Project Scheduling

Scheduling is one of the key things that an Enterprise Project Management tool can help with. But however good the tool, it is only as useful as the data you enter into it. Simple or Complex Schedules, inevitably end up changing along the way!  As German Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke said: “No plan survives contact with the enemy.” To give your project the best possible success rate, avoid these 7 scheduling mistakes: 

1. Failing to take credit for completed activities. Every single project scheduling manager loves to mark off completed tasks. Given that, you would think that project managers would never forget to get rid of those completed tasks in the schedule. Unfortunately, it is a common mistake. It shows that the Project Manager is not up to date with the current project status, and is not close to the teams doing the work. Getting regular updates on progress from each team member will insure you know exactly what is completed and what is left to complete on each and every work front. 

2. Failing to update progress on “in-flight” activities.   Lack of progress tracking doesn’t just affect completed tasks. Progress should also be tracked for tasks that are underway. This allows you to see what is currently being worked on. Remember, there are only three types of activities in a schedule: 

1.   Not Started 

2.  In-Progress  

3.  Completed 

Know where you are on every one of them! 

3. Not breaking down high level deliverables.   Schedules are only useful when the activities listed are of a level of granularity that makes sense to track. Activities like ‘Install Foundation’ are hard to track because they are made of up a number of smaller deliverables like, ‘Excavate for forms’, Install Forms, Install reinforcement wire and anchors, Pour concrete, Demo forms, etc. 

4. Missing Successors or Dependencies.   Your schedule will become less accurate when successor or dependent activities are missing. You will not be able to see what has to happen first or what downstream effort is relying on earlier work to complete. Sit down with the team and decide where the dependencies are, then make sure that your schedule now accurately reflects all of them, especially when they fall on the Critical Path. Don’t expect to do this by yourself. Get your team involved and engaged.  Get some sticky note pads and brain storm....

5. Failing to Adjust Forecasted Effort.   When activities are on the schedule are running late, the optimistic view is to hope that the team will catch up sooner than later. Experience dictates that this rarely happens. Late Tasks will typically become later than sooner. If you know that something is taking longer than planned, adjust the remaining effort for that task accordingly. Could you move more resources to that activity? For Example, if a tasks duration is four weeks, and you have completed one week’s effort but is has taken two week’s elapsed time, you know you are running at about half speed so you need to plan in another four weeks for this task. 

6. Not Planning for Resource Availability.   Even the best schedule in the world will cease being accurate the moment your resources are unavailable to work on their assigned activities. Plan forward, especially with part time resources. You should be aiming to give people (and their managers) notice about when they are expected to start working on their tasks, and remember to keep them apprised if things change because you are running late or have made up some time and will require their effort earlier than expected. 

7. Failing to adjust the schedule for Scope Changes. There has to be a link between the project’s change management process and the scheduler. The majority of changes will have some impact on the schedule, either through adding or removing something from the project scope or amending key milestone dates for some reason. Make sure that your project joins up the change management process and the planning process, so that you can make sure that you can immediately implement the changes to the schedule as a result of changes to the scope. A good example of an extra activity or delay to insert into the schedule, might be a weather delay. Months down the road, you will have a hard time trying to explain all the reasons the schedule ran late unless you can account for all the reasons you could not work, in addition to added work. This is also a good way of ensuring that all team members involved know that a change has been implemented. In many cases, Project Team Members on the periphery are not close to the core processes and may not be aware that something crucial has changed.

Good Scheduling takes time and commitment from all stakeholders, and the effort to keep on top of everything requires all eyes. Scheduling and following the schedule is crucial, especially on complex projects but if you keep you focus, you can avoid these 7 scheduling mistakes. 

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That "German Field Marshall", Moltke would be proud!