Agenda

  1. Review of purpose and goals of Brown Bag sessions
  2. Review of ground rules
    1. No Interruptions
    2. Everyone Gets a Turn
    3. Come Prepared to Share
  3. Introductions
  4. Discussion -- Project Scheduling

Discussion

How do we come up with an initial schedule (and work estimates)?  How do changes in scope, resource availability, internal & external priorities, etc., affect the schedule?  How can those changes be managed to help ensure the project's success?

Best Practices from the Group

  • Start by putting a 'stake in the ground'.  It is often easier to make adjustments as you work through the project as long as you learn from the experience.
  • Know the skills needed for your project AND the skills of those assigned to your project
  • Communicate the schedule to stakeholders early and often
  • Take advantage of any high-level alliances that you may have to help influence the project team or the client with regard to scheduled dates
  • Educate the customer.  If they have a better understanding of what it takes to get things done, they may be more willing to accept the dates that you provide.
  • Add 'contingency' time to the schedule to allow for some slack.  This should be a separate line in the schedule and can be broken up project phase if necessary.  Do not pad the schedule estimates for indivitual work items to allow for contingency.

General Discussion Notes

  • Repetitive work is much easier to schedule (and predict) although there is always the chance of the unexpected (risk?) happening.
  • If it isn't possible to get a named resource committed to the project, make sure to get a contact person who can assign a resource as the project progresses and that resource is needed.
  • A challenge to creating a successful schedule is getting both the project team AND the client committed to scheduling discussions and to getting the work done down the road. 
  • Within IS&T, we have a tendency to over commit our staff, which leads to unrealistic timelines and schedule slips.  Interestingly, we have a very low tolerance for schedule slips

Reference Materials

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