Sample Web-based Scheduler

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Construction Contract Claims, Changes & Dispute Resolution (Paperback), by Paul Levin

Product Details

Paperback: 255 pages
Publisher: American Society of Civil Engineers; 2 Sub edition (June 1998)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0784402760
ISBN-13: 978-0784402764
Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: No customer reviews yet. Be the first.
Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,319,885 in Books

Comment: This book has many good examples which can also be used in IT projects.

Schedule Template For Calculating PM Experience

This schedule template is created with Ms Project 2003. You can customize the projects in the file to reflect your project management experience. The tasks for Execution and Controlling are set to be fixed duration type. If needs be, you can set any task to be fixed duration and put in your involvement in hours. So, the total experience hours will be shown automatically. In addition, the Timescale is also set to show the total calendar months within your criteria (degree or non degree holder).

Fee free to download and customize the file for your submission.

Good luck and have fun!

Schedule Variance Report

In periodic project progress reporting, the client's project manager always wants to see the tracking of variance of the tasks in the schedule. This is to monitor the progress and to identify early indicator for problems.

Before we can show the variances, first we need to set the schedule baseline. The schedule baseline is the agreed benchmark between the client and the vendor. Usually, the first baseline is set upon completion of the project kick-off meeting.

After the detailed system study, there may be additional tasks to be included or some of the tasks may be moved under other summary task. Under this situation, a new schedule is needed. Therefore, a change request is needed to propose a new project schedule. The change request must have a supplementary information to show the variances.

We need to take a few things into consideration while we are preparing for the change request:

1. The changes in terms of total duration of the project as the major impact to the schedule.
2. The changes in terms of total duration by the major milestones.

If delay is involved, then for each change, we have to show the separation of the responsibilities between the client and the vendor. This is especially critical when penalty is one of the focus.

For example, the System Study task is delayed by 20 calendar days. Between these 20 days, 10 days are due to unavailability of the vendor's system analyst. Therefore, that is the vendor's respobility. Then for the other 10 days are due to the clarification activities after the analyst found some issues that are not mentioned during the initial proposal. So, the following is a simple workout:

System Study. Total Delay is 20 calendar days.

• Vendor's delay (not equitable delay) is 10 calendar days.
• Client's delay (equitable delay) is 10 calendar days.

I have created an Ms Excel file containing the separation of variances. I have also included the Ms. Project file containing the baseline and the current schedule in the zip file. Please feel free to comment or share with me how you handle this situation :)

R&D on Project Performance Tracking

I have created some files to demonstrate the project performance tracking by using Ms Project 2003 and Ms Excel 2003.

All the files are zipped. The Ms Powerpoint file contains the scenario and sequences of the demonstration.

Please feel free to test it out and let me know if you have any better ideas or ways in doing it. Let's share our problems and solutions :)

The following is the summary of the R&D:

I create two projects. Project A and B. The mission of both projects is to install 100 units of PCs within 8 days. For every 20 units of PCs intallation, we assume 20% completion of the project. So, the following is a summary of the plan:

Day 1 - 20 units, Day 2 - 20 units, Day 3 - 20 units, Day 7 - 20 units and Day 8 - 20 units. For

Project A, I allocate these individual units across one single task row while Project B I break down the milestones into 5 task rows.

Then I enter the actual value - the actual units of PCs installed on individual days. I enter 20 units for day 1 and 40 units on day 2. Now the problem comes: Project A doesn't reflect the correct % complete accordingly. So, it is better if we breakdown the milestones into individual task rows. Check the presentation file for details...

What is the major difference between Fixed Work task and Fixed Unit task?

Have you ever wonder what is the major difference betweent the two type of tasks? Here is a Powerpoint presentation to show the difference.

Here is a quick summary:


Examples of a Fixed Work Task

Based on normal situation, each clerk can prepare 1 document per hour. She can prepare 8 documents per day. If there are 4 persons to work on different documents, there will be a total of 32 documents to be prepared within 1 day. In this case, if our task is to process 32 documents, they can only be completed within 32 man-hours (fixed work effort needed). So, to complete this task, we can assign 4 clerks to prepare 8 documents in one day, or 2 clerks to prepare 16 documents in one day.


Examples of a Fixed Unit Task

If one clerk will only work 8 hours a day (assuming each resource is one unit. Each unit will contribute 8 hours per day), no matter how urgent is the work. If our task is to supply 2 clerks to process the documents for 2 days without considering the urgency of the documents, so for this task, each clerk will work 8 hours in one day and 16 hours in 2 days. Based on our statistics (or estimation), 16 documents should be produced for each clerk. So, we can process 32 documents within 2 days with 2 clerks assigned to the task.

Take back your control on the project schedule!!

Have you ever experience the "bad experience" about the Microsoft Project schedule when Ms Project try to be too "intelligent" by amending your duration when you add/reduce people to/from your tasks? Here are some tips to take back your control!

There is also another useful tutorial that drills down to the setting of the task properties.

Understanding Earned Value Basics

This file shows some examples in using Ms Project 2003 and Ms Excel to produce S-Curve chart based on the data collected from Earned Value Analysis.

Here is the link to the Ms Excel file that you can try out the concepts discussed in the presentation file.

The usual processes for setting up a realistic schedule

The usual processes for setting up a realistic schedule:

1. Invite the team to give input and create the WBS - if the riskassessment is performed at the same time is also possible.

2. Prepare the Network Diagram for the WBS

3. Perform risk assessment in order to find out more risks after thedependencies have been identified.

4. Update WBS and the network diagram

5. Assign resources to the work packages

6. Prepare draft schedule with resources availability

7. Perform resource leveling

8. Perform risk assessment in order to find out more risks after the resources have been considered

9. Get consensus and finalize the schedule

10. Finalize the baseline

Usually, for small project, the risk assessment is also informal and is done at the initial stage, which might be even before the schedule is developed.

But, to create an almost realistic schedule, the resource leveling (step 7) is important. But, be careful when you do this with any scheduling software.