In projects, various schedules are being used: contractual schedule, strategic schedule, integrated project schedule, and more detailed schedules covering only part of the scope. The integrated project schedule, fully linked and covering the complete project scope, can effectively be used to coordinate all contributors which is actually its main objective.
In our new White Paper 2022-04 ‘How the essential purpose of the Integrated Project Schedule Purpose is to Coordinate Project Contributors’, we investigate how this function translates in terms of differences with other schedules and in terms of information needed in integrated project schedules.

Integrated project schedules are essential in projects. Those fully linked schedules cover the complete project scope and provide the main reference in terms of project execution and decision-making (refer to White Paper 2015-14 ‘How to Build a Proper Project Schedule Hierarchy’ and White Paper 2015-18 ‘How to Produce an Adequate Integrated Project Schedule’). Unfortunately, they are often much too detailed which creates quality and accuracy issues (refer to White Paper 2012-28 “How too much Detailed Planning often Kills Project Success”).

The main purpose of the integrated project schedule is to coordinate the various contributors of the project. No other schedule can accomplish this. This implies a number of properties and characteristics that are described in detail in the White Paper.

The purpose of the integrated project schedule is to coordinate all project contributors. This purpose should not be overseen. As a consequence, it should focus on interfaces between such contributors without delving much into each contributor detailed activities. This is really the differentiator with any other schedule used in the project hierarchy. This is worth remembering when setting it up, because this purpose will inform how it is setup and coded. Read our new White Paper 2022-04 ‘How the essential purpose of the Integrated Project Schedule Purpose is to Coordinate Project Contributors’

If you can’t access the link to the white paper, copy and paste the following link in your browser: https://www.projectvaluedelivery.com/_library/2022-04_integrated_schedule_contributor_mgt_v1.pdf