Osnova sekce

  • fOnly after you complete your project estimates, the time is ripe for proceeding to fixing the project schedule. That means transfering your WBS + project estimates into a calendar. In this module, you will learn about the basic scheduling methods used in project management, types of links between tasks as well as about the critical path and it´s use in managing your projects.

    There are different methods that may be applied in project scheduling. Some examples are:

    • Precedence Diagram Method, 
    • Critical Path,
    • Critical Chain Method 
    • PERT (Programme Evaluation and Review Technique) etc.

    Most of the above listed methods however work with the same basic blocks:

    • activities (tasks that consume resources)
    • milestones (points in time that do not consume resources)
    • relationships (linkeages)
    • critical path

    Linkeages / task relationships:

    • Finish - start /FS/ (when using SW for scheduling activities, FS is the default value after all the activities are linked)
    • Start - start /SS/
    • Finish - finish /FF/
    • Lag time
    • Lead time
    • Early start
    • Eartly finish
    • Late start 
    • Late finish

    Assignement 1: Give examples of the FS, FF, SS, lag and lead times from your daily life.

    By linking all activities in you WBS, you get a network to integrate into calender time and get the baseline for your project schedule. 

    In the network, you may discover two different types of floats:

    Free Float – the amount of time a task can be delayed without affecting the succeeding task. 
    Total Float – this is the amount of time which an activity can be delayed without affecting the end date of the project.

    Critical path

    The critical path is the longest sequence of tasks that must be completed to successfully conclude a project, from start to finish. Therefore, it also represents the shortest time in which the whole project may be completed. The tasks on the critical path are known as critical activities because if they're delayed, the whole project will be delay. The so called float between these tasks equals zero. 

    Assignement 2: How can the critical path serve the project manager during the phase of project execution?