Types of activities

The different types of activities are relevant to scheduling and forms of changing and crashing (accelerating) a schedule:

Resource-dependent activities

• Duration can be changed.
• The duration of the activity can be halved if the resources are doubled (experienced employees).
• Examples: programming, digging drawing work
• Speed up: add more people

Process-dependent activities

• Activities where the duration is determined by a process that must be implemented to achieve the desired result
• Characterized by that it can't be rushed
• Examples: pregnancy, curing of concrete, training and education of employees
• Speed up example: Difficult, in some cases through e.g. change of equipment

Procedure-dependent activities

• Activities where a certain procedure must be followed
• The uncertainty related to the outcome of the procedure.
• Examples: steering committee meetings, consultation of stakeholders
• Speed up example: Ebola and the change on regulation

Problem-dependent activities

• Activities to solve a problem.
• Innovation is paramount. Can be difficult to estimate the duration
• Examples: design tasks, development, creative tasks
• Speed up example: difficult, through intermediary deadlines or forcing an end - 'time boxing'