PM I Vorlesung 3

Time and Schedule Management directly contribute to one of the three key parameters of a project

Schedlung provides the information of who, how, where and when the assigned project resources will deliver the products, services, and results defined in the project scope

Scheduling facilitates the likelihood of a successful project completion within the approved schedule

A significant point or event (in a project) with zero time periods

A distinct, scheduled portion of work (with a duration > 0 time periods)

A skilled human resource, equipment, services, supplies, commodities, materials, budgets, or funds required to accomplish the defined work

A dependency between two activities or between an acitivty and a milestone

Considering the project life cycle

Often inherent with the scheduling tool selection

E.g. Precedence Diagramming Method, Kanban etc.

Choice limited by scheduling approach

Many companies provide a selection for projects

E.g. start date, end date, resource plan, etc.

Preparing a schedule based on the selected approach using the scheduling tool

Presentations can be simple lists, bar charts, resource usage patterns, burn charts, Kanban boards etc.

Feed plans and reports with the data from the current version of the schedule

Which scheduling approach works best for a project depends on the type of its life cycle

Projects or products are known and proven -> major plan can occur prior to the project execution

Life cycle allows feedback and modification on partially completed or unfinished work

Life cycle provides finished, potentially usable deliverables after each incremenet

Leverages iterative and incremental characteristics; Agile approaches are adaptive

Precedence Diagram Method (PDM) (or Critical Path Method (CPM)

Activities and milestones are represented as nodes in a graph

Every activity or milestone (except the start milestone) have at least one predecessor

Usually represented as network diagrams

Network calculation algorithms can be applied

Can be combined with iterative planning technique

Define Activities

-> Sequence Activities

-> Estimate Activity Resources

-> Estimate Activity Durations

-> Develop Schedule

One iterative planning technique is rolling wave planning in which work performed in the near term is planned in detail, while work in the future is planned at a lower level of detail

Should be performed at a regular basis

Usually applied in projects with a relatively long duration

Iteration among the same “technical” stage

The life cycle of the incremental approach provides finished deliverables after each increment

From iteration to iteration the delievrable is refined

The iterations can be of different length

Agile approaches combine iterative and incremental characteristics with approach-specific focus regarding planning

Work broken down in ideally independent stories that lead to a shippable product

Same length of each iteration (time box)

Planning activities: Sprint Planning, Product Backlog refinement, define the Sprint Goal -> Sprint Backlog

Work broken down into work items

Takes organization’s current (development) process

Focus on process optimization

Each task can have subtasks again, which leads to a hierarchical structure of many layers

Each layer represents a certain level of abstraction

Often, the first layer either shows the project stages (e.g. plan, design, implement, test) or the main structure / modules of the project’s output (e.g. databse, middleware, user interface)

1. Define the workflow -> Nmes of the columns of the Kanban board

2. Capture the tasks forming the work package, e.g. the chapters of the content to be prepared

3. Optional but useful: define for each column, the number of cards which can be processed at the same time

When the cards move steadily from the left to the right a continuous and steady workflow

If too many (> than wip) pile up in one column then this is an indication of a bottleneck

Time order and resource assignment form the basis for capacity planning

Assigning resources to work packages may result in rescheduling

A prerequisite is the estimated resource need for the work packages

Optimize resource allocation

Regarding all resources (same type)

Regarding individual resources

Factor available to the company for the execution of project tasks:

• people

• goods: hardware, software

• services

Performance of a resource in a period of time

Maximum output under ideal conditions

Example: 8h per day

Performance

On average actually usable capacity

Example: normative capacity less sick days, set-up times, etc.

Rule of thumb for human resources in projects: 80% of normative capacity

The number of labor units required to complete a schedule or activity or work package, often expressed in hours, days, weeks or person days (PD) etc.

The total number of work periods required to complete an activity or work package, expressed in hours, days, weeks

They are directly related.

However, you can’t automatically assume the scalability of the regarded tasks! Most of the time it’s NOT the case. Therefore, many agile IT projects estimate the story size not the effort for its implementation

Software-based planning tools usually assume constant capacity profiles

Normative capacity can be defined resource-specific sometimes also role- or group-specific

Restriction of normative capacity Holidays, vacations or similar can be defined by special calendars

Product Backlog with top-level PBIs meet the definition of READY

Velocity

Team capabilities

Initial sprint goal

Sprint goal

Sprint backlog