ABSTRACT
Traditionally, those in charge of schedule planning within a team had to chase other team members to get the required information in order to set up and maintain the steering plan. A series of bi-lateral meetings was therefore required. However, in a multi-functional team environment bi-lateral meetings are no longer regarded sufficient to sort out all the schedule conflicts and discrepancies. In addition, ‘this process is inefficient and consumes much time of all concerned, compounding the dislike most people have for planning in the first place. This round robin [or honey-bee] approach slows down the critical start-up period of the project, and does not enhance teamwork or communication.’1 It will also generally be based on a boĴom-up view of the project. For complex projects this is not necessarily the best way to kick-off schedule planning activities as plans tend to become overloaded with details and usually include too conservative assumptions.
