Scheduling

Owned by Andrew Drury
Oct 21, 2015
3 min read
  1. The Project Manager should produce a (progressively more detailed) schedule (Gantt chart) for their project from the end of the Inception work. The "as planned" schedule will need to be amended and updated as the results of the feasibility study come in, and as the Project Manager develops an outline stakeholder management plan.
  2. All schedules (whether just planned or baselined and tracked) must show which tasks are on the critical path(s).
  3. When Business Case approval (Gateway 2) is sought, the schedule is 'baselined' (i.e. fixed) and the Project Manager then reports progress against this baselined plan.
  4. The Project Manager will update their schedule at least monthly, to produce a 'tracking Gantt' showing actuals against the planned (baselined) schedule. The tracking Gantt will differ from the baselined schedule because :
    1. planned tasks started at a different time than expected;
    2. planned tasks started on time, but took longer or shorter than expected;
    3. some tasks had to be done that were not planned (i.e.not foreseen).
  5. The information in the tracking Gantts will not only provide information about changes to the predicted dates of key milestones, but also indicate the reasons for actual performance being different from planned, which aids reporting.

What is a Schedule?

It's a to-do list, with timescales for each task. And crucially, it shows the links between these tasks (what task needs completing before another task can complete or start etc).

Put all three things together (tasks, timescales and links), and we can see how long we think the project will take overall. Then, as we deliver the scheme, we can easily and quickly track when tasks really start and finish, and see what the effect on the completion date is. We can also easily see what tasks are critical to finishing on time, and which tasks have some 'slack', so we know where to focus our attention.

Preparing a schedule is the single most important, basic aid to good project management. All Project Managers should use one.

Why Prepare a Schedule?

The main benefit of preparing a schedule is that it makes the Project Manager think more carefully about the work that has to be done and how long it will take. This results in much more accurate predictions about when key events (milestones) will occur, and when the project can realistically be completed.

Keeping the schedule updated highlights if the project is ahead, on time or behind schedule, alerting the Project Manager earlier than would otherwise be the case, allowing action to be taken sooner, which is more likely to be successful.

Finally, a Project Manager without a suitably thought-through schedule is someone who will fail to inspire confidence in others. If you asked your builder's Contract Manager for a programme for the 43 dwelling scheme they're starting, and s/he didn't have one, saying that they're sure it'll be all-right and finish on time, you may have your doubts about them. It's as true for Project Managers as it is of Contract Managers.

The importance of using the right tool for the job.....

Producing basic schedules in Excel or Word etc is possible, but time consuming and clunky. Showing the critical path is impossible (as it can't be calculated in those programmes). Showing updates against planned dates is very hard work indeed.

All of which is why scheduling software (such as MS Project or Asta) has been invented. It has a 'scheduling engine' that uses dates, durations and dependencies to easily show the critical path(s), and to enable easy updating and reporting in 'tracking' view. It's the right tool for the job, and - once the PM has learned how to use it, which is equivalent to learning how to use Excel - will save huge amounts of time.