ELC 347

DAY 7

Agenda

Questions Assignment 3 Due Assignment #4 posted

Due next week Group Progress report due next week Exam 2 next week

Same format as before Ghattas 4-8, Project 8-10

Group Project Meeting (30 Min) Progress Report Score 91

Discussion on Scheduling and Microsoft Project and Setting Goals

Individual Capstones October 20 Proposal Due

Scehduling

Issues to resolve Who sets the priorities? How do we set priorities? How do we get everyone to agree? How do we handle foul-ups? Can we really anticipate problems? What about changes?

What is a Schedule?

A schedule is the conversion of a project action plan into an operating timetable. As such, it serves as a fundamental basis for monitoring and controlling project activity and, taken together with the plan and budget, is probably the major tool for the management of projects.

Objectives

Determining work Breakdown structures

Noting precedence relationship Using scheduling tools

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

All jobs are easier when they are broken into smaller pieces!

Develop the project goal yourself Take a cursory pass at defining the

objectives –the preliminary plan Have teams refine the objectives Have teams break down the objectives into

tasks Have doers break down tasks into activities

WBS

Example

Hierarchy of Work

Project Goal (level 1 of WBS) Objectives (Level 2 of WBS)

Tasks (Levels 3-? of WBS) Subtasks (level 4-? Of WBS)

Activities (bottom level of WBS)

Developing Objectives

Done at high level with limited participation Organize by existing functional groups

Accounting Engineering Operations Etc

Other possibilities Major subassemblies Major Parts Skills Major resources

Refining Objectives

Gather the team for a planning session. Present your preliminary plan.

Ask them to refine and finalize the objectives, defining each objective along the three critical dimensions: specs, cost, and time.

Mutually distribute responsibility for each objective. Ask each objective owner to formulate that tasks. Have the

team discuss the tasks in order to ensure continuity of the handoffs. It is also wise to involve the doers in this stage.

Allow the doers to break down tasks into activities. Insist that the activities be small, discreet chucks of work.

Tasks

Task represent one of several major deliverables

At time a task may divide into subtask but the question that should be asked is “Is the subtask a deliverable?” if so that it is really a task

Activities

Basic Building Blocks of a Project Jobs of small enough detail that it is

easy to see the work involved Several hours to several days

Activities need assignments Activity completions is the key

progress monitoring tool for a project

Precedence Relationships

Relationship between activities based on when they occur in relation to each other

Determine sequence of activities Technical requirements Safety and efficiency considerations Policy or preferences decisions Availability of limited resources

Technical Requirements

May force certain sequencing Testing before repairing Write before editing Placing forms before pouring concrete Come to class before taking notes

Safety and Efficiency

Safety First! There are old pilots and bold pilots but

there are no old, bold pilots Disconnect power before repairing

Efficiency Some ordering of activities may save time

and resources Paint walls and laying carpet

Policy or Preference

Policy determines priorities Appearance Budgeting

Examples Vendor certifications prior to contract Inspections Biding procedures Legal requirements Minority preferences

Availability of Resources

Abundance or scarcity Identify your critical resource

Money Skills Equipment

Caution Precedence adds time to a project Creates serialization Fewer precedence ---more parallelization Parallelization is often resource constrained

Scheduling tools

Two basics types Bar charts

Gnatt Charts (horizontal bar) Flow charts

Pert/CPM networks Program evaluation and review technique Critical path networks

Gantt Chart

bar chart that represents the sequence and duration of activities.

Gantt Chart

Gnatt Chart

Advantages Easy to read Provides quick

overview Indicate status Allow for what-if

analysis

Disadvantages Precedence

relationship are hard to display

Tedious to update

Pert/CPM

Shows “flow” of work Activity-on-node

Activity-on-Arrow

Activity 1 Activity 2

Activity 1

Pert for Critical paths

PERT Diagram using Activity On Arrow (AOA) convention 

PERT Diagram using Activity On Node (AON) convention 

MS Project

Chap 8 - Defining Resources and Costs

Chap 9 - Understanding Resource Scheduling

Chap 10 – Assigning Resource and Costs to tasks

Defining Resources and Costs

Why use resources Provide working schedule for each

resource than project will only schedule tasks during those times

Keeps tracks or resource units allocated Track costs per resource

Entering resources

Use resource sheet

Using Resource dialog

In class

Download and open Class File.mpp Enter each class member as a

resource Enter costs for each Fill out as much of the resource dialog

as you can for each individual Assume standard working times Give everyone a day off in this month

Understanding Resource Scheduling

Resources must be assigned to tasks Project automatically controls resource

allocations based on several factors Predetermined working times Built-in delays Overallocations

Task form view

Adding a resource to a task

Key Fields ID or name Max units

Maximum amount of a specific resource that can be assigned to tasks at a time

Assignment Units How much of a resource is assigned to a task

Task Types

Determines how project calculates allocations

Fixed Units Hours/days expended D * U = W

Fixed Work Amount of effort fixed /duration varaible D * U = W

Fixed Duration D * U = W

Task Types

Assigning resources to Tasks

Select the task settings Task type Effort driven??

Adding resource to tasks

Gantt Chart view or Task sheet view Use resource column

Task information dialog box Resources tab

Select task and use Assign resources tool

In class

Use the Class File.mpp you used earlier Assign resources to all tasks

Use resources defined earlier Check out

Gantt Chart Resource sheet Resource graph

Is there problems?? Leave as is for next class