Schedule

0:00Sara: Welcome to Project Management Exam Prep.

0:03This episode is about the schedule: what happens when, and what to do when the plan

0:07is too long. Every project management exam tests it.

0:12Leo: You will learn how the three bodies frame it, how activities become a schedule,

0:17how to set milestones, and how to shorten a plan.

0:20We finish with a drill, so keep a pen ready.

0:23Sara: Let us start with the three lenses. What does IPMA® say?

0:28Leo: IPMA®, the International Project Management Association, sets out its standard in

0:33the Individual Competence Baseline, the ICB4.

0:37Its element on this topic is called time.

0:40It asks you to turn work packages into activities, choose stages that fit the uncertainty,

0:45and build, watch and adjust the schedule.

0:49Sara: And PMI®?

0:50Leo: PMI®, the Project Management Institute, publishes the PMBOK® Guide,

0:54its guide to the project management body of knowledge.

0:58The eighth edition has a schedule performance domain.

1:02The outline of PMI®'s Project Management Professional exam, the PMP®,

1:06asks you to plan and manage the schedule: fit it to the delivery approach,

1:11baseline it, and analyse variation.

1:14Sara: And APM?

1:16Leo: APM, the Association for Project Management, publishes the APM Body of Knowledge.

1:21Its section on schedule management runs from a plan on a page to a detailed control

1:27schedule. The syllabus of APM's Project Management Qualification,

1:32the PMQ, asks how links to business as usual affect the schedule,

1:36and why you re-estimate and optimise it.

1:39Sara: Where do the words differ?

1:41Leo: In three places. First, hard and soft links.

1:45PMI® says mandatory and discretionary. APM says logical and preferential,

1:50and adds resource dependencies: two activities that need the same person.

1:55Sara: Second?

1:57Leo: Shortening the plan. PMI® calls it schedule compression, by crashing or fast-tracking.

2:03The ICB4 names crashing. APM's PMQ speaks of schedule optimisation.

2:10Sara: And third?

2:12Leo: The approved schedule. PMI® calls it the schedule baseline.

2:16For APM, it is part of the deployment baseline, the integrated plan agreed before

2:21the work is delivered. The ICB4 says baseline.

2:25Sara: What is the core, whichever exam you take?

2:29Leo: Three ideas. One: activities come from the work packages.

2:34Each work package becomes a few activities, each with an end and an owner.

2:39You estimate each one's effort, duration and people; the episode on estimation covers

2:44the methods.

2:45Sara: Two?

2:46Leo: Activities depend on each other. The usual link is finish-to-start:

2:51training starts when testing ends. Start-to-start lets two activities start together,

2:57and finish-to-finish makes them end together.

3:00Start-to-finish is rare: the old system stops only after the new one starts.

3:06Some links are hard, set by the work, the law or a contract.

3:10Only soft links can change.

3:12Sara: And three?

3:14Leo: The schedule puts it all in time. Link the activities in a network and add the durations.

3:20The longest chain is the critical path.

3:22It sets the earliest finish, so a delay on it moves the end date.

3:27Other activities have float, some room to slip.

3:30Show the result as a Gantt chart, bars on a timeline, and agree it as the baseline.

3:36The calculation has its own episode: Critical path and resource levelling.

3:41Sara: Does that change in agile work?

3:43Leo: Yes. The team works in timeboxes, fixed periods of often two weeks,

3:48and the scope flexes. A release plan groups the timeboxes, often over three to six

3:53months, and shows which features each should deliver.

3:57A hybrid keeps fixed milestones on top, with timeboxes inside.

4:01Sara: Now the models. Both model sheets are free in the description.

4:05What is a milestone?

4:08Leo: A key point or event in the project. PMI®'s guide gives it zero duration,

4:13and APM ties it to accepting a deliverable.

4:16A milestone plan lists the few that matter, with dates, on one page for the sponsor

4:22and the steering group. Detailed schedules sit below it.

4:26Sara: Which milestones go on the page?

4:28Leo: Stage ends, big decisions, and dates you do not control, such as a legal deadline.

4:34Five to eight is enough. Our advice: name each one as a state,

4:39not an activity. Not 'test the system', but 'end-to-end test passed'.

4:45Give it a check, what must be true, and a person who decides that it is reached.

4:50Sara: Why a state?

4:52Leo: Because a state can be checked. An activity can be ninety percent done for weeks.

4:57Sara: And when the schedule is too long?

4:59Leo: First check the gap, and which date is really fixed.

5:04Then there are two classic ways to shorten a plan without cutting scope.

5:09The first is crashing: you add people, overtime or money to activities on the critical

5:14path.

5:15Sara: How do I choose where?

5:18Leo: By the cost per day saved: what you pay extra, divided by the days you gain.

5:24Harold Kerzner, author of a standard project management textbook,

5:27sets the order. Only critical activities count, and the cheapest day comes first.

5:33After each step, check the paths again, because another chain can become critical.

5:39And crashing works only if more people really make the activity faster.

5:44Sara: And the second way?

5:46Leo: Fast-tracking. You overlap activities planned one after the other,

5:50such as training and the last test. It costs little money, but if the test changes

5:55the screens, some training is repeated.

5:58So overlap only soft links, and price the rework.

6:01Sara: Does compression fit agile work?

6:05Leo: Rarely. The timebox is fixed, so the team moves scope instead.

6:10In any approach, there is a third way: a smaller first release,

6:15or a later date, through change control.

6:18The sponsor decides.

6:20Sara: How does this change between Mid-level and Senior?

6:23Leo: First, the two levels. They are this series' own labels.

6:27Mid-level means leading moderately complex projects, the level of IPMA® Level C and

6:33PMI®'s PMP® exam. Senior means leading complex projects and people,

6:39the level of IPMA® Level B and of APM's chartered status, Chartered Project Professional.

6:46At Mid-level, you build and keep one schedule.

6:50Take Parking Permits Online, a city project that moves resident parking permits

6:54online in eight months. The project manager, Anna, gives the steering group five

7:00milestones on one page. Below them, one schedule holds the work,

7:05with the supplier's two-week timeboxes inside.

7:08Sara: And at Senior level?

7:10Leo: You design how others plan. Take One City Account, a thirty-month city project that

7:16brings fourteen online services under one login, in three waves,

7:21led by Anna some years later. The steering board sees one milestone plan,

7:27with dates the city does not control. The national login service takes changes only

7:32once a quarter, and the council election falls in month twenty.

7:36Wave teams plan in timeboxes, and a master schedule joins their plans.

7:42And only the board may move a baseline milestone.

7:46Sara: So Senior is about the system: who decides, and which dates are fixed.

7:52Sara: Now the drill. A city team is moving resident parking permits online,

7:57and go-live must come before January, when most residents renew.

8:01Six weeks before go-live, the forecast is five working days late.

8:06Testing, then training, are on the critical path.

8:10Two extra testers would save three days, for nine thousand euros.

8:15Extra trainers would save two days, for four thousand.

8:18Or training could overlap the last test, saving three days at no cost,

8:24but screens may still change. What do you recommend?

8:28Leo: Pause and write your answer. You have forty-five seconds.

9:16Sara: First, the numbers.

9:18Leo: Divide each extra cost by the days it saves.

9:22Testing costs three thousand a day, and training two thousand.

9:27So crash training first, then testing: five days for thirteen thousand euros.

9:33The overlap saves the same three days as the testers, at no cost.

9:37So it pays only if the expected cost of repeating training is below nine thousand.

9:43Then choose, and say why. For example, crash both, paid from the contingency if

9:48your limit allows, because repeating training weeks before January is the bigger

9:52risk. Recheck the paths after each step.

9:56Keep a fallback: residents can still renew at the service desk.

10:00And tell the steering group this week.

10:02Sara: What lifts that to Senior?

10:05Leo: The date has no tolerance, so the choice is about risk, and the steering group makes

10:09it. Offer three levers: money, overlap, or scope, such as business permits going

10:16live after January. Ask why it slipped: other estimates may be low too.

10:22Watch service-desk staff, who learn the new system while running the daily service.

10:27And ask for a time buffer before go-live in the new baseline.

10:30Sara: How do the exams ask this?

10:37Leo: IPMA®'s written exam asks for open answers; at Level B it may be oral.

10:43IPMA®'s certification also includes an interview, where assessors ask about your

10:48own projects, so note one schedule you shortened.

10:52The PMP® exam uses scenarios, and questions built on a case study or a chart:

10:57practise reading a Gantt chart. APM's PMQ asks for short written answers,

11:04such as why you re-estimate a schedule.

11:07Sara: Let us recap.

11:09Leo: One. Activities come from the work packages, each with an estimate.

11:13Sara: Two. Links come in four kinds. Only soft links can change.

11:19Leo: Three. The critical path sets the finish.

11:22Milestones are states, with a check and a decider.

11:25Sara: Four. To shorten a plan, crash the cheapest critical day first,

11:30or overlap soft links and price the rework.

11:33Leo: And five. In agile work, timeboxes fix the time, and a release plan shows what each

11:40delivers.

11:41Sara: The model sheets and the study handout are linked in the description.

11:45Next time: cost, budget and finance.