Project Scheduling: Float, ES, LF, LS

Modern Project Management

• Project management ensures everything works as needed, which can be challenging.
• It helps in achieving consistent performance particularly in bigger and/or multiple projects.
• Project managers are required to deal with those challenges

Project Goals

• Achieving the desired outcome
• Meeting deadline/specific end date
• Utilizing a specific amount of resources

Project Success

• Primarily determined by customer satisfaction, even if project goals are not met.
• Project managers should prioritize customer satisfaction.

Why Project Management?

• High demand for project managers is projected.
• Project Management Institute (PMI) expects 22 million new project management job openings through 2027.
• Project managers are needed in IT, business services, oil and gas, finance, insurance, manufacturing, construction, and utility industries.
• National average entry-level project manager salary is $59,680.
• Project managers use varied skills to complete various tasks.
• Specialized, certified project managers can expect to see double the entry-level salary.
• Project managers impact morale and the company's bottom line.
• Project management can be CEO training because both roles face similar challenges.
• Project managers are always learning about new markets, technology, products, services, and customers.

Good Career Choice

• If you:
• like working with people & leading
• like problem-solving & planning
• enjoy multi-tasking & control
• aim for management
• can commit & handle stress
• are willing to learn from mistakes.
• May be challenging if you're intimidated by people, saying no, or making calls.
• Starting with smaller aspects will help new entrants gain experience.

Project Definition

• Project Management Institute (PMI) defines a project as a temporary endeavor to create a unique product, service, or result.
• It involves applying knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to meet project requirements.
• Key aspects include desired outcome, specific end date, and specified resources.

Major Project Characteristics

• Established objectives with a defined beginning and end.
• Project requires participation across the organization.
• Always involves doing something that has never been done before.
• Necessitates specific time, cost, and performance.

Program vs Project

• Program - a group of related projects designed to achieve a common goal over time.
• Program management - a coordinated process for managing interdependent projects to achieve strategic objectives.
• Project examples include completing a course; program examples include completing a major.

Comparison of Routine Work

• Taking class notes is routine work.
• Writing a term paper is a project.
• Daily sales receipts into the accounting ledger is routine.
• Setting up a sales kiosk is a project.
• Responding to a supply-chain request is routine.
• Developing a supply chain information system is a project.
• Practicing piano scales is routine.
• Writing a new piano piece is a project.
• Routine manufacturing of an iPod is routine.
• Designing an iPod is a project.
• Wire-tag projects for GE and WalMart project.

Project Stages

• Defining: Project specifications, objectives, and team formation.
• Planning: Developing plans for the project's entailment, schedule, benefits, quality, and budget.
• Executing: Producing the product, tracking time, cost, and specifications.
• Closing: Delivering the product, redeploying resources, and post-project review.

The Project Manager

• Manages temporary, non-repetitive activities independently of the formal organization.
• Responsible for performance and success.
• Provides direction, coordination, and integration of the team by marshalling resources.

Current Drivers of PM

• Compression of product life cycle increased competition
• Knowledge explosion
• Need to integrate technologies
• Increased customer focus
• Small projects often underestimated but add up to big problems.

Project Governance

• Policies, regulations, and responsibilities for managing projects.
• Integration provides senior management with project overview, resource use, project risk, improvement metrics, and execution linkages.
• It sets the direction, decisions, and oversight

Problems with project management

• Projects not supporting strategic goals.
• Managerial decisions cause internal imbalances and conflicts.
• Prioritization failures waste resources on non-value-added activities.

Technical vs Soft Skills

• It is good to balance the technical and sociocultural aspects of project management.
• Technical Dimension ("The Science"): Includes planning, scheduling, and control.
• Sociocultural Dimension ("The Art"): Involves creating a temporary social system by combining professional talents.
• Requires technical and sociocultural skills.

Strategy and Project Selection

• Projects should align with firm's competitive advantage (cost leadership, differentiation, or focus).

Changes in the organization

• Project managers must respond to changes, making decision about adjustments to current and future endeavors
• Project managers who understand their orgs’ strategy become effective advocates of projects aligned with mission.

Strategic Goals. Requirements

• Focus of firm's future direction.
• Requires linking every project to strategy. Reacts to external changes.
• Environmental scanning, allocates scarce resources
• Strengthens connections among mission, goals, objectives, strategy, and implementation goals.

What does a Project Manager do if there is no strategy

• Review and define the organizational process • Set long-range goals and objectives • Analyze and develop strategies to reach objectives • Implement strategies through projects

Characteristics of Objectives

• Specific: target appropriately
• Measureable: indicator(s) of progress
• Assignable: assignable to one person for completion
• Realistic: what that does
• Time related: stated

Prioritization and Selection systems

• Should be a rational selection methodology
• 3 common issues in picking projects:
• implementation gaps
• organizational politics
• resource conflicts and multitasking

How to fix implementation gaps

• The lack of understanding and concensus on stratagy among top management
• Middle level, independently implement strategy

How to fix Organization Politics

• Project selection based on persuasiveness or power of advocating for projects
• Senior members accountable for projects
• Assuring deliveries that align with benefits
• Responsible for key aspects related to the project

How to fix Resource Conflicts and Multitasking

• Multiproject environments create interdependence of shared resources which results in projects stopping and starting
• Can potentially be overwhelming if given too much

Portfolio Management

• Portfolio is a collection of projects or programs grouped to facilitate effective management
• The goal is to meet strategic business activities

Design for project portfolio System

• Classification
• Criteria
• Sources
• Evaluating - Managing • Builds discipline into the project selection process • Project selection to strategic metrics • Prioritizes project proposals across a common criteria, rather than on political issues .

Selection Criteria

· Financial models · Non financial models · Use multiple selection criteria to evaluate project proposals · payback
· best used when you know the level of sales with strong confidence

Benefits of portfolio Management

• Allocate resources which line with strategy direct balances risks across all projects • Supports agreement on projects · Communication to each other is improved

Best used for Projects

• That are small
• internal ones
• unstable scope and with fixed pricing

How to select a model

• classifying how well, or deciding on a company's operations

Factors to look for when selecting

• to reduce the amount of wasteful projects
• Help identify proper goals
• So everyone understands why a projects id selected

Prioritizing Proposals

• This is not just for senior-level management • Make decisions based on must-haves

• Will reject projects that add the most value

Managing projects that add value

• Requires a structured process
• The chart should include all processes from start to finish

Managing the Portfolio System

• Providing guidance in criteria to align the orgs strategy
• Governance team responsibilities
• Publishing prority on every project

Balance projects

• Is a major responsibility
• requires knowing perspective of entire org

2 types of risks associated with a project

• total portfolio project
• specific project

4 types of project

• Bread and butter project.
• Pearls project.
• Oysters project.
• White elephant project.

Project Management Structures

• Decision on how it will be implemented
• Functional Organization
• Dedicated project teams
• Matrix structure

There are differences

• Certain firms ,even with similar structure
• Using a matrix structure is different from different businesses

What are the challenges

• The is uniqueness and shortest duration of projects to ongoing activities
• The multidisciplinary between the responsibilities

Selecting a project management styles

• Good systems balances with the needs of orgs
• Orgs show structure of org and the relationship of jobs

Functional Organizations

• Maintained through channels
• Used when interest of one functional areas
• Most likely have their usual responsibilities and roles while working on that project

Advantages and Disadvantages of a functional organization

• No structural change, flexible, in-depth expertise, transition
• Lack of focus, poor integration, slow, lack of ownership
• Teams operate separate under the leadership of a full project manager

Dedicated Project Team

• Teams operate separate under the leadership of a full project manager
• Very common to external businesses that do work for others
• In a projectized organization, project departments are responsible for supporting teams.

Dedicated team project Advantages and Disadvantages

• Simple organization: high costs
• Fast cohesion: limited expertise & post transition post difficult

Matrix Structure

• Two chains of command - Functional and Project managers

Matrix Structure allows

• Participation on multiple projects while performing duties as needed
• greater expertise and requirements between projects

Different Matrix forms

• Weak form, balanced form, and strong form will result ina different outcome

Considerations for picking project

• The org consideration
• The project consideration

Organizational Culture

• Shared norms that brings people together
• Provides a sense of identify
• Help legitimate management

Dimensions defining an organization's culture:

• Job, team work, management focuses, unity
• Control, risk tolerance, criteria of rewards
• Tolerance and orientation

How to understand your org culture

• study physical characteristics
• reading about
• observe the interactions and stories/folklores

Culture and Project management

• It will be a challenge to do all cultural interactions
• The culture needs to be understood well

Defining the Project

• Project managers can't only rely on planing
• A structured method is need to meet needs of the stakeholders, who both have influences
• 1st step: defining Project Scope
• Then setting the stage for project
• Its purpose is to define goals and deliver and project plan

Checklist of goals

• Project objectives, deliverables,
• Milestones, required tech, Review with customers

Statements of Work

•Stating what the project will accomplish • authorizing the manager to lead • the charter varies from project to project

What to lookout for

• scope creep is possible
• a carefully written statement can reduce it

Establishing Project Priorities

• Is relative to importance of cost
• Also including time performance parameters

Managing the prioritizing of project

• Maintain original requirements, enhance goals, be accepting and meeting requirements

Work Breakdown Structure

• Can be organized into something hierarchical
• Identify the production that will take a long time to subdivide
• From deliverables to many smaller tasks
• Best for projects that show great tangible outcome , like building or designs.

Benefits for the Project Manager?

• The goal is to get WBS organized in a specific time

• WBS faciliates timeline for cost and for technical performance Is approipartionately managed for levels of Orgs

• Helps with budget, scheduling .

• Defines communication channels to assist in coordinating project elements.

• The work package includes what is needed.

• The WBS coding system defines budgets, work packages

• Provides more info in the WBS

• You can also group into deliverables and other work packages

• The goal is to achieve the desired outcome for resouces

Responsibility Matric

• It will summarize tasks and what must be organized
• You clear out communication gaps
• Provide ways for managers to show their responisbilities are clear

Proejct Communication Plan

• developed in the earlier stage • Maps how information flows These are to address what information needs to be collected, who needs

• You always have basic steps like stake holder , info needs, the source . timing ..
• How well info will be communicated to interest areas, what their power and influence can do

Estimating - can be about Time and Cost Types being top down and from the bottom up

• Estimating is needed to schedule, determine how long projects will take
• To determine the benefit

Quality over anything can be worked out with

  - planning of the horizon
           quality can be more difficult but can be worked out with

• You can use people’s skill level to do what you are doing - to use organizational structure to find the work
  • be aware most people can find a reduce to budget
  • the end goal is to find balance instead of being more over stated, or understated

Estimating Guidelines

• people that have certain estimate - many to give best discussion
  • time selected is consistent though days , weeks hours or something
  • you cant aggregate
• no contingency are to be maid
• always avoid 3rd parties to avoid surprises

Top Down Estimates vs Bottom Up

Bottom - up approach, is the check better cost to work with in with work packaged

• to get you better details when can be expensive when you give estimates for the tasks
• Strategic decisions cost less times

Method for estimating project time/costs

• Method based on the type of managers
• Formulas and relationships and so fourth, apportion projects and weighted variable

PERT Time estimations

• weighted average time is needed formula • It’s more likely you reach a 3hr drive most days but more likely a 2-8hr drive once in awhile

Methods by estimating the life cycle

Hybrid - estimate for phase as the project progresses Used if uncertain , with estimate time and cost - what’s easy and closer will be more exact

• Lookout for the details as the project progresses Summary of differences between each side with intent of budget . with the method used

Top is cheap and bottom gets too high

The lowest activity on the project depends on costs, can be a department issue if focused from an area

• Types of costs =direct, indirect, with project/overhead

Refining and Adjusting

• why all data and estimates needed · interaction are hidden · Do not apply things to each other in wrong conditions · Things with projects gone wrong and scope change
• How the state effects is important

Enhance tries to increase with probability , depending on the likelihood , impact ,

• Contingency for time that can be dependent , or schedule — A change will need money , so you need to assess the type

Scheduleing and Cost

· The likelihood , Is that the project will change after created , monitor or not.

Risk Register Details include what comes in that area and category and if there an impacting results

• Stakeholders and what will help keep the plan in what comes

Change Control Management

· What are the sources that change the source and requirements of needs · Needed to set the course for the coming team in case of any change · Repeat often to help for all · Look at change and if the plan is correct from a form Can be found across the organization it effects will follow

Project Net Work

• a tool used for progress • Shows tasks • activity can be that will consume time • critical path • longest distance for something to complete, and with a time plan as well

The best type

• Can provide communication
• Basis for cash flow
• Highlights what needs to be done

Breakdown network

• Can be Hierarchical and Sequential •Used to identify who is resp for which portion And that you should never have to look back but keep moving forward

Types for approaching code and nodes

• the path with which code as to happen
• Term : the one point requirement that adds time, for example a person
• activity 2 that happen at same point or are working that path together.

Merge activity

• 2 activities one that need to be done
• burst activity, one that burst into different ones

14 Fundamentals of activity

Explore key concepts in project scheduling: slack/float, Early Start (ES), Late Finish (LF), and Late Start (LS). Learn how to determine these values during forward and backward passes in network analysis. Understand the critical path and its significance in project management.