Objectives of Project Scheduling

Objectives of Project Scheduling

• Main goal is to minimize production costs while ensuring timely delivery of goods.
• Scheduling involves efficient planning of operational sequences to meet deadlines.
• Aims to optimize resource utilization, maximize capacity, and reduce labor costs by minimizing downtime.
• Prevents unbalanced work distribution among departments and workstations.

Introduction to Project Scheduling

• Project scheduling serves as a roadmap detailing all tasks and their order within a specified time frame.
• Project managers outline tasks and milestones, considering interdependencies especially for critical path activities.
• Tasks outside the critical path have lesser impact on the overall project schedule.

Overview of Scheduling

• Involves listing activities, deliverables, and milestones with their planned start/finish dates and assigned resources.
• Key for effective time management in projects.
• Essential steps include breaking down tasks, estimating time frames, and calculating total project duration.

Scheduling Principles

• Compartmentalization: Break down products and processes into manageable tasks.
• Interdependency: Clearly differentiate parallel and serial tasks.
• Time Allocation: Set start and completion dates while considering interdependencies.
• Effort Validation: Ensure adequate staff assignment daily to meet project timelines.
• Defined Responsibilities: Assign each task to specific team members.
• Defined Outcomes and Milestones: Establish clear deliverables and recognition of milestone completion.

Relationship Between People and Effort

• Adding personnel to an already delayed project may further extend delays.
• Productivity increase is not linear with personnel addition due to dependence on teamwork.
• Multiple contributors aim to accelerate project timelines or enhance quality.

Project Effort Distribution

• The 40-20-40 rule outlines time allocation for projects: 40% analysis/design, 20% coding, and 40% testing.
• General guidelines suggest the following effort distributions:
  • 2-3% for planning
  • 10-25% for requirements analysis
  • 20-25% for design
  • 15-20% for coding
  • 30-40% for testing/debugging

Scheduling Tools

• Activity networks visually represent task interdependencies and assist in defining timelines.
• Techniques like PERT and CPM help identify chains of dependent tasks that affect project duration.
• Gantt charts allow for timeline visualization, indicating when tasks should occur based on estimates.
• Time-boxing sets fixed time limits for tasks to ensure focus and progression.

Tracking Project Schedules

• Regular status meetings facilitate progress updates and identification of issues.
• Evaluations compare actual vs. scheduled milestone completion and task start dates.
• Earned value analysis offers quantitative assessments of project progress.

Tracking Increment Progress for OO Projects

• Technical milestones for Object-Oriented (OO) projects include completion of analysis, design, programming, and testing phases.
• Each milestone has specific criteria that must be met for progress to be acknowledged.

Webapp Project Scheduling

• Initial iterations create a flexible macro schedule, later refined as increments are developed.
• Each task may undergo four modifications: application, elimination, addition, or refinement into subtasks.

Earned Value Analysis

• Measures project progress quantitatively based on completion percentages of tasks.
• Key metrics include:
  • BCWS: Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled
  • BAC: Budget at Completion
  • BCWP: Budgeted Cost of Work Performed
  • ACWP: Actual Cost of Work Performed

Project Procurement Management

• Procurement involves sourcing external resources to achieve project goals efficiently.
• Essential processes include planning, selection, administration, and closing procurements to manage vendor relationships effectively.

Eight Steps for a Procurement Management Plan

• Define procurement terms in detail to identify specific needs and responsibilities.
• Outline the agreement type, such as fixed price or cost reimbursement.
• Identify and formulate strategies to mitigate risks associated with procurement.
• Define costs involved and support requests for proposals to suppliers.
• Identify constraints that may impact procurement processes and execution.
• Secure contract approval through careful analysis of bids and listings of decision-makers.
• Establish criteria for bid evaluation to ensure informed decision-making.
• Develop a vendor management plan to oversee adherence to contract terms post-signing.### Supplier Performance Metrics
• Implementing performance metrics enables assessment of supplier effectiveness and relationship enhancement for future projects.

Quality Concepts

• Variation control is essential for quality control, aiming to reduce discrepancies between predicted and actual resource usage across projects.
• Quality of design involves specified characteristics for the end product while quality of conformance measures adherence to design specifications during production.
• Quality control encompasses inspections and tests to ensure manufactured products meet specifications, and quality assurance encompasses auditing and reporting on these activities.

Cost of Quality

• Prevention Costs: Involved in planning, technical reviews, training, and test equipment.
• Appraisal Costs: Include inspections, equipment maintenance, and testing throughout the processes.
• Failure Costs: Costs associated with rework, repairs, complaints, product returns, and warranty service.

Software Quality Assurance (SQA)

• SQA aims to enhance software quality and reduce costs, encompassing testing and ensuring that processes adhere to defined standards and requirements.
• Activities involve preparing SQA plans, participating in software process descriptions, auditing work products, and recording non-compliance issues.

Software Reviews

• Conducting formal technical reviews (FTRs) helps identify errors before progression to further engineering tasks or customer release.

Formal Technical Review (FTR)

• FTR aims to detect errors, verify requirements adherence, ensure standard compliance, and improve software uniformity.
• Review meetings should consist of three to five participants, lasting no more than two hours with an agenda in place.

Review Reporting and Record Keeping

• During FTRs, all issues are documented, resulting in a summary report detailing what was reviewed, who reviewed it, and the findings.
• A review issues list identifies problem areas and acts as a checklist for the producer.

Software Defects

• Design processes are responsible for 50-65% of software defects; review techniques can uncover up to 75% of these design flaws before escalating problems in later stages.

Statistical Quality Assurance

• Categorizes software defects and traces their causes, applying the Pareto principle to prioritize the most significant issues for resolution.

Six Sigma for Software Engineering

• Involves defining requirements clearly, measuring current quality, analyzing defect metrics, and improving processes to eliminate root causes of defects.

Software Reliability

• Defined as the probability of a program's failure-free operation in a specific environment over time, assessed using metrics like Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF).

ISO 9000 Quality Standards

• ISO 9000, established by the International Standards Organization, provides guidelines for maintaining a quality system, emphasizing operational and organizational methods.

Types of ISO 9000 Standards

• ISO 9001: Applicable for organizations involved in design, development, production, and servicing of goods, notably software.
• ISO 9002: Focused on organizations engaged solely in production without designing products.
• ISO 9003: Pertains to organizations handling product installation and testing, not applicable to software development entities.

ISO Certification Process

• Steps for obtaining ISO certification include application, pre-assessment, document review, compliance audits, registration, and continued inspections.

Software Risk Management

• Involves identifying risks, analyzing their likelihood and impact, ranking them, and developing management strategies for high-probability and high-impact risks.
• Reactive Strategies: Responding to risks as they arise.
• Proactive Strategies: Anticipating risks and addressing them before technical work begins, leading to more effective risk management.

Learn about the main objectives of project scheduling, which include minimizing production costs, ensuring timely delivery, and optimizing resource utilization. Discover how scheduling helps in planning the sequence of operations and maximizing capacity utilization.