Project Planning Fundamentals
Scope, WBS, and the Planning Basis
Planning converts scope into an executable, measurable baseline. Know the sequence: scope statement → work breakdown structure (WBS) → activity definition → logic → estimate → schedule. The WBS is deliverable-oriented and decomposes to work packages; activities belong to work packages, not to the WBS itself. Understand the planning products a scheduler produces: activity list, activity attributes, milestone list, network logic, resource and cost loading, and the schedule baseline.
Estimating and Calendars
Distinguish analogous, parametric, and bottom-up estimating, and know that duration = quantity of work ÷ productivity per period, adjusted for calendar availability. Calendars are a classic trap: a 5-day duration on a 7-day calendar consumes calendar days, while a 5-day duration on a standard 5-day calendar consumes workdays. Resource calendars, project calendars, and inherited calendars must be reconciled before logic is trusted.
Constraints, Deadlines, and Open Ends
Differentiate hard constraints (must start/finish on a date), soft constraints (start/finish no earlier/later than), and deadlines. A deadline is a target, not a logic tie; it does not drive successors. Open-ended activities (no predecessor or successor) are planning defects that distort float and critical path.
Worked Rule of Thumb
If an activity has 40 hours of effort, two resources at 100% availability, and a 5-day workweek calendar, duration = 40 ÷ (2 × 8) = 2.5 days. If the calendar is 6 days/week but resources only work 5, the duration still reflects resource availability, not calendar length.
Traps to Watch
Questions often test whether you know that lags are not substitutes for logic, that milestones have zero duration, and that planning precedes baselining.