PM_CH 7 pt 1.ppt

Dr. Jana Jagodick Polytechnic
of Namibia, 2012
Project Management
Chapter 7
Project Time Management
Part 1

of Namibia, 2012
Project time management
• What’s time management
• Why is time management
important
• Time management – explained!

of Namibia, 2012
Project time management is…
• Determining the time needed to
complete the project and scheduling
activities to meet that time
• Critical to the success of the project
• Without careful scheduling and
planning, a project is at risk of failure
• Often regarded as the hardest part
of project management

of Namibia, 2012
Project time management
It includes:
• Activity definition
• Activity sequencing
• Activity duration estimating
• Schedule development
• Schedule control

of Namibia, 2012
Elements to Time Management
• Analyse the organisation’s cost of
time
• Project planning
• Scheduling
• Job clarification
• Monitor progress

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Analyse Cost of Time
• How much does time cost for
the organisation?
• Take into account project
team salaries, office space,
equipment, expenses, admin
support etc
• Will give an hourly or daily
rate

of Namibia, 2012
Laws of Planning
Murphy’s Law:
• Anything that can go wrong will go wrong
• Everything takes longer than you think it will
Parkinson’s Law:
• Work expands to fill the time allotted

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Project Planning
• How you work out who,
what, when, where, why
and how of achieving
the goal in the most
effective manner

of Namibia, 2012
time
• Scheduling
•Project specifications
•Determining the
milestones
•Compiling a task list
•Estimating time

of Namibia, 2012
time
• Scheduling
•Project
specifications
•Determining the
milestones
•Compiling a task list
•Estimating time

of Namibia, 2012
Project Specification
• Used as the basis for planning
• Specification – is the definition of your
project (often in the charter)
• Will probably need to be refined as
many errors are likely to exist from
when 1st put together

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Project Specifications - Errors
• Errors can arise from
•Holistic perspective
•The interfaces
•Timescales
•External dependencies
•Resources

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Holistic Perspective
• May have taken too narrow a
perspective
• May duplicate or impact other
work carried out
• May be incompatible with other
work

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Interfaces
• Transfer points
• Agree on what, how and when
• It is a well known fact that most
miscommunications occur at the
interfaces

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Timescales
• People who draw up specifications
often underestimate time involved
for tasks
• Remember the Sydney Opera
House example

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External dependencies
• Project tasks may depend on the
tasks of others
• Make this clear so people
involved know in advance of your
needs – and are able to meet
them!

of Namibia, 2012
Resources
• People tend to ignore resources
• Most projects need materials,
equipment and staff
• Check that the numbers are
practical and correct

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time
• Scheduling
•Project
specifications
•Determining
the milestones
•Compiling a task
list
•Estimating time

of Namibia, 2012
Determining Milestones
An activity with zero duration
usually marking the end of a
period i.e. the completion of
a number of activities
Come up with some
milestones you
will pass in doing the
Project Management course

of Namibia, 2012
time
• Scheduling
•Project
specifications
•Determining the
milestones
•Compiling a
task list
•Estimating time

of Namibia, 2012
Compile a task list
Once the milestones
have been determined,
a project task list can be
put together, giving the
task a number and
description and a time
period
1 Plan out
work
Working out all
major tasks and
milestones
3 days
– June
07
2 Buy text
book
Getting the text
book so that I can
read up on the detail
required
1 day –
July 07
3 Prepare
for class
test
Revise chapters 1 to
5 and all the
exercises we have
done in class
3 days
– Aug
07
4 Prepare
individual
assignme
nt
Review chapters 1
to 7, plan how I am
going to do this
activity
7 days
– Sept
07

of Namibia, 2012
time
• Scheduling
•Project
specifications
•Determining the
milestones
•Compiling a task
list
•Estimating time

of Namibia, 2012
Estimating Time
“An overestimate of the time for the project is crucial
for its success” Healy
Estimating time can be done in 3 different ways:
1.Time comparison (being able to compare tasks
with similar tasks that have been done before)
2.Setting a time on the basis of milestones (based
on the date of expected launch – so when is it
needed)
3.Build up a picture of durations using detailed
expanation of how the project comes together

of Namibia, 2012
Contingency
You cannot predict everything that will happen in your
project, so you need to build in ‘contingency’ or buffer
This is a way of treating risk!

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Schedule
• Schedules show the task name and start and finish
date for each task
• Schedules are only estimates
• They will have to change with time but are useful
starting points

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Examples of Schedules
Tasks
April May June
Week
1
Week
2
Week
3
Week
4
Week
1
Week
2
Week
3
Week
4
Week
1
Week
2
Week
3
Week
4
Decision date
Interview design preparation
Interviews
Review session
Workshop design
Workshop
Analysis and research design
Research (optional)
Review
Final strategy workshop
Present strategy to German Board
Final review
Completion
GANTT CHART - 3 MONTH TIME LINE
KEY
Milestone marker -
start
Key Dates
14th - 18th April = Easter
1st May - May day holiday
GANTT charts
are created in
packages such
as Microsoft
Project
But schedules
can also be
created in
Excel or in MS
Word

of Namibia, 2012
Examples of Schedules

of Namibia, 2012
Job Clarification
Ask the questions:
• What is the purpose of the job/task/activity?
• What are the measures of success?
• What are priorities and deadlines?
• What is exceptional performance?
• What resources are available?
• What costs are acceptable?
• How does this relate to other people and tasks?
Getting answers will help clarify the job

of Namibia, 2012
time
• Scheduling
•Monitor progress

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Monitor Progress
• Helps to ensure that the project is on
schedule and is progressing
according to plan
• Goals and milestones help to ensure
this

of Namibia, 2012
Mock Test
Q1: What are the 5 important elements of Project Time
Management?
Q2: What do you define as project planning?
Q3: In reviewing a specification, where or what could
be the source of errors?
Q4: What is integrated change control?

of Namibia, 2012
Mock Test
Q1: What are the 5 important elements of Project
Time Management?
Q2: What do you define as project planning?
Analyse the organisation’s cost of time
Project planning
Scheduling
Job clarification
Monitor progress
How you work out who, what, when, where, why
and how of achieving the goal in the most
effective manner

of Namibia, 2012
Mock Test
Q3: In reviewing a specification, where or what
could be the source of errors?
Q4: Explain the different ways of estimating time?
Holistic perspective
The interfaces
Timescales
External dependencies
Resources
Estimating time can be done in 3 different ways:
Time comparison (being able to compare tasks with similar tasks that have
been done before)
Setting a time on the basis of milestones (based on the date of expected launch
– so when is it needed)
Build up a picture of durations using detailed expanation of how the project
comes together

PM_CH 7 pt 1.ppt

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