About Bernie Roseke, P.Eng., PMP
Bernie Roseke, P.Eng., PMP, is the president of Roseke Engineering. As a bridge engineer and project manager, he manages projects ranging from small, local bridges to multi-million dollar projects. He is also the technical brains behind ProjectEngineer, the online project management system for engineers. He is a licensed professional engineer, certified project manager, and six sigma black belt. He lives in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, with his wife and two kids.
View all posts by Bernie Roseke, P.Eng., PMP
5 Steps to Develop a Bulletproof Project Schedule
Project scheduling is the key to ensuring the original project plan and final project outcome are at least close enough to call the project a success. It's the map that guides the ship. Good project managers look at the schedule constantly, sometimes on a daily basis, and take the actions....
A Critical Path Analysis Example
In yesterday's post we outlined the critical path method which is one of the professional project manager's techniques to ensuring project deadlines are met. Today we will walk through an example with a complete solution using MS Excel. Our example project is to build a new driveway. We will be....
How to Calculate Critical Path
Ensuring your project finishes on time is a core component of project management. To pass any project management exam, you must know how to calculate the critical path. There are 6 steps to the Critical Path Method: Divide the project into tasks Estimate duration Create the network diagram Draw initial Gantt (bar)....
What is the Schedule Performance Index?
In project management, getting an early indication of problems is the silver bullet that allows the project manager to correct the problems before they start. The Schedule Performance Index, usually abbreviated as SPI, is one of the fundamental outputs of Earned Value Management. It tells the project manager how far....
What is Schedule Variance?
In project management, getting an early indication of problems is the silver bullet that allows the project manager to correct the problems before they start. Schedule Variance, usually abbreviated as SV, is one of the fundamental outputs of Earned Value Management. It tells the project manager how far ahead or....
The Project Organization Chart
Obviously projects span a huge spectrum from big to small, innovative to routine, and technical to repetitive. But there is in fact a standard project organization chart within which all projects fall. The project management model within the PMBOK, as well as other project management methodologies, define this standard structure. The....
Estimating Activity Durations
Once the project has been divided into activities and resources assigned to those activities, the next step is to determine the activity durations. These durations are used to construct the project schedule. Like the tiny O-rings that brought down the space shuttle Challenger, one small underestimation can result in a chain reaction....
Types of Task Dependencies
In project management, all tasks have dependencies. If they didn't they wouldn't be part of the project, that is, a task that doesn't need to be completed to finish the project is not part of the project. It's an orphan adrift at sea. There are four types of task dependencies,....
Project Human Resource Management According to the PMBOK
With most projects, success can ultimately be attributed to the project team. Using the right people for the job and managing them well can be one of the biggest skills of a project manager. You can't put a value on knowing your project team is going to get the job....
Guide to Developing the Project Activity List
If there is only one foundational part of project management, it would have to be breaking down the project into manageable parts. Those parts are called phases and tasks. Everything else is built upon that foundation, so it should not be taken lightly. Although it seems trivial, it is one....
