project management ross l. fink. definition of project a project is a specific, finite task to be...
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Project Management
Ross L. Fink
Definition of Project
A project is a specific, finite task to be accomplished.
Brief History
Modern Project Management can be traced to the “Manhattan” project.
Early project management dealt with large complex projects or R&D (weapons systems)
Today -- Project management is more important than ever.
Importance of Project Management Today
More customization in manufacturing Shorter product life cycles Use in service organizations Nonprofit sector
Why Project Management? Better control Better customer relations Shorter development time Lower costs Higher quality and reliability Higher profits Better interdepartmental
coordination Better worker morale
Characteristics of a Project
One-time focus Specific purpose and desired results Identifiable start and finish Time fence (or due-date) for completion Involvement of cross-functional work team Limited set of resources Logical sequence of events A clear client (user, customer) of results
Project Management Tools
Major tools developed in the 1950s PERT - Program Evaluation and Review
Technique - Polaris Missile (NAVY) CPM - Critical Path Method (CPM) -
DuPont and Remington Rand - Maintenance of Chemical Plant
Project Performance Objectives
PCT Objectives “Good, Fast, Cheap”
Performance
Cost Time
Reason for Project Failures
Unrealistic expectations Poor project leadership Poor project planning
The Project Manager is Responsible to
Superiors Team Customer or Sponsor of project
A Project Manager Needs to: Communicate -
Importance of projectRole others play in project Importance of their contributionWith customers
Understand project dimensions -TechnicalCulturalPolitical
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) Breaks the Program (or Project) into smaller
and smaller units of work. The following are common levels of work:ProgramProjectTaskSubtaskWork Package
Why Use WBS
Provides a logical means of identifying the activities of a project
Provides structure to the project plan Different levels of WBS can be used for
control by different individuals
Types of WBS
Outcome (things) Task Task-outcome
WBS Procedure
Simply ask “What will have to be done in order to _________ “
Don’t worry about sequencing at this point
Stopping Rules For WBS
Level of detail is too great to be useful Control to smallest time unit used for
control Typically, no more than 5 to 6 levels is
appropriate For large project, no more than 20
PERT Diagrams
PERT (or Network) diagrams showing the relationship between activities
There are more than one way of constructing these networks, we will use what is called activities-on-the-node (AON) or activities-in-the-box. This is the same as MS Project
PERT Diagram Notation
Box or circle (node) represents the activity Arrow (arc) represents the relationship
between activities
ExampleActivity Immediate
Predecessor
A --
B A
C A
D B,C
E C
PERT Diagram
A
B
C
D
E
Modeling Time
Simple model assumes times are deterministic (constant)
More elaborate models allow stochastic representation (most common being one that uses 3 time estimates)
ExampleActivity Immediate
PredecessorTime
A -- 4
B A 3
C A 5
D B,C 4
E C 5
Total 21
Example - Maximum Time
Sequential Sum of all task times In our example: 21 periods
Finding time
ES and EF go forward through PERT diagram (ES + Time= EF)
LS and LF go backwards through PERT diagram (LF - Time = LS)
Slack is LS - ES or LF - EF
PERT Diagram
A
B
C
D
E
PERT Diagram with Times
4
3
5
4
5
4 9
4 9
C
0 4
0 4
A
9 13
10 14
D
9 14
9 14
E
4 7
7 10
B
A
B
C E
D
EndProject completion
time = 14
Critical Path
A-C-E Significance--critical path determines
project completion time
Example in MS Project