Yesterday I had the paid pleasure to attend a Training Course, facilitated by Mosaic Projects by Pat Weaver, talking about “How to develop an effective schedule“.

A one day course from 09am to 04ish with 2 hours of break in between for good networking opportunities, using the facilities from AIM (Australian Institute of Project Management) with a great and addictive Bookstore in the House open to the public.

Pat has contributed to the Practice Standard for Scheduling (Chapter 3 has been written half by him),  issued by the Project Management Institute and as a certified PMP and PMP-SP is a very knowledgeable person in that field.

Pat divides the topic in 5 important steps

• Step 1 - Planning the Planning
• Step 2 - Developing the Baseline Schedule
• Step 3 - Setting Reasonable Objectives
• Step 4 - Maintaining the Plan
• Step 5 - Reviewing & Validating the Schedule

Beside explaining the topic Pat was always referring to valuable content on his website that contributes to the topic explained. More examples are described and shown there and are open to the public.

So we have got exposed to a powerful process, understood that stakeholder management is important throughout the whole lifecycle of the plan, received a copy of “The Practice Standard for Scheduling”, got known to other peers and had the opportunity to shop in the bookstore which many of us took advantage from.

Some more practical examples and case studies (how to facilitate a Planning Workshop, good working examples of good schedules in various formats etc.) that teach you how to apply the process learned about, less basic and fundamentals, less powerpoint but more explanation and highlighting how the process need to be adapted and can be applied in organisations that are less mature would be needed.