Summary


Many critical processes are included in schedule planning. Activity definition takes the work packages from your WBS and breaks them down into assignable tasks. Activity sequencing looks at dependencies between tasks. These dependencies can be mandatory, discretionary, or external. Dependent tasks are either a successor or a predecessor of a linked task.

There are four types of task dependency relationships: finish to start, start to start, start to finish, and finish to finish. A network diagram is a pictorial representation of the task dependency relationships. Activity duration estimating is obtained using analogous (also called top down) estimating, quantitatively based durations, or expert judgment.

The most complex schedule planning process is schedule development. There are three commonly used schedule development techniques. The mathematical analysis technique critical path method (CPM) creates a schedule through the completion of a forward and backward pass through the network diagram and calculating float.

Duration compression is the technique used to shorten a project schedule to meet a mandated completion date. Duration compression can be obtained by applying either crashing or fast track. Crashing shortens task duration by adding more resources to the project. Fast track works tasks that were originally scheduled in sequence in parallel.

Numerous project management software tools can be used as schedule development tools. A project schedule may also include milestones, which mark major project events such as the completion of major deliverable . A completed project schedule becomes the baseline used to track and report progress of the project.

Finally, various IT professionals find that the nature of their work results in different ways of managing time. As an IT project manager, it's your job to understand the day-to-day responsibilities of those IT professionals in order to determine when they will be available to take on new projects. Often, obtaining the resources and time needed to complete a project depends on who (which department) in the organization requires the help of IT.




Project+ Study Guide (Exam PK0-002)
IT Project+ Study Guide, 2nd Edition (PKO-002)
ISBN: 0782143180
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 156

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