Schedule (project management)

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In project management, a schedule is a listing of a project's milestones, activities, and

deliverables, usually with intended start and finish dates. Those items are often estimated in
terms of resource allocation, budget and duration, linked by dependencies and scheduled events.
A schedule is commonly used in project planning and project portfolio management parts of
project management. Elements on a schedule may be closely related to the Work Breakdown
Structure (WBS) terminal elements, the Statement of work, or a Contract Data Requirements
List.

Why Control Changes?

Uncontrolled changes will create confusion, and confusion will erode commitment to the project.
Product quality, overall morale and general loss of interest will most likely take place when a
project manager cannot control changes to the project management plan. The project manager’s
upward spiral in career advancement may also be dampened when key stakeholders see ineptness
in managing project changes. If changes are not managed properly the project manager will
experience unacceptable schedule slips, significant cost overruns, and reduced product quality.

Typical Change Sources

Typical project change sources may be generated by any of the following:

 Late clarification of requirements

 Continual product feature enhancements
 Corrections to poor planning
 Things the customer forgot when planning
 Changes in corporate strategies
 Corrections to product design deficiencies
 Arrival of new technologies
Configuration Management

The process for reviewing all change requests, approving changes and managing changes to the
deliverables, organizational process assets, project documents and the project management plan
is called “Perform Integrated Change Control.” This is also sometimes called Configuration
Management.

Integrated Change Control

Integrated change control is usually comprised of three main elements. First is the project
baseline which is based on the project management plan. This is the project manager’s reference
point, much like a compass providing direction. Next is the change control board which reviews,
evaluates, and either approves or rejects proposed changes. Finally, the configuration status
accounting aspect, also called “change tracking,” processes any approved changes. If a change to
any portion of the project management plan is approved it is critical that all project members be
made aware of it. Since this can entail a significant amount of work some project managers will
appoint a configuration management specialist to process and track all approved changes

Change Control Board Members

Even though there may be those who regularly participate on the change control board project
managers should feel free to include others as needed. After all aspects of a proposed change are
discussed and evaluated the project manager ultimately makes the final decision. In some
projects the CCB is external to the project. Prudent project managers will include either the
customer or a marketing representative on the CCB so that the customer’s view of the potential
change is taken into account.
Typical CCB participants may include the following:

 Project manager
 Change originator
 Systems experts (systems engineers, chief architects, chief chemists, etc.)
 Those who will impacted by the change
 Configuration manager
  Others as needed

Change Assessment

When a proposed change is presented to the CCB the project manager will be faced with a series
of important questions needed to assess it. These may include the following:

 What are the benefits of the change?

 Does it satisfy a customer/user’s need in a better way?
 Will it impact any other activities?
 How will it affect the project’s cost?
 Will it require additional project funding?
 How will it affect the project’s schedule?
 Will it require an extension to the project completion date?
 How will it affect the product’s quality?
 Can it be deferred to the next product version?

Configuration Status Accounting

Once a proposed change has been reviewed by the CCB, and the project manager has decided to
accept the change, it must be disseminated to all project members. For example, if a change to
the project schedule has been approved the revised schedule must be announced and provided to
everyone on the project. Nothing is more confusing on a project than when multiple versions of a
given documents are inadvertently being followed. Configuration status accounting, or change
tracking can be very time consuming so some project managers will assign this task to a
configuration manager, or to the project coordinator.

This individual will record and document all approved changes to provide what is sometimes
called an audit trail. This may be needed if a question arises in the future about project changes.
The configuration manager will also post the change on the project’s Intranet so that it is
available to all, and make certain that everyone on the project becomes aware of the approved
change. If any contract fees are affected these are to be tracked as well.

Typical previously approved project documents that may fall under the jurisdiction under CCB
may include the following:

 Customer/user requirements
 Design disclosure documentation
 Engineering drawings
 Specifications
 Software architecture
 Product interfaces
 User interfaces
 Source code
 Final test plan
Change Control Process

The change control process begins with a change proposal conceived by project members,
project customers, or anyone external to the project. Some initial screening may be required to
ensure that all necessary information about the change is complete and ready to be presented to
the CCB. This eliminates many “false starts” in a CCB meeting.

Next, the CCB reviews the proposed change and the project manager either rejects or accepts it.
If it is deemed favorable to the project manager the impact of the change to the project budget
and the project schedule must be assessed. If the change can be absorbed within the existing
project budget, and it will not affect the project completion date, it is sometimes categorized as a
Class II change and does not require formal approval by the key stakeholders. However, if it will
impact the project budget, or the project completion date, it is often categorized as a Class I
change and requires approval by the key stakeholders.

If the key stakeholders approve the change then it implemented and the project management plan
is updated. As stated previously, the approved change is then disseminated to all project
participants. The figure below illustrates this change control process.

Integrated Change Control Flow Chart

MICHAEL D. TAYLOR, M.S. in systems management, B.S. in electrical engineering, has more
than 30 years of project, outsourcing, and engineering experience. He is principal of Systems
Management Services, and has conducted project management training at the University of
California, Santa Cruz Extension in their PPM Certificate program for over 13 years, and at
companies such as Sun Microsystems, GTE, Siemens, TRW, Loral, Santa Clara Valley Water
District, and Inprise. He also taught courses in the UCSC Extension Leadership and Management
Program (LAMP), and was a guest speaker at the 2001 Santa Cruz Technology Symposium. His
website is www.projectmgt.com.

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This entry was posted on Friday, December 18th, 2009 and is filed under Process of Change Control, Project Scope
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1 person has left a comment

Quite a good article, delves into the granular level to describe the need to control changes.

Adam
Projmenting Team
http://www.projmenting.com

Adam wrote on October 30, 2012 - 1:09 pm | Visit Link

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Control Schedule Process – using The PMBOK® Guide

To control schedule process helps your project:

 capture the current schedule status

 determine the variance from the schedule baseline
 understand the nature of the variance and its causes
 respond by taking appropriate action.

If changes are required to the schedule then they must go through the change control process, the
change should be re-evaluated and planned then used to update the schedule baseline.

Root causes that may give rise to variances include resources, scope creep and productivity. All
of these need to be managed by the control schedule process.

The control schedule process is part of the monitoring and controlling process group, and the key
principle here is that changes should not just by reacted to, but that the schedule should be
controlled proactively by the project manager by influencing changes before they affect the
project.

The control schedule process is keeping managing stakeholder expectations by advising when
work should be performed, the type of work, which team members will be carrying it out, and
`how long the work should take.
The control schedule advises stakeholders when project deliverables can be reviewed and when
the authorized product will be complete. The control schedule process is carried out throughout
the project after the schedule has been developed and continues until all schedule activities have
been completed.

There are four inputs to the control schedule process:

Project management plan.

There are two essential components of the project management plan that relates to the control
schedule process:

Schedule baseline. This contains the latest approved version of the project schedule and is used
to compare your planned progress with your actual progress.

Schedule management plan. This is a ‘How to’ document defining how the control schedule
will be managed and changed. The control schedule process, is used to process and manage such
changes.

The schedule management plan articulates be acceptable variances for schedule performance,
and will define the circumstances when schedule reserves may be used, variances to tasks both
on and off the critical path, and any particular processes or procedures that should be used to
update the plan.

Project schedule.

This is an obvious and major input to the control schedule process as it contains the day-to-day
schedule which is being used to track and monitor project work, hence providing resource
against which such results are managed and controlled.

Work performance information.

As the name suggests this gives information on how the work is being performed, which tasks
have been started, which have finished, and progress on tasks currently being worked on.

The work performance information provides valuable data against which schedule comparisons
can be made and also to help spot trends and react appropriately.

Organizational process assets.

The main goal here is to use any assets that helps the control schedule process to be effective and
may include aspects such as templates, policies and procedures that aid managing the project
schedule.

There are five outputs from the control schedule process:

Work performance measurements.

Such measurements are normally the earned value data that show both schedule variance and
schedule performance.

To this end, the updated schedule performance index (SPI) enter the schedule variance (SV) are
the major outputs although other schedule related calculations may also be included. The use of
earned value is an import part of the control schedule process. If you wish to get an overview of
Earned Value Analysis for the PMP Exam, then refer to refer to my YouTube video HERE

Organizational process assets updates.

This will include any lessons learned while using the control schedule process and will be based
on causes of schedule variances

Change requests.

These refer to preventative and corrective actions, either to realign schedule performance with
the baseline, or for change requests to the schedule itself within the control schedule process.

Project management plan updates.

Because of the interactive nature of the component parts of this plan, any changes to the schedule
while you are using control schedule, will likely impact the project scope and budget and hence
will be no need to be used to update the project management plan.

Such updates would be to the schedule baseline, the schedule management plan, and the cost
baseline, and are key outputs from the control schedule process.

Project document updates.

This includes any other documents (other than the project management plan) that relate to the
project schedule.

There are eight tools and techniques used within control schedule (and the reader is assumed
to have knowledge of aspects such as critical path analysis):

Variance analysis.

Put simply, this is to determine and understand the difference between what was scheduled and
what was executed, then use that day to determine if any corrective action is needed, and hence
control schedule

Variance analysis must determine the root cause of such variance as an aid to determine whether
corrective or preventative actions are needed or are possible.
Examples of root causes may include scope creep, inaccurate estimating, work efficiency and
resource availability. The information gleaned from variance analysis may be used and presented
at performance reviews.

Control schedule using Project management software.

This is normally used as a productivity aid as it simplifies the analysis as described above, as
these days, most projects use some form of project management software.

Performance reviews.

The project schedule contains the plan start and finish dates for each task, and these are
compared to the actual start and finish dates to determine what the variance is (if any). Often,
earned value information is presented at such reviews as evidence of how the project is
progressing against the schedule.

Resource leveling.

As the project progresses, and as a result of actual performance, is quite normal for the project
manager to reallocate resources or add them to existing or new tasks. The root cause of this may
be the result of requests for change to the schedule and hence control schedule.

The above will normally cause the resources to be leveled in order to control schedule.

Many of the scheduling techniques may need to be used here as part of

resource leveling including schedule compression, crashing, or fast-tracking.

What if scenario analysis.

This technique thinks through different scenarios that could affect the project and determining
what might happen to the schedule based on such scenarios. This technique is normally used in
parallel with resource leveling (particularly when using some form of project management
software) to determine the effect of moving or adding resources.
Schedule compression.

As mentioned above this will include techniques such as crashing and fast-tracking. The
objective here is to determine an approach either to reduce the plans duration or to accommodate
resource limitations for example.

Scheduling tool.

This may be exactly the same tool that was mentioned under the heading of project management
software, and is used to identify options in order to determine the preferred schedule and hence
perform control schedule.

For more information on passing your PMP® Exam go to my PMP Primer!

“PMI” and “PMP” are registered marks of Project Management Institute, Inc. – Hope you
enjoyed learning about the control schedule process!