Project Schedule Management

Process of establishing the policies, procedures and documentation for planning, developing, managing, executing and controlling project schedule.

Analytical Techniques

Include rolling wave planning, leads and lags, alternative analysis and methods for reviewing schedule performance.

Schedule Management Plan

Establishes the criteria and activities for developing, monitoring and controlling the schedule. This can establish project schedule model development, level of accuracy, units of measure, rules of performance measurement, reporting formats etc.

Define Activities

Identifying and documenting specific actions to be performed to produce project deliverables.

Decomposition

Technique of dividing project deliverables into smaller more manageable pieces called Work Packages.

Activity

Effort required to complete a Work Package.

Rolling Wave Planning

Iterative technique in which only work to be completed in near term is planned in detail and the rest planned at higher level.

Activity List

All schedule activities required on the project. It includes the activity identifier and a scope of work description to clarify what work is required to be completed.

Activity Attributes

Activity attributes extend activity list by containing additional elements i.e. activity description, predecessor/successor activities, dependencies, leads and lags, resource requirements, constraints, assumptions etc.

Schedule Network Analysis

Technique that generates project schedule model. It uses various analytical techniques critical path method, critical chain method, what-if analysis and resource optimization to calculate early/late start/finish dates for project activities.

Critical Path Method

Estimation of minimum project duration and determination of schedule flexibility.

Total Float – The time an activity can be delayed without delaying the project end date.

Total Float = Late Start – Early Start or, Late Finish – Early Finish

Free Float – The time an activity can be delayed without delaying the early start date of its successor.

Critical Chain Method

Places buffers on specific points in schedule to account for project uncertainties.

Project buffer – Placed at the end of critical chain to protect target finish date from slippage.

Feeding buffer – Placed at each point where a chain of dependent activities (not on critical chain) feeds into the critical chain to protect critical chain from slippage along the feeding chains.

Resource Optimization Techniques

Used to adjust the schedule model based on demand/supply of resources.

Resource Leveling – Balances demand for resources with available supply by adjusting start and finish dates.

Resource Smoothing – Adjusts resources within free and total float so that resource requirement do not exceed certain predefined limits.

Modeling Techniques

Includes what-if scenario analysis and simulation.

What-If Scenario Analysis

Process of evaluating scenarios to determine their effect positive/negative on project.

Simulation

Calculates multiple project durations using probability distributions from three-point-estimate to account uncertainty.

Leads & Lags

Starting a successor activity earlier than the predecessor has finished in finish-to-start relationship is called lead. Lag is the time delay of starting a successor activity with respect to its predecessor i.e. in a start-start relationship.

Project Schedule Network Diagram

Graphical representation of logical relationships among project activities.

Estimate Activity Resources

Process of estimating the type and quantities of resources required to complete each activity, i.e. human resource, material, equipment etc.

Bottom-up Estimating

Estimation by aggregating time or cost estimates of lower level WBS components.

Resource Breakdown Structure

Hierarchical representation of project resources by category i.e. labor, material, equipment etc. and by type i.e. skill, grade etc.

Estimate Activity Durations – Process of estimating work periods required to complete each project activity.

Three-Point Estimating = (Optimistic + 4 x Most Likely + Pessimistic)/6

Analogous Estimating

Technique that uses historical information from similar activities to estimate cost or duration.

Parametric Estimating

Technique that uses project parameters i.e. work completion rate by given resources, cost per mile in road construction etc. to calculate total cost or duration.

Contingency Reserves

Duration allocated for identified risks. This is part of schedule baseline. Also called reserves for “known-unknowns”.

Management Reserves

Duration allocated for unidentified risks. This is not part of schedule baseline. Also called reserves for “unknown-unknowns”.

Schedule Compression

Crashing – Shorten duration by adding resources to activities on critical path.

Fast Tracking – Shorten duration by doing activities in parallel that are normally done in sequence.

Schedule Baseline

Schedule model that is formally approved and can be changed only through change control process.

Project Schedule

An output of schedule model that presents linked activities with scheduled dates, durations, milestones and resources.

Schedule Model

A representation of the project management plan to perform activities including duration, dependencies and other relevant information. It is the basis of creating the project schedule.

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