Project Management: Schedule Management

Organizing the various components of a project -- the activities, the resources, and the logical relationships between each -- into an effective schedule is a discipline that all project managers must develop and nurture.

Scheduling provides a detailed plan that represents how and when the project should deliver the products, services, and results defined in the project charter and project scope.  Since projects are complex endeavors, a detailed schedule results in decomposing the project into manageable phases or groupings.  Project performance can then be reported and monitored when progress is measured against these activities. 
More specifically, the schedule supports the project by allowing for:

• Time phasing of required activities
• Mobilization of resources in the most efficient manner
• Coordination of events within the project
• Early detection of risks and problems
• Resource planning
• Forecasting of time and cost estimate at complete

A schedule method provides a framework for the creation of a project schedule.

1. Critical Path Method (CPM) - determines the minimum total project duration and the earliest possible finish date, as well as the amount of flexibility in the schedule 
2. Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM) - also known as a project network diagram, PDM is a cleaner, easier to follow, graphical representation of a project's process flow 
3. Critical Chain Method - developed from the CPM approach, it considers the effects of resource alloction, resource leveling and activity duration uncertainty on the critical path

Once a particular method is chosen, a number of estimation techniques can be applied to that method to derive the project schedule

• Rolling Wave - provides a detailed decomposition of project activities for the near term, focusing on activities to be accomplished over a 60-day or 90-day timeframe
• Agile - similar in nature to rolling wave estimation, agile estimation focuses on sprint development cycles, which typically last 2-4 weeks
• PERT - uses a comnination of optimistic, pessimistic and most-likely duration estimates in determining the length of schedule tasks
• Monte Carlo Simulation - an algorithmic approach to estimation that relies, which relies on repeated iterations, each of which represent a possible project result

Over the course of my posts here, I will delve deeper into schedule management, with further discussion on schedule models, schedule methods & schedule techinques.