Project Management

Projects

„„Unique, one-time operations designed to Unique, one-time operations designed to accomplish a specific set of objectives in a accomplish a specific set of objectives in a limited time frame.limited time frame.””

Processes in an organization

Usual business

processes

Projects

Changes &Uncertainty

Routines &regular tasks

Main characteristics of projects

• Uniqe set of tasks and processes• Narrow focus, specific performance objectives• The end of the project is definite:

– Limited time-frame– Objectives reached or – it is proven, that objectives cannot be reached

anymore

• Budget is limited• It can be planned• It is always risky

Project management

• Project management is the discipline of planning, organizing, and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives.

• Project-like management: managing non-project processes as projects

Project Manager (Stevenson)

Responsible for:

Work (tasks) QualityHuman Resources TimeCommunications Costs

Other roles in the project

• Project-coordinator: negotiate with the functional leaders, report to the project manager

• Project champion: strong person who promotes and supports the project

• Projectmanagement-team members

• Project-workers: deliver the tasks

Project Life Cycle (Stevenson)

Concept

FeasibilityFeasibility

PlanningPlanning

ExecutionExecution

TerminationTermination

Man

agem

ent

Project life cycle

Cost of changing in the life cycle

Planning, preparation

Definintion Implementation, execution

Closing the

project

Time

Costs

Influence of the stakeholders

Cost of changing

Project-management tools

Problem tree diagramA problem tree is a problem analysis tool that illustrates the cause and effect

relationship of problems using a hierarchical tree diagram. • by arranging the problem statements in hierarchical order • and depicting the problem statements in a boxed article.

Problem-tree

Fishbone (Ishikawa) diagram• A Fishbone Diagram is a problem analysis tool that

illustrates the cause and effect relationships of problems and is often use in the quality management discipline.

Objective tree• An objective tree is an objective formulation tool that depicts

graphically the hierarchy of objectives. It is formulated by initially inverting the statements found in the problem tree (often used in tandem).

Logical Framework Matrix

Pre-conditions 

 

 4. Activities (inputs)

   3. Outputs (results)

   

2. Immediate objective

   1. Startegic goal

4. Risks and assumptions

3. Means of verifi-cation2. Indicators

1. Objectives-structure

Work Breakdown Structure

• a tool used to define and group a project's discrete work elements (or tasks) in a way that helps organize and define the total work scope of the project

GANTT charts

• A Gantt chart is a type of bar chart that illustrates a project schedule.

• Gantt charts illustrate the start and finish dates of the terminal elements and summary elements of a project.

• Some Gantt charts also show the dependency relationships between activities.

• Gantt charts can be used to show current schedule status using percent-complete shadings, or colored lines and a vertical "TODAY" line.

GANTT charts

ID Activities Who is responsible?

Time intervals

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8

9

10.

11.

GANTT charts

6.

5.

4.

3.

2.

1.

timeactivities

GANTT charts

GANTT charts

6.

5.

4.

3.

2.

1.

timeActivities

today

The Network Diagram

• Network (precedence) diagram

• Activity-on-arrow (AOA)

• Activity-on-node (AON)

• Activities

• Events

The Network Diagram• Path

– Sequence of activities that leads from the starting node to the finishing node

• Critical path– The longest path; determines expected project

duration

• Critical activities– Activities on the critical path

• Slack– Allowable slippage for path; the difference the

length of path and the length of critical path

Project Network – Activity on Arrow

1

2

3

4

5 6

Locatefacilities

Orderfurniture

Furnituresetup

InterviewHire andtrain

Remodel

Move in

AOA

Project Network – Activity on Node

a

b

c

e

f

Locatefacilities

Orderfurniture

Furnituresetup

Interview

RemodelMove in

d

Hire andtrain

g

AON

FINISHSTART

Network Conventions

a

b

c a

b

c

a

b

c

d

a

b

c

Dummyactivity

Time Estimates

• Deterministic

– Time estimates that are fairly certain

• Probabilistic

– Estimates of times that allow for variation

Deterministic time estimates

1

2

3

4

5 6

8 weeks

6 weeks

3 weeks

4 weeks9 weeks

11 weeks

1 week

Locate

facilities

Order

furniture Fu

rnitu

re

setup

InterviewHire

and train

Remodel Move in

Solution

P a t h L e n g t h( w e e k s )

S l a c k

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 61 - 2 - 5 - 61 - 3 - 5 - 6

1 82 01 4

206

Critical PathCritical Path

Probabilistic Time Estimates

• Optimistic time

– Time required under optimal conditions

• Pessimistic time

– Time required under worst conditions

• Most likely time

– Most probable length of time that will be required

1-3-4a

3-4-5d

3-5-7e

5-7-9f

2-4-6b

4-6-8h

2-3-6g 3-4-6

i

2-3-5c

Optimistictime

Most likelytime

Pessimistictime

Sample: a research-projectSurvey on students• Task 1: literature overview• Task 2: design questionaire• Task 3: collect a sample of subjects• Task 4: printing questionaires• Task 5: fieldwork• Task 6: analyse data• Task 7: writing up• Task 8: prepare a presentation• Task 9: presenting to the customer

AOA Network diagramWhat is its AON version?

a

c

d

b

e

f

6

5

10

4

9

2

Solution?

Problem: converting table data to AoA and AoN

Activity

Immediatepredecessor

Duration

a - 2

b a 3

c b 2

d b 1

TPT = ? Float = ?

Solution (AoN)

Solution (AoA)

a2

b3

c2

d1

finishstar

t

1 22a 3

2c

4

53b

1d

Solution: TPT from critical path analysis

• Identify all the paths and their duration:a-b-c = 7

a-b-d = 6

• The path with the longest duration is the critical path, and it sets the TPT = 7

• Identify the floats:The non-critical activities have floats. Here the only non-

critical is the d. Its float is the time that it can use up without increasing the TPT. This time it is: 7 – 6 = 1

Thanks for your attention