TABLE OF CONTENTS Scheduling of projects is considered one of the basic requirements of project planning. Over the past 50 years, scheduling has matured and the tools associated with scheduling have improved significantly. Scheduling tools are available to nearly all projects for developing time lines.
Through the use of automated tools, almost any project team member can accomplish scheduling. These schedules vary in sophistication and utility based on the understanding that the preparer has of scheduling practices. There is a tendency to either put too much in a schedule or too little. The right balance is often not known by the preparer.
Another challenge to proper scheduling is the definitions of terms used by different tool manufacturers for product differentiation. Some refer to the schedule as the project plan and others mix the terms for the lowest level of work in the schedule as task, activity, or work package. Standardization of the terms is needed to ensure consistent communication of the schedule components.
The key definitions used in scheduling include:
Task the lowest level of work in a project schedule.
Milestone the non-resource-consuming task that is used to signify a critical control point in the schedule. Milestones use neither time nor resources to be achieved.
Critical Path Method (CPM) a method of network scheduling that determines the longest time path through the project. The longest path is called the critical path and there may be more than one critical path. CPM, in its original form, depicted the...
