Schedule Management Plan
Schedule Management Plan
Schedule Management Plan
Purpose
The purpose of this document is to outline the reasoning and management plan for the schedule of
the Emerging and Disruptive Technology Assessment Symposium (EDTAS) on Space.
Scope
The content of this plan outlines the intent of the project schedule management system for the
EDTAS on space. It lays out roles and responsibilities, the process used to develop the schedule and
control and management measures.
Roles
Schedule Development.
The timings for the WBS have been developed with extensive engagement with stakeholders and a
combination of:
Expert judgment.
Initial estimations will be completed at the higher level by SMEs from within both Noetic and DST
Group. This will allow a strong initial basis to be refined in step two.
Bottom up estimating
Having received the initial estimates from the SME group the Solution Development team will refine
the schedule estimation based on their knowledge of the planned work, internal staffing and
engagement with the SDT servant leader.
Having received the completed estimates from the SDT and SME groups, and developed the WBS the
Project Manager will circulate the draft for comment and to build consensus. Having incorporated
any feedback received the final draft will form the baseline schedule. This baseline will be submitted
to the Chief Defence Scientist for Approval.
Schedule Maintenance.
The following measures will be used control the Schedule (PMBOK 6th Edition 2018)
Performance reviews
The project schedule contains the plan start and finish dates for each task, and these are
compared to the actual start and finish dates to determine what the variance is (if any). Often, earned
value information is presented at such reviews as evidence of how the project is progressing against
the schedule.
Schedule compression
Schedule compression means shorten the project schedule without modifying the project
scope. There are two other techniques that can be used for compressing the project schedule. They
are:
In crashing the schedule technique cost and schedule trade offs are analysed to decrease the
project duration with minimal additional cost. Many alternatives are analysed, including the
assignment of additional resources. Approving overtime pay for project resources is another example
of crashing.
Fast tracking
Fast tracking is used to decrease the project duration by performing project phases or some
schedule activities within a phase in parallel that would normally be performed in sequence. For
example, testing of a product can start when some of its components are finished, rather than waiting
for the whole product to be completed.
Applications such as Microsoft project can assist in storing and structuring information and will
allow swift calculations of alternatives or schedule possibilities.
Schedule Baseline
This contains the latest approved version of the project schedule and is used to compare your
planned progress with your actual progress.
Leads and lags can be applied during the development of project schedule. If you applied some
leads and lags during the activity sequencing process, it is time to consider whether you need to
adjust those. This adjustment might be necessary to create a realistic schedule.
These are used to adjust schedule due to demand and supply of resources. These include
resource levelling and resource smoothing.
Resource levelling
Resource levelling is not an independent schedule network analysis method. Resource leveling
is based on critical path method and critical chain method. The resource leveling technique is applied
to address the resource needs of activities that must be performed to meet specific delivery dates.
Resource leveling involves taking a part of the resources from one activity and assigning it to another.
This will change the activity durations and can also result in a change of critical paths.
Modelling Techniques
Modeling techniques are used to review various scenarios used in risk monitoring to bring
schedule model in alignment with project management plan and schedule baseline. What if scenario
analysis uses a technique called Monte Carlo analysis and is performed by computer using huge
numbers of simulated scheduling possibilities based on probable scenarios. The purpose of what-if
scenario analysis is to calculate the effects of a specific scenario on the schedule.