TABLE OF CONTENTS Time management is that portion of project management concerned with the project schedule. It includes defining the project activities, ordering the activities in their logical sequence, estimating the effort and duration of each activity and building an overall project schedule. Time management also includes managing the schedule once the project is under way, since the actual amount of time it takes to complete activities does not always match the estimates.
| Exam Tip | Of the 6 time management processes, 5 are in the planning process group; therefore, a large portion of the planning exam questions will come from this knowledge area. Be prepared to answer multiple questions dealing with estimating techniques, critical path and network diagrams. |
The PMP certification exam focuses time questions heavily around the precedence diagramming method (PDM), the critical path method (CPM) and three-point estimating. You must be familiar with the differences between these 3 techniques and the appropriate circumstances for their use. The exam will test your knowledge of how CPM networks are constructed, how schedules are computed, what the critical path is and how networks are used to analyze and solve project scheduling, resource allocation and resource leveling issues. The exam may also contain some rather elementary scheduling exercises. Variance analysis and earned value calculations can also appear in time management knowledge area questions.
The 6 processes of time management:
Activity Definition
Activity Sequencing
Activity Resource Estimating
Activity Duration Estimating
Schedule Development
Schedule Control
The Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM), the
