Project scheduling is where many accidental project managers go wrong. Smart, hard-working people are handed a project without the skills to run it, and an Excel spreadsheet becomes the schedule.

This 90-minute webinar, part of a series on project management for non-project managers, walks you through the scheduling process from start to finish in plain language. You'll go from creating the work breakdown structure (WBS) to defining authority over the schedule, setting dates, dependencies, resources and durations, and building a schedule that supports the project's objectives.

Schedule compression and optimization techniques are applied to worked examples, and the session closes with monitoring and controlling project performance.

WHY SHOULD YOU ATTEND?

Projects are one-time, complex efforts, and a well-built schedule is key to finishing on time and on budget. It lets you manage the trade-offs of the triple constraint (time, cost and quality/scope) and report performance against baselines throughout the project. Without one, project control breaks down and awkward conversations with stakeholders follow.

The session suits any cross-functional team member who may lead a project, including engineers, product, program and contract managers, R&D and manufacturing staff.

AREA COVERED

• Creating the schedule plan and the WBS
• Defining who has authority over the schedule
• Identifying start and end dates for activities and tasks
• Determining task dependencies
• Sequencing activities to create a project calendar
• Estimating resources and resource availability
• Determining activity and task durations
• Building the project schedule
• Schedule compression and optimization techniques
• Monitoring and control throughout the project life cycle

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Create a schedule plan starting from the WBS
• Assign authority over the project schedule
• Set dates, dependencies and the sequence of activities
• Estimate resources and task durations
• Apply schedule compression and optimization techniques
• Monitor and control performance against the schedule baseline

WHO WILL BENEFIT?

Any member of a cross-functional project team that has the potential opportunity to lead that project.

• Engineers
• Marketing Associates
• Product Managers
• Program Managers
• Contract Managers
• Project Managers
• Research & Development Associates, Managers, and Directors
• Design Engineers
• Manufacturing Managers