Overview

All projects need to be planned, and the project Critical Path Method (CPM) schedule is the most powerful asset in the project planner’s toolset to plan the project, forecast the project’s key dates and manage the resources assigned. Yet from reviewing many project schedules of oil & gas and construction projects in the commercial sector and in government agency projects such as aerospace, software and construction we see a wide variation in the capability of the schedulers to put together, and of management to understand the project schedule.

This workshop presents the best practices in project scheduling as simply as possible and explains why following them gets the best result. We discuss the key concept of understanding the schedule as a dynamic tool for project management versus a list of dates, some of which are often imposed on the project from the outside. Still, projects often overrun their schedules. We may overrun schedules because the schedule is not the idealized perfect schedule but is influenced by forces that lead to an infeasible plan from the beginning.

A main reason that we overrun project schedules is that risk from many sources tends to make the work take longer than planned or add work not in the baseline schedule. Identifying risks and estimating their probability and impact on the schedule will accomplish two key goals: (1) developing a realistic view of when the project finishes following the current plan, and (2) identifying the key risk drivers for risk mitigation and hence better project performance.

Organizations are increasingly requiring schedule risk analysis in advance of key decision points to make sure they have a realistic view of their project’s timeline. They realize there is something beyond the static CPM schedule. Building on a well-structured schedule, risk analysis provides a view of the project’s timeline in an uncertain world, very common in oil and gas projects. We will discuss experience with offshore installations, refinery and other on-shore facilities and pipelines during this course.

Who Should Attend

Directors, Managers, Engineers, Heads of:

• Planning & Scheduling
• Projects
• Cost Control

Key Learning Objectives

• LEARN what to expect from your Critical Path Method (CPM) schedule
• UNDERSTAND the common errors in project scheduling and how to avoid or fix them
• MASTER the basics of project scheduling and progress to advanced concepts
• IDENTIFY and deal with the common cultural and individual biases in scheduling
• FIND OUT the 10 Best Practices of project scheduling
• DISCOVER the limitations of static CPM scheduling and why believing in the schedule can lead to trouble
• EXAMINE why Schedule Risk Analysis adds to your understanding of the project’s timeline
• KNOW how to identify risks to the project schedule
• ANALYZE how the corporate culture makes it diffcult to address schedule risk directly
• LEARN what should we tell the customer or other stakeholders about the project’s completion date
• GAIN INSIGHT on how do we estimate an appropriate schedule contingency reserve of time

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