Project scheduling is concerned with the techniques that can be employed to manage the activities that need to be undertaken during the development of a project.

Scheduling is carried out in advance of the project commencing and involves:

• identifying the tasks that need to be carried out;

• estimating how long they will take;

• allocating resources (mainly personnel);

• scheduling when the tasks will occur.

Once the project is underway control needs to be exerted to ensure that the plan continues to represent the best prediction of what will occur in the future:

• based on what occurs during the development;

• often necessitates revision of the plan.

Effective project planning will help to ensure that the systems are delivered:

• within cost;

• within the time constraint;

• to a specific standard of quality.

Timeline charts/Work Breakdown Structure

Two project scheduling techniques will be presented, the Milestone Chart (or Gantt Chart) and the Activity Network.

Milestone Charts

Milestones mark significant events in the life of a project, usually critical activities which must be achieved on time to avoid delay in the project.

Milestones should be truly significant and be reasonable in terms of deadlines (avoid using intermediate stages).

Examples include:

• installation of equipment;

• completion of phases;

• file conversion;

• cutover to the new system

Gantt Charts

A Gantt chart is a horizontal bar or line chart which will commonly include the following features:

• activities identified on the left hand side;

• time scale is drawn on the top (or bottom) of the chart;

• a horizontal open oblong or a line is drawn against each activity indicating estimated duration;

• dependencies between activities are shown;

• at a review point the oblongs are shaded to represent the actual time spent (an alternative is to represent actual and estimated by 2 separate lines);

• a vertical cursor (such as a transparent ruler) placed at the review point makes it possible to establish activities which are behind or ahead of schedule.

Tracking the Schedule

Project schedule can be tracked with the help of Resource Histogram. This is a graphical tool that contains bar or chart representing number of resources (usually skilled staff) required over time for a project event (or phase). Resource Histogram is an effective tool for staff planning and coordination.