Many moving parts make up a project. Schedule control is one of the methods for determining whether a project is behind or ahead of schedule.
When it comes to staying on track and meeting deadlines, project planning, scheduling, and control are all intertwined. Understanding what schedule control is and how to use it effectively can help you complete your next project on time and on budget.
What Is Schedule Control?
In project management, schedule control is used to keep track of your activities and tasks to ensure that everything is going according to plan. Of course, it’s about more than just keeping track of things. Controlling your project schedule also entails keeping your project processes up to date and managing change.
The most common method is to establish a baseline. A baseline is a forecast of how the project will progress. When you have a schedule baseline, you can compare your actual progress to the planned progress to see if you’re ahead of schedule or behind schedule.
Why Is Project Schedule Control Important?
Project schedule control is critical because it is used to track and manage the project’s progress. A project that is late is not considered a success. While there are many ways to assess a project’s success, sticking to the schedule is one of the most important.
Another important aspect of schedule control is that it manages your project stakeholders’ expectations. It keeps them up to date on changes and their implications for the project. It also informs stakeholders about how you plan to respond to issues in order to get the project back on track. This procedure is essential for keeping stakeholders informed and should be followed throughout the project’s life cycle .
To minimize the impact on your budget, project planning, scheduling, and control work in tandem. Financial stability is a benefit, as projects must deliver at a cost that has been approved by stakeholders. It also creates documentation that can be useful in the future when researching historical data for projects similar to the one you’re working on now.
5 Tips for Schedule Control when Planning & Scheduling
It’s critical, and you know how to plan for it, but what are some time management tips for planning and scheduling your project? Applying techniques to help you monitor and manage change is the best way to schedule control. Here are five:
- Performance Reviews: Use this to track, compare, and analyze your schedule’s performance. There are several options for selecting the performance you want to evaluate, including the work in progress’s actual start and finish dates, percent complete, and remaining duration.
- Critical Path Method: By analyzing the sequence of activities and determining which are essential and which can be skipped while still completing the project successfully, the critical path can help you predict how long the project will take.
- Monte Carlo Simulation: This technique allows you to calculate a defined distribution of total project costs and possible completion dates by quantifying the total cost of your project .
- Resource Histogram: This vertical bar chart can be used to display resource consumption and availability over time.
Variance Analysis: The variance is the difference between your project’s planned and actual schedule. This analysis aids in determining the source of the variation.
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