Schedule Development 101

1. Schedule Development 101 How to create a schedule you can use

2. 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

3. 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)

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 13 Suggestions you can useto 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

8. 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 BASELINEBASELINE • 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

9. 12 Suggestion Breakdown Example

10. 12 Suggestion Breakdown Page 2

11. Status My Project

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. Communication—How do I spread the word about my project Critical Tasks Status Reports

16. I want more reports—where can I get them??????

17. 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