Project Management Step by Step: How to Plan and Manage a Highly Successful Project

Step 3.3 Estimate times, add dependencies and delays

To convert your Work Breakdown Structure into a schedule of activities, you need to add how long each task will take, and then add in any dependencies between the tasks.

Note that when a task has been broken into sub-tasks, you estimate the length of the sub-tasks and not the overall task. (The length of the overall task is simply a function of the lengths of the sub-tasks.) For example, as task 1 is broken into sub-tasks 1.1 to 1.6, it is each of 1.1 to 1.6 that I have estimated the length of, not task 1.

Sometimes in real life there are natural delays in activities when you have to wait for something to happen. You may be able to use this time for something else, or sometimes the project ...