Time and Projects

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MTL: The Professional Development Programme
Time and Projects
TIME AND PROJECTS
Can you bring a project in on time?

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Time and Projects
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Learn.
Time and
Projects
Introduction: There are three constraints in a project: time, cost and quality. At the start
of a project, all three will be estimated. If time on the project is managed well, which means
that the project comes in on time without seriously compromising the cost and quality, then
the project will have partly succeeded. If the cost and quality also come in on target without
affecting the time, then the whole project would be regarded as a success. In this topic,
we’ll look at the 7 time features of managing a project.

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Time and Projects
1. THE AIMS
OF A
PROJECT
A project is a combination of resources pulled
together in a temporary organisation to achieve
a specified purpose. The aim is to produce a
result in a given time, at a given cost and to a
given quality. These aims are inter-related. If you
increase resources to increase the quality, you
may reduce the time but you will increase the
cost. If you reduce the resources to save money,
you may increase the time. If you reduce the
time, you may reduce one set of costs but
increase them further with the need for extra
resources.
What the project will look like when it is finished
Flickr attribution: /joceykinghorn/11653484824/

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Time and Projects
What is a Project?
The following are definitions of a project:
The Main Stages of a Project
Flickr attribution: /ivanwalsh/4113877252/
1. A project is an organisational device to bring together a multi-
disciplinary team to achieve a given objective.
2. A project is a combination of human and non-human resources
pulled together in a temporary organisation to achieve a
specified purpose.
3. A project is an organisation which is established for a limited
time period to solve a relatively complex or unique problem.
4. A project is an organisation of
people dedicated to a specific
purpose. Projects generally
involve large, expensive, unique
or high-risk undertakings which
have to be completed by a
certain date, for a certain
amount of money, within some
expected level of performance.

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Time and Projects
2. THE
PHASES OF A
PROJECT
All projects have 4 phases. The first phase
involves the initiation of a project between
project sponsor or client and the project team.
The second phase involves the planning and
design of the project and the go-ahead. The third
phase consists of the implementation of the
project and its monitoring, control and co-
ordination. The fourth phase involves bringing
the project in on time, on budget and on
specification.
Agree, plan, design, do, monitor, co-ordinate, and end
Flickr attribution: /walkingsf/5159866798/

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Time and Projects
3. ESTIMATING
PROJECT
TIMES
The first stage in estimating the time of a project
is to brainstorm all the jobs that need to be
carried out and build a working list. Check that
you haven't missed anything out and that you
have included the many small and apparently
unimportant jobs that have to be done, such as
administration, co-ordinating, and holding
meetings. Ruthlessly eliminate anything that
doesn't have to be done. You must then place
time estimates against each task, ensuring you
are as accurate as possible.
A deadline is like the countdown to a ticking bomb
Flickr attribution: /dm-set/3140481871/

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Time and Projects
Brainstorming the Tasks
The first stage in estimating the time of a project
is to brainstorm all the jobs that need to be
carried out. This can be done after you have
completed your desktop research: simply write
down every conceivable activity that the project
might need.
As with all brainstorming activity, you should aim
for quantity not quality of detail: the more tasks
you can think of the better. Tasks can be
eliminated later on.
Brainstorming is an exercise which can be carried
out alone or in a group as long as you are able to
work quickly enough to write down each idea as
it comes.
At the end of a brainstorming session, which you
can repeat as many times as you wish, you
should possess a list of every conceivable task
the project needs.

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Time and Projects
4. NETWORK
ANALYSIS
Network analysis is a generic name for a variety
of techniques which are used to analyse the
sequence of tasks in a project. The aim of
network analysis is to make a complex series of
tasks simpler to understand and schedule. It
does this by sequencing tasks in order and
doubling them up where possible to save time.
From this you can then calculate the overall time
for the project and the shortest time in which
the project can be completed. This is the critical
path. You cannot carry out the project in less
time than the critical path without an effect on
cost or quality.
Keeping all the “task” balls in the air at once
Flickr attribution: /7363531@N05/4179327917/

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Time and Projects
The Critical Path Method or CPM
This is an example of a Program Evaluation and
ReviewTechnique (PERT) chart for a project with
5 milestones (10 to 50) and 6 activities (A to F).
The project has two critical paths: activities B and
C, or A, D, and F – giving a minimum project time
of 7 months with fast tracking. Activity E is sub-
critical, and has a float (or delay) of 1 month
without affecting subsequent tasks.
The Critical Path Method (CPM) allows you to design a model of your project which will logically take you through
each step of the project. It has at its heart the following:
1. A list of all activities required to complete the project (typically categorized within a WBS or Work Breakdown
Structure),
2. The time (duration) that each activity will take to complete
3. The sequences and dependencies between the activities
4. Logical end points such as milestones or deliverable items.
Using this information, CPM works out how long the overall project will take; the earliest and latest times that
each activity can start and finish; the length of float (or delay) that any activity can have without affecting other
activities; and the longest, or "critical", path. This determines the shortest time possible to complete the project.

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Time and Projects
The Critical Path of Wallpapering a Room
One example of network analysis is the simple
operation of wallpapering a living room. There
are nine tasks in the first phase. Four tasks are
independent of any other and can be started at
any time; the rest depend on each other.
1. Move furniture (15 mins)
2. Remove decorations (10 mins)
3. Position dust-sheets (5 mins)
4. Strip old wallpaper (240 mins)
5. Prepare paste, leave to soak (30 mins)
6. Cut length of wallpaper (2 mins)
7. Apply paste (2 mins)
8. Hang and smooth (3 mins)
9. Trim top and bottom (2 mins)
Although the separate times add up to 309
minutes, the critical path is based on tasks 1, 3, 4,
8 and 9, which take a total of 275 minutes.
Flickr attribution: /bromfordgroup/9184742510/

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Time and Projects
5. PLANNING
AND
TRACKING
Planning is an essential part of managing a
project. Based on your critical paths and network
analysis, you should know the best time your
project will take as well as what problems might
get in the way of achieving these deadlines and
what you will do if any problems do arise. Once
your plans are laid down, you should enter them
into a schedule based on the availability of
resources, both people and materials. You then
need to track progress through detailed auditing
and reports, always with the aim of being on, or
ahead of, plan.
Sourcing, obtaining, and using resources
Flickr attribution: /perspective/5663116238/

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Time and Projects
Barcharts
Additional features of barcharts are:
indications of a task's earliest and
latest starting times, earliest and
latest finishing times, and the
float or leeway
milestones indicating when
certain key points must be
completed
allocating responsibilities for
each task to each member of the
project team or sub-contractors.
In a team, you can indicate on the
chart the different levels of
responsibility for each task,
ranging from notifying, consulting
to seeking approval.
When completed, the barchart
becomes the bedrock of all the
project's activities.
The barchart places the information about a project's schedules into a calendar format.
This is also known as a Gantt chart, named after Henry Gantt, an American who used this
device to build cargo ships in the First World War.
Gantt Chart Using MS Excel
Flickr attribution: /ivanwalsh/3924222303/

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Time and Projects
6. CRASHING
Crashing means resolving project problems by
shortening the length of time that the project
takes. This may be because you are behind
schedule or an opportunity arises to speed up
work. There are many ways to crash a project.
You could transfer resources from non-critical to
critical tasks, do jobs in parallel rather than
sequentially, or simply cut out non-essentials.
More drastic measures can be taken with your
project sponsors such as reducing the scope of
the project.
Save time by multi-tasking
Flickr attribution: /curious_e/7374013322/

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Time and Projects
7. BRINGING A
PROJECT
HOME
Studies show that most people fail to complete
projects on time. There are 3 reasons for this.
First, we always look forward when making plans
and rarely at what happened in similar situations
in the past. Second, we ignore what can go
wrong. And third, we concentrate on how early
we would like to complete the project and use
that as the estimated time. It doesn't matter
whether the project is a big one or a small one.
For example, the Sydney Opera House opened 10
years late and 1300% over budget.
A late project has to be paid for
Flickr attribution: /edmccullochphotography/7030230765/

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Time and Projects
This has been a Slide Topic from Manage Train Learn
AFinal
Word
To succeed in any project, large or small, it is essential to meet your sponsor's requirements on
time, cost, and quality. Only by managing the project efficiently at each stage and using the best
estimating, planning, and scheduling techniques of time management is this possible.

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