The document provides guidance on creating a quality project schedule in 7 steps: 1) Plan with the team to create a basic high-level schedule, 2) Cover the entire project scope by listing all required activities, 3) Group tasks into phases like initiation, build, and closure, 4) Add milestones to track progress, 5) Estimate task times using experience, 6) Assign team members to tasks matching their skills, and 7) Review the schedule for errors and hold daily meetings to update it. Following these steps helps create a meaningful and realistic schedule that is the basis for project success.

1. A Guide to Create a
Quality Project
Schedule

2. Successful projects start with a good quality
project schedule. Creating a schedule is one of
the first tasks you should do when given a project
to manage. There is often a temptation to get on
with the work and worry about the schedule later,
but this is a mistake. You will be left exposed and
if challenged, will have no evidence of whether
your project is on time or running late.
This article looks at a simple, practical approach
to creating project schedules. After reading this
article, you will have a sound approach to creating
schedules that you can use for future projects.

3. 1. Plan with the Team
Team planning is more effective than planning on your
own, and ensures everyone has a stake in the schedule
and ownership of the outcome. The project team must
account for all the phases, milestones and tasks so the
project can reach a successful conclusion.
I like to create a basic high-level schedule to kick things
off. Even if it's wrong, it helps the session start moving.
It’s better than sitting in a meeting with your team staring
at a blank sheet of paper.

4. 2. Cover the Project Scope
Use the scope statement from your Charter to make sure
you include everything the customer expects you to
deliver. List all the activities needed to deliver the scope.
Look at the order of activities; often it is best to start with
the most difficult tasks. The type of project may dictate the
order, clearly, you can't build a house until the foundations
have been laid. Think about the work you can do in
parallel and what is dependent on other activities being
finished first. Make sure you include the dependencies in
your schedule.

5. 3. Group the Tasks into Phases
Projects typically go through phases, starting with an idea all the way to
launch and rollout. You should arrange your project schedule in these
phases. This is an example I’ve used for software development
projects:
1. Ideas (the first concept, creating the team and everything needed to
get the project started).
2. Feasibility (often development of a prototype, model or proof of
concept).
3. Build (doing the work to create the product or service).
4. Launch (preparing to go-live with the product or service, often as a
pilot first).
5. Rollout (delivering the product or service to the wider audience
following updates from the pilot).
6. Closure (finishing the project, disbanding the project team and tying up
any loose ends).

6. 4. Create Milestones
Adding milestones to your schedule helps the
project team stay focussed and motivated.
Milestones are the end of certain phases, the
point where work needs completing, or sign-off
obtained for work carried out. These milestones
are how the team sees and measures their
progress. Poring over hundreds of tasks each
week is daunting. The milestones help put the
entire project into perspective and keep everyone
on track to a successful finish.

7. 5. Make Time for Time
When adding time estimates (hours or days) against tasks
and activities it’s best to use people's experience. Better
still if you can use a database of production rates to give
more accurate estimates.
Estimating as a team is effective, because it gives the
opportunity for team members to challenge estimates. If
an estimate is given by one team member, another may
challenge it because he or she has direct experience of
similar work.
Make sure everyone agrees with the estimates and signs
off during the session. This way there are no arguments
later.

8. 6. Plan Your People
Now you have your schedule, it's time to add your people, either
existing or new team members. Try to match your people's skill-set
to the work. Have they done similar work in the past? Do they have a
skill that would be useful on a particular aspect of the project? Have
they shown an interest in working on a certain area?
A common mistake when new to project scheduling is to use people
for 100% of their time. It’s best to assume people will only be
productive on the project for 80% of their time. Administration, filling
out time sheets, team meetings, support and other unrelated tasks
take up the remaining 20%.
Once you have assigned people to the tasks in your schedule,
review it for conflicts. Have you got areas where people are working
on two work streams simultaneously? Is the work allocated evenly
across the team? Be careful not to overload your key people, while
under-utilising others.

9. Finally…
Check your schedule thoroughly to make sure there are no
errors. Here are a few common problems found in
schedules:
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Not including public holidays in the schedule.
Not including team member's holidays in the schedule.
Missing links to dependencies.
Creating one continuous block of work with no milestone
deliverables along the way.
Using poor task estimates or guesses instead of people's
experience or production rates.
Starting with an end date and making the schedule fit it.
Assigning people for 100% of their time.
Dividing tasks between more than one person.
Not building in contingency time in the event things go
wrong.

10. Remember to regularly update the schedule with
your team to check progress and make
adjustments where necessary. A daily 15 minute
‘Scrum’ style meeting or phone call is useful,
where each team member says what he or she
did yesterday; what they intend to do today and
highlights any blockers holding them back. It is
your responsibility as project manager to help
remove any blockers and smooth the path
ahead.

11. In Summary…
1. Define the tasks and activities using your scope
statement.
2. Sequence the activities identifying any
dependencies.
3. Group the tasks and activities into phases.
4. Create milestones.
5. Create time estimates for the tasks and
activities.
6. Assign people to the tasks and activities.
7. Review your schedule for errors and correct.
8. Hold daily progress meetings with your team
and adjust the schedule.

12. A quality project schedule is the basis of project
success, so spend time with your team creating a
schedule that is both meaningful and realistic.

13. Source
http://certifications-review.blogspot.in/2013/11/aguide-to-creating-quality-project.html
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