M2.1 Planning & Schedule Development

Module 5 establishes the essential practices for measuring, analysing, forecasting and communicating project performance. It explains how to develop meaningful performance measures across scope, schedule, cost, progress, risk and resources, and apply techniques such as Earned Value Management to assess delivery against approved baselines. It also covers how to identify and explain variances, analyse trends and root causes, develop credible forecasts, and determine effective corrective actions. Finally, it explains how to turn reliable project data into clear, consistent and decision-focused management information. Together, these practices provide a structured foundation for understanding project performance, identifying emerging issues, anticipating future outcomes and supporting timely, evidence-based decisions to improve delivery throughout the project lifecycle.

Module 4 establishes the essential practices for identifying, assessing, managing and responding to project risks and opportunities throughout the project lifecycle. It explains how to establish a structured risk management framework, evaluate and prioritise uncertainties using qualitative and quantitative analysis, and understand their potential impact on project cost, schedule and delivery outcomes. It also covers how to develop effective risk responses, assign ownership, integrate mitigation actions into project plans, and determine appropriate levels of contingency and confidence. Together, these practices provide a consistent and proactive foundation for managing uncertainty, anticipating potential threats and opportunities, improving forecast confidence and supporting informed, risk-based decisions to protect project objectives and delivery performance.

Module 3 establishes the essential practices for estimating, budgeting, forecasting and controlling project costs. It explains how to translate project scope into credible cost estimates using appropriate methods, document the underlying assumptions and uncertainties, and establish authorised budgets aligned with the project schedule and delivery strategy. It also covers how to monitor actual expenditure, commitments and emerging changes, develop reliable forecasts of the likely final cost, and identify and analyse cost variances and trends. Together, these practices provide a consistent and transparent foundation for managing project expenditure, understanding cost performance, anticipating financial pressures and supporting informed decisions to maintain affordability and cost control throughout the project lifecycle.

Module 1 establishes the essential building blocks for effective project controls. It explains how to define and structure project scope through a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), establish consistent coding and control structures, and integrate scope, schedule, cost and responsibilities into an approved baseline. It also covers how to measure physical progress using objective evidence, distinguish actual performance from forecasts, and maintain reliable, traceable project data. Together, these practices provide a consistent and trustworthy foundation for planning, monitoring, reporting, decision-making and controlling change throughout the project lifecycle.

Module 2 establishes the essential practices for developing, managing and controlling credible project schedules. It explains how to translate project scope into a structured schedule, establish logical relationships, identify critical and near-critical paths, and understand float and milestone dependencies. It also covers how to assess resource availability, productivity and delivery constraints, optimise schedules, and maintain accurate progress updates using objective evidence. Finally, it explains how to analyse schedule performance, forecast likely completion dates, identify emerging risks and evaluate recovery options. Together, these practices provide a reliable foundation for understanding project timelines, monitoring delivery performance, anticipating delays and supporting informed decisions to keep projects on track.

By the end of this section, the learner should be able to take a credible current schedule and use it to forecast likely future outcomes, explain what is driving those outcomes, test alternative scenarios, assess the effect of uncertainty and management interventions.

1. Practical outcomeBy the end of this section, the learner should be able to take an approved schedule and turn it into a trustworthy current control model at each reporting cycle. They should be able to establish a clear data date, collect and validate actual progress, record actual starts and acomplishments.

By the end of this section, the learner should be able to test whether a logically valid schedule is actually deliverable with the people, skills, equipment, facilities and other constrained resources available to the project. They should be able to distinguish resource demand from capacity.

The learner should be able to construct and analyse a logically linked schedule, choose relationships, recognise missing or inappropriate logic, distinguish logic from constraints, identify critical and near-critical paths, understand total and free float, recognise negative or unusually high float.

By the end of this section, the practitioner should be able to design and apply a coherent set of coding and control structures that allows project information to be organised, integrated, aggregated, reconciled and reported without repeatedly rebuilding the underlying data.

Ten ways to keep your client happy, protect your construction programme and build stronger working relationships.Every construction planner knows that keeping the client happy matters. But what…

Sunchana Johnston

Fed up with adverts from software companies and consultancies that are going to change the world of Planning and solve all your project problems? This series of occasional articles promises nothing but thought provoking questions on how well we understand the basics of our profession from the…

PP Admin

Several months ago, I was engaged as the planning lead with one of the most significant infrastructure organisations.My assignments appeared straightforward: to provide independent planning expertise and advise senior stakeholders on the most appropriate software solution to support the extensive…

Sunchana Johnston

Fed up with adverts from software companies and consultancies that are going to change the world of Planning and solve all your project problems? This series of occasional articles promises nothing but thought provoking questions on how well we understand the basics of our profession from the…

PP Admin

Fed up with adverts from software companies and consultancies that are going to change the world of Planning and solve all your project problems? This series of occasional articles promises nothing but thought provoking questions on how well we understand the basics of our profession from the…

PP Admin

Programme Planning Standards: The Rules of the GameStudies consistently show that organisations with mature project management practices achieve better delivery outcomes than those with ad hoc approaches. Yet one of the simplest disciplines is often overlooked—agreeing a common Programme Planning…

Sunchana Johnston