23/07/2025, 16:34 Project Time Management | Project Management Question
Project Management
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Project Time Management
Posted on November 27, 2012
This chapter covers key concepts related to Project Time Management.
The knowledge area of Project Time Management consists of the following processes –
Time Management Processes
P R OC ESS P RO JEC T PH ASE K EY DE LIV ER AB LE S
Define Activities Planning Activity List, Milestone list
Sequence Activities Planning Project Schedule network diagrams
Estimate Activity Resources Planning Activity resource requirements,
Resource breakdown structure
Estimate Activity Durations Planning Activity duration estimates
Develop Schedule Planning Project Schedule
Control Schedule Monitoring and Controlling Work Performance measurements,
Change Requests
class=”basic” The Define Activities process has the following Inputs, Tools and Techniques and
Outputs –
Define Activities Process
I NPU T S TOO LS AN D TE CH NIQ UE S O UTP U TS
Scope baseline Decomposition Activity list
Enterprise environmental factors Rolling wave planning Activity attributes
Organizational process assets Templates Milestone list
Expert judgment
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The Sequence Activities process has the following Inputs, Tools and Techniques and Outputs –
Sequence Activities Process
I NPU T S TO OLS A ND T EC H NIQU E S O UT PUT S
Project scope statement Precedence diagram method (PDM) or Project schedule network
AON diagrams
Activity List Applying leads and lags Project document updates
Activity attributes Schedule Network Templates
Milestone list Dependency determination
Organizational process
assets
The Estimate Activity Resources process has the following Inputs, Tools and Techniques and
Outputs –
Estimate Activity Resources Process
I NPU T S TOOL S AND TE CH NIQ UE S O UT PU TS
Activity List Expert judgment Activity resource requirements
Activity attributes Alternative analysis Resource breakdown structure
Resource calendars Published estimating data Project document updates
Enterprise environmental factors Bottom-up estimating
Organizational process assets Project Management software
The Estimate Act
ivity Durations process has the following Inputs, Tools and Techniques and Outputs –
Estimate Activity Durations Process
I NPU T S TOO LS A ND T EC HN IQ U ES O UTPU T S
Activity list Expert judgment Activity duration estimates
Activity attributes Analogous estimating Project document updates
Activity resource requirements Parametric estimating
Resource calendars Three-point estimates
Project scope statement Reserve analysis
Enterprise environmental factors
Organizational process assets
The Develop Schedule process has the following Inputs, Tools and Techniques, and Outputs-
Develop Schedule Process
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I NPU T S TOO LS A ND T EC HN IQ U ES O UT PU TS
Organizational process assets Schedule network analysis Project Schedule
Project scope statement Critical path method Schedule baseline
Activity List Schedule Compression Schedule data
Activity attributes What-if scenario analysis Project document updates
Project Schedule Network diagram Resource levelling
Activity Resource requirements Critical chain method
Resource Calendars Scheduling tool
Activity duration estimates Applying calendars
Project Management Plan – Adjusting Leads and Lags
Risk Register
Enterprise environmental factors
The Control Schedule process has the following Inputs, Tools and Techniques and Outputs –
Control Schedule Process
I NPU T S TOOL S AND T ECH NIQ UE S O UTP UT S
Project management plan Performance reviews Work performance measurements
Project schedule Variance analysis Organizational process assets updates
Work performance information Project management software Change requests
Organizational process assets Resource leveling Project management plan updates
What-if scenario analysis Project document updates
Adjusting leads and lags
Schedule compression
Scheduling tool
Bar charts (or Gantt charts) are used to display tasks and their dates in a graphical fashion.
They are used to display information of the type task 1 is scheduled from date A to date B.
Typically the date range is displayed in the X-axis and the tasks on the Y-axis. Bar charts do not
show task dependencies. They are generally used to track progress and show to the team.
Milestone charts are similar to bar charts but display only major events. They display major
milestones (for example bridge design completed). They are used to report status to
Management.
Network diagrams are used to display activities and their dependencies. Network diagrams can
be used to perform critical path analysis. Network diagrams can also be used to perform
crashing and fast tracking of the project.
There are two type of network diagrams –
Activities on Node (or Precedence)
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Activities on Arrow (or AOA)
Precedence is most commonly used. AON and AOA cannot have loops or conditional
relationships.
An activity in a network diagram is displayed as shown below.
Activity name
class=”basic”Activity Number Estimate
As an example –
Documentation
2 5 days
In the above example Documentation is activity number 2 and is estimated to last 5 days.
Precedence (or Activity on Node) diagrams can be used to display four type of relationship
between activities. These are
Finish-To-Start
Start-To-Start
Start-To-Finish
Finish-To-Finish
Finish-to-start relationship means the dependent activity cannot start until the first activity is finished. This
is the most common way to represent relationships between activities.
Activity on Array (AOA) network diagrams have the following characteristics.
AOA only uses Finish-To-Start relationship between tasks.
PERT and CPM can only be used with AOA.
Dummy events are shown with dotted lines. They do not take any time. They show dependencies
between tasks.
Longest path through the network diagram is called the critical path. The activities on the critical
paths are called critical activities.
Lags are inserted waiting times in between tasks. For example Task B cannot start until three
days after task A completes.
Slack or Float is the amount of time a task can be delayed without delaying the project. Tasks
on the critical path have zero float.
Critical Path Method (CPM) has the following characteristics.
It uses one time estimate per activity
It can be drawn only using AOA diagrams
It can have dummy events
Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) has the following characteristics.
It uses three estimates per activity – optimistic, pessimistic and most likely
It can be drawn only using AOA diagrams
It can have dummy events
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PERT utilizes more information than CPM as it considers the “Pessimistic” and “Optimistic”
values in addition to the “Most Likely” value in its calculations. The following are formulae used
by PERT –
Mean = (P + 4M + O)/6
Standard Deviation = (P-O)/6
Variance = ((P-O)/6)2
Here P is the pessimistic estimate, O is the optimistic estimate and M is the most likely
estimate.
GERT is another type of network diagram. It can support looping.
If a project has more than one critical paths then the risk to the project increases.
Resource levelling refers to keeping the resources same across the duration of the project.
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