If you have followed the previous articles on Develop Schedule Process, you already know that there are quite a few things to learn here. One of the reasons for that is the sheer number of tools and techniques used in this process. While we have already discussed everything that you must know, we will round it all off with this article that goes over some of the remaining Tools.
What-if Analysis
If something could go wrong, it will! Well, to counter that, how about we think of all the things that could go wrong? That is precisely how What-if Analysis works. The team considers what all could change during the course of the project and its impact on the schedule. This helps reduce the unknowns
Monte Carlo Analysis
This is another type of What-if Analysis. Monte Carlo analysis is done with the help of a computer modeling program. The software is used to simulate the outcome of a project based on Three-Point Estimates for each activity as well as the Network Diagram
Scheduling Tools
When a project schedule is designed using a software, there is always a possibility of adjusting the different elements of the schedule just to see what are other possible schedule outcomes
Critical Chain Method
Using this method, both the activity and the resource dependencies are considered to determine the critical path. You need to add buffers and work backward from the delivery date into the project schedule
Resource Optimization Techniques
There are two techniques that you should know of – Resource Leveling and Resource Smoothing. Both of these have already been discussed here
Schedule Compression and Schedule Network Analysis
Fast Tracking and Crashing are the two schedule compression techniques. We have already discussed both of them here here. Also, the schedule network analysis can be carried out using the values of the critical path, float or slack and early and late starts and early and late finishes
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