Engaged to assist and advise the Matrix programme team in determining and developing policies, guidelines, work instructions and templates for planning and scheduling specifically for the the train refurbishment company projects and programmes. This includes the establishment of the role of projectplanner as a new job function, the recruitment and selection of a candidate for the role of projectplanner on a permanent basis and the training and coaching of this projectplanner. This training and coaching took place by means of the projectplanner shadowing me in an operational role for a live programme (the VIRMm1 programme) and then taking over control of the created schedule after baselining. The schedule created for VIRMm1 became the basis for the programme planning template/s that will be used by other train construction teams in the future.

This template is accompanied by a generic WBS structure for a programme and WBS structure for the component projects of the programme. The following set of tools, templates and information was created for each component project as well as for the programme schedule itself:

• WBS - (Flow chart with control account details)
• Activity lists (filled in with the details of the WBS and of the MS Project template)
• MS Project template complete plus element templates for specific train components that are not always included in every programme.
• Flow charts (MS Visio) showing the network of activities for each train component from start to finish (for information and scope discussion purposes at a project stsrt-up.)
• Tools and templates for planning risk and issue registration, tracking and reporting.
• Tools and templates for progress reporting.

Also, resources were created for the projectplanner including guidelines on how to prepare for and create a schedule, how to perform optimaization and levelling, setting up progress control, reporting and a schedule closure roadmap.