Project Management

Project Management

Project management is a carefully planned and organized effort to accomplish a specific and usually one-time effort, for example, construct a building or implement a new computer system. Project management includes developing a project plan, which includes defining project goals and objectives, specifying tasks or how goals will be achieved, what resources are need, and associating budgets and timelines for completion. It also includes implementing the project plan, along with careful controls to stay on the "critical path", that is, to ensure the plan is being managed according to plan. Project management usually follows major phases (with various titles for these phases), including feasibility study, project planning, implementation, evaluation and support/maintenance. Program planning is usually of a broader scope than project planning, but not always.

Milestone Chart

Milestone Chart

    A milestone chart depicts key events along a timescale.       A milestone chart traditionally used triangles to depict a specific event.     A milestone on a milestone chart Gantt can depict a specific event or a culmination of events.     Milestones on a milestone chart Gantt can be shown in various colors or with markings that indicate status.     A milestone chart Gantt is usually used for top level reporting so management does not become bogged down in the minutia of the project or projects.

WBS

Work breakdown Structures

Plan and display your projects using a tree-style diagram known as a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) Chart. WBS charts display the structure of a project showing how the project is broken down into summary and detail levels. Plan new projects using an intuitive "top-down" approach or display existing Microsoft Project plans in an easy to understand diagram. WBS Chart Pro can be used by itself or as an add-on to Microsoft Project (WBS Chart Pro's interface to Microsoft Project is completely seamless and bi-directional).

The development of a project plan is predicated on having a clear and detailed understanding of both the tasks involved, the estimated length of time each task will take, the dependencies between thosetasks, and the sequence in which those tasks have to be performed. Additionally, resource availability must be determined in order to assign each task or group of tasks to the appropiate worker.

Gantt Chart

A gantt chart is a graphical description of what the project developer want to do, the list of all the activities, the time that will start and the end of that activity. The gantt chart was made to organize and fast development of the project.

PERT/CPM

Program Evaluation and Review Technique

Plan and display your projects using PERT charts (also known as Network Charts or Precedence Diagrams). PERT Chart EXPERT shows tasks and the dependencies between tasks in an easy to understand chart. PERT Chart EXPERT can be used by itself or as an add-on to Microsoft Project. Loaded with features to configure and print many different styles of PERT charts, PERT Chart EXPERT contains extensive PERT charting capabilities unlike those found in Microsoft Project (PERT Chart EXPERT's interface to Microsoft Project is completely seamless and bi-directional).

PERT charts are usually drawn on ruled paper with the horizontal axis indicating time period divisions in days, weeks, months, and so on. Although it is possible to draw a PERT chart for an entire project, the usual practice is to break the plans into smaller, more meaningful parts. This is very helpful if the chart has to be redrawn for any reason, such as skipped or incorrectly estimated tasks.

Complex projects require a series of activities, some of which must be performed sequentially and others that can be performed in parallel with other activities. This collection of series and parallel tasks can be modeled as a network.

In 1957 the Critical Path Method (CPM) was developed as a network model for project management. CPM is a deterministic method that uses a fixed time estimate for each activity. While CPM is easy to understand and use, it does not consider the time variations that can have a great impact on the completion time of a complex project.

The Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) is a network model that allows for randomness in activity completion times. PERT was developed in the late 1950's for the U.S. Navy's Polaris project having thousands of contractors. It has the potential to reduce both the time and cost required to complete a project.

CRITICAL PATH METHOD

Critical Path Method (CPM), is a procedure for using network analysis to identify those tasks which are on the critical path: ie where any delay in the completion of these tasks will lengthen the project timescale, unless action is taken.

The Critical Path Method, as they are known, are those activities which basically determine the total project length (runtime, above) as well as make up the longest overall duration. If those activities are not completed on time, there is a major/real chance that the project will not meet its deadline(s).

Tasks which fall on the critical path should receive special attention by both the project manager and the personnel assigned to them. The critical path for any given method may shift as the project progresses; this can happen when tasks are completed either behind or ahead of schedule, causing other tasks which may still be onschedule to fall on the new critical path.

S-Curve

The S Curve is a well known project management tool and it consists in "a display of cumulative costs, labour hours or other quantities plotted against time".The name derives from the S-like shape of the curve, flatter at the beginning and end and steeper in the middle, because this is the way most of the projects look like.

The S curve can be considered as an indicator and it's used for many applications related to project management such as: target, baseline, cost, time etc. That's why there is a variety of S Curves such as:
-Cost versus Time S Curve;(appropriate for projects that contain labour and non-labour tasks).
-Target S Curve;(This S Curve reflects the ideal progress of the project if all tasks are completed as currently scheduled)
-Value and Percentage S Curves;(Percentage S Curves are useful for calculating the project's actual percentage complete)
-Actual S Curve;(This S Curve reflects the actual progress of the project to date)
In order to be able to generate a S Curve, A Baseline and Production Schedule are necessary because they contain important information for each task: -the Baseline - contains information about Actual Start date and finish date.
-The Baseline - can also contain information about Man Hours and costs.
-The Production Schedule contains information about the actual percentage complete.