencies: involve relationships
between project and non-project activities
• You must determine dependencies in order to
use critical path analysis

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 Project Network Diagrams
• Project network diagrams are the preferred
technique for showing activity sequencing
• A project network diagram is a schematic
display of the logical relationships among, or
sequencing of, project activities

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Figure 6-2. Sample Activity-on-Arrow
(AOA) Network Diagram for Project X

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 Arrow Diagramming Method
(ADM)
• Also called activity-on-arrow (AOA) project
network diagrams
• Activities are represented by arrows
• Nodes or circles are the starting and ending
points of activities
• Can only show finish-to-start dependencies

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 Process for Creating AOA Diagrams
1. Find all of the activities that start at node 1. Draw their finish
nodes and draw arrows between node 1 and those finish nodes.
Put the activity letter or name and duration estimate on the
associated arrow
2. Continuing drawing the network diagram, working from left to
right. Look for bursts and merges. Bursts occur when a single
node is followed by two or more activities. A merge occurs
when two or more nodes precede a single node
3. Continue drawing the project network diagram until all
activities are included on the diagram that have dependencies
4. As a rule of thumb, all arrowheads should face toward the right,
and no arrows should cross on an AOA network diagram

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Sample PDM Network Diagram

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 Activity Duration Estimating
• After defining activities and determining their
sequence, the next step in time management is
duration estimating
• Duration includes the actual amount of time
worked on an activity plus elapsed time
• Effort is the number of workdays or work
hours required to complete a task. Effort does
not equal duration
• People doing the work should help create
estimates, and an expert should review them
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 Schedule Development
• Schedule development uses results of the other
time management processes to determine the
start and end date of the project and its activities
• Ultimate goal is to create a realistic project
schedule that provides a basis for monitoring
project progress for the time dimension of the
project
• Important tools and techniques include Gantt
charts, PERT analysis, critical path analysis, and
critical chain scheduling

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 Gantt Charts
• Gantt charts provide a standard format for
displaying project schedule information by
listing project activities and their corresponding
start and finish dates in a calendar format
• Symbols include:
– A black diamond: milestones or significant events
on a project with zero duration
– Thick black bars: summary tasks
– Lighter horizontal bars: tasks
– Arrows: dependencies between tasks

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Figure 6-5. Gantt Chart for Project X

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Gantt Chart for Software Launch Project

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 Milestones
• Milestones are significant events on a project
that normally have zero duration
• You can follow the SMART criteria in
developing milestones that are:
– Specific
– Measurable
– Assignable
– Realistic
– Time-framed

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Sample Tracking Gantt Chart

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 Critical Path Method (CPM)
• CPM is a project network analysis technique
used to predict total project duration
• A critical path for a project is the series of
activities that determines the earliest time by
which the project can be completed
• The critical path is the longest path through
the network diagram and has the least amount
of slack or float

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 Finding the Critical Path
• First develop a good project network diagram
• Add the durations for all activities on each path
through the project network diagram
• The longest path is the critical path

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 Simple Example of Determining
the Critical Path
• Consider the following project network
diagram. Assume all times are in days.
C=2 4 E=1
A=2 B=5
start 1 2 3 6 finish

D=7 5 F=2

a. How many paths are on this network diagram?

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Calculating Early and Late Start
and Finish Dates

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Project 2002 Schedule Table View
Showing Free and Total Slack

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 Controlling Changes to the
Project Schedule
• Perform reality checks on schedules
• Allow for contingencies
• Don’t plan for everyone to work at 100%
capacity all the time
• Hold progress meetings with stakeholders and
be clear and honest in communicating schedule
issues

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 Working with People Issues

• Strong leadership helps projects succeed more

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