PROJECT SCHEDULING

Moreno, Septianne Rose P.

Disomimba, Jovelyn T.
Fallado, Ivan C.

What Is Scheduling in Project Management?

Scheduling in project management is the listing of activities, deliverables, and

milestones within a project. A schedule usually includes a planned start and finish date,
duration, and resources assigned to each activity. Effective project scheduling is a critical
component of successful time management, especially for professional service businesses.

How to do scheduling in project management

There are three main types of project schedules:

1. Master project schedule: A master schedule tends to be a simplified list of tasks

with a timeline or project calendar.

2. Milestone schedule or summary schedule: This type of project schedule tracks

major milestones and key deliverables, but not every task is required to complete the
project.

3. A detailed project schedule: This is the most thorough project schedule, as it

identifies and tracks every project activity. If you have a complex, large, or lengthy
project, it’s important to have a detailed project schedule to help track everything.

Useful project scheduling techniques to know

1. Gantt chart - The most common form of project schedule. Both a milestone schedule
and a detailed project schedule can be created as a Gantt chart. When choosing
scheduling software, look for project scheduling tools that allow you to create
different views from the same schedule. If you create a detailed project schedule with
milestones as a Gantt Chart, make sure it can be summarized up to that level for a
simpler view that can be easily shared with your team or stakeholders. This gives you
the ability to present the same schedule in different formats depending on the level of
detail required and the target audience.
 2. Critical path method (CPM)- is an approach commonly used in construction project
management that bases the project schedule on the project’s critical path, i.e., the
number of tasks involved in the project and the order in which those tasks must be
completed. The critical path is the group of tasks essential to the project’s success, put
in sequential order. There can be other tasks involved in a project too, but if they are
not on the critical path, they’re known as float tasks.

3. Program evaluation and review technique (PERT) - involves using a visual

mapping tool known as a PERT chart to plan the overall project schedule. A project’s
PERT chart contains a number of boxes, which each represent a project activity or
task. Within each box, there are seven sections, each referring to a different piece of
information about the task, such as its duration, its slack, and how early or late the
task can start or finish. A PERT chart is similar to a Gantt chart but contains more
detail, meaning that PERT is more suited to initial timeline planning, while Gantt
charts are better used to track time during the course of the project.

4. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) - is a scheduling format that breaks down the
project into smaller sections to keep it manageable and organized by milestones. This
format is useful when a project requires the completion of multiple tasks at once,
regardless of task dependencies. It is a network diagram that has your project goal on
top with “branches” underneath that show all the steps needed to get you there

Whichever of the project management scheduling techniques your team chooses, it’s
important to thoroughly research your chosen method and ensure it’s right for your team and
your project.

Benefits of project scheduling in project management

Project scheduling provides the following benefits:

● Assists with tracking, reporting, and communicating progress (Improved productivity)

● Ensures everyone is on the same page with tasks, dependencies, and deadlines

● Reduce lead time

● Highlights issues and concerns, such as the lack of resources

 ● Identifies task relationships

7 Tips on how to create a Solid Project Schedule

1. Get input from stakeholders: Don’t create your schedule in isolation. It’s important
to use your team and other stakeholders to identify tasks, resources, dependencies,
and durations.

2. Reference past projects: Looking at previous projects with similar scope and
requirements can help create realistic estimates and ensure you haven’t forgotten any
tasks.

3. Keep risk in mind: Identify and document any factors that pose a risk to staying on
schedule. This will help your risk management efforts.

4. Consider any non-work time: For example, make sure vacations and holidays are
reflected in your schedule so that you’re not assuming people will be working when
they’re not.

5. Define the critical path on your project: Identifying your project’s critical
path allows you to prioritize and allocate resources to the most important tasks in the
project.

6. Record scheduling assumptions: Write down the logic behind your scheduling
predictions. For example, if you assume it will only take 10 hours to complete a task
because you have a senior engineer. Then, if you end up with a junior engineer, you
can understand and explain why it took twice as long as planned.

7. Include project milestones: Milestones are events or markers that stand for an
important point in your project. They’re useful for creating a summary schedule,
reporting to executives, and identifying problems early.

CONCLUSION:
 Creating a project schedule is important for keeping track of information that could
impact your project's outcomes. Enhancing your team's communication with stakeholders and
project managers is easily achieved by maintaining your project plan in a shared data
repository and providing your team with access to it. To prioritize activities, projects need to
be broken down into individual tasks. You can quickly determine the urgency of each task by
listing all the team's responsibilities. By keeping everyone on the same page throughout the
project, scheduling reduces the likelihood of problems.

REFERENCES:

Book

● Bansal, V. K. (2024). Project Management, Planning and Scheduling Techniques.

Routledge.

● Flores, M. F., & Camilar-Serrano, A. O. (2015). Project management. Unlimited

Books: Library Services & Publishing Inc.

Online

● Gurnov, A. (n.d.). What is Scheduling in Project Management?. Wrike.

https://www.wrike.com/project-management-guide/faq/what-is-scheduling-in-project-
management/

● Kappor, S. (2024). Project Scheduling 101: Everything a PM Needs to Know. Nifty.

https://niftypm.com/blog/project-scheduling/

● Project Scheduling: How to Make a Schedule. (n.d.). Project Manager.

https://www.projectmanager.com/guides/project-scheduling

Video Sources
● Association for Project Management. (2020). Project Management: Scheduling /

What is scheduling? [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=PPtOWrTRtqg

● Project Manager. (2018). What is project Scheduling? – Project Management

Training [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNWSQOynrl0

● Smartsheet. (2022). Project Schedule Management [Video]. YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mze7NMZ5YO4