List out the basic principles of software project scheduling

Also, we can take all the decisions regarding the design of the software which will enhance the productivity of our software. Skip to content. Change Language. Related Articles. Table of Contents. Improve Article. In order to simplify things made use of simple formula available in Microsoft Project itself. There are innumerable sites on the internet that offer several ways by which graphical indicators can be assigned to columns.

However here again I used basic formula available in the software and tried not to complicate matters further. Graphic Indicators also helped a great deal in reporting the project health to the top management as it gave a clear picture of the present status of the project. The project team had to be made aware of the discipline required in updating the project plan. Did not forget to baseline the plan. No one can list all activities of a construction project and more often than not new activities get added in the project schedule.

Creating a baseline helps in tracking the project it also helps in predicting the accuracy of the planning activities and can help in highlighting those activities which were not part of the original project scope. Moreover tracking the project through variances works only when the plan has a baseline. The resources in terms of men, material and equipment were captured in the schedule. Resources in order to complete a particular activity were mobilized well in advance.

A weekly look ahead schedule with well defined resource requirement provided much required insight to the project team members as well as resource managers responsible to ensure availability of resources at site.

Established a seamless communication loop with the site, suppliers, process engineers so that information can be ascertained in a real time basis.

Communication and feed back regarding commencement of planned activities and bottle necks if any is of great importance in having a complete control on the project. With out a well defined communication and feed back loop Project Manager and his other team members will face considerable difficulties in addressing the situation and if these issues that surface on a daily basis are not resolved in time will eventually become a serious situation hampering the project progress.

A routine exchange of information among various stakeholders facilitated in speedy execution of the project well with in the project sponsors expectations.

Once the new schedule was in place activities were tracked on a daily basis, due to relentless monitoring and control finally resulted in a Negative Finish Variance. However, after observing the schedule closely and comparing the actual progress at site repeatedly the project sponsor had to admit that the project is ahead of schedule without any compromise in quality and safety standards. The crux of the matter is that if project planning and scheduling fundamentals are applied without any compromise, the chances that the project schedule would slip is fairly limited and to very large extent predictable.

For example, Rough Plumbing must finish before Rough Electrical can start. Although this is normal practice in construction, this is not hard logic.

Hard Logic — logic used which provides valid links between activities. For example, the foundation must be cured before the walls can be erected. This is by far the most popular and easily understood of the logic types in use. Most tools handle this logic type the same and provide for a smooth transition between tools when needed. Those unfamiliar with advanced scheduling techniques should stick with this type, as little can be done here to get you in trouble. The Finish-to-Start FS logic type Exhibit 4 simply states that the succeeding activity cannot begin until the preceding activity has completed.

An example of the FS constraint is that the foundation of a house must be finished before the walls can be built. The Finish-to-Finish FF logic type, see Exhibit 5, is used to identify that a successor activity cannot finish until the predecessor activity is finish.

This is normally used when both activities can be performed for the most part in parallel; however some piece of work must be accomplished before the other piece can be accomplished. The FF logic is normally accompanied by either a lead or a lag discussed later to separate the finish dates of the activities.

An example of the FF logic is that a document cannot be finalized until all comments have been received and incorporated. The predecessor in this case is the comment period with the successor being the incorporation of comments. This indicates that once some comments have been received, work can begin incorporating or responding to those comments but the document is not complete until all comments are received and handled.

The Start-to-Start SS logic type Exhibit 6 is used to signify that for a succeeding activity to begin, a preceding activity must first begin. This is normally accomplished when both activities can be performed for the most part in parallel; however some work must begin before work can begin on the other activity.

The SS logic is normally accompanied by either a lead or a lag to separate th start dates of the activities. Typically the SS logic is used when material and labor are separate activities in a schedule, but there could be other instances of use. With that basis, think of construction and the pouring of concrete.

The SF logic is not intuitive, but it is defined as the successor activity being required to start before the predecessor activity can finish. This logic will provide for some distinctly different results based on the tool being used.

If you can't find a critical path, try changing any of these logic types that you may have in the schedule to one of the other types. This may be as simple as rethinking and realigning the current logic.

It is best practice to not use this logic type; I mention it only to ensure that the type is known. Realistically, there is no valid use for this type of logic when hard logic used. Leads and lags are a way to offset the logic that is set into place. Most tools define this usage as a lag, but allow the lead as a negative value of the lag.

There are basically two rules of thumb when utilizing the lead and lag philosophy:. Definition of resources is a multistep process. Ensure that these steps are followed to provide for the most executable schedule. There are subject matter experts SMEs from whom you will be getting information who will question this approach only because they have not been exposed to a structured process to build the schedule. Most of these SMEs find that they have been involved with projects that deviated greatly from their original schedules; but again, this is because these schedules were not built in a structured way.

When reviewing the tasks for work to be accomplished, the number of resources both human and nonhuman must be ignored. The only thing to worry about at this step is ensuring that you identify the types of resources required to accomplish the activity. Do you have the right expertise assigned? There are assumptions made when assigning the resource, but then again, how valid are the assumptions? For instance, when identifying a programmer, you assume that they have the computer and tools required when placed on your project, therefore the computer and tools are not identified as additional resources.

But what if the organization requires the programmer to lease or procure those types of resources, and he or she cannot? Now you have a programmer, but nothing they can work with. Don't forget about all tools that may be required to accomplish the activity at hand. Ensure that you identify those resources that are consumable, renewable, labor, and nonlabor. Tools can aid in monitoring and control of the project later on by reporting to these differing resource types and determining what can be done based on the resource type.

For all resources, you will need to define the amount of work required. A given software project is compartmentalized into a number of manageable activities. The project is divided into a number of small tasks. Interdependent tasks are accomplished first.

Certain tasks occur in sequence whereas other tasks occur in parallel. Therefore tasks which occur in sequence has to be performed in a sequential order since the output of one task will be the input of the next task. Other tasks can occur independently. Each and every task has to be assigned a specific time period i.

Every project is assigned to a software team. The project manager has to make sure that the effort allocated should not be more than the number of people available to do the work. Every task is associated with a milestone.