Project Management Foundations: Schedules Flashcards
Why do you need a project schedule?
In short, a project schedule helps you get all the required work done when it’s supposed to be done. It includes all the work that has to be done, who does the work, and the sequence in which it’s performed.
How is a schedule a communication tool?
It shows how all the pieces of the project fit together. That way, people working on the project see how their work affects others, which helps them work together toward a common goal. You can use the schedule to communicate progress and performance and manage stakeholder expectations.
What’s the life cycle of a project management schedule?
First, you plan how you’re going to schedule the project. Next, you define project activities, also called tasks. Once you identify activities, it’s time to put them into sequence. The sequence is based on the relationships or dependencies between activities. When you’ve defined all the relationships between activities, you have a logical sequence of the order in which project work should occur. Next, you estimate the resources you need to perform for each activity. You identify the types of resources needed and estimate the quantities for each.
What are project activities?
Activities represent the work that has to be done to deliver the project’s results.
As you fine tune and manage your schedule, what should you also do?
Update your risk management plan.
What is a schedule management plan?
It is documenting the scheduling choices you make for your project. Once you choose the scheduling method (critical path, critical chain, scrum, kanban), you can choose the scheduling tool that supports your selected method. Additional choices you document in your scheduling plan are how accurate you want to be and how you’ll measure progress. The scheduling plan is also where you describe your update procedures.
What is a summary schedule?
It provides overview of your project. It’s short and sweet, with key milestones and one or two levels of major deliverables. It’s ideal for showing the big picture of a big project to management and anyone else who doesn’t need a lot of details.
What does the next level of a project schedule after the summary schedule show?
It includes all the milestones and deliverables down to work packages (which represents the work required to produce a project deliverable). This level of detail shows the entire project without getting into the activities needed to complete a work package.
What does a detail summary include?
It includes milestones, deliverables, and the activities that must be completed to deliever the work packages.
In a WBS, how are deliverables name?
Using nouns.
How are activities named?
Using a verb-noun combination.
How do you make sure activities are the right size?
It’s whatever size you need to easily estimate, assign, and track work. Break down activities until you can estimate time and cost with the accuracy you need. Ensure that they have distinct beginnings and ends like being triggered by another activity or delivering something at the end.
What are milestones?
Milestones are markers you can add to your schedule to measure progress and flag events. They can also flag a significant decision such as whether to continue a project.
What are the three main ways to organize the activities in your project?
By deliverable, phase, or group.
What are some ways to make estimating activities easier?
First, take an iterative approach to estimating, also called rolling wave planning. Start with a rough estimate, plus or minus 50% to see if a project makes sense to pursue. As you learn more, you can build more accurate mid-range estimates.
Detailed estimates take the longest to develop, but they should be close to your final numbers, plus or minus 10%.
What is the Delphi Method?
It’s based on the idea that more heads are better than one. You can ask several experts to estimate independently. You share the results with the group and ask them to re-estimate. Repeat this step of sharing and re-estimating a few times, and then use the average of the last round as your final estimated value.
What is the PERT method?
It stands for Program Evaluation and Review Technique. You ask people to produce optimistic, pessimistic, and most likely estimates, then get a weighted average. The PERT method uses these estimates to run multiple simulations of the project to determine possible outcomes. With statistical analysis, you can determine the probability of the project finishing within a specific time-frame.
When should you apply lag?
Apply lag to dependencies only to reflect passage of time, do not use lag if a delay is due to work that must be performed.
What is a resource plan?
Also called a staffing plan, this can help you line up the resources you need when you need them.
What do you need to build a resource plan?
You need to know the skills required. You also have to identify other resources like materials, equipment, facilities, and travel. You also need your high level estimated schedule for when major portions of the project occur.
What can you use a resource plan for?
You can use a resource plan to determine how many resources you need to find. You can also use it to determine where to get your resources, and when you need to start the procurement process.
What are the three variables of resource assignments?
Duration, work, and resources availability, sometimes called units.
What is duration?
Duration is the length of an activity, from its start to its finish.
What is work?
Work, also called, effort, represents the amount of time someone is allocated to work on an activity.
