Project Time Management - Last Revision

PMP Part 6Project Time ManagementLast Revision:Activity : An element of work performed during the course of a project. (Normally has duration, cost, and resource requirements.)Baseline : The original plan plus or minus approved changes.Arrow Diagram Method (ADM) : A network diagramming technique in which activities are represented by arrows. The tail of the arrow represents the start and the head of the arrow represents the end of the activity. Activities are connected at points called nodes to illustrate the sequence in which activities are expected to be performed. Also called Activity-On-Arrow (AOA). Backward Pass : The calculation of late finish and start dates for the uncompleted portions of all network activities. Determined by working backwards through the network logic from the project's end date.Concurrent Engineering: Generally speaking, an approach to project staffing that calls for the implementors to be involved in the design phase. (sometimes confused with fast tracking.)Critical Activity : An activity on a critical path.Critical Path : The series of activities which determines the earliest completion of the project. The critical path is usually defined as those activities with float less than or equal to a specified value (usually zero).Control Account: A management control point where scope, budget, actual cost, and schedule are integrated and compared to earned value for performance management. Control points are places at selected management points of the WBS. Each control account may include one or more work package but each work package may be associated with only one control account.Discretionary dependencies (Soft logic): Defined by the project management team.Dummy Activity: An activity of zero duration used to show a logical relationship in the arrow diagramming method. Dummy activities are used when logical relationships cannot be completely or correctly described with regular activity arrows. Dummies are shown graphically as a dashed line headed by an arrow.Early Finish Date (EF): In the critical path method, the earliest possible date in which the uncompleted portions of an activity or project can complete. Can change as the project progresses.Early Start Date (ES): In the critical path method, the earliest possible date in which the uncompleted portions of an activity or project can start Can change as the project progresses.External dependencies : Relationships between project activities and non-project activities. E.g. delivery of hardware of an external supplier.Float: The amount of time that an activity may be delayed from its early start without delaying the project finish date. (Also called slack, total float, and path float).Forward Pass : The calculation of the early start and early finish dates for the uncompleted portions of all network activities.Free Float (FF): The amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying the early start of any immediately succeeding activities.Gantt Chart: A graphic display of schedule-related information using bars.GERT is another type of network diagram. It can support looping.Hammock: An aggregate or summary activity.Hanger: An unintended break in a network path. Hangers are usually caused by missing activities or missing logical relationships.Lag: A modification of a logical relationship which directs a delay in the successor task. Lags are inserted waiting times in between tasks. For example Task B cannot start until three days after task A completes.Late Finish Date (LF): In the critical path method, the latest possible date that an activity may be completed without delaying a specified milestone (usually the project finish date).Late Start Date (SF): In the critical path method, the latest possible date that an activity may begin without delaying a specified milestone (usually the project finish date).Lead : A modification of a logical relationship which allows an acceleration of the successor task. For example, in a FS relationship with a 10 day lead, the successor can start 10 days prior to the completion of the predecessor. Mandatory dependencies (Hard logic): Determined by the nature of work to be done.Master Schedule: A summary level schedule which identifies the major activities and milestones.Milestone: A significant event in the project, usually completion of a major deliverable.Milestone Schedule: A summary level schedule which identifies the major milestones.Path Convergence: In mathematical analysis, the tendency of parallel paths of approximately equal duration to delay the completion of the milestone where they meet.Precedence Diagram Method (PDM): A network diagramming technique in which activities are represented by nodes. Activities are linked by precedence relationships to show the sequence in which the activities are to be performed.Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT): An event-oriented network analysis technique used to estimate project duration when there is a high degree of uncertainty with the individual activity duration estimates.Project Network Diagram: Any schematic display of the logical relationships of project activities. Always drawn from left to right to reflect project chronology. Often incorrectly referred to as a "PERT chart".Resource Leveling: Any form of network analysis in which start and finish dates are driven by resource management concerns.Resource levelling refers to keeping the resources same across the duration of the project.Resource-Limited Schedule: A project schedule whose start and finish dates reflect expected resource availability. The final project schedule should always be resource limited.Resource pool: Description of the available resources and the times they are available to work on the projectScheduled Finish Date (SF): The point in time work was scheduled to finish on an activity. The scheduled finish date is normally within the range of dates delimited by the early finish date and the late finish date.Scheduled Start Date (SS): The point in time work was scheduled to start on an activity. The scheduled start date is normally within the range of dates delimited by the early start and late start datesSimulation: involves calculating multiple project durations with different sets of activity assumptions. The most common technique is Monte Carlo Analysis, in which a distribution of probable results is defined for each activity and used to calculate a distribution of probable results for the total project. Time-Scaled Network Diagram: Any project network diagram drawn is such a way that the positioning and length of the activity represents its duration. Essentially, it is a bar chart that includes network logic.Work Item: Synonymous with activity.If a project has more than one critical paths then the risk to the project increases.Longest path through the network diagram is called the critical path. The activities on the critical paths are called critical activities.Slack or Float is the amount of time a task can be delayed without delaying the project. Tasks on the critical path have zero float.Bar charts (or Gantt charts) are used to display tasks and their dates in a graphical fashion. They are used to display information of the type task 1 is scheduled from date A to date B. Typically the date range is displayed in the X-axis and the tasks on the Y-axis. Bar charts do not show task dependencies. They are generally used to track progress and show to the team.Milestone charts are similar to bar charts but display only major events. They display major milestones (for example bridge design completed). They are used to report status to Management.