It is quite amazing that in conventional project management practice, risk management is widely applied to cost (with allowances and contingency), but not so much to schedule. And this happens although for large, complex projects, schedule is the main driver of the project performance! In particular, appropriate convergence at the few critical points of the project play a crucial role. Why and how can we extend the concept of allowance and contingency in the field of schedule management? Discover this amazing topic in our new White Paper 2012-18 “How to Manage Allowances and Contingencies in Your Schedule”.

Schedule risk is generally considered activity by activity, and no buffer of “time pot” is actually created like it is when it comes to money. Why not use the same methods than the ones applied to cost: use activity floats and overall buffers as allowances and contingencies are used in cost?

This would avoid systematic padding of activity duration, as is commonly observed. Explicit activity floats and buffers would allow a healthy monitoring of the effective convergence and progress of the project toward the due date.

Our schedule management system in large, complex projects needs to be deeply overhauled to avoid having project managers constantly try to slow down the inevitable passing of time…

Instead of hanging on the clock trying to stop the catastrophe from happening, read our new White Paper 2012-18 “How to Manage Allowances and Contingencies in Your Schedule”!