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Center for Continuing Education

CE-1276/B1 Project Management/PM
Lecture # 3 / Week # 3
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Vocabulary
Activity is any work performed on a project. May be synonymous with task but in some cases it may be a
specific level in the WBS (e.g., a phase is broken down into a set of activities, activities into a set of tasks).

An activity must have duration and will result in one or more deliverables. An activity will generally have
cost and resource requirements.

Critical path is the path(s) in a project network that has the longest duration. This represents the series of
activities that determines the earliest completion of the project.

There may be more than one critical path and the critical path(s) may change during the project.

Early start is the earliest time a task can begin.

The time at which all the tasks' predecessors have been completed and its resources are planned to be
available.

Float/slack is the amount of time available for a task to slip before it results in a delay of the project end
date.

It is the difference between the task's early and late start dates.

Program Evaluation and Review Technique/PERT

PERT stands for Program Evaluation Review Technique, it’s a methodology developed by the U.S.
Navy in the 1950s to manage a nuclear submarine missile program.

One of the purposes of constructing the PERT chart is to determine how much time is needed to
complete the project.

Critical Path Analysis and PERT are powerful tools that help you to schedule and manage complex
projects.

PERT chart

2 4
3 6

1 6
2 5

5
3 5
The Circle is an Event.

The Arrow is an Activity

The thick Arrow is a Critical Path

The numbers after the task names are the duration of the task. The time interval may be anything from
seconds to years.

The first step you must define the sequence the events. Use the following table, which relates each event
to its immediate predecessor.
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Center for Continuing Education
CE-1276/B1 Project Management/PM
Lecture # 3 / Week # 3
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Activity Title Immediate Activity Time
predecessor
1-2 A None 1
2-3 B A 5

When a node has incoming arrows, it means the incoming task must be completed before progress may
continue to any arrows heading away from the node

1) If you follow path 1 – 2 – 5 – 6 then total time for following this path is

3 + 3+ 6= 12 days.

2) If you follow path 1 – 6 – 4 then total time for following this path is

2 + 5 + 5 = 12 days

3) If you follow path 1 – 2 – 5 - 6 then total time for following this path is

3 + 7+ 5 = 15 days

Critical Path/CP
That is the Critical Path/CP of the project - the sequence of tasks from beginning to end that takes the
longest time.

CP for the above sample is 1 – 2 – 5 – 6 and total time for following this path is 15 days.

Slack Time/ST
The amount of time that an activity can be delayed without delaying the project.

The time differential between the scheduled completion data and the required date to meet critical path is
referred to as the Slack Time/ST.

ST = TL – TE

TE – the earliest time (date)

TL – the latest time (date)

The events on the critical path have no slack (TL = TE)

For the above PERT chart ST is:

For event # 1
TE = 0
TL = 0

For event # 2
TE = 3
TL = 3
For event # 3
TE = 2 (0 + 2)
TL = 5 because (3 + 7) – 5 = 5. It means that event # 3 can now occur anywhere between weeks 3 and 5
without interfering with the scheduled completion date of the project.

For event # 4
TE = 6 (3 + 3)
TL = 9 (15 – 6)
It means that event # 4 can now occur anywhere between weeks 6 and 9 without interfering with the
scheduled completion date of the project.

New project management methodologies

a) Waterfall
1. Vision
Business requirements are identified, success measures documented, and cost and benefit analysis
conducted to secure funding for the project.
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Center for Continuing Education
CE-1276/B1 Project Management/PM
Lecture # 3 / Week # 3
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2. Specification
High-Level functional specifications will examine the primary deliverables of the project and typically this
will include a summary of how the business requirements identified in the previous phase will be met.

3. Planning
Technical specifications created during this phase can be produced in two phases according to the nature
of the project.

Initially this phase will examine "what" technically needs to occur within the project and does not initially
try to answer "how" it will be solved.

Project Manager/PM will then identify the technical designs, which show "how" the technical work will be
accomplished.

PM will also then finalize plans regarding "Who, When, and for how long" they will do the work which will be
summarized in the Technical Specification.

4. Development
During Development we finally construct and build from our detailed plans created in the previous phases.

Unit level testing is conducted during this phase as well.

5. In-house Testing
The PM validates their work with unit or subsystem testing. The PM team passes this work onto the
technical testing team for separate system testing.

6. Beta Testing
Client’s acceptance testing validates that the business requirements are met. Integration testing validates
system compatibility with the production environment and other system interactions.

Related documentation is concluded within this phase.

7. Deployment
Beta testing is continued in the production environment. This can be followed with a series of pilot tests in
production.

Final production implementation concludes deployment.

b) Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM

This method is essentially a rapid prototyping framework, which assumes that the functional
requirements will change as the project progresses, which makes it particularly well suited to Internet
development projects.

The core principles are:

• Active user involvement
• Team empowerment
• Frequent delivery
• Fitness for purpose
• Iterative development
• All changes are reversible
• Frozen high-level requirements
• Integrated testing
• Collaboration and cooperation

Within the DSDM framework there are a few generic methods to help manage the project:
1. Prototyping - an approach based on creating a confirmable result as early as possible and refining
that result

2. Iteration - a commitment to incremental development based on modification.

Prototyping and iteration go hand in hand

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CE-1276/B1 Project Management/PM
Lecture # 3 / Week # 3
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3. Time-boxing - a management technique that focuses attention on delivery above all else.

Under a time-box scope can change but delivery cannot

Managing a project (U.S. DoD practice)

There are nine factors to a project's success.
The factors are:
1. Product superiority and quality - Does the product provide more benefits than competing
products, or solve a problem customers are having with competitive offerings?

2. Economic advantage to users - If you build a great mousetrap, but it gives customers no
economic advantage, you might not sell any.

3. Overall company or project fit - Is the project similar to previous successful efforts? Is it based
on the core capabilities of the organization?

4. Technology compatibility - It's the ability and confidence of a company to build technology into
a product. This is the comfort zone in R&D-based companies. The engineers know they can build
the proposed thing. But should they is another question. Product-development teams are
generally weak in defining the overall value proposition of a prospective new product
to the commercial market.

5. Familiarity to firm - What level of experience does the company have with the customers, the
competitors, and all aspects of the product from design through distribution?

6. Market need, growth, and size - Will the market perceive a need for the product? Will the
market grow?

7. Competitive situation - How easy will it be, from a competitive standpoint, to penetrate the
target market?

8. Defined opportunity - Does the product fit a well-defined category and established market, or
does it break new ground?

9. Project definition - Is the product sufficiently defined?