The Naval Facilities Engineering Command’s (NAVFAC) Initial Project Schedule (IPS) checklist has a number of items to consider in relation to the NAVFAC IPS longest path. Scheduling guidelines are worth studying to increase ones knowledge of scheduling principles, which results in higher quality project schedules. Several notable rules in the NAVFAC IPS checklist were explained […]
Guidelines for Insertion of Schedule Constraints
Wide usage of schedule constraints is generally discouraged. But what are specific situations when schedule constraints should be avoided and others when constraints are suitable? Schedule constraints describe important dates in the life of the project that network logic alone does not capture. But constraints both hard and soft should be limited in the schedule, […]
5 Pitfalls of Managing Large Portfolios And How To Manage Them
Managing a large portfolio of projects and programs comes with its own challenges. PMO leaders working with large corporate portfolios face a number of pitfalls. This is especially where the project management maturity has grown over time and the portfolio has evolved and scaled almost organically. There comes a tipping point where it’s important to […]
A Brief Introduction to EVM
A Brief Introduction to EVM Earned Value Management is the key to unlocking the door to a plethora of project status metrics is earned value, which is a way of placing a value on the progress of work achieved. But how is earned value specified? Much in Earned Value Management (EVM) hinges on the monetized […]
WBS Schedule Pro Software and WBS Charts
It is possible to print a nice hierarchical Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) chart of your Microsoft Project schedule by using Critical Tools, Inc. WBS Schedule Pro software. The WBS is an important project management tool. The WBS is a hierarchical breakdown of all project deliverables. The WBS also displays the entire scope of the project. […]
How To Secure Team Support for EVM
EVM (Earned Value Management) is a tried-and-tested way of managing project performance. But it has a reputation for being difficult to implement and hard to manage. If you’ve made the decision to implement Earned Value Management for project monitoring in your business, you’ll need to overcome a degree of healthy skepticism from your project management […]
Milestone Types
Milestones appear as little black diamonds on the Gantt chart and like diamonds, milestones are multifaceted. You can use different milestone types to mark numerous types of events. Milestones are unique activities; they have no duration or resource assignments. Like other activities, however, they do have relationship assignments. But milestones primarily are markers placed at […]
Shading Non-Work Time in Primavera P6 EPPM
The Gantt chart is at the heart and center of Primavera P6. And setting the proper Gantt chart for shading non-work time is a fundamental but important step for communicating an accurate project schedule situation. Shading for non-work time is a basic Gantt chart function that has an impact on interpreting the schedule situation. And […]
Scope Management
The scope management process defines the work required for the project and makes sure that all that work, and only that work, is completed. Scope management is a very important project manager duty. Scope is one of the three in the triple constraint triangle: time, cost, and scope. Scope is closely associated with project quality. […]
5 Red Flags Every PMO Manager Should Watch For
5 Red Flags Every PMO Manager Should Watch For You run a great PMO. Your team are engaged and everything is going according to your three-year strategic plan. That’s wonderful – but it doesn’t mean you should get complacent. As with any business team (especially the ones not directly linked to revenue generation) it’s a […]