Project Scheduling
Managing a project is no easy task. A project is a series of tasks or jobs that are related to each other and directed toward a common goal or output. Projects usually require a significant time commitment, and tend to be handled by groups of workers. The employees at Craft Construction, a small business that deals with complete remodeling and some small commercial buildings, generally divide into groups of two or three workers per project. The number of employees assigned to a job usually depends on the size of the project. For each project, a project manager and a lead carpenter are assigned to handle most of the work. Project scheduling is different for every job. Smaller jobs require less planning because there is not as much that goes into them. Larger projects that may take months or years tend to be more involved, and therefore require more planning. These jobs tend to have more unseen problems which lead to rescheduling and incurring more costs. Mr. Kevin Hollmann, an employee of Craft, believes that the smaller projects are the ones where more money can be made. He said this because the time necessary for planning is much less and, overall, the time on the project is less, which keeps labor costs low. This allows for a bigger profit for the company.
Businesses that allow poorly planned projects to proceed are only wasting resources and placing their employees in danger. Projects can fail for a number of reasons, but the main one is insufficient planning. Planning is essential for project scheduling. It is believed that the process of planning is more important than the resulting plan. Projects involve coordinating resources such as labor, materials, equipment, and many other things, so that everything can be done at the proper time, allowing the task to be completed on time. Before any work can occur, and before any scheduling can occur, planning must be done. One tool that assists management in planning and budgeting is the work breakdown structure. This can be described as a hierarchy of tasks or jobs to be done. The work breakdown structure defines the scope of work, identifies what specific tasks need to be done, and assigns responsibility to individuals or subunits. The work breakdown structure facilitates the planning process, especially when dealing with larger jobs.
The project manager at Craft Construction is us...
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... better and more quickly adjust and possibly even prevent the problem from ever happening.
Project scheduling has many uses. It is not only a means to identify what needs to occur, but to provide input, feedback, direction and control. The success or failure of a company might often depend on project scheduling. Project management can only be successful with the full support of top management and all those who use the system. Without the proper support, not even the best system can succeed.
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Meredith, Jack R. Project Management: A Managerial Apl2roac . New York: Wiley, 1989
The book contains the most effective methods of completing a project within its budget, schedule, and the resource constraints. It briefly explains all the stage process of every major project goes through. From creating the plan to monitoring and evaluation, there is a lot for project managers and supervisors to learn.
Lewis, J. P. (2011). Project planning, scheduling, and control: A hands-on guide to bringing projects in on time and on budget (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Kerzner, H. (2013). Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling and Controlling. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Projects developed by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) go through a planning process that includes the determination of the project’s schedule. To determine the schedule, highway construction projects are divided into several activities and the time management of these activities will define the project’s duration. In order to improve the productivity and facilitate the execution of the project, an effective planning is needed. An organized Work Breakdown Structure can enhance the project duration. However, there are certain unexpected and unavoidable factors, which can delay the project’s termination: (1) Conflicting Weather Conditions (2) Temperature, (3) Project’s location, and (4) Workers’ shifts.
The importance of project management lies the foundation in successful completion of the project. There is a great difference between project management and the ordinary management, which is explained in the flow chart in figure 2.
Frame, J.D., Managing Projects in Organizations: How to Make the Best use of Time, Techniques and People, third ed., San Francisco: Jossey-Bass,112-117, 2003.
Gray, C., Larson, E. (2008). Project Management: The managerial Process. New York, NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc.
Kezner, H. Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling. 6th. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc, 1998. Print.
In every project there are always some universal characteristics that will be shared. They all have a comprehensible and established purpose and very distinct life durations. Overall, all projects are doing something that may possibly be new or yet a one time endeavor but have explicit requirements which include; time, price, and performan...
The projects in today’s world are given a lot of importance and it will continue to grow in the coming years. There are a lot of companies which do not have production, but all of them do have projects. There are a lot of books which have been published on which related to planning and managing the projects. The one of the most important one was published by the author Eli Goldratt in his book ‘Critical chain’. This book basically talks and shows how the application of theory of constraints in the field of project management. The novel is basically based on one of the MBA classes in America where a number of ideas are developed in discussions among the students and the lecturers. The lecturer is basically fighting for a tenure with the president of the university who expects a downturn in the executive MBA. The lecturer who teaches project management has a word with one the senior colleagues and project management was the right topic to teach. There were three students who were placed in the project management team of their company which manufactures electronic products. The students are enrolled in this MBA class along with other students, here they discover a new approach to project management which is known as the
Project Management Institute (PMI) (2013). Project Management Professional (PMP) Handbook. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.pmi.org/certification/~/media/pdf/certifications/pdc_pmphandbook.ashx. [Last Accessed 20 April 2014].
Project management is said to be completed within time when it completed within the “triple constraints”: cost, time and quality. And in a lot of causes, one them is sacrificed so as to meet the other two. Project managers prioritize which ones are the most important.
Time-phased project work is the basis for project cost control. Work package duration is used to develop the project network. Further, the time-phased budgets for work packages are timetabled to establish fiscal measures for each phase throughout the project. The time-phased budgets are to emulate the real cash needs of the budget, which will be used for project cost control. This information is useful to estimate cash outflows. The project manager's attention is on when the costs are to occur, when the budgeted cost is earned, and when the actual cost materializes. This information is made up to measure project schedule and cost variances (Gray & Larson, 2005). The following are typical types of costs found in a project:
This traditional project management tool can provide many key benefits for Sabre because they have recently relied on a large modelling software package to help their company make flight schedules more profitable. When the WBS is used accurately,
When planning a new project, how the project will be managed is one of the most important factors. The importance of a managers will determine the success of the project. The success of the project will be determined by how well it is managed. Project management is referred to as the discipline that entails the processes of carefully planning, organizing, controlling, and motivating the organization resources so as to foster and facilitate the achievement of specific established and desired goals and meet the specific criteria of success required in the organization (Larson, 2014). Over the course of this paper I will be discussing and analyzing the importance of project management.