How to Track the Project?

Project

A project is a unique, transient endeavor, undertaken to achieve planned objectives, which could be defined in terms of outputs, outcomes or benefits.Basically it follows a certain equation, in terms of execution.

Y =f(x)

It entails that, x inputs are transformed by Function f into outputs y.Thus, a project involves a certain flow encompassing raw materials content to intangible communications system.

Tracking an improvement Project.

As PMP holds a complete chemistry of how to manage and craft a certain project from the very beginning till its end. Out main interest here lies n seeking most efficient way to track a project progress, when it falls under an improvement umbrella in any particular industry.

The three big fundamentals which must be taken into an account regarding the project accountability are termed as TOM,

• Time Oriented (Are we on schedule as per customer requirement or company’s goals?)
• Objective oriented (Are we meeting our target goals?)
• Monetary oriented (Are we lagging behind or leading ahead of budget?)

A figure depicting a 3 subjected orientations is as follow,

“A project must be completed in a minimum time with a minimum cots without compromising in quality content.”

Thus, here goes a criteria for executing a certain project

• Make a project Charter of your project.
• List all the possible activities in your project.
• Construct Project Network Diagram
• Make a Gantt Chart
• Have a Strong follow-up.

 

We will be getting started with listing of project activities. (Project Charter will be discussed in future post).

List all possible activities

Let us look at complete scenario by going through a virtual example, in which customer & vendor data is to e analyzed collaboratively.

A	Conducting a vendor capability survey	10
B	Create questionnaire for Customer Requirement	5
C	Set factors for evaluation	5
D	Call Focus group & Brainstorm	10
E	Collect data against factors	10
F	Make a C&E Matrix to prioritize results	10
G	Put in software package	10
H	Analyze the Results	15

 

Project Network Diagram

We will make a Arrow diagram or Critical path method flow to find out which will be longest route of our project .

 

 

Two of the most important terms for any project are Slack Time & Critical Path Time.

• Slack Time = Latest Start Time – Earliest Start Time
• The critical path is the path from start to finish that requires the most time.

The things is out of all the paths following paths holds the longest time. This can be easily calculated with the help of software.

• Path ACEGH requires 10 + 5 + 10 + 10 + 15 = 50 days
• Path BDFGH requires 5 + 15 + 10 + 10 + 15 = 55 days (Critical Path)

 

Sometimes, over resources allocation results in the execution of any activity in earlier time than anticipated. This Phenomenon is called Crashing i.e.: If you want to complete project before time, than allocate more pool of resources.

 

Gantt chart

In the light of earlier diagram, Gantt chart comes into play. G.C. simply displays & communicate the data dissemination throw-out the whole hierarchy in a convenient manner i.e.: By having a look at the graph, one can anticipate the predecessors or successors of any activity within certain event.

Some of the other Graphical tools like Storyboard designing may also be done along the initiation and closing if a project, so that everyone can have a clear idea of what’s going on over both side of road.

PERT Variation & Standard Deviation computation of Project

 

Let me just throw a light over an interest phenomenon of three types of probabilistic time involve in this technique, if you want to dive in more depth of Project.

Three kind of associated times with this phenomenon are,

 

A = Optimistic (Calculate with full positivity about project completion time)

B = Pessimistic (Calculate with full hindrances, a time of project completion)

M = Most likely (Calculate the most probable time of finishing a project.

 

We will take upper activities as example to illustrate this phenomenon by setting a values for three kinds of mentioned times.

 

Activity	A	M	B	Expected Time =t	Variance
Conducting a vendor capability survey	8	10	12	10	0.44
Create questionnaire for Customer Requirement	3	5	7	5	0.44
Set factors for evaluation	3	5	7	5	0.44
Call Focus group & Brainstorm	8	10	12	10	0.44
Collect data against factors	8	10	12	10	0.44
Make a C&E Matrix to prioritize results	8	10	12	10	0.44
Put in software package	8	10	10	10	0.11
Analyze the Results	12	15	17	15	0.688

 

Let us look at the two formulas using which the computation of t & variance is done.

• Te = t = (a+4*m)+b)/6
• V= ((b-a) /6)²

So, Total Variance = 0.44*6+0.11+0.688

= 3.43 weeks

 

So, Standard deviation = 1.85 (Square root of variance)

 

Thus (+- 1.85) day time (tolerance level) might be anticipated in the completion of project. i.e: If project was to be completed in 95 days, so it might take either 96.85 or 93.15 days.

 

Conclusion

Any Lean & Six Sigma or Improvement project can be monitored through the application of PDCA * DMAIC phase in conjugation with these simple tools like PERT & Gantt Chart.