How Do We Get There?

Glen is Vice President Program Planning and Controls, Niwot Ridge LLC.

  ProjectsAtWork  

A good plan tells you what done looks like on your project; the schedule defines the steps to get there. Here is an approach, grounded in activities and artifacts, that can improve the credibility of your schedule. It measures progress based on accomplishments rather than the passage of time and the consumption of resources.

In the first installment of this series — “5 Questions PMs Must Ask” — we outlined the five immutable principles that must be addressed by project leaders and teams in order to succeed. The second article addressed the question: “What Does Done Look Like?” This article explores the next question How Do We Get There?

With a description of done established, we need to know how to get to done. The first step is to separate scheduling from planning and the execution of the schedule. There are three elements in answering the question, How do we get there? They are:

1. The Plan – the strategy for the successful completion of the project
2. The Schedule – the steps needed to fulfill the plan
3. Execution – the physical performance of these steps to deliver the results defined in the plan

A good plan tells us what done looks like in units of meaningful to the decision makers. These units include Measures of Effectiveness and Performance; Key Performance Parameters, and Technical …

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