Session 3 - Planning: WBS and Milestones

Introduction To Time Management

Project time management is one of the 10 PMP Knowledge Areas for project managers. It’s the discipline of project management that looks at controlling the amount of time it takes to do the work.


Project time management in the PMBOK® Guide is made up of 7 processes. The project time management processes are:

    Plan schedule management
    Define activities
    Sequence activities
    Estimate activity resources
    Estimate activity durations
    Develop schedule
    Control schedule.


Source: https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-project-time-management-3879177

Read the above article on Time Management or the one below.


http://www.nutcache.com/blog/six-main-processes-pmbok-time-management/

Time

• is easily and simply measured
• is often used to determine success of a project
• is inflexible
• passes no matter what happens on a project

Time Management Processes

The main processes involved in time management are

• Activity definition
• Activity Sequencing
• Activity Duration estimation
• Schedule development
• Schedule Control

Activity Definition

Activity Definition involves

• identifying the specific activities that the project team members and stakeholders must perform to produce the project deliverables
• An activity or task is an element of work
• The end result of defining the activities is a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

Work Breakdown Structure

• The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is an analysis of the work to be done to complete a project. It provides the basis for planning and managing project schedules, costs and changes.
• The Work Breakdown Structure is usually depicted as a task-oriented list of activities, organised around project products or phases. It can be in the form of a chart, or alternatively as an indented list of tasks.

There are several approaches you can use to develop work breakdown structures. These include:

• Using guidelines
• The analogy approach
• The top-down approach
• The bottom-up approach

Using Guidelines

Some organisations, especially government departments, have guidelines that must be followed when developing a Work Breakdown Structure.

If you are developing a project for an organisation that does, it is important that you follow them.

The guidelines have been produced so that if a number of organisations tender for a project, it is easy to compare the costs and time allocations.

The Analogy Approach

With this method, you start with a WBS from a similar project and make the necessary changes to suit the new project.

Some organisations keep a library of WBSs and other documentation from previous projects that can be reviewed and used as a basis for other projects.

Top-Down Approach

The top-down approach is where you start with the largest items of the project and then break them into the smaller tasks.

As the tasks are broken down into the smaller items, more detail is included.

At the end of the process, all resources should be assigned at the work package level.

This approach is best suited to project managers who have vast technical insight and a big-picture perspective

Bottom-Up Approach

In this approach, team members start by identifying as many specific tasks related to the project as possible.

The tasks are then grouped into summary activities or higher levels in the WBS.

Activity Sequencing

From the WBS, the activities can be sequenced.

Sequencing involves putting the tasks into the order that they will be done or at least commenced.

Sequencing also involves looking at relationships and dependencies of each task

Sequencing Example - Tea making

I love a nice cup of tea – what individual tasks or activities are sequenced together for me to do this?

• Put on jug to boil water
• Get a mug from cupboard
• Get teapot from bench
• Put tea leaves in teapot
• When jug boiled, pour water into teapot
• Wait for tea to brew
• Pour tea into mug
• Add milk
• Gently stir
• Drink and enjoy (a couple of Tim Tams are often called for)

We have the tasks defined and put in order, but what about relationships and dependencies.

Are there any tasks that cannot commence until another has finished?

Can some tasks be done at the same time?

Are there some tasks where order doesn’t matter?

Will the order of the tasks change the timeframe?

Is there any "idle" time (waiting time)?

In our tea making exercise:

• you cannot pour water until it is boiled
• You need to have tea leaves in pot when adding water
• The second and third activities can be done in any order 

Lead time and Lag

Read the following article on Lead versus Lag

Class Activity 1

Work through defining the tasks and creating the Work Breakdown Structure for "The Big Move"

We will do this as a class.