The deadline will not move
Kestrel Mutual opens its new branch on a Monday. The date is fixed. Staff, customers and a press photo are booked.
If the work is not done, you cannot ask for more time. So you plan backwards from the deadline, and you decide what comes first.
By the end of this lesson
Note
I can plan tasks backwards from a deadline and put them in priority order.
Key words
| Word | What it means |
|---|---|
| Deadline | the date when the work must be finished |
| Priority | how important a task is, so what you do first |
| Must have | a task the project cannot work without |
| Should have | an important task that can wait if time runs out |
| Could have | a nice extra that you do only if there is time |
| Methodology | a way of organising the work of a project |
| Waterfall | a method that finishes each stage before the next starts |
| Agile | a method that works in small steps and checks each step with the client |
| Network | computers and devices joined together so they can share data |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
Starter
Have a go
Starter
3 questionsYour answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.
Plan backwards from the deadline
Start at the deadline. Write the last task. Work out the latest day it can start. Then do the same for the task before it.
This shows the latest start of every task. If a task starts later than that, the whole project ends late.
Worked example: latest start days
| Task | Days | Must end by | Latest start | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Test links | 2 | Day 10 | Day 9 | Days 9 and 10 are two days |
| Set up Wi-Fi | 2 | Day 8 | Day 7 | Testing starts on day 9, so Wi-Fi must end on day 8 |
| Set up switch | 3 | Day 6 | Day 4 | Wi-Fi starts on day 7, so the switch ends on day 6 |
| Run cables | 4 | Day 3 | Day 0 | Day 0 does not exist: this plan is too tight |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
Check
Have a go
Check
3 questionsYour answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.