The Template Collective Blog

Project management templates… and more

Category Archives: Project Management Tool

Project Management Tool Uncategorized

Create Schedule Management Plan

The Schedule Management Plan describes the process used to develop and manage the project schedule. Not all projects need a Schedule Management Plan, but if your project has a complex schedule that requires special handling, you may find this plan helpful.

The components of the Schedule Management Plan can include:

  • Roles and responsibilities. You can describe different roles and their ability to access the project schedule.
    • Schedule owner. This is probably the project manager.
    • Who can update? Normally the project manager, but on larger projects it could be more complex. For instance, a Project Administrator might make the initial schedule updates based on the project status reports and then provide this draft to the project manager for final updates. It is also possible that team members will update the status of their assigned activities and the project manager will perform final analysis after those updates.
    • Who can read? Usually the schedule is not considered confidential – anyone can read it.
  • Update frequency. You should describe the timing of schedule updates. In many projects the schedule will be updated on the Monday morning. You should also comment on whether the schedule will be updated weekly or bi-weekly. It is recommended that you update the schedule weekly.
  • Progress feedback. This describes how the schedule feedback will be delivered. In many cases this will be in the team member status report. However, it is possible that the progress update will come during a team meeting or through an email.
  • Schedule change review and approval. This is where you define the process required to evaluate and approve proposed schedule changes. It defines the authority for accepting and approving changes to schedule. This approval process does not include internal activity deadlines. It applies to changes in the overall project deadline. It is possible that the project manager may have some discretion to exceed the deadline date by some number of days or weeks, but after that threshold some formal body may need to approve the change.
  • Tools. Describe about any scheduling tool that will be used on this project, who will have access to the tool and what various people can do with the tool (read the schedule, update schedule, etc.)
  • Reports. Comment here on the types and names of reports you are using to manage the project, who will receive them, the frequency of the reports, etc.
  • Schedule integration. Normally each project keeps an independent schedule, but in some instances your master schedule is the result of a roll-up of other underlying schedules. It is also possible that your schedule could be integrated and rolled up to a higher-level program or portfolio schedule.

We believe that these project management plans must provide value to the project manager. If your schedule is not so complex you probably do not need to create the Schedule Management Plan. On the other hand, the project manager should create a Plan if it provides value on projects with large and complicated schedules.

Project Management Tool

Five Project Management Mistakes

#1: Inadequate Planning

I have heard project managers say that the time they spend planning could be better spent actually “doing the work”. This is not right. Before the project work begins, the project manager must make sure that the work is properly understood and agreed to by the project sponsor and key stakeholders. The larger the project, the more important it is that this information be defined formally and explicitly. When you think about it, many project problems can be traced to problems in planning. These include

  • Poor estimates based on not understanding the totality of the work.
  • Lack of scope change management because scope was not properly defined to begin with.
  • Issues occurring because of poor risk management.
  • Missing work because the schedule is not thought out.
  • Not understanding all the stakeholders involved.

It should not be surprising, then, that the best way to avoid this problem is to do a good job of planning the project up-front. There are four main components to the planning process.

  • Defining the work. You need to understand the nature of the project including objectives, scope, assumptions, risks, budget, timeline, organization and overall approach.
  • Understanding the schedule. You should create a  project schedule before the project starts. This is needed to help you determine how to complete the work, and to estimate the total project effort and duration.
  • Estimating costs. You and the sponsor need a good estimate of costs before the project gets going.  
  • Agree on project management processes.This will include how the project manager will manage scope, issues, risks, communication, schedule, etc.

People ask me how much time it takes to complete the project planning. The answer is “sufficient”. You need to spend the time to define the work, create a schedule, estimate the costs and set up the project management processes. If your project is small, this should not take much time. If your project is large the planning may take a long time. In other words, planning is scalable based on the size of the project.

Spending time on good planning ends up taking much less time and effort than having to correct the problems while the project is underway. We all know this to be the case. We just need to practice this on our projects.

Project Management Tool

Project Management Training Made Easy

The project management training is made easy today with the use of the high speed internet that most companies now have access to. This means of communication has changed forever the way your staff can receive the necessary training for them to improve their skills on the job.

By having your staff take a project management training course online, they will miss less work and be able to absorb the knowledge at their own pace. This is because unlike a huge seminar where the speaker dictates the speed and topics of the course, your staff now does. This is since most of this type of training is done individually. You can set up a screen in a conference room so more than one can attend, but then applying the knowledge in a real world situation will be delayed till after the training is over.

The advantage of conducting the project management training course separately allows for the critical topics that each individual needs training in, to be chosen first by the individual. Since each project team member has different responsibilities in the project, each one will be studying a different section. They can also then review what they learned at their own pace. This allows for a greater absorption of the knowledge. They can also apply what they are learning when they are acquiring the knowledge.

One of the reasons you may wish to have your entire project team to be involved in the project management training courses is so they can make a bigger and more efficient contribution to the business ventures. The more they know, the less ambiguous any situation involving the project will be. With fewer questions, there is a deceased chance of delays when the deliverable is being created.

The accessibility to the project management training courses is set by the management. What has made it easier for management to include more people in this type of training is the reduction in the cost. With no plane tickets or hotel costs to be included more of your staff can learn how to help your projects to be more profitable.