Project Management

What is a Project? One Time Effort Identifiable Start/End Points Specific Objectives Multiple Tasks Resources from Across the Organization Risk and Uncertainty Responsibility

Personnel Roles Project Sponsor Overall responsibility Champion Gives approvals Project Team Leader Day-to-day responsibility to get project done Directs the team in the process of the project Individual Contributor Contributor of unique expertise Responsible for specific tasks

4 Stages of Design Phase High-Level Design Detailed Design Implementation Testing & Integration

4 Stages of Design Phase

Project Time Management Activity Sequencing and Network Diagrams Activity on Arrow (AOA) Network Diagrams Precedence Diagram Method (PDM) Gantt Charts Critical Path Method (CPM) GanttProject Tool

10 Activity Sequencing and Network Diagrams Review activities and determine dependencies of project activities or tasks Determine dependencies in order to use critical path analysis Network diagrams are used for showing activity sequencing A network diagram is a schematic display of the logical relationships among, or sequencing of, project activities

11 Network Diagrams Two popular network diagrams: Activity on Arrow (AOA) network diagrams or Arrow diagramming method (ADM) Project network diagrams or Precedence Diagram Method (PDM) 11

Activity on Arrow (AOA) Network Diagrams Also called Arrow Diagramming Method (ADM) A network diagram in which activities are represented by arrows ADM is used for scheduling activities in a project plan Precedence relationships between activities are represented by circles connected by one or more arrows The length of the arrow represents the duration of the activity ADM only shows finish-to-start relationships, meaning that each activity is completed before the successor activity starts Sometimes a "dummy task" is added, to represent a dependency between tasks, which does not represent any actual activity. Such a dummy task often has a completion time of 0

Activity on Arrow (AOA) Network Diagrams

14 Activity on Arrow (AOA) Network Diagrams

Project Network Diagrams Also called Precedence Diagram Method (PDM) A visual representation technique that depicts the activities involved in a project Communicate the flow of project execution Identify missing activities: When an activity is not identified, it’ll never be done. Identify dependencies: Each activity is dependent on some other activity. When a dependency is not identified, the project will be delayed until such a time that identification occurs Identify critical activities: Certain activities have a greater impact on project schedule than others. This is known as the Critical Path Method (CPM) Create a project schedule: The final goal is to create a practical and robust project schedule.

Project Network Diagrams Task Dependency types

Project Network Diagrams

18 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: – Black diamonds: Milestones – Thick black bars: Summary tasks – Lighter horizontal bars: Durations of tasks – Arrows: Dependencies between tasks

Gantt Charts Microsoft Project

20 Milestones of Gantt Charts Milestones emphasize accomplishments for large projects Create milestone by entering tasks that have a zero duration

21 Critical Path Method (CPM) CPM is 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 Slack or float is the amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying a succeeding activity or the project finish date

22 Critical Path Method (CPM)

23 Critical Path Method (CPM) Three main techniques for shortening schedules: – Shortening the duration of critical activities or tasks by adding more resources or changing their scope – Crashing activities by obtaining the greatest amount of schedule compression for the least incremental cost – Fast tracking activities by doing them in parallel or overlapping them

24 GanttProject Tool GPL-licensed (free software) Java based, project management software that runs under the Windows, Linux and Mac OS X Download: Handbook: mdp.eng.cam.ac.uk/web/CD/engapps/project/ganttproject.pdf mdp.eng.cam.ac.uk/web/CD/engapps/project/ganttproject.pdf Tutorial:

25 GanttProject Tool

Action Items Create your network diagram Create a Gantt chart for your project Due day: 10/03/2014, Friday