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T HE PROJECT SCHEDULE IS THE CORE OF THE PROJECT PLAN. It is used by the project manager to

commit people to the project and show the organization how the work will be performed.
Schedules are used to communicate final deadlines and, in some cases, to determine
resource needs. They are also used as a kind of checklist to make sure that every task nec-
essary is performed. If a task is on the schedule, the team is committed to doing it. In other
words, the project schedule is the means by which the project manager brings the team
and the project under control.

Building the Project Schedule
The project schedule is a calendar that links the tasks to be done with the resources that will
do them. Before a project schedule can be created, the project manager must have a work
breakdown structure (WBS), an effort estimate for each task, and a resource list with
availability for each resource. If these are not yet available, it may be possible to create
something that looks like a schedule, but it will essentially be a work of fiction. A project
manager’s time is better spent on working with the team to create a WBS and estimates
(using a consensus-driven estimation method like Wideband Delphi—see Chapter 3) than
on trying to build a project schedule without them. The reason for this is that a schedule
itself is an estimate: each date in the schedule is estimated, and if those dates do not have
the buy-in of the people who are going to do the work, the schedule will almost certainly
be inaccurate.
There are many project scheduling software products that can do much of the tedious
work of calculating the schedule automatically, and plenty of books and tutorials dedi-
cated to teaching people how to use them. However, before a project manager can use
these tools, he should understand the concepts behind the WBS, dependencies, resource
allocation, critical paths, Gantt charts, and earned value. These are the real keys to plan-
ning a successful project.

Allocate Resources to the Tasks
The first step in building the project schedule is to identify the resources required to per-
form each of the tasks. A resource is any person, item, tool, or service that is needed by
the project that is either scarce or has limited availability.

Many project managers use the terms “resource” and “person” interchangeably, but peo-
ple are only one kind of resource. The project could include computer resources (like
shared computer room, mainframe, or server time), locations (training rooms, temporary
office space), services (like time from contractors, trainers, or a support team), and special
equipment that will be temporarily acquired for the project. Most project schedules only
plan for human resources—the other kinds of resources are listed in the resource list,
which is part of the project plan (see Chapter 2).
One or more resources must be allocated to each task. To do this, the project manager must
first assign the task to people who will perform it. For each task, the project manager must
identify one or more people on the resource list capable of doing that task and assign it to

54 CHAPTER FOUR