Planning & Earned Value SIG

SIG Steering Group Member

Scheduling Maturity – Reading the Signs

Scheduling Maturity – Reading the Signs

Why check a project schedule or plan?

What are the benefits?

How do I do it?

What applications are available to help

How to interpret the results (reading the signs)

How to get senior managers involved

Complete and Consistent method

Robust and repeatable process

Single point of project truth

Single point of integration

Automated – enables regular checks

Enables trend analysis

More effective corrective action

Why check a project schedule?

What are the benefits?

Increased confidence in schedule maturity

Why?

– …it’s a Robust, repeatable and auditable process

– Scalable, tailored output

– Aggregation of schedule metrics

– It’s automated (you will be doing it more than just

the once)

– Increased ability to spot trends (good and bad)

– Reduced analysis timescales

What are the benefits? Helps the team planning behaviours & planning process

Increased robustness of the schedule

Helps with schedule as it matures through the project

lifecycle

Quicker identification of scheduling and performance

issues

Integrates with other project control elements and

governance structures within an organisation

Apply schedule metrics from an assessment on other

projects (LFE)

Consistent approach to schedule analysis across your

organisation

Schedule Maturity Process

Creating the

Schedule

Prediction/

change control

Executing

the ScheduleReporting &

Decision-

making

Schedule Maturity Process (2)Reporting/Decision Making

Creation Execution Prediction &

Control

Logic

Leads

Lags

Hard

Constraints

Resources

Invalid Dates

PP to WP ratio

Critical Path

Test

Missed Tasks

CPLI

BEI

Dynamic Logic

Schedule

Adherence

Forensic

Delay Analysis

(FDA)

Milestone

Slippage

Why should I check my schedule?

What do you get when you look at dissimilar

maturity measures?

?

Dissimilar

schedule

checks

What do you get when you look at dissimilar

maturity measures?

How do I do it?

Basic process

Nothing new – schedule checking has been used for at

least 3 decades

DCMA has its 14 point schedule checker

But is this enough?

Other additional checks can help

…especially in execution and prediction

Can use the checks with any of the major scheduling

packages

The DCMA 14 Point schedule check

The DCMA 14 Points

1. Logic

2. Leads

3. Lags

4. Relationship Types (FS)

5. Hard Constraints

6. High Float

7. Negative Float

8. High Duration

9. Invalid Dates

10. Resources

11. Missed Tasks

12. Critical Path Test

13. Critical Path Length Index (CPLI)

14. Baseline Execution Index (BEI)

The trouble with Schedule Logic

High Float

Task A

Ghost Task

Task B

Negative Float

Task A

Task B

Task C

CPLI and BEI

Critical Path Length Index (CPLI)

– Assumes a fixed project or phase end date

– Can work out how many activities/tasks are becoming

critical

Use of the CPLI value

Can you

see a

trend?

Baseline Execution Index (BEI)

Added work makes it harder to obtain a high score

Counts activity completion, not if activities are

finished early or late

Does not consider amount of schedule slippage

Does not consider the allowable use of float

DCMA 14 point checks – Large project with

subcontracts

Analysis of a single project – across 5

reporting periods

Additional Schedule Checks

Redundant Logic

Recursive logic

Out of sequence logic

Logic Link Index (LLI)

Start & finish dates within the reporting

period compared to the baseline

Redundant Logic

Task A

Task B

Task C

Recursive Logic

Task A

Task B

Task C

Out Of Sequence (OOS) Logic

Status Date

Complements actual start & finish metric

Actual start & finish will not inform you if:

– Activities have started & finished early and In

Schedule Sequence (ISS)

– Activities have started & finished late and In

Schedule Sequence (ISS)

Or…

– Activities have started & finished either early

and/or late and OOS

Out Of Sequence (OOS) Logic (2)

Main Issue is in the interpretation

Which has the greater impact on the

schedule?

ISS activities…

…or OOS activities?

What needs to be done to get the project

back on track?

Out Of Sequence (OOS) Logic (3)

Logic Links Index (LLI)

Identifies ‘pinch points’ in the schedule

Counts the number of predecessor and successor logic linkages on a specific activity

the more links there are…

…the chances of a preceding or successor task starting or finishing on time are reduced

Useful when creating a risk network or schedule

Logic Links Index (LLI) (2)

Task 1

Task 2

Task 5

Task 3

Task 4

Tasks 1 to 4 have a

90% chance of

completing on time

Task 5 has a 66%

chance of starting

on time

Tasks 1 to 4 have a

50% chance of

completing on time

Task 5 has a 6%

chance of starting

on time

Schedule Analysis Indicators

Predictive capability

– this supports other

predictive indicators,

such as the IEAC

Schedule Analysis Indicators (2)

Can you see a trend

forming?

N.B. It cannot tell

you which tasks are

OOS

Additional checks Large project with

subcontracts

Schedule Prediction & Control

You’ve already seen some predictive

capabilities using schedule maturity

How can I show senior management that

schedule maturity is important…

…and that it cannot be reviewed in

isolation?

Dashboards – who’s in the audience?

What would senior stakeholders rather

see? This…?

…or this?

Project Prediction

Schedule Maturity is a lagging indicator

But can be used with other leading

indicators

…most of which rely upon having a robust

schedule

Look for trends in schedule maturity…

…and other project controls indicators too

Project analysis

What has changed since the last reporting period?

Added or removed activities?

WBS/PBS changes?

Logic relationships?

Resource allocation

Activity type (milestone, activity, hammock, summary)

Activity durations?

Total or activity float

Activity start/finish dates?

Activity status?

Critical/longest path

Activity costs

A selection of available software

Software Application

DCMA 14-point checker MS Project & Oracle P3

ScheduleAnalyser MS Project Enterprise

Schedule Detective MS Project

Steelray Project Analyser MS Project

Acumen Fuse MS Project, Oracle P3/P6, Asta

Powerproject

Schedule Cracker Primavera – MSP to follow

Schedule Checker Oracle P6

Summary

Explained the need for schedule checking

Explained the benefits of checking the schedule

How it can be done

Interpreting the results (reading the signs)

How to get senior management involved

Listed software that can help

And finally…

If you were watching…

There are 6 signs or symbols hidden in

plain sight in this presentation

Some are easy to find…

…and some not so

It means downloading the presentation from

the APM website (!)

There is a prize if you can find them

Closing date

Thank you…

The only function of economic forecasting is to make

astrology look respectable

John Kenneth Galbraith (1908 – 2006)