For my business i am using software it helps me to plan and schedule the task.

Plan in advance also schedule my task, complete the task in time and also create bills ased on it my means of Apptivo software.

Gents/Ladies

I have been a member of Planning Planet for a long time. Only now do I start reading the posts, so please forgive me if I haven't seen something I should have...

I have been tasked by a large company in South Arica to write a project planner development program for their project planners. This proved to be a bigger task than I anticipated. I have  been working on this thing for close on a year now on and off, and regularly for the past few months. The manual will have a practical approach with just the basic theory. The original planned structure has grown out of proportion to a really large document. The documents comprizes 45000 words already, and I estimate that this will easily double by the time level 1 is complete. There will be 3 levels.

To train people to become planners who have been involved in projects previously is easy. I have done that in the past. If you need to train people who do not know much about projects, the task increases exponentially in effort, and that has to be kept in mind when writing material like this. An effective way of training non-experienced people is with lots of case studies in my opinion. So, in addition to the training manual which will have examples and exercises in Primavera and MS Project (for now), I will have a seperate booklet just with case studies where scheduling is involved.

That is where I hope I will be able to get lots of material from PP members. I need litterally 100's of case studies. On any planning topic you deem relevant. I will acknowlede each person for his/her contribution in the book.

If anybody needs more information, please mail me. If you want to send a case study right away, please do so. Mail me on willem@tza.co.za. I will appreciate 

Gordon,

I think you’re right, especially the part about taking time to really think about the job or a problem. We should be careful though about over-thinking a potential solution or approach, or we can get caught up in our own cleverness and send everything down the tubes.

Shakespeare had it right - "Yon Cassius hath a lean and hungry look, he thinks too much, such men are dangerous."

Chris Oggham

Hi Folks,

Here is the original post:
********
Fabrizio Capello, Roadways & Infrastructure, Member since Sep 2005, Italy, 5 Posts Basic knowledge of planning and scheduling
-------------
Hello, What topics do you consider are the basics (basic knowledge) of planning and scheduling)? Thank you
********

Common sense is necessary to become a planner but it’s obviously not enough. Nor is simply learning how to drive a software package. A planner needs to learn planning basics before they can begin planning: and **learning** and knowing about CPA, activities, resources, levelling, EVM, WBS, RBS, etc will be entirely necessary, as Charlie suggests.

BTW has anyone ever looked up ANSI 741 ? ( The ANSI EVM standard ). How was it ?

Regards,

Jim

I was including the knowledge of scheduling under logic. Scheduling is nothing more than a very complex logic puzzle. Techniques like PERT and CPM are merely ways to formalize the process, but I question whether anyone who doesn’t have a good basic grasp of logic could effectively schedule a project.

Creativity comes in when you have to find a new solution because logic won’t let you get there from here. Because projects are carried out by people, and because people aren’t inherently logical, creativity comes in when trying to coordinate the sometimes different goals and agendas people bring to the table.

Curiosity is what allows you to ask the questions that noone else is asking because they assume they already know the answer, or even worse because they assume you already know the answer. As a former IT analyst, one of the first things I had to learn was not to be afraid to look foolish with my questions. Egoless questions is the term I’ve heard used in the past. Being willing to listen and not always to things that are work related has helped me no end in getting my goals accomplished. For some reason, people find me easy to talk to, which comes in handy when you’re trying to get estimates, information about tasks, etc. Example I had on this project was an Instrumentation and Electrical guy who everyone told me would be nearly impossible to get information from. "He just doesn’t talk." they all said. By keeping my mouth shut and letting him talk on his schedule I was able to get everything I needed from him, and now he comes to me.

Humility is tied to Curiousity, in my mind, but it also ties into the idea that no matter how bright you are, the people on the ground, closest to the work, know the most. If you can open your ears and eyes and keep your mouth shut, they’ll tell you what you want to know, as long as they believe you’re there to help them be less stressed out and more organized at the end of the day, without making them feel like a bunch of drones.

Okay, I’ve had my say now.

BTW, I frankly think George Dubya is a yutz, and I happen to be greatly enjoying the political woes he’s suffering from now. In my opinion, George lacks all of the above characteristics, which is why the last 5 years have been such a disaster. Oh well, He may get to learn some humility in 2006 if things continue to go like this.

Okay, no more politics.

Larry
Did George Bush say that about the stupid question

Ha Ha

Just Joking

Bravo! Oscar.

The point you make about the critical thing being the result of the work rather than the schedule is well taken. I’m learning that in my current assignment. My background is primarily in IT, but I’m currently scheduling a turnaround for a chemical plant. They hired me specifically because I had skills with the project planning tool they were using (MS Project, bleah!). Despite knowing next to nothing about ammonia production, I’ve been able to be effective by asking questions, listening to the answers, and being open to learn.

Now I could have been a self important prig in trying to assist them with their project and insisted that the schedule I came up with was the only way to do the project, but what would that have accomplished?

Instead, I made compromises, and tried to design the plan so that it gave freedom to the people on the ground to make changes as conditions change. From what I’ve seen here, turnarounds are very difficult to schedule even with the best tools, and it’s nearly impossible to do with a crappy tool like Project.

The skills I used? Logic, Creativity, Curiousity, and Humility, which are coincidentally the tools that I’ve used in every other job I’ve ever had.

Larry

Hi Bernard,

Thanks for the info.

I viewed the site. It’s interesting.

Cheers,

Charlie

Hello David,

I really don’t know what it is your up to.

A simple thread but fundamental in planning for which i responded, then your talking about blah, blah, blah...

My message is freedom. Well rock and roll...


Hello Fabrizio,

Please bear with the distraction,

Another important factor in planning is manhour estimates. I found John Page estimating manhour norm useful. I try to search for a web about John Page but i was not successful. We can only hope someone will lead us the way to John Page.

Cheers,

Charlie

Hi David,

For friendly chit chat, Im not a native english speaker. I try hard follow the American english since school days until now.

I do know and i do believe that PERT and CPM are not synonymous. How in the world did you conclude that I imply PERT and CPM are synonymous.

As I informed PERT/CPM was my college thesis. My education and actual field experienced follows the the American system (sorry, im not educated in the english school of thinking). I know the history on how this wonderful planning tools comes into existence. For the record, neither PERT/CPM nor EVM, SPI or CPI start with the english school of thinking.

I agree with you that PERT/CPM is not much used today, but the fundamentals of Critical Path can be trace back to PERT/CPM school of planning thoughts. If you dont agree, please ask the Americans.

And this is what this thread is for: Basic Knowledge of Planning and Scheduling.

Cheers and be happy, my colleague in PP.

Charlie

Hello David and Clive

I’m not surprise with your response, not at all. Your free to express whatever you want to PP up to the limit set out in forum rules. You only have to remember that the moderator will do the best they can to implement the forum rules. My only wish is to bring out best for PP and for the new generation of planners.


To Philip,

I know you did manual calculation as you hinted in your previous thread

I did manual calculation in using PERT/CPM to arrive at critical path, forward pass and backward pass. In addition I know dummy activities, I-node, J-node. These terms are extinct in Primavera P3 because the logic in Primavera is more on precedent diagram.

PERT/CPM was my thesis in college. I taught PERT/CPM to my students. In managing construction project in my hometown, PERT/CPM and S-curve were the document requested by the project team, computation were done manually and the graphical reprentation of activities were done in cross-section papers, AO size.

What I told Fabrizio is only an introduction to my thesis. EVM, SPI and CPI can be learn in KIDASA (kidasa.com), PMI, etc.

Cheers,

Charlie

David
I enjoy Charlies uplifting diatribes it makes me realise how far I have to go to catch up.

Phillip
Do you really not know what LOB is I dont believe you

Kind regards
Clive

Hi Charleston,

Did you ever do those things prior to thr age of computors? And it would be handy if you could explain line of balance to some people here

IMO, planning requires extensive experience in the field to adequately decide upon the proper methods for achieving the (high level) project scope.

Scheduling is a discipline that can be learned by studying CPM and playing Tetris. :D

Stacy
Participate in the Project Management Knowledge Base!