1. Project Schedules Chapter 4 Applied Software Project Management, Stellman & Greene See also: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/appliedprojectmgmthttp://www.oreilly.com/catalog/appliedprojectmgmt

2. Purpose for a schedule  To commit people to the project  To show the organization how the work will be performed  To communicate final deadlines  Used as a checklist to ensure that all tasks are performed

3. Project Schedule ...a calendar that links tasks with resources Resources are usually people, but also  Tools  Services

4. Team must first have the WBS defined  WBS specified Each task Effort estimate for each task Resource list with availability for resources

5. Duration and Effort  Duration Amount of time that elapses between the time the task is started and the time it is completed Measured in time units (days, weeks, etc.)  Effort Total number of hours each person spends working on a task Measured in person-hours

6. Building the project schedule  Identify dependencies A task has a dependency if it involves an activity, resource or work product which is subsequently required by another task Tasks may have dependencies because they require the same resource Every dependency has a predecessor, or a task that must be begun, in progress, or completed, for another task to begin Identify the type of predecessor for each dependency

7. Building the project schedule  Identifying dependencies

8. Building the project schedule  Create the schedule Most project schedules are represented using a Gantt chart The Gantt chart shows tasks, dependencies and milestones using different shapes Figure 4-2: Stellman and Greene

9. How people work on projects: Two principles 1.Parkinson’s Law “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion” 2.Fred Brooks’ Mythical Man-Month “Nine women cannot have a baby in one month” – or some tasks can be done only by one person, no matter how critical the task Thus, we need to reconcile the schedule with the organization’s needs and with the user in mind (who might potentially change schedule)

10. Add Review Meetings to the Schedule  Progress Reviews We will do in class (... maybe by two teams of two)  Milestone Reviews Perhaps after the last task in a project phase At the end of requirements, design, implementation and testing

11. Critical Path Represents minimum time required to complete project  See Figure 4.3  Don’t abuse buffers  Diagnosing scheduling problems  Misunderstood predecessors (no WBS) Most popular tool for creating project schedule is Microsoft Project

12. For Next Time  Project Schedule using Microsoft Project  Reviews in class