Time is the most important resources to the organization in completing the project. Time is limited; therefore a project manager should try to make full use of it while exerting every member in the team to complete their respective tasks. First process in time management is activity definition; to identify the appropriate activities that need to be performed to produce project deliverables. It involves adding more details to the work that needs to be done in WBS to make it easier to understand and to estimate the cost and duration for each activity. Next step is activity sequencing to identify dependencies among the activities. A network diagram is best for showing activity sequencing. Two types of diagramming method are Arrow Diagramming method and Precedence Diagramming Method. The third process is activity resource estimating. Before estimating activity duration, it is much more important to determine what types of resources are needed for each activity and to check for its availability. Other issues that are need to be considered including difficulties to complete the activity and if the organization has done the same thing before, what lessons can be learned from it. After that, then only the duration can be estimated. A three-point-estimate approach is helpful, because rather than estimating a discrete number, it is better to estimate the optimistic, mot-likely and pessimistic estimate. Next step is schedule development; making use of the other processes to determine the start date and finish date of the project.
The objective is to create a schedule as basis for monitoring the work progress and some of the tools and techniques include Gantt charts, critical path analysis, critical chain scheduling and Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) analysis. Gantt chart is often the formal representation of project schedule with the information of what activity needs to be done and what is the start and finish date. Critical path method is useful for determining the earliest time a project can be completed and it changes as the project progresses. Critical chain scheduling considers limited resources and includes extra time to protect the project completion date. Final phase in time management is to perform reality checks on schedule, known as schedule control.
The main goal is the same as the previous control process in project integration management and project scope management, which is to know the changes status of the schedule.
