Chapter 6

Project Time Management

Project time management involved six processes; Activity definition, Activity sequencing, Activity resource estimating, Activity duration estimating, Schedule development and Schedule control.

First and foremost, Activity definition; involves developing a more detailed WBS and supporting explanations to understand all the work to be done so you can develop realistic cost and duration estimates. An activity list is a tabulation of activities to be included on a project schedule that includes:
— The activity name
— An activity identifier or number
— A brief description of the activity

Activity attributes provide more information such as predecessors, successors, logical relationships, leads and lags, resource requirements, constraints, imposed dates, and assumptions related to the activity. And a milestone is a significant event that normally has no duration.

Activity Sequencing; involves reviewing activities and determining dependencies. You must determine dependencies in order to use critical path analysis. Network diagrams are the preferred technique for showing activity sequencing. A network diagram is a schematic display of the logical relationships among, or sequencing of, project activities. And two main formats are the arrow and precedence diagramming methods.

Activity Resource estimating; before estimating activity durations you must have a good idea of the quantity and type of resources that will be assigned to each activity. A resource breakdown structure is a hierarchical structure that identifies the project’s resources by category and type. 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.

Instead of providing activity estimates as a discrete number, such as four weeks, it’s often helpful to create a three-point estimate. An estimate that includes an optimistic, most likely, and pessimistic estimate, such as three weeks for the optimistic, four weeks for the most likely, and five weeks for the pessimistic estimate.

Schedule Development 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, critical path analysis, critical chain scheduling, and PERT analysis. 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.

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

Free slack or free float is the amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying the early start of any immediately following activities. Total slack or total float is the amount of time an activity may be delayed from its early start without delaying the planned project finish date. A forward pass through the network diagram determines the early start and finish dates. A backward pass determines the late start and finish dates

Critical chain scheduling is a method of scheduling that considers limited resources when creating a project schedule and includes buffers to protect the project completion date. Uses the Theory of Constraints (TOC). A management philosophy developed by Eliyahu M. Goldratt and introduced in his book The Goal. A buffer is additional time to complete a task. Murphy’s Law states that if something can go wrong, it will. Parkinson’s Law states that work expands to fill the time allowed.

Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) is a network analysis technique used to estimate project duration when there is a high degree of uncertainty about the individual activity duration estimates. PERT uses probabilistic time estimates. The formula:

PERT weighted average =
optimistic time + 4X most likely time + pessimistic time
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Schedule Control is performing reality checks on schedules and allow for contingencies. Don’t plan for everyone to work at 100% capacity all the time and hold progress meetings with stakeholders and be clear and honest in communicating schedule issues.

Using Software to Assist in Time Management Software for facilitating communications helps people exchange schedule-related information. Decision support models help analyze trade-offs that can be made. Project management software can help in various time management areas.

Chapter 5

Project Scope Management

Scope refers to all the work involved in creating the products of the project and the processes used to create them. A deliverable is a product produced as part of a project, such as hardware or software, planning documents, or meeting minutes.

There are 5 processes involved in the project scope management; scope planning, scope definition, creating the WBS, scope verification and Scope control.

Scope management plan is a document that includes descriptions of how the team will prepare the project scope statement, create the WBS, verify completion of the project deliverables, and control requests for changes to the project scope. The key output for scope planning and scope management plan are project charter, preliminary scope statement, and project management plan.

As for the scope definition, the preliminary scope statement, project charter, organizational process assets, and approved change requests provide a basis for creating the project scope statement. As time progresses, the scope of a project should become more clear and specific.

Creating WBS; WBS is a deliverable-oriented grouping of the work involved in a project that defines the total scope of the project. Decomposition is subdividing project deliverables into smaller pieces and a work package is a task at the lowest level of the WBS. The WBS design can be in form of; Organized by Product, Organized by Phase, Tabular Form or Chart Form. A WBS dictionary is a document that describes detailed information about each WBS item. The approved project scope statement and its WBS and WBS dictionary form the scope baseline, which is used to measure performance in meeting project scope goals.

Scope verification involves formal acceptance of the completed project scope by the stakeholders. Acceptance is often achieved by a customer inspection and then sign-off on key deliverables.


Scope control involves controlling changes to the project scope. Variance is the difference between planned and actual performance.

Chapter 4

Project Integration Management

As we know, a good Project Integration Management is the key to overall project success. Project Integration Management involves coordinating all other project management knowledge areas through a project life cycle. There 7 main process involved:

1) Develop the project charter
2) Develop the preliminary project scope statement
3) Develop the project management plan
4) Direct and manage project execution
5) Monitor and control the project work
6) Perform integrated change control
7) Close the project

Strategic planning in PMIT, its involves determining long-term objectives, predicting future trends, and projecting the need for new products and services. Organizations also can perform a SWOT analysis:
S: Strength
W: Weakness
O: Opportunities
T: Threats

There are some methods in selecting a project:
— Focusing on broad organizational needs
— Categorizing information technology projects
— Performing net present value or other financial analyses
— Using a weighted scoring model
— Implementing a balanced scorecard

Project Charter is a document that formally recognizes the existence of a project and provides direction on the project’s objectives and management. a signed charter is a key output of project integration management

A scope statement is a document used to develop and confirm a common understanding of the project scope. It’s important for preventing scope creep; the tendency for project scope to keep getting bigger.

A project management plan is a document used to coordinate all project planning documents and help guide a project’s execution and control.

A stakeholder analysis documents important (often sensitive) information about stakeholders such as; Stakeholders’ names and organizations, roles on the project, unique facts about stakeholders, level of influence and interest in the project & suggestions for managing relationships.

Project execution involves managing and performing the work described in the project management plan, and it is come after the planning process. The majority of time and money is usually spent on execution. Some important Skills for Project Execution are:
— General management skills like leadership, communication, and political skills
— Product, business, and application area skills and knowledge
— Use of specialized tools and techniques

The techniques and tools for project execution are:
— Project management methodology: many experienced project managers believe the most effective way to improve project management is to follow a methodology that describes not only what to do in managing a project, but how to do it
— Project management information systems: there are hundreds of project management software products available on the market today, and many organizations are moving toward powerful enterprise project management systems that are accessible via the Internet.

Monitoring project work includes collecting, measuring, and disseminating performance information. Two important outputs of monitoring and controlling project work include recommended corrective and preventive actions

Integrated Change Control is mainly for three main objectives which are: Influencing the factors that create changes to ensure that changes are beneficial, determining that a change has occurred and managing actual changes as they occur. A baseline is the approved project management plan plus approved changes. CCB or Change Control Board is a formal group of people responsible for approving or rejecting changes on a project. CCBs provide guidelines for preparing change requests, evaluate change requests, and manage the implementation of approved changes.

To close a project, you must finalize all activities and transfer the completed or cancelled work to the appropriate people. Main outputs include: Administrative closure procedures, contract closure procedures, final products, services, or results and organizational process asset updates

Chapter 3

The Project Management Process Group: A Case Study

Project management is an integrative endeavor; decisions and action taken in one knowledge area at certain time usually affect other knowledge areas.

As we know a process is a series of actions directed toward a particular result. In project management there are also numbers of related processes, the project management process groups include:
— Initiating processes
— Planning processes
— Executing processes
— Monitoring and controlling processes
— Closing processes

1) Project initiation

It is developed by recognizing and starting a new project or project phase. The main goal is to formally select and start off projects. The key outputs include:
— Assigning the project manager
— Identifying key stakeholders
— Completing a business case
— Completing a project charter and getting signatures on it

2) Project planning

As for its main purpose of project planning is to guide execution process. The key outputs included in the JWD project include:
— A team contract
— A project scope statement
— A work breakdown structure (WBS)
— A project schedule, in the form of a Gantt chart with all dependencies and resources entered
— A list of prioritized risks (part of a risk register)

3) Project execution

Project managers must use their leadership skills to handle the many challenges that occur because it is usually takes the most time and resources to perform project it. A milestone report can help focus on completing major milestones

4) Project Monitoring & Controlling

Involves measuring progress toward project objectives, monitoring deviation from the plan, and taking correction actions. Outputs include performance reports, requested changes, and updates to various plans.

5) Closing
Involves gaining stakeholder and customer acceptance of the final products and services .Even if projects are not completed, they should be closed out to learn from the past. Outputs include project archives and lessons learned, part of organizational process assets

Chapter 2

The project Management and Information Technology Context

As we know project can not be run in isolation thus it must operate in a broad organizational environment and project manager within the greater organizational context. System thinking is taking a holistic view of carrying out projects within the context of the organization. Systems approach emerged in the 1950s to describe a more analytical approach to management and problem solving. Systems philosophy is an overall model for thinking about things as systems. Systems analysis is the problem-solving approach. Systems management is addressing business, technological, and organizational issues before making changes to systems.

As for the Three-sphere model for the System Management:
1) Business
2) Organization
3) Technology

As for the four frames of organizations:
1) Structural frame
2) Human resources frame
3) Political frame
4) Symbolic frame

As for the organizational Structures, there are three general classifications:
1) A functional organizational structure
2) A project organizational structure
3) A matrix organizational structure

As we know, organizational culture is a set of shared assumptions, values, and behaviors that characterize the functioning of an organization. There are ten characteristics of organizational culture:
1) Member Identity
2) Group emphasis
3) People focus
4) Unit Integration
5) Control
6) Risk tolerance
7) Reward criteria
8) Conflict tolerance
9) Means-ends orientation
10) Open systems focus

Thus, a project needs to be supported by the Top management. Their commitment is crucial to project managers for the following reason:
1) PM needs adequate resources.
2) PM often require approval for unique project needs in a timely manner.
3) PM must have cooperation from people in other part of the organization.
4) PM often need someone to mentor and coach them on leadership issue.

The Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a framework for describing the phases involved in developing and maintaining information systems. Systems development projects can follow:
Predictive life cycle: the scope of the project can be clearly articulated and the schedule and cost can be predicted
Adaptive Software Development (ASD) life cycle: requirements cannot be clearly expressed, projects are mission driven and component based, using time-based cycles to meet target dates

Project Phases and Management Reviews are important because a project should successfully pass through each of the project phases in order to continue on to the next. Management reviews, also called phase exits or kill points, should occur after each phase to evaluate the project’s progress, likely success, and continued compatibility with organizational goals.
The people involved in information technology project must come from very diverse backgrounds possess different skill set.