ABSTRACT
A quality schedule-fundamentally a time-scaled and integrated structure of project objectives-is critical for effective project planning, implementation, and control. It includes activities and events that must be accomplished to achieve the desired objectives. Many project managers are familiar with the concept of network-based scheduling in project management. Networkbased schedules formalize the project’s internal functions and processes and generate graphics that depict the project’s activities and their relationships (predecessors, successors, and parallel tasks). Network diagrams are valuable because they-
Alert functional managers and team members to their dependency on other functions and teams
Establish project completion dates based on performance rather than arbitrary deadlines
Illustrate the scope of the project
Provide a sense of resource requirements over time, particularly when multiple resources will be deployed on multiple tasks simultaneously
Facilitate risk review scenarios
Highlight activities that drive the end date of the project
The following actions are essential to successful network development:
Engage team members and their management (as appropriate) who will perform the work
Determine the appropriate level of detail (aggregate, intermediate, or work package)
Identify relevant activities
Define relationships among the activities
Forecast activity duration
In many cases, project managers assume responsibility for planning, scheduling, and controlling projects that consist of numerous separate jobs or
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tasks that a variety of departments, project offices, and individuals perform. Often these projects are so complex or large that the project manager cannot possibly remember all the information pertaining to the plan, schedule, and progress of the project. In these situations, the Program Evaluation and Review Technique or PERT (see Chapter 23), critical path method (CPM), and precedence diagramming techniques have proved to be extremely valuable in helping project managers carry out their management responsibilities. The value of the tools is in their ability to depict relationships among activities and to provide a clear understanding of how the project will evolve as an integrated whole. Figure 23 represents an activity-on-arrow (either PERT or CPM) network. Figure 24 represents the same network as a precedence diagram.
