Organizational plan. What is a project schedule? Drawing up a project implementation schedule

All processes, concepts or objects begin somewhere. This moment of beginning happened several days or years ago, and everything looked different - not like it does now. Looking, for example, at a car, we understand that at the very beginning it was not like this: first an idea appeared, then this idea was conveyed to other people, which caused discussion; Designers got involved in the work, the assembly process was launched, and much more.

The above is a minor example. But he explains the essence perfectly - everything has a beginning.

Project management is no exception. As a complex chain of tasks and processes, it also starts somewhere. This first step is project plan.

In this article, we will talk about the plan and the planning process, and also explain the points related to the question “How to create such a plan.” We have identified 7 steps.

What is a project plan?

You may have noticed that in addition to plan mentioned and The planning process. What's the difference between them? Everything is very simple.

Planning is a process, a discussion. During it, the scope of work, goals and ways necessary to achieve them are clarified.

A plan is an official document containing all planning decisions, approved volume, and costs. Its main functions are control, facilitating communication between participants and scheduling.

When creating a project plan, the manager should already have key knowledge and skills. This increases the chances of its successful implementation. In addition, a prepared plan will help you anticipate and avoid unnecessary mistakes and bad decisions, and will also help you save time and reduce costs.

Project Plan Goals

A well-prepared plan should answer the following questions.

Why?

The reasons why funds are allocated to the project must be clarified; what problem needs to be solved.

The question concerns the work that must be done to achieve the result and final goals.

Question about the people involved, their roles and responsibilities; about how they should be organized.

When?

This is about the schedule/duration of the project.

How to create a project plan?

Before starting to draft, the manager must be aware of the large number of questions that will arise throughout the project and the answers to them. Each question can be highlighted separately. But it is still better to identify common characteristic patterns and models. So, what does a manager need to do to draw up a project plan?

1. Communicate

The first step to success is to communicate with the team about goals, members, tasks, etc. The manager must know who is responsible for what task, the deadlines, and simply everything that happens in the project.

It is worth adding that communication is not only the first step. Communicating throughout the project is the key to success.

2. Identify participants and goals

Determining all project participants is sometimes difficult: there can be a lot of them. Moreover, they can directly or indirectly, to a greater or lesser extent, influence the project. That is why it is important to identify all those who directly influence the preparation of the plan and take their wishes seriously.

Who can be a participant in the project:

• Customer– the person who directly finances and approves the work;
• Project manager– a person involved in planning, followed by creation, execution and control of the project;
• The project team, which creates the final product. Team members are involved in many important processes, including development, quality assurance, design work, etc. Typically, they do not approve the project;
• End user;
• Other. This list can include a wide variety of people: risk analysts, procurement specialists, etc.

What can be done at this stage? Conduct interviews with key participants. This way you will understand what requirements are set and what goals should be achieved. The most effective way to achieve goals is the SMART goal setting technique.

Conducting interviews also allows the manager to understand what problem the project is solving and why it is being funded in the first place.

This is ours Why question.

3. Determine the entire scope of work

Undoubtedly the most important part of any planning. All the key points are highlighted and discussed here: rationale, product description, compliance criteria, goals and results, limitations, assumptions, cost estimate and some others. All project participants must come to full understanding and agreement at this stage. Once the discussion is over, everything important is recorded in a document that describes the content and scope of the project.

This stage also reduces the risks of misunderstandings that could lead to the scope of the project.

This is ours What question.

4. Define roles and responsibilities

One of the most important tasks of a manager is the distribution of tasks among team members. They must know their roles and responsibilities. And, of course, we should not forget that teams are formed units with a certain number of participants.

This is ours Who question.

5. Create a project schedule

This point is a direct continuation of the previous one. Once roles and responsibilities have been assigned, the next step is to set the duration of work for each resource with start/end dates.

This is ours When question.

At this same stage, the manager establishes key events, the critical path - in general, deals with the work schedule.

Which tool to choose for working with the project?

6. Visualize your project plan with a Gantt chart

Note that when some people talk about graphics, they mean the entire project. This is not entirely true. A visualized schedule is just part of the planning and plan itself. The entire project is a more complex structure.

Use GanttPRO - an online tool for . With its help, a manager can:

• Create and distribute tasks;
• Set their duration with start and end dates.
• Establish dependencies between tasks. The manager monitors all events and knows when a completed task gives rise to the next one;
• Monitor the progress of individual events and the project as a whole;
• Determine the resources needed to complete tasks;
• Set the cost of resources;
• Interact with team members and review all changes they have made;
• Keep track of key events;
• Visualize the critical path - the shortest period of time required to complete the project.

With GanttPRO Gantt charts it is easy to manage planning processes and create a project.

7. Manage risks

All stages of a project may be subject to risks. Therefore, managing them is one of the most important aspects in planning.

An experienced manager is able not only to assess and anticipate such situations, but also to create a plan with ways to solve them. The team, in turn, must also know how to respond to any changes.

What risks may arise?

• Optimistic expectations about time and costs;
• Poorly defined requirements and wishes;
• Poorly defined roles and responsibilities;
• Changes in requirements;
• New requirements;
• Budget cuts;
• Poor communication.

Let's summarize

There are no identical projects. One can be perfectly implemented without risks and postponed deadlines. Another may fail even if it has the same participants, costs, schedule and goals. Risks and changes in a project are inevitable. But still, a well-planned scope of work, schedule, assessed risks and excellent teamwork will help to facilitate the planning itself and draw up a plan. In this case, even difficult projects can be fun.

Do you have experience in project planning?

Planning is an integral component of project implementation. The key point in planning is the creation of a calendar plan or, as they sometimes say, a calendar schedule. A schedule plan helps you meet the requirements of project work and clearly understand what activities will be performed and for how long.

The article presents the parameters of the schedule, technologies and methods of creation, programs and project executors. A list of documents providing planning is provided.

To begin with, it is worth defining project scheduling. Scheduling is a combination of documented decisions that answer the questions: why, how, when and by whom the project will be implemented. The calendar plan is the result of planning, its material confirmation, presented in the form of a comprehensive diagram. The scheme is checked and approved by the company management.

When a calendar plan is created, mandatory and applied tasks are solved. During planning it is necessary:

1. Clarify the purpose and target audience of the project. Understand the details.
2. Explain details to the customer.
3. with those involved in the project and with the customer.
4. Determine the amount of work and its composition.
5. Attract and rationally distribute resources, both human and material and technical.
6. Create a budget.
7. Assign responsibility for implementing the plan and divide responsibilities.
8. Set deadlines for completing the project and individual plan items.

The schedule is presented either as a complex diagram or as a simple list of work and due dates.

For how the project is progressing, the project manager. He is also appointed as the manager according to the calendar plan. The manager is subordinate to performers who are responsible for individual items of the plan and provide reports on the work. If inconsistencies arise during work, the manager is obliged to find out their reasons and adjust the plan. To solve global planning problems, meetings are held at which the fate of individual stages and the entire project is decided.

All participants must be aware of the role they perform. They must be provided with the required documents, a workplace, high-quality tools and materials for carrying out activities.

Scheduling is used to organize activities and improve productivity. The plan helps you see an expanded and accurate project schedule.

Schedule Options

Main parameters of the calendar schedule:

• start and finish of work
• duration of work
• resource base

Start and finish of work. Early start – the official start of work. Late finish – the date on which the work is scheduled to be completed. In addition, there is an even later start and early finish. The period between the initial dates and the closing dates is called slack. Typically remains the same, so the time slack between early and late starts and early and late finishes will be the same.

Duration of work. Depends on the number of performers and their labor costs, the volume of work, customer requirements and other factors. Critical duration is the minimum within which the bulk of the work or even the entire project must be completed.

If we add up early start/late start and duration of work, we get early finish/late finish.

Resources. Resource constraints are taken into account when project development dates are set. After identifying the needs for all types of project work, the required amount of resources for each of them is calculated. Based on this, a graph of resource levels is constructed, the data of which is compared with the existing amount of resources. If the needs exceed the resource base, then it is possible to change the time in the calendar in order to cover them.

Basics of Creating a Schedule

In order to implement a calendar plan, you need to understand the methods and technology of its creation, as well as study the tools for convenient planning.

Technology

The project is a single whole. For convenience, it is divided into interconnected large blocks. These blocks are then broken down into smaller units and steps to simplify the project. This approach helps activities and avoids mistakes that can be overlooked if you do not start working comprehensively and in detail.

Project implementation stages are related to work parameters and include:

1. Compiling a list of works that need to be completed to implement the project.
2. Calculation of duration, sequence of work and degree of project implementation.
3. Identification of the availability of human, material, information and other resources.
4. Identifying external constraints. They can be seasonal, resource-based, time-related, etc. The main limitation is the deadline for completing the project.
5. Search for risks. There is a special formula for this: a risk (which is possible) may occur because (reason) it will lead to consequences.
6. Developing a plan to respond to risks and threats. This is done through response strategies. There are two of them: passive and active. The first involves the creation of a cash reserve for identified risks, and the second is aimed at minimizing risks by including new work in the plan.

It is important to remember that the schedule is a model for project implementation, which is implemented gradually. Work on a new stage begins only when the implementation of the previous one is completed. This model is not completely static because planning can be adjusted and revised.

Methods

Various methods are used to create different types of plans or to develop individual parts of a plan. Here are the most popular:

1. A Gantt chart is a bar graph created to illustrate a work schedule.
2. A network diagram is a comprehensive model for displaying the sequence of work of a project.
3. A volume-calendar schedule is a method that allows you to present the volume and quantity of work awaiting completion.
4. A cycle schedule is a method by which the duration of individual stages and the entire project is measured.

The method is chosen by the manager depending on the economic components. The stage of work, the resources available, etc. influence. These methods can also be used comprehensively, which allows for greater visibility and accuracy of the schedule.

All the methods presented above can be easily created in Microsoft Office, Excel, or other modern planner and organizer programs.

Schedulers

Planner programs will help to significantly simplify the preparation of a plan and the calculation of its parameters. They are effective and relatively easy to use. There are many of them on the electronic products market. Here are just a few:

The presented tools are used in management to create and implement projects. They are multitasking, functional, mobile and work on different platforms.

Regulatory base of the calendar schedule

The main document for planning is the schedule itself. With its help, all design processes are controlled. The schedule becomes the basis for the master plan. The master plan includes:

1. Schedules of individual parts of work. Every performer should have them on hand.
2. Work package schedules.
3. Reports on finances allocated for the implementation of the project.
4. Data on resource requirements.
5. Plan of organizational measures for the implementation of the project.
6. Acts on labor protection.
7. Reports on the consumption of resources and materials.
8. Progress reports provided by each employee.
9. Regulations on the use of equipment.
10. When creating certain types of projects, for example, safety documents are required.

A calendar plan is a great planning tool. Using graphic methods and modern programs in its compilation, you can achieve high efficiency. This is important when working on a project. In order for the activity to be regulated and not cause any complaints, all is necessary. Knowledge of the intricacies of planning management is a sign of quality management.

Write your question in the form below

The project implementation schedule is a necessary part of the business plan, showing the professionalism of the management team and its readiness to implement the project, allows you to control the most important work and key events of the project, anticipate possible failures and reduce risks.

The project implementation schedule indicates all stages of work from drawing up technical specifications to completion of its implementation (for the duration of the business plan). It is advisable to indicate the timing of the various stages in months from the beginning of the first month of the project. Of particular importance is the objectively established duration of each work, as well as their relationship. It should be noted that the timing of various works depends on many reasons, among which are the following:

• own time required to perform specific work;
• restrictions imposed by the requirements for the relationship of this work with the start or completion dates of other work on the project;
• objective restrictions not related to the project (climatic, seasonal, etc.)

One of the analytical tools for planning and scheduling is the critical path method (CPM). The MCP helps the manager see how the project can be completed in the shortest possible time. Let's look at the use of MCP using an example. Let's assume you are planning to open a production facility and the main tasks of this project are shown in Table. 8.1:

In addition to defining tasks, it is necessary to arrange them in order, to determine which tasks are preceding and which are subsequent. You also need to calculate how much time each task will require.

The first step when using the critical path method is to visually display the problem in the form of a diagram. This diagram allows you to see all the relationships between the tasks of the project and determine which operations can be parallelized.

In the example under consideration, two independent directions can be distinguished (“equipment” and “product”), which are executed in parallel. The “equipment” direction (tasks A, B, C, E) includes preparing space for production and purchasing equipment. The “product” direction (tasks D, F, G) includes hiring a manager, personnel and developing technology.

To determine the critical path, task completion dates are added to the diagram (Fig. 8.6).

Rice. 8.6.

The longest path in a project is called the critical path. In our example, this is the path from point A to point I, which lasts 23 weeks. This means that the entire project can be completed in 23 weeks rather than the 41 weeks originally planned.

The Technology Assessment and Review Program (TERP) is a project management system that allows you to take into account optimistic (), pessimistic () and most probable () estimates of the timing of each task separately and the entire project as a whole.

The weighted average due date estimate () is calculated using the following formula:

Let's assume that the most likely time frame for solving the problem is 10 weeks, the pessimistic option is 14 weeks, and in accordance with the optimistic option, 8 weeks will be enough to solve the problem.

Using the POOT formula, we obtain the estimated time:

A decision tree allows you to graphically illustrate potential decisions and the possible consequences of those decisions. The decision tree is a visual aid in decision making. A decision tree allows you to visually consider different options and assess risk. Assessing possibilities forces you to think about what could actually happen. When considering opportunities, many tend to pay attention only to optimistic forecasts. The decision tree allows you to include a pessimistic assessment in the analysis. Like POOT, the decision tree includes an element of probability, offering three options for assessments: optimistic, pessimistic and realistic.

Consider an example: a company has two possible options for expanding its business. For each option, the expected profit over the next five years is calculated (Table 8.2).

The decision tree for our example would look like this:

the expected cost for option 1 will be given by

For option 2 -

As can be seen from the calculations, option 2 has a higher “expected cost”. Therefore it is preferable. In real life, of course, one cannot make the final choice only on the basis of decision tree analysis. Along with it, it is necessary to use other analysis tools. Software packages such as Microsoft Visio, Project Expert provide ample opportunities for creating project schedules and selecting the critical path.

Example 8.1. LLC "Inkomet"

Organizational plan.

Description of the team Director of the enterprise and leader of the entire complex of work on the creation of IP-4., graduated from MEPhI in 1960, candidate of physical and mathematical sciences, participated in the development of many physical experimental techniques, author of 80 articles and 2 inventions. Has experience in pairing IP-4 with existing rolling mill equipment and interacting with the relevant services of large rolling mills.

The chief engineer and one of the main participants in the development of the IP-4 graduated from the Kuibyshev Aviation Institute named after. Korolev, specialty "Design and development of radio equipment." Participated in the development and operation of computer automation systems for large physical installations, author of several articles and two inventions. Programmer, software developer IP-4 graduated from St. Petersburg Technical University in 1993. Participated in the development of many physical experimental techniques, author of a large software package for processing experimental information, author of 20 publications. One of the main participants in the development of IP-4.

Directions of development and work schedule Work completed during the first year of the Start program in 2004 – 2005. confirmed the correctness of the selected scientific and technical solutions and the prospects for introducing the IP-4 flatness meter into rolling production. Further work is planned in three main areas:

1. Continuation of IP-4 testing in order to demonstrate the capabilities of the device and its advantages over competitive technologies at the following metallurgical enterprises:
   • Kolchuginsky Non-Ferrous Metals Plant;
   • Gai Non-Ferrous Metals Plant;
   • Shchelkovo Aluminum Plant;
   • Sayanogorsk aluminum foil plant;
   • Samara Metallurgical Plant;
   • Novolipetsk Iron and Steel Works;
   • Belokolitvinsky Metallurgical Plant. Perhaps, depending on the specific situation, tests will be carried out at other plants.
2. Work to expand the areas of application of IP-4:
   • participation in the development of an automatic flatness control system based on IP-4 for cold rolling mills of OJSC NMLK;
   • participation in the development of an automatic flatness control system based on IP-4 for a 5-stand continuous rolling mill (JSC Severstal) together with ASK;
   • participation in the development of a flatness control line for certification of sheets made of titanium alloys on the VSMPO-AVISMA "2000 Flattening" mill;
   • participation in the development of a flatness measurement system based on IP-4 for a hot rolling mill for titanium alloy strips.
3. Work to improve the hardware and software complex IP-4:
   • development of a modification of IP-4 based on modern digital signal processors;
   • development of appropriate software for the modified hardware complex;
   • creation of a system for measuring and recording the temperature of the rolled strip and integrating it into the flatness control system and IP-4;
   • transition to using a new quality digital camera in the IP-4 device.

A more detailed plan for the implementation of the investment project for 2006 is given in Table. 8.3.

Plan for education, training and replacement of personnel The team of JSC Inkomet has the necessary qualifications and extensive experience for the commercialization of the project. However, the complexity of modern project management processes forces us to pay attention to training and retraining of personnel. To solve emerging problems on the project, it is necessary to obtain new knowledge in the following areas:

• development of a competent strategy for the protection of intellectual property and patenting;
• training in developments based on digital signal processors;
• management of innovative projects, attraction of investments;
• development of marketing activities and sales support;
• enterprise management, optimization of business processes.
• Marketing Manager.

Advanced training in engineering and technical areas - during the period from 2006 to 2007, it is planned to train from 4 to 8 employees; with a total number of employees of at least 14 people, 57% will undergo training. The planned training period is at least one employee every 6 months.

Areas of advanced training:

• training in new developments based on digital signal processors from Texas Instrument;
• digital signal processing;

List of specialties for advanced training:

• CEO;
• Chief Engineer;
• installation engineer;
• software engineer;
• electronics engineer.

In 2006, the company will employ 12 people. In 2007, it is planned to attract 2 specialists.

It is planned to search and hire additional workers to perform specific tasks.

The main mechanism for recruiting personnel is determining the requirements for the candidate and announcing a competition to fill the vacancy.

When planning the implementation of any task, the traditional questions are: “What to do?”, “When?”, “Who?”, “What are the results?” And since a project event includes a whole set of actions, the group of documents of the master plan must necessarily contain a project schedule, which is also called a project schedule or calendar plan. In this article we will look at the preparation steps and options for visual presentation of this document.

Reflection of the project content in the schedule

We discussed the stages of developing a calendar plan in the material dedicated to. The quality of creating a schedule depends on the manager’s fulfillment of a number of mandatory procedures, among which taking into account the main restrictions (on content, time and resources) occupies a central place. The first step on this path is planning the content of the project as a certain set of services and products on the subject of the task. The content of the project is a fairly capacious concept that includes:

• a descriptive part justifying the reasons for launching the event, as well as the opportunities it brings;
• goals and results of tasks at different levels of decomposition of the main result-product;
• identified connections between the project and the company’s development strategy;
• a variety of approaches to solving a unique design problem;
• the project boundaries within which the PM's product, authority, and responsibilities arise;
• event product;
• basic requirements for the product and its parameters;
• all kinds of assumptions and assumptions regarding the conditions of the project;
• identified limitations;
• performance criteria.

In this list, we will be interested, first of all, in planning the scope of work, for each of which results are established, responsible resources for the corresponding tasks and deadlines. In other words, the entire sequence of tasks translated into the format of work leading to the result of the project must be summarized in a table or graph of a certain form, including the named parameters of the task nature.

You and I know from the articles on our site that tasks are the essence of results as certain points in the future in the interpretation: achieved or not achieved. For tasks, the moment at which actions begin is not important, but the timing of their final solution is important. Tasks are a static category, but we transfer them to a dynamic state of work, i.e. actions that have a beginning, an end, responsible persons and results. Let us recall the visual image of the procedural model of planning execution and determine the place in it of the development of the calendar plan.

The conditions for the implementation of the project are dictated by the content, the defined scope of work, the identified relationships between them, and the established duration of the operations. But that's not all. Management at the time of implementation of the schedule is carried out taking into account the identified, assessed risk and the developed project budget. Among the group of substantive processes for developing a calendar schedule, in addition to the composition of work, a number of other parameters are also important.

Clarification of work parameters

Determining the scope of work is carried out in order to obtain information about the entire range of works for the project. A set of complete data on the composition of planned operations is produced. Planning the structure and scope of work for a project is related to its goals. It is based on the goals and the tasks arising from them that the team leader determines the required scope of work and sequence of actions.

In this he is helped by the decomposition method, which cannot be called simple. The manager has to tune in in a special way, be disciplined, focused on the rules and criteria of division. As a result, an intermediate document appears - the WBS (an example of the hierarchical structure of work is given below).

Example of a functional partition type WBS

The next parameter of the work is the level of their interrelations. It also needs to be determined before the project schedule is formed. Planning work relationships has the goal of establishing, coordinating and documenting the sequence of operations. To accomplish this task, logical and mathematical algorithms are used to construct a network model of the project. In this case, mutual connections are taken into account not only between activities, but also between milestones. Other restrictions are also taken into account. The network diagram uses:

• special types of relationships between operations;
• critical path method;
• methods for calculating the duration of operations;
• network diagram optimization management.

Another parameter that precedes scheduling is the duration of the work. Solving the problem of the duration of operations serves as a clear understanding for the manager of what will make up the total duration of the investment event. Management of this temporary resource is subsequently based on the initial inventory of projected events and actions. Moreover, as we know, there can be an infinite number of models for solving any unique problem. It all depends on the creative message and past experience of the responsible resource, his ability to critically evaluate alternatives for achieving results and the associated risks. The key criteria, in addition to composition, sequence and relationships, are:

• duration of work;
• labor costs for performing operations.

Estimating duration and labor costs are also the responsibility of the PM. But under the conditions of task decomposition, the project manager as a director also has responsible resources in the form of team members and external contractors. Expert consultants are also involved in local decisions and bear slightly different responsibilities for the proposals and recommendations they put forward. Together, these participants must provide an estimate of the duration of the work and the required composition of labor resources. For the purposes of this article, we do not take into account a number of additional planning aspects. This refers to planning and assessing the cost of work, risk, and quality planning. They influence the project schedule indirectly, although they are no less important for the master plan than everything else.

The actual calendar plan

The project implementation schedule is developed with the aim of finalizing the estimated timing of the operations included in its composition and the total duration. In this case, final agreement with the participants and approval of the schedule document must be ensured. It is the operational mode of application of this document that determines the significance of its approval. The level of detail in the schedule should be sufficient, but not excessive. What does this mean?

A universal criterion for the depth of schedule development is the presence of a responsible resource for the result of a task allocated for independent work. If the person responsible for related operations remains the same, there is no point in further dividing the higher-level work. But if the results of actions from one responsible person are transferred to another, then the process of dividing the work is not yet completed.

If all previous documents (milestone plans, WBS, network models, etc.) were of a preparatory nature, then the calendar plan is a direct document of execution and control. It is not for nothing that plan-fact analysis, monitoring and control of the progress of work are carried out on a regular basis precisely on the basis of the schedule. The schedule performs a number of functions:

• an administrative document prescribing the implementation of specific actions;
• monitoring resource;
• document for control activities;
• document-basis for making a decision to change project plans.

Above is an example of a project schedule made in the standard Microsoft Project application, which has a dual view: tables and Gantt charts. Work progress can be managed based on schedules of various visual representations. Among these types, the following stand out.

1. Tabular form.
2. Strip chart.
3. Gantt (or Gantt) chart.
4. Diagram of milestones (graph by milestones).
5. Network diagram taking into account the time scale.

Finally, we will look at another example of a schedule in the form of a table. This is the most common and working type of schedule design. The tabular form includes the main parameters of the work: content of operations, start and end dates, responsible persons, expected results, completion mark. Project planning management does not end with the schedule. There are several iterations of adjusting the budget and the schedule dependent on it. An organizational structure is developed, risks are assessed, deliveries and quality are planned. And only after this the plan is compiled into a consolidated document.

Example of a tabular form of a project schedule

In this article, we examined the issue of preparing a project schedule and its place in the overall system of planning processes. In small projects, it happens that the entire planning complex is limited only by the schedule and budget, but if the event is large-scale and significant, the algorithm becomes expanded into a number of successive stages. A project manager who is skilled in this work and is not afraid to experiment with ways to solve problems almost always finds options when the limitations are leveled and the expected result of the team’s actions occurs on time.