The Project Management area called project time management focuses on the processes necessary to develop the project schedule and to ensure that the project is completed on time. As defined , project time management includes: ■ Define Activities—Identifying what activities must be completed to produce the project scope deliverables ■ Sequence Activities—Determining whether activities can be completed sequentially or in parallel and any dependencies that may exist among them ■ Estimate Activity Resources—Identifying the type of resources (people, technology, facilities, etc.) and the quantity of resources needed to carry out project activities ■ Estimate Activity Durations—Estimating the time to complete each activity
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THE WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE (WBS)
■ Develop Schedule—Based on the availability of resources, the activities, their sequence, and time estimates, a schedule for the entire budget can be developed ■ Control Schedule—Ensuring that proper processes and procedures are in place in order to control changes to the project schedule In this chapter, we will concentrate on two of these processes: activity definition and activity estimation.Thesearekeyprocessesthatdeservespecialattentionbecausetheyarerequiredinputs fordevelopingtheprojectnetworkmodelthatwilldeterminetheproject’sscheduleandbudget.In the next chapter, you will see how we put this all together to develop the detailed project plan. The remainder of this chapter will introduce several important tools, techniques, and concepts. A workbreakdownstructure(WBS) is discussed first. It provides a hierarchical structure that outlines the activities or work that needs to be done in order to complete the project scope. The WBS also provides a bridge or link between the project’s scope and the detailed project plan that will be entered into a project management software package. Today, most project management