You know that Project Time Management is a crucial knowledge area if you are considering applying for a PMP certification (Project Management Professional Certification). As implied by the name and as described in PMI (Project Management Institute) certification training, it consists of the procedures needed to oversee the timely completion of the project. This training can be done in a number of ways, from directly at PMI charter locations, certified training classes, or PMP Online Courses.
With the use of practice online PMP Examinations, and innovative tools like Brain Sensei’s dynamic PMP Exam Simulator you may, if you’d like, evaluate your understanding of these Seven Project Time Management Processes to boost your chances at acing the PMP Exam the first time.
What do you hope to accomplish with Project Time Management?
In order to accomplish the project’s aims and objectives, there are several stakeholders, numerous project team members, and numerous actions that must be carried out. It ensures that project operations are coordinated, completed in the right order, and finished on time.
What are the results from the Time Project Management?
The main output is the Project Schedule. The Project Schedule displays the beginning and ending times of each activity, the relationships between them, and the beginning and ending times of the entire project.
To create the project schedule two main areas must be considered. The scheduling method (for example, Critical Path Method), and the project information (For example, project specific data such as WBS, activities, resources, durations, dependencies, constraints, calendars, milestones, lags and any other variables that will affect the project). Combining this with a scheduling tool and schedule model, we can generate the output for the schedule which is, of course, the actual project schedule.
All this data offers thorough information on the levels of activity needed, but understanding the processing and systems to complete the project is necessary to produce an accurate and well planned Project Schedule, completely and accurately. We utilize a scheduling approach to do this. The Critical Path Method, or CPM, is the most widely used scheduling technique. The Critical Path Method approach demonstrates the quickest completion time for all project tasks.
A scheduling tool, which is typically a computer application, is used in order to employ CPM. Primavera and Microsoft Project are the most widely used scheduling tools in Project Management and it’s often recommended that new Project Managers should become familiar with these programs, in addition to staying up to date with their company’s preferred program’s latest updates.
You can use these tools to construct the overall project schedule, describe the relationships between project tasks, assign resources, set up calendars, and more. Utilizing these Project Management Tools is a necessity in modern Project Management, especially when dealing with large and complex tasks
How to Present the Project Schedule?
There are various different ways to present the project schedule once it is finished. There are 3 typical ways to show a project timetable.
An activity list can be used to display all of the tasks with their info in a basic, textual manner, including it’s start and estimated finish date and allocated resources; alternatively, a bar chart and network diagram can be used to provide context and create a more legible, and structured way to present the project schedule. These are often the ones which would be shown to stakeholders, as the activity list can become quite cumbersome as a project is fully fleshed out – Notwithstanding having the full list of activities is very useful when it comes to managing the project’s schedule.
The bar graph displays relationships between activities with bars next to each action as well as a brief explanation of each activity. Easy to view and understand but sometimes lacking in extra context.
Meanwhile, each action is represented as a box in a network diagram, and the time of each activity is inside the box. Arrows are used to depict how several activities are interconnected so dependencies and timelines can be seen in a visual manner.
The Seven Steps to Effectively Manage the Time of the Project
Time Management consists of seven processes to make up this knowledge area of the PMI’s PMP exam. The majority of Project Time Management occurs during planning, hence only one process in the knowledge area belongs to the Project Monitoring and Control process group, whereas six processes in the knowledge area are associated with project planning.
The processes in the knowledge area of Project Time Management include:
- Organizing the time planning of a project’s activities is known as Plan Schedule Management.
- Defining the activities that must be carried out to complete the project is helpful.
- A Sequence of Activities should be done in order to establish their relationships with one another.
- Estimate the Resources for each Activity: Planning must be done for the activity resource estimations. Activity resources offer their estimates for the durations of the activities to which they have been assigned.
- Create Schedule: The overall project schedule is established using the data received during earlier steps.
- Control the Schedule: To keep the project on track, it compares the project schedule to baselines and makes corrections and preventative measures as needed.
The main focuses of project time management are the relationships between the activities, setting up the start and finish dates of the activities, developing the project plan, and ensuring that all project activities are completed on schedule.
With this in mind, a comprehensive schedule and plan can be made to ensure a project gets off to a good start, with careful management and planning a project can progress swiftly, within budget, and to a high quality – but without proper time management a project has the risk of falling behind, taking more resources than needed and underperforming
Understanding the information in this article is an essential part of project management and a vital part of the PMP exam. Improve your project management skills or prepare for the PMP Certification exam by taking a quality online PMP exam prep course.