Harvard Business Essentials Managing Projects Large and Small: The Fundamental Skills for Delivering on Budget and on Time

6

Scheduling the Work

Put the Horse Before the Cart

Key Topics Covered in This Chapter

• The steps of the scheduling process
• Checking for bottlenecks
• Using Gantt and PERT charts
• The critical path

SCHEDULES MATTER. Project managers use them as mechanisms to sequence and control activities. Executives use them as measures against which to appraise performance. Without them, projects might linger for month after month, consuming resources and missing opportunities.

This chapter introduces a practical process you can follow in creating a workable and realistic schedule for your project.That process has four steps:

1. Identify and define tasks and subtasks through the work breakdown structure method.
2. Examine the relationships between tasks.
3. Create ...