You can schedule the task. All that you need to schedule an activity is its calendar duration, and its activitics that must be completed

before the task can be The manager or the responsible individual may the precedents.

DESIGN PRQ SYSTEM TEST

ACCEP- TANCE

3.3 Work Breakdown Structures (WBS) 33 The tasks must be small and able to be completed. Although this will be used more for controlling than planning, a good 'work package' at the bottomlevel of the takes approximately one week and there is some method of proving when it is done.

The 'expert' that you assign to a task to may be a programmer, an analyst or even the project manager. She may break each task up further in order to attain the above items, but this is not needed for the document yet.

For example, assume that we have an expert analyst in the company. We could give her the in Figure 3.2 and ask her for arough effort estimate and the precedents for the analysis. She should, of course, insist on seeing the RD.

Depending on her experience and estimating expertise, she may need only the Level 1 Some analysts could simply read the RD for the project (discussed in the last chapter and in Appendix A) and state, analysis for this project will take 25 days." Others may need to break the analysis into Level 2 boxes such as in Figure 3.2, yet others to Level 3 before they could do even a rough estimate.

An example of the Level 3 for the INTERVIEWS and the ANALYZE EXISTING SYSTEMS boxes could be as in Figure 3.3.

2.2

34 Chap. 3 Project Planning The expert breaks box until able to estimate the effort required. (See Chapter 13 for methods.) The estimates can be put on the WBS itself as in Figure 3.4. Note that estimate is the sum of the individual times. This is called DIRECT time. It is the number of actual work days required to do the activity. It is not the ELAPSED or CALENDAR time that it would take.

WARE-

OFFICE HOUSE REGIS-

MANAGER

VISOR

1.5 2

DAYS

ANALYSE EXISTING SYSTEMS

REGIS- DATA

MENTS FLOWS

2 2 1 1 3 2

DAYS

Figure 3.4 Analysis 3

He would similarly break out the DEFINE NEW SYSTEM

WRITE FUNCTIONAL SPEC. and NEGOTIATE SPEC. boxes and

add up the total time for all of the analysis. He then submits the estimate and the list of precedents required for the whole analysis the project manager.

person for plan (probably the project manager for a small to mid size collates all estimates and He may end up with a list which looks like this:

3.4 The Network Diagram

ACTIVITY EFFORT PRECEDENTS

Definition Analysis Design

A (Control)

Program C (Warehouse) System Test Documentation Acceptance Training Operation TOTAL

20

35 Definition

25 Analysis

20 Design

30 Design

25 Design

1 A, B, C

20

5 System Test, Documentation

10 Documentation

10 Acceptance

210 person-days

Note that in this example only the programming had sub-components. If there are any sub-components of any other major activity available, they would also be listed.

3.4

T H E

The second step of planning is to draw a network that shows the sequence of events. The best of diagram for this is a PERT chart. Figure 3.5 is a PERT chart for above project. The sequence of events is driven only by the precedents of each activity.

Figure 3.5 W R T

36 Chap. 3 Project Planning This form of the PERT is called a Precedence Network. Each box represents an activity. We have written in each box the name of the activity and its duration. You may be familiar with the Activity on Arrow format of a PERT, but the precedence network is better than activity on arrow, and most of management computer programs display this format. For details on how to construct a see Chapter 14, and for details on how to use computerized products see Chapter 17.

The Critical Path and Project Duration

We will detail PERT charts and Critical Paths (CP) further in Chapter 14, but it should b e obvious that a number of paths, or a series of sequential activities can be traced on the above by following the directionof the arrows. The length of time that it takes to traverse any path can be calculated by adding up the durationsof the activities on the path. The CP is the longest of these paths, and it defines the minimum time it will take to do the project. In the PERT in Figure 3.5 the CP consists of the activities:

START, DEFINITION, ANALYSIS, DESIGN, PROGRAM B, SYSTEM TEST, AC- CEPTANCE, OPERATION and END. The project will therefore take the sum of the durations of these activities, 135 days.

3.5 CALCULATING PROJECT COST

If the project contract is fixed price, the project manager can calculate a rough price for labour by multiplying the total number of calculated person-days by an average charge per day. Do not attempt to calculate in detail which people at what salary levels will be working on the project-unless you have a good idea of who will be working on it. The charge per person-day is a 'loaded' charge: it should include overheads of heat, rent, clerical support and benefits. To this you must add fixed costs such as computer time, rental of any special equipment and so forth. Fixed costs should be listed by each estimator for his particular activity.

Example of Price Calculation:

If you have one of the project management software products discussed in it is simple to calculate the cost of the project. Figure 3.6 illustrates an abbreviated 'Task Details' screen from the Superproject software page

This computer form can be usedto enter for each task all the resourcesrequiredand their cost. The software calculates the total task cost, as well as the total project cost. If you are calculating costs manually, and you are confident in the total estimate of 210 person-days, price the project by multiplying 210 by an 'average' cost per day, and add the fixed cost items. It would be better to add more detail by costing out at least each Level 1 box on the For example, of Programming calculated as illustrated on page 37.

A price calculation must be done for each Level-1 task or phase, and totaled to get project cost. Note that unique costs such as profit and risk can be more easily accounted for manually than with a computer program.

3.6 Project Schedule 37

Figure 3.6 SWERPROJECT task detail for task cost calculation

Average Pgr 75 pd $1000.00 per pd 75,000

Profit 25% 18,750

Risk factors:

User will change his mind on 10% of formats

Cost ⁼ 10% extra programming 7,500

PROGRAMMING TOTAL $101,250

3.6 PROJECT SCHEDULE

The next step is to calculate a date. To do this planner (probably the must translate the DIRECT days of the estimate to CALENDAR DAYS or duration.

One of tasks is to allocate resources-who is going to work on what, especially when tasks can be going on simultaneously. Even more difficult to decide is if the duration of a task can be shortened by adding more resources.

On the PERT in Figure 3.5 only one Level 1 activity has more one resource assigned and is therefore divided into sub-tasks: programming. The PM must ask the appropriate estimators if other Level 1 tasks can perhaps be divided. The PM then redraws the PERT showing the actual duration of each task after it is divided. See Chapter 14 for details on resource allocation.

38 Chap. 3 Project Planning Then the PM schedules the whole project on the real calendar. The best method to do this is to draw a Gantt or time-bar chart such as Figure 3.7 below:

Figure 3.7 SUPERPROJECT project schedule

First, all the known calendar events such as holidays, vacations, training and non- project meetings are blocked out and all the project activities are scheduled around these. Each activity is then entered on the chart as a bar, starting at the completion of the last precedent activity. The completion of the last activity is the project end. See chapter 14 for a detailed discussion of scheduling.

3.7 PRELIMINARY PROJECT PLAN OUTLINE

Armed with all this knowledge, the PM can write up this crucial document. Here is a suggested outline for the PPP. (Read this together with the example in Appendix

1. The Project ^Team Detail here the organization of the project team (no names). Show the structure, who reports to whom, who communicates with whom, and

SO on.

Although Chapter 18 will discuss the organization of a project team in detail, Figure 3.8 gives an example of a typical project team and the major responsibilities the members on a small to medium sized project.

3.7 Preliminary Project Plan Outline

3.8 Typical project team structure PROJECT

MANAGER

PROJECT LEADER

I

PROGRAMMERS: (No more than 5) for the programming.

PRO- GRAMMER

1

PROJECT LEADER: Supervises on details only.

Responsible for (not necessarily does) technical such as analysis, design and major programming Major Goal: Technical quality of the product.

PROJECT MANAGER: Manager of team (leader, motivator, etc. Responsible for all outside communication (reporting, level manage- ment interface) Major Goal: Successful project. (Plan, Control, Communi- cate.)

2. Project Cost Include here estimates and that were used to produce the You would not want this section in the hands of your competition--it gives the whole project away. This is why this document kept private in a competitive environment.

PRO- GRAMMER

2

3. Project Schedule If some things arenotobviously chronological, document why you did thiigs in that order. Detail especially how you handle the parallelism-sharing the work if are simultaneous activities going on.

PRO-

GRAMMER

N

4. Reviews In this you relate approximate dates of the major man- agement and technical reviews (the schedule will provide this!), the purpose of each review and who will attend them. List the of the people involved. Try