Schedule Management Plan

What is Schedule Management Plan?

Schedule management is a system that controls how resources are allocated. In other words, it's the process of assigning tasks to people and setting deadlines for them. The purpose of schedule management is to create an order in which work should be done while optimizing time and resource allocation. It's not just about when work gets done; it also includes how much effort goes into each task so that you can get the most out of your employees without overworking them or underutilized them.

Schedule Management Approach 

The schedule management approach is a three-step process that can be used to organise and prioritize tasks. This approach has proven successful in various fields, including project management, coaching, and, more recently, scheduling for small businesses. The steps are as follows:

* Define the goal or objective of your time investment - what do you want to accomplish? 

* Prioritise the list of tasks based on their level of importance    

* Break down each task into manageable chunks for getting it done.

Schedule Planning in Project Management

Many different factors come into play when planning a project, but schedule planning is one of the most important.

To make your life easier, you must have all the aspects of project planning mapped out before you start. These five key aspects will help you plan for success.

• Make Sure You Have a Clear Goal: Before starting any project, it is essential to know your goal and why you are doing it. This will prevent confusion and ensure that everyone involved knows how their work contributes to the bigger picture.

• Create Action Plans: Creating action plans will keep people accountable for their tasks, which will help keep your project on track and ensure that no parts of the process are overlooked. 

• Create a Timeline: With an action plan, you should create a timeline to ensure deadlines are met and everyone is accountable for their tasks. This also helps team members see how their roles in the project play out over time!

• Know Your Budget: The budget can significantly affect what steps to take during your planning stage. For example, if funds are tight, it might not be worth hiring another person or buying extra materials- but if money isn't an issue, this could get you ahead of others by having everything needed before anything needs doing!

 5 Steps to Develop a Schedule in Project Management

Step 1: Define Activities: Create an initial phase list that includes all the project phases. It would help if you also had a section for tasks that aren't assigned yet or haven't been determined yet (optional). 

Step 2: Sequence Activities: Make sure that every item on this list has a due date and assign someone responsible for completing it. 

Step 3: Do Estimates: Sort all the items into groups based on their due date. Determine Dependencies-Group tasks with a due date on or before the current date into one day. These are your "today" items and should be completed. Group tasks that have a due date between today's and tomorrow's dates together to form your "tomorrow" list for completion.

How to Develop a Project Schedule?

What To Do?	How To Do?
Determine What Tasks Need Scheduling	The dependencies in a network diagram depend on the type of task. Identify tasks that must be completed before others can begin and identify functions that can be done while others are being performed. A network diagram (a precedence diagramming method) can be used to show these dependencies.
Categorize Your List into Categories	Categorizing is a great way to make sure that your list is organized. As a result, you'll be able to find what you need much more quickly, which can save time when it comes down to it.
What is the cost of doing this incorrectly or forgetting about it altogether?	The cost of doing something incorrectly can seem impossible to calculate because it all depends on what happens next and how much time and energy is required to fix the situation.
Prioritize the items in order prioritize prioritise	Prioritise the items to use due dates as a priority guide. Items with an upcoming deadline should be high up on your list, while those without one are lower.

Difference between the Schedule Management Plan and Schedule Development

Schedule management is a process that allows managers to oversee and manage resources, tasks, and projects. The first step in schedule management is the development of a plan. There are two types of programs: the Schedule Management Plan (SMP) and the Schedule Development (SD).

The SMP involves deciding what needs to be done to complete your project's objectives. Therefore, it requires only one level of planning where you will decide on your project's timeline, milestones, deliverables, work breakdown structures, and activities needed for completion. On the other hand, SD focuses more broadly on how each task or activity should be carried out concerning available personnel resources and timelines/milestones set by higher authorities such as directors or managers.

The SMP includes tasks such as modelling, planning, and monitoring. Schedule development is a more detailed process that looks at the resources available to complete each project plan task.

SD also defines how these people will work together: does someone need to oversee this team? Who will guide you if something isn't going according to plan? What supplies do we have access to? Lastly, SD must know when it's time for changes or adjustments, along with how much time may be allocated for them (if any).

Control Schedule:

Control Schedule is a process that helps you to control your schedule. It will help you have a more organised day, and it will also help you see what tasks need attention.

The first step in using this tool is setting up a schedule of events that you know when they will occur (i.e., weekly meetings). Once these are set up, you can start adding tasks that need to be completed at specific times during the day or week.

• Project Schedule Input -Project schedules consider activity sequences, duration, resource requirements, and schedule constraints to create a plan that helps identify potential risks before resources are committed to the project.

• The Resource Optimization Techniques (Tools & Techniques) - Resource optimization is making the most out of resources. It is about improving the efficiency and effectiveness organization's scarce resources, such as time, money, materials, or energy.

• Schedule Compression: Tools and Techniques - Schedule compression is a technique that improves the performance of your database by reducing the amount of disk space it takes up.

SCHEDULE CHANGES AND THRESHOLDS

• The first is that there are two types of deadlines: daily and monthly. Daily deadlines have a deadline for every day of the month, while monthly ones have just one deadline at the end of the month.

• Secondly, we'll discuss what a threshold is and how it affects your schedule. A point is an optional number that tells us when to start thinking about something new (i.e., stop thinking about today's tasks). So, if your task list has an "everyday" deadline, but you set a 10-hour threshold, then once you work past 10 hours on any given day on those tasks, they will no longer show up on your "Today" list.

• The third thing you should know is that sometimes a task may be marked as DONE by accident or for the wrong reason, and so it will need to be undone for those tasks not to show up on your lists anymore.

To manage them successfully, your team must be equipped with the right tools and skillets. Here are some critical responsibilities for project managers who oversee changes in their projects:

1) Reviewing and approving all incoming change requests 

2) Adjusting the schedule as needed after reviewing each request 

3) Communicating any impacts or changes to stakeholders

4) Ensuring that all approved change requests are documented in the records repository