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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.
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
- Boston SPIN (Software Process Improvement Network) is a non-profit organization that holds meetings monthly to discuss software process improvement experiences and ideas.
- PMP Passport's article on Seven Tips on How to Build a Solid Schedule