Anticlue

The project schedule is the PM’s best tool for forecasting how long a project will take to complete. In order to develop the project schedule it is necessary to use several key inputs. The inputs are as follows:

• Project Scope Statement – The project scope statement is the description of the project scope, major deliverables, project objectives, project assumptions, project constraints, and a statement of work.
• Risk Register – The Risk Register is used to have a well thought through and accepted evaluation of risk that may delay or halt the project. The PM should consider these events and make adjustments for them.
• Network diagram – The network diagram is used to obtain the sequencing information of activities.
• Activity attributes – Activity attributes describe the who, what, where, why, and how of the project activities to be completed. This information is just to group and categorize activities on the schedule.
• Activity duration estimates – Activity duration estimates determine the length of time (duration) is needed to perform each individual activity.
• Activity resource requirements - Activity resource requirements detail what type of resource is needed and how many are necessary before the law of diminishing returns hits. This is also necessary for physical resources. For example it is very useful to know what type of platform will be needed and used for testing.
• Activity list - The Activity List is the listing of all of the work activities that must be performed to complete the project. All activities must be included in the project schedule and have resources available to do the work.
• Resource calendars - Resource calendars identify the time periods when specific project team members or pieces of equipment are available. Resource calendars show when team members are committed to other projects, are on vacation, or otherwise unavailable to a project.
• Organizational process assets - The organization's own internal policies may limit the times when work activities can be performed. The organization's policies for employee available hours, overtime, and holidays determine which days—and hours—are work time and non-work time. These are organizational process assets that affect the development of a project schedule.

As with everything the first schedule is a draft which encompasses all the project’s work activities within a defined scope of work. There are two techniques commonly used by project managers to establish a rough timeline:

• The Critical Path Method - The Critical Path Method (CPM) is a technique for calculating the earliest and latest possible start and finish times for work activities in a project. CPM uses the estimated duration of activities and the dependencies among them to determine limits for when each activity can be performed. CPM also identifies activities in a project that will throw the entire project off schedule if they're not completed on time.
• Schedule Compression - Schedule compression shortens the overall duration of a project by reducing the duration of individual work activities. Schedule compression methods include:
  • Crashing – Crashing is the process in which more resources are assigned to an activity. The additional cost of resources is offset by the time saved.
  • Fast-tracking – Fast-tracking rearranges the sequence of activities to allow activities that are normally performed in sequence to be done in parallel simultaneously.

Now that we have our first outline of the schedule, the next step is to review the schedule to assure that we have timing for each activity aligned with a the required resource. The techniques commonly used to accomplish this alignment are:

• Critical chain – The critical chain adds buffers between activities to reduces schedule disruptions caused by missed deadlines or a lack of resources. (These are non work activities)
• Resource leveling – Resource leveling rearranges the sequence of activities to address limited availability of resources. It adjusts the timing of activities so scarce resources can be allocated to the most critical activities, also levels out over allocated resources.
• What-if analysis – The What-if analysis compares and measures the effects of different scenarios on a project. By simulating a project's work flow, information can be gleamed on the impacts of adverse events, such as interruptions in the availability of resources, on the schedule.

Another item the PM needs to consider is the Resource Calendar. The resource calendars portrays the availability of resources and constraints within those resources. For example, equipment and people can be assigned to other projects. By reviewing and applying calendars to a schedule restricts the timing of work activities to periods when adequate resources are available.
While engaged in schedule development, it is a good idea to review the relationships between work activities. In most cases the schedule is passed on a finish to start relationship, however perhaps you need to move up the live date by a couple of days on the critical path, or make it a little later not to inflict another live on the organization. These activities can be accomplished by adjusting leads and lags.

• Leads – Leads are when and activity is scheduled in advance the start date and allowed it to begin before the preceding activity is complete. For example, developing test scenarios can be done a head of time before construction is completed.
• Lags – Lags are a delay in the starting time of the next activity to create a gap between the end of one activity and the start of the next.

A schedule network analysis is used to examine the project activities, this graphic illustrates the activities, their duration, and sequence. It also gives information on early starts and late starts for the work activities. Just keep in mind the latest late start for the first activity is 1, and all early starts for the first activity are now 0, under the latest PMBOK guidelines. Needless to say, manually creating a schedule network in time consuming, thankfully we have project management software to help the process.

The outputs from the Schedule Development process yield a completed project schedule among other items. The outputs of schedule development are:

• The Project Schedule – The project schedule includes start and finish dates for project activities, assignments and timing for specific leaders, workers, or other project resources.
• Schedule Model Data - Schedule Model data is supporting information to the Project Schedule. Schedule Model data includes resource requirements by time period, imposed dates, constraints, and schedule alternatives.
• The Schedule Baseline – The Schedule Baseline is the bought into, accepted, reviewed, and formalize version of the schedule. When schedule changes are approved, the altered schedule becomes the new Schedule Baseline and the previous baseline becomes obsolete.
• Requested Changes – Obviously developing the schedule may reveal the need for changes in other parts of the project plan. The analysis of activities during schedule development may show a need to change deadlines, milestones, or resource allocations.

In addition to these outputs, the Schedule Development process updates information created in other project management processes. The following items may be updated as a result of developing a schedule:

• Resource requirements - The Schedule Development process may produce updates to a project manager's estimate of the resource requirements for a project. Many schedule development techniques adjust the quantity or type of resources, or the timing of when they will be used. For example, crashing a schedule may double the resources on some activities.
• Activity attributes- As Project managers develop schedules, they may realize that changes are needed in where, when, or how some activities are performed. These changes to activity attributes must be recorded and communicated to the project teams responsible for performing the activities.
• Project calendar - Project calendars show the days and shifts during which project activities can be performed. When project managers develop the project schedule, they may find it necessary to add days or shifts to the calendar.
• Project Management Plan - The Schedule Development process produces updates to the Schedule Management Plan, which is part of the Project Management Plan. The completion of the schedule may require new strategies to cope with variances between the schedule and actual activity durations.

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