Why do you need a project schedule to meet your deadlines?

Orchestrating a project is never an easy task. Indeed, as project managers, we often feel like we’re caught up in a frenzy that requires us to be in several places at once. The details to keep in mind are simple: deadlines, interdependencies, relationships with stakeholders, progress against milestones…

So it’s understandable to feel overwhelmed by the situation. What if there was a tool to help you bring order to the chaos? A tool that could stop your project going off the rails? I’m talking about the project schedule, an indispensable part of any project manager’s toolbox.

By understanding what a project schedule is and how to use it, you’ll be able to stay ahead of all the moving parts of your project and ensure that everything runs smoothly.

What is a project schedule?

A project schedule can be seen as an overview of key project information. It consolidates the project activities, milestones and deliverables that are referenced in the work breakdown structure across the different project components.

It should be stressed, however, that this schedule is fundamentally different from project planning and project resource planning.

• The project plan contains a list of activities, with their start and end dates, which are necessary to complete the project. This type of document is mainly used by project managers working in less complex environments.
• Project resource planning, on the other hand, assigns people to specific project tasks, based on their availability and ability to complete them. Free project planning software such as Teambook, which focuses on resource planning, can help you identify any over- or under-allocation of your staff, so that you can optimise your resource planning, as well as your commitment forecasts.

Illustrative model of a Teambook project schedule

Using a project calendar

Project managers use project schedules as a means of communication to provide up-to-date information on complex projects. This mainly concerns high-level stakeholders, or those who do not require a detailed understanding of the project’s execution.

This overview helps these stakeholders to understand the progress of project activities, crucial dates and expected results, as well as the distribution of tasks between teams.

Let’s take the case of a product launch. The project manager could draw up a project calendar to report on the progress of the work of the team, which includes the design, product, engineering and marketing departments. However, these teams could have separate project schedules which would be integrated into the overall picture.

A member of the design team may know the design project timeline perfectly well, but they don’t need to track the time to market as precisely as the design timeline. To do this, they can consult the project schedule to find out about the marketing team’s high-level action plan to promote the product.

Like most project management documents, project schedules are subject to change. Project managers should establish an initial schedule to guide the project timetable, but be prepared to revise it as the project progresses.

How do you draw up an effective project schedule?

Here are some basic principles for creating a successful project schedule:

• Draw up the schedule with an appropriate level of detail. Make sure you accurately monitor the progress of tasks. These are the tasks that are essential to the completion of the project. For example, you need to know when the design team will finalise the mock-ups and hand them over to the engineering team.
  It’s not necessarily useful to see the stages of work carried out to complete the mock-ups if there are no cross-cutting impacts.
• Automate project calendar maintenance using resource planning software. It’s best to design your project calendar so that it updates automatically when changes are made to the individual calendars that make up the overall version. Teambook updates in real time and notifies your team of changes via an integrated activity timeline, Slack (direct integration) and email.
  This way, you don’t need to make changes in multiple places, saving time and limiting the risk of introducing errors through manual updates. For example, if you need to speed up the schedule, you can move tasks within your resource planning software, and all dependent tasks, stages and phases can also be moved automatically.

Essential elements to be included in overall project planning

When drawing up an overall project schedule, it is essential to include a number of fundamental elements to ensure that it is complete and operational. These include

1. A schedule of critical milestones and associated deliverables. This ensures that the project stays on track and that all deadlines are met.
2. A summary of the cross-cutting activities required to complete the project, including the expected duration of the tasks. This provides an overview of all the tasks required to complete the project and helps project managers identify any bottlenecks or areas where additional resources may be required.
3. Cross-functional dependencies that may impact on project delivery. This identifies tasks that need to be completed before others can begin, ensuring that all activities are completed in the right order.

Three tips for using a project calendar effectively

Once you’ve drawn up a project schedule, it’s essential to know how to maintain and update it. Here are three tips for using a global project calendar effectively:

#1. Establish constant synchronisation for calendar updates

Set up regular synchronisation for calendar updates. Depending on the duration of the project, consider weekly or monthly updates. Publish it in a central location and distribute it to all the key players, adding a project summary or status report. The main idea is to create a habit of constantly renewing the calendar, so that everyone gets into the habit of consulting it.

Even if your stakeholders don’t study it in detail, establishing regular synchronisation fosters trust, because they can be sure that you’re managing the project properly.

#2. Take advantage of automatic synchronisation

As mentioned when creating the main calendar, look for automated actions to reduce the effort required to update the calendar each week. This is both a quick and efficient method, which ensures that your calendar is constantly and seamlessly updated.

#3. Designate a referent (and a substitute) for each project schedule in relation to the overall project schedule.

So if a project’s schedule isn’t up to date or if there are doubts about certain tasks, you have a privileged contact to ask questions and ensure that your overall schedule remains efficient.

Teambook makes planning and organisation child’s play

 

 

Join the more than 4,000 teams who use Teambook to organise and plan their projects more efficiently. Use our tools to manage and control workloads, record actual hours worked and keep an eye on all deadlines, all from one place.