1. Scheduling Best Practices
Presented by:
Ric Albani
PMI Scheduling Forum
December 1, 2009

2. Purpose
Share findings and observations of common scheduling anomalies from experiences providing project oversight and project management support.
Schedule Construction and Schedule Management

3. Schedule Construction
Poor WBS and organization of content
Not in accordance with project or product methodology
Too many constraints
Reliance upon hardcoded dates
Too many “hangers”
Dependencies are not being portrayed accurately

4. Schedule Construction (continued)
Large total slack/float values
Dependencies are not being portrayed accurately
Applying logic at the summary task level
Best practice is to apply logic where the work is being done
Critical Path lacking credibility
Usually results from one or more of the aforementioned anomalies

5. Schedule Management Resource Sheet not maintained
Prevents meaningful resource analysis
Lack of integration with other project processes
Change control, risk & issue management
Ineffective use of two-week look ahead
Capacity planning
Task coordination
Reality check

6. Schedule Management (continued)
Lack of variance analysis & corrective action
Must have baseline in place
Implying that slippage is okay
Executive Management needs to enforce
Disconnect with status reporting
Too much text
Reporting should reflect extracts from Schedule
Should be based on WBS

7. Final Thoughts
Schedule Management alone does not ensure success, but it increases likelihood of success.
The schedule should be used as a foundational element to project management and project integration.
A lack of understanding and experience of the Time / Schedule Management discipline and/or Scheduling Tool is a root cause.
Underestimation of effort to maintain and manage, by supplier and/or client organization.

8. Ric Albani