Planning and Scheduling

Planning and Scheduling
Project Planning and Scheduling Adapted from Aftershock: Helping People Through Change by H. Woodward, S. Buchholz, K. Hess (Wiley 1987) November 22, 2004

Scheduling Topics Covered
Project Planning and Scheduling Scheduling Topics Covered Definition of scheduling and its relationship to the project management process Scheduling uses and benefits Schedule types Characteristics of a good schedule Schedule preparation, reports and control Network scheduling including analysis techniques and relationships

Monitor & Control Progress
PM Process Summary Launch Plan Recruit and organize project team Establish team operating rules Level project resources Assign work Monitor & Control Progress Establish progress reporting system Set up change control process Define problem escalation process Monitor progress vs. plan Revise project plan Close Out Project Obtain client acceptance Install project deliverables Complete project documentation Complete post-implementation audit Issue final project report Develop Detailed Plan Identify project activities Estimate activity duration Determine resource requirements Construct / analyze project network Prepare project schedule Define Project State need, problem or opportunity Define project objectives Identify success criteria List assumptions, risks and obstacles Define project scope and work breakdown structure Feedback Adapted from Project Management, 1987 Kepner-Tregoe, Inc. and Effective Project Management by R.K. Wysocki, R. Beck Jr. & D.B. Crane (Wiley, 1995) We are here

Project Planning and Scheduling
The process of converting a general or outline plan for a project into a time-based graphic presentation using information on available resources and time constraints.

Scheduling Scheduling is a management tool
Project Planning and Scheduling Scheduling Scheduling is a management tool It can be used to satisfy a number of objectives Coordination Analysis and forecasting Reporting against a baseline Scheduling enables you to Integrate the activities of the various project participants Show interface responsibilities particularly with respect to timing Secure, record and communicate commitment to tasks by the various contributors to the project effort

Scheduling Scheduling also enables you to
Project Planning and Scheduling Scheduling Scheduling also enables you to Identify the key activity sequence (critical path) determining the length of the project Display departmental work loading and hence facilitate departmental planning Provide the basis for more detailed scheduling

Scheduling Scheduling enables analysis and forecasting You can
Project Planning and Scheduling Scheduling Scheduling enables analysis and forecasting You can Show priorities for procuring equipment, material, labor and services Analyze complex work areas with many interrelated activities through network analysis Facilitate long range planning and future resource allocation Measure progress Measure performance Maintain control over time and cost of the project Produce a cash flow forecast

Scheduling Use scheduling for reporting
Project Planning and Scheduling Scheduling Use scheduling for reporting Provide a visible summary of important or major activities Report planned completion dates Report deviations from plan Provide an early warning system for delays Monitor cash flow Record actual dates For forecasting For estimating on future projects

Three Basic Steps to a Project Schedule
Project Planning and Scheduling Three Basic Steps to a Project Schedule

Types of Schedules There are many ways of presenting similar information, each with different objectives Gantt Chart is another name for Bar Chart Milestone Chart Progress Chart Networks Earned Value or Trend lines Line of Balance And several others

Gantt or Simple Bar Chart
Project Planning and Scheduling Gantt or Simple Bar Chart Graphical representation shows horizontal bars against a time scale At summary or detailed levels

Milestone Chart Graphical representation shows milestone dates
Project Planning and Scheduling Milestone Chart Graphical representation shows milestone dates Identifies key points in the project's life span The bars are not necessarily visible

Progress Bar Chart Graphical representation shows progress relative to plan In this case, behind schedule No indication of final completion

Bar Chart Status Report
Project Planning and Scheduling Bar Chart Status Report Graphical representation shows original baseline schedule (red bars) and actual progress relative to current plan No indication of final completion

Bar Charts Pros and Cons
Project Planning and Scheduling Bar Charts Pros and Cons Advantages Good communication tool Easy to prepare (minimal cost) Easy to update Good for small projects Disadvantages Do not show relationships between activities without a lot of extra lines Limited help for project control

Characteristics of a Good Schedule
Project Planning and Scheduling Characteristics of a Good Schedule A good schedule will be Logical Simple and easy to work with Easy to monitor Flexible, easy to revise Specific and timely It will also Anticipate problems Promote effective communication

Master Schedule The highest summary level schedule for a project showing the overall phasing and all major interfaces, key milestones and significant work elements Also known as an Executive Summary Level Schedule Usually prepared manually as an outline of intent very early in the project's life span

Master Schedule Developed as early as possible in the project life span Maintained by the project manager For the project owner/sponsor Preferably developed through negotiation with the project sponsor Should show all major activities at a summary level Include key milestones or events relating to each major activity at critical points in time

Master Schedule Original version is the baseline or target schedule
Project Planning and Scheduling Master Schedule Original version is the baseline or target schedule Provides a yardstick for the overall project status against which overall progress is measured Because of its simplicity, it can be used throughout the project as the reporting base

Master Schedule The Baseline Master Schedule should not be changed unless A formal and agreed re-scheduling takes place for the entire project or a major part of it The current actual progress and the target schedule become so far apart that recovery is impossible and target objectives have become meaningless Such changes are recognized by senior management and approved by the sponsor/client

Preparing a Schedule Project scheduling can be very sophisticated
Project Planning and Scheduling Preparing a Schedule Project scheduling can be very sophisticated Refer to some of the many books on the subject for an in-depth understanding For our purposes there are ten general steps in preparing a reliable schedule

Preparing a Schedule Before you start preparing a serious detailed schedule, you must first have A Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) A list of tasks derived from each Work Package Staffing and resources required, or available, for each task

Preparing a Schedule Do you really need all of that information?
Project Planning and Scheduling Preparing a Schedule Do you really need all of that information? Yes. And also assemble any other information that will affect schedule calculations You can of course start developing a schedule long before you have all of that information, but Such a schedule will be "High-level" And correspondingly less reliable In fact, your detailed schedule should only come after several schedule iterations earlier in the project life span

Preparing a Schedule There are a number of recommended steps, depending on your particular project But first Assemble key team members who will be responsible for conducting the project Brief them on the purpose of the meeting Inevitably there will be some preliminary discussion

Preparing a Schedule Step 1
Project Planning and Scheduling Preparing a Schedule Step 1 Establish and agree the scheduling assumptions, especially a clear set of scheduling objectives For example, product quality grade, time and cost limitations that will affect activities Overall strategy for the project Methodology or technology to be used and how it will be applied Sources of resources and their competence, or training needs Working hours, holidays, other interruptions

Project Planning and Scheduling Preparing a Schedule Step 2 Identify each logical work area as reflected in the WBS and the activities associated with each Make sure that all the necessary major activities and tasks have been included to create the required intermediate and final deliverables If you have too many activities consider using "hammocks” to group discrete tasks as one activity Hammock - An aggregate or summary activity. All related activities are tied as one summary activity and reported at the summary level.

Project Planning and Scheduling Preparing a Schedule Step 3 Establish the project's natural or "inherent" logic Some projects have very clear logic while others provide more options depending on resources or the nature of the project or other circumstances Nevertheless, there is almost always a preferred way of doing things It is worth spending time to look for it Work the activities from the beginning to the end Then work from the end back to the beginning!

Preparing a Schedule Step 3, continued
Project Planning and Scheduling Step 3, continued Preparing a Schedule Develop a flow chart or logic diagram – AKA a network diagram – paint a picture of the schedule Use the work breakdown structure as a “To do” list Which of these items must be done first? Label that item “A” What must follow next? Label those B, C, D, etc Now ask what can be done concurrently with A, B or C? Assemble a simple logic diagram arranged from left to right

Use large sheets of paper, cards on the wall or sticky notes
Project Planning and Scheduling Step 3, continued Logic Diagram Use large sheets of paper, cards on the wall or sticky notes More than 30 activities, separate project into two phases

Project Planning and Scheduling Preparing a Schedule Step 4 Incorporate any "Management Choice" logic, i.e., dates or sequence mandated by management These may or may not make sense Make sure that management understands the implications of imposed management decisions Adjust the logic accordingly Always double check that the schedule logic is sound Steps 3 and 4 establish the schedule network configuration

Project Planning and Scheduling Preparing a Schedule Step 5 Estimate the duration of each activity or task Pay particular attention to this step since the whole schedule will depend upon it Use all available sources of information Be careful with published information since the circumstances of your project may be different Some tasks will still be difficult to estimate, seek expert help, use ranges Document areas of high uncertainty (risk) Always aim for the “most likely" duration – don't build in contingency at every step, or the project will not fly Always be realistic – you can refine on the second pass and make appropriate contingency allowances later

Project Planning and Scheduling Preparing a Schedule Step 6 Calculate the Forward Pass by adding the durations along each path in your network to establish the earliest start (ES) and finish (EF) dates for each activity Calculate the Backward Pass by repeat this operation but working backwards from the last date established in the Forward Pass or from a specified Required Completion date to establish the latest start (LS) and finish (LF) dates for each activity This is much easier using scheduling software

Project Planning and Scheduling Step 6, continued Preparing a Schedule If you examine the values of (ES-LS) and (EF-LF) you will note that The string of activities where these values are zero is the longest path through the network This is known as the Critical Path Where the values are positive indicates that there is Float for those activities

Project Planning and Scheduling Step 6, continued Preparing a Schedule A negative ES-LS value implies that you must start an activity before you are logically able to do so, that is, you don't have enough time to do all of the work as planned This usually only happens when you are given a mandated finish date which is inadequate or too tight (senior management's favorite pastime) If you have negative values the schedule doesn't work, and you need to go to Step 7

Project Planning and Scheduling Preparing a Schedule Step 7 There are a number of things you can do to fix an unworkable schedule To meet a predetermined end date Check whether all activities are really necessary Move activities off the critical path or eliminate them altogether Accelerate critical activities Using overtime or more resources Work some activities in parallel (concurrently) or increase the amount of overlap Insist that management provides faster feedback on decision-making

Project Planning and Scheduling Preparing a Schedule Step 8 Make sure the resulting schedule chart makes sense and looks good A well-presented bar chart will show the grouped activities in a progressive cascade making it clear and easy to read Use the calendar dates and create an ideal master schedule of milestone dates identifying the completion of major or key activities

Preparing a Schedule Finally, when everyone is satisfied, follow up with these last two steps Chart or print the results and distribute for final team review and acceptance before issuing it to management Abstract or summarize schedule data for different levels of management Step 9 Step 10

Schedule Reports Project Planning and Scheduling

Schedule Control Strictly speaking, you cannot control the schedule
Project Planning and Scheduling Schedule Control Strictly speaking, you cannot control the schedule What you can do is Create a schedule Have it distributed for action Observe what is actually going on Compare and update the schedule Report your findings to those in charge Conduct review meetings with your team

Planning and Schedule Review Meetings
Project Planning and Scheduling Planning and Schedule Review Meetings The agenda should include Significant variances Impact on future milestones Impact on activities of others Proposed actions to catch up Summary of expected future key milestone dates

Changing the Schedule If there is a severe problem with the schedule, recovery actions may well depend on the technology that you are dealing with However, management steps that you might consider include Closer control Crashing – reduce time by increasing resources Working overtime or double shifts Fast tracking – overlap serial activities Trade-offs between scope, quality, time and cost Change methods, materials or equipment Negotiate a revised schedule

Changing the Schedule If the schedule gets really out of whack you may need to do more than just negotiate a revised schedule You may need to obtain approval for A major revision of the timeline Major revisions of the methodology or resources Revision of the project scope with all appropriate approvals, of course In other words, a major re-planning effort A suggested flow chart for a schedule change process is shown on the next slide

Schedule Change Process
Project Planning and Scheduling Schedule Change Process

Network Scheduling A graphical display of the logical order of activities that defines the sequence of work in a project where activities are represented by boxes Networks are usually drawn from left to right with lines drawn between the boxes to show the precedence relationships between them Arrow heads are sometimes placed on the lines to indicate the direction of the flow through time

Network Advantages Precedence diagram format is the most common (see next slide) Shows logical inter-relationships between activities, that is, their interdependence Enables easy calculation of critical path either manually or with software Critical Path activities have zero float and constitutes the longest path in the project Shows how much float other activities have

Precedence Network Diagram
Project Planning and Scheduling Precedence Network Diagram

Network Advantages The critical path determines length of project according to the project logic and the critical activities for that particular scenario Easy to assign leads and lags between activities to solve a deadline problem Easy to apply resources and determine resource or time trade-offs Facilitates “what if" scenarios By running the same network with actuals it is fairly easy to assess project progress and performance

Network Disadvantages
Project Planning and Scheduling Network Disadvantages If you have more than a few activities you need to use software The network itself is not a good presentation communication tool Good software will present the same information as a bar chart The network itself is really only a means to an end

Network Terminology Activity – An item of work that consumes time and resources to produce some result Critical Path – The series of activities all of which must finish on time for the whole project to finish on time Sometimes described as the longest path through a network, hence the shortest project time A critical path has zero float A critical path assumes that the network logic is sound

Network Terminology Event or Milestone –
Project Planning and Scheduling Network Terminology Event or Milestone – A point in time when certain conditions have been fulfilled, such as the start or completion of one or more activities Unlike an activity, does not consume time or resources Hence, expresses a state of being Activities take place between events Float or Slack Time – The additional time available to complete a non-critical activity

Network Terminology Leads and Lags – An imposed modification of the logical relationship between activities to accelerate or delay the apparent natural order Scheduling Network – Graphical representation of activities or nodes and the dependencies between them Time Estimate – The prediction of the most likely duration of an activity

Approaches to Network Analysis
Project Planning and Scheduling Approaches to Network Analysis Essentially there are three different approaches Activity-oriented systems, Event-oriented systems Event-oriented systems plus probability Activity-oriented systems use either activities as connectors or Activities as nodes Event-based approach focuses on start and finish times and may involve PERT Shown graphically on the next slide

Network Analysis Techniques
Project Planning and Scheduling Network Analysis Techniques PERT – Project Evaluation and Review Technique Calculation produces an "Expected time" Te, where Te = (To+4Tm+Tp)/6, that is to say, the mean value of the three estimates

Network Relationships
Project Planning and Scheduling Network Relationships Networks depend on relationships Relationships between activities are central to the concept of network analysis Several relationships, including lag factors, are shown graphically on the next several slides Note that with Arrow Diagramming you have to use dummy activities to correctly display certain relationships – not intuitive, but it works

Arrow Diagramming Project Planning and Scheduling

Precedence Diagramming
Project Planning and Scheduling Precedence Diagramming

Lag Factor Notation Project Planning and Scheduling

Start is dependent, but not completion
Project Planning and Scheduling Start is dependent, but not completion

Completion is dependent, but not start
Project Planning and Scheduling Completion is dependent, but not start

B depends on A after a specified lag
Project Planning and Scheduling B depends on A after a specified lag

Precedence Network Activity Data Boxes
Project Planning and Scheduling Precedence Network Activity Data Boxes Suggested display of key data

Precedence Network Diagram
Project Planning and Scheduling Precedence Network Diagram

First Cut at a Complex Schedule
Project Planning and Scheduling First Cut at a Complex Schedule You'll probably want to make your first cut at a complicated network schedule on paper Start with a large sheet of paper Fill it with blank data boxes (previous slides) all neatly lined up in rows and columns with space between them all Use sticky notes for the boxes so you can move them around Display as many activities as you can think of Now draw in the dependency lines Enter any other data you have – this all makes it easier to computerize later Larry’s note – It’s easier said than done

Summary We’ve covered the essentials of project scheduling
Project Planning and Scheduling Summary We’ve covered the essentials of project scheduling Definition of scheduling Uses and benefits Types of schedules Schedule preparation Schedule reports and control Network scheduling and analysis techniques

Planning and Scheduling

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