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06. Schedule Management

At a glance

  • Module: 06 of 13 · Part III — Planning Knowledge Areas
  • Sessions: S13–S14 (Week 7)
  • Level: Intermediate
  • Estimated time: ~6 hours
  • Prerequisites: Module 05

Overview

A schedule converts a scope into a sequence of work over time. It is also where most project pressure is felt: "can we do it faster?" is almost always really a question about the schedule.

This module covers how to define activities, work out which depend on which, find the sequence that determines the finish date, and understand what compressing a schedule actually costs.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this module you should be able to:

  1. Define activities from work packages and estimate their duration.
  2. Identify dependencies and distinguish mandatory, discretionary, and external ones.
  3. Build a network diagram and identify the critical path.
  4. Calculate total float and explain what it means for a task to have slack.
  5. Apply schedule compression techniques and explain their trade-offs.
  6. Recognise why a schedule is a model, not a promise.

Lesson plan

# Lesson Session Status
01 Activities, Dependencies, and Duration S13 Available
02 Gantt Charts, the Critical Path, and Float S14 Available

Activities and dependencies are covered in Lesson 1; the critical path, float, Gantt charts, and compression in Lesson 2.

Lab

Three labs build one schedule for the Admission Management System, and must be done in order:

  1. Lab 08 — Building a Project Schedule — activities, effort versus duration, capacity, and the working-day calendar.
  2. Lab 09 — Identifying Dependencies — classify dependencies and draw the network.
  3. Lab 10 — Creating a Gantt Chart — forward and backward passes, float, the critical path, and a Mermaid Gantt chart.

Lab 16 — Schedule Compression Trade-offs returns to this material once you can already find a critical path.

Case study

A case where a compressed schedule caused downstream quality problems is planned. See the Case Studies overview.

Self-assessment

A module quiz is planned. See the Self-Assessment overview.

Key terms

Activity · Dependency · Network diagram · Critical path · Float · Crashing · Fast-tracking · Milestone · Lead and lag — see the Glossary.