Control may be primarily administrative, but you can see that the controller needs an effective understanding of technical alternatives and project goals.

Some large engineering organizations have special groups which support the projects with scheduling service. Perhaps they make up and even monitor PERT charts or similar devices. These groups, which range from the very helpful to the worse than useless, are usually made up of senior clerical personnel who have little technical background (although there are exceptions).

As long as project personnel recognize that all phases of control are their responsibility and an essential part of their own work, the scheduling group may render valuable assistance. On a large project a good scheduler can relieve the project engineer of much detail in setting up and charting schedules and budgets.

The engineers themselves will have to make estimates and furnish information to be included in schedules. A scheduler with experience on varied projects can help the engineers to make better estimates and to avoid overlooking certain essential activities in planning. But the scheduler cannot make the estimate. The engineers must make their own estimates.

Schedulers put things in standard forms specified by management. Sometimes they can help a project engineer monitor progress against the schedule and review it with management. On a large project (where computers are used to help schedule and monitor) schedulers will be familiar with the computer programs needed and can debug and run the programs.

On a small project...