PMP: 5. Project Schedule Management

-  Project scheduling provides a detailed plan that represents how and when the project will deliver the products services, and results defined in the project scope
-  serves as a tool for communication, managing stakeholder’s expectations, and as a basis for performance reporting
-  The project management team selects a scheduling method, such as critical path or agile approach
-  The project-specific data, such as the activities, planned dates, durations, resources, dependencies, and constraints, are entered into a scheduling tool to create a schedule model for the project. The result is a project schedule
-  the detailed project schedule should remain flexible throughout the project to adjust for knowledge gained, increased understanding of the risk, and value-added activities.
-  There are two main practicing for scheduling methods (Iterative scheduling with a backlog & On-demand scheduling.)
-  Iterative scheduling with a backlog is a form of rolling wave planning based on adaptive life cycles where requirements are documents in user stories. This approach is often used to deliver incremental value to the customer or when multiple teams can concurrently develop a large number of features that have few interconnected dependencies. The benefit of this approach is that it welcomes changes throughout the development life cycle.
-  On-demand scheduling is used in a Kanban system. On-demand scheduling does not rely on a schedule that was developed previously but pulls work from a backlog or intermediate queue of work to be done immediately as resources become available. Tasks are relatively similar in size and scope. It’s used in projects that evolve the product incrementally in operational environment
-  Adaptive approaches use short cycles to undertake work, these cycles provide rapid feedback on the approaches and suitability of deliverables and generally manifest as iterative scheduling and on-demand, pull-based scheduling
-  If a business analyst is assigned to a project, requirement-related activities are the responsibility of that role.
-  Eliciting, documenting and managing stakeholder requirements Is a responsibility of a business analyst in projects where business analysts collaborate with project managers to manage the project scope

Plan Schedule Management (Planning Process Group)
Plan Schedule Management is the process of establishing the policies, procedures, and documentation for planning, developing, managing, executing, and controlling the project schedule.
Key benefit of this process is that it provides guidance and direction on how the project schedule will be managed throughout the project.
-  This process is performed once or at predefined points in the project

Plan Schedule Management Inputs:
1- Project Charter
-  As it defines the summary milestone schedule that will influence the management of the schedule
2- Project Management Plan
-  Includes Scope management plan and Development approach (schedule approach and techniques)
3- Enterprise Environmental Factors
4- Organizational Process Assets

Plan Schedule Management Tools and Techniques:
1- Expert Judgement
specialized knowledge in previous similar projects in development, methodologies and software.
2- Data Analysis
-  Alternative analysis: determine which schedule methodology to use, or how to combine various methods on the project
3- Meetings
-  Meeting may include: Project manager, Sponsor, team members and selected stakeholders

Plan Schedule Management Outputs:
1- Schedule Management Plan
-  It maybe formal or informal, highly detailed, or broadly framed
-  The schedule management plan is a component of the project management plan that establishes the criteria and the activities for developing, monitoring, and controlling the schedule. It includes;
-  Project schedule model development: Scheduling methodology and tool to be used in the project
-  Release and iteration length: In adaptive life cycle the time-boxed periods for releases, waves and iterations are specified.
? Time-boxed periods: durations which the team works steadily toward completion of a goal, and this helps to minimize scope creep
-  Level of accuracy: Specifies the acceptable range used in determining realistic activity durations
-  Units of measure: Each unit of measurement is defined for each of the resources
-  Organizational procedures links: WBS provides the framework for the schedule management plan allowing for consistency with the estimates and resulting schedules.
-  Project schedule model maintenance: Update the status and record progress of the project
-  Control thresholds: Variance thresholds for monitoring schedule performance to indicate an agreed-upon amount of variation to be allowed before some action needs to be taken. Usually in %
-  Rules of performance measurement: Earned value management (EVM) or other measurement rules are set
-  Reporting formats. The formats and frequency for the various schedule reports are defined.

Define Activities (Planning Process Group)
Define Activities is the process of identifying and documenting the specific actions to be performed to produce the project deliverables.
Key benefit of this process is that it decomposes work packages into schedule activities that provide a basis for estimating, scheduling, executing, monitoring, and controlling the project work.
-  This Process is performed throughout the project

Define Activities Inputs:
1- Project Management Plan
-  Includes (Schedule management plan and Scope baseline)
2- Enterprise Environmental Factors
-  PMIS
3- Organizational Process Assets
 

Define Activities Tools & Techniques:
1- Expert Judgment
2- Decomposition
-  Technique used for dividing and subdividing the project scope and project deliverables into smaller, more manageable parts. Activities represent the effort needed to complete a work package.
-  The activity list, WBS, and WBS dictionary can be developed either sequentially or concurrently
3- Rolling Wave Planning
-  Iterative planning technique in which the work to be accomplished in the near term is planned in detail, while work further in the future is planned at a higher level
-  It is a form of progressive elaboration and it’s applicable on work packages
4- Meetings

Define Activities Outputs:
1- Activity List
-  Includes the schedule activities required on the project.
-  Projects that use agile/rolling wave techniques the activity list will be updated periodically
-  activity list includes activity identifier and scope of work description for each activity
2- Activity Attributes
-  Identifies component associated with each activity which evolves over time
-  At early stages it will include activity identifier, WBS ID, and activity name
-  At later stages/completed will include descriptions, predecessor, activities, successor activities, logical relationships, leads and lags resource requirements, constraints, and assumptions.
3- Milestone List
-  Significant point or event in a project which has zero duration
-  They can be mandatory (required by contract) or optional
4- Change Requests
-  Once the project has been baselined, the progressive elaboration of deliverables into activities may reveal work that was not initially part of the project baselines
-  Change requests are processed through the Perform Integrated Change Control process
5- Project Management Updates
-  Schedule baseline
-  Cost baseline

Sequence Activities (Planning Process Group)
Sequence Activities is the process of identifying and documenting relationships among the project activities.
Key benefit of this process is that it defines the logical sequence of work to obtain the greatest efficiency given all project constraints.
-  This process is performed throughout the project
-  Every activity except the first and last should be connected to at least one predecessor and at least one successor activity with an appropriate logical relationship
-  Leads and lags may be used to support realistic and achievable project schedule.
-  Sequence Activities process concentrates on converting the project activities from a list to a diagram to act as a first step to publish the schedule baseline.

Sequence Activities Inputs:
1- Project Management Plan
-  Includes Schedule management plan & Scope baseline
2- Project documents
-  Includes (Activity attributes, Activity list, Assumption log and Milestone list)
3- Enterprise Environmental Factors
4- Organizational Process Assets

Sequence Activities Tools & Techniques:
1- Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM)
-  Technique used for constructing a schedule model in which activities are represented by nodes and are graphically linked by one or more logical relationships to show the sequence in which the activities are to be performed
-  Predecessor activity is an activity that logically comes before a dependent activity in a schedule
-  PDM includes four types of dependencies or logical relationships
? Finish-to-start (FS): successor activity cannot start until a predecessor activity has finished.
? Finish-to-finish (FF): successor activity cannot finish until predecessor activity has finished
? Start-to-start (SS): successor activity cannot start until a predecessor activity has started
? Start-to-finish (SF): successor activity cannot finish until a predecessor activity has started
-  Finish-to-start (FS) is the most commonly used type of precedence relationship
-  Start –to-finish (SF) is the least used type of precedence relationship

-  Two activities can have two logical relationships at the same time. However Multiple relationships between the same activities are not recommended. Usually the relationship with highest impact is selected

2- Dependency Determination and Integration
Dependencies may be characterized by the following attributes: mandatory or discretionary, internal or external. Dependency has four attributes, but two can be applicable at the same time in the following ways: mandatory external dependencies, mandatory internal dependencies, discretionary external dependencies, or discretionary internal dependencies. Determining the dependencies take place in Sequence Activities Process.
-  Mandatory dependencies: are legally or contractually required. They often involve physical limitations. They often called “hard logic or hard dependencies”
-  Discretionary dependencies: are established based on knowledge of best practices at some unusual aspect of the project where a specific sequence is desired. Some activities can occur at same time (parallel) but performing them in sequential order reduces the overall project risk. Discretionary dependencies they create total float values which can limit scheduling options. Discretionary dependencies also called “logic, preferential logic, or soft logic)
-  External dependencies: involve a relationship between project activities and non-project activities and usually outside the project team’s control.
-  Internal dependencies: involve a precedence relationship between project activities and are generally inside the project team’s control.
3- Leads and Lags
-  Lead is the amount of time a successor activity can be advanced with respect to a predecessor activity. Lead is often represented as a negative value for lag in scheduling software (SS -10)
-  Lag is the amount of time a successor activity will be delayed with respect to a predecessor activity. And it is often represented as a Positive value for lag in scheduling software (SS+ 10)
4- Project Management Information System (PMIS)
-  Scheduling software that has the capability to help plan, organize the schedule like (MS Project & Primavera)

Sequence Activities Tools & Outputs:
1- Project Schedule Network Diagrams
-  graphical representation of the logical relationships also refereed as dependencies
-  Activities that have multiple predecessor activities indicate a path convergence. Activities that have multiple successor activities indicate a path divergence
2- Project Documents updates
-  Includes (Activity attributes, Activity list, Assumption log and Millstone list)

Estimate Activity Duration (Planning Process Group)
Estimate Activity Durations is the process of estimating the number of work periods needed to complete individual activities with estimated resources
Key benefit of this process is that it provides the amount of time each activity will take to complete
-  This process is performed throughout the project
-  Estimating activity durations uses information from (Scope of work, required resources, skill levels, resources quantities, resource calendars, constraint, effort involved and resources types)
-  Duration estimate is progressively elaborated and it considers quality and availability of data
-  Usually the number of resources and skill proficiency of resources may determine the activity’s duration
-  It’s not simple straight line or linear relationship when estimating the duration with resources
There are factors to consider when estimating the duration
-  Law of diminishing returns: When one factor used to determine the effort required to produce a unit of work is increased while all other factors remain fixed a point will eventually be reached at which additions of that factor start to yield progressively smaller or diminishing increases in output.
-  Number of resources: Increasing the number of resources to twice the original number of the resources does not always reduce the time by half, as it may increase extra duration due to risk
-  Advances in technology: Increase in the output of a manufacturing plant may be achieved by procuring the latest advances in technology may impact duration and resource needs
-  Motivation of staff: Project manager also needs to be aware of Student Syndrome (procrastination), when people start to apply themselves only at the last possible moment before the deadline, and Parkinson’s Law where work expands to fill the time available for its completion

Estimate Activity Inputs:
1- Project Management Plan
-  Includes (Schedule management plan and Scope baseline)
2- Project Documents
-  Includes (Activity attributes, Activity list, Assumption log, Lessons learned register, Milestone list, Project team assignments, Resource breakdown structure, Resource calendars, Resource requirements and Risk register)

Resource calendars influence the duration of schedule activities due to the resources availability, type and attributes. Resource calendars specify when and how long identified project resources will be available during the project

3- Enterprise Environmental Factors
4- Organizational Process Assets

Estimate Activity Tools & Techniques:
1- Expert Judgment
-  Specialized knowledge in Schedule development and expertise in estimating
2- Analogous Estimating
-  Technique for estimating the duration or cost of an activity or a project using historical data. It uses parameters from previous projects such as (duration, budget, size, weight, and complexity)
-  Relies on actual duration of previous, similar projects
-  This technique is used when there is a limited amount of detailed information about the project.
-  Generally, less costly and less time-consuming than other techniques but it is also less accurate
3- Parametric Estimating
-  Technique in which an algorithm is used to calculate cost or duration based on historical data and project parameters
-  Uses a statistical relationship between historical data and other variables to calculate activity duration and cost
-  Durations can be quantitatively determined by multiplying the quantity of work to be performed by the number of labor hours per unit of work
-  This technique can produce higher levels of accuracy
4- Three-Point Estimating
Using three-point estimates helps define an approximate range for an activity’s duration
-  Most likely (tM): based on the duration of the activity given the resources likely to be assigned
-  Optimistic (tO): based on analysis of the best-case scenario for the activity
-  Pessimistic (tP): based on analysis of the worst-case scenario for the activity
Then expected duration (tE) can be calculated. One commonly used formula is triangular distribution
tE= (tO + tM + tP) / 3 . In Beta Distribution (PERT) tE= (tO + 4tM + tP) / 6
-  Triangular distribution is used when there is insufficient historical data or when using judgmental data. This technique provides an expected duration and clarify the range of uncertainty
5- Bottom-Up Estimating:
-  Method of estimating project duration or cost by aggregating the estimates of the lower level components of the WBS.
-  If an activity duration can’t be estimated with reasonable confidence, the work within the activity is decomposed into more detail.
-  These estimates are then aggregated into a total quantity for each of the activity’s durations
6- Data Analysis
-  Alternatives analysis: Helps in determining optimal approach for accomplishing project work by comparing various levels of resources capability, scheduling techniques &
-  Reserve analysis: determine the amount of contingency and management reserve needed for the project. Duration estimates may include contingency reserves (schedule reserves,) to account schedule uncertainty.
Contingency reserves are associated with the known-unknowns (unknown amount of work). It may be a percentage of estimated activity duration or fixed number of work periods.
Management reserves are a specified amount of the project budget withheld for management control purposes and are reserved for unforeseen work that is within scope of the project. It addresses unknown-unknowns that can affect a project. However, Management reserve is not included in the schedule baseline but it is part of the overall project duration requirements.
7- Decision making
-  Includes voting, but in agile projects variation of voting is used called fist of five where project manager asks the team to show their support by holding up closed fist (no support) up to five fingers (full support). The manager continues it until the team achieve consensus (three or more fingers)
8- Meetings
-  In agile approach sprint/iteration planning discuss backlog items (user stories).

Estimate Activity Outputs:
1- Duration Estimates
-  Quantitative assessments of the likely number of time periods that are required to complete an activity, phase or project and it does not include any lags -  The estimate can include range (value or percentage) (e.g. 7 weeks ± 1)
2- Basis of estimates
-  Provide clear and complete understanding how the duration estimate was derived
3- Project Documents Updates
-  Includes Activity attributes, Assumption log and Lessons learned register.

Develop Schedule (Planning Process Group)
Develop Schedule is the process of analyzing activity sequences, durations, resource requirements, and schedule constraints to create a schedule model for project execution and monitoring and controlling
Key benefit of this process is that it generates a schedule model with planned dates for completing project.
-  This process is performed throughout the project
-  Developing an acceptable project schedule is an iterative process
-  The schedule model determines planned start and finish dates for activities and milestones
-  After activities has been determined, project staff is assigned to review the activities has no conflict with resource calendars or relationships

Develop Schedule Inputs:
1- Project Management Plan
-  Includes (Schedule management plan and Scope baseline)
2- Project Documents
-  Includes (Activity attributes, Activity list, Assumption log, Basis of estimates, Duration estimates, Lessons learned, Milestone list, Project schedule network diagrams, Project team assignments, Resource calendars, Resource requirements and Risk register)
3- Agreements
4- Enterprise Environmental Factors
5- Organizational Process Assets

Develop Schedule Tools & Techniques:
1- Schedule Network Analysis
-  Technique used to generate the project schedule model and it’s an iterative process
-  Employs several other techniques such as critical path method, resource optimization techniques and modeling techniques
-  Assessing the need to aggregate schedule reserves to reduce the probability of a schedule slip
-  Reviewing the network to see if the critical path has high-risk activities or long lead items that would necessitate use of schedule reserves

2- Critical Path Method
-  The critical path estimates the minimum project duration and determine the amount of schedule flexibility on the logical network paths within the schedule model
-  The critical path is the sequence of activities that represents the longest path through a project, which determines the shortest possible project duration
-  Schedule network analysis technique calculates early/late start/finish dates without regard of any resource limitations
-  Total float (slack) is the amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying the project completion date. On a critical path the total float is zero.
-  Free float is the amount of time that a schedule activity can be delayed without delaying the early start date of any successor or violating a schedule constraint
-  Positive total float is caused when the backward pass is calculated from a schedule constraint that is later than the early finish date that has been calculated during forward pass calculation (there is more time available for an activity in the project schedule.)
-  Negative total float is caused when a constraint on the late dates is violated by duration and logic. Negative float analysis is a technique that helps to find possible accelerated ways of bringing a delayed schedule back on track.
-  Negative Float - results when the time difference between the late dates and the early dates (start or finish) of an activity is negative. Negative float it means excess time is not available for an activity so that activity must have to start before their predecessor activities complete in order to meet a target finish date in a project schedule else the project is bound to be delayed.
-  The critical path method is used to calculate the critical path(s) and the amount of total and free float or schedule flexibility on the logical network paths within the schedule model 3- Resource Optimization Resource leveling: A technique in which start and finish dates are adjusted based on resource constraints with the goal of balancing the demand for resources with the available supply -  Resource leveling can be used when shared or critically required resources are available only at certain times or in limited quantities or over allocated -  Resource leveling can often cause the original critical path to change -  Available float is used for leveling resources. Resource Smoothing: A technique that adjusts the activities of a schedule model such that the requirements for resources on the project do not exceed certain predefined resource limits -  Critical path is not changed and the completion date may not be delayed -  Activities with free and total float may only be delayed. -  Resource smoothing may not be able to optimize all resource -  Resource smoothing is very similar to resource leveling except smoothing uses total and free float

4- Data Analysis -  What-if scenario analysis: process of evaluating scenarios in order to predict their effect (positive or negative) on the project. It’s used to computer the different scenarios that might affect the project.it helps in assessing the feasibility and address the impact on unexpected situations -  Simulation: models the combined effects of individual project risks and other sources of uncertainty to evaluate their potential impact on achieving project objectives. Most common technique is Monte Carlo analysis. Where risk and other uncertainties are used to calculate possible schedule outcome for the project. It involves calculating multiple work package durations with different sets of activity assumptions using probability distribution.
5- Leads and Lags -  Leads are used to advance a successor activity with respect to the predecessor activity. -  Lags are used where processes require a set period of time to elapse between the predecessors and successors without work or resource impact 6- Schedule Compression Schedule compression techniques are used to shorten or accelerate the schedule duration without reducing the project scope in order to meet schedule constraints, imposed dates, or other schedule objectives. A helpful technique is the negative float analysis.

Techniques that can be used:

-  Crashing: Technique used to shorten the schedule duration for the least incremental cost by adding resources. Examples (overtime, additional resources). Crashing works only for activities on the critical path where additional resources will shorten the activity’s duration. Crashing does not always produce a viable alternative and may result in increased risk and/or cost.

-  Fast Tracking: compression technique in which activities or phases normally done in sequence are performed in parallel for at least a portion of their duration. Fast tracking may result in rework and increased risk. Fast tracking only works when activities can be overlapped to shorten duration at critical path. Fast tracking may also increase project costs.
7- Project Management Information System (PMIS) -  Include scheduling software that expedites the process of building a schedule model 8

- Agile Release Planning -  Provides a high-level summary timeline of the release schedule (3-6 months) -  determines the number of iterations or sprints in the release, and allows the product owner and team to decide how much needs to be developed and how long it will take to have a releasable product based on business goals dependencies, and impediments.

Develop Schedule Outputs:

1- Schedule Baseline:
-  Approved version of a schedule model that can be changed only through formal change procedure and used as comparison to actual results. And is part of project management plan

2- Project Schedule
-  Output of a schedule model that presents linked activities with planned dates, durations milestones, and resources.
-  If resource planning is done at an early stage, the project schedule remains preliminary until resource assignments have been confirmed and scheduled start and finish dates are established
-  The project schedule may be presented in summary form, sometimes referred to as the master schedule or milestone schedule

Project schedule is usually presented in graphical form using one or more of the following formats:
-  Bar charts (Gantt Charts): Represent schedule information where activities are listed on the vertical axis, dates are shown on the horizontal axis, and activity durations are shown as horizontal bars placed according to start and finish dates.
-  Milestone charts: similar to bar charts, but only identify the scheduled start or completion of major deliverables and key external interfaces
-  Project schedule network diagrams (Pure logic diagram): commonly presented in the activity-on-node diagram format showing activities and relationships without a time scale. usually show both the project network logic and the project’s critical path schedule activities.
Another presentation of it is time-scaled logic diagram: include a time scale and bars that represent the duration of activities with the logical relationships

3- Schedule Data
-  collection of information for describing and controlling the schedule incudes (milestones, activities, attributes and documentation for assumptions and constraints). May also resource histograms and cash flow projections, order and delivery schedule.

4- Project Calendars
-  Identifies working days and shifts that are available for scheduled activities. It distinguishes available working dates from periods that are not available for work. Project may have more than one project calendar. Calendars may be updated

5- Change Requests
-  Modifications to the project scope or project schedule may result in change requests
-  Preventive actions may include recommended changes to eliminate or reduce the probability of negative schedule variances.
6- Project Management updates
-  Includes Schedule management plan and Cost baseline
7- Project Documents Updates
-  Includes activity attributes, Assumption log, Duration estimates, Lesson learned register, Resource requirements, Risk register

Control Schedule (Monitor & Controlling Process Group)
Control Schedule is the process of monitoring the status of the project to update the project schedule and managing changes to the schedule baseline.
Key benefit of this process is that the schedule baseline is maintained throughout the project
-  This process is performed throughout the project
-  Updating the schedule model requires knowing the actual performance to date
-  Regular and milestone status updates from contractors and suppliers are a means of ensuring the work is progressing as agreed upon to ensure the schedule is under control
-  Reviews and walkthroughs should be done to ensure the contractor reports are accurate

Control Schedule Inputs:
1- Project Management Plan
-  Includes (Schedule management plan, Schedule baseline, Scope baseline and Performance measurement baseline)
2- Project Documents
-  Includes (Lessons learned register, Project calendars, Project schedule, Resource calendars and Schedule data)
3- Work Performance Data
-  contains data on project status such as which activities have started, their progress and which activities have finished
4- Organizational Process Assets

Control Schedule Tools & Techniques:
1- Data Analysis
-  Earned Value Analysis: Schedule performance measurements such as schedule variance (SV) and schedule performance index (SPI) are used to asses magnitude of variation to original baseline
-  Iteration Burndown Chart: This chart tracks the work that remains to be completed in the iteration backlog. It analyzes the variance with respect to an ideal burndown based on work committed. A forecast trend line used to predict the likely variance, and diagonal line represent ideal burndown and daily actual remaining work is then plotted
-  Performance reviews: Measure, compare, and analyze schedule performance against the schedule baseline
-  Trend analysis: Examines project performance over time to determine whether performance is improving or deteriorating. Graphical analysis maybe used.
-  Variance analysis: Variance analysis looks at variances in planned versus actual start and finish dates, planned versus actual durations, and variances in float. Also determine cause and degree of variance relative to baseline. And decide if corrective and preventive action is required.
-  What-if scenario analysis: assess the various scenarios guided by the output from the Project Risk Management processes to bring the schedule model into alignment with the project management plan and approved baseline
2- Critical Path Method 3- Project Management Information System (PMIS) 4- Resource Optimization 5- Leads and Lags 6- Schedule Compression

Control Schedule Outputs:
1- Work Performance Information
-  Work performance information includes information on how the project work is performing compared to the schedule baseline Variances. Variances can be calculated at work package level
2- Schedule Forecasts
-  estimates or predictions of conditions and events in the project’s future based on information and knowledge available at the time of the forecast
-  The information is based on the project’s past performance and expected future performance based on corrective or preventive actions
-  This can include earned value performance indicators, and schedule reserve information
3- Change Requests
4- Project Management Plan Updates
-  Includes Schedule management plan, Schedule baseline, Cost baseline and Performance measurement baseline
5- Project Document Updates
-  Includes (Assumption log, Basis of estimates, Lessons learned register, Project schedule, Resource calendars, Risk register and Schedule data)