Project Time Management Techniques Quiz

Approaches to Estimation

• Bottom-up estimating: Identifies resources needed for each individual activity in the WBS and sums them up for the entire project, detailed and accurate but time-consuming.
• Top-down estimating: Starts with an overall budget or resource constraint and breaks it down into individual activities, quicker but less precise.
• Analogous estimating: Uses data from similar past projects to estimate resource needs, fast but requires relevant historical data.
• Parametric estimating: Employs statistical relationships between project characteristics and resource usage to estimate needs, efficient but relies on accurate historical data and well-defined relationships.

Factors to Consider in Estimation

• Project scope and objectives: Clearly understand what the project needs to deliver and the required quality level.
• Work breakdown structure (WBS): Breaks down the project into smaller, manageable tasks, aiding resource identification.
• Activity complexity: Different activities might require different types and amounts of resources.
• Resource availability: Consider if needed resources are readily available or require procurement.

Effective Project Time Management

• Timely project completion: Meeting deadlines strengthens stakeholder trust and ensures project deliverables are available when needed.
• Improved resource allocation: Effective scheduling optimizes resource utilization and helps avoid bottlenecks.
• Reduced costs: Completing projects on time helps avoid schedule-related cost overruns.
• Improved risk management: Proactive schedule monitoring helps identify and mitigate potential delays and their impact.

Project Networks

• A visual representation of the relationships and dependencies between project activities.
• Highlights critical paths that impact the overall project timeline.
• Mapping relationships offers insights into project flow, task dependencies, and optimal resource allocation.

Gantt Charts

• A horizontal bar chart that displays tasks against time, providing a quick and clear overview of a project schedule.
• Components include:
  • WBS tasks: Listed on the left side of the chart, each task represents a specific activity within the project.
  • Timeline: Displayed across the top, the timeline shows the overall project duration.
  • Gantt bars: Horizontal bars representing the duration of individual tasks.
  • Dependencies: Arrows or lines connect tasks to show their relationships.
  • Progress: Shading or color fills within the Gantt bars represent the completion percentage of each task.
  • Baseline: A Gantt bar may be split in two, with one-half representing the planned schedule and the other representing the actual schedule.

Project Risk Management

• A systematic process of identifying, analysing, and responding to project risks.
• Key processes involved:
  • Plan Risk Management: Establishes the framework for managing risks throughout the project.
  • Identify Risks: Actively searches for potential threats and opportunities that could affect the project.
  • Analyse Risks: Assesses the likelihood and impact of each identified risk, prioritizing them based on potential severity and probability.
  • Develop Risk Response Strategies: Determines the appropriate response for each risk, considering options like avoidance, mitigation, transfer, or acceptance.
  • Monitor and Control Risks: Tracks identified risks, monitors their status, implements responses as needed, and reassesses risks as the project progresses.

Benefits of Project Risk Management

• Increased project success: Proactive risk management helps avoid negative impacts and capitalize on opportunities, leading to improved project outcomes.

Project Quality Management

• Ensures a project meets quality requirements through planning, assurance, control, and continuous improvement processes.
• Key processes involved:
  • Quality Planning: Defines quality standards, control measures, and improvement strategies.
  • Quality Assurance: Establishes procedures to ensure quality standards are met, such as audits and inspections for compliance.
  • Quality Control: Monitors project quality and takes corrective action to meet established standards.
  • Continuous Improvement: Measures, analyses, and identifies areas for improvement based on stakeholder feedback, then implements changes to enhance quality.

Quality Assurance (QA) vs Quality Control (QC)

• Quality Assurance (QA): Proactive, preventative approach focused on processes and practices to ensure quality is built into the project from the start.
• Quality Control (QC): Reactive, detection-based approach focused on identifying and correcting defects in finished deliverables.