Project Management

Project Planning

Project planning includes all activities that result in a course of action for a project. Goals for the project, including resources to be committed, completion times, and activities must be set and their priorities established. Areas of responsibility must be identified and assigned. Time and resource requirements to perform that work activities must be forecast and budgeted.

Project scheduling

This in contrast to project planning is more specific. Scheduling establishes times and sequences of the various phases of the project. In project scheduling, the manager considers the many activities of an overall project and the tasks that must be accomplished and relates them coherently to one another and to the calendar.

Example

Slick Wilson, a first-semester freshman at State, is receiving advice from his sophomore roommate on how to study for finals, which start in two weeks. Slick, who has ignored the entire problem until now, is advised to list all his courses and estimate how much time he needs to study for the final in each course. Next, Slick’s roommate suggests that he should look in the final exam schedule. When he has determined the order in which he must take his finals, Slick should plan to study for the first one first, the second one next, and so on until he has prepared for all his exams. Slick prepares a study plan according to this advice, adding to the plan that, when he finishes his last final, he will throw the schedule away and forget about finals, school, and his introduction to (finals/project) scheduling.

The project in this example is to study for finals. The beginning point in time is now, two weeks before his first final. The ending point is the moment Slick steps in to take the last final. The project activities are studying for various courses. These activities must be time sequenced according to the order and dates he has to take the exams. Viewing final exam preparation as a project, you might use project management to improve the scheduling of your study time at the end of this semester.