6.5 Estimate Activity Durations
Process Definition
The estimating activity durations process is the process of estimating the number of durations or periods necessary to complete, each broken down, more manageable activity of the project. In addition, the estimate of activity durations takes into consideration the estimated resources. This process helps the project team to determine the amount of time needed to complete each activity.
Figure 16. Project Management Body of Knowledge Figure 6-14. Reprinted from "A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide), 5th Edition" by Project Management Institute, 2013, p. 166. Copyright 2013 by Project Management Institute, Inc. Reprinted without permission.
Process Assessment
This process is an estimation of time required. This can be based off of any activity type. There are many ways to complete the estimation but one thing is for certain, you should get experts to provide their estimations on the duration of activities that are assigned to them or that they have experience with. Then you can use one of the various tools to calculate a quantitative analysis.
(Inputs) Activity Resource Requirements
Resource requirements will have a direct effect on activity duration. This example is from a group project in PMGT 501 Fundamentals of Project Management, written by Jeremy Curbey, Jay Kinser, and Charles Sutherland.
(Tools & Techniques) Three-Point Estimating
Three point estimating provides values for a single-point activity using three estimates to define a estimated range for an activities duration. This example is from a PERT calculation I did in PMGT 501 Fundamentals of Project Management.
(Outputs) Activity Duration Estimates
Activity duration estimates are quantitative assessments per time period that an activity requires to be completed. The example is of some problems I solved during MGMT 524 Management
Science.