PROJMGNT 7057 Project Controls Method

"Traditionally, scheduling has been the backbone of project management and probably the first knowledge area in this discipline.

 

Discuss the importance of scheduling nowadays and identify one case study in the literature where scheduling played a crucial role in project management success or failure." 

Project scheduling one of the earliest task must be constructed in project initiation phase. Project schedule is constructed to document project tasks with start and end date. It is also necessary to define the tasks necessary to complete any certain project along with the resources allocation. Generally, every project consists of multiple small tasks which are categorized into different phases in order to avoid any complexity in future. After identifying all the necessary tasks, tasks could be allocated to different team at different timeline. Necessary resources are also need to be allocated for every individual task. These planning process must be conducted before starting any certain task in order to get a clear idea about the investment and time lines. These aspects must be defined because stakeholders have dissimilar schedules and their accessibility and leave or vacation need to be documented in order to successfully plan those tasks.

Previously, printed calendar and spreadsheets are used to document such details. Nowadays, most of the organization use scheduling tools to get the job done precisely and effectively. Generally, projects are consisting of several moving parts and frequently changed over time. Project scheduling can be used to set the dependencies and automatically update tasks. It can also use to alert managers and other stakeholders about specific tasks (Hwang & Ng 2013, p. 193). The project scheduling tools are very useful in order to enable the manager to schedule multiple task, due dates and assign required resources.  For scheduling a project precisely, there are mainly four steps need to follow which are described below.

Define Activities: every project consists of multiple tasks. These tasks need to be completed in order to complete the whole project. By utilizing a WBS which stands for work breakdown structure, multiple tasks cab be organized according to the dependencies and timeline (Fleming & Koppelman 2016, p. 199).  The key advantage of this method is to breakdown work sets into activities that deliver a basis for monitoring, executing, scheduling, estimating and controlling the project work.

Estimation: After arranging multiple tasks into groups, the effort and time necessary to complete the tasks are estimated. Proper estimation can give a clear idea of the required investment and time for completing any certain task. In most of the cases, proposed budget and timelines are mapped to the identified activities (Meredith et al. 2016, p. 23). Estimation is one of the essential piece of schedule which assist to calculate the precise schedule.

Determine Dependencies: In any certain project, where multiple tasks need to be completed in order to complete the project, every tasks cannot be started independently at any time. Most of the tasks are depends on one other as it cannot be started before completing other certain tasks. For instance, in a construction project, doors cannot be painted before start carpeting doors. Dependencies must be set for individual tasks in order to avoid complexity in future (Braglia & Frosolini 2014, p. 256).

Assign resources: Resource assigning is also falls under the schedules every tasks need certain resources to complete the tasks. Every task must be monitored by someone who will be responsible for maintain the assigned team as well (Mubarak 2015, p. 219). The resource allocation is also one of the essential piece of schedule which assist to calculate the precise schedule.

To understand the significance and impact of the schedule over a project a case study has been identified below. This case study will assist to understand the scheduling impact on a Taiwan project. The Taiwan project named AAA Road construction project was a fail project due to the improper scheduling. The contract price of the project was around NT$2,598,000,000 along with duration of the 1,218 days (Sears et al. 2015, p.103). The project was delayed mainly due to typhoon. Some of the construction sites ware downtown where the activities of existed obstacles are complex. The movement of the trees and existed pipeline caused by typhoon was the main reason for the delay project completion. However, the contractor found that the construction plan did not have complete details about the required labor, productivity data materials and equipment for each activity. To prove activities are planned improperly, real productivity data for two similar activities are calculated. First for successful execution without typhoons effect on the project and the other is influenced by the pipelines (Nagar & Jamoussi 2017, p. 96).  The contrast between abnormal and normal activities delivers the basis for further delay scheming. Once gaining the amount of lost productivity on duration, this study defines a clear liability distribution for the study activity based on the methodology of as-planned extended delay analysis method (Kerzner & Kerzner 2017, p. 220). Many studies have tries to solve the issues around the schedule delay. However, the influence of lost efficiency on schedule delay is hard to analyze by the schedule analyst. To understand the impact of the proper scheduling then case study showcases a delay analysis with lost production in Taiwan.

For as successful project development proper scheduling is necessary as it assist the business leaders to plan for financing their startup. The proper scheduling in mandatory to avoid any obstacle or loss productivity. There are several aspect of the scheduling which plays very vital role on the whole project. One of the most important aspects of scheduling and planning is to develop baselines standard of success and productivity. If previously the project goal was not defined, then leaders would not be able to check whether the project met goals or not. Time, resource and cash flow are the most important aspect of any certain project. The business plan will be conducted while analyzing previous success and failure rate of a project as the results can offer valuable insights. Scheduling is also useful to track activities on regular basis as it sets the timeline with proper WBS.   The proper scheduling in mandatory to avoid any obstacle or loss productivity. There are several aspect of the scheduling which plays very vital role on the whole project. The project schedule is utilized to estimate what assets are required at what time and for how long.

References:

Kerzner, H & Kerzner, HR 2017, Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.

Meredith, JR., Shafer, SM, Mantel Jr, SJ & Sutton, MM, 2016, Project management in practice, Wiley Global Education.

Hwang, BG & Ng, WJ 2013, Project management knowledge and skills for green construction: Overcoming challenges, International Journal of Project Management, 31(2), pp.272-284.

Braglia, M & Frosolini, M 2014, An integrated approach to implement project management information systems within the extended enterprise, International Journal of Project Management, 32(1), pp.18-29.

Mubarak, SA 2015, Construction project scheduling and control, John Wiley & Sons.

Sears, SK, Sears, GA, Clough, RH, Rounds, JL & Segner, RO 2015, Construction project management, John Wiley & Sons.

Nagar, AR & Jamoussi, A 2014, Method and system for handling program, project and asset scheduling management. U.S. Patent 8,738,414.

Fleming, QW & Koppelman, JM, 2016, December, Earned value project management, Project Management Institute.