Sequence Activities

00:01 Hello. This module introduces you to the sequence activities process in the PMBOK guide. It's very important that you pay particular attention to this module.

00:15 It's one of the more important ones in terms of the development of our project schedule.

00:21 We're giving it a high difficulty rating because there may be a lot of concepts here you haven't seen before, nor applied in your day to day job, and as such, you're going to have to remember quite a bit about it as well.

00:32 So do pay particular attention to this module and all the other time management modules that lead up to the preparation and development of the project schedule.

00:44 The sequence activities process itself is part of the Project Time Management Knowledge Area. There are six planning processes in project time management and one monitoring and controlling process.

00:58 The sequence activities process is the third of the planning processes, which begin with the plan schedule management process, which produces our schedule management plan. Now, our schedule management plan provides guidance on how we do the other planning activities and also our single monitoring and control activity. So before doing sequence activities, we've defined our activities, and what we did when we defined our activities was to generate an activities list and some activities attributes.

01:30 Now in this step, we're going to put all those activities in order.

01:34 We're going to define the relationships between them to find what's a predecessor, what is a successor.

01:39 And we're going to define the dependencies between them and produce a network diagram.

01:44 But we still don't have our project schedule.

01:47 We won't have that until we complete the work and the other three remaining planning processes. That's estimate activity, resources, estimate activity durations and finally, the process that puts them all together develop schedule. The particular domain task that this process helps us understand better is planning task, for which is develop the project schedule based on the approved project deliverables and milestones, scope and resource management plans in order to manage timely completion of the project. And in fact, that one domain task covers all of the time management planning processes.

02:35 The key themes of the sequence activities process are we're going to take our activities and we're going to put them in the order in which they will occur or sequence them.

02:47 Once we've done that, we're also going to define the types of relationships and dependencies that exist between our activities.

02:55 And with all of this information, we're going to produce a network diagram using the precedence diagramming method, particularly the activity on node diagram. With this, we can then calculate different paths through our project, and of course, once we get to the development of the full project schedule, the path that we're most interested in is, of course, the critical path. The inputs that we will go looking for. To help us sequence our activities include, first up, the schedule management plan.

03:31 Now, of course, this is an output from plan schedule management process, and the Schedule Management Plan provides all the guidance we need to complete all of the other planning activities and the monitoring and controlling activities.

03:43 So we'll look to this to give us that guidance we need on how we're going to do our sequencing activities work.

03:52 Another input will go looking for is, of course, our activity list.

03:57 Now, this is an output from the defined activities process, and it's a list of all our activities.

04:04 But there's no indication in that list of which activities are predecessor and which one is a successor.

04:10 And that's what we're about to do here.

04:13 We'll also go looking for activity attributes, this is further information about each of our activities.

04:20 Remember, the activity list will only contain summary information about each of our activities.

04:26 So if we want to find out more about the activities we go looking at the activities attributes document.

04:33 We may also want a milestone list.

04:36 This will give us the know and milestones at this first point in their first iteration of our project schedule.

04:44 We may need to put these milestones in place so that we know which activities have to be done before that milestone and which can be done after.

04:53 We may find useful to have the project scope statement just to double check that we've got all of the activities correct and that we've included the entire scope in our sequencing of activities.

05:06 We may also find useful particular enterprise environmental factors, industry regulation, government standards, things like that that may provide some input into how we sequence our activities.

05:19 And of course, the usual suspect of the organizational process assets, things like our project management methodology, tools and templates that we can use to help sequence the activities.

05:33 Once we have these inputs, we can then go ahead and choose from one of the three following tools and techniques as appropriate that which best suits the development of our network diagrams.

05:44 The first one is the Precedents Diagramming Method, or PDM.

05:49 This is the one that produces the activity on node diagram, and we're going to look at some of those shortly.

05:56 We're also going to take a look at the dependency determination, what we're going to look at here is the dependencies that exist between our activities because of course, the dependencies that exist with the mandatory discretionary, external or internal will affect and which order they go in and which ones have to wait for which are the ones the final tool and technique we may use to use a leads and lags.

06:22 Now here we're going to be applying leads and lags as appropriate.

06:27 So let's take a closer look at some of these tools and techniques.

06:32 First up, the types of dependencies that can exist between activities include a mandatory dependency.

06:40 This means that the successor activity cannot occur until the predecessor activity has occurred.

06:48 Remember, that predecessor means comes first.

06:51 Successor means comes second.

06:55 So a mandatory dependency means that the successor activity can't occur until the predecessor activity has occurred.

07:02 So, for example, you can't build the second floor in a house until you've built the first. Another type of dependency is the discretionary dependency. Now this means that the successor activity shouldn't really happen until the predecessor activity has finished.

07:20 But if you need to, you've got some discretion there.

07:25 So you really shouldn't install the carpet in a house until you've painted the walls.

07:29 But if time is of the essence, you might be able to start installing the carpet or taking suitable measures to protect it from the paint being done.

07:41 Another type of dependency is an external dependency.

07:44 And this is where you need consent, building consent, town planning consent, any other consent that you can't control that needs to come from an external organization that's called an external dependency.

07:57 An internal dependency means waiting on others inside your own organization to complete work before you can continue with your work on your activity.

08:07 So those are the four types of dependencies you need to know each one of them for the exam. Now leads and lags, you need to know about these as well.

08:19 First up, a lead is the amount of time by which the start of an activity may precede the completion of another activity on which it depends.

08:29 So this means instead of the successor activity having to wait for the final completion of the predecessor activity, it can actually start a few days earlier. Now, if you are using a tool such as Microsoft Project, you'd be able to indicate this with a minus sign minus two minus three days, whatever it is, that was your lead.

08:52 Opposite of a lead is a lag.

08:55 And this is the amount of time that must be added to the completion of an activity before a dependent success or activity can begin.

09:04 And perhaps the most used example of this is if you pour a concrete foundation in a house and you want to start building the walls.

09:11 You have to include a lag between finished pouring the concrete and starting to build the walls to give the concrete time to cure and become hard enough to start building the walls. Now, the hardening of the concrete has no resources attached to it, no time attached to it, no cost attached to it.

09:28 So we just leave it there as a leg, or however many days it takes for the concrete to come up to strength.

09:36 Let's go through the types of precedence, relationships that exist between two activities, there are four precedence relationships that exist now.

09:44 These are the dependencies.

09:46 Remember, those were the mandatory, the discretionary, the external and the internal dependencies. These are the relationships.

09:53 The first one is the most common form of precedence relationship, and it probably affects over 90 per cent of all activity relationships.

10:03 Here we have a finish to start relationship.

10:07 What we can see in this instance is that Activity A is the predecessor activity. Activity B is the successor activity.

10:16 Now, if you have a look at the box for activity a, the arrow comes out of the right hand side, which indicates that's the finish of that activity.

10:24 The left hand side of the box is the start, and we can see that the arrow goes into the left hand side of the box where B is marked.

10:33 So this is a finish to start relationship, which means that B cannot start until a finishes.

10:41 That's a finish to start type of relationship.

10:44 And in the exam, most of the scenarios that you're going to get for the network diagram questions are going to be finished to start.

10:52 Types of relationships, but watch out.

10:55 Sometimes the question will give you another type of relationship and you'll need to adjust your calculations to take that into account.

11:04 A second type of precedence relationship is the finish to finish relationship.

11:09 And this instance, we have a as the predecessor once again and activity B as the successor here.

11:16 Activity B cannot finish until Activity A finishes, and we'll see that the arrow comes out of the right hand side of the box.

11:25 So Activity A indicating the finish and goes into the right hand side of activity. B, indicating a finish to finish type of relationship.

11:36 Another type of precedence relationship is the start to start and this type of relationship activity be the successor can't start until activity A starts.

11:49 So you'll see the diagram shows the arrow coming out of the left hand side of the activity, a box and going into the left hand side of the activity box. That's a start to start type of relationship.

12:04 The fourth type of presence relationship, and it's one that I can't get my head around is the start to finish.

12:10 There's very, very little chance you'll be asked about this in the exam.

12:14 Basically, what it says, somewhat counterintuitively, is that activity be as the successor can't finish until its predecessor activity activity a starts.

12:27 So theoretically, it exists.

12:28 But I've never seen it in real life.

12:31 Just be aware of it just in case you're asked about it in the exam.

12:34 So that's the four types of precedence relationship finished to start, finish to finish, start to start and start to finish.

12:43 You'll need to know each of them for the exam.

12:47 Once you've done all of these things, you will produce the following outputs project schedule network diagrams.

12:56 We're going to have a look at some of these in a moment.

12:59 They are just a network diagram, though they still have no resources allocated to them. And there are still no duration estimates for each of the activity that we can add up to our total project schedule.

13:10 So they are not yet a project schedule.

13:13 They are simply a representation of the different paths of work through our project.

13:20 We may also choose to update relevant project documents like our schedule management plan or parts of our project management methodology relating specifically to the sequencing of activities.

13:34 Let's take a closer look at a couple of examples of a network diagram.

13:38 Remember, we're using the precedence diagramming method, particularly the activity on node type of diagram.

13:46 Now it's called activity on node because we represent the activities on the nodes. That's those little green boxes.

13:53 The arrows between the nodes indicate the relationships between each of the activities. So in this instance, it's a very small example we can see we have a milestone called begin and a milestone called end.

14:06 And in between that we have four activities A, B, C and D..

14:12 So one of the paths through our diagram could be begin a end.

14:17 Another path through our diagram could be begin b d end, and a third path through our diagram could be begin c end. Remember, we still don't know which is the critical path and to have added durations and completed a forward path and a backward pass to figure out the critical path.

14:39 So here we can see that Activity D is the successor activity to Activity B, which is the predecessor.

14:47 Let's take a look at a slightly more complicated example.

14:51 It's the same thing.

14:52 There's just a lot more activities in this one.

14:55 So, for example, take a look at activity C . You can see that it has multiple predecessors.

15:03 It has a as a predecessor, activity h as a predecessor, an activity K as a predecessor.

15:12 So it's what we call a merge activity as it merges multiple predecessors. And if you take a look at Activity A, it has multiple successes.

15:23 It has C as a successor activity, if as a successor and activity I as a successor.

15:32 So it's what we call a burst activity.

15:36 Obviously, there's many paths through this diagram begin a B end is one, a longer one is begin.

15:46 K-C-D-E end.

15:51 There are lots of paths through this diagram and to map them all out in this instance, if we did, it manually would take us a lot of time.

15:59 So that's where it's better to use project management software rather than writing these things out manually.

16:05 Now in the exam, you'll need to be skilled at putting together a network diagram just like this and commenting on relationships between different activities.

16:14 So start practicing putting together network diagrams.

16:19 There is another way to show how work can flow through a project and for the exam, this is what you need to be aware of.

16:26 It's called the graphical evaluation and review technique, or GERT.

16:30 And it's simply a diagramming technique that allows for loops and branches instead of just plain sequential linear progression through a network diagram.

16:39 So, for example, we may be putting together material for a course and presenting it so we would show the flow of work as review the material as one activity, develop the course as a second activity as a successor activity.

16:55 Another successful activity called present course.

16:58 But then we show that loop that feedback loop back to review material.

17:03 So for the purposes of the exam, just know that GERT or the graphical evaluation and review technique is a diagramming technique to show the flow of work between activities.

17:15 But it has feedback loops and branches.

17:18 The main one that you're going to use is the precedence diagramming method, though, with the activity on node diagram.

17:26 So in summary, the sequence activities process takes our activity list and arranges the activities in the order in which they will occur by defining predecessors and successes.

17:40 It also defines dependencies and relationships between them, and as a result, we can produce a network diagram, particularly an activity on node diagram.

17:53 This has been an introduction and overview to the sequence activities process and the PMBOK guide.