9 Major Steps Are Required in Developing a Schedule

1. List task

List task means listing the tasks or task list which shows the individual activities that need
to be performed to complete work packages and respectively the overall project scope. In
the end, project schedule includes the ordered and organized project activities. Therefore,
task list is a critical input for develop schedule process.

For example: For a normal working person, task list will be as follows-

TIME TASK
4:30 am Wake up

4:45 am Exercise

5:00 am Bathing

5:30 am Dress Up

6:00 am Breakfast

6:30 am Office

1:30 pm Lunch

8:30 pm Dinner

2. Create the WBS

WBS stands for work breakdown structure. A work-breakdown structure in project
management and systems engineering is a deliverable-oriented breakdown of a project
into smaller components. WBS is a key project deliverable that organizes the team's
work into manageable parts.
 For Example: A WBS for building a house is shown below:

BUILDING A HOUSE

SITE PREPARATION BUYING RESOURCES CONSTRUCTION CLEANING DELIVERABLES

SITE COST PREDICTION FOUNDATION REMOVING RELEASING

CLEANING SCRAP THE PROJECT

BUYING
FENCING STRUCTURE
MATERIAL TEAM
DISSOLUTION

RECRUITING PAINTING
LABOUR

- Site preparation: It’ll all start with the site cleaning. The nearby area should be ready
for all upcoming activities. It will take some time. After that, we need to secure
fencing in order to carry out all the internal work.

- Buying resources: The next stage of our construction work breakdown structure
example includes cost prediction, purchasing the necessary materials and construction
equipment, and recruiting labour.

- Construction: This is one of the most important steps in the process of building the
house, as it relates to building a foundation and various structures. Painting works are
also included into this part of the WBS.

- Cleaning: After all construction work, we will need to remove scrap and unnecessary
building materials.

- Deliverable: Our work breakdown structure for construction project will end with the
release of the house and the dissolution of the team.
 3. Identify Milestones

Identifying milestones means marking up the changes or stages in a project development.

Milestones are powerful components in project management because they show key events
and map forward movement in your project plan.

For Example: Milestones of a project named building a house are discussed below:

MILESTONES
PROJECT APPROVAL 30 OCT 2022

PROJECT PLAN 5 NOV 2022

COMPLETION
APPROVAL OF PROJECT 30 NOV 2022
PLAN
SELECTION OF PROJECT 15 DEC 2022
TEAM
EXECUTION START 30 DEC 2022

4. Assign responsible people

It means assigning responsible people for the project development and each person will
have to perform their specific role and responsibility.

For Example: assigning different roles to different persons in a construction project:

NAME ROLE

MR. DAVID PROJECT MANAGER

MRS. JENNIFER PROJECT SPONSOR

MR. STEVE CONTRACTOR

MR. ALBERT SUPPLIER

MR. ROBERT BUILDER
 5. Develop Network Program

Network program is a distributed model of work to be completed in a project. Such a model

includes a hierarchy of interdependent work elements (processes, tasks, activities) sequenced
and prioritized to identify and define total effort of the project. Network program is usually
built and designed with help of hierarchical diagrams and charts (project network diagram).
Developing a network program is an essential step which is required in developing a
schedule. A temporary network program is shown below for example:

Network program for a project of building a house.

 START

PROJECT SITE PROJECT

APPROVAL PREPARATION MANAGER

BUYING BUYING RECRUITING

MATERIAL RESOURCES LABOUR

APPROVAL OF COSTRUCTION
CONTRACTOR
PROJECT

REMOVING CLEANING
SCRAP

RELEASING DELIVERABLES TEAM

THE PROJECT DISSOLUTION

6. Estimate task effort:

END
Estimating task efforts means estimating the efforts which are needed to perform in the
project development tasks. Different tasks in project development requires different efforts.

7. Estimate task duration and assign dates:

This leads to know the duration of different tasks and their execution dates in project
management. Estimate task duration is the technique for evaluating the number of work
periods required to finish individual activities with estimated resources. The key advantage of
this procedure is that it projects the amount of time that every task will take to complete,
which is a significant input to the development schedule process. Subsequently, as activity
resources are determined, the resources estimate the activity durations for project completion
timelines.

An example of Estimate task duration and assign dates is shown below:

TASK ESTIMATE ASSIGNED

DURATION DATES
PROJECT 15 OCT TO 30 OCT
APPROVAL 10 DAYS
1 NOV TO 1 JAN
CONSTRUCTION
60 DAYS

RESOURCES 15 DAYS 5 JAN TO 20 JAN

COLLECTION

CLEANING 5 DAYS 22 JAN TO 27 JAN

PAINTING 10 DAYS 30 JAN TO 9 FEB

FINAL TOUCH 3 DAYS 10 FEB TO 13 FEB

8. Review the schedule:

It is an important part of the project. It is essential to review the schedule to make sure that
our schedule is up to date and has no mistakes. To review the project schedule, we need to
make sure that:

- The content of the schedule is based on the project management plan.

- The project start date is correctly set.

- Sequence of tasks is logical and consistent.

- Critical tasks are outlined in the schedule.

- Milestones are defined and scheduled.

- The project completion date is acceptable.

9. Control the schedule:

Controlling Schedule is the project management activity in which progress on project

activities is compared against Schedule baseline to understand whether project is ahead of the
schedule or behind. Based on the deviation we can plan on corrective or preventive actions
and manage changes to baseline.
If our schedule has some mistakes then we need to follow the instructions to control the
schedule:
- Determine current status of project based on completed deliverables against planned
iteration.

- At the end of each iteration conduct retrospective review meetings to identify

improvement areas.

- Adjust project backlog based on outcome of retrospective review meetings.

- Find out variations.

Now, change the schedule accordingly.

For Example: A control schedule is shown below: