Investigate a particular project management topic (for example, managing the project scope, project schedule, cost management) or any other project management knowledge area. Note: Assignment 1 could...

PROJECT SCHEDULE    

PROJECT SCHEDULE- AN OVERVIEW
Today we analyse one of the most important phase of any project being planned for its execution, known as Project Schedule or the timelines of the entire planned activity of the project. We will relate the same with an example referring to New Royal Adelaide Hospital. The factors that involves in a project schedule, tools used for identify the project timelines, review of the pace of the project against the original project schedule to understand the external and internal factors that could impact the project schedule.
Project Schedule can be defined as an itinerary of the project where all the listing of activities as per the scope of work with a start and finish dates, deliverables of each stakeholders and defining milestones in each project. These are often measured in terms of resource allocation, budget and timelines linked upon the person responsible for each task and any scheduled event that can impact the timelines.
STEPS OF PLANNING A SCHEDULE
During the overall lifecycle of a project, there are comparison of actual vs planned execution to determine the pace of the project and to identify the lifecycle of the project. This will also allow the stakeholders to determine the balance of the timelines required to finish the project. The basic step to do a planning involves as follows.
1. Analysing the type of Schedule- The type of schedule planner or tool used is based on the complexities of the project involved. Example- for large project with lot of interrelated tasks, PERT Charts (Program Evaluation Review Technique) if often used.to estimate the exact time required for completion of the project. PERT is the statistical way of representing completion of individual tasks in a diagram. It predicts project completion time including any unforeseen delay and adding risk of uncertainty involved if any. It allows project manager who if often responsible for scheduling and coordinating all the interdepartmental tasks, the ability to monitor the growth and progress of the tasks.
For smaller projects GANTT Charts (Bar Graphs) are adequate tools that could only focus on one task and is a not so effective in case of interdepartmental coordination’s. It consist of a list of tasks and bars depicting progress of each task against each bar.
2. Defining Precise and Measurable Milestones- The completion of key action is important to mark closures of small tasks which are often termed as milestones for completion of bigger tasks. The deliverables often identified in the initiation stage by each stakeholder is often termed as milestone and each stakeholder has to sign off this deliverable on closure of each milestone towards completion of project. The Milestones are often derived from the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) identified from PERT charts or GANTT charts. Once the WBS gives a the breakdown of smaller tasks within the big tasks, these completion are often termed as Milestones measured against deliverable.
3. Estimate Task Duration- Estimate task duration is one of the most challenging steps of project scheduling. It is often responsible for project cost as duration will impact the most important variable of “labour” that could add up to the overall cost of the projects. It’s a refined process that occurs throughout the planning process
With defined task duration, stakeholders are aware of the timelines of the launch, devising ways to boost team morale. On the other hand, teams are aware of their deliverables and shareholders expectations. A task duration is rarely overestimated but is always on a tight lines. Inaccurate task duration may create a chaos that could lead to disrespected timelines, cutting corners in cost and quality, not adhering to SOP’s and thus delivering sub-par project.
The estimation process is the most difficult as duration is impacted by numerous variables that must be dealt with amalgamation in planning phase. These variables include staff availability, skill level of the person assigned for the task, unexpected events, efficiency of the work time, and mistakes and misunderstandings during the execution of tasks.
Reality is another factor when estimating the duration of the task. An experience project scheduler always takes into account the absenteeism, meetings, discussion and interactions amongst the staff that could impact the work hour efficiency. No one is 100% productive at each hour and if a scheduler plans for a 100% productivity then schedule quickly falls apart. A successful schedules builds these type of factors into account.
The scheduler often refers to historic data for such type of projects. This will also sync in the project cost that will come as an estimate of the planning stage.
4. Defining Priorities- Defining Priorities in another aspect of Project Scheduling that would keep the scheduler on toes. This specially comes during the sharing of same resources and giving priority to the tasks that need first completion. The schedule variance or float is often a situation where the availability of shared resource is a challenge and can impact the overall development of the...