PROJECT MANAGEMENT THROUGH NETWORKS, Lecture notes of Project Management

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METHODS OF PLANNING AND

PROGRAMMING

• K Suryanarayana
• Assistant Professor
• Department of Civil Engineering
• ANITS

Introduction

When the planning of a project is undertaken a host of

questions arise :

• How should the work be accomplished?

• What resources will be needed?

• How long will it take? How much will it cost?

• The answers to all these questions can be found by following

the modern techniques of project management.

Bar Charts

• The following steps are involved preparing the bar chart:

1. Divide the project into many activities.

2. List out the activities

3. Find the inter relationship among these activities

4. Arrange the activities in a systematic way

5. Calculate the quantity of work and the time required

6. Draw it according to scale

Bar Charts

• Fig. shows the bar chart for a

project which has seven distinct

jobs or activities (P, Q, R, S, T, U, V)

to be performed for its

completion. The time durations

required for the completion of

these activities are 10 , 5 , 10 , 7 , 5 , 8

and 15 unit days respectively.

From the chart, we conclude the

following :

• (i) Activities P and Q can start simultaneously, at zero time. Both the activities are independent. However, activity Q is completed much earlier than activity P.
• (ii) Activity R starts only when activity Q is complete.
• (iii) However, activity S is independent of activity R. It starts earlier than R and is completed earlier.
• (iv) Activity T starts only when activity S is complete.
• (v) Activities U and R can start simultaneously, when activity Q is complete.
• (vi) Activity V can start when activity P and S are complete.End of activity V marks the completion of the project.

• From the above two examples, we find that there are
• some operations or activities which can take place concurrently
• while there are some activities that succeed a preceding activity and cannot be started unless the preceding activity is complete.
• The concurrent activities or jobs are represented by bars running parallel or overlapping each other time-wise.
• The other types of activities have bars that run serially one after the other. In either case, each bar can be represented either by a set of two lines running parallel to each other (i.e. by a rectangle) or by a thick, solid line.

EXAMPLE.

• Draw the bar chart for finalization of designs and work order' for a building project.

EXAMPLE 2

The activity breakdown for a certain project is as under. Activity 2 and activity 3 can be done concurrently, and both must follow activity

1. Activity 2 must precede activity 4. Activity 5 cannot begin until both activities 2 and 3 are completed. Activity 6 can be started only after activities 4 and 5 are complete. Activity 7 is the last activity which can be started only after completion of activity 5. Prepare the bar chatt for the project.

Bar chart

Activity 2 and activity 3 can be done concurrently, and both must follow activity

1. Activity 2 must precede activity 4. Activity 5 cannot begin until both activities 2 and 3 are completed. Activity 6 can be started only after activities 4 and 5 are complete. Activity 7 is the last activity which can be started only after completion of activity 5. Prepare the bar chaff for the project.

Limitations of Bar Chart:

Lack of Degree of Details:

• only major activities are shown.

• If too many activities or tasks, it becomes clumsy.

• Not very useful for big projects.

• A particular activity, whether big or small, is shown by one bar,

without any details of sub-activities contained in it.

• These sub-activities cannot be separated out. Due to this,

effective control over the activities cannot be achieved.

Limitations of Bar Chart:

consider the activity 'dispose of existing machine’. One bar, though the following functions control the completion time for the activity : ➢ Dumping machine in store ➢ Notice inviting bidding ➢ Finalisation of highest bid ➢ Final disposal of the machine. For effective completion of the main activity, these sub- activities should be scheduled properly. The above information can be shown effectively by marking stages (called 'mile stones') on the activity bar

Review of Project Progress

Limitations of Bar Chart:

• 3. Activity Inter-relationships

• As indicated earlier, there are some activities of a project which are taken up concurrently,

while there are others which can be taken up only after the completion of some other

activity.

• The concurrent activities are represented by bars which run parallel to each other, or which

overlap.

• The activities whose start and end depend on other activities are shown serially.
• In a project, there may be large number of activities which can start with a certain degree of

concurrency.

• By merely depicting them by parallel lines, the inter-relationships between them cannot be

clearly depicted.

• One cannot draw the conclusion that if two activities are scheduled for simultaneous or

overlapping times, they are inter-dependent or completely independent.