Schedule (project management)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In project management, a schedule consists of a list of a project's terminal elements with intended start and finish dates.
A Gantt chart can provide a graphical representation of a project schedule.
Critical chain project management warns that terminal-element start dates and finish dates function as random variables, and suggests managing a project not by its traditional schedule but rather by using buffer management and a relay race mentality.
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[edit] Creating a project schedule
Before a project schedule can be created, a project manager should typically have a work breakdown structure (WBS), an effort estimate for each task, and a resource list with availability for each resource. If these are not yet available, it may be possible to create something that looks like a schedule, but it will essentially be a work of fiction. They can be created using a consensus-driven estimation method like Wideband Delphi. The reason for this is that a schedule itself is an estimate: each date in the schedule is estimated, and if those dates do not have the buy-in of the people who are going to do the work, the schedule will be inaccurate.
In many industries, such as engineering and construction; the development and maintenance of the project schedule is the responsibility of a full time scheduler or team of schedulers, depending on the size of the project. And though the techniques of scheduling are well developed, they are inconsistently applied through out industry. Standardization and promotion of scheduling best practices are pursed by the Assosciation for the Advancement of Cost Engineering (AACE), and the Project Management Institute (PMI). In large corporations, Scheduling, as well as Cost, Estimating, and Risk Management are organized under the department of Project Controls.
Many project scheduling software products exist which can do much of the tedious work of calculating the schedule automatically, and plenty of books and tutorials dedicated to teaching people how to use them. However, before a project manager can use these tools, he or she should understand the concepts behind the WBS, dependencies, resource allocation, critical paths, Gantt charts and earned value. These are the real keys to planning a successful project.
[edit] Software
The most common tool for creating a small project schedule is Microsoft Project. The industry standard for logic driven dynamic scheduling is Primavera Project Planner (P3). There are also many free and open source project scheduling tools available for most platforms which feature task lists, resource allocation, predecessors and Gantt charts.
Commercial Scheduling Software typically will have third party add on software to integrate Schedule with related Project Controls disciplines such as Cost, Estimating, and Project Risk Management.
Other project scheduling software packages include:
- dotProject
- GanttProject
- Open workbench
- netOffice
- netOffice Dwins
- TaskJuggler
- TUTOS
- See also: List of project management software
[edit] See also
[edit] Professional Resources and Project Management Firms
JCA - Project Planning / Scheduling Consultants
Project Schedule from Applied Software Project Management
How to Defend an Unpopular Schedule (IEEE Software, Vol. 13, No. 3, May 1996)
"Painless Software Schedules" by Joel Spolksy
Spire Consulting Group, LLC.International construction management consulting company that provides valuable resources and services in preparing and analyzing project schedules.
