PLANNING STAGE (TIME) : DEVELOP SCHEDULE

This is the last process of planning time where by the project schedule is formed after analyzing activities, their sequences, resources and durations as discussed from the previous processes. The schedule will have the starting and ending date for the project activities and therefore it will act as a baseline to track the progress of the project.

To develop the schedule, we need to have:

• Schedule management plan which explains the method for creating the schedule together with the tools to use
• Activity list which mentions all the activities to be included in the schedule
• Project Schedule Network Diagram which explains the sequence of the activities until the project is completed
• Activity resources requirements which explain types and quantities of the resources to be used for each activity
• Resource Calendar which explains how the resource will be available during the project period
• Activity Duration Estimates which show the duration for each activity to complete
• Enterprise Environmental Factors which explain if there is scheduling tool for creating the schedule
• Organizational Process Assets which explain the historical information as well as the lessons learnt in the process of develop schedule from the previous similar projects

Also the project schedule as an output of this process can be developed by:

• The Critical Path Method where by the longest path with minimum project duration is determined
• Resource optimization where by if the resource is assigned to two activities at the same time, then the resource will be adjusted to a different time to complete those activities (we call it as Resource levelling) or the activities will be adjusted if there is no need of adding more resources (we call it as Resource smoothing)
• Schedule compression where by more resources can be added (we call it as Crashing) or the activities can be performed in parallel or by overlapping each other (we call it as fast tracking) for the purpose of shortening the schedule of the project. Note that it may result to an increase of risk, over-cost or rework depending on the choices made.
• Scheduling tool which can generate the start and end dates basing on the inputs of the activities, resources, durations, leads and lags etc. It can be formed manually or automated depending on the settings made from the beginning.

These are few among many that can be used for developing the project schedule.

Apart from having the project schedule which will be presented in tabular form or in Gantt chart, also we will have the schedule baseline that will assist us in tracking the progress of the project activities as well as project calendar with working days and shifts for the activities.

References:

PMI (2013). A Guide to the Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide 5^th Ed.) USA, Project Management Institute

https://www.smartsheet.com/free-daily-schedule-templates

Thank you and if you have any questions or suggestions, please don't hesitate to post on the comments below.

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