Dynamic project scheduling explained
Franklin’s, Lenin’s and Michelle Obama’s words
Dynamic scheduling for projects is a part of project management and refers to the integration of three key components to manage projects optimally. The components are part of an integrated decision support system to make timely decisions that can successfully bring projects in progress (within time and cost) to the customer. These three components are known as baseline scheduling, schedule risk analysis and project control.
These three components have been investigated from different angles in the literature, but also the business world has developed improved and adapted software tools to manage projects more efficiently. I myself have been working on this topic for half my life, and I still find it amazing what you can do with it to better manage a project.
The dynamic scheduling system can best be explained using three well-known quotes that (probably) have nothing to do with project management, but are very relevant to the concept.
Baseline schedule
It was Benjamin Franklin who launched the famous quote expressing the importance of planning.
Failing to plan is planning to fail
For projects, the plan is sometimes referred to as the baseline schedule, and consists of a timetable that shows the start and end times of all activities, taking into account the technology relationships between activities and the limited availability of resources. There is a rich variety of algorithms to build such plans, with objectives such as minimising total lead time or levelling resource usage.
However, there is also a lot of opposition in practice from people who consider the use of software a waste of time, or who see a plan as an unnecessary luxury. Everyone knows that a plan is just a prediction, and because of the many possible scenarios in which the project can go wrong, the plan has little value.
The baseline schedule is indeed worthless if nothing more is done. And this gloomy thought forms the starting point of the dynamic scheduling concept. The baseline schedule is nothing more than a point of reference for the two other components: risk and control.
Risk analysis
Managing a project consists of making the right decisions at the right time to ensure that project problems (delays, cost overruns) are detected and resolved in time. Because yes, a lot can go wrong. One of Michelle Obama’s most beautiful quotes shows the importance and relativity of the fear we have of the many risks associated with projects.
Don’t ever make decisions based on fear. Make decisions based on hope and possibility. Make decisions based on what should happen, not what shouldn’t
Risk analysis is a technique that takes the basic plan as a starting point, and analyses the weaknesses and strengths. Based on a number of calculations, the sensitivity of the activities can be mapped out, which ensures that we can estimate much better what could possibly go wrong, and what the impact will be if it actually goes wrong. A plan might be worthless, but it is very necessary for the analysis of the risk. In the end, such an analysis will not remove the risk, but knowing what can happen, and what will not happen, nevertheless removes the fear of the unknown. Thank you Michelle!
Project control
Planning and risk analyses are valuable, but what it really comes down to is to control the project progress as good as possible. The following quote is attributed to the Russian politician Vladimir Lenin and refers to the need to measure rather than just know.
Trust is good, control is better
A good project control method consists of monitoring the performance of the project at regular intervals, so that deviations from the plan are measured in a timely and correct manner. And you can immediately hear that the plan is lurking around the corner again. A deviation can only be considered a deviation if a reference point is defined, and that is — once again — the baseline schedule.
My book “Project Management with Dynamic Scheduling” provides a complete and detailed overview of the three components that are connected in such a way that they should be considered as a single whole.
By better integrating planning with risk analysis and project control, the project manager can receive much clearer signals when the project is really in danger.
These signals serve as a trigger for making well-informed decisions. More specifically, when the project performance tends to go out of control, these warning signals act as triggers for taking corrective actions to bring the project in danger back on the right track.
Back on the right track, until a new problem pops up, and then it starts all over again.
If you use this article, please cite: Vanhoucke, M. (2013). Project management with dynamic scheduling: Baseline scheduling, risk analysis and project control (2nd ed.). Springer.
