All schedules come with risk, so learning to address some of the more common risks associated is an important step to their mitigation. Your scope may very well be attainable, but your schedule may transform your otherwise reasonable project into an inevitable failure. Sources of schedule risk include multiple critical paths, multiple predecessor dependencies, procrastinating […]
Microsoft Project and External Dependencies
In certain situations, you may want to connect two projects together. This requires using external dependencies. You may have two projects that affect one another. Instead of creating one master schedule you may want to keep the two projects separate and unique. But how do you model the interdependency between the two projects? This is […]
Schedule Risk and Path Convergence
Schedule Risk and Path Convergence Does your schedule include an activity that has numerous predecessors? If so, your schedule may require rescheduling to avoid excessive path convergence. An investigation of project risk should include a study on major path convergence junctures in the schedule. Convergence points are a source of significant schedule risk. They are […]
Late-Date Constraint Usage
Do you use late-date constraints? Activity constraints define important dates in the life of the project. But too many constraints make a schedule rigid and not dynamic. Most scheduling software provides the scheduler an assortment of constraints to further define a date’s importance. These dates are typically important milestones in the project including project reviews, […]
What Does A PMO Do?
A PMO is a Project Management Office. It’s a function within an organization that defines the standards for project management. And it can do a whole lot more than that too. The main purpose of a Project Management Office (PMO) is to make sure that projects and programs are run in a repeatable, standardized way. […]
Improper Milestones
Properly placed milestones can guide you through the schedule. But improper milestones may misrepresent the reality of your true schedule situation. Milestones are major markers in the schedule. They either tell you where you’ve been or where you are going. Milestones help to highlight the completion of a phase of work, submittal of deliverables, or […]
How To Ask for More PMO Funding
How to ask for more PMO funding We’ve written before about how to ask for more PMO staff to support your growing organization, but sometimes you need more than just bodies to deliver your strategy. Need More PMO Funding? In this article we’ll look at how to secure more PMO funding. It can be a […]
Guidelines for Dangling Logic
Guidelines for dangling logic. Most guidelines say all activities except the very first and very last activity should have both a predecessor and successor. But is this rule enough to ensure no dangling logic in the schedule? The scheduler’s intent is not to specify start and finish dates for each activity, perhaps, with constraints, but […]
How to Assign a Task Calendar in Microsoft Project
Microsoft Project assigns the project calendar to tasks by default. But it is possible to assign a unique task calendar to specific tasks. It is simplest to have one calendar assigned to all tasks in a schedule. This is why the default in Microsoft Project is to assign all tasks the project calendar. This makes […]
Scope Risk Analysis
When it comes to project management, beginning well is important and helps the project build momentum. Scope risk, however, may threaten the earliest stages of project work, when scope is defined. Project managers must key in on the triple constraint scope, schedule, and cost throughout the project lifecycle. Of the three, scope risk should be […]