When you are developing your project schedule, you ought to be able to identify the projects start date, required time to complete project activities and tasks, and then calculate and end date based on the estimates you have done.
The
project management minimalist identifies coordination and communication as the
two main reasons for creating a project schedule. The project schedule keep the
team members focused on the bigger picture, milestones and key activities that
need to complete. Project schedule shares the overall plan, a deeper
understanding of project requirements and expectations at every
milestone. Portny, Kramer, Mantel, Meredith, & Shafer, 2007 pg. 149
suggests that project managers can develop project schedules that meet time expectations
if they are able to establish relationships between project activities,
reconsidering these relationships and accurately estimating activity duration.
Stolovich argues on the need to weigh and prioritize activities (Laureate,
2016) to ensure that a schedule is workable and effective. Lastly avoiding
distractions, procrastination and the effects of Parkinson’s Law in time
estimates (Portny, Kramer, Mantel, Meredith, & Shafer, 2007 pg. 166) can
help keep the schedule manageable.
Three institutional or resource-related challenges and variables
that you may encounter when creating the “ideal” schedule for a project.
Taking
an example of the instructional design projects and what Russel, 2000
explained; expertise, project related work (amount of time required to
communicate with the project team members for projects to be successful) and
environmental factors (e.g. sickness and annual leave that may need to be taken
into account during planning) may pose a challenge when creating an ideal schedule
for a project. For example, when we started the Virtual Learning Unit, we did
not have a lot of expertise in house for multimedia activities and tasks. Even
when we were trained it took us time to become fast in completing the tasks
that an experienced multimedia personnel would do. In scheduling projects one
needs to take into account the team’s expertise.
Then provide specific approaches that you can take to address these challenges and accurately anticipate activity duration and timelines while building the project schedule.
Developing a project schedule
that is agreed and owned by the team is critical. What I mean is, before
creating the schedule, engage to understand the team members understanding of
the role, what is required, breakdown of milestone and activities on their
parts and time estimates bearing in mind that the total time required to
perform a group of activities depends on duration and sequence (Portny, Kramer,
Mantel, Meredith, & Shafer, 2007 pg. 149).
It is important to identify the competencies of each team member to ensure that they are capable of delivering the tasks that have been assigned. I liked the example shared about Parkinson’s Law in time estimates (Portny, Kramer, Mantel, Meredith, & Shafer, 2007 pg. 166) where the need to identify possible risks should be completed earlier on, including their impact and how they will be mitigated.
Reference
It is important to identify the competencies of each team member to ensure that they are capable of delivering the tasks that have been assigned. I liked the example shared about Parkinson’s Law in time estimates (Portny, Kramer, Mantel, Meredith, & Shafer, 2007 pg. 166) where the need to identify possible risks should be completed earlier on, including their impact and how they will be mitigated.
Reference
1. The Project Management
Minimalist: Just Enough PM to Rock Your Projects! Retrieved from Laureate
Education, Inc. from The Project Management Minimalist: Just Enough PM to Rock Your
Projects!
1. Portny, S. E., Kramer, B. E.,
Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., & Shafer, S. M. (2007). Project
management. Chichester, United Kingdom: John Wiley & Sons.
1. Russell, L. (2000). Project
management for trainers (pp. 40-49). Alexandria, VA: ASTD Press. Retrieved
from https://class.waldenu.edu/bbcswebdav/institution/USW1/201260_02/MS_INDT/EDUC_6145/Week%204/Resources/Week%204%20Resources/embedded/6145_Wk4_Russell_40-49.pdf
