Changes between Version 41 and Version 42 of ProjectManagementIdeas
- Timestamp:
- May 1, 2009, 1:39:18 AM (15 years ago)
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ProjectManagementIdeas
v41 v42 67 67 The essential property of a milestone is its date. Trac tickets which are part of a milestone are implicitly due by the milestone date. In general project management, milestones have FS dependency with some some tasks. Together with dependencies between tasks, this dictates when tasks must be done to keep a project on schedule. 68 68 69 = Task Scheduling=69 == Task Scheduling == 70 70 71 71 The basic answer to "When will my project be done?" is generally ''displayed in'' a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gantt_chart Gantt chart] which shows tasks, their dependencies, their duration (scaled by resource availability), and milestones. [http://groups.google.com/group/trac-users/browse_thread/thread/83c0b6a248040542?hl=en Two] [http://groups.google.com/group/trac-users/browse_thread/thread/3084796acbc7233c/3f393a18f99cfebd?hl=en&tvc=2#3f393a18f99cfebd}}} threads] on the Trac Users mailing list, suggest that a Gantt chart is a fundamental requirement for project management but scheduling tasks is even more fundamental and a necessary precondition for producing a Gantt chart. … … 119 119 Knowing that the schematic takes 3 days, we have to start by May 2 to finish on time. 120 120 121 = Calendar = 122 123 The schedule above isn't accurate unless we have a 7-day work week. If we assume that the work week is Monday to Friday with Saturday and Sunday off, firmware has to finish Friday, May 8 and schematic has to finish Friday, May 1 so the project must begin April 29. 124 125 = Gantt Charts = 126 == Dependency and Duration == 121 == Calendar == 122 123 The schedule above isn't accurate unless we have a 7-day work week. If we assume that the work week is Monday to Friday with Saturday and Sunday off, firmware has to finish Friday, May 8 and schematic has to finish Friday, May 1 so the project must begin April 29. Applying calendar information, our task list looks like the following. 124 125 ||'''ID'''||'''Summary'''||'''Estimate'''||'''Blocked by'''||'''Due'''|| 126 ||1||Design the Schematic||24h||||May 1, 2009|| 127 ||2||Design the Circuit board||16h||1||May 8, 2009|| 128 ||3||Design the packaging||16h||||May 8, 2009|| 129 ||4||Write firmware||40h||1||May 8, 2009|| 130 ||5||Assemble units||8h||2,3,4||May 11, 2009|| 131 132 == Gantt Charts == 133 === Dependency and Duration === 127 134 128 135 Once we have a task scheduler, we can simplify presentation of task scheduling with a very basic Gantt that showed just tasks and their dependencies and the resultant schedule. … … 140 147 This requires only that the ticket have some information about estimated effort or duration of the task and simple FS task dependency. 141 148 142 == Progress==149 === Progress === 143 150 144 151 If we also track work on tasks, we can monitor project progress at a glance. … … 146 153 [[Image(gantt-progress.PNG)]] 147 154 148 == Resource Allocation==155 === Resource Allocation === 149 156 150 157 When a resource is not available 100% of the time, tasks take longer than the work suggests. By assigning effort to resources, we can chart this time dialation. … … 154 161 When the hardware and software engineers are only available half time, the project gets delayed. 155 162 156 == Critical Path==163 === Critical Path === 157 164 158 165 Some tasks affect project schedule and some do not. The tasks which affect the schedule are on the ''critical path''. … … 162 169 Packaging design and circuit board layout are so short -- relative to other activities -- that speeding them up doesn't really help the project. But if we could shorten schematic design or firmware, every day we take out of one of those activities we also take out of the project schedule. 163 170 164 == Sub-tasks==171 === Sub-tasks === 165 172 166 173 To manage the complexity of the chart, we can break tasks down into sub-tasks and show various levels of detail. … … 170 177 [[Image(roll-up-2.PNG)]] 171 178 172 == Progress Line==179 === Progress Line === 173 180 174 181 A Gantt chart often includes a "today" line to show where a project stands. … … 178 185 Bumps to the left indicate tasks that are behind schedule. 179 186 180 == Slack Time==187 === Slack Time === 181 188 182 189 A Gantt chart may also show slack time for tasks, how much they can slip before affecting the overall schedule. … … 186 193 The black bars extending from the bottom of circuit board and packaging design indicate how much those tasks can slip without affecting deliverable. 187 194 188 = Resource Utilization=195 == Resource Utilization == 189 196 190 197 There are several views of resource utilization which may be helpful:
