Project Scheduling

This chapter discusses making the transition from project planning to project scheduling by introducing two techniques, push scheduling, also known as the CPM method, and pull scheduling, also known as agile scheduling. Both have distinct advantages and disadvantages.

Summary

  • A schedule is a specific, time-based map designed to help the project team get from the current state to successful project completion. Whereas a plan is like a football coach's strategy for winning, a schedule is all about tactics. Above all else, it is a form of communication with everyone involved in the project. It should contain just the right amount of detail.
  • Making sure all stakeholders use the same terminology is crucial in all phases of project management, but it's especially important when you are trying to get a group of diverse people to agree to a schedule. Important terms related to scheduling include milestone, activity, duration, resource, cost, and slack.
  • Scheduling is a phase of project management that necessarily blends geometric and living order. The planning and scheduling technique most closely associated with push planning and the geometric order is the critical path method (CPM). The scheduling technique that best exemplifies living order principles is a pull schedule created collaboratively by stakeholders, typically by using multi-colored Post-it notes. Details of this type of scheduling have been codified in the Last Planner System and in Agile.
  • The Critical Path Method (CPM) focuses on identifying the critical path of activities required to ensure project success, and then closely monitoring the activities on the critical path through the entire project. CPM is especially useful for large, complex projects where schedule interrelationships may not be readily apparent. It is the ultimate geometric order tool for project management and can lure you into a false sense of security regarding the predictableness of a project. However, it can be very helpful when you need to compress a schedule by fast tracking or crashing.
  • A pull schedule is by its very nature a work in progress. Creating it is a collaborative process, and it must be updated regularly in response to current conditions. An initial pull schedule is often created using color-coded Post-it notes that can be removed or repositioned as necessary. Pull scheduling, in the form of the Last Planner System (LPS) is essential to Lean. Schedules in the LPS focus on the last responsible moment and rely on the use of reliable promises.
  • In some situations, especially in governmental work, monitoring the critical path is a contractual obligation. But it is possible to overemphasize the critical path, thereby wasting the energy and attention of project stakeholders.
  • Focusing on project milestones is a good way to provide a high-level schedule that is useful for most stakeholders.