Differences and relationships between planning and scheduling
As you may know, APM have recently published a comprehensive guide entitled ‘Planning, Scheduling, Monitoring and Control – The Practical Project Management of Time, Cost and Risk’. This has been produced by expert volunteers bringing many years of experience together in one, accessible book. There is also an APMG qualification scheme to support this guide which offers examination qualifications at foundation and practitioner levels. This collaboration between APM and APMG is a very welcome development. The qualification name is ‘Project Planning and Control’.
Training ByteSize is the first and only training organisations to be accredited by APMG to deliver this training along with one of their trainers who was the first trainer to be accredited. We have delivered this training both at public venues and on-site for individual customers. Some of the main points discussed during the training are the differences and relationships between planning and scheduling. Whilst the distinction should be clear, historical job / role titles can cause confusion.
Planning (considered to be more of an art than a science) determines, amongst other things, what the project is attempting to achieve, what is required in order to achieve its objectives, any constraints and any interfaces with external sources which should be managed. Scheduling (considered to be more of a science than an art) introduces logic (activity dependencies) and thereby the sequence of activities along with their start and end dates (earliest and latest) based on duration estimates, activity dependencies and constraints.
It is fair to say, though, that planning may require some science and scheduling may require some art! The two disciplines are obviously interdependent – insufficient attention to planning will make scheduling impossible, difficult or subject to unacceptable levels of change. Insufficient attention to accurate scheduling could mean that products / deliverables will not be produced in line with agreed requirements or that progress monitoring will be difficult or even meaningless. The syllabus covers four main areas: Definition, Planning, Scheduling and Monitoring / Control and very nearly all of the guide is included within the syllabus and discussed in detail during the course. Back to the confusion caused by job / role titles: many expert schedulers, possibly working within sophisticated project support / controls departments, have the job / role title of ‘Project Planner’. It is easy to see the confusion – perhaps they should have the title of ‘Project Scheduler’. Project planning is not the same thing as scheduling!
