This document discusses project scheduling in software engineering. It defines scheduling as deciding which tasks will be completed and when. To schedule a project, a manager must: 1) identify all tasks, 2) break large tasks into smaller activities, 3) determine dependencies between activities, 4) estimate time durations, 5) allocate resources, and 6) plan start and end dates. The critical path is the longest sequence of activities that determines the minimum project duration. Common scheduling tools include work breakdown structures, activity networks, Gantt charts, and PERT charts.

1. Project Scheduling in Software
Engineering
By
KISHORE ADHIKARI
DEPT.COMPUTER SCIENCE
ASSAM UNIVERSITY SILCHAR

2. SCHEDULING:
Scheduling the project tasks is an important
project planning activity.
It involves deciding which task would be taken
up when.
The scheduling consists of deciding which tasks
would be taken up when and by whom.

3. In order to schedule the project activities, a software
project manager needs to do the following:-
1. Identify all the tasks needed to complete the project.
2. Break down large tasks into small activities.
3. Determine the dependency among different activities.
4. Establish the estimates for the time durations needed
to complete the project.
5. Allocate resources to the activities.
6. Plan the starting and ending dates for various
activities.
7. Determine the critical path. A critical path is a chain of
activities that determines the duration of the project.

4. How it works?
• The first step involves identifying all the tasks
needed to complete the project.
• Next the large tasks are broken down into
logical set of small activities which would be
assigned to different developers.
• This is done by the manager by creating a
Work Breakdown Structure(WBS).

5. • Next the dependency among the different
activities determines the order in which the
different activities carried out.
• Dependency among the activities are
represented in the form of an activity
network.

6. • Once the activity network representation has
been done.
• Resources allocation is typically done using a
Gantt chart.
• After resource allocation is done, a PERT chart
is representation is developed.(PERT chart is
suitable for project monitoring and control).
• Milestone: End of the each task is called a
milestone.

7. Work Breakdown Structure(WBS)
• WBS is used to decompose a given task set
recursively into small activities.
• The root of the tree is labelled by the problem
name.
• Each node of the tree is broken down into
smaller activities.
• Each activity is recursively decomposed into
smaller sub activities, until at the leaf level,
the activities require approximately 2 weeks
to develop.

8. An example of WBS of an MIS problem.

9. Activity Network
An activity network shows the different
activities making up a project, their estimated
durations, and their interdependencies.
In this representation, each activity is
represented by a rectangular node and the
duration of the activity is shown alongside each
task in the node.

10. Activity network representation of the MIS
problem

11. Critical Path Method(CPM):
• Critical path is the sequence of Critical Activities in a
network.
• A network diagram may have more than one critical
paths.
• It is the largest path in a network.
• Critical path gives the minimum time required to
complete a project.
• The activities in the critical path are called critical
activities.
• If the critical activities are delayed, then the
project is also delayed.

12. From the network diagram, following analysis can be
made:
• Minimum Time (MT): to complete the project is
maximum of all paths from start to finish.
• Earliest Start Time (ES): is the maximum of all paths
from start to this task.
• Earliest Finish Time (EF): of a task is the sum of the ES
of the task and its duration.
• Latest Start Time (LS): is the difference between MT
and maximum of all paths from this task to finish.
• Latest Finish Time (LF): of a task can be obtained by
subtracting maximum of all paths from this task to
finish from the MT.
• Slag Time (ST): is LS-ES and LF-EF

13. MIS problem with (ES,EF)

14. MIS problem with (LS,LF)

15. From the above diagram:
Critical task is the one with slack time = 0

16. Gantt Chart
• Gantt chart has been named after its developer
Henry Gantt.
• A Gantt chart is a form of bar chart.
• In the Gantt charts each bar consists of a
unshaded part and a shaded part.
• The shaded part of the bar shows the length of
time each task is estimated to take.
• The unshaded part shows the slack time or lax
time.
• Gantt charts are useful for resource planning.
• The different types of resources that need to be
allocated to activities include staff, hardware, and
software.

17. Gantt chart representation of the MIS problem

18. PERT Charts:
• Project Evaluation & Review Technique.
• Is a technique for estimating and planning a
project.
• One of its most powerful concepts is that
project management is the management of
probabilities.

19. • Thus, in a PERT chart, instead of making a
single estimate for each task, three estimates
are made:
• Optimistic(O)
• Most Likely(M)
• Worst case(W)
• These three estimates are combined to
calculate an expected duration.
• Expected Duration (E)= O + 4*M + W
6

20. PERT chart representation of the MIS problem.
Expected Duration of this project = 423.17
Expected Duration of Critical path = 241.16

21. THANK YOU