.net barcode reader component PMP Certification: A Beginner s Guide in Software

Painting Universal Product Code version A in Software PMP Certification: A Beginner s Guide

There are several steps in determining the critical path of the network diagram The following summary level checklist can be used as a guide to help you through this process:

day zero or day one (most PMs like to start at day one; however, there is no hard rule on this)

(with no danglers)

activity)

activity, you should select the activity with the highest early finish (EF) to carry forward to the early start (ES) of the successor activity (see details and Figure 6-12, later in this chapter)

activity, you should select the lowest late start (LS) to carry over to the late finish (LF) single-predecessor activity (see details and Figure 6-13, later in this chapter)

the box (on the line between activities)

10 Identify the critical path (or critical paths) and the near critical path 11 Validate the network to ensure that it is correct and complete 12 Become familiar with the characteristics of the network 13 Verify that the work can be done with the available resources 14 Take actions to adjust the schedule as needed 15 Be sure to include project management activities

Other terms you need to be aware of when calculating the forward and backward pass are activity convergence and activity divergence:

Activity convergence Occurs when deliverables of two or more predecessor activities are required for the start of a single activity (successor) On a forward pass, when converging activities into a single activity, you should always use the largest of the early finish dates of the predecessor activities as the early start date of the successor activity On a backward pass, always use the smallest late start date as the late finish date of the successor activity (see Figure 6-12) Activity divergence Occurs when deliverables of one activity are required for the start of two or more activities On a forward pass, when diverging a single activity into multiple activities, you should use the early finish of the predecessor activity as the early start date of each of the successor activities On a backward pass, when diverging a single activity into multiple activities, use the late start of the predecessor activity as the late finish date of each of the successor activities (see Figure 6-13)

Here are a couple tips to help when you are running the forward and backward pass: Mind the line, which means pay close attention to the relationship lines (convergent paths, finish-to-start, and so on) Mind the sign (+/ ), which means watch for lead and lag times Lag is a delay (+ time) going forward; however, it s a minus sign ( ) coming back on the backward pass Lead time is negative lag that is, minus sign ( ) on the forward pass and a plus sign (+) on the backward pass These tips will make more sense as you work through your own network diagrams

The forward pass is where the activity duration estimate comes in and is crucial to the accuracy of the critical path calculations The detailed steps to calculate the forward pass are as follows:

1 Calculating the forward pass will determine the early start (ES) and early finish (EF)

days for each activity The ES and EF numbers go in the upper-left (ES) and upperright (EF) corners, respectively, of each activity (refer to Figure 6-11)

the sticky note)

4 The early finish of Activity A then becomes the early start for the next activity 5 Add the duration of the activity you are calculating to the ES number to get the EF

(this number, once confirmed, represents the overall expected duration of the project) Table 6-4 is used as input to help demonstrate the forward and backward passes Using the information in Table 6-4, Figure 6-14 shows how the forward pass might look