The Best of Project Scheduling by Jason Wesltland

The Best of Project Scheduling A selection of professional insights from the Blog archive

Since 2008 our project management professionals have been sharing knowledge, experience and learning with online readers via the Project Manager Blog. Their collective wisdom provides a wealth of how to, top tips and best practice advice, for project managers, teams and businesses. To make their writings more accessible we’ve created a series of “Best of” project management topics available free to download and share. Here is a collection of excerpts and scheduling insights that highlight the importance of managing time and resources effectively. Enjoy!

Jason Westland CEO ProjectManager.com

Project Plan Schedule: Why Bother Putting One Together ........................................................................ 3 Estimating Activity Duration for Your Project Plan and Schedule .............................................................. 5 The 5 Common Scheduling Mistakes ........................................................................................................ 10 How to Keep Your Team Focused on the Project Planning Schedule ....................................................... 13 A Project Plan Tool to Monitor Schedule Performance ............................................................................ 15 A Phased Approach to Project Planning and Scheduling .......................................................................... 19 3 Reasons Why Project Scheduling and Prioritization Go Hand-in-Hand ................................................. 22 30 Day Free Software Trial ........................................................................................................................ 25

Project Plan Schedule: Why Bother Putting One Together As a project manager putting together a project plan schedule is a big investment of your time. Interviewing people, asking the right questions and defining deliverables, clarifying scope, creating phases of the project and then putting it all together in a project plan schedule for everyone to reference. The project team, clients and stakeholders initially they’re excited about the project plan schedule and are ready to start work on the project. Then a funny thing happens. The schedule begins to atrophy for a number of reasons: It is no longer referenced: A project plan schedule is referenced nearly every day while it’s fresh and hot. Time passes and the novelty of the plan begins to wear off. People get busy on other priorities and the schedule begins to cool. People begin asking questions about when deliverables are due or who is working on the next phase of the project. Questions that frustrate the project manager who is now repeatedly reminding the team that answers to these questions are all right there in the project plan schedule! It becomes hard to update: Part of the reason why the project plan schedule may not be referenced as often as it used to be is that it becomes hard to update. The reason that it may be hard to update and keep current is that there are too many changes happening on the project to keep up with in any predictable manner. A particular deliverable may be late that negatively impacts the schedule of another deliverable. The second deliverable was then tied into another deliverable that crosses over into a new phase and impacts a different team. Sure, project plan software is designed to keep up with these types of dependencies and scenarios, but a high volume of ever-evolving changes can test the mettle of even the most software proficient project manager. It gets out of sync: A project plan schedule that is not routinely updated or has no version control applied to the various updates can quickly become out of sync. There may be one group that is working off the prior version and another group that is working off the most recent version. This introduces huge problems because there may be a deliverable that was either introduced into the project or removed from the project that the other team may not even know about. This leads to outdated and orphaned project plans that are no longer relevant and can inflict much chaos and confusion into the team. The above three reasons may cause someone to ask the question of why even bother with a project plan schedule. But, there are definitely reasons why it’s worth the effort. ProjectManager.com © 2013 All Rights Reserved

While there are a number of things that can go wrong after a project plan schedule has been put together, there are also a number of very good reasons to make the effort. The following are some of these reasons:

A project plan schedule establishes predictability The very nature of a project plan schedule introduces some form of control and governance into a project. At the very least the project team will know what is next on the schedule that needs to be performed. Is it perfect? Of course not. Are there going to be changes to the project plan schedule? All the time. Yet the fact remains that having a project plan schedule in place establishes a certain amount of comfort and predictability for the project team to follow. Without one there would be trouble.

It can get better each time There are lessons learned each time a project plan schedule is executed that make the schedule better each time. Rather than throwing up your hands and asking â&#x20AC;&#x153;why botherâ&#x20AC;? a better approach may be to ask what went wrong (or right) and make sure that is carried forward to the next project plan schedule. Over time, all of the things that went wrong on each project can be identified and eliminated. This will result in a rock solid project plan schedule that the entire team can place their utmost confidence upon.

A project plan schedule informs decisions about project scope A project plan schedule brings to the fore the reality that time is limited. There are only so many features or deliverables that can be packed into a limited time frame. A project plan schedule will help identify whether the desired outcome of the project is even possible. This planning process creates conversations to ensure the project goal is attainable.

A project plan schedule helps business make decisions Finally, a project plan schedule can help management make informed business decisions. For example, the number of hours, resources and other tangible and intangible costs can be calculated from the schedule. These numbers can then be monetized as to how much it will cost the company to complete the project. Management can use these numbers to determine if the project is something that should even be started based upon the projected return on investment. ProjectManager.com ÂŠ 2013 All Rights Reserved

Putting a project plan schedule together is worth the effort. The benefits of putting one together far outweigh the risks of not having a schedule for your project. You should never put the important task of putting a plan together in the same category as a conversation with your boss, co-worker, or even starting a diet. Make the effort and youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be glad with the results.

Estimating Activity Duration for Your Project Plan and Schedule Estimating how long a particular deliverable will take is a challenge for all project managers. There are so many variables, what-ifs, and contingencies to estimating activity duration that arriving at an accurate project plan and schedule can seem to be next to impossible. You will find that you are dealing with three different numbers when you are estimating durations for a project plan and schedule. These are:

How Long Someone Says Something Will Take The first number you will come across when you are putting your project plan and schedule together is how long someone thinks something will take. This is when you go to the developer, tester, DBA, designer, technical writer, or other resource and ask for their input. You describe to them what needs to be done. They will then come back to you with an estimate of how long they will need to complete the task. This is based upon their expert opinion, similar deliverables, and educated guesswork. Most resources are pretty good at getting you in the ballpark. However, the ballpark is a big place. Newer resources will have a tendency to underestimate how long something will take to complete. More experienced resources will have a tendency to overestimate how long something will take to complete. They have learned to factor in the start/stop nature of interruption driven and meeting-laden work cultures.

How Long you Want Something to Take The second number you will need to work with when you are putting a project plan and schedule together is how long you want (or need) something to take. There may be some constraints in place that you must be mindful of as a project manager. Commitments may have been made to a customer, or there may be a Board meeting coming up where the next greatest thing is going to be demoed. This number is typically going to be a bit more aggressive than the number provided above.

How Long Something Actually Takes This number is known as ‘reality’. It will most likely come in close to what the team resource originally quoted. Sometimes, this number may blow past what the original estimate was by 2 or 3 times! This is important information to know for future purposes of putting your project plan and schedule together. There is nothing more accurate than understanding the actual time that something took to complete. This should be used as the starting point for future project estimates. Understanding how long something actually takes means that you have a system in place for accurately capturing time and attributing this time toward a particular deliverable. The system doesn’t need to be overwhelmingly complicated. Your team does need to use the time tracking system you have in place consistently and accurately. This will allow you to base future estimates for your project plan and schedule on reality. Understanding that there are three different numbers you will be working with during project planning can make the process a bit simpler. It can help you arrive at a range of durations that fall into best case, likely case, and worst case.

Watch Out for These Project Plan and Schedule Traps! There are a number of traps that you may encounter during the planning process. Watch out for: You Really Like the Low Number You Just Heard: You ask someone how long something will take. They come back to you with an estimate that is about 25% of what you thought it would have taken to complete that activity. You are thrilled! This is way better than you expected. You start calculating how the extra time that is saved can be used to catch up some other deliverables that are running behind on the critical path. You start

basing your project plan and schedule around this new found good news. Watch out…it’s a trap! Unless there has been some revolutionary breakthrough in technology that you are not aware of, common sense will dictate that something that used to take much longer will still take that long. Resources may not completely understand what is being asked of them. Or, they may have told you what they thought you wanted to hear so they could get back to work. Regardless, it can wreak havoc on your project plan and schedule. Reality will soon start to set in and you find that it’s taking much longer than expected. You stopped looking for ‘plan B’ early on because you were so delighted with the low number. You now find yourself scrambling to catch up and making arrangements to get the project plan and schedule on track. You Disagree with a Really Big Number: The opposite of really liking the small number you hear is really not liking the big number you hear. You reason to yourself that there is no possible way that something could take as long as this team resource estimated. You then take it upon yourself to put in a lower amount of time in the project plan and schedule. Watch out…it’s a trap! This only sets you up for some painful conversations later on in the project when the deliverable ends up taking as long as originally estimated. Team members will wonder why you didn’t take their word for how long it would take. Plus, you have now endangered the project by putting other deliverables on the critical path unnecessarily. You Don’t Push Back: A final trap to be on the lookout for when it comes to putting your project plan and schedule together, is not questioning either of the numbers above. You just ask a question of how long something will take and then put whatever number they gave you in the project plan and schedule. Watch out…it’s a trap! It is entirely within your right and realm of responsibility as a project manager to ask questions. Dig into the details. Challenge assumptions.

It’s not that you don’t trust the people you work with, you just want to make sure every stone is overturned during the estimating process and that you are all dealing with reality. You can ask for a breakdown of what makes up a really long estimate, or ask what is included in a really short estimate. Doing so will make everyone spend a little more time on the estimating process and help ensure the numbers are accurate. Estimating activity duration for your project plan and schedule is not easy. However, it is an activity that is critical for your projects to end on time. Find the right balance between what you want the numbers to be and the numbers your resources produce. You will find yourself having far fewer conversations that end with “is it really going to take that long??”

The 5 Common Scheduling Mistakes There is a skill to project scheduling, but you can make life easier for yourself by avoiding these 5 scheduling mistakes.

1. Failing to Take Scope Changes into Account Projects change as they go along – we all know that. Schedules must change to reflect any changes in scope. There’s no point trying to deliver to your original project plan if you have just added in another 20 days of development time or expanded the scope to include a whole new department. Most changes will have an impact on the project schedule. Changes typically add something to the scope of the project, although sometimes a stakeholder will request a change that takes something out of scope. You could also face a change which alters a key milestone. All of these will have an impact on the dates in the project schedule. Your change management process should be the link (and the catalyst) that joins your existing project and the new change together. When you assess the change, work out how many days extra effort it will be to do it – this should already be part of the change management process. That will give you an idea of what impact this change will have on your schedule. If the change is approved, update your schedule immediately. The way the dates move on the schedule will be a big warning sign to team members as well, so everyone will know that something is different. If you do add additional work into the scope, make sure that the new tasks are at the same level of granularity as the existing tasks. It’s not much help to add in a big 20-day task that says ‘Design and implement Change 6’. Break down the bigger task into smaller ones and aim for a task duration that makes sense to track. Don’t go too small though. Tasks that are about a week long are about right, although go smaller if it makes sense for the team and the project.

2. Failing to Mark Tasks as Complete Don’t you love ticking off things on a list? Which project manager doesn’t? There’s nothing more satisfying than going into your project management software and marking tasks as complete. It is instant gratification and a visual sign that the project is making progress. ProjectManager.com © 2013 All Rights Reserved

If you don’t mark tasks as complete your project schedule starts to look as if you are behind, even if you aren’t. It also makes it look as if you don’t know what your project team is doing and that you aren’t up to date with the project status. Even if you are getting regular status updates from project team members and you know that you are not behind, it’s important to still mark tasks as complete when the work is done. Don’t assume that everyone knows what progress you are making towards the end goal. Checking off tasks makes it obvious to the rest of the team. It is also a subtle opportunity to make the point that you are expecting work to carry on in a forwards direction and that people shouldn’t be going back to amend that task anymore.

3. Failing to Update Tasks as You Go Failing to tick off completed tasks is one thing, but do you also update tasks as you go? Or do you wait until the task is complete and then make the changes to the schedule. Project managers should be tracking the progress of tasks that are in-flight. If your project management software has the option for time tracking, you might find that your team members are doing this for you through their time entries. You’ll be able to see how much effort they have already spent on a task and how much there is still to go. This data can be really useful for project scheduling because we all tend to be a little bit too optimistic, especially when it comes to our own work and how much we think we can realistically do in a day. How often have you written a to do list for the day and it has got to going home time before you realize that there is no possible way that you are going to get everything done? Project scheduling is no different. Team members can be too optimistic about the time it is going to take to complete their project tasks, so they think they will make up for any slippage later. Unfortunately, that is rarely the case. Using the data about past performance will help you update the duration of tasks when they are starting to slip. Better to do that before the task ends than get to the due date ProjectManager.com © 2013 All Rights Reserved

and wonder why it hasn’t completed on time. Having said that, don’t be too soft with your team! If they provided the estimates, they should work all out to try to get the task done on time. But sometimes even with all the good will in the world they can’t get things finished as they expected.

4. Failing to Record Dependencies Projects don’t happen in a vacuum. You will have dependencies on other projects or business initiatives, and these should also be recorded in the schedule. On top of that, you’ll have dependencies between project tasks. Nearly every task leads into something else or enables something else to start or finish. If you don’t put these dependencies on your schedule you are missing a big chunk of data that will help you plan more accurately. No dependencies means you can’t easily tell what has to happen in what order. It could lead to you missing things if you can’t see what a later task is waiting for. The project team can help you work out what tasks are dependent on each other, so don’t feel like you have to do it all yourself. Once you have identified the links between tasks add them to your schedule.

5. Failing to Plan for when Resources are Available Unless you have a dedicated team just for your project, you will be reliant on people to be available at a time that suits your schedule. And in the real world that doesn’t always work out. People have other commitments, their day jobs, they go on training courses or they quit (although that could happen even if they are dedicated to your project). The dates on your schedule soon become unachievable if the people are not available. Add holiday time into your plan, and schedule your resources in around the hours that they can work on the project, especially if they are part-time. The more accurate you can get this, the more notice you can give them about upcoming tasks and the more likely they

are to be free to pick up their project work when you need them. Scheduling can be a time consuming job, especially when you have to keep plans up to date across a large team. When things change all the time it can be particularly disheartening to have to do all your project planning again, but the oversight and control that a good schedule gives you is definitely worth the effort.

How to Keep Your Team Focused on the Project Planning Schedule Why is it that team members begin to lose focus on the project they are working on as time passes? The following are three main reasons why:

Coordination Deteriorates Over Time The first reason that focus begins to wane from the project planning schedule can be placed squarely on the shoulders of the project manager. The project manager in the early days of the project keeps events, activities, and deliverables crystal clear in everyone’s mind. There was no question about who owned what and the accountability that each person had to the project planning schedule. You as the project manager would let anyone know that deviated from this course in the early days that they need to get back on track. Time passes and you become a bit indifferent. You yourself begin to lose focus and this laissez faire attitude is transferred to your team by means of osmosis.

Focus Shifts from the Big Picture Another reason that people begin to lose focus the longer a project is underway is that people’s attention begins to shift away from the big picture. In the beginning, everyone is tuned into the project planning schedule as a whole. Then everyone gets down to business and they begin working on their own individual tasks. Issues, challenges, and triumphs arise within each of these ProjectManager.com © 2013 All Rights Reserved

individual tasks and people become more focused on their small view of the world and begin to lose sight of how everything is tied in together.

Distracted by Other Projects A final reason that people begin to lose focus on projects is that other things get in the way. This project was all the rage when the project planning schedule was reviewed, all the executives and stakeholders were on board and focused on making this a success. But now there’s a shiny new toy that everyone wants to play with. It may be a new project, new opportunity, or even a problem that has surfaced that needs to be handled. Regardless, people are now distracted by the introduction of this new thing into their environment and begin to lose focus on the current project.

How Can You Help Your Team Stay Focused? The following are five project planning steps you can apply to make sure your team stays focused on the project planning schedule you have in place: Remind Everyone about the Big Picture – Be sure to remind everyone about the big picture at every opportunity. It’s understandable that team members will zero in on those tasks they are responsible for, but it’s up to you to make sure they see how everything ties in together. Let them know the benefits that will come from completing this project (perhaps a bonus, more free time, recognition, etc.) and that you’re determined to make sure the team gets there. Reaffirm Your Personal Commitment to the Project – There are times during the lifecycle of a project when the going gets tough. You may be bogged down with a technical or business issue that is having a hard time being resolved. It’s during these dark times when people begin to lose focus as well. After all, you can’t see very well in the dark. Now is the time to let your team know of your personal commitment to seeing things through to the end no matter how bleak current circumstances may look. Your team is looking to you as the harbinger of things to come. If you only think that bad times are around the corner and that nothing you and your team do will change that, then that’s what your team will pick up on. On the other hand, if you take a close look at the project planning schedule and are convinced you can pull things off, then they will follow that path as well. ProjectManager.com © 2013 All Rights Reserved

Regain Your Team’s Commitment – It’s just as important that your team is as committed as you are. There’s nothing wrong to have a candid conversation with everyone and ask them to express their concerns, worries, and frustrations. This is actually a very healthy exercise to go through. Most people want a project to be a success and don’t to give up easily. If you listen closely to your team members you will glean some great insight into what can be done to turn a project around and maintain sharp focus. This is also a good opportunity to ask for their commitment as well. Put In Reasonable Touch Points – Another way to make sure that the project planning schedule remains in focus and achievable for everyone, is to put in reasonably spaced Touch Points. I like to call these moments a “reality check”. It may be every day, every week, or every month (you determine what’s appropriate) that you check in with the team to make sure things are on track. Use the project planning schedule as the basis for these conversations. The schedule says we should be here so let’s compare that to where things really stand. You’re goal is not to put people on the spot and make them feel bad, but rather to uncover potential areas where focus may be slipping and making sure it doesn’t get too far out of control. Be Available – The final thing you can do to make sure people maintain their focus on a project is to be available. There is nothing more disheartening then when a team member needs to go over an issue with you and you don’t have the time for them. The reasons may be legitimate as we know all project managers are busy, but it’s important for you to set aside what you are working on, and spend some time with this team member that has an issue needing your assistance. Otherwise, you’ll find that they’ll let the issue simmer until it gets worse and focus is again lost. Don’t worry if you’re around that 40-year old mark and you start to lose focus. It happens to the best of us. Grab yourself a pair of reading glasses and get on with the task at hand.

Sometimes you may feel as if your projects need to be hooked up to life support in order to survive. That may or may not be the case depending upon your particular circumstances. But, there is a project plan tool you can use that can help prevent a project from slipping into a coma. This project tool is called a Milestone Report. The Milestone Report does just that…it reports out on milestones that have been reached, are about to be reached, or may even be running behind on a project.

A Milestone Report: Where Can This Project Plan Tool Be Utilized? There are a number of useful applications of this project plan tool: Identify Resource Constraints: A common theme you hear across most companies is that there are not enough people to get the work done. It’s almost as if everyone has gone to the same class somewhere where they learned to say “we can’t do this because we don’t have enough people” as the first words out of their mouths. Sometimes this may be the case. Often it is not quite true. People may feel as if they don’t have enough time to get the work done, but with a bit of focus and careful planning they can pull it off. One of the benefits of the Milestone report is that it can objectively identify those legitimate circumstances where a resource or team is so taxed that they really can’t get everything done that needs to be accomplished. Identify Problems with Project Coordination: A second benefit of using the Milestone report as a project plan tool is that it can help identify problems with project coordination. What can occur on most projects is that a key deliverable may be finished. But, it stalls out because the next team was not aware that it was ready. This can cause a delay of hours, days and sometimes weeks as something sits on the shelf waiting to be worked on. The milestone report can eliminate this from happening as everyone will know the exact date that a key deliverable will be complete. Uncover Cost and Budget Issues Early On: A budget can quickly be blown if the project manager does not stay on top of the expenditure details. A few modifications to this ProjectManager.com © 2013 All Rights Reserved

report will enable everyone to know whether project expenses are on track or if they need to be reined in a bit.

Defining Milestones with this Project Plan Tool The first thing you need to do in putting together the Milestone report is define what you consider to be a milestone. A rule of thumb is that the higher up the executive ladder this report is being used, the higher the level of milestones that have been reached. For example, milestones that could be reported out at an executive level could be Phase based. These would be the major phases such as Initiation, Planning, Execution, Control, etc. If there are no problems with the project, all an executive really needs to know is which phases are done, what percentage is complete in the current phase, and when is that expected to be complete. You may want to make your milestones a bit more granular if the Milestone report is being utilized by middle management or team members. The milestone they may be concerned about is whether or not a certain document has been complete (such as a Business Requirements document) or if QA has finished the first cycle of testing. Just make sure that whatever you come up with as a milestone is as tangible as possible, simple to track, and easy for people to understand.

How Does this Project Plan Tool Look? There are myriad variations of this project plan tool. Below is one implementation of this tool you may consider. Down the left side of the report you will include the milestones you have defined as important. This is why it is important to think through your definition of a milestone. It is these milestones that you are going to track your project against. Across the top of the report and for each milestone, you will then include: Brief Description (if necessary): Ideally, the title of the deliverable you have chosen should be sufficient in describing this particular item or task. If not, you can include a brief sentence or two describing the activity. This will be helpful if there are a number of people that come and go on the project. Who is Responsible: This is the â&#x20AC;&#x153;throat to chokeâ&#x20AC;? column. While not a particular fan of that expression, it does have some meaning in the context of this project plan tool. This ProjectManager.com ÂŠ 2013 All Rights Reserved

is the person who is ultimately responsible for that milestone to be met. If it’s an entire Phase of a project that is being reported on then it may be a functional manager. If it’s a document, test plan, or coding that needs to be complete then it can be the resource themselves. This is the person that can answer any questions about that particular deliverable or will have more details as to why it may be running behind. Planned Start Date: Include the original date this task, deliverable, phase, or milestone was to begin. This can be pulled directly from the original project plan. This original date serves as a benchmark to compare the other dates against. Actual Start Date: This field reports on when the task or milestone actually began. This does not need to be taken as a negative or assumed that it’s always going to be late. It could be that this particular item began before the planned start date. That’s good news that the rest of the team will want to know about as this affects when they will be able to start working on the deliverable themselves. Planned Finish Date: This can be updated from the original project plan as well. This will reflect on when that particular phase, deliverable, or milestone was originally thought to be complete. Actual Finish Date: This is the date that the milestone was met. This is important to know as it affects the start date of any activities that were linked to this particular deliverable. Notes: It’s always good to have a column for Notes to shed any further color on the situation, provide insight into the budget, or other relevant information that will help the recipient of the report. Something else you may want to include in this project plan tool is projected start and finish dates. These would be your best estimates of when a deliverable that may be either ahead of or behind schedule could begin or end. You can use the Milestone report as a project plan tool to monitor the health of your project schedule. By keeping up with the dates in such a way you’ll be able to keep your project out of Intensive Care and well on its way to a complete recovery!

A Phased Approach to Project Planning and Scheduling A phased approach to project planning and scheduling is when somebody shoots for the Moon and faces the reality that everything can’t be done in the time period they are requesting. The project can then be broken down into multiple phases in order to bring it to completion. Each phase would focus on creating a product or functionality that could stand on its own, be delivered to the internal or external client, and then move on to subsequent phases. The phased approach to project planning and scheduling has a number of benefits. For example: It Allows for Feedback on Subsequent Phases: There’s an expression that says “you don’t know what you don’t know”. That holds true for whenever you are managing a project, particularly if it is an IT or software project. Business Analysts, Engineers, Project Managers, and others involved with designing the project and solution may have an idea of how they think things should work. They will spend countless hours in meetings, asking questions, brainstorming, white-boarding, and pontificating about the best approach. This is all necessary activity and important to do as you go through your project planning and scheduling activity. But, where the rubber meets the road is once the solution is actually being used. What does the end user think about the solution? Is it as graceful and elegant as you envisioned or is it disjointed and clunky? Is it easy to use and intuitive or do you need a three inch thick manual to find your way around? No need to get downhearted if the feedback comes back less than stellar. One benefit of the phased approach to project planning and scheduling is that you can take this feedback and apply it forward to the next phase of the project. Ideally, that would include going back and fixing what is not working as expected in the first phase as well. ProjectManager.com © 2013 All Rights Reserved

Easier to Implement: We’ve all heard the joke before about how do you eat an elephant. You eat an elephant one bite at time. That’s kind of disgusting, but it does encapsulate the point that huge, mammoth projects come to completion one activity at a time. The good news about a phased approached to project planning and scheduling is that the elephant may be just a little bit smaller. Breaking a project up into phases allows for more focused attention on a smaller set of activities. There may be fewer people involved, less meetings, and it may not be quite as complex to manage as it would be if the entire project was undertaken at once. The reality is that the entire project going through all phases is going to have to be implemented at some point, but, breaking this elephant sized project into smaller subprojects seems to make things a bit easier to, um, digest. Something Usable is Delivered Early: Another benefit of the phased approach to project planning and scheduling is that something usable is delivered early and often. The phased approach concentrates on the core functionality that will provide enough business value to the users to get the job done. It may not be all that they requested out of the gate, but it is some of what they requested. This will allow them to get on with the business at hand while the next phases are worked on and delivered. Financially Attractive to the Client: Here’s another intangible benefit to breaking a project into multiple phases…it may be financially attractive to a client. Here’s the scenario…A client comes in and says they want all of these features and functionality wrapped up into a project they are looking to accomplish. Perhaps it’s a complete redesign of their website with all the bells and whistles. They want it done within 30 days. You know this is just not possible based upon your experience with project planning and scheduling and knowing past responsiveness of this client. You typically require 50% payment up front and 50% upon the delivery of the project. These payments could be broken down by each phase and allow the client to spread the financial obligations of the project over a bit more time. This allows for a basic website to be up and running in most likely under 30 ProjectManager.com © 2013 All Rights Reserved

days and easier to manage financial arrangements for a client as this is spread out over time.

Where Do You Start with a Phased Approach to Project Planning and Scheduling? The best place to start is to find the heart of the project and build out from there. What is the central piece of the project that everything else is bolted into? For example, you may be developing a custom estimating and invoicing application for a company. The core of the project would be the ability to generate an invoice. You could start with that component immediately. Then, you start bolting on other functionality such as reporting, the ability to e-mail invoices, the ability to generate estimates, and other nice-to-haves but items that aren’t mission critical to getting the invoice out. Here’s something else to consider when it comes to the phased approach of project planning and scheduling: Sometimes project managers will use this to shut down and not discuss relevant functionality that should be included in Phase 1. But, because they may be too busy or they feel as if it will add unnecessary complexity they immediately push it into another phase. “Phase 2” can become synonymous with “I don’t want to talk about that right now. Let me quickly dismiss it by relegating it to a future phase. I may deal with it then…” Don’t allow this attitude to creep up on you as a project manager. If it makes sense to include it in an earlier phase then do what you can to make it work.

3 Reasons Why Project Scheduling and Prioritization Go Hand-in-Hand Prioritization is an essential skill for any project manager to possess. Prioritization means “to arrange items to be attended to in order of their relative importance”. With all the project scheduling software that is available, this may sound simple…just put what’s most important on the top of the list and what’s not as important at the bottom of the list. The reality, however, is very different. Competing demands, conflicts in project scheduling, limited resources, and shifting business needs make this list next to impossible to compile. I’ve heard of small software companies that have over 70 projects going on at any moment in time! These projects ranged from paying customers, to infrastructure projects, to projects that were designed to move the strategic initiatives of the company forward. To complicate matters even more, these were all considered a Priority 1. Ludicrous! You would have to be a master at scheduling resources for a project, working with your project scheduling software and reporting out on progress, risks and next steps to everyone involved. When asked which one was really more important, you would be greeted with the typical “they are all important”, or “they are all Number 1 priority”, or (this one always makes me laugh), “if this is a number 1, then this is a number 1a”. This sheer volume of un-prioritized projects (saying they are all 1’s is not considered prioritization) will wreak havoc on any project scheduling and bring an organization to a grinding halt for the following reasons:

1. Resources Become Frustrated “Do this. No, stop, wait a second. Stop doing that and do this now. I promise this won’t change. OK. Wait…this new priority just came up. Can you put those other two things on hold and knock this out real fast?” Unfortunately, we may have all had conversation like this with the resources on our teams. The changing tide of business needs and prioritization that cascade from the top down many times make these conversations an unfortunate necessity. In the shortterm, you may be able to eke a bit of productivity out of your resources to get these requests done. Long-term, however, is an entirely different story. ProjectManager.com © 2013 All Rights Reserved

Resources (aka people) need time to ramp up, get in the zone, and let their best work flow. Every time they are interrupted by a project manager and ask to change their focus you “harsh their mellow” and bring them to a grinding halt. This costs time and money and takes a toll on their psyche if this happens time and time again. Everybody understands interruptions every now and then. However, nobody that is worth their salt will put up with incessant interruptions and shifting priorities on a regular basis. Would you? Those that are not worth their salt (lower performers) have no problem being interrupted because they are not really working on anything anyway. Pull their name up in your project schedule software and you’ll see this to be the case. Thus, in the long-term you force out your best performers and end up with your low performers hacking their way through interruption after interruption.

2. Quality Suffers With your best resources gone, you now become saddled with your lower performers who are nowhere near as fastidious, detail-oriented, and conscientious as the team that just left. On the surface it may appear that the work is getting done. You may be keeping with the project schedule on paper. They are stopping what they are doing, they are shifting gears, and they are knocking it out. But then the complaints start to surface. These complaints will start internally at first as deliverables are handed off from department to department. “These guys don’t know what they are doing”, “This is junk”, “Do they even have a clue”, and “they messed up the project scheduling again” will be the expressions you start to hear from other departments that are reliant upon high quality work coming through. Similar complaints will then surface from your customers with a slightly different slant. “This isn’t doing what I thought would it do”, “I can’t believe it took this long to get this done” to the ultimate indictment of “You are not getting paid for this until it’s right”.

3. Projects Won’t Get Delivered As a result of the un-prioritized culture that has been created, projects won’t get delivered or will come back for rework. There’s no surprise here. Shifting priorities, people perpetually coming up to speed on what to work on, and ultimately your better ProjectManager.com © 2013 All Rights Reserved

resources leaving will delay, or prevent, delivery. A huge log-jam of inactivity is created that unfortunately, will clear itself out by dying a slow, all-too-common death. How do you stop this madness?

Project Scheduling Prioritization Intervention Get the highest level executives together that can make decisions on the spot that stick. This combination of making the right decision AND having it stick is critical. Sometimes you can get people that make decisions quickly, but you know the decision will change by the time everyone pushes their chairs back to stand up. You need to have the people there that can make real decisions that will impact project schedules that will really happen. Block about four hours of their time. Come in with an inventory of the current projects that are underway. The project management scheduling software you use should have most of the following information available. Include the name of the project, who the project sponsor is, a brief description, and key facts such as how much revenue will this project generate and if there is a strategic initiative it is supporting. That’s it. Be prepared to speak to the facts, but keep the list simple. Then, have a column for prioritization that looks something like this:  Of immediate benefit to the company and/or a revenue generator  Supports a future strategic initiative of the company  None of the above. Then, go down item by item and rank each project. They CANNOT all be 1’s. The executives in the room will understand that and the reason why that is no longer possible to think that way. You should end up with a short list of 1’s that can you focus on immediately. A larger list of 2’s that can be queued up for future activity, and a short list of 3’s…that would be good candidates to eliminate from your project scheduling software all-together.

30 Day Free Software Trial There are two key differences between ProjectManager.com and its competitors. The first is that we give you all of the features you need to plan, track and report on projects efficiently. The second key difference is that our competitors charge a high upfront price as well as annual maintenance fees for new releases. Here at ProjectManager.com we offer you all of the features you need to manage projects, at a small monthly price of just $25 per user. That simple! When you sign up to ProjectManager.com, you also get for free: Unlimited Projects 3 Gigs of Document Storage Client Login Free Upgrade to New Releases

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Take a Free Trial Create your own Projects Sign up to boost your project success Any questions? Email support@ProjectManager.com and one of our friendly support staff will be happy to help. We also recommend a visit our resource library if you would like access to further: project management tips  video tutorials  project management templates