PLANNING STAGE (TIME) : SEQUENCE ACTIVITY

This is the third process of planning time where by the relationship between the activities is identified. The inputs of this process are:

• The output of define activity process i.e. activity list, activity attributes and milestone list where by all the activities to be performed in the project were mentioned. 
• Schedule management plan which explains how to sequence those activities
• Scope Statement which explains how the product characteristics may affect the sequence activities
• Enterprise Environmental Factors which explain the standards or systems that may affect the sequence activities
• Organizational Process Assets which explain all the lessons learnt in the process of sequence activities from the previous similar projects.

The formation of the sequence activities can be done by:

1. Precedence diagramming method whereby the activities are represented by nodes and they are linked together graphically in four different logical relationships.

• Start to Start (SS): Successor activity will start if the predecessor activity starts e.g. leveling the concrete (successor) will start if pouring foundation (predecessor) starts.
• Start to Finish (SF): Predecessor activity will finish if the successor activity starts e.g. the first nursing shift (predecessor) will finish if the second nursing shift (successor) starts.
• Finish to Finish (FF): Successor activity will finish if the predecessor activity finishes e.g. editing the research (successor) will finish if writing the research (predecessor) finishes.
• Finish to Start (FS): Successor activity will start if the predecessor activity finishes e.g. Awarding (successor) will start if competition (predecessor) finishes.

2. Dependency Determination whereby the activity can start if 

• It is mandatory, or 
• It is more preferred than other activites or 
• It depends from externally and project team does not have any control over it or
• It depends from internally and project team does have a control over it

3. Leads and Lags whereby the successor activity can start before (in advance) or after (by delaying) sometime after the predecessor activity.

Taking a simple example of any activity which at first was planned to start at 10:00 am sharp.

Leads: The activity started before 10:00am, assume it was 09:30am. That means it leads (started) 30 minutes before time.

Lags: The activity started after 10:00am, assume it was 10:20am. That means it lags (delayed) 20 minutes after time.

The output of this process is called a project schedule network diagram 

NOTE:

In terms of Project Schedule Network Diagram, Leads is represented by negative (-) sign while Lags is represented by positive (+) sign. Please find another example for clarification through this picture below:

Assume it is one day project which is called, Stakeholders Kick-off Meeting. In the meeting, we have three activities as an example and the timetable of the meeting was planned to start at 09:30 am and end at 01:00 pm.

So basing on the leads and lags then Introduction and Agenda discussion (successor activity) started at 09:00am instead of 10:00 am while taking pictures and lunch (successor activity) took place at 12:30 pm instead of 12:00 pm as planned. Logically the time taken for Introduction and Agenda was 3 hours and 30 minutes instead of 2 hours.

Reference:

PMI (2013). A Guide to the Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide 5^th Ed.) USA, Project Management Institute

https://www.slideshare.net/YudhaPratama17/pmbok-5th-edition-chapter-6-summary

Thank you and if you have any questions or suggestions, please don't hesitate to post on the comments below.

HAVE A BLISSFUL DAY!