Why schedule is important in a project

To keep projects on track, set realistic time frames, assign resources appropriately and manage quality to decrease product errors. This typically results in reduced costs and increased customer satisfaction. Important factors include financial, documentation, management and quality assurance. Project scheduling impacts the overall finances of a project. Time constraints require project managers to schedule resources effectively. This is particularly true when resources must have highly specialized skills and knowledge in order to complete a task or when costly materials are required.

Success in project budget management depends on, amongst other things, the creation of a comprehensive, consistent, and reliable project budget.

Some people want to use the term "accurate" in the above definition. But, the word "accurate" has no place in the project management world.

Reliable and consistent are the terms that should be used. By definition, the project budget cannot be accurate as it is an estimate. The first process is Estimate Cost, which is often confused with the Determine Budget process. Both processes are normally preceded by a project management team planning process, which is executed as part of the Develop Project Management Plan. The Cost Management Plan outlines the processes involved in determining organizational cost categories, estimating, budgeting, and controlling cost, so that the project can be executed within the approved budget.

The Estimate Cost process is not only confused with Determine Budget but is also widely misunderstood. Many think that this process estimates the total cost of the project. But this is not correct, at least not directly. The Estimate Cost process estimates the cost for each of the work elements and records the basis of that cost. That is as far as Estimate Cost goes! The second of the three processes in Project Cost Management is the Determine Budget process, which rolls work element cost upward, applies cost aggregation, applies project contingency, makes a cash flow estimate, and now you have a budget for the various levels of the WBS and the total project.

This level of detail allows a project manager PM to evaluate the budget performance of the project from the top down or from the bottom up. The drill down can be by the PM or in conjunction with the assigned team member. EVM can assist you in evaluating project budget performance what are you accomplishing for the funds you are expending and in calculating a Cost Performance Index CPI , which is a representation of the effectiveness of your spending. EVM can calculate a Cost Variance CV , which is the difference between the value of the work completed and the amount of funds expended to accomplish that work.

This will tell you the magnitude of the over- or under-run or if you are on budget. EVM can be applied down to the work element level if the appropriate level of detail exists. Variance analysis is another tool to help the PM understand why work elements are over- or under budget.

Understanding why work elements are overrunning will assist the PM to develop solutions action plans to bring the project back within acceptable ranges. Understanding why work elements are significantly under budget assist the PM in feeding this information forward to new project budget development. Regardless of experience, care, or execution effort, project budget variances will occur.

This is just a fact of the project world. While they cannot all be eliminated, they can be reduced for future projects.

Some not many projects will finish very close to the budget. Using the techniques outlined here will reduce the number of projects in this category and reduce the size of the overruns. The main purpose of project scheduling is to represent the plan to deliver the project scope over time. A project schedule, in its simplest form, could be a chart of work elements with associated schedule dates of when work elements and milestones usually the completion of a deliverable are planned to occur.

In addition to guiding the work, the project schedule is used to communicate to all stakeholders when certain work elements and project events are expected to be accomplished.

The project schedule is also the tool that links the project elements of work to the resources needed to accomplish that work. This is the result of four previous processes plus the work of up to eight tools and techniques for the Develop Schedule process. The project schedulling process includes:. This level of detail allows a project manager to evaluate the schedule performance of the project from the top down or from the bottom up. Resources Glossary When people discuss the processes for building a schedule, they are usually referring to the first six processes of time management: Plan schedule management Define project activities Sequence activities Estimate resources Estimate durations Develop the project schedule How to do scheduling in project management There are three main types of schedules: Master project schedule: A master schedule tends to be a simplified list of tasks with a timeline or project calendar.

Milestone schedule or summary schedule: This type of schedule tracks major milestones and key deliverables, but not every task required to complete the project. A detailed project schedule: This is the most thorough project schedule, as it identifies and tracks every project activity.

Benefits of project scheduling in project management Project scheduling provides the following benefits: Assists with tracking, reporting, and communicating progress Ensures everyone is on the same page with tasks, dependencies, and deadlines Highlights issues and concerns, such as a lack of resources Identifies task relationships Monitors progress and identify issues early Seven tips for creating a solid project schedule The time management processes identified above are the key steps to creating a project schedule.

Keep risk in mind: Identify and document any factors that pose a risk to staying on schedule. This will help your risk management efforts. Record scheduling assumptions: Write down the logic behind your scheduling predictions. For example, if you assume it will only take 10 hours to complete a task because you have a senior engineer. On top of that, this project schedule template will help you remove bottlenecks and make the overall project process more transparent, while also pointing at your resource constraints and potential inefficiencies.

Sprint planning is an integral part of agile project management methodology. Sprints are particularly relevant if you have a large project scope and need to break it down into small manageable milestones. How does this affect your project schedule development? There are several reasons why Sprints make a great project schedule example.

For starters, it will be easier for your team to focus on what is most important in the project, which, in turn, will enhance more efficient decision-making processes. Furthermore, a fixed time frame usually encourages teams to maintain effective communication, which results in faster follow-ups.

Finally, Sprints help teams shift from abstract ideas to concrete thinking, making it easy to dig deep and explore even the tiniest project details. No matter how much you try, communication is always going to be an issue in project management simply because there is a human factor involved in it. So how do you go around it? In this particular case, a solid project schedule chart will reduce the need for communication but not completely eliminate it, of course.

By looking at the project schedule, your team members will always be able to know what their colleagues are busy with and when each part of the project will be finalized. Scope creep is like that unwelcome guest you are never happy to see but still need to deal with. It stands for all the changes and updates that get introduced into the project after its launch and can easily derail it.

However, with a detailed and dynamic project schedule at hand, you can know right away how that scope creep will impact the project and what you can do to mitigate its effects. In some cases, a good project schedule maker will also spare you all the administrative and calculation-related work and add all the relevant updates automatically.

Expert project planning does not guarantee project success, unfortunately. You need to account for all the changes that might occur when the project is already underway. How can project scheduling help you in this? For one thing, you will be in control of your project performance and resources all the way through your project progress. Not to mention that you will always know what is going on with your budget and whether scope creep has a negative impact on it.

Here is an easy step-by-step project scheduling guide to walk you through the process. Assuming that you have already gathered all the needed data and project requirements, a work breakdown structure is the first step in building a project schedule.

Here you need to identify meaningful milestones that would mark tangible project achievements and use them to break down the general scope of work. This will also make it easier for you to communicate your project progress to the relevant stakeholders and arrange your timeline into an efficient structure.

Once your milestones are set in stone, the construction process of your project schedule will have to get more detailed. Getting specific with all tasks will make it easier for your team members to digest them and might even reduce procrastination. Researchers say that when people feel overwhelmed with the scope of work they need to take on, they tend to procrastinate more.

That is why a shortlist of tasks is likely to end in a solid achievement and increased productivity, while its absence might cause progress delays and low productivity levels. Dependencies are quite frequent in project management so be prepared to manage them.

In many projects, tasks are intertwined and you cannot start one to-do without having the previous one completed first. This is why identifying these links beforehand is crucial if you want to avoid task delivery delays and people left on standby. Knowing how much time each task is going to take has a direct impact on the accuracy of your project schedule. For your estimates to be as relevant as possible, see if you can ask some of your team members to participate here and give you an expert opinion on how long and why.