Dr. Jana Jagodick Polytechnic of Namibia, 2012 Project Management Chapter 7 Project Time Management Part 1

Dr. Jana Jagodick Polytechnic of Namibia, 2012

Project Management

Chapter 7

Project Time Management

Part 1


Project time management

• What’s time management

• Why is time management important

• Time management – explained!


Project time management is…• Determining the time needed to

complete the project and scheduling activities to meet that time

• Critical to the success of the project

• Without careful scheduling and planning, a project is at risk of failure

• Often regarded as the hardest part of project management


Project time managementIt includes:• Activity definition• Activity sequencing• Activity duration estimating• Schedule development• Schedule control


Elements to Time Management

• Analyse the organisation’s cost of time

• Project planning• Scheduling • Job clarification• Monitor progress






Analyse Cost of Time

• How much does time cost for the organisation?

• Take into account project team salaries, office space, equipment, expenses, admin support etc

• Will give an hourly or daily rate






Laws of Planning

Murphy’s Law: • Anything that can go wrong will go wrong• Everything takes longer than you think it will

Parkinson’s Law: • Work expands to fill the time allotted


Project Planning

• How you work out who, what, when, where, why and how of achieving the goal in the most effective manner





•Project specifications•Determining the milestones•Compiling a task list•Estimating time







Project Specification• Used as the basis for planning• Specification – is the definition of your project (often in the charter)

• Will probably need to be refined as many errors are likely to exist from when 1st put together


Project Specifications - Errors

• Errors can arise from•Holistic perspective •The interfaces•Timescales•External dependencies•Resources


Holistic Perspective

• May have taken too narrow a perspective

• May duplicate or impact other work carried out

• May be incompatible with other work


Interfaces

• Transfer points• Agree on what, how and when• It is a well known fact that most

miscommunications occur at the interfaces

http://images.google.com.na/imgres?imgurl=http://www.cdhp.org/images/Interfaces.GIF&imgrefurl=http://www.cdhp.org/Projects/InterfacesPrjDesc.asp&h=641&w=671&sz=100&hl=en&start=13&tbnid=v-TIG4_IIh3ZKM:&tbnh=132&tbnw=138&prev=/images?q=interfaces&gbv=2&svnum=10&hl=en&sa=G


Timescales

• People who draw up specifications often underestimate time involved for tasks

• Remember the Sydney Opera House example

http://images.google.com.na/imgres?imgurl=http://www3.hants.gov.uk/programme_timescales-2.bmp&imgrefurl=http://www3.hants.gov.uk/planning/ruralpathfinder/pathfinder-lifecycle.htm&h=386&w=683&sz=259&hl=en&start=7&tbnid=_rQ05YLLzP6HZM:&tbnh=79&tbnw=139&prev=/images?q=timescales&gbv=2&svnum=10&hl=en


External dependencies

• Project tasks may depend on the tasks of others

• Make this clear so people involved know in advance of your needs – and are able to meet them!

http://images.google.com.na/imgres?imgurl=http://vrlab.epfl.ch/~clavien/images/YaqCrowd_03.jpg&imgrefurl=http://vrlab.epfl.ch/~clavien/VHumans.html&h=424&w=600&sz=52&hl=en&start=7&tbnid=MEZ00sFmGbWfRM:&tbnh=95&tbnw=135&prev=/images?q=crowd&gbv=2&svnum=10&hl=en


Resources

• People tend to ignore resources• Most projects need materials,

equipment and staff• Check that the numbers are

practical and correct







Determining Milestones

An activity with zero duration usually marking the end of a period i.e. the completion of a number of activities

Come up with some milestones you

will pass in doing the Project Management course







Compile a task list

Once the milestones have been determined, a project task list can be put together, giving the task a number and description and a time period

1 Plan out work

Working out all major tasks and milestones

3 days – June 07

2 Buy text book

Getting the text book so that I can read up on the detail required

1 day – July 07

3 Prepare for class test

Revise chapters 1 to 5 and all the exercises we have done in class

3 days – Aug 07

4 Prepare individual assignment

Review chapters 1 to 7, plan how I am going to do this activity

7 days – Sept 07







Estimating Time“An overestimate of the time for the project is crucial

for its success” Healy

Estimating time can be done in 3 different ways:1.Time comparison (being able to compare tasks

with similar tasks that have been done before)2.Setting a time on the basis of milestones (based

on the date of expected launch – so when is it needed)

3.Build up a picture of durations using detailed expanation of how the project comes together


ContingencyYou cannot predict everything that will happen in your project, so you need to build in ‘contingency’ or buffer

This is a way of treating risk!






Schedule• Schedules show the task name and start and finish

date for each task• Schedules are only estimates• They will have to change with time but are useful

starting points


Examples of Schedules

GANTT charts are created in packages such as Microsoft Project

But schedules can also be created in Excel or in MS Word


Examples of Schedules






Job Clarification

Ask the questions:• What is the purpose of the job/task/activity?• What are the measures of success?• What are priorities and deadlines?• What is exceptional performance?• What resources are available?• What costs are acceptable?• How does this relate to other people and tasks?

Getting answers will help clarify the job




• Project planning• Scheduling • Job clarification•Monitor progress


Monitor Progress

• Helps to ensure that the project is on schedule and is progressing according to plan

• Goals and milestones help to ensure this


Mock TestQ1: What are the 5 important elements of Project Time Management?

Q2: What do you define as project planning?

Q3: In reviewing a specification, where or what could be the source of errors?

Q4: What is integrated change control?


Mock TestQ1: What are the 5 important elements of Project Time Management?

Q2: What do you define as project planning?

Analyse the organisation’s cost of timeProject planningScheduling Job clarificationMonitor progress

How you work out who, what, when, where, why and how of achieving the goal in the most effective manner


Mock TestQ3: In reviewing a specification, where or what could be the source of errors?

Q4: Explain the different ways of estimating time?

Holistic perspective The interfacesTimescalesExternal dependenciesResources

Estimating time can be done in 3 different ways:Time comparison (being able to compare tasks with similar tasks that have

been done before)Setting a time on the basis of milestones (based on the date of expected launch

– so when is it needed)Build up a picture of durations using detailed expanation of how the project

comes together

Documents

Dr. Jana Jagodick Polytechnic of Namibia, 2012 Project Management Chapter 7 Project Time Management Part 1