M2.1 Planning & Schedule Development

By the end of this section, the practitioner should be able to preserve relevant records, define a forensic question, establish a reliable chronology, test cause and effect across schedule and cost, distinguish facts from assumptions and produce reproducible findings. They should understand how project-controls…

By the end of this section, the practitioner should be able to turn a bounded approval into a verified revision of the affected scope, schedule, budget, progress, risk and configuration records. They should preserve previous baselines, maintain relationships between approved, forecast and as-built information,…

By the end of this section, the practitioner should be able to recognise a potential change, record and define it, assess integrated consequences, identify the correct authority, support an approve/reject/defer decision and track implementation to verified closure. They should distinguish a changed requirement…

By the end of this section, the practitioner should be able to design and operate a proportionate project-controls strategy: define what decisions the project needs, identify the information and controls that support them, assign ownership and authority, establish an integrated operating cycle, set escalation…

By the end of this section, the practitioner should be able to produce one coherent view of expected project outcomes by reconciling schedule, cost, physical accomplishment, acceptance, commercial exposure and uncertainty. They should identify inconsistent assumptions, distinguish target from forecast, build…

By the end of this section, the practitioner should be able to connect authorised scope, time-phased budget, evidence of accomplishment and incurred cost at a common cut-off. They should calculate and interpret basic Earned Value Management measures, reconcile them to source records, distinguish cost efficiency…

By the end of this section, the practitioner should be able to establish a valid comparison, calculate period and cumulative variance, analyse a time series, distinguish delivery deterioration from timing or data effects, find causes across discipline boundaries and test whether an intervention improves the…

By the end of this section, the practitioner should be able to establish, explain, govern and reassess cost and schedule provision for uncertainty without hiding it inside the base plan. They should be able to distinguish base budget or duration from contingency.

By the end of this section, the practitioner should be able to turn an analysed threat or opportunity into a controlled management response that is proportionate, owned, time-bound and integrated with the way the project is actually delivered.

By the end of this section, the practitioner should be able to take a defined project objective, a credible current schedule or cost model, and a selected set of material uncertainties and turn them into a transparent quantitative view of possible outcomes.

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