08/11/23, 00:49 8 Essential Steps to Project Scheduling for Beginners

Project

How on Earth Will I Get This Done? The Basics

of Project Scheduling
16.10.2023

The role of project management often falls to people who did not set out to be project

managers. These people are hard-working, organized, and simply good at their jobs.

It’s sometimes quite a leap to go from scheduling your own work to scheduling everything for
an entire project, but it doesn’t have to be overwhelming to know about project
management and how the project schedule is done.

What is scheduling in project management?

As you might imagine, a project schedule contains more than your average weekly planner
notes. Project scheduling involves creating a document, these days usually a digital document,
that details the project timeline and the organizational resources required to complete each
task.

The project schedule must be accessible to every team member. Its purpose is to
communicate critical information to the team, so it must be comprehensive and easy to
understand.

How is project scheduling different from planning?

Quite often, these two terms are used interchangeably but they have different roles in the
successful completion of a project. On a higher level, the project plan is the master blueprint
while the project schedule details the specific tasks.

Project planning primarily involves selecting the appropriate policies, project

methodologies, and procedures required to deliver the project on time.

Project scheduling, on the other hand, converts the plans, scope, and cost into an
operational timeline.

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Why should I create a project schedule?

Project scheduling is important since it plays an effective role in project success. The following
are some of the advantages if you properly create your project schedule.

Project scheduling, when done well, makes the entire project run more smoothly.

Committing to the project scheduling process at the beginning of your project will give you
a clear picture of the requirements set before you.

It also gives you the chance to catch issues early and alert clients if a timeline isn’t feasible.

Besides being good for you as the project manager, project scheduling is good
for managing project teams.

Everyone knows what to expect and when. Everyone is being held accountable for the

same due dates.

Other managers can allocate resources efficiently for your project, and they’ll be able
to anticipate when resources will be available for other projects.

What are the steps in the project scheduling

process?
How do you create a project schedule? Well, the project scheduling process can be broken

down into eight manageable steps. Follow these and pretty soon you’ll be a scheduling pro.

1. Plan schedule management

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The groundwork for a good project schedule is to establish the procedures, company policies,

and documentation guidelines that will govern your project. The plan for schedule
management outlines resources available for the project and the contingencies that may arise.

It also lists project stakeholders, itemizes individuals who must approve the schedule, and lists
others who need to receive a copy.

This document also establishes who has the authority to make schedule changes, the process
team members should follow in order to request a change, and a project communication

plan to alert the team of changes made during the course of the project.

2. Define the project activities

This can be as simple as creating a list of tasks that must be completed in order to deliver your

project. In the case of complex projects, it may be helpful to organize these tasks in the form of
at, a chart visualizing project tasks and their sub-tasks and to stay organized at work.

One challenge in this part of the project scheduling process is knowing how to divide activities.

Consider the 8/80 rule, which states that a single activity should take between eight and eighty

work hours.

In team task management, tasks requiring fewer than eight hours could be grouped with others

and tasks over eighty hours are likely too cumbersome and should be broken down further.

Activities should also be measurable, easily estimated, and related to both a project
deliverable and a budgeted cost.

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3. Determine dependencies
Once you have all the project activities listed, think through each one carefully to identify which

tasks rely on others to be completed. If you’re building a house, for example, you can’t put the
roof on until the frame is completed. It’s important to correctly define all your project

dependencies so you can schedule accurately and avoid project delays.

You can use the best project management software to tackle project task dependencies by

engaging with stakeholders, brainstorming constraints related to dependencies.

4. Sequence activities

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After you’ve established dependencies among your activities, you can sequence them. At this
point, you aren’t assigning any time to your activities in terms of work hours or due dates.

Instead, you’re focusing on the order in which all project activities should be done so that the

most efficient flow is created.

5. Estimate resources
Each activity in your project will require resources in the form of personnel, subcontractor
costs, tools (physical and/or digital tools like software programs), and workspace. Make sure to

consider other resources that are specific to your industry or project. Estimate the resources

needed for each project activity.

Remember that resource allocation will affect your schedule; if the same team member is

responsible for multiple project tasks, they can’t be completed at the same time.

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6. Estimate durations
This step is pretty obvious but very important. How long will each project activity

take? Underestimating will, of course, put you behind schedule and ultimately frustrate your
customer.

Overestimating could leave team members or other resources sitting idle as they wait for
antecedent tasks to be completed. The best way to estimate duration is to use data from similar

previous jobs.

If you don’t have any data to work from and there’s no industry standard to which you can refer,

an estimate based on the average of the best, worst, and most likely scenarios.

7. Develop the project schedule

At this point, you should have all the information you need to develop your project schedule.
Taking into consideration the duration and resource requirements of each activity, as well as

their dependencies and proper sequence, you can assign start dates and due dates for each

activity.

There are multiple models and formulas for developing the project schedule, including critical

path, critical chain, and resource leveling among others. Each of those methods is worthy of an

article in itself, so we won’t cover them here. Take the time to find a method that works well for
you.
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For example, Don’t ignore the calendar! Check vacation requests from team members. Don’t

forget to include factors like national holidays, corporate functions, stakeholder events, and

other occasions that may affect your schedule. If the whole company shuts down for a holiday
week, you’ll need to add that time to your due dates and manage customer expectations

accordingly.

8. Monitor and control

Unlike the rest of the project scheduling steps, Step 8 is ongoing. As a project manager, you’ll

be monitoring and controlling your project schedule for the duration of the project. This step
involves running project reports and assessing the progress of a project against the schedule,

managing performance, and communicating with the team.

When schedule changes must be made, you ensure they are carried out and communicated

according to the plan laid out in Step 1. Throughout the project, you will ensure that each
activity is on schedule and determine whether corrective action needs to be taken if delays
occur.

Project scheduling techniques – 3 main types

There are several project scheduling techniques that can help you break down your project into
small, manageable tasks. Some of these techniques include

Task lists

Gantt charts and

Calendars

1. Task lists
This is the simplest scheduling technique and works for small projects without a lot of

interdependencies. However, for larger projects, it may not be the right choice as tracking the
progress can become a major challenge.

The task list contains the list of tasks and subtasks along with the team members assigned to do
them. An online project management software can come in handy when you’re using task lists.

Learn more: Workflow Scheduling vs Task Scheduling

2. Calendar
The calendar can be used to depict the project timelines of all the tasks throughout the course
of the project. It’s a decent approach to view overlaps between activities. But, this approach

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suffers from an inability to assign tasks and view dependencies.

3. Gantt charts
A Gantt chart is the most common tool used by project managers to visualize the timelines and

dependencies in a project. You can get a quick estimate of the time required to complete every
task.

The chart shows all the tasks, represented by bars, when they’re set to start and end, how long
each task will last, task dependencies, and where there are overlaps.

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Getting the right project scheduling software with

Kissflow Project
It’s important to have the best project management software to help you get organized and

stay that way. With Kissflow Project, you get a digital workspace that’s designed to give you and
your team the project scheduling tools you need to stay on schedule. Intuitive kanban boards
give everyone a helpful visual of project progress, and automated alerts keep everyone in the

loop on approaching deadlines.

Start using Kissflow Project for free and see how it can help you master the project scheduling

process.

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