Define the specific activities that need to be performed

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Reference no: EM132188274

To develop your project schedule, you'll need to do three things first...

• Define Activities

• Sequence Activities

• Estimate Activity Durations

The first step to developing your schedule is to define the specific activities that need to be performed in order to complete the project.

This is done by using the work breakdown structure (WBS) that you developed during project scope management. The WBS lists all of the work packages that need to be done in order to complete all the project deliverables.

The next step is to determine the order each of the activities needs to be completed in. To determine the sequence of activities, you will need to understand the relationships between them. By understanding which activities are related to each other, you will be able to determine which activities need to be completed in order to start another one.

The third step is to estimate how long each activity will take to complete. This needs to take into account the type, amount, and availability of people, material, equipment and supplies that are needed to perform each activity.

There are different techniques that you can use to estimate durations. For example, you can use expert judgment or base your estimate on a similar project (analogous estimating).

Now that the details about the project activities have been worked out, it's time to develop the project schedule. The schedule will list the start and finish dates for each activity.

It's important to keep in mind that this is an iterative process. As you do the schedule network analysis, you may find that you need shorten the schedule using schedule compression techniques such as crashing or fast tracking.

There are many techniques used for schedule control including...

• Variance Analysis

• Performance Reviews

• What-If Scenario Analysis

Variance analysis and performance reviews will help you determine if the project is progressing as planned. If it isn't, then what-if scenario analysis can be used to identify any changes that could help to bring the project schedule back on track.

Sequencing activities: identifying and documenting the relationships between project activities. Estimating activity resources: estimating how many resources a project team should use to perform project activities. Estimating activity durations: estimating the number of work periods that are needed to complete individual activities.

Developing the schedule: analyzing activity sequences, activity resource estimates, and activity duration estimates to create the project schedule.

Controlling the schedule: controlling and managing changes to the project schedule. The project team uses expert judgment, analytical techniques, and meetings to develop the schedule management plan.

The construct of the project schedule depends on having the right resources at the right phase(s) of a project. Therefore, proper Resource Allocation, which will be discussed next week, is essential.

Instructions

Project Schedule

You are the project manager in charge of building a house in Ashburn, Virginia. The house is a five-bedroom home estimated to cost $1.2 million dollars and has to be completed in 24 months.

For this assignment, create a Project Schedule, and list the 20 activities required to complete the house that you identified in your Unit IV Project Budget.

Assign a schedule to all identified activities. Please be sure to reserve two weeks for contingencies. In other words, you should schedule all the activities and set aside two weeks for contingencies. The entire project (including the two-week contingency period) should equal 24 months.

Refer to the schedule examples in Chapter 5 "Scheduling the Project" in your Project Management Absolute Beginner's Guide textbook and Chapter 8 "Developing the Project Schedule" in your Project Management in Practice textbook as your guide for creating your schedule.

You can create your schedule in a Word document table, an Excel spreadsheet,

Textbooks:

Meridith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Mantel, S. J., Jr., & Sutton, M. M. (2014). Project management in practice (5th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Horine, G. M. (2013). Project management absolute beginner's guide (3rd ed.). Indianapolis, IN: Que.

Reference no: EM132188274

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