So the first thing we’ve been going through in this class is the structure of work breakdown. So it gives you the ability to really visualize with the word breakdown structure how to break down every deliverable you would need in a project. The one you used was a wedding, and you broke it into various parts. It’s easier for you to see what you’re doing and make sure you catch every part of the project you may need to be there. Because it’s like you said you can be a detrimental part of the project if you get down the road and miss a deliverable you need. I like the outline or chart, but the chart is a much more visual way to see what you’re doing and how things are going to be done.

Obviously, the compulsory has to happen in order to the dependencies. Before you do anything

else, you must have this. Before you lay the foundation, you can’t put the roof on a building, it just won’t work. So you have to do things compulsory to understand what you’re doing. So you’d look at your project with discretion and see if there’s any way you can overlap things to cut the project on time. So we see this a lot in projects where you’re going to start phase 1 and then phase 2 will start midway through phase one even though phase one is a complete phase 2 start so you can cut down on time and cost. An external thing you can’t control outside of the project. Just like in a construction job you have rain delays due to the amount of water and you have to lay concrete. This is an external issue you can’t control, so it affects the project and how many days you have to complete it. Most construction projects have this built in that they expect rain delay and other issues that should allow the project to proceed over time. So that’s what you have to account for.

The method of the critical path is a way out even things. So you have your optimistic or pessimistic and you are most likely to have each part in that way and then come out with what your method of critical path will be. You can be too aggressive and if you’re too aggressive you’re going to shoot yourself in the foot you won’t be able to go as far as you can without going too far and breaking down if you can’t. When you start it, you estimate on a project because you don’t have all the facts right IT301 Project Management I Kenneth Burgoyne

in front of you, you can have your historical data to pull from your statistical data, all of which might give you a good breakdown, not necessarily the end-all-be-all. You’re going to make some mistakes as a project manager, especially your first couple of times, but you have to learn, and that’s where the pmbok will show you how to do that.