Project schedule Control: An important responsibility of the project manager

Project schedule control should be regarded as an important responsibility of the project manager. As the saying goes, "Time is money" is clearly evident here. Project management in fact, and from driving back to the new year is the same, in fact, according to the definition of the project, "from driving back to the new Year" is actually a project, but it is more fitting everyone's life, but also more likely to resonate, then we take it as an example to illustrate good.

If from the passenger's point of view, if a long time car, but we do not reach the desired destination, then we will have questions, generally will ask the driver "where", and if the driver's answer is not so satisfactory, then the question will accumulate. After accumulating to a certain extent, we will start to doubt whether the driver is lost, and if this question has not been answered, then we will eventually ask the driver to stop and ask for directions. If you take a taxi, you may get the passengers off the bus and move on.

The same is true in the course of the project, as the "invisible" nature of the software project makes the customer's psychology more fragile and unstable. If each project manager's progress is unverifiable, the customer's query accumulates and eventually becomes unbearable.

A person's completion of a thing will have their own "psychological expectations," the value will be with the person's understanding of the thing to adjust, and become more and more accurate. Passengers to the destination, if he is familiar with the route, will generally track some key landmarks and time correspondence. For example, from Nanshan Science Park to Shenzhen railway station, usually not more than 1 hours, driving a deep South, will certainly pass the window of the world, Civic Center, the Emperor Mansion, and finally to the railway station. What do passengers think if they start at 8 o'clock in the evening and don't see the window of the world for half an hour?

The same is true of the project, the customer's psychological expectation is the project "milestone event" arrival time. One of the objectives of the project manager's project milestones is to influence the client's psychological expectations. But this behavior is a double-edged sword, will affect the client's psychology, but also the project to form a constraint.

In fact, the project schedule is now two degrees, one is the micro level, on this level, all things are a task, a project down, there are hundreds of tasks to be completed, this level is the project manager and project team attention, is the most accurate description of the progress, the other is the macro level, This level is a matter of concern to customers and stakeholders outside the project, and each progress is a "milestone event," A level of progress description is not very accurate.

Still from the psychological point of view, the project manager given the progress of the error is affirmative, the key is and the reality of the gap is within the range. If the customer continues to feel that the project's progress description is accurate, then the project will be more confident, the project support will be better, the tolerance for errors is higher. Conversely, if there is no confidence in the progress of the project, then the project will be pressured, the disposal of the mistakes will be more severe.

How to grasp the progress and progress of the report, the commonly used methods are "blocking" and "sparse." The so-called "blocking" is to conceal that the project manager can be made to make a good deal of fraud, but to the final delivery can not be repaired very miserably, and "sparse" is to report truthfully, so that the project stakeholders transparently grasp the main details of the project. In practice, many project managers use a compromise approach, some report truthfully, others hide, avoid unnecessary trouble. But in fact, the project manager "Tell the Truth" is to have a certain ability.

The first is "the actual completion of the project team", the popular point is daily, the maximum number of tasks per week, if the project manager and customers know this speed, the customer will not put forward excessive progress requirements, the project manager can also reject all the progress requirements beyond the capacity. This "ability" is actually the project manager "Dour No" source of confidence. In reality many project managers because do not know the team true ability, recklessly promised, the result harm oneself, also pits the team.

Next is "The project progress forecast ability", if the project manager gives the completion time each time can achieve, his future project work will be more and more smooth. Many of the conflicts between the project team and customers, the cause is mostly because of "progress prediction is not allowed" or even "unpredictable progress" caused by the progress of a repeated breakthrough in the client's psychological expectations, not to let people mad are not.

It is not easy to evaluate and predict project progress in the actual project, but it is not entirely difficult to do. We can turn to see from the moment the project knot is started. In the time of the knot (after the change), the project's progress is no doubt 100%, pushing forward for a week, I think the progress is predictable, but push forward one months will be blurred a little, the more forward blurred. In other words, the project's progress forecast is becoming clearer as the project progresses.

First, analyze why it is ambiguous. The problem is two aspects, one is "task decomposition", and one is "temporary task". For the former we can gradually decompose, by a point clear method to solve, for the latter we can reserve time. We can use a large chunk of the task to write in the task list, etc to be processed before the decomposition refinement and evaluation, as the work, the task list will be more and more detailed, the evaluation is more and more accurate. For temporary tasks, set aside time in the schedule to process.

Next, analyze how to be clear.

The first is "prediction", the time can think of all the tasks are written in the schedule, do not be afraid of not detailed, do not be afraid of inaccurate, there is always better than no, but to remember in time to all the tasks can be refined;

The second is "record", where the project manager records all the tasks that the team has done to the task plan. After accumulating to a certain extent, you can see from the schedule the project team to complete the task speed, that is, "the actual completion of the project team", the capacity value of the unit can be "task/day", "work/day", "work/week "And so on. At the same time, you can get the "unplanned work" value, which can guide the project team to adjust to the "temporary task" reserved time.

Finally, "Optimization and prediction", through the first two steps of the results, the future of the progress of the forecast and timely adjustment.

In short, the project schedule management, to follow is the following three formulas, any one who knows elementary school mathematics can complete:

Development Speed = Completed work/time spent

Current progress = Completed work/total work

Remaining time = Remaining work/development speed = (total work-completed work)/development speed

And in actual combat, through "record task" know "completed work", and get "development speed", through continuous refinement gradually approximation "total workload", also get more and more accurate "current progress" and "Time remaining".

Project schedule management is not difficult, is it? The real difficulty is to "dispel fear."