HRM 3440 Lecture Notes - Lecture 27: Project Management Software, Gantt Chart, Critical Path Method
23 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
HRM 3440 Lecture 27 Notes – Use of Computer-Aided Software Engineering (CASE) Tools
Introduction
• In systems development, each activity has an earliest start time, earliest finish time, and
slack time, which is the amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying the
entire project.
• The critical path consists of all activities that, if delayed, would delay the entire project.
• These activities have zero slack time.
• Any problems with critical-path activities will cause problems for the entire project.
• To ensure that critical-path activities are completed in a timely fashion, formalized
project management approaches have been developed.
• Tools such as Microsoft Project are available to help compute these critical project
attributes.
• Although the steps of systems development seem straightforward, larger projects can
become complex, requiring hundreds or thousands of separate activities.
• For these systems development efforts, formal project management methods and tools
become essential.
• A formalized approach called Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) creates
three time estimates for an activity: shortest possible time, most likely time, and longest
possible time.
• A formula is then applied to determine a single PERT time estimate.
• A Gantt chart is a graphical tool used for planning, monitoring, and coordinating
projects.
• It is essentially a grid that lists activities and deadlines.
• Each time a task is completed, a marker such as a darkened line is placed in the proper
grid cell to indicate the completion of a task.
• Both PERT and Gantt techniques can be automated using project management
software.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
