Project schedules,
how many have you created in your career? I can honestly say that I lost track
a while ago. I don’t even remember the first schedule I put together, nor the
first tool I used. I can say that over the expanse of my career, the tools have
improved in being able to create, maintain, and manage a schedule. I can also
say there is more information available on how to create a schedule. If those
things are true, that there is more information available and better tools,
then why is project scheduling and control such a challenge? Why have we been surprised
when a schedule we create in March is no longer accurate in October? What is it
that happens to derail our schedule, especially after we took the time, energy,
and effort to create a schedule that everyone agreed to and believed would
work? What are the factors that impact project schedules and how can we ensure
we have taken those factors into consideration? More importantly, have we taken
the time to view it from the top down (the forest) and the bottom up (the
trees)? Without zooming in and zooming out (trees and forest), opportunities to
make necessary adjustments to keep our projects on track can easily be missed. Learning
to work from a forest and trees perspective will serve us in our project
management. Below are the ways in which we can ensure we are looking at both.
Start at the
End
Being clear
about the end of the project and what it produces is essential for building the
plan on how to get there, and I don’t mean the narrow view, I mean the broad 360
view. Clients may ask for a high quality, quick delivery, and leading-edge functionality.
Users may ask for an easy to use and intuitive product. The organization may ask
to maintain the margin that was sold. The team members may want work-life
balance and engaging work. Having a clear vision of what is created by the
project, not just product it delivers, ensures a schedule is generated and
created from a zoom out perspective. Will it produce a long-term client
relationship or a once and done result? Will it strengthen employee retention or
cause higher turn-over? Will it allow for additional business for the company
or reduce its market penetration? Finding the balance or perhaps a way to
create a win for all involved is the challenge at hand. Each project has the
possibility to elevate or damage relationships while delivering the product
sold. Creating the schedule outline using the 360 vision is defining the
forest. Once created, gaining alignment allows all involved to have a stake in future
adjustments due to changing circumstances. Additionally, the 360 vision
provides the necessary components to the schedule outline while also providing stakeholder
priorities when changes to the schedule are required.
Be Curious
Building the
detail associated with the project, the bottom-up version, requires a great
deal of curiosity. This is where assumptions can be made without explicitly discussing
them. Hidden assumptions create instability in project schedules. Staying
curious ensures there is no question that isn’t asked and answered in a factual
manner. Uncovering the assumptions allows you to build contingency into the
schedule based on as many unknowns as possible and yes, you may not uncover
everything. The unknowns of a project are not known. Being clear about what is
known versus what is not known ensures everyone has the same information.
Preventing surprises is what is desired and staying curious provides the
foundation to continue to ask questions even when everyone seems to know the
answer. What I’ve experienced is that those who have experience can sometimes
fall into the trap of knowing the outcome, planning for that outcome, and
discovering they made some assumptions that were simply not true. Staying in a
place of not knowing is more productive than coming from a place of knowing the
answers.
Again and
Again
Once the
details have been added to the schedule, the impacts to the outline are
reviewed and the review and update process is underway. The top-down and
bottom-up are adjusted until the plan is agreed upon and, once agreed upon, a
snapshot is taken. The snapshot includes assumptions, decisions, agreements on scope,
and alignment on when the schedule will be revisited for revision to the
snapshot. The project manager then begins the review on a week over week basis.
Zooming in by adjusting tasks, reviewing resources, identifying impacts, and adjusting
the details as needed. Zooming out by reviewing the assumptions made, the scope
agreed to, and seeing what changes may be needed and when. Reviewing the 360
vision and the priorities of the stakeholders and coming back to those
agreements regularly. When circumstances change that require an adjustment to
the schedule which impacts the agreements reached, the project manager can work
with everyone involved to determine the appropriate course of action. An adjustment
to the schedule can be made without surprise and with alignment.
Summary
