Project Management: Planning, Scheduling, Controlling

Importance of Project Management

• Project management ensures the successful completion of business initiatives.
• Effectiv planning, scheduling, and controlling resources are critical functions .
• Bechtel Project Management has an international workforce, construction professionals, cooks, medical personnel, and security.
• Bechtel Project Management considers the strategic value of time-based competition
• Bechtel Project Management has a quality mandate for continual improvement

Management of Projects

• Project management includes planning, scheduling, and controlling.
• Planning involves goal setting, defining the project, and team organization.
• Scheduling relates people, money, and supplies to specific activities.
• Scheduling also involves relating activities to each other
• Controlling involves monitoring resources, costs, quality, and budgets.
• Controlling also includes revising plans and shifting resources to meet time and cost demands.

Project Planning

• Project planning consists of establishing objectives, defining the project and creating a work breakdown structure.
• Determining what resources are necessary, and forming an organization are also key elements.
• Project organization is a temporary structure within a company to manage a specific project.
• Project organization is designed to efficiently coordinate resources, personnel, and activities.
• Coordination is used to achieve project objectives within a defined scope, timeline, and budget.
• Permanent structure of project organization is ‘matrix organization’.
• Project organization is most helpful when work can be defined with a specific goal and deadline.
• This helps when the job is unique, when the work contains complex interrelated tasks requiring specialized skills.
• Its useful if the project is temporary but critical to the organization and cuts across organizational lines.

The Project Manager

• Project managers are highly visible and responsible for ensuring necessary activities are finished in proper sequence and on time.
• They also ensure the project comes in within budget and meets its quality goals
• Project managers are responsible for motivating assigned personnel, giving them direction, and providing adequate information.
• Project managers should be good coaches and communicators.
• They should be able to organize activities from a variety of disciplines.

Ethical Issues in Project Management

• Project managers frequently face ethical decisions.
• The Project Management Institute has an ethical code covering problems like offers of gifts from contractors.
• Ethical issues also include pressuring to alter status reports to mask delays.
• Falsifying reports for charges of time and expenses and pressuring to compromise quality for bonuses also come up

Work Breakdown Structure Levels

• Level 1: Project
• Level 2: Major tasks in the project
• Level 3: Subtasks in the major tasks
• Level 4: Activities (or “work packages”) to be completed

Project Scheduling Techiniques

• Project scheduling techniques include the Gantt chart, Critical Path Method (CPM)
• Project scheduling techniques also includes Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)

Gantt Chart

• A Gantt Chart is a visual scheduling tool that displays project activities on a timeline
• It helps track progress, identify deadlines, and monitor overlapping tasks.
• Gantt Charts are simple to use but do not show task dependencies.
• Gantt Charts are used in event planning to track tasks like venue booking, catering, and marketing campaigns.

Critical Path Method (CPM)

• CPM is a project management technique to identify the longest sequence of dependent activities.
• CPM is used to determine the shortest project duration and helps prioritize critical tasks.
• Critical tasks must be completed on time to prevent project delays.
• CPM is used in projects with predictable activity durations, for construction projects, such as foundation, framing, and roofing.

Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)

• PERT is a probabilistic project-management tool used to estimate project duration when activity times are uncertain.
• PERT uses three-time estimates (optimistic, pessimistic, and most likely) to calculate the expected completion time.
• PERT helps manage projects with uncertainty or variable task durations.
• PERT is used in Research and development (R&D) projects, where task durations vary due to testing and regulatory approvals.

CPM and PERT for Complex Projects

• Both CPM and PERT consider task dependencies and interrelationships.
• They help managers identify critical activities, reduce risks, and optimize resource allocation.
• Aerospace and defense projects use PERT and CPM to manage thousands of interdependent activities.

PERT and CPM History

• These tools were developed in the 1950s: CPM by DuPont for chemical plants (1957) and PERT by Booz, Allen & Hamilton with the U.S. Navy for the Polaris missile (1958).
• They consider precedence relationships and interdependencies.
• They each use a different estimate of activity times

Steps for PERT and CPM

• 1. Define the project and prepare the work breakdown structure.
• 2. Develop relationships among the activities by deciding what activities must precede or follow others
• 3. Draw the network connecting all of the activities.
• 4. Assign time and/or cost estimates to each activity.
• 5. Compute the longest time path through the network, or the critical path.
• 6. Use the network to plan, schedule, monitor, and control the project.

PERT vs CPM

• PERT Focuses on time estimation and uncertainty, where CPM focuses on coat control and efficiency
• PERT Activity Durations are variable (probabilistic), where CPM are fixed (deterministic)
• PERT is best used for R&D, new product development, while CPM for construction, manufacturing projects
• PERT estimates multiple time scenarios. CPM uses single fixed time estimate

PERT and CPM Capabilities

• PERT and CPM helps to answer when the entire project can be completed
• PERT and CPM helps to identify the critical activities or tasks in the project
• PERT and CPM helps to identify the non critical activities
• PERT and CPM helps to calculate the probability the project will be completed by a specific date
• PERT and CPM helps to monitor if the project is on schedule, behind schedule, or ahead of schedule
• PERT and CPM helps to monitor if the money spent equal to, less than, or greater than the budget
• PERT and CPM helps to monitor if there are enough resources available to finish the project on time
• PERT and CPM helps to accomplish find the best way if the project must be finished in a shorter time

Purposes of Project Scheduling

• Shows the relationship of activities to others and to the whole project
• Identifies the precedence relationships among activities
• Encourages realistic time and cost estimates for each activity
• Helps make better use of resources by identifying critical bottlenecks in the project

Project Controlling

• Project control involves tracking performance, identifying deviations, and making adjustments to keep the project on schedule and budget.
• It ensures resources are used efficiently and risks are managed proactively through close monitoring of resources, costs, quality, and budgets.
• Feedback enables revising the project plan and shifting resources, while computerized tools produce extensive reports.

PERT/CPM Software

• Popular packages for generating computerized PERT/CPM reports to aid with project controlling include Oracle Primavera, Mind View, HP Project, Fast Track, Project Portfolio Management, and Microsoft Project.

Project Control Reports

• Project control reports include detailed cost breakdowns for each task and labor requirements.
• Reports consist of cost and hour summaries with raw material and expenditure forecasts.
• Variance reports, time analysis reports, and work status reports are also components.

Project Scheduling Determinants

• The critical path is the longest path through the network, is the shortest time the project can be completed.
• Any delay in critical path activities delays the overall project, critical path activities have no slack time.

PERT & CPM Example - Definitions

• A predecessor is a task that must be completed before another task can begin
• Optimistic Time (O)is the ideal time needed for a task
• Most Likely Time (M) is the realistic estimate of how long an activity will take under normal conditions
• Pessimistic Time (P) is the potential project time given worst case scenarios

PERT Formula

• TE= O+4M+P / 6, TE is the total and the formula is designed to create a weighted average of the three-time estimates,
• Since the M is considered the most probable duration, it carries the most influence in the final expected time

PERT & CPM Analysis

• Calculate the critical path by adding up the task duration; Since this is the longest path, it becomes the critical path and insight is gained for shortening the overall project

AON and AOA Network Conventions

• AON (Activity on Node) and AOA (Activity on Arrow) are the two common methods to represent projects in PERT
• In AON, nodes (circles or rectangles) represent activities/tasks, and arrows show activity sequence: It's easier to identify the Critical Path. Construction, IT projects, and general project scheduling are also key
• In AOA diagrams, arrows represent activities, and nodes (circles) represent events
• Activities are shown on arrows instead of nodes. and Requires dummy activities (dashed arrows) to maintain logical relationships.

AON vs AOA

• AON are inside nodes, while AOA are displayed along arrows
• AON show sequence of actions
• AOA are actual activties

Advatages of Pert and CPM

• Useful when scheduling and controlling large projects
• Straightforward concept and not mathematically complex
• Graphical networks help highlight relationships among activities
• Critical path and slack time analyses help pinpoint activities to follow

PERT/CPM Advantages

• Project documentation and graphics point out who is responsible for various activities.
• It is applicable to a wide variety of projects.
• Its useful in monitoring not only schedules but also costs.

PERT/CPM Limitations

• PERT and CPM are limited as project activities have to be clearly defined, independent, and stable in their relationships.
• Precedence relationships must be specified and networked together. Time estimates tend to be subjective and subject to fudging by managers.
• There is a danger of too much emphasis on the longest, or critical, path.

Software for Project Management

• Many project management software packages, including Microsoft Project, use Activity on Node (AON) networks for project scheduling and management
• Software tools can help oragnize tasks, and visualize project timelines

Microsoft Project

• Microsoft Project helps organizations plan, schedule, track, and manage projects successfully

Key Features of Microsoft Project

• Planning & Scheduling
• Gantt charts
• Task & Resource Management & Allocation
• Budget & Cost Tracking
• Reporting on task progress, & Integrations

Project management ensures the successful completion of business initiatives through effective planning, scheduling, and controlling resources. It involves goal setting, defining projects, and team organization. Monitoring resources, costs, and quality are essential.