Standardising Quality in Project Scheduling

Standardising Quality in Project Scheduling [P071]

Until recently scheduling was a ‘black art’ with only subjective opinions as to what constituted a ‘good schedule’; and any debate over schedule quality tended to be confused with arguments over personal preferences in tools and/or networking techniques. The publication by PMI of its ‘Practice Standard for Scheduling’ in May 2007 goes a long way towards resolving many of these issues. The Standard development team drew on expertise from around the world to deliver an authoritative document that defines ‘good scheduling practice’.

The definition of ‘good practise’ as set out in the Standard is based on the ‘Time Management’ processes from the PMBOK^® Guide 3rd Edition. Chapter 2 links the Practice Standard directly into the PMBOK processes. This starting point is expanded in Chapter 3 to offer guidance on ‘generally accepted good practices’ for the development of an effective schedule for a project; including:
•    The purpose of the schedule model
•    Designing the schedule model and
•    Elements of developing a good schedule.

The Standard is not a text book on scheduling but does lay out the principles that underpin the development and maintenance of an effective project schedule.

From a quality perspective, the list of ‘Scheduling Components’ and the associated ‘Conformance Index’ provide a tool that for the first time allows the unambiguous assessment of the technical competence of any schedule. A ‘schedule component’ is a data element that should (or may) exist in a schedule model (eg ‘Activity Target Duration’). Each component is defined in terms of:
•    Its name
•    If the component is required for a minimally conforming schedule or optional
•    If the data is manually entered or calculated
•    The format of the data (text, numeric, date, etc)
•    The behaviour of the component (how it reacts or enables a reaction within the tool)
•    Good practice in the use of the component
•    Additional notes and associated components
•    A definition of the component

The conformance scoring system first checks to ensure all required components are present; then calculates a score based on the use of all components. Whilst this tool provides a very useful mechanism for measuring the technical competence of a schedule, it does not address the best practice guidelines outlined in Chapter 3, ie measuring the ‘effectiveness’ or ‘usefulness’ of the schedule. These subjective assessments are still to be developed.

Based on the Practice Standard, PMI have also announced the development of a new certification for schedulers. Details of the PMI scheduling credential are due out later this year and are likely to be of general application.

The Practice Standard for Scheduling is a major improvement on anything the scheduling profession has had to date but explicitly acknowledges this iteration focuses on technical conformance rather than the usefulness of the schedule. The challenge for the ‘Update project team’ will be to focus more on the subjective areas of relevance and usefulness. In the meantime, PMI’s College of Scheduling is working on the Scheduling Excellence Initiative which is currently focused on developing and publishing the Scheduling Enhancement Series – a multi-volume reference centre for scheduling concepts methodologies and best practices.

This paper provides a detailed review of the standard, its use as a conformance measurement tool and an outline of the PMI Scheduling Credential.

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