PLANNING & SCHEDULE
A project comprise of a series of phases and activities. A method to harness the entire effort, throughout various stages of project is called planning.
Planning is to define the activities involved in the project, establish logical sequence and inter-relationship between activities. Scheduling is to place the project activities on a working timetable.
Importance of Planning
Planning is essential to perform a function with minimum wastage of time and effort. Schedule is a phased plan used as guide to monitor performance and control pace of activities to ensure completion of project at required time.
A COST PROJECT MANAGEMENT (CPM) based schedule prepared at beginning of the project identifies activities critical for achieving timely project completion. This helps in concentrating efforts on issues critical to project completion from the beginning, and provide opportunity to arrange for mobilization and demobilization of suitable manpower in a timely manner.
Periodic updating of CPM network based schedule provides impact of delayed activities on project completion and on any milestone dates. Thus, provides management with an important tool for taking timely and calculated decisions about suitable corrective measures.
Proper planning and scheduling serve as basis for evaluation of progress and performance. It helps in effective utilization of resources.