Transwiki:Project Schedule Development

Project Schedule Development

In this phase, project duration, project finish date, schedules [not main focus] of the activities are determined.

Input: Activity List Activity Attributes Project Schedule Network Diagrams Activity Duration Activity Resource Requirements Resource Calendars

Tools:

Critical Path Model (CPM) CPM is extensively used to determine the project duration. CPM method also helps to identify how much individual activities can slip without affecting the total duration of the project.

Crashing and Fast tracking Crashing tries to add more resources into the project to ensure that the project will be finished on time or early. [Note: Fred's theory: Adding resources to an already delayed projects will/may increase the delay]

Fast tracking tries to run multiple activities in parallel to ensure that the project will be finished on time or early.

Resource Leveling: Apply the resource availability [and quantity] to the project duration. It may increase the project duration when sufficient resource [in quantity or at the right time] is not available.

Critical Chain Method: It is almost similar to the Critical Path Method. Critical path method uses a concept called float. CPM first calculates the total duration and then calculates float [how much it can slip] for each activity. CPM ensures that no activity exceeds its float. In Critical Chain Method latest possible start and latest possible finish dates are determined for each activity. Afterwards, buffers are added between activities. The goal is never try to exceed the buffer.

Company Calendar Company Calendars may be used to check the company holidays, or events that may affect the project duration/schedule.

Adjusting leads and lags.

Using CPM Model [steps]

1. CPM uses the arrow diagram method [activities and duration on arrows, nodes as connectors] to represent project activities and duration.

2. After building the diagram find the critical path [the path that takes the longest time from start to finish considering all alternatives].

3. Calculate float: how much an activity can slip without affecting the critical path.

4. Calculate Early start: The earliest date an activity can start considering the dependencies.

5. Calculate Early finish: Early start date + duration - 1

6. Calculate Late Start: What is the last date an activity can start considering the dependencies

7. Calculate Late Finish: Late start date + duration - 1

8. Calculate Free Float: Amount of time an activity can be delayed without affecting the dependent activities' early start date

9. Calculate Negative Float: Occurs when an activity's start date occurs before a preceding activity's finish date

When you have calculated all the values, the values will help greatly in the schedule control.

Useful Tools

 * Mind mapping is an efficient technique used to brainstorm the main components of a WBS and help develop the project schedule.
 * A variety of tools are available to support mind mapping including Mindjet's Mind Manager, iMapper, FreeMind, and xMind.