This is the third in my series on scheduling (I spoke about the knowledge required to successfully schedule in my last blog) and I would like to cover what I perceive as the two broad ways schedules are used - namely for planning and/or managing an effort.

One way I have seen a schedule used is to identify some key dates and milestones toward which the person or team attempt to work. Reactive adjustments are then made when a review is required or a further estimate is needed. In other words, scheduling is used to do some initial and periodic planning rather than used to manage the ongoing effort.

My experience tells me that knowledge issues in schedule management fall into a number of broad areas:

=  understanding the concepts,
=  understanding the tools,
=  long term versus short term planning,
=  estimating and measuring, and
=  risk.

The schedule and responsibilities for the schedule is one of those "chorus" elements I spoke about in an earlier blog called "A Melody not Hip=Hop (02)". This is what I said:

Singing the chorus could represent the things you do often in a project such as risk management, schedule management, cost reviews and so on. It's an interesting concept having a "chorus" in a project. A chorus is the part of a song everyone gets to know and bashes it out with gusto when it comes. From my memory, it is also the part "everyone" sings. So why can't there be a "chorus" in a project. For example, there are aspects of project management that are the responsibility of everyone in that project. The management of the schedule, cost, quality and risk are four that come to mind. These aren't the responsibility of a few. These are the responsibility of all and should be sung regularly throughout the life of a project.