Definitions
For industry accepted project management and project scheduling definitions the Max Wideman Website can be consulted. This chapter contains a selected list of definitions which were largely borrowed from Max Wideman. In some cases a wider explanation is added specifically to accommodate the intended target audience of this book.
Max Wideman is an internationally acclaimed project manager, who has a passion for the advancement of project management and project scheduling training, and standardization. The definitions were borrowed with the blessings of Mr Max Wideman himself.
PROJECT SHCEDULE
A project schedule is a time sequence of activities and events that represent and operating A project schedule is a time sequence of activities and events that represent an operating timetable. The schedule specifies the relative beginning and ending times of activities and the occurrence times of events. A schedule may be presented on a calendar framework or on an elapsed time scale.[MW] The definition for a project schedule in a scheduling software package may be extended to contain additional information like resource information, risk information, cost and other information, which enables a project planner to generate vitally important
CRITICAL PATH
A critical path is the series of activities that must finish on time for the entire project to finish on schedule. Each activity on the critical path is a critical activity.[MW] In project management a related term “near-critical activities” is many times used to indicate activities that have so little float (slack) that they can easily become critical activities when a delay occurs.
CPM (CRITICAL PATH METHOD)
CPM is a technique used to predict project duration by analyzing which sequence of activities has the least amount of scheduling flexibility. Early dates are figured by a forward pass using a specific start date and late dates are figured by using a backward pass starting from a completion date.[MW]
LINK OR RELATIONSHIP
A link is a dependency between activities that specifies when a task begins or ends relative to another task.[MW] This interdependency between activities can take the form of a number of options designed to mimic real-life situations during the execution of a project. This link to an activity can be driven by another activity’s start or finish and can be delayed or promoted by a lag. The collection of all the links in a project schedule, together with defined constraints, is referred to as the schedule logic.
PREDECESSOR
An activity that must be completed (or be partially completed) before a specified activity can begin is called a predecessor. The combination of all predecessor and successor relationships among the project activities forms a network. This network can be analysed to determine the critical path and other project scheduling implications.