1. Reschedule project delivery timeline [Time Implication]
2. Deploy additional resources [Resource Implication]
3. Change the scope of project [Scope Implication]
4. Enforce additional/ lesser Quality checks [Quality Implication]
As project team can manage timely completion of project activities based on project delivery schedule,
it is quite imperative to perform detailed estimation work on project schedule. To estimate delivery
timeline, generally, it involves performing following processes.
Five steps to create delivery schedule
2.1
Define Tasks/ Activities
Identification of individual & specific tasks to be performed to create the project deliverables
2.2
Tasks/ Activities Sequencing
It is to take care of identification & establishing relationships among the project activities e.g.
Product filling activity to start after package labelling activity.
2.3
Resources Requirement Estimation
This process carry out estimation of the type (skill set/ experience, etc.) and quantities of
material, people, equipment, etc. required to perform any given activity.
2.4 Task Durations Estimation
The process of approximating the number of work periods needed to complete individual
activities with estimated resources. One can arrive at these estimates based on either of
Expert’s judgement (consulting Subject Matter Expert)
Three Point Estimate (Most likely, Optimist, Less Likely)
Parametric Estimation (length & height of compound wall, number of lines of code)
Sometimes, it’s a good idea to add tolerance for duration of activity if you are unsure of exact
duration (e.g. 3 weeks +/- 2 days).
2.5 Schedule Development
This is a critical process wherein project planner analyses sequences of activities, for each
activity what are the: durations required, resource required, and constraints arising due to
scheduling. The outcome from this exercise is a project schedule. Once project schedule is
agreed by important stakeholders, it becomes a baseline for the given project.
Table 1: 5 steps to create project delivery schedule
These five steps will help us create project schedule and it would become a baseline for a given project.
The project schedule may change as project progress; this change can be attributed to change in scope,
deliverables, quality and risk aspects of the project.