Leadership - Strategy - The schedule plan.
Strategy - The schedule plan
Schedule
Generating the actual schedule involves many things.
This is discussed in much more detail in ‘The Complete Project management package’.
The schedule shows all of the tasks required and their timings.
It will involve consideration and generation of just some of the following.
Work breakdown structure
This is a complete list of all the tasks required, to a manageable level, to complete the project.
Task characteristics and dependencies
They must be measurable, have clear start and end dates and be the responsibility of one person.
Milestones
These are designed breaks in the schedule that allow you to more easily check if you are on track.
Planning should be detailed towards the next milestone with less detail after it. As the milestone approaches more flesh is put on the bones.
This approach has several advantages.
- You don’t waste effort and resource in future planning detail.
- Any planning can incorporate the latest data and events knowledge.
- Planning will be more accurate as the timing of the tasks will be closer.
Deliverables
These are the items you need to produce to show you have completed a task or reach a milestone.
Estimating
The length of a task is often a matter of simple statistical analysis of best estimates.
One of the simplest methods for this is PERT analysis.
Roles and responsibilities
You will need to make sure of who has what responsibility. This should be recorded.
Use of Gantt charts
The Gantt chart is a popular method of viewing tasks and their timing as bars.
A popular piece of software for this is Microsoft Project.
Critical path management (CPM)
The Critical Path is the one such that any movement in a task end date will have a knock on affect on the project end date.
Within this can be defined ‘float’, ‘free slack’ and ‘total slack’.
Float is the amount of time available to the project manager that can be shared across tasks.
Once it has gone the Project Manager will have no more left, so use it sparingly.
Free slack for a task is the amount it can be delayed before it has a detrimental affect on the next task in line.
Total slack for a task is the amount a task can be delayed before it impinges on the Critical Path.
Naturally, the task then becomes critical itself.
Project control
This covers techniques to see if the project is on track and, if not, what to do about it.
Project manager’s role
This includes team building, control, recruitment of the team, succession planning etc.