PROJECT MANAGEMENT: CREATING A CREDIBLE PROJECT PLAN

One of the most important and difficult phases of project management is planning. A well-executed project is only possible from a good plan. More concisely, good execution requires good planning.

What aspects should be considered in order to come up with a good plan? Start with the two major factors that affect planning: scope and resources.

Scope is one because it defines the quantity and type of work to be accomplished. Resources (or, specifically, resource availability) are the other because resources are finite and its availability needs to be scheduled.

A realistic time horizon is one indication of a credible plan. A credible project plan always has a realistic time horizon.

The general rule for developing a credible project schedule is the consistent match between a planned activity and the resources it needs.

The time horizon is the number of future time periods of a schedule. If a schedule extends for five months then the project’s time horizon is five months into the future.

Why is it important for the time horizon to be realistic?

Uncertainty is highest at the beginning of a project. The reliability of information decreases the further that plans that are based on that information extend into the future. It doesn’t make sense therefore to create a 12-month schedule (for example) if today’s information about resource availability or project requirements is unclear after five months.

Assume that a project has been planned out 12 months into the future. That means that the plan has a 12-month long time horizon. If a close examination determines that its assumptions become unstable after the fifth month, then that plan is credible only up to the fifth month. It may depict a 12-month time horizon but it only has a realistic 5-month time horizon.

What, then, makes a project schedule credible? It is a schedule that only contains activities that can be achieved with available resources. For example, if the development of a software module is the activity, then it means there are resources, e.g., developers, available for that activity.

The project schedule consolidates work requirements and resource availability. Any work activity (or task) in the schedule implies that its tasks are going to be satisfied by resources that are available during the task’s appearance in the schedule. A credible project plan fulfills that assumption. A questionable project plan does not.

It is not possible to create a stable schedule if the scope and resources are unknown or cannot be assessed with confidence. The realistic time horizon is that point in the future that assumptions about the project’s work requirements and availability of resources can be depended upon.

To summarize:

A project schedule includes activities that can be achieved with available resources. Any schedule implies that each task is going to be satisfied by resources that are available during that specific tasks’ appearance in the schedule.

The project’s time horizon is the number of future time periods of that project’s schedule. For example, a schedule that projects 12 months into the future is said to have a 12-month time horizon.

A credible schedule is careful to include only those tasks that have a high probability of being satisfied by resources during the appearance of those tasks in the schedule.

A dubious schedule is one that extends into the future without that high probability of realism. For example, a schedule that projects 12 months into the future but has only stable assumptions up to the fifth months only has a realistic 5-month time horizon. The remaining seven months are dubious and unreliable.