A Problem with Scheduling

I am commonly called to audit projects as part of job as a program manager.  In my capacity, I manage several projects within the portfolio.  These project audits prove one thing to me over and over; people have a problem with scheduling.

Scheduling is an art and a science.  It takes effort to create a realistic schedule.  A realistic schedule is based on some basis of estimate.  The project manager or the schedule must create the basis of estimate, prior to creating the schedule.  One trick that I use is to use subject matter experts in creating this basis of estimate.  As part of this basis of estimate, the scheduler must outline the assumptions that are made by the planner for the project.

Scheduling is not an easy task.  But it is essential for the proper control of the project.  To maintain this control, the schedule must be updated with the work completed.  This work completed is assigned to the tasks in order to the determine a percentage complete per task.  In my experience when the project is not updated in a timely manner and project managers do not know the percentage complete of each task, that is when projects start to go off-track.