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A project is a temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product, service or result.
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This section covers project classification, life-cycle phases, the planning process, scheduling by bar chart, CPM and PERT, resource levelling and smoothing, and project monitoring, evaluation and control.
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Project and Its Classification • Characteristics: temporary (definite start and finish), unique output, specific objectives, limited resources and budget, progressive elaboration, uncertainty/risk, team-based, has a life cycle. • Triple constraint: scope, time and cost (with quality at the centre) — changing one affects the others.
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Basis Classes Ownership / sector Public (government), private, public-private partnership (PPP), joint venture, NGO/donor-funded Size Small, medium, large, mega projects Nature / type Construction & infrastructure (roads, hydropower, buildings), industrial/manufacturing, research & development, IT, social/development projects Location Local, national, international Urgency Normal, crash (accelerated), disaster/emergency projects Funding Government budget, loans, grants/aid, equity/private investment Project Life-Cycle Phases • 1.
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Concept/initiation: need identification, project idea, pre-feasibility and feasibility study (technical, market, financial, economic, environmental and social, legal, managerial), appraisal and approval. • 2.
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Planning (design/development): detailed design, scope and WBS, schedule, budget, resources, procurement, risk and quality plans. • 3.
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Execution/implementation: procurement, construction/production, coordination of people and resources — highest cost and effort. • 4.
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Monitoring and control: throughout the project — track progress, compare with baseline, take corrective action. • 5.
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Closure/termination: commissioning and handover, final accounts, contract close-out, lessons learned, post-project evaluation. • Resource use is low at start, peaks in execution and falls at closure; the ability to influence scope and cost is highest at the start and cost of changes rises as the project proceeds. • Project cycle used by development banks (Baum): identification → preparation → appraisal → negotiation/approval → implementation and supervision → evaluation.
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Project Planning Process • Define objectives and scope → prepare Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) — hierarchical decomposition of total scope into manageable work packages → list activities → sequence activities (dependencies) → estimate durations and resources → develop schedule → estimate costs and budget (cost baseline) → plan quality, risk, communication and procurement → approve the baseline (scope + schedule + cost). • Dependencies: finish-to-start (FS) — most common; start-to-start (SS); finish-to-finish (FF); start-to-finish (SF); with leads and lags. • Responsibility matrix (RACI — Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) assigns roles to WBS elements.
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Bar Chart, CPM and PERT • Bar (Gantt) chart (Henry Gantt): activities listed vertically, horizontal bars show start, duration and finish on a time scale.
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Simple, easy to understand and good for progress display; but does not clearly show interdependencies or the critical path and is hard to update for large projects.
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Milestone chart shows key events. • Network diagrams:
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Activity-on-Arrow (AOA) — arrows = activities, nodes = events; dummy activities (zero duration, dashed) show logic only.
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Activity-on-Node (AON) / precedence diagram — nodes = activities; no dummies needed (used by MS Project, Primavera). • Forward pass gives earliest start ES and earliest finish EF = ES + d; backward pass gives latest finish LF and latest start LS = LF − d. • Total float TF = LS − ES = LF − EF (delay allowed without delaying the project).
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Free float FF = ES of successor − EF of activity (delay without delaying any successor).
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Interfering float = TF − FF; independent float. • Critical path: the LONGEST path through the network; activities on it have zero total float; it determines the minimum project duration.
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There may be more than one critical path.
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Feature CPM PERT Developed by DuPont (Kelley & Walker), 1957 US Navy — Polaris missile programme, 1958 Time estimates Single, deterministic Three: optimistic to, most likely tm, pessimistic tp (beta distribution) Orientation Activity-oriented Event-oriented Focus Time-cost trade-off (crashing) Probability of completing by a target date Used for Repetitive, well-known work — construction, maintenance New, uncertain work — R&D;, defence, first-of-a-kind projects • PERT expected time te = (to + 4tm + tp)/6; standard deviation σ = (tp − to)/6; variance σ² = [(tp − to)/6]².
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Project variance = sum of variances of critical activities; project duration assumed normally distributed:
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Z = (Ts − Te)/σcp gives the probability of completion by scheduled time Ts (Z = 0 → 50%, Z = 1 → 84%, Z = 2 → 97.7%). • Example: to = 4, tm = 6, tp = 14 days → te = (4 + 24 + 14)/6 = 7 days; σ = 10/6 ≈ 1.67 days. • Crashing (time-cost trade-off): shorten critical activities by adding resources, starting with the lowest cost slope = (crash cost − normal cost)/(normal time − crash time); optimum duration gives minimum total cost (direct cost rises, indirect cost falls as duration is reduced).
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Fast-tracking: overlapping activities normally done in sequence (adds risk).
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Resource Levelling and Smoothing • Resource histogram shows resource requirement over time; peaks and valleys are inefficient (idle labour, hiring/firing). • Resource levelling (resource-constrained scheduling): activities are rescheduled so that resource demand does not exceed availability — the project duration may be extended and the critical path may change. • Resource smoothing (time-constrained): activities are shifted only within their float to reduce fluctuations — project end date is NOT changed. • Methods: shifting non-critical activities within float, splitting activities, heuristics (e.g., least float first, shortest duration first), software (Primavera P6, MS Project).
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Monitoring, Evaluation and Controlling • Monitoring: continuous, systematic collection and analysis of data on progress, cost, quality and risks during implementation — mostly internal, answers 'are we doing things right?'. • Evaluation: periodic assessment (baseline, mid-term, terminal/final, ex-post) of relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability (OECD-DAC criteria) — answers 'are we doing the right things?'. • Controlling: comparing actual performance with the plan/baseline, analysing variances and taking corrective action (control cycle: plan → measure → compare → correct). • Tools:
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Gantt progress charts, S-curves (cumulative planned vs actual), milestone reviews, progress reports and meetings, site inspections, logical framework (goal, purpose, outputs, activities with indicators, means of verification and assumptions), line of balance. • Earned Value Management (EVM):
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PV (planned value, BCWS), EV (earned value, BCWP), AC (actual cost, ACWP).
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SV = EV − PV, CV = EV − AC;
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SPI = EV/PV, CPI = EV/AC (< 1 → behind schedule / over budget).
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Estimate at completion EAC = BAC/CPI; estimate to complete ETC = EAC − AC; variance at completion VAC = BAC − EAC.