Identifying Hurdles in Project Scheduling

Without a schedule, your project has no guide, no plan to follow. You have no way to determine where you’re at, where you’re going or what you’ve got to use along the way. Your project schedule is incredibly important, but it’s just as important that you ensure it’s not marred by unnecessary hurdles as it is to make sure that it includes everything you need (resources and budget), and adheres to the timeline that offers the best delivery. Here are some of the hurdles to watch for during project schedule development and even afterward, once your project is live.
Incorrect Tasks on the Critical Path
If you’re one of the millions of project managers still relying on the critical path method, it’s vital that you ensure you have the right tasks on the critical path. Incorrect task placement results in wasted effort, wasted money and wasted time, none of which you can afford. The only things on the critical path should be those that are actual project work tasks.
Loose Ends
Also called “danglers,” loose ends are essentially tasks on the schedule that have no predecessors and no successors. Beware of these, as they’re inherently incorrect. Only your project start will not have a predecessor, and only the completion of the project should not have a successor. Watch out for any items on the schedule that don’t have a link to at least one before and after task.
Insanity in the Timeline
Your project schedule denotes the length of time from start to finish. Often, that time is set by your customer (or the corresponding department head in an in-house project). The problem here is that if you let your customer set your schedule, chances are very good it’s going to be overly ambitious. While there’s nothing wrong with wanting to get things done in a timely manner, a schedule that’s too ambitious can lead to serious problems, including cost overruns, impossible deadlines and, ultimately, failed deliverables. The project schedule should be realistic, and should be created through accurate information not “wants”.
Effort vs. Actual Schedule Time
When you ask one of your team members when they will have a task completed, chances are good they’ll tell you “later this week”, “about the middle of next week” or something else that’s vague and not practical for your schedule. You need to make sure that you’re budgeting actual work time and effort, not task effort. Make sure your team members provide you with the number of workdays or work hours necessary to complete the task so that you can build your schedule accordingly.
What’s a Milestone?
How many milestones do you have in your project schedule? Chances are good that you have too many. Set your milestones correctly –they should be limited to only very important points in the lifecycle of the project. Minor task completion doesn’t count. Limit milestones to major phase completion, project start, completion of deliverables and the like.
With these tips, you should be able to create the most accurate project schedule possible while avoiding common hurdles.