(3.0.P1)

If you have been following Steps 1 and 2, you have now defined the work (Project Charter, Project Management Plan) and planned how you will complete the work (project schedule, budget). Now you must manage the schedule and budget to ensure that the project finishes within your deadline date and within budget.  

You will never be a successful project manager if you do not keep the schedule up to date. Remember that the schedule is only a deliverable. It describes the work that needs to occur, the order of the activities, the effort that is required, the assigned resources, etc. Managing the schedule means that you understand the work to be completed, who is assigned to complete the work, when the work is due, etc.

High-level process flow for managing the schedule

The schedule should represent your best-guess at any particular point in time on how to complete the remaining work. The more complex your project is, the more change is going to be required in your “best guess” over time. That is why managing the project schedule is such an important project management skill. The project manager must evaluate the schedule on an ongoing basis (weekly) and determine the current state of the project. Based on the current state of the project, and your current understanding of the work remaining, you need to re-plot a course that will allow the work to be completed within the original budget and deadline.

High-level process flow for managing the budget

For most projects, the schedule will need to be reviewed on a weekly basis. During this review, the project manager updates the schedule with the current state of work that is completed and in-progress. The remaining work should be evaluated to see if the project will be completed within the original effort, cost, and duration estimates. If it can, you are in good shape. If it cannot, the project manager must implement corrective action.

Of all of the skills required for managing the project, managing the schedule is perhaps the most fundamental. Depending on the dynamics of your project, the project manager may be in a position of having to constantly utilize his experience and creativity to get the project completed within expectations. One week your project many be on track. The next week, you may have work assignments that are late and issues that have surfaced. If an activity on the critical path is a week late, the project manager cannot sit back idly and allow the entire project to be a week late. Instead, he must evaluate the resources and options available and get the project back on track. If you are good at it, managing the schedule can be one of the more challenging and rewarding aspects of project management. If you do not relish the detailed work that is required, you may find it much more difficult to be successful as a project manager.

Integrating the Project and Project Management Processes (3.0.P2)

In Step 1 – Define the Work, you not only define the characteristics of the project, you also define your overall Project Management Plan for managing the project. This includes the processes for scope management, risk management, communications management, quality management, etc.

Once the project is executing, all of the project management processes are integrated in this Manage the Schedule and Budget step. The integration occurs here because of an overriding philosophy of the TenStep process – “What’s in the schedule gets done.” In other words, all of the work of the project should be in the schedule and if an activity is not in the schedule, it should not be worked on.

The schedule is the focal point of managing the project, and all the project management processes are integrated in the schedule. You should have activities and time allocated in your schedule for communicating, managing scope, updating the schedule and all other project management activities. The integration occurs when the project management processes touch each other, as well as when the project management and project life cycle activities overlap. Consider the following examples:

• A large scope change request is approved, resulting in more effort and more cost. This is a typical integration of project management and project life-cycle work. The impact is reflected in the updated schedule and budget.

• You identify risks and create a Risk Management Plan to manage the risks. You communicate the resulting Risk Management Plan to all interested stakeholders for feedback. This is an integration of managing risk and managing communication. Since all of this work takes time and effort, the activities are on the schedule and the integration occurs in this step.

• You have an issue with poor quality. The issues management process is invoked and all appropriate activities are added to the schedule. To resolve the problem, you decide to collect more metrics and the metrics-collection activities are added to the schedule. The analysis of the metrics results in changes to your work processes and additional quality-control activities. You are communicating to all management stakeholders to manage expectations. All of this work will be reflected in your schedule and budget.

All project work should be reflected in the schedule and the budget. Therefore, this step is where the project is managed and controlled, and it is the place where all of the project life cycle and project management activities are executed, tracked and integrated.

Kicking Off and Closing the Project (3.0.P3)

The project schedule is the central coordination point for managing and controlling the project. After the project is defined and planned, the actual execution of the project can begin and the project deliverables can be created. This work is also called the project life cycle. The project life cycle is surrounded by two events – a project kickoff meeting to officially start the project execution and a set of project closure activities to officially end the project. For more details see 3.1.3.1 Project Kickoff and 90.0 Close Project)