Page 150 - DCAP304_DCAP515_SOFTWARE_PROJECT_MANAGEMENT

Software Project Management

Notes The project manager should review the resource decomposition and project activities templates
to estimate the number of work periods required for completing the identified activities and
producing the deliverables. The output of this process is activity estimates that are linked to
resource calendars. This information will be used later in developing the implementation
schedule.

Did u know? What is the resource calendar?
A resource calendar is a calendar that is used to reflect specific working hours, vacations, leaves
of absence, and planned personal time for individual resources. A resource calendar differs from
a base calendar in that it only reflects working and non-working times for individual resources.

7.2.1 Schedule Inputs

You need several types of inputs to create a project schedule:
 Personal and project calendars: Understanding working days, shifts, and resource
availability is critical to completing a project schedule.
 Description of project scope: From this, you can determine key start and end dates, major
assumptions behind the plan, and key constraints and restrictions. You can also include
stakeholder expectations, which will often determine project milestones.
 Project risks: You need to understand these to make sure there’s enough extra time to deal
with identified risks – and with unidentified risks (risks are identified with thorough Risk
Analysis).

 Lists of activities and resource requirements: Again, it’s important to determine if there
are other constraints to consider when developing the schedule. Understanding the resource
capabilities and experience you have available – as well as company holidays and staff
vacations – will affect the schedule.
A project manager should be aware of deadlines and resource availability issues that may make
the schedule less flexible.

7.2.2 Scheduling Tools

Here are some tools and techniques for combining these inputs to develop the schedule:
 Schedule Network Analysis: This is a graphic representation of the project’s activities, the
time it takes to complete them, and the sequence in which they must be done. Project
management software is typically used to create these analyses – Gantt charts and PERT
Charts are common formats.
 Critical Path Analysis: This is the process of looking at all of the activities that must be
completed, and calculating the ‘best line’ – or critical path – to take so that you’ll complete
the project in the minimum amount of time. The method calculates the earliest and latest
possible start and finish times for project activities, and it estimates the dependencies
among them to create a schedule of critical activities and dates. Learn more about Critical
Path Analysis.

 Schedule Compression: This tool helps shorten the total duration of a project by decreasing
the time allotted for certain activities. It’s done so that you can meet time constraints, and
still keep the original scope of the project. You can use two methods here:

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