How to schedule our project

Work Breakdown Structure

Visually breaks down project scopeo Projecto Subprojectso Work packageso Activities / Tasks

Work Breakdown Structure

Work Breakdown StructureStartup project

Procurement HR Shipping Maintenance Providing service Final report

Dependencies

Dependencies will gives up the

logical flow of the project and

ultimately they allow us to find out

the duration of our project

Dependencies structure matrix

Procurement HR Shipping Maintenance Providing service Final report

Procurement

HR

Shipping

Maintenance

Providing service

Final report

activity Description Predecessors

1 Procurement -

2 HR -

3 Shipping 1

4 Maintenance 3

5 Providing service 2,4

6 Final report 5

Startup

HR

Procurement

Shipping

Maintenance

Providing service

Final report

End

Type of Dependencies

Finish Start Finish Finish

Start Start

Start Finish

Duration activity Description Predecessors Estimated

Duration (weeks)

1 Procurement - 6

2 HR - 4

3 Shipping 1 1

4 Maintenance 3 1

5 Providing service 2,4 16

6 Final report 5 2

Duration obstacles

• Parkinson’s Law• Student’s Syndrome• Overconfidence• Biases

AnchoringConfirmation

Overconfidence

Startup

HR

Procurement

Shipping

Maintenance

Providing service

Final report

End

Duration diagram

Longest path 26 weeks

Critical path

• The critical path is the longest chain, the longest path of activities in our network :

• The project duration, defined by the length of the critical path, is also known as makespan.

• A delay in any activity along the critical path will cause a delay in the project.

• The method was developed by Engineers at DuPont Corporation in the 1950s.

Startup

HR

Procurement

Shipping

Maintenance

Providing service

Final report

End

0

0 6

87

2426 2624

8

76

0 4

Early start – Early Finish

Startup

HR

Procurement

Shipping

Maintenance

Providing service

Final report

End

262624248

8776

84

60

0

Late finish – Late start

Startup

HR

Procurement

Shipping

Maintenance

Providing service

Final report

End

0

0 6

87

2426 2624

8

76

0 4

262624248

8776

84

60

0

ASAP & ALAP

TIME COST

As Soon As Possible

As late As Possible

Gantt Chart One of tools that used to schedule the project by using MS Project

Project Crashing• Project duration can be reduced only by shortening critical activities.

• It may be worth spending money to reduce the length of a project: Select the

least expensive to crash

• New critical paths may emerge: reduce all critical paths!

As a Result of Project Crashing• Critical path

o Shortero May changeo More activities may become critical

• Higher risk?

• WBSAvailable? Complete? Communicated? Agreed-upon?

• Network DiagramOne start and one finish? All activities with predecessors or successors?

• MilestonesOne start milestone and one project completion milestone?

Intermediate milestones? Each one has a critical path?

• Gantt-chartNo missing dependencies between activities in correct sequence?

No summary task links? Tasks with excessive durations?

Check generalized dependencies (overlaps, time lags), Check critical path: from project start to finish?

Scheduling Checklist

Thank you