Improving the Quality of your Microsoft Project 2010 Schedule

Why Have Scheduling Software?

The Key to a High Quality Schedule

The Key to a High Quality Schedule

In the World of the Biggest Projects . . .

The Need for A Good Critical Path

“In most cases, 99.9% of the time, we can't produce a valid critical path.”

- Mike Beattie, Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA), May 2007

Schedule Quality Is . . .• Trust – Is it the truth? Are the Tasks, Resources, Assignments, Costs, Actuals,

etc. accurate?• Fidelity – Is the critical path really the critical path? • Detail – Does it contain the right level of detail?

Trust

DetailFidelity

Schedule Quality Is Not . . .• Performance Problems• Defects in the Deliverables• Scheduler Quality

Trust

DetailFidelity

Ten Common and Serious Problems

1. Missing Predecessors

Task A

2. Missing Successors

Task B

3. Use of Constraints

Must Start OnMust Finish OnStart No Later ThanFinish No Later Than

A slip here . . . . . . won‘t cause a slip here.

As Late As PossibleStart No Earlier ThanFinish No Earlier Than

Hard Constraints Soft Constraints

3. Use of Constraints

Will your schedule pass the push test?

4. Lags

Lag

5. Leads

Lead

6. Planned Start in the Past

Task A

Status Date(or today if no Status

Date)

Hasn’t Started Yet

Task A has a planned Start Date in the past but hasn’t started. The existing Planned Start Date cannot be trusted!

7. Actual Date in the Future

Status Date (or today if no status date)

Task C

8. Summaries With Resources

Summary Task B

Task B1Task A Task B2

9. Summary Tasks With Links

Summary Task B

Task B1Task A Task B2

No!

Yes!

10. Manual Scheduling

Task A

The Impact of Poor Schedule Quality• Don’t Know True Project Finish Date• Rework• Schedule Slippage• Budget Overruns• Lack of trust

A “Spell Checker” for Microsoft Project

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Improving the Quality of your Microsoft Project 2010 Schedule