For each activity/effort hours combination listed below, determine the duration in days for that activity. Assume that the same one resource will be assigned to each activity and that person can work 6 hours a day on these activities. Also assume that Activity A is the predecessor of Activity B.

Type your answer using numbers and one decimal place. For example, if the answer is 2 then enter this as 2.0. Do not type words, commas, or other symbols (such as $).

Activity A: 36 effort hours

(ANSWER REQUIRED HERE) days duration

Activity B: 3 effort hours

(ANSWER REQUIRED HERE) days duration

Text to help:

To complete our WBS, we need to estimate the duration for each activity. *Duration is the "total number of work periods required to complete an activity or work breakdown structure component, expressed as hours, days or weeks." The reason we estimate duration is that we will use the duration of each activity to determine the schedule of when activities need to be completed. We also need to determine how much effort is required to complete an activity. * Effort is "the number of labor units required to complete a schedule activity or work breakdown structure component, often expressed in hours." Duration and effort are related, but they are not the same. Duration is used to help us build the project schedule. Effort is used to help us build the project budget.

Let's discuss what a one day duration is. Duration days do not include weekend days for example. It is also possible to have a fractional duration day, for example, day duration. Depending on how many people may be working on the activity in one business day, there could be a varying number of actual effort hours or work hours spent on the activity. If 2 people are working on the activity that day, full time, in a normal 8-hour business day, the effort hours to complete that activity in one day duration (calendar unit) is about 16 hours (2 X 8 hours = 16 hours). However, if one person is working time on the activity in one normal 8-hour business day, that is about 4 hours of effort (8 hours X = 4 hours) in a one day duration. I am making this important distinction between duration days and effort of work (hours) because this becomes significant for us when we build our project costs and budget.

Looking at our earlier example, the cost of the activity with one day duration needing 16 hours of effort is about 4 times the cost of an activity with one day duration needing only 4 hours of effort. When estimating activity durations, the Project Manager and the project team need to estimate both duration as well as effort hours. This means the Project Manager must have information about resource availability for their project. Can they expect to have full time resources available? Or must the resources be shared with other projects? This information is important to know when estimating duration and estimating effort hours for each activity. For this reason, it is common for the project team to determine resourcing for each activity at the same time they estimate the duration and effort hours for that activity.

The best source for providing the duration and effort hours estimates are those that will actually be doing the work or someone who is very familiar with the work to be completed. Another means for identifying duration and effort hours estimates is to look at similar projects with similar activities that have already completed in the past. The actual durations and actual effort hours expended on similar activities in a similar project can provide a basis for a reasonably accurate estimate. The Project Manager should ensure that the resources that will be doing the work or someone familiar with the activities in the project should be the one to help determine the resources, the activity duration, and the effort hours.