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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.

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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