One of my smooth progressing engineering project was suddenly jolted by numerous emails and phone calls from the project sponsor asking the management to expedite activities at site. The project was going on quite smoothly as it had the best plan to back it up and we all hoped that things would go as planned but eventually it did not work out that way.

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MilestoneTask
FEBRUARY 17, 2013 BY ATUL GAUR
Fundamentals of Project Planning and Scheduling
One of my smooth progressing engineering project was suddenly jolted by numerous emails
and phone calls from the project sponsor asking the management to expedite activities at
site. The project was going on quite smoothly as it had the best plan to back it up and we all
hoped that things would go as planned but eventually it did not work out that way.
The project sponsors demanded an unexpected change in the project completion date in order
to meet their nancial goals. The complete project schedule had to be reworked in order to
meet the client expectations. Important milestones like site mobilization had to be advanced in
order to commence construction activities and complete the project as per the new deadlines.
Unforeseen Problems
As the site team got mobilized we were bombarded with myriad of problems some of them so
mundane that we were at times amazed dealing with the slew of such problems. These
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unexpected and unforeseen problems at site were a serious road blocks to smooth execution of
the project and timely completion of project activities.
We rst tried to ensure that the existing plan be put to maximum use however the way events
had unfolded at the construction site a complete new plan had to be worked out in order to
meet the challenging deadline set by the project sponsor.
The Project Manager was now expected to turn around things as the Management was under
tremendous pressure to show considerable progress at site. The project sponsor was keeping a
very close tab on the daily activities and also the overall project schedule. The new plan had to
address the lost time and also consider the challenges put forward in terms of reporting the
daily and weekly progress and the overall constrained project completion schedule.
The established activity schedule with a de ned sequence of activities had to be kept aside as
this was written down for normal delivery schedules. Since the activities had to be now
completed on a war footing a completely new activity schedule was developed. While
developing a new schedule the following was ensured.
The subsequent paragraphs describe some fundamental steps followed to develop and
implement a new project schedule.
Involve the Team
Involved all the individuals participating in the execution, enlisted the project activities once
again and worked out the correct sequence of activities. Under the heat of the moment it is a
tendency to avoid consensus and impose diktats, most of the times schedule developed
individually fail and those schedule which are a result of a team work succeed.
Simple Logic
Kept the schedule logic simple, easy to comprehend and tried to capture the exact sequence in
which the activities are likely to be executed. As the construction progresses there are events
which force deviation from the agreed sequence of activities, however I believe if the schedule
is worked out by taking on board all those involved in the execution, the deviation as a result of
external or unforeseen circumstances are likely to be fairly limited.
SMART Criteria
Activities listed in the project schedule were action oriented, speci c and measurable quantities
were assigned to all activities where ever possible.
Project Activities Vs Schedule Activities
Distinguished between project activities and schedule activities. There is a difference between
Schedule activities and project activities. As per the de nition Schedule activities are
decomposed from work break down structure and have an estimated cost, duration and
resource requirement. Schedule activities are connected to other schedule activities through a
logical relationship. If this distinction is not there the project schedule the PM as well as the

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project team ends up diverting their energies to project activities which has less signi cance on
the project completion. This hampers project progress and eventually affects project cost as
well as stake holder satisfaction.
The Critical Path
Included critical activities pertaining to project sponsor in the activity schedule as this helps in
better coordination with the project sponsor and gives a complete overview of the project. This
also allows project sponsor to undertake planning of important milestones like trials, joint
inspections etc. Clearly highlighted activities that fall on Critical Path. This obviates the need to
continuously scroll the Gantt chart to hunt for critical activities or navigate through various
menu options to get a list of critical activities. This facilitates project manager to continuously
monitor and control the critical activities and be in control of important project activities.
Customize MS Project
Use customized tracking view. In addition to feeding actual start and actual nish dates I believe
that the three important variances viz; duration, start and nish variances are equally important
in monitoring and controlling the project. These numbers provide a multitude of information
which has a deep impact on the project success. I rmly believe that in order to take complete
control of the project it is not only important that the scheduled activities nish on time but also
that the planned activities start as per the scheduled dates.
Graphical Indicators
Made the tracking view visually appealing by inserting graphical indicators in the three
variances column. In order to simplify things made use of simple formulae available in Microsoft
Project itself. There are innumerable sites on the internet that offer several ways by which
graphical indicators can be assigned to columns. However here again I used basic formulae
available in the software and tried not to complicate matters further. Graphic Indicators also
helped a great deal in reporting the project health to the top management as it gave a clear
picture of the present status of the project. The project team had to be made aware of the
discipline required in updating the project plan.
Baseline Plan
Did not forget to baseline the plan. No one can list all activities of a construction project and
more often than not new activities get added in the project schedule. Creating a baseline helps
in tracking the project it also helps in predicting the accuracy of the planning activities and can
help in highlighting those activities which were not part of the original project scope. Moreover
tracking the project through variances works only when the plan has a baseline.
Resource Plan

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The resources in terms of men, material and equipment were captured in the schedule.
Resources in order to complete a particular activity were mobilized well in advance. A weekly
look ahead schedule with well de ned resource requirement provided much required insight to
the project team members as well as resource managers responsible to ensure availability of
resources at site.
Communication Loop
Established a seamless communication loop with the site, suppliers, process engineers so that
information can be ascertained in a real time basis. Communication and feed back regarding
commencement of planned activities and bottle necks if any is of great importance in having a
complete control on the project. With out a well de ned communication and feed back loop
Project Manager and his other team members will face considerable dif culties in addressing
the situation and if these issues that surface on a daily basis are not resolved in time will
eventually become a serious situation hampering the project progress. A routine exchange of
information among various stake holders facilitated in speedy execution of the project well with
in the project sponsors expectations.
Tracking and Updating
Once the new schedule was in place activities were tracked on a daily basis, due to relentless
monitoring and control nally resulted in a Negative Finish Variance. This turnaround was not
easily accepted by the project sponsor as the sponsor’s believed that the challenge put forward
was too dif cult for anyone to overcome. However, after observing the schedule closely and
comparing the actual progress at site repeatedly the project sponsor had to admit that the
project is ahead of schedule without any compromise in quality and safety standards.
Conclusion
The crux of the matter is that if the fundamentals of planning and scheduling are applied
without any compromise the chances that the project schedule would slip is fairly limited and to
very large extent predictable. The bottom line is that the slippages in the schedule can be
recovered with a systematic approach to scheduling and planning. However the ability to do so
rests obviously with the Project Manager and his leadership capabilities.
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6 thoughts on “Fundamentals of Project Planning
and Scheduling”
 Schedule Management  Control, Management, Monitor, Plan, Project, Schedule
EDIT
Perils of Matrix Organisation
Structure
In "Organizational Structures"
15 Bene ts of a Project
Management Plan
In "Integration Management"
How to prepare an effective daily
project execution plan?
In "Schedule Management"

Atul Gaur / October 8, 2014 at 8:04 PM / Edit
Thank you for sharing this information
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
Kylie Wilson / September 23, 2014 at 5:41 PM / Edit
To be successful in your career, a positive interaction with people
working around is a key. In a similar manner, it is extremely important to
identify and manage stakeholders. Stakeholder
management is important to the
success of every project. Involving and engaging with the right people in a
positive manner is highly important for project success.
Like
Reply

Atul Gaur / April 18, 2013 at 6:13 PM / Edit
Thank you!
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Reply

micheal lewis / April 13, 2013 at 5:59 PM / Edit
I appreciate you for sharing such a fabulous info with me. i need to learn updates like Atul you have shared
with me as i hold project management system of a software house now i manage my new projects exactly
like the points that you have describe by your article.
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Reply

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Atul Gaur / March 30, 2013 at 12:41 PM / Edit
Thanks a lot Pamela.
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Pamela Wilson / March 26, 2013 at 11:09 PM / Edit
Thanks for sharing the tips on how to plan and schedule a project. With companies outsourcing major
portions of a project to foreign countries, the project managers often have to work in a global
environment. The information will help readers in understanding various aspects of project management
with a few minutes.
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