Revision as of 23:45, 21 February 2021

Jacob Lützhøft Christensen s184113

In the field of project schedule management, the terms lag and lead are widely utilised to maintain project schedule by determining possibilities of schedule advancement or delay. A lead is the amount of time a successor activity can be advanced with respect to a predecessor activity. ^[1] A lag is the amount of time a successor activity will be delayed with respect to a predecessor activity. ^[2] Traditionally the measure of project success has been limited to concepts of time, quality and cost, however these concepts might not provide a full picture of project success. ^[3] In the traditional sense of project success, lag and lead has had an important role in fulfilling the need of time management in projects, however the terms of lag and lead are not purely schedule management tools. According to the project management standard PRINCE 2, the status of projects are best measured for one point in time by its key performance indicators (KPI), which should be balanced between qualitative and quantitative measures, leading and lagging indicators, and project inputs and outputs. ^[4]

A key perfomance indicator (KPI) is a measure of performance that is used to help an organization define and evaluate how successful it is in making progress towards its organizational objectives. ^[5] These indicators are widely used in organisational contexts, to measure, record, predict and improve perfomance. Indicators for future and past performances are time-based indicators which are distinguished by the terms: lag and lead indicators. This means that lag and lead are not limited to scheduling activities in a task sequence format, but can be used as indicators to determine the perfomance of a project's quality and cost at a given time as well.

Reference link EXAMPLE: team, human behaviour, Stephen Covey

Big Idea

Lag and lead can be powerful tools both for project schedule management and as key perfomance indicators. In order to ensure or measure project success it is essential to learn how and when to use these terms, and their limitations.

For schedule management lag and lead are mostly used for sequencing activities. Sequence activity is the process of identifying and documenting relationships among the project activities. ^[6] The benefit for this is to define a logical relationship between processes, and thereby obtaining an order of activities that is the most efficient path towards the realization of the project, given all project constraints. This order of activities should then be used to formulate a realistic project schedule. For the project schedule to be realistic, the implementation of tools and techniques such as lead and lag times are necessary. Given the uncertainty aspect of projects, usually for a project schedule to be maintained throughout the project's lifetime, lag and lead are used to either advance or delay certain activities in relation to either its predecessor or successor activities. If lag and lead times were determined for all activities before the project commenced the schedule will be unaffected in a situation of a slight unexpected delay.

As key perfomance indicators lag and lead is incredibly co-dependant and can be used as indication for project performance, cost, quality and more.

A lead indicator, is an indicator which is forward looking. Meaning it attempts to show a future perfomance. These indicators can be difficult to determine, as they are prone to subjectivity and error, and can cause debate as to the validity of the lead indicators measured. ^[7]. Lagging indicators measure historical perfomance, and tends to focus on outcomes. This makes them easy to record, and they are essential for charting progress, however they do not influence the future as lead indicators do. The power of lead indicators is that they have the ability to predict future conditions, and allow you to take preemptive actions in order to achieve strategic goals. However to predict future conditions, it is necessary to use lagging indicators which essentially record current conditions. These indicators can in combination be applied to determine trends and record the degree of success of pursuing these trends.

Black Box, Description, Date

Application

Applying lag and lead in a project, portfolio and program management context,

Using Lag and Lead as Key Performance Indicators

The Balanced Scorecard

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Black Box, Description, Date

Section

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Using Lag and Lead to sequence activities

Project Schedule Network Diagram

Critical Path Method

Limitations

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References

Examples

1. ↑ Project Management: A guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK guide) 6th Edition, Project Management Institute, Inc. (PMI), 2017
2. ↑ Project Management: A guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK guide) 6th Edition, Project Management Institute, Inc. (PMI), 2017
3. ↑ Project Management: "Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2" 6th Edition, AXELOS and Office Cabinet, 2017
4. ↑ Project Management: "Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2" 6th Edition, AXELOS and Office Cabinet, 2017
5. ↑ Project Management: "Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2" 6th Edition, AXELOS and Office Cabinet, 2017
6. ↑ Project Management: A guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK guide) 6th Edition, Project Management Institute, Inc. (PMI), 2017
7. ↑ Lead and Lag Indicators, Intrafocus, Last visited: 14/02/21