Blog
Best practice vs Best workarounds
Many planners mix up ‘Best scheduling practice’ with ‘best workarounds’ in a particular scheduling tool. When they heavily apply one of scheduling tool, they start to believe that the workarounds are the best practice, refuse to learning alternatives and even...
Original Critical Path Method and beyond
Recently I have organised a Linked Poll on the origin of the Critical Path Method:Originally in the Critical Path Method, project activities had to be estimated as: • Single estimation• Range• 3-point estimation• Don’t have durationThe accurate response, which was...
Six Steps of Success Driven Project Management
Step 1 – Define integrated project success criterionWith multiple success criteria decision-making is complicated – increasing one of them, we may decrease another. There is a need for some weighting factor that may be used for decision-making. It is necessary to...
Missing Part of Project Management Triangle
Project Management Triangle (also known as Golden Triangle or Iron Triangle) has one missing part. Originally, when the triangle was developed, the missing part was so obvious that the author didn’t include it in the triangle. “I was thinking about how time control...
Multiple dependencies between two activities in Microsoft Project
Myth: Ladder Scheduling is impossible in Microsoft Project as it does not allow two dependencies between two activities. Some business processes require the creation of multiple dependencies between two activities. Particularly, sometimes activities could be...
Monte Carlo Simulation Challenges. Picture-based simulation.
Timelines This is a picture:And this is a picture:And this is a picture:The only difference between these pictures is the tool used to draw them: highlighters, PowerPoint or a Gantt Chart generator. The value of these pictures is exactly the same. Pictures with...
Critical Path Method was not for time optimisation
Some time ago, I posted a poll on LinkedIn asking about the origins of the CPM method. Here's what the respondents said: 56% believe the method is all about making schedules efficient, focusing on time. 4% think it was originally created to save costs. 39% believe...
Artificial Activity Split Problem. Resource Levelling Challenge
In previous discussions, we explored the benefits of employing Volume Lag and Point-to-Point dependencies for emulating activities that shift in parallel. However, due to the limited support for these features in many planning tools, some planners have suggested...
Indirect Resource Dependency
In the previous posts, we reviewed Volume Lags and Point-to-Point dependencies to demonstrate that assigned resources may impact activity and lag durations. This is also an excellent example to demonstrate indirect resource dependencies.We reviewed a scheduling...
Point-to-Point Dependency
In the Previous Post, we discuss the advantages of volume lag. For example, when activity A performs preparation for activity B and: 20m, 10m3, 10 items, etc. The proposed solution was to use: Start-to-Start + Volume lag. The 'Volume lag' eliminates the problem...
Volume lags
At times, there may be two project activities that have the potential to be carried out simultaneously, but the second activity can only begin after a certain delay following the initiation of the first activity. The minimum required delay is usually defined by the...
Which projects deliver benefits?
Determining which project deliver benefits is not always a straightforward task due to the following factors: Project-driven portfolios Project-driven portfolios use projects to generate benefits by delivering products or services to their customers. Non-mature...
Project Delivery Tool Ideas: WBS Review level
Scheduling tools usually provide users with an opportunity to extend/collapse schedules to a certain WBS level. However, schedules usually have activities at different levels, and when a scheduler needs to update the schedule it is not possible to extend the...
Resource idle time and cost
For effective project delivery, control over idle time is critical but not easy. It requires appropriate methods, techniques and tools. Projects may have a situation may arise when, for example, full-time (hired) specialists of the company or equipment go to the...
Project Management Mythology
There are numerous myths surrounding Project Portfolio Management that have a negative impact on project delivery. Some of these myths are relatively new, while others have been around for so long that it's hard to understand their origins. However, we now have a...
Monte Carlo Simulation Challenges. Simulating the true source of uncertainty
Usually, duration and cost uncertainties are used as a base for the Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS). However, the duration and cost uncertainties are the results of other types of uncertainties.Simulating the source and result of uncertainties may lead to different...
Project Acceleration
Project acceleration criteriaCritical Path (CP) Drag shows amount of time that could potentially be saved on the project by reducing the duration of the activity or removing an activity completely. However, CP Drag only identifies good candidates for optimisation....
Learn to avoid Project Delay
A small number of projects are finished ahead of schedule. Even projects who claimed to be on time often are against the latest commitment, not the originally approved target. This is relevant to almost all types of projects of all sizes and different countries....
Multiple Work Breakdown Structures
Multiple Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a powerful method to document, analyse and report project activities via different lenses. This approach provides an opportunity to understand project delivery from many perspectives and increases chances for success....
Predaptive delivery
Agile vs Waterfall debates are continued with an interesting outcome. Some project management gurus believe that such debates don’t make sense as there is no such a thing as Agile and Waterfall projects, as all projects are Hybrid. However, if all projects are...
Critical path method challenge: Activity duration estimation
The critical path method includes several standard steps. While there are different recommendations in which order these steps need to be performed, it is a general acceptance that one step is important: the duration of each activity has to be accurately estimated....
Resource vs activity calendars issue
Correct application of the Critical Path Method requires consideration of ALL constraints. A calendar is a ‘type of constraint’ that defines when work can and cannot be performed. There are two main calendar types Activity Calendar and Resource Calendar.Activity...
Monte Carlo Simulation challenges. Level of details challenge.
As discussed in the previous posts, applying the Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) CORRECTLY for a large project may take many hours. As a workaround, some risk consultants recommend running simulations based on a high-level schedule, known as a control schedule and a...
Risk Matrix: good or bad?
Some project risk practitioners argue that Project Risk Matrices cannot be trusted to produce consistent and correct risk ratings and rankings, and their application has to be minimised or even avoided. However, often with the unique nature of projects, reliable...
Total Floats: with or without project deadlines.
One of the most important outputs of the Critical Path Method (CPM) is a calculation of activities Total Floats (TF). However, there is no commonly agreed approach to calculate TF when the project has deadlines. Different project management tools have different...
Schedule Quality Metrics. Out-of-sequence Activities
One of the important schedule quality metrics is ‘out-of-sequence activities’."Out of Sequence Activities" (OOS) - a result of executing the works without following the logic as planned.There are many very good posts that explain what is “Out-of-sequence activity”,...
Monte Carlo Simulation Challenges. Critical Path Volatility Challenge.
The ‘3 points estimation’ known as a PERT methodology is relatively simple to use for cost, but for the schedule, it’s more complicated. The fact that some activities are on the critical path means that the volatility of those specific activities, as opposed to the...
Risk vs Uncertainty
At project management conferences, LinkedIn discussions and even in one of the most recognised Project Risk Management book, I've found that uncertainty is just a risk with 100% probability. Not sure what is the origin of this statement, but a risk with 100%...
Monte Carlo Simulation Challenges. Distribution Shapes Challenge.
Risk simulation systems offer a choice of user-selected distribution shapes that can be implemented for each and every activity. Some tools offer only primary types, others have a large menu of over 50 distributions. However, selecting a specific shape for each of...
Schedule Quality Metrics. Invalid Dates.
One of the important questions, when a schedule quality analysis is performed, is: “Is the schedule review up-to-date?”. There are a few metrics that could help find the answer to this question and identify activities with potentially invalid dates. Some of them...
Implementation of the Critical Path Methods in Different Scheduling Tools
Would the project dates calculated based on the critical path method be the same regardless of the applied scheduling tool? Not always!!! Some time ago one large Telco company in Australia decided to replace their existing PPM system with ‘CA Clarity'. Clarity...
Monte Carlo Simulation Challenges. Data collection Challenge.
TerminologyWhat do the terms optimistic, pessimistic, and most likely really mean?Because they are very different for different people, when one estimator says pessimistic, that person is thinking the technology might prove to be a bit more difficult than expected...
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...
