One of the key skills of a Project Manager should be to be able to vet the quality of schedules produced by his team. In this new White Paper 2016-02 (checks on schedule source file) we give important clues that allow to quickly assess whether the technical quality of the schedule is sufficient. In this particular White Paper we discuss how to investigate further in the scheduling software itself. Refer to White Paper 2016-01 (checks on schedule print-out) for checks on the schedule print-outs.

Main check points include (for Integrated Project Schedules in Project execution phase):

• heuristics of the ratio number of links/number of activities
• removing open-ended tasks
• minimizing date constraints
• avoiding Start-to-Finish links

The White Paper also includes recommendations as to activity coding and how to run overall schedule checks in the scheduling software (in particular to check that there a no major constraints in the logic links).

We are always astonished to be called in to review Projects only to find out that they have, for starters, a poor schedule. Poor in the sense of poorly linked, not representative of the work to be done, or unhealthily unbalanced between the types of activities that have to be performed.

Setting up an adequate route map at the onset of the Project should be the utmost priority of the Project Manager. Unfortunately, this does not always happen, either because of work overload or of a lack of competency from the Project Manager. This new White Paper 2016-02 (checks on schedule source file) provides straightforward ways to challenge a schedule to get it improved to a point where it can be realistic and useful.

In all cases, before sailing away, make sure to have a proper map of the right quality in hand!