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Scheduling Simple Projects

Simple projects involve only one or a few people over a short time. Typically, simple projects will have few tasks dependent on other tasks, and will be relatively simple and easy to coordinate. Examples might be coordinating delivery of resources for a workshop session, implementing a small marketing plan, or delivering a simple software enhancement.

With simple projects, tools like Gantt Charts and Critical Path Diagrams may overcomplicate project scheduling and communication. Unless project team members are trained in their use, they can often 'blind people with science', leading to poor communication and muddled projects.

How to Use the Tool:

Appropriate Timetables and Action Plans are often sufficient to coordinate and implement simple projects. These should be explained and negotiated with project staff to improve the plans and get staff understanding, input and buy-in.

It will often be enough to create a workback schedule, starting from the date by which the project must be completed, and listing all of the tasks in reverse order with due dates for each.

Whatever the size of your project, ensure that you have agreed its scope with its sponsor (the person who wants it done) before you start planning. This will help you to resist changes to its scope (known as "scope creep"), which will seriously affect your plans, once you have started working.

Key points:

Simple projects are often best run using simple Timetables and Action Plans. These should be prepared and negotiated with project staff to improve plans and get buy-in.

During the project these will contain sufficient control points and deliveries to monitor project progress and take any appropriate remedial action.

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In the next article, we look at Gantt Charts, essential tools for planning and scheduling most projects. To read this, click 'Next article' below. Other relevant destinations are shown in the "Where to go from here" list underneath.

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New Articles (Not included in the Mind Tools E-book.)
* Shows articles available in full only to Career Excellence Club members

Work Breakdown Structures - Mapping out the work within a project*
Project Dashboards - Quickly communicating project progress*
Project Initiation Documents - Getting your project off to a great start
Project Milestone Reporting - Keeping projects on track by monitoring check points*
Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) - Implementing new ideas in a controlled way*
Logframes, and the Logical Framework Approach - Planning projects robustly

A full list of Mind Tools articles is available here.

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