Lessons in Project Management - 5 - Project Planning and Scheduling

International Project Management

Prof. Dr. Frank Habermann

Lecture 5 –
Project Planning and Scheduling

Content

 What is a project break down structure?
– How do identify and set appropriate milestones?
– How to drill-down work packages?
 The principles of project scheduling
– Critical path analysis
– Understanding time, effort and duration
– Calculating project times
 Assigning resources
– Understanding roles and responsibilities
– The advantages of a role-based project model
 How to compress a project schedule?

© Becota GmbH | www.becota.com | 2010

for detailed activity planning, you have to

break down
the

work !
© Becota | www.becota.com | 2010

Imagine your project would be the „Tour de France“

The project



The project

The project stages
(milestones)



The project

The project stages
(milestones)

The tasks to reach a milestone
(work packages)

…



The project

The project stages
(milestones)

t
o
p
-
d The tasks to reach a milestone
o (work packages)
w
n

…


Another exmaple: producing a 3-tier wedding cake

The project


Another exmaple: producing a 3-tier wedding cake

The project

The project stages
t (milestones)
o
The tasks to reach a milestone
p
(work packages)
-
d
o
w
n


For creating a work breakdown structure we start with our
results from scoping, contracting and risk management

S W
Business
O
Case
Study
Project
Project
Project
Contract(s)
Contract(s)
Contract(s)

Project
Charter

Project Risk Analysis


For creating a work breakdown structure we start with our
results from scoping, contracting and risk management

WBS
S W work breakdown structure
Business
O
Case
Study project Level 0
Project
Project
Project
Contract(s)
Contract(s)
Contract(s)

Project milestones Level 1
Charter

work
packages Level 2

...
Project Risk Analysis
tasks Level n


Firstly, we need to define the project‘s milestones!


 A milestone is equal to a
major deliverable of the project
 A milestone marks an event, i.e. a crucial point
within the project life cycle (with zero duration!)
 A milestone defines the end of a main
project phase (or sub-project)
 Milestones are thus an important aspect
of project monitoring and controlling
 Having reached a milestone means
significant and visible progress

What is a project milestone?


If you‘ve reached a milestone: celebrate your success!


There are two main approaches of defining milestones
1- the object-oriented approach
Focusing the core components of your product



The flan The cream The The The
base filling chocolates icing final cake



Engineering-driven:
Milestones are
displaying areas
of engineerial
expertise

The flan The cream The The The
base filling chocolates icing final cake


2- the function-oriented approach
Focusing the core phases of your project



Prepare Build Test Release



Management-driven:
Milestones are
displaying areas
of management
responsibilities

Prepare Build Test Release

Plan/
Model


In practice, both approaches are often mixed

Here:
management responsibility is of highest importance
for starting and closing the project

The flan The cream The The
Prepare Release
base filling chocolates icing

focus on engineering
and production

A common way of visualizing milestones and phases

preparation flan base cream filling chocolates icing final cake
completed ready ready ready ready ready
Milestones
(points in time!)

Prepare

The flan
base
The cream
filling Milestone
phases
The chocolates (lead us
to work
The
packages)
icing

Release
TIME


Golden rules for milestone definition

 All milestones should be touchable and
visible (verifyable deliverables)

 All milestones should be named as
precisely as possible (what does „ready“ in
the previous slide actually mean: available,
draft, final, approved, etc.?)

 All milestones should be intuitive to
understand by all project members unless
their professional backgrounds (obvious
and coherent)

 All milestones should be of similar
importance for the project progress
(comparable weight)

 Milestones should have only few and very
clear relationships to each other (simple
structure)

Picture source: http://kreative-impressionen.de © Becota GmbH | www.becota.com | 2010

Secondly, we need to define the work packages

Picture source: www.hotel-platzer.at/uploads/pics © Becota | www.becota.com | 2010

 A work package is a bundle of detailed tasks
 In contrast to milestones, work packages
are time consuming
 A work package must be executed in order
to reach a certain milestone
 For reaching one particular milestone
multiple work packages could be defined
 One particular work package can serve
more than one milestone, too

What is a work package?


Defining the work packages per milestone

Prepare Release


Defining the work packages per milestone

Prepare Release

Analyze
Build Build Build Build
Case
work
packages
Produce
Test Test Test Test
Plan


Whenever we split a thing in parts
we need some glue to bringing it together again

Picture source: www.simmipage.de |REVELL
© Becota | www.becota.com 2010

 Whenever we distribute work and delegate tasks,
we produce a need for coordination!
 If original task = 100% => distributed task > 100%
(with X% extra effort for coordination involved)
 Coordination keeps the bird‘s eye perspective
(supervision), solves conflicts between the specialized
work packages and guerantees a joint result
 A project schedule (plan) is an instrument for
coordinating the project

The glue in management
is called coordination


Coordinative tasks must be considered
when creating the project task list

Prepare Release

Analyze Assemble
Build Build Build Build
Case Cake

Produce Approve
Test Test Test Test
Plan Final Result


Example hierarchical WBS organized by phase…

Source: Schwalbe, 2006, p. 176 © Becota | www.becota.com | 2010

… and how to translate it into a tabular WBS

1.0 Concept
1.1 Evaluate current systems
1.2 Define requirements
1.2.1 Define user requirements
1.2.2 Define content requirements
1.2.3 Define system requirements
1.2.4 Define server owner requirements
1.3 Define specific functionality
1.4 Define risks and risk management approach
1.5 Develop project plan
1.6 Brief Web development team
2.0 Web Site Design
3.0 Web Site Development
4.0 Roll Out
5.0 Support

Source: Schwalbe, 2006, p. 176 © Becota | www.becota.com | 2010

Now let‘s go into detail …

install
then a
miracle
occurs

Great job!
But shouldn‘t we be
a bit more explicit in this phase?
Picture Source: Thomas Tatzel, 2005 © Becota | www.becota.com | 2010

after we know the WBS:

let‘s create the

schedule !

Remember last lectures?

“The way to project success is never clean and
easy. Wrong expectations based on a lack of
understanding and unrealistic estimates are
the most important reason for project failure!”

Picture source: http://4.bp.blogspot.com © Becota | www.becota.com | 2010

Three major steps in project scheduling

LOGICAL
FLOW OF WORK
Identify the „natural“ relationships
B C between project activities
A E (regardless of resources)
D



LOGICAL
FLOW OF WORK
D

EFFORT, TIMES
AND DURATION Estimate the amount of work for
ES EF each single activity as well as
for the entire project
LS LF



LOGICAL
FLOW OF WORK
D

EFFORT, TIMES
AND DURATION Estimate the amount of work for
ES EF each single activity as well as
for the entire project
LS LF

ROLES AND
RESOURCES
Assign roles and resources and
define the final project schedule
task


Scheduling tasks involves …

LOGICAL
FLOW OF WORK  Business logic
domain-specific (natural) set of rules and
B C resulting order between tasks
A E
D

EFFORT, TIMES  Effort
AND DURATION amount of work to complete a task
(measured in FED = full employee days,
ES EF working months or working hours; net time!)
 Duration
LS LF the time span of the task (measured in
calendar time, i.e. incl. weekends, holidays, etc.)

ROLES AND
RESOURCES
 Resources
task the persons (human resources) or
other resources working on the task


Identifying logical relationships between tasks

LOGICAL
FLOW OF WORK here we concentrate on describing the
business logic
B C
A E
D  How to do it
– Start with the milestones (duration = zero)
EFFORT, TIMES – Find an appropriate level of detail and
AND DURATION stick to it (connect only tasks of the same level)
– Identify precedences (logical constraints ->
ES EF remember the „what happens next“ machine)
– Identify concurrencies (degrees of freedom ->
LS LF parallelize tasks as much as possible)
– Minimze dependencies between tasks in
ROLES AND order to avoid later bottlenecks
RESOURCES – Introduce tasks for project management and
quality assurance (e.g. reporting, approval, etc.)
in order to complete the logical flow
task


Three logical relationship types between tasks

LOGICAL
FLOW OF WORK

B C • finish-to-start
A E – B cannot start until A has been finished
D – A: Produce flan base -> B: Cut flan base

• start-to-start
EFFORT, TIMES
AND DURATION – B cannot start until A has been started
– A: Let the dough prove -> B: prepare cream
ES EF
• finish-to-finish
LS LF – B cannot finish until A is completed
– A: Add icing -> B: Approve final cake
ROLES AND
RESOURCES

task


Example predecessor table and diagrams

LOGICAL
FLOW OF WORK

B C
A E
D

EFFORT, TIMES
AND DURATION
ES EF

LS LF

ROLES AND
RESOURCES

task


Critical path analysis

LOGICAL here we concentrate on describing the
FLOW OF WORK critical process paths („longest full path“)
B C
A E • How to do it
D – Start with estimating the duration per task
– Assign the figures to the logical flow
EFFORT, TIMES – Identify the most critical path
AND DURATION – Determine it‘s entire duration
ES EF

LS LF

ROLES AND
RESOURCES

task


Critical path analysis

LOGICAL here we concentrate on describing the
FLOW OF WORK critical process paths („longest full path“)
B C
A E • How to do it
D – Start with estimating the duration per task
– Assign the figures to the logical flow
EFFORT, TIMES – Identify the most critical path
AND DURATION – Determine it‘s entire duration
ES EF 2 6
C H
LS LF 2 3
A B 4 2 1
ROLES AND D K L
4
RESOURCES F
3 2 2
task E G J


Understand effort and duration

LOGICAL effort = actual use of resources
FLOW OF WORK (productive time, net working time)
B C duration = reserved maximum time span (includes
A E productive as well as unproductive time)
D

EFFORT, TIMES
AND DURATION
ES EF

LS LF

ROLES AND
RESOURCES

task


Understand effort and duration

LOGICAL effort = actual use of resources
FLOW OF WORK (productive time, net working time)
B C duration = reserved maximum time span (includes
A E productive as well as unproductive time)
D Task/
Activity
EFFORT, TIMES EFFORT
AND DURATION
ES EF
Work Work
LS LF

ROLES AND Start End
RESOURCES Calendar Calendar
Date Date
task
DURATION

Components of the detailed schedule data

LOGICAL
Earliest start (ES) = Latest Earlest Finish (EF) of the predecessors
FLOW OF WORK
Earliest finish (EF) = ES + Duration
B C
A E Latest finish (LF) = Earliest Latest Start (LS) of the sucessors
D Latest start (LS) = LF – Duration

EFFORT, TIMES
AND DURATION
ES EF

LS LF

ROLES AND
RESOURCES

task


Components of the detailed schedule data

LOGICAL
Earliest start (ES) = Latest Earlest Finish (EF) of the predecessors
FLOW OF WORK
Earliest finish (EF) = ES + Duration
B C
A E Latest finish (LF) = Earliest Latest Start (LS) of the sucessors
D Latest start (LS) = LF – Duration

EFFORT, TIMES Slack = degree of freedom before delaying either
AND DURATION the next task or the entire project
ES EF (also: float or buffer time)
= LF – ES – Duration
LS LF
Earliest Earliest
Start Duration Finish
ROLES AND
RESOURCES
Latest Slack Latest
task Start Finish


Calculating the schedule
Step 0: initial situation
2 6
C H
2 3
A B 4 2 1
D K L
4
F
3 2 2
E G J

ES 2 EF ES 6 EF
Task C Task H
LS S LF LS S LF

0 2 EF ES 3 EF ES 4 EF ES 2 EF ES 1 EF
Task A Task B Task D Task K Task L
LS S LF LS S LF LS S LF LS S LF LS S LF

ES 4 EF
Task F
LS S LF

ES 3 EF ES 2 EF ES 2 EF
Task E Task G Task J
LS S LF LS S LF LS S LF

Step 0: initial situation
ES 2 EF ES 6 EF
Task C Task H
LS S LF LS S LF

0 2 EF ES 3 EF ES 4 EF ES 2 EF ES 1 EF

ES 4 EF
Task F
LS S LF

ES 3 EF ES 2 EF ES 2 EF
Legend:
ES Duration EF
Task name
LS Slack LF

Step !: forward pass
5 2 7 7 6 13
Task C Task H
LS S LF LS S LF

0 2 2 2 3 5 5 4 9 14 2 16 16 1 17

8 4 12 forward pass:
Task F
LS S LF
- from left to right
- determine ES and EF
5 3 8 8 2 10 12 2 14 - EF = ES + D
Task E Task G Task J - ESsuccessor = EFpredecessor
Legend:
ES Duration EF
Task name
LS Slack LF

Step !: forward pass
5 2 7 7 6 13
Task C Task H
LS S LF LS S LF

0 2 2 2 3 5 5 4 9 14 2 16 16 1 17

8 4 12 forward pass:
Task F
LS S LF
- from left to right
- determine ES and EF
5 3 8 8 2 10 12 2 14 - EF = ES + D
Task E Task G Task J - ESsuccessor = EFpredecessor
LS S LF LS S LF LS S LF - if multiple predecessors,
Legend: take highest/latest EF
ES Duration EF
Task name
LS Slack LF

Step 2: backward pass
5 2 7 7 6 13
Task C Task H
6 S 8 8 S 14

0 2 2 2 3 5 5 4 9 14 2 16 16 1 17
1 S 3 3 S 6 10 S 14 14 S 16 16 S 17

8 4 12 backward pass:
Task F
8 S 12
- from right to left
- determine LS and LF
5 3 8 8 2 10 12 2 14 - LS = LF – D
Task E Task G Task J - LFpredecessor = Lssuccessor
7 S 10 10 S 12 12 S 14
Legend:
ES Duration EF
Task name
LS Slack LF

Step 2: backward pass
5 2 7 7 6 13
Task C Task H
6 S 8 8 S 14

0 2 2 2 3 5 5 4 9 14 2 16 16 1 17
0 S 2 2 S 5 10 S 14 14 S 16 16 S 17

8 4 12 backward pass:
Task F
8 S 12
- from right to left
- determine LS and LF
5 3 8 8 2 10 12 2 14 - LS = LF – D
Task E Task G Task J - LFpredecessor = Lssuccessor
5 S 8 10 S 12 12 S 14 - if multiple successors,
Legend: take shortest/earliest LS
ES Duration EF
Task name
LS Slack LF

Step 3: calculate slack/float
5 2 7 7 6 13
Task C Task H
6 1 8 8 1 14

0 2 2 2 3 5 5 4 9 14 2 16 16 1 17
0 0 2 2 0 5 10 5 14 14 0 16 16 0 17

8 4 12 slack/float:
Task F S = maxtime – duration
8 0 12 S = (LF-ES) – duration

If you got a negative slack,
5 3 8 8 2 10 12 2 14
you need to review the
5 0 8 10 2 12 12 0 14 task order, compress the
flow and/or postpone
Legend:
ES Duration EF
date(s)
Task name
LS Slack LF

How to compress your schedule?

 Down-scale project (reduce scope)
 Reduce quality (shift scope)
> these 2 approaches mean „giving up“




 Allow overlapping and parallel tasks
 Outsource tasks to third-party
 Eliminate tasks and/or buffer
> these 3 approaches enhance the risk





 Apply better methods and/ tools
 Train people and/ or hire experts
 Work overtime
> these 3 approaches are expensive





 Apply better methods and/ tools
 Train people and/ or hire experts
 Work overtime
> these 3 approaches are expensive

 Add more resources/ people
> this not always works!


When adding resources won‘t enhance productivity

100 guys might be able to dig
100 times faster than one guy … but
Picture source: http://derekmcauley.files.wordpress.com © Becota | www.becota.com | 2010


“The bearing of a child takes nine months,
no matter how many women are assigned”
Quote: Fred Brooks

Picture source: http://in.theasianparent.com © Becota GmbH | www.becota.com | 2010


It is in the nature
of some tasks that they
cannot be speeded up

- Tasks which are highly individual
(either physically or intellectually)

- Tasks which are inevitably
sequential, i.e. activities that need
results of the predecessor(s)

“The bearing of a child takes nine months,
no matter how many women are assigned”
Quote: Fred Brooks

Picture source: http://in.theasianparent.com © Becota GmbH | www.becota.com | 2010

Another wrong myth is about
adding last second resources

Picture source: http://img.wallpaperstock.net © Becota GmbH | www.becota.com | 2010

Adding late resources to a delayed project
won’t necessarily accelerate things … but …

Picture source: http://www.wstahr.de/UntMat © Becota | www.becota.com | 2010

…it will surely lead to a big waste of money!

It is in the nature
of a project that adding
late resources will

- cause enormous
coordination effort (PM effort)
- create a significant need
of training and knowledge
transfer (team effort)
- significantly drive the
risk of failure and
misunderstanding
- probably lead to chaotic
situations and a complete
desaster

Picture source: http://farm5.static.flickr.com © Becota | www.becota.com | 2010

After we know all this,
let‘s assign human resources to our schedule

Picture source: www.cobaplastics.com/graphics/graphic_project.jpg © Becota | www.becota.com | 2010

Understand the diference between roles and persons

LOGICAL
FLOW OF WORK role
task person
profile
B C
A E skills & competencies
D required to perform
the task
EFFORT, TIMES
AND DURATION
ES EF

LS LF

ROLES AND
RESOURCES

task



LOGICAL
FLOW OF WORK role
task person
profile
B C
the task
EFFORT, TIMES
AND DURATION
ES EF Set up SQL
Database expertise
LS LF
Oracle
expertise
ROLES AND …
RESOURCES do we have the skills inhouse?
do we need to train people, etc.?
task split the task among people?
how about substitutes?



LOGICAL
FLOW OF WORK role
task person
profile
B C
the task
EFFORT, TIMES
AND DURATION
ES EF Set up SQL Mr Miller!
Database expertise
LS LF
Oracle
expertise
ROLES AND …
RESOURCES

task


Finally, use professional software to draw your plan

Picture source: http://i.zdnet.com/blogs/openproj_ubuntu.png © Becota | www.becota.com | 2010

mission clear?
contracts closed?
charter written?
tasks scheduled?
resources in place?

then go …


… and offcially kick-off your project!

Picture source: http://www.apa.at/cms/pressecorner/attachments/ © Becota | www.becota.com | 2010

But always keep in mind that a plan is a plan is a plan …

… and life is a big surprise


Thank you very much!

presentation by

Frank Habermann
founder of Becota and Professor of Business

http://de.linkedin.com/in/frankhabermann/en

If you have enjoyed this presentation,
please let us know!

You can download this file from the
Berlin Consulting Forum

-> join the forum at http://consultingforum.becota.org
-> visit our corporate website at http://www.becota.com

Lessons in Project Management - 5 - Project Planning and Scheduling

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