The International Community for Project Managers (ICPM)

The Value of a Project Schedule: "Failing to plan means planning to fail".In my mind, that sums it up.  But this article will focus on providing some more detailed benefits.Contrary to what you might be thinking, this article is NOT some type of promotion for the use of Microsoft Project.  As a matter of fact, your schedule could be developed on a napkin, providing you (and your team) develop it, and manage with it!!

From a time management point of view, time control or project control is about the schedule baseline and any changes that might occur. The schedule baseline is the original, approved project schedule and becomes the standard used to measure schedule performance. Schedule control is concerned with:

The critical path is the longest path to completion in the network diagram. Activities on the critical path have no Slack or Float. The Project Time Management questions on the exam focus heavily on critical path method (CPM), and diagramming methods; the differences between these techniquees; and the appropriate circumstances for their use.

Duration includes the actual amount of time worked on an activity plus the elapsed time.

Effort is the number of workdays or work hours required to complete a task. Effort does not normally equal duration. People doing the work should help create estimates, and the PM should review them. Duration estimating is assessing the number of work periods (hours, days, weeks,) likely to be needed to complete each activity. Duration estimates always include some indication of the range of possible results, for example, 2 weeks + or – 2 days or 85% probability that the activity will take less than 3 weeks. Activity Duration Estimating: