7.8 Handling Challenges to the Schedule

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7.8 Handling Challenges to the Schedule

Suppose your schedule is heading toward a milestone, and you are tracking ten major tasks that lead up to that key project event. Each of these dates has varying significance and associated risk or pain, compared with its nine sibling tasks. If you have done your job, you understand this and, thus, know how to evaluate progress in a practical sense. Part of doing this well also requires that you develop a decent sense of anticipation. It was mentioned in Chapter 6 that there is a generic flow of project regardless of project type, technologies deployed, and so on. One can similarly anticipate characteristic opportunities for date slippage.

In assessing project status, you should approach it with a detailed understanding of the work underway and tasks remaining, while looking ahead for the most likely contributors to tardiness. [2] Exhibit 9 lists the most common schedule killers, many of which you are already painfully aware.

Exhibit 9: Factors Contributing to Date Slippage

start example

Procurement issues

Purchase orders filled out wrong, or lost.

Painfully slow approval process.

Procurement office does not press supplier.

Company on "credit hold" over a billing dispute.

The lawyers are haggling over a contract.

Supplier issues

Mis-shipments, backorders, or installations.

Infrastructure

Incomplete cabling or element configurations.

Change control request

Signoffs or change windows missed.

Construction

Permits not issued.

Contractor did not build to design.

No certificate of occupancy.

Engineering

Hardware, software, or system not completed.

Operations

Documentation incomplete; training not performed.

Monitoring tools not installed.

Disaster recovery not implemented or tested.

Security

Account or password administration issues.

Testing

User will not participate or sign off.

end example

Because nearly all projects contain these elements, they are potential weak points you should locate and monitor on subteam schedules. As an example, a week before testing is due to commence, ask the team lead if he or she foresees any issues with starting and completing that task successfully and on time.

[2]Similar to when you drive with an eye cast up the road in anticipation of signals and oncoming traffic.



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Complex IT project management(c) 16 steps to success
Complex IT Project Management: 16 Steps to Success
ISBN: 0849319323
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 231
Authors: Peter Schulte

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