Welcome to the Project Scheduling Tutorial. In this tutorial we will give you a comprehensive introduction to one of project management’s most foundational concepts.
Project managers spend most of their time on creating schedules and budgets, or changing them. Good project managers look at the schedule every day, and obsess about staying on time and budget.
- Introduction
An overview of the scheduling process, including a step by step outline. Also, planning the schedule is an important part of the process, and the development of a schedule management plan assists in answering some of the questions you will encounter. - Dividing the Project into Tasks
Slicing up the project into manageable tasks can be a straight forward exercise or a recipe for project tracking disaster during project execution. This page gives you the knowledge and background to make sure you do it correctly and set yourself up for painless project tracking later on. - Estimating Resources
Whether people, equipment, tools, or subcontractors, each task is assigned the resources it needs to get the job done. We list the types of resources so you don’t miss anything and explain how they get handled in a project schedule. - Estimating Durations
Once the resources are in place it’s time to assign durations to the project tasks. These durations become the building blocks of the project schedule. Underestimating them is sure to cause tremendous stress to the project manager. We show you the right way to do it and what to variables to consider in the process. - Determining the Critical Path
The project manager should always know what tasks are on the critical path. These are the tasks which determine the completion date of the project, and they are an invaluable piece of knowledge when project decisions need to be made. Drawing the network diagram produces this information – It is not nearly as difficult or complicated as it sounds. - Creating the Schedule
Lastly, the schedule is drawn up and the resources are levelled. When you’ve got a professionally built schedule you’re on your way to project success.
Top notch project management involves not just producing a schedule, but ensuring the project stays true to it, both on time and below budget. Fortunately we have an earned value tutorial for that.
