How important is it to build 'Slack' into your Project Schedule and WBS?

Scheduling

Michael King

Community Champion

Senior IS Project Manager| Baycare Health Systems Clearwater, Fl, United States

We are all faced with getting as much done as possible, and we are also being pushed in several different directions.

How important is it to you / your project to build some Slack into your project schedule in case everything does not take the easy path?

Posted: Apr 3, 2026 2:22 PM

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Lissette Indhira Pimentel Sosa

Community Champion

Program Manager| HARPER SRL Santo Domingo / Distrito Nacional, Dominican Republic

Very important.
Without some slack, the plan assumes everything will go perfectly, which rarely happens. Even small delays can quickly impact the whole schedule.

I don’t always call it “slack,” but I make sure there’s some buffer in critical areas to absorb uncertainty and keep delivery realistic.

Posted: Apr 3, 2026 9:27 PM

Sergio Luis Conte Helping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based Organizations Buenos Aires, Argentina

More thatn slack, in my personal opinion, is putting clear the hours by day each person will be available to work. 6 hrs? 8hrs?. That´s the key. With that in place then it could be possible to avoid the use of slack.

Posted: Apr 4, 2026 7:32 AM (Updated by author: Apr 4, 2026 7:33 AM)

Aaron Porter

Community Champion

IT Director| Blade HQ Payson, UT, United States

I don't build slack - slack is not an input, it's something you identify through one of several approaches including CPM. I add buffer in response to uncertainty, but that's not the answer, by itself, when dealing with multiple projects and conflicting priorities. In a perfect world, you would be able to limit WIP, manage shared resource constraints, and track the flow of work - using buffer to manage bottlenecks. Since perfect rarely exists, it also involves a lot of communication and negotiation.

Posted: Apr 5, 2026 1:23 AM

Jacob Vu Co-Founder| Run By Ideas Canada, Canada

I think it's important to build slack to set better delivery expectations with stakeholders and the amount of slack varies and is done by experience. I think some slack is important but some people over-do it and that isn't useful when you're adding buffers to everything and causing inaccuracies in delivery schedules.

Posted: Apr 7, 2026 11:15 PM

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How important is it to build 'Slack' into your Project Schedule and WBS?

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