Project Scheduling Alternatives

By Robert E. Perrine

Abstract

The purpose for this ebook is to examine project scheduling alternatives and describe a tool that is useful when managing a project in a chaotic environment. Alternatives include the classic waterfall method, fast-tracking and cumulative flow diagrams. Arguments are then presented to explain why cumulative flow diagrams are an excellent choice for project management in a chaotic environment.

Key Words

Cumulative flow diagrams

Fast track

Information technology

Little’s Law

Project management

Project schedule

Team formation

Theory of constraints

Throughput accounting

Waterfall method

Outline

Problem Definition

IT has a hard time completing projects successfully – on time and on budget

Trace back to Fredrick Brooks – known problem for a long time

Possible Causes

Venture into the unknown

- “young” industry

- consider NASA Mercury, Gemini, Apollo launches – even younger

Lack of discipline

- many people know what to do, but cannot get it done

- implies specialization

Lack of specialization

- construction splits maint from projects

- 710 maint+repave+fire+bridge repairs

- maint+fire is incident, other problm+change

Real problem is using the wrong processes

- insanity doing same expecting different

- this is why outsource/offshore works at first = specialization + isolation

- this is why consultants can when employees fail - projectized

Three Schedules

Waterfall

- Waterfall with a project team

-- illustrate

- disadvantage is the risk of change

- static documents rot

- analogy – bake bread Mon, bag on Tue, ship on Wed – already stale

- compare to the 3 possible causes

- why is this unsatisfactory?

Fast Tracking

- illustrate

- faster overall delivery

- less spoilage in the documentation

-- significantly faster delivery of increments to customer

- back,bag + ship on Mon, then Tue, etc.

- objection – can’t build a freeway like that

- but in reality we do, just much longer timespans from dirt road to 10 lanes+HOV

- compare to the 3 possible causes

- why is this unsatisfactory?

By Module

- difficult to track schedule

- illustrate module schedule

-- need a different tool

- compare to the 3 possible causes

- why is this unsatisfactory?

Un-Scheduled but Managed

Define CFD

- illustrate CFD for modules

- quick explanation

- illustrate CFD for Waterfall

- explain the differences

- teach about CFD

- illustrate typical CFD

- illustrate plateau CFD

- illustrate bottleneck CFD

Explain how this allows us to toss out the previous assumptions

Supporting Theory

Management

- relies on theory of constraints

- eg the committee does 2 per week

- so everything else needs to keep up

- so that the constraint is the committee

- and not something else

- Little’s Law

People

- include Situational Management for Proj

- focus on team formation

- but using the Fifth Model

- grow crops instead of herding cats

- systems: amplify or dampen

Conclusion

Appendix

Walk through the steps to create one from scratch

Clone the Talbert spreadsheet

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