"Scheduling" in Project Management

Creating a checklist (of tasks) & scheduling the actual work are two separate activities and require different effort & skills. One realizes the difference when he/she has to carry out both; scheduling is quite precise and requires you – as a scheduler – to align the schedule with availability of resources, hence, you have to maintain it constantly. The checklist, on the other hand, is merely a to-do list which you maintain to ensure what activities you have to perform in order to complete the job in hand.

Being able to create schedules, in itself, is a skill

Few days ago I was asked by a friend to assist him & his team in creating the schedule for some training. They were able to draft the plan (the list of activities) but were not sure how to schedule the resources. After providing the help they needed, I realized there are plenty of skills which, even though we have, we don’t consider valuable. However, as there are many who can’t do the same thing either at all or at the same level as you, they do value such skills.

Considering that the help I extended to my colleagues may also help someone else, I’m summarizing the steps of “Scheduling” work here on this wider forum and hope it could be of some use. Please leave your comments, should you have any.

Our scenario

The scenario we have here is of a training which has to be delivered at different locations and departments. We have 60 people to be trained who are spread over 4 different locations (A-D) and belong to 5 departments (A-E).

Checklist

If we have to create a checklist of activities which are required to deliver a successful training, the list might include the following:

• Resources such as the equipment and environment, and
• Of course, the Trainer and the Trainees : )

Schedule

However, when it comes to making a schedule, there are plenty of things which, if completed in sequence, could lessen your burden of scheduling the work.

The Steps: Scheduling

Here are the steps:

• Get the list of people who need to be trained with the departments and locations,
• Organize the information in a spreadsheet in a way that departments are listed in rows and locations in columns. Example is given below:

• Fill the cells with number of the trainees and add the numbers to get total per department and per location,
• Divide the number of trainees in proportion (to have an estimate how many people could be trained / department / location.

(info) This will give you an estimate of how many sessions have to be organized which you can use to set-up your training plan.

• Specify the sessions per location depending on the capacity of the venue. For instance, if each location has rooms with capacity of 12 people, you could probably arrange two sessions (for 19 people in location A in our example) splitting the trainees into 2 groups. Do the same exercise for each location.

(info) The step would help you in identifying how many sessions you’d need to run to deliver the training.

• Ask the trainer(s) how long it would take to deliver the instructions. The feedback would help you in 1) ensuring their availability and 2) planning & organizing the sessions. Let’s assume each session is an hour long and trainers are completely available.
• Now prepare another sheet (example given below) to list down the sessions per location. In the next columns specify the duration each session would take and put tentative dates for the sessions. If you like you can also mention the names of the trainees in another column.

• Now check the calendars of attendees and give them options to choose one. Probability is some will prefer one session while some other would like to attend in another time. You may adjust the names accordingly.

(info) In some cases, you may need to plan another date.

You can now

• Create a formal project plan and
• Communicate it to relevant people.

Use the plan to execute and monitor the progress of the training. To impart the training, invite trainees according to plan.

Should you like to create a project plan (in MS Project), its illustrated here. 

About

Faisal thinks, "if a task could be done effectively after investing some time in searching for better techniques, its worth even if it takes longer time". He believes, "the next attempt(s) could save time". 

Visit his professional profile at www.saphcm.net to know more about him and his services.