6.7 Control Schedule
Process Definition
Schedule control involves monitoring the progress of schedule execution to ensure the baseline plan is being adhered to. The project manager must determine the current status of scheduled activities, manage resources and stakeholders to bring variances into conformance, when possible, and implementing integrated project changes when necessary.Process Assessment
Poor schedule control is one of the most commons facing project managers. The schedule should be reviewed at least weekly, if not daily, for variance identification. Once a schedule begin to slip, it is very difficult to recover lost time. It is helpful to have a Monte Carlo assessment done and use the resulting tornado diagram to identify the high risk activities as early as possible. Appropriate attention and resources can then be applied to those high risk activities as early as possible in order to avoid schedule problems down the road.
Figure 40. Control Schedule: Inputs, Tools and Techniques, and Outputs. Reprinted from "A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide), 5th Edition" by Project Management Institute, 2013, p. 185. Copyright 2013 by Project Management Institute, Inc. Reprinted without permission.
- Work Performance Information: This artifact is a project schedule that has been updated to show percent complete of individual activities, summary activities and level 2 WBS elements. The updated schedule is work performance information, an output of the "Control Schedule" process.
- Schedule Forecasts: Homework problem from PMGT 614 to identify schedule variances through earned value calculations, and calculate updated schedule forecasts, an output of the "Control Schedule" process.
- Nightingale Homework on Schedule Crashing: This homework assignment shows an example of schedule "crashing" in order to meet a deadline. Crashing is an important tool and technique in time management monitoring and controlling.