Project Review

Once you have outlined the basic schedule, you need to review it to make sure that the timing for each activity is aligned with the necessary resources. Here are tools commonly used to do this:

• 'What If' Scenario Analysis: This method compares and measures the effects of different scenarios on a project. You use simulations to determine the effects of various adverse, or harmful, assumptions - such as resources not being available on time, or delays in other areas of the project. You can then measure and plan for the risks posed in these scenarios.
• Resource Leveling: Here, you rearrange the sequence of activities to address the possibility of unavailable resources, and to make sure that excessive demand is not put on resources at any point in time. If resources are available only in limited quantities, then you change the timing of activities so that the most critical activities have enough resources.
• Critical Chain Method: This also addresses resource availability. You plan activities using their latest possible start and finish dates. This adds extra time between activities, which you can then use to manage work disruptions.
• Risk Multipliers: Risk is inevitable, so you need to prepare for its impact. Adding extra time to high-risk activities is one strategy. Another is to add a time multiplier to certain tasks or certain resources to offset overly optimistic time estimation.

After the initial schedule has been reviewed, and adjustments made, it's a good idea to have other members of the team review it as well. Include people who will be doing the work - their insights and assumptions are likely to be particularly accurate and relevant.

Project Schedules Examples

• Master Project Schedule: Developed in the initial phase of project planning, the master project schedule is a summary level schedule which highlights the principal activities and tasks and their estimated duration. This schedule's strength lies in its ability to aggregate individual activity schedules and display them in one convenient document. The schedule can serve as an early communication tool for building buy-in for the project with upper level management and external stakeholders. The schedule is also useful for facilitating team brainstorming during the initial phrases of the project to work out logistics.
• Milestone Schedule: As an advanced schedule, a milestone schedule is often referred to throughout the project’s lifecycle. The milestone schedule is a summary level schedule that allows the project team leader to review and identify all of the significant and major project related milestones that may surface during the course of a project. Because of its visually-pleasing format, the milestone schedule is recommended for reporting status reports to top level management and external stakeholders. The milestone schedule is also useful during team assessments, particularly for newly-formed teams to give them an opportunity to take pride in their accomplishments, reflect upon their setbacks, and most importantly bond as a team.
• Detailed Project Schedule: Detailed schedules are operational schedules intended to help front line managers in directing hourly, daily, or weekly project work. The detailed schedule is considered the execution playbook for the project. Analogous to a football playbook that can be broken down into activities (passes and runs) or the two sides of the game (offense and defense), the detailed project schedule playbook can be broken down into chapters to show the detailed schedule for each activity or each phase of the project as it unfolds.

Project Schedule Key Points

Scheduling aims to predict the future, and it has to consider many uncertainties and assumptions. As a result, many people believe it's more of an art than a science.

But whether you're planning a team retreat, or leading a multimillion-dollar IT project, the schedule is a critical part of your efforts. It identifies and organizes project tasks into a sequence of events that create the project management plan.

A variety of inputs and tools are used in the scheduling process, all of which are designed to help you understand your resources, your constraints, and your risks. The end result is a plan that links events in the best way to complete the project efficiently.

“It takes one woman nine months to have a baby. It cannot be done in one month by impregnating nine women.” - Unknown author

Process & Procedures

It should be clear in the project plan for all stakeholders that a certain project management model will be followed during the implementation process of the project, e.g. waterfall model, agile…This helps setting expectations for the milestones and output of the project in terms of the achievements in milestones, and also help the stakeholders better understand their roles and responsibilities based on the specified process and the procedures to follow while working in the project.

Software Process Standardization

A software development process is concerned primarily with the production aspect of software development, as opposed to the technical aspect. These processes exist primarily for supporting the management of software development, and are generally skewed toward addressing business concerns. Amongst the most common models for process standardization is the Capability Maturity Model (CMMI). CMMI is a process improvement approach that provides organizations with the essential elements of effective processes that ultimately improve their performance. CMMI can be used to guide process improvement across a project, a division, or an entire organization. It helps integrate traditionally separate organizational functions, set process improvement goals and priorities, provide guidance for quality processes, and provide a point of reference for appraising current processes. 

CMMI Levels

Maturity Level		Type of Processes
5. Optimizing	Continuous process improvement is enabled by quantitative feedback from the process and from piloting innovative ideas and technologies.	Process Control
4. Managed	Detailed measures of the software process and product quality are collected. Both the software process and products are quantitatively understood and controlled.	Process Measurement
3. Defined	The software process for both management and engineering activities is documented, standardized, and integrated into a standard software process for the organization. All projects use an approved, tailored version of the organization's standard software process for developing and maintaining software.	Process Definition
2. Repeatable	Basic project management processes are established to track cost, schedule, and functionality. The necessary process discipline is in place to repeat earlier successes on projects with similar applications.	Basic Project Management
1. Initial	The software process is characterized as ad-hoc, and occasionally even chaotic. Few processes are defined, and success depends on individual effort and heroics.	Ad-hoc processes

The benefits you can expect from using CMMI include the following:

• Your organization's activities are explicitly linked to your business objectives
• Your visibility into the organization's activities is increased to help you ensure that your product or service meets the customer's expectations
• You learn from new areas of best practice (e.g., measurement, risk)