Time management of product project management system

To get a project online on time, product managers need to control time during project management, and the more precise the better.

completing projects on time, with quality and quantity is what every project participant wants to do, but in the actual project work due to various reasons, the project schedule is often delayed. you will find that in other means of performance appraisal kpis, there will be a "on time" item, and going online on time is the goal of the project time dimension, so we say that the more accurate the time control in the project management process, the more accurate the project can be launched on time.


therefore, time management skills are especially important for project managers, who can complete projects on time, allocate resources reasonably, and exert the best work efficiency with quality and quantity. its main tasks include:

• define the activity
• activity sorting
• activity resource estimates
• activity time estimate
• make a schedule
• control the progress

1. define the activity

to get a project online on time, product managers need to control time during project management, and the more precise the better.

completing projects on time, with quality and quantity is what every project participant wants to do, but in the actual project work due to various reasons, the project schedule is often delayed. you will find that in other means of performance appraisal kpis, there will be a "on time" item, and going online on time is the goal of the project time dimension, so we say that the more accurate the time control in the project management process, the more accurate the project can be launched on time.


therefore, time management skills are especially important for project managers, who can complete projects on time, allocate resources reasonably, and exert the best work efficiency with quality and quantity. its main tasks include:

• define the activity
• activity sorting
• activity resource estimates
• activity time estimate
• make a schedule
• control the progress

Defining activities is the starting point of the project, and in the previous chapter, "Scope Management of Product Project Management System", it was said that the tasks were decomposed into minimum work packages using WBS decomposition technology. The definition activity is to further break down each work package into smaller parts, that is, what work needs to be done to complete the project and what the steps of the work are. At this time, it is necessary to define the time and resources required to complete a work package.

• inputs: scope benchmarks, business environment factors, organizational process assets.
• output: activity list, activity properties, milestone list.
• tools and techniques: decomposition, rolling planning, expert judgment.
• expert judgment: based on historical information, experts can provide valuable insights into the project environment and information about similar projects in the past, and can provide valuable experience in many aspects of the project.

rolling planning: define large milestones first, reach the beginning of each milestone, and then define the work packages in this milestone.

organizational process assets: organizational process assets are plans, processes, policies, procedures, and knowledge bases that are unique to and used by the organization. includes any artifact, practice, or knowledge from any (or all) participating organizations that can be used to execute or govern the project. these process assets include the execution of formal and informal programs, processes, policies, procedures, and knowledge bases that are unique to and used by the organization. process assets also include an organization's knowledge base, such as lessons learned and historical information. organizational process assets may also include complete schedules, risk data, and earned value data. organizational process assets are the input to most of the planning process. throughout the project process, project team members can make the necessary updates and additions to organizational process assets.

2. activity sorting

when a work package is broken down into multiple activities, then what activities are done first and done later, and which activities are serial or parallel need to be considered. only by arranging the activities well can the work efficiency be high, the resources used less, and the quality better. the purpose of sorting is to find out the best order and logic to complete these activities, so as not to waste unnecessary resources.

• inputs: activity list, activity attributes, milestone list, project scope specification, business environment factors, organizational process assets
• output: project progress network map, project file update

refers to the definition of the interrelationship of all activities by squares and arrows, and is represented sequentially, serially, and in parallel by a bounding chart with arrows. single-code work is located on a node, which is equivalent to a node representing a job. the goal is to keep the work organized, collaborative, not allowing everyone to get into an event and clarifying where everyone should be. using a preamble map to sequence the activities is equivalent to sorting the participants once.

• four typical project-based logical relationships
• Start-End: Task A cannot end until Task A has started.
• end-start: the previous task ends and the next task can start.
• start-start: two tasks can be parallel.
• end-end: two tasks can end at the same time.
• the dependencies of the activity
• mandatory dependencies: logical relationships cannot be changed, such as developing and then testing or testing before going live.
• free dependencies: for example, whether it can be prototyped or designed first, or parallel tasks and serial tasks.
• external dependencies: the controllability is relatively poor, and it is difficult to define whether the task is done by our own people or by outsiders, and it is difficult for outsiders to do it. such as outsourcing, certification audit, government agency approval, etc., the time control is relatively poor.
• advance and lag amounts
• premise quantity: the previous activity is not over, the next activity can start in advance, and the overlap between the previous activity and the next activity is called the advance amount.
• lag: the next activity can start after the previous activity ends for a period of time. the gap period between the two activities is the lag amount.

3. estimation of activity resources

estimate what resources, materials, personnel, equipment, funds, etc. will be needed to complete these activities.

A resource decomposition structure (RBS), a hierarchy of resources divided by resource category and type. Hierarchical breakdown of materials, people, and tools. The advantage of this is that there will be no missing out, and all available resources will be systematically organized.

personnel position skill matrix

who can be multi-skilled, resources can be part-time positions increase the flexibility of resource arrangement. organize all employees into one table. as can be seen from the following table, li si has both design and development skills, so when the designers are insufficient, we can let li si also participate in the design.

4. activity time estimate

when we have estimated the activity resources, we can estimate the activity time, if the resources are relatively small, it may take longer, and if the resources are more, the time may be shorter.

(1) analogy estimation method

the top-down estimation method, based on previous experience, to determine the current activity time, there is a certain error in this way, generally used in the early stage of the activity.

(2) PERT PROGRAM REVIEW TECHNOLOGY (THREE-POINT ESTIMATION)

it's a very good technology!!!! the technology consists of three elements: event, activity, and critical path. by estimating three points, and then calculating by a formula —

PERT WEIGHTED AVERAGE = (A+4M+B)/6.

(A: THE MOST OBJECTIVE COMPLETION TIME, M: THE MOST LIKELY CRITICAL TIME, B: THE MOST PESSIMISTIC KEY TIME)

(3) parameter estimation

based on past empirical values, defining work on function points allows you to estimate the man-hours required to complete several function points. of course, the premise is that the working hours of 1 function point cannot be too wrong, and it is based on a certain amount of experience in the past workload to refer to it.

5. make a schedule

analyze the order of activities, duration, resource requirements and schedule constraints, the process of compiling project progress. scheduling is an iterative process.

critical path method

when many activities in the project process are parallel, it is clear how to find out the most critical activities? for a project, only the entire longest-consuming activity is the key activity, because only the longest-consuming activity can end the project.

this is a process of grasping the big and letting go of the small, grasping the most critical activities, which is equivalent to grasping the overall duration of the project. project managers manage the longest activity in the management project, and this longest activity route is called the critical path. this also effectively shortens the project cycle, which means that we can use all our limited resources in the critical path. placing resources in non-critical paths only wastes resources and greatly improves project cycles.

critical path features

• the duration of activities on the critical path determines the duration of the project, and the sum of the times is the duration of the project.
• any activity on the critical path is a critical activity, and the extension of one of the activities will result in an extension of the project completion cycle.
• the duration of the entire project increases as activity on the critical path increases, decreases and decreases.
• activities on the critical path are activities with the smallest total time difference, and changing the time it takes to change one of these activities will cause the critical path to change, and the critical path may become not the critical path. so the critical path is not absolute, it is subject to change. when you shorten one of the critical paths, it may cause it to be more than the other path end, making the other paths the critical path.
• multiple critical paths can exist.
• look for the critical path method

(the figure above is an exploded diagram of an active square) use the direction to mark the activity relationship and calculate the earliest start time, the latest start time, the earliest completion time, and the latest completion time of each activity using the positive and backward methods, and calculate the floating time of each interaction. identifying the route that all the associate directors have both zero or negative activities is the critical path. identify the quasi-critical path, you can find the entry point, how to shorten or extend the project duration.

critical path method calculations

the earliest start time refers to the time after the project is ready, at this time you can use the previous three-point assessment method to calculate a construction period, the earliest start time plus the construction period, you get the earliest end time, which is an early state.

the latest end time, in order not to affect the project, the latest end time of the activity. the latest end time minus the duration gives the latest start time. it's a time to have to start and take the activity of doing.

float time: the difference between the earliest start time and the latest start, which means that the project starts within this time without affecting the project. or the difference between the latest end time and the earliest end time.



after arranging the critical path, the next step is to define the time for each activity of the critical path, through this positive push, you can get the earliest and latest end time to complete the project, as follows.



in reverse, see which activities have floating time in between. help us solve the numbers that look at floating time.

• latest end date - duration = latest start time
• earliest end time - duration = earliest start time
• the purpose of this is to find the critical path, all floating time is 0 is our key activity, and all key activities are connected to the critical path. so if you have the opportunity to shorten the duration on the critical path, you can shorten the duration.

6. control your progress

controlling progress is monitoring the status of a project to update the progress of the project. it's more like a ruler, following the ruler to the target. whether the project is good or not depends on whether the plan is done well or not, and it takes a lot of time to make a reasonable plan in the early stage, and to do a good job before we actually implement the project.

how to ensure that all project members are going according to the project plan and avoid going astray when they walk.

performance review: at regular intervals, periodically or at key points, to see if the project progress is consistent with the plan.

deviation analysis: the deviation analysis is continuously carried out in the process of the project, mainly to see the project trend, such as seeing that the project deviation is large, we need to implement some means to adjust.

predict whether the final goal of the entire project can be achieved, and if it cannot be achieved, it may require certain means, such as resource balance, schedule compression, etc. to ensure that the final goal can be completed.

schedule control content: project schedule control is to monitor the change of the project in time, and compare with the planned progress, a single actual progress lags behind the planned schedule, then take corrective measures to ensure the normal progress of the project, the project schedule control content includes:

establish a baseline of progress: this is the project plan, including the milestones of time and completion of the entire project. recognition during project establishment. once the pre-project is settled, this baseline is used to compare it during the project process with the end of the project. (planned time)

track and document the actual progress of the project: (actual time) constantly compare the actual results with the baseline of progress, so that there are errors between the actual situation and the plan, and remedial measures can be taken.

take remedial measures: many times, the characteristics of schedule control, the project schedule to define milestones, whether the project has deviations, is the actual completion of the situation and the milestone time is consistent, milestones are mainly some module completion time, function implementation time, test time, etc. this helps us predict when the project will be completed.

remedies

the change of the project plan, provided that the project has deviated into a situation that cannot be adjusted, in which case we can only adjust the goal and change the benchmark. of course, it is not recommended to do this, and you cannot change the project goals every time the goals you set are not met, so that the company will have the greatest impact through clever ways.

fast follow-up: turn part of the serial work into parallel, shorten the construction period. although the time is shortened, it increases the project risk and may rework, resulting in longer delays. use with caution.

rush schedule: postpone the activity to supplement additional resources, shorten the time, such as multiple hands, more time, more money, etc., by sacrificing costs to do.

renegotiation: find ways to persuade customers and suppliers to agree to a project delay and make the customer accept it.

in practice, we don't want this to happen.

project management is a very challenging level of forecasting and control for project managers. most excellent processes are designed, such as the steps we said earlier, to go reasonably, to achieve the goal in anticipation. project management pays great attention to synergy and seamless cooperation on the slope of the street.

good project manager, he must be a person who is good at doing project planning. factors that are not taken into account in the early stage will be the cause of the problems in the later stages. that means the later stages were very bumpy. if you only try to save time and omit these preliminary work, the later work will inevitably take a detour, but it will delay the time. the project begins with a clear project objective, a defined documentation of the scope of the deliverable product, and a work breakdown structure (wbs) for the project. since some are obvious and necessary for the project, while others have a certain degree of concealment, it is necessary to list the complete work necessary to complete the project based on experience, and at the same time to have an expert review process, based on which a feasible project time plan can be formulated and reasonable time management can be carried out.