Purpose

The schedule management plan establishes how schedule management will be carried out in the project. It serves as guidance for the scheduling process and formats and defines the roles and responsibilities for stakeholders in those processes. It is not the detailed schedule information, but instead explains how that information will be captured, expressed, and modified (if or when necessary).

Application

The schedule management plan is used by project managers and the project office to define how management practices will be conducted. In some organizations, it may be a standardized document, applied across multiple projects and modified only slightly to reflect the individual resource and delivery requirements of the project. It is used to prevent project managers from reinventing the process every time they face a new project.

Content

The schedule management plan includes descriptions of required documents (e.g., network diagrams, Gantt charts, milestone charts), as well as some insight on how those documents may be developed.

1.0 Scheduling Process

The scheduling process may include both high-level and detailed descriptions of how the schedule and its components will be generated. The process includes information on when the schedule should be baselined and when certain types of documents (e.g., milestone charts, team calendars) should be updated.

The responsibilities should reflect who will be accountable for schedule updates and for capturing real-time information on project and task performance. This may also include who is in charge of the scheduling tools and who is conducting data entry.

3.0 Schedule Parameters

Any noteworthy project schedule limitations (e.g., major milestones, finish date) should be identified here.

4.0 Schedule Modification

This element of the schedule management plan ties in with change control, in that it details how and when the schedule may be adjusted. For organizations applying critical chain management, this may also include how buffer time may be consumed and how management should be notified when such buffer is consumed.

Approaches

Although the approaches to scheduling may vary, some of the elements are consistent. The schedule management plan should highlight the major milestones and who is responsible for reporting on those milestones (and to whom). The plan may go into extensive detail on team processing of schedule information or may simply identify a single team member with “go-to” responsibility for all scheduling issues. Because it is integrated with other baseline issues (including cost, requirements, and risk), the schedule management plan should be coordinated with any management plans that have been developed for those areas.

Considerations

Organizations may forego schedule management plans in deference to organizational process documentation that covers the same issues. As long as there is an accessible resource for the information on how the schedule is developed, updated, and maintained, the essence of the schedule management plan is addressed.