Project Management Lecture for Session 5 of The Los Angeles Film School's Game PreProduction course.

1. Session 5
David Mullich
Game PreProduction
The Los Angeles Film School

2. Project Scheduling Steps
1. Identify Lowest Level Activities from the
WBS
2. Identify Roles and Responsibilities
3. Estimate Effort and Duration for Each
Activity
4. Determine Activity Dependencies
5. Identify Lag and Lead
6. Plot Activities on a Network Diagram

3. Word-Breakdown Structure (WBS)
A deliverable-oriented hierarchal organization of the
work to be executed by the project team to
accomplish the project objectives and create the
required deliverables.

4. Word-Breakdown Structure (WBS)
The WBS breaks down a large task into specific,
smaller tasks. It involves the producer and leads
with input from the team as needed.
The WBS is the basis for:
 All the effort/cost to be expended on
supporting processes and the creation of the
deliverables
 The assigned responsibility for accomplishing
and coordinating the work

5. Word-Breakdown Structure (WBS)
Characteristics of the WBS
 It is representative of the work as an activity, and this
work has a tangible result.
 It is arranged in a hierarchical structure
 It has an objective or tangible result, which is referred to
as a deliverable.
 Not all legs of the WBS must be symmetrical in terms of
the number of legs developed. There is no need to
decompose all the legs of the WBS if the need is only
present in one area.
Best Practice: Continue to break down the activities until it is
no less than 8 hours and no more than 80 hours of effort.

6. Identify Roles and Responsibilities
Process:
 1. List skills required
 2. Select team members
 3. Discuss roles and responsibilities
 4. Gain commitment from the
 Individual
 Individual's Functional Manager
 5. Document roles and responsibilities

7. Estimate Effort and Durations
Process:
 Define activity, deliverable & performance
criteria
 Collect historical data
 Develop individual and total effort estimates
 Determine duration type:
 Variable
 Fixed
 Develop duration estimates

8. Determine Activity Dependencies
Dependency Types:
 Finish - Start: Later task does not start until the previous task is
finished
 Finish - Finish: Later task does not finish until the previous task
is finished
 Start - Start: Later task does not start until the previous task
starts
 Start - Finish: Later task does not finish before previous task
starts
For each activity, ask:
 What are the predecessors
 What can be done concurrently
 What are the successors?

9. Determine Lag and Lead
 Lag: A delay in the start of a successor task. Example:
When building two identical components, the lead engineer
wants to spend several days working on the first component
before starting the second so that they can apply what they
have learned building the first.
 Lead: Allows an acceleration of a successor task. Example:
Work on a programming module that depends on a game
engine may begin while the game engine is in the debugging
phase.

10. Network Diagram
Answers:
 What is the total duration of the project? (Determined by the
critical path: the longest path through the project)
 How much any activity can slip without impacting the project?
 How much flexibility is in the schedule?
 What is the significance of missed deadlines?

11. Gantt Chart
1. List Activities
2. Mark duration
3. Use start and finish symbols
4. Draw dependency lines
5. Indicate float: the amount of
time that a scheduled activity
may be delayed from its start
without delaying the start of a
following activity.
6. Highlight critical path

12. Important Points
It is important to create an initial schedule, even if it changes
later in the production, to keep better control of the features
being implemented and additional feature requests.
The whole team should be involved in creating the initial
schedule because:
 They have more ownership over their tasks and take
deadlines more seriously.
 Each person understands how longs it takes to do each task.

13. Quality Triangle
If the game's ship date is fixed, the project factors that can be
adjusted in order to hit that date:
 Scope
 Resources
 Quality

14.  Create a Network Diagram based on this Work Breakdown
Structure. Determine Project Length and Critical Path.
TASK TIME PREDECESSORS
GDD 10 Days None
TDD 10 Days GDD
Art Doc 10 Days GDD
Engine 30 Days TDD
Gameplay 20 Days Engine
2D Art 10 Days Art Doc
3D Art 30 Days Art Doc
Animations 60 Days Art Doc
Level Design 50 Days GDD
Playtest 20 Days Gameplay, 2D Art. 3D Art. Animation, Levels