Transcript Project Management - Bradley University

Project
Management
Ross L. Fink
Definition of Project
 A project
is a specific, finite task to be
accomplished.
Brief History
 Modern
Project Management can be
traced to the “Manhattan” project.
 Early project management dealt with large
complex projects or R&D (weapons
systems)
 Today -- Project management is more
important than ever.
Importance of Project
Management Today
 More
customization in manufacturing
 Shorter product life cycles
 Use in service organizations
 Nonprofit sector
Why Project Management?
 Better
control
 Better customer relations
 Shorter development time
 Lower costs
 Higher quality and reliability
 Higher profits
 Better interdepartmental
coordination
 Better worker morale
Characteristics of a Project
One-time focus
 Specific purpose and desired results
 Identifiable start and finish
 Time fence (or due-date) for completion
 Involvement of cross-functional work team
 Limited set of resources
 Logical sequence of events
 A clear client (user, customer) of results

Project Management Tools
 Major
tools developed in the 1950s
 PERT - Program Evaluation and Review
Technique - Polaris Missile (NAVY)
 CPM - Critical Path Method (CPM) DuPont and Remington Rand Maintenance of Chemical Plant
Project Performance Objectives
 PCT
Objectives
 “Good, Fast, Cheap”
Performance
Cost
Time
Reason for Project Failures
 Unrealistic
expectations
 Poor project leadership
 Poor project planning
The Project Manager is
Responsible to
 Superiors
 Team
 Customer
or Sponsor of project
A Project Manager Needs to:
Communicate Importance of project
Role others play in project
Importance of their contribution
With customers
Understand project
dimensions Technical
Cultural
Political
Work Breakdown Structure
(WBS)
Breaks the Program (or Project) into
smaller and smaller units of work. The
following are common levels of work:
Program
Project
Task
Subtask
Work Package
Why Use WBS
 Provides
a logical means of identifying the
activities of a project
 Provides structure to the project plan
 Different levels of WBS can be used for
control by different individuals
Types of WBS
 Outcome
(things)
 Task
 Task-outcome
WBS Procedure
 Simply
ask “What will have to be done in
order to _________ “
 Don’t worry about sequencing at this point
Stopping Rules For WBS
 Level
of detail is too great to be useful
 Control to smallest time unit used for
control
 Typically, no more than 5 to 6 levels is
appropriate
 For large project, no more than 20
PERT Diagrams
 PERT
(or Network) diagrams showing the
relationship between activities
 There are more than one way of
constructing these networks, we will use
what is called activities-on-the-node (AON)
or activities-in-the-box. This is the same
as MS Project
PERT Diagram Notation
 Box
or circle (node) represents the activity
 Arrow (arc) represents the relationship
between activities
Example
Activity
A
Immediate
Predecessor
--
B
A
C
A
D
B,C
E
C
PERT Diagram
B
D
C
E
A
Modeling Time
Simple model assumes times are
deterministic (constant)
More elaborate models allow stochastic
representation (most common being one
that uses 3 time estimates)
Example
Activity
A
Immediate
Predecessor
--
B
A
3
C
A
5
D
B,C
4
E
C
5
Total
Time
4
21
Example - Maximum Time
 Sequential
 Sum
of all task times
 In our example: 21 periods
Finding time
 ES
and EF go forward through PERT
diagram (ES + Time= EF)
 LS and LF go backwards through PERT
diagram (LF - Time = LS)
 Slack is LS - ES or LF - EF
PERT Diagram
B
D
C
E
A
PERT Diagram with Times
B
D
4
7
9
13
7
10
10
14
4
3
4
B
D
End
A
A
0
4
0
4
5
5
C
E
C
Project completion
tim e = 14
E
4
9
9
14
4
9
9
14
Critical Path
 A-C-E
 Significance--critical
path determines
project completion time
Example in MS Project