Schedules are not bolts from the blue

‘Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning’ - Winston Churchill

Schedule must illustrate the start and finish dates of the initiation elements and summary elements of a goal. Initiation elements and summary elements comprise the work breakdown structure of the each individual milestone. Use Schedules for all small and big milestone that fit on a single sheet. Every single project, plan, dream being put into execution is with the singular objective of achieving success. Everybody who ever initiated a plan based on a dream must have a schedule to see that they make progress and success of their venture. Everyone wants to win, to achieve and to succeed. However, people often underestimate the importance of effective sustainable scheduling while initiating a dream to reality. You must ensure and assess:

- How you estimated your dedication and commitment?

- How you ensured that no hidden task left out in the schedule?

- Any risk not scheduled?

- How you ensured all resources are capable?

- How you predicted quantity is as per scheduled delay?

- Have you scheduled the review mechanism and self assessment?

- Have you scheduled measurements and performance indicators?

- Have you scheduled plan B for all failures/ lapses? And finally

- Have you ensured the schedules and task are aligned to your dream?

Different people will have different perceptions of what successful planning and scheduling means. Plan with scheduling for execution is a process of deciding in advance where one wants to get to the chief strategic goal, which is a part and parcel of your dream. The XV Olympiad in CALGARY involved nearly 2000 athletes from 57 countries in 129 competitive events, attracted over 15,00,000 spectators, was covered by over 5000 journalists, and was run by a staff of 600 professionals complemented by 10,000 volunteers. For those 600 responsible for organizing, planning, scheduling, coordinating, and handling the information requirements for the 16 day extravaganza, the task was overwhelming. 

The top managers of the organizing committee thus turned to a Computer Based Project Planning and Scheduling (CBPPS) system for scheduling and managing the 30,000 tasks organized into 50 projects. The goal for the CALAGRY games was to provide the best games ever, but within the budget. The philosophy employed was to let each project manager plan their own project but meet firm completion dates and budget limits. [R G Holland, ‘The XV Olympic Winter Games: A case study in project management, PM network, Nov’1989]