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6 - PROJECT TIME MANAGEMENT

6.6.3.2 Project Schedule

The outputs from a schedule model are schedule presentations. The project schedule is an output of a schedule
model that presents linked activities with planned dates, durations, milestones, and resources. At a minimum, the
project schedule includes a planned start date and planned finish date for each activity. If resource planning is done
at an early stage, then the project schedule remains preliminary until resource assignments have been confirmed
and scheduled start and finish dates are established. This process usually occurs no later than the completion of the
project management plan (Section 4.2.3.1). A target project schedule model may also be developed with a defined
target start and target finish for each activity. The project schedule presentation may be presented in summary
form, sometimes referred to as the master schedule or milestone schedule, or presented in detail. Although a
project schedule model can be presented in tabular form, it is more often presented graphically, using one or more
of the following formats, which are classified as presentations:

• Bar charts. These charts, also known as Gantt charts, represent schedule information where activities
are listed on the vertical axis, dates are shown on the horizontal axis, and activity durations are shown
as horizontal bars placed according to start and finish dates. Bar charts are relatively easy to read,
and are frequently used in management presentations. For control and management communications,
the broader, more comprehensive summary activity, sometimes referred to as a hammock activity, is
used between milestones or across multiple interdependent work packages, and is displayed in bar
chart reports. An example is the summary schedule portion of Figure 6-21 that is presented in a WBS-
structured format.
• Milestone charts. These charts are similar to bar charts, but only identify the scheduled start or
completion of major deliverables and key external interfaces. An example is the milestone schedule
portion of Figure 6-21.

• Project schedule network diagrams. These diagrams are commonly presented in the activity-on-node
diagram format showing activities and relationships without a time scale, sometimes referred to as a
pure logic diagram, as shown in Figure 6-11, or presented in a time-scaled schedule network diagram
format that is sometimes called a logic bar chart, as shown for the detailed schedule in Figure 6-21.These
diagrams, with activity date information, usually show both the project network logic and the project’s
critical path schedule activities. This example also shows how each work package is planned as a series
of related activities. Another presentation of the project schedule network diagram is a time-scaled logic
diagram. These diagrams include a time scale and bars that represent the duration of activities with the
logical relationships. It is optimized to show the relationships between activities where any number of
activities may appear on the same line of the diagram in sequence.

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