Custom Search

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Project Management

Gantt chart/ Milestone is a graphical representation of the duration of tasks against the progression of time. Its is a useful tool for planning and scheduling projects. A milestone chart depicts key events along a timescale We have a thesis project Web based Ordering and Renting for the Fashion Designer base in Lucena City. These is our Gant chart.
Gant table



Milestone critical
Milestone Gant



CPM
was the discovery of M.R.Walker of E.I.Du Pont de Nemours & Co. and J.E.Kelly of Sperry-Rand, circa 1957. The computation was designed for the UNIVAC-I computer. The first test was made in 1958, when CPM was applied to the construction of a new chemical plant. In March 1959, the method was applied to a maintenance shut-down at the Du Pont works in Louisville, Kentucky. Unproductive time was reduced from 125 to 93 hours.

PERT a method of charting and scheduling a complex set of interrelated activities that identifies the most time-critical events in the process. Full form program evaluation and review technique

was developed in 1958 as a R&D too for the POLARIS missile program by the Program Evaluation Branch of the Special Projects office of the U.S.Navy, helped by the Lockheed Missile Systems division and the Consultant firm of Booz-Allen & Hamilton. Through it's use the Polaris program was completed 18 - 24 months ahead of the actually planned completion date. The calculations were so arranged so that they could be carried out on the IBM Naval Ordinance Research Computer (NORC) at Dahlgren, Virginia

CPM / PERT : Critical Path Method (CPM) and Program Evaluation Review Technique (PERT) are network analysis techniques. One was developed along Industrial and the other along Military lines

CONCEPT: CPM/PERT is based on the basis that a small set of activities, which make up the longest path through the activity network control the entire project. If these "critical" activities could be identified and assigned to responsible persons, management resources could be optimally used by concentrating on the few activities which determine the fate of the entire project.

Non-critical activities can be rescheduled and resources for them can be reallocated flexibly, without affecting the whole project.

Both are project management techniques, which have been created out of the need of Western industrial and military establishments to plan, schedule and control complex projects.

USEFULNESS: the CPM/PERT are useful in planning costs, scheduling manpower and machine time. CPM/PERT are also can answer the following important questions:

What will be the project duration of time? What are the risks/dependencies/assumptions involved?

What are the critical activities which could be delay the entire project if they were not completed on the duration time?

What is the current status or standing of the project i.e. Is the project on schedule, behind schedule or ahead of schedule?

If the project has to be finished earlier than planned, what is the best way to do this at the least cost?

STEPS: The procedure is listed below:

Step 1. Specify the Individual Activities: From the work breakdown structure, a listing can be made of all the activities in the project. This listing can be used as the basis for adding sequence and duration information in later steps

Step 2. Determine the Sequence of the Activities: Some activities are dependent on the completion of others. A listing of the immediate predecessors of each activity is useful for constructing the CPM network diagram.

Step 3. Draw the Network Diagram: Once the activities and their sequencing have been defined, the CPM diagram can be drawn. CPM originally was developed as an activity on node (AON) network, but some project planners prefer to specify the activities on the arcs.

Step 4. Estimate Activity Completion Time: The time required to complete each activity can be estimated using past experience or the estimates of knowledgeable persons. CPM is a deterministic model that does not take into account variation in the completion time, so only one number is used for an activity's time estimate

Step 5. Identify the Critical Path: The critical path is the longest-duration path through the network. The significance of the critical path is that the activities that lie on it cannot be delayed without delaying the project. Because of its impact on the entire project, critical path analysis is an important aspect of project planning

The critical path can be identified by determining the four parameters for each activity. The four parameters are Earliest Start, Earliest Finish, Latest Finish and Latest Start.


TERMINOLOGIES:

Earliest Start: It is the value in the rectangle near the tail of each activity. The earliest time at which the activity can start given that its precedent activities must be completed first

Earliest Finish: This is equal to the earliest start time for the activity plus the time required completing the activity i.e. Earliest Start + Duration

Latest Finish: The latest time at which the activity can be completed without delaying the project. It is the value in the diamond at the head of each activity

Latest Start: It is equal to the latest finish time minus the time required to complete the activity i.e. Latest Finish - Duration

Critical Path: The critical path are the path through the project network in which none of the activities have slack, that is, the path for which ES=LS and EF=LF for all activities in the path.

Dummy arrows are used where required to avoid giving the same numbering to two activities as one of the rules for constructing network is that each activity must be unique. Suppose two activities "a" and "b" have to start from the same event (node 2) and end at some other but same event (node 4) then both "a" and "b" can't be given the same number so one is taken as a dummy activity and is represented by dotted lines.


Work Breakdown Structure

The work breakdown starts with a single box at the top which represents the whole project. The project is then partitioned into its components with lower level boxes. The WBS is a powerful tool for expressing the scope or extent of a project in simple graphic terms. It represents the project in terms of the hierarchy of deliverables and services it will produce. The project is therefore described just as a manufacturer would document the bill of materials breakdown for a washing machine or automobile.

S-Curve

The term S-Curve can also be used to indicate an S shaped chart resulting from a cumulative likelihood distribution. In this function, an S-Curve is a tool of quantitative risk analysis which project management would use to determine the possible dangers of any given course of action.

An S-Curve is a sigmoid function, that is a mathematical process or function that results in a S shaped curve also called a Sigmoid Curve. The S-Curve is used in project management as a means of representing the various expenditures of resources over the projected time of the project or as a means of charting the real-time expenditure of resources. This is important to project management in that it can be used to monitor the project as is progresses and compare it to the projected S-Curve to determine whether or the project is being completed within the time and budget limitations. These resources might be the cumulative cost of the project, the number of man hours required at any given stage in the project, the expenditure of raw materials for construction or assembly, etc.

Costing

Costing is a calculated cost of something: the cost that has been calculated for undertaking a project

All manufacturing companies sell their products to make profit. The profit on each product sold can be defined as the difference between the selling price of the product and the total cost of making the product. Cost therefore plays a very important role in the product design process. To be successful, a product must not only satisfy a set of functions defined in the product design specification, but it must also be possible to build the product within the cost criteria set out at the start of the project. Before the development of any product begins, it is essential to perform some form of economic analysis on the product to determine if it is worth making. This may involve some form of market analysis to determine what the customer is willing to pay for a product.

Development Costs

Product Costs
Component Costs
Material Costs
Manufacturing Costs
Storage Costs


Responsibility matrix

In a large project, there are many people who have some role in the completion of project deliverables. Sometimes this is pretty simple, such as one person writing a document and one person approving it. In other cases, there may be many people who have a hand in the creation and others that need to have varying levels of agreement.

For complicated scenarios involving many people, it can be helpful to have a Responsibility Matrix. This helps set expectations and ensures people know what is expected from them. For instance, you need to know whether the members of the Steering Committee need to approve the Business Requirements document. The matrix can lay it all out.





No comments: