Schedule Development 101 How to create a schedule you can use
Feb 09, 2016
Schedule Development 101
How to create a schedule you can use
Project Management Proverbs
You can con a sucker into committing to an impossible deadline, but you cannot con him into meeting it.
Nothing is impossible for the person who doesn't have to do it. If you're 6 months late on a milestone due next week but
nevertheless really believe you can make it, you're a project manager.
The sooner you get behind schedule, the more time you have to make it up.
REMEMBER: SCHEDULING IS NOT AN EXACT PROCESS, IT IS PART ESTIMATION, PART PREDICTION AND PART EDUCATED GUESSING
Fundamentals Schedule Development 101 (Chapter 6 Project Time Management) Define Activities
What actions need to be performed to meet your project deliverables Terms such as Decomposition, Rolling Wave Planning and Expert Judgment Output: Activity List, Milestone List
Sequence Your Activities Documenting the relationship among the project activities Precedence Diagramming Method
FS, FF, SS, SF Dependency Determination
Mandatory dependencies Must be put in place
Discretionary Dependencies Like to be put in place
External Dependencies Something required that is outside of my control (delivery of hardware)
Fundamentals Schedule Development 101 (Chapter 6 Project Time Management)
Estimate Activity resources Estimate the type and quantities of material, people, equipment or
supplies required Tools: Expert Judgment, Published Estimating Data
Estimate Activity durations How long will it take to complete the activity by the resource Tools: Analogous Estimating (similar project) or Three Point Estimates
(PERT) Most likely, optimistic and pessimistic
Fundamentals Schedule Development 101 (Chapter 6 Project Time Management)
Develop your schedule Process of analyzing activity sequences, durations, resource requirements and
schedule constraints to create a project schedule. Tools:
Critical Path Method Determine the late and early start and finish dates
Critical Chain Method Modifies the project schedule to account for limited resources
Monitor and Control your schedule Process of monitoring the status of the project against what you baselined
Status Reports Change Requests
Real World Schedule Development 101 Unrealistic Schedules—End Date Constant changes in scope
Scope not defined or “locked” Resource allocation changes
Resources reallocated to other projects
13 Suggestions you can use to make your schedules better Use WBS to create a task list each element of the project scope
must be supported by activity or activities Get resource estimates on each WBS element and resource names Allocate your resources appropriately Establish Project and Resource Calendars DO NOT DIRECT SCHEDULE TASKS use activity sequencing Define your milestones
At a minimum each schedule should have a start and a finish milestones Use your start milestone as your project dependency
13 Suggestions you can use to make your schedules better Know your float values both Total and Free Once you baseline do not touch Start and Finish Use Actual Start and
Actual Finish BASELINE BASELINE BASELINE
Utilize baseline 1 Do not use auto level Use PERT at all times and for all estimates Use consistent project plan update methodology Use the status date to status your project—How can do work if time
has passed
12 Suggestion Breakdown Example
12 Suggestion Breakdown Page 2
Status My Project
PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique) Discussion Most Plans have one estimate PERT is based upon three estimates
Pessimistic everything goes wrong Optimistic the sun the moon and the stars align and everything went
right Most Likely I won’t win a million dollars but I will win 10.00 (what will
happen given normal problems and opportunities Formula
(O+4M+P)/6
Schedule Inputs Project and Personal Calendars
Working days, shifts, vacations % Allocation
Project Risks Understand what risks you have so you can understand if you have time in the
schedule to deal with them Activities and Resources requirements
What are the activities What resources are required to complete the activities What is the duration of the activity
Project Start or Project Finish Date Milestones
Oh No—My Schedule is wrong what can I doTools to get you back on Track
Crashing and Fast Tracking Change Requests
Rebaseline your plan Critical Path Analysis—understand you Free and Total Float
Calculates the earliest and the latest possible start and finish times for a project
Communication—How do I spread the word about my project
Critical Tasks Status Reports
I want more reports—where can I get them??????
PMI-SP Exam
PMI-SP credential is a response to project management increasing growth, complexity and diversity. This certification fills the need for a specialist role in project scheduling Myths
You do not need to be PMP certified to take the PMI-SP Exam The certification references Microsoft project If I am PMP certified then I have to increase the number of PDU’s for my PMI-SP
certification