Project Time Management - Overview

This is the process that helps you manage the timely completion of the project. It covers the following seven processes.

1. Plan Schedule Management - establish the policies, procedures, and documentation for planning, developing, managing, executing, and controlling the project schedule
2. Define Activities - identifying and documenting the specific actions to be performed to produce the project deliverables
3. Sequence Activities - identifying and documenting relationships among the project activities
4. Estimate Activity Resources - estimating the type and quantities of material, human resources, equipment, or supplies required to perform each activity
5. Estimate Activity Durations - estimating the number of work periods needed to complete individual activities with estimated resources
6. Develop Schedule - analyzing activity sequences, durations, resource requirements, and schedule constraints to create the project schedule model
7. Control Schedule - monitoring the status of project activities to update project progress and manage changes to the schedule baseline to achieve the plan

This process is documented in the Schedule Management Plan of the Project Management Plan. This plan identifies a scheduling method and scheduling tool. It also sets the format and establishes the criteria for developing and controlling the project schedule. The scheduling method defines the framework and algorithms used in the scheduling tool. 

• Critical path method (CPM) - method used to estimate the minimum project duration and determine the amount of scheduling flexibility on the logical network paths within the schedule module
• Critical chain method (CCM) - method that allows the project team to place buffers on any project schedule path to account for limited resources and project uncertainties 

Outputs from other processes are used to define the schedule development along with a scheduling tool to produce the schedule model. The finalized and approved schedule will be the baseline used in the Control Schedule Process. 

Source: PMBOK 5th ed.