OVERVIEW

To schedule the workflow on a project, you need to do the following:

• Identify as many of the individual tasks as possible.

• Place them in a logical sequence.

• Identify the dependencies (i.e., tasks that depend on the completion of other tasks).

Only then should you start scheduling those tasks. The resulting workplan should include as many of the tasks as possible not only software development tasks but the production of related print, audio, and video materials as well. Content and software development processes are interdependent and must be coordinated.

Although you should attempt to make the initial workplan as accurate as possible, do not imagine that it will remain unchanged for long. Workplans are in a constant state of flux. Managing and updating the workplan to account for the reality of the project workflow is an ongoing task and arguably the main function of the project manager. Current, sometimes daily, events drive the workplan. Scheduling and planning a Web project can have the feel of building a bobsled run just downslope from a hurtling bobsled. Therefore, the team leader must have some measure of management control over the resources assigned to the project.

Scheduling addresses one of the three main project management factors (time) and depends on the other two factors (task and resources). If your access to personnel and equipment (resources) is restricted, you will lose opportunities to gain efficiencies. Without such actions, the project may miss its completion date. Likewise, if the task is overly ambitious, the only...