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Schedule Quality Checks. Lags and Leads
We already discussed two types of schedule quality metrics: Missing Dependencies and Activity Constraints. Another important area to control is activity lags and leads. A project delivery schedule must reflect real-life processes and the way how the work is going...
Monte Carlo Simulation Challenges. Simplicity Challenge.
Before we start our review of Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) Challenges, we have to clarify what MCS is and how it is applied in project management.Monte Carlo Simulation MethodA Monte Carlo Simulation is a model used to predict the probability of different outcomes...
Monte Carlo Simulation Challenges
Risk simulation is becoming popular but most risk simulation tools and the ways how they are used miss some important functionalities that make the results of this simulation unreliable.Monte Carlo Simulation - Myth or Reality?Last year, I have organised a poll on...
Schedule Health Metrics: Activity Constraints
In this article, we continue to review metrics for schedule health analysis. The first part, “Missing Dependencies” was covered here. Now let’s talk about activity constraints.There are some project situations that require the use of constraints:Delayed...
Schedule Logic Check Metrics
One of the fundamental questions for any schedule health assessment is “Is the schedule logically driven?” There are some scheduling metrics that could help planners and schedulers to find the answer to this question. In this post, we will review some of them, that...
Critical Path Drag
Majority of project managers are familiar with the critical path method (CPM) and think that they know how to apply it to manage their projects. Many scheduling software can compute and visualise Critical Path, so it is a no-brainer to use it. Usually, a project...
Hidden Project Schedule Opportunities
A few days ago, I had organised a poll on LinkedIn and asked a simple question: Can project duration potentially be reduced by decreasing the duration of non-critical activity (total float >0)?While the poll is still open, and the final result may still slightly...
Project Anti-Crashing Method
PMBOK and some other project management standards describe two key methods for schedule optimisation: fast-tracking and crashing. Apart from these well-known methods, there is a method that hasn't been described widely. So, let's feel in the gap.Anti-crashingThis...
Realistic Project Delivery KPI
How often have we been told that projects are late and over budget and we need to do something about it? At the same time, it is an absolute lack of understanding that it could be a sign of project delivery maturity rather than a real issue! The real issue is when...
Contract Cost vs Actual Cost
Project-driven companies need to manage several budgets for the same project. Particularly useful to control contract cost (income) and actual cost (expenses) of project.The actual cost comprises of equipment, materials, resources and other direct and indirect...
Indirect Project Cost
Direct and Indirect Project CostProject cost consists of direct cost components such as labour, materials, machinery and equipment costs. Also, an overall cost may include indirect cost, frequently referred to as overhead expenses: rent and utilities, some general...
Cost and Schedule Integration
An integrated delivery model must take into account all technical, resource and financial constraints. Full integration between project time and cost must include all expenses assigned to project activities, resources and time-driven tasks.Cost ComponentsAs each...
Material Gantt View
Materials in Project ManagementProject resources are divided into renewable (labour, machines) and consumable (materials). Consumable materials in project management may include fuel, sand, bricks, paint, traffic signs, etc. consumable renewable resources that are...
Volume of work and Productivity
There are two main approaches used to estimate project work: duration-based and volume-based. Often schedules are developed with a duration-based approach, mostly due to planning tools limitations. An alternative, much more powerful approach is based on the volume...
Project Teams Assignment
One of the fundamental problems in project delivery is that scheduling tools are not able to simulate real-life work scenarios correctly.Resource AssignmentsIn project schedules there are often some activities that require assignment of more than one resource. In...
Multi-Resource (Crew) Assignment
Resource Assignments by Multi-Resource (Crew)In some situations, a set of activities is performed by a stable group when multiple resources work together. We could assign each resource from this group to each activity individually. However, it is much easier to...
Project Controls Expo Virtual 2021
We are delighted to announce that our Senior Consultant, Alex Lyaschenko, will be a speaker at the Project Controls Expo Virtual 2021 with the following topics: Invisible interdependencies (Hard, Soft and Virtual) Spider Project - Project Portfolio Navigation...
Resource Skills Assignments
Resource Assignments by Skills (Pools)In real-life scenarios, it is quite common that we don't know which resources exactly would be available when the activity is ready for execution. It might depend on work priorities, resources availability, their productivity...
Is Missing Logic an illusion of schedule quality?
Scheduling consultants often mention “Missing Logic” as an obvious schedule quality check. I believe it is not as obvious as it seems. This check may create an illusion of good quality of dependency data and hide critical issue(s) that may cause project delay.The...
Scheduling Tools Comparison Analysis. Data Identifiers.
This post is a part of series of posts that explains the unique features and constraints of the most popular scheduling tools: Primavera, MS Project / Project Online, Spider Project and Project For The Web. While each of the scheduling tools provides a lot of...
Program vs Portfolio Centric Scheduling
There are two main perspectives to manage projects and programs in any organisation: Project/Program centric and Portfolio centric. Program centric approach This approach relies on an experience and knowledge of a program team. Schedule maturity and quality defined...
Agile as an Excuse?
It seems that Agile is too often used as an excuse to avoid careful planning and preparation. In this post we are going to review the root cause of this phenomenon.Project AllocationsThe majority of large government agencies and non-government organisations operate...
Scheduler in a Project Team Structure
Scheduling is a “skeleton” of project control. It connects time, cost, requirements, resources, benefits, risks & interdependencies. Scheduling not only supports project managers to plan work and collect actuals, but also to perform “what-if” analysis and...
Agile is for IT Projects. Myth or Reality?
There is a general acceptance that Agile delivery is good for IT projects and many IT departments in various size organisations are considering or have already started adopting Agile frameworks. At the same time, I’ve heard that some of the IT project managers...
Assumptions and Risks. What is the difference?
In a project management language, an assumption is an “event” with a probability of over 50%. If the probability of the event is also less than 100%, it is a risk!!! An assumption is something that you assume to be the case, even without proof. While there is a...
Planning vs Scheduling
Are you aware that the majority of projects develop a schedule but actually don’t have a plan? Often projects produce a version of a project plan which covers both planning and scheduling. They are not able to differentiate one from another when required. ...
Next-Gen Project Risk Management Technologies
Mature project management is critical for innovations. At the same time, innovative technologies could also be applied for project delivery. This would speed up technology development and implementation even further. Next-Gen technology platform for Project Risk...
Schedule Quality vs Schedule Maturity
Very often project participants mix up project schedule maturity and schedule quality concepts. While these two aspects are interdependent, misunderstanding the difference is often causing conflicts between a project manager, a scheduler and a PMO team.Target...
“B” for Bottlenecks
Majority of projects/programs manage critical project-related live data via project registers, known as DRICA, RAID, etc. Each letter represents a type of project metadata: R - risks, I - issues, A - assumptions (or actions), D - dependencies, C - change requests,...
Project Success Criteria (PSC)
In project constraints golden triangle, which of the criteria is more important: Time, Cost or Scope?If your project is behind the schedule and you have an opportunity to speed up project delivery by applying extra resources to complete testing earlier, what would...
How to visualise WBS out of MS Project?
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a very powerful view to represent project scope in a hierarchical way. It allows to validate scope and identify potential gaps. WBS is a key input into the schedule development process. Ideally, use a scheduling tool that supports...
Start-to-Finish Dependency
Perhaps every project practitioner is aware of 4 basic types of project dependencies and two types of activity delays. Unfortunately, their knowledge is often limited by these two facts. If they don’t know how to apply these correctly, it will impact the quality...
3-Points Estimation Technique
The most useful scheduling technique which, in my opinion, has to be used in each project is 3-Points estimation technique. It is simple to use, it improves team productivity and project performance.As projects complexity level keeps growing, projects become less...
Project Dependencies Types
Some companies define project interdependencies as “Hard” or “Soft” based on a type of constraint in their scheduling tool. In other situations, project interdependencies indicate a level of risk as probability, impact, or risk exposure. Some project management...
Project Controls Expo Virtual 2020
We are delighted to announce that our Senior Consultant, Alex Lyaschenko, will be a speaker at the Project Controls Expo Virtual 2020 with the following topics: * "Resource Limited Project Management" * “Portfolio Schedule Management in Sydney Trains (Australia)” *...
Supporting tools for planning and scheduling
Show me you scheduling toolkit and I can tell you who you are! Successful planning and delivery of complex programs and portfolios are not possible without application of best scheduling practices and advanced methods. Application of these methods and practices is...
Tool agnostic?
Do you think that professionals should be tool agnostic? Or should they come with their own set of tools? Let’s imagine you have a leakage at home. After you have done your research and got some recommendations, a good plumber comes to your place to fix this...
Agile & Waterfall Integration. Vendors
Some companies complain that vendors don’t support them with “Agile way” of delivery. The reality is that many companies are only able to engage vendors on a fixed price (FP) type of contract. However, the companies are expecting the vendors to work in a Time &...
DCMA 14-Point Assessment
How to make sure you are getting the right skillset when hiring a master scheduler/planner? Someone who doesn’t only have an understanding of scheduling tools, but also has a strong planning acumen. Check out if the person would recommend using DCMA 14-Point...
Schedule Maturity Planning. Part 2 – Questions
Which of key project knowledge areas is missing in the project maturity framework? P3M3 organisational assessment has 7 knowledge areas:* Organisational Governance* Management Control* Benefits Management* Risk Management* Stakeholder Management* Finance...
Waterfall & Agile Integration. Part 1: Hybrid projects in Enterprise portfolio
Some time ago I analysed the structure of the portfolio I worked on ($1.3B / 380 projects) and found out that we had: · 41% of Waterfall projects;· 33% of Agile projects;· 26% of Hybrid projects;· 3% Not real projects (PMOs, Contingency, etc) The issue was that we...
Schedule Maturity Planning. Part 1 – Categories
While the majority of project and program managers recognise the importance of good quality schedule, project stakeholders have their own view of what a “good quality” actually means.Well, based on my observations, project managers often forget to do one critical...
Portfolio Management (Waterfall style)
pic (Y. Pogorelov)PMO | Portfolio Planning & Delivery | PMP | P3O Practitioner | AgilePM Practitioner | Six Sigma
Welcome to Success Driven Planning & Delivery Blog!
Agile and Waterfall are the two most popular project management methodologies and widely used to deliver business, technology and infrastructure projects. Effective integration of projects with different delivery methods is a significant challenge for many...
