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Time management
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Project time management
Challenges of project time management in public sector
Managing project time - challenges
- Private-sector projects often have time constraints
- Private-sector projects need to comply with external deadlines for compliance with laws or government regulations.
- Public-sector agencies and managers have very low tolerance for schedule risks and project delays
- Budget and spending time limits
- The requirements of higher-level agencies
Most important issues associated with defining project activities
We will assign attributes to those activities, which can include the number,
description, predecessors and successors, resource requirements, constraints, and other factors.
Putting the Activities in a Logical Order
Activities, methods and tools associated with creating the project schedule
In order to determine the right sequence of activities, we have to ask
ourselves a simple question for each one: What activities have to be done
before this one? That is called identifying dependencies. It tells us which
activities are dependent on other activities.
Some dependencies are mandatory. That means that we have to do
some activities in a required order. Other activity relationships are discretionary. That means that we
prefer to do them in a certain order. Without thinking about it, those
preferences for doing things in a certain order are usually related to
reducing a risk that we are not comfortable with.
There are two methods for mapping project sequences and creating a
project network diagram:
- the activity-on-node model (AON) --> places activities on the nodes of the diagram;
- the activity-on-arrow method (AOA) --> puts the activities on the arrows.
two methods
Most organizations prefer the AON model, which is also referred
to as the precedence diagramming method (PDM).
With the constructed network diagram, we can literally see the link
between activities and are very close to being able to build our schedule.
On this diagram, duration estimates have been also added.
exemplary AON Project Network Diagram
Activity duration estimating identifies the time necessary for completion of the activities identified. We are not concerned with how long an
activity should take without the other demands on the time of our
resources; we want to estimate how long it will take them after considering their other assignments and duties. After we estimate durations and match those durations to the project
network diagram, we can determine the total length of the project. That
project duration can be compared to the project’s time constraints to see if
we have a realistic plan.
Estimating the duration of activities
Analogous estimating
This is the least accurate estimating method as it requires very little project data. In that method, we simply find another project or activity and identify
the length of it. We can then make simple adjustments based on the
differences between that project and the current project and derive an
estimate. Analogous estimating is often used to provide early, rough-order-of-magnitude estimates to establish budgeting parameters.
Parametric estimates
Parametric estimates are regarded as
more accurate than analogous estimates because they require more data so we can identify mathematical
relationships to help estimate durations. For example, if we were to attempt to determine how long it will take us
to write a software program estimated to require 100,000 lines of code,
we could find out what the standard is for the number of lines of code
that can be written in an hour and divide the total lines necessary by
the standard to determine the number of hours the project will take.
Three-point estimating
Three-point estimating
Relies on gathering information or expert judgment so it can minimize the impact of very high or very low estimates. It identifies the most optimistic estimate, the most
pessimistic one, and a midrange one. Those three estimates are added
with the midrange estimate being multiplied by a factor of four. The sum
is then divided by six, which pulls the high and low estimates toward
the midrange estimate.
Bottom-up estimating is considered the most accurate as it relies on the most project data. This method assigns durations
to individual activities. Those individual activity estimates, although they
employ the most project information, can be inaccurate, however, if the
same bias is applied to each activity estimate.
Bottom-up estimating
Resource Estimates
Identifying
the necessary resources
- resources that are necessary for completing each activity. It may seem that
identifying resources is more appropriate to project budgeting and cost
management. In fact, in identifying the necessary resources, we are not
concerned with the cost of those resources. We are only concerned with
identifying what resources are necessary for the performance of the
activities of the project.
Tools
- the use of buffers in the schedule - Schedule buffers are additional blocks of time placed in the project network diagram before activities or sequences of activities that are resource constrained
- Constrained resources - are one of the reasons for the project adage that ‘‘bad news moves forward but good news doesn’t.’’
Tools
OUTCOMES
The principal outcomes of activity resource estimating are the resource requirements for each activity and, perhaps, a resource breakdown structure (RBS), which is a hierarchical summary of resources necessary for the project.
Outcomes
Resource Breakdown Structure
best practices for activity resource estimating would include:
best practices for activity resource estimating
- Being realistic about the time required for accessing resources from outside the organization
- Being realistic about the availability of resources at the times necessary, especially if those resources are also working on other projects
- Being aware that changing priorities may make previously scheduled resources unavailable
- Documenting assumptions about resource availability in the project scope statement and charter and making those assumptions known in project status reports
Before creating the schedule
Creating the schedule (critical path method
- put the activities that are necessary for creating the project's deliverables into a logical sequence
- assign durations to the activities
- identify needed resources
- examine the schedule to identify the days that you intend to work
- identify days off
- check if there are any days, like events, that may affect the project
Create the project schedule
The critical path method is the most common one. It helps to identify the length of a project. This method analysis the path through the project network diagram that is composed of activities with the longest total of summoned durations. That longest path is the critical path, so named because every activity on the path, if delayed, delays the entire project.
The critical path method
Project network diagram
Analyze hardware needs (5 days)
-
Identify hardware options (2 days)
Start
-
Create recommendations for purchasing (3 days)
|
Identify possible vendors (2 days)
-
Example
Select vendors (7 days)
Contact purchasing (1 day)
|
Order hardware (1 day)
|
Identify hardware options (2 days)
|
Inspect hardware on delivery (3 days)
End
-
One of the biggest challenges in completing projects is balancing several projects at once. Most people have multiple projects in progress simultaneously. It is time-consuming and also, it takes a lot of effort. However, with a little planning, you can do much better than expected.
Conclusion
Four strategies
1. Change the time. If we have done good project planning and have concluded that we cannot get the project done on time, we can go back to the person who set the time and ask them to change it.
Compressing the project duration
2. Reduce the scope of our project. We can look at those activities on the critical path and examine the deliverable they are linked to. Maybe we can remove some of those from the project.
3. Throw some more resources at key
activities to reduce their duration (called crashing the schedule).
4. Fast-track the schedule. We need to evaluate the project network diagram and identify activities that are currently scheduled to be performed in sequence but that could be performed at the same time.
Best practices for time management in public-sector projects include the
following: