Reasons for a Schedule Overrun - Essay Example

Part 3

The reasons why overrun is so common, and in some cases even inevitable

Schedule overrun is a common factor in project management as asset back, schedule is the set of procedure taken to finalize certain and specified project, or are the condition set for project to be completed. In trying to understand the occurrences of cost overruns and delays in schedule one cannot put it in a simple sentence as many have tried to come up with explanations and research have been done but all are just theories that tend to determine reasons for such occurrences but still its important to understand the reason of such.

The major contributing factor from is project changes although one cannot specify it to self-satisfaction but through research it is the leading factor. Project changes may vary the outlined budget and schedule. Nonetheless, in real sense, if you had set risk management measures in the beginning of the project, and put in control change management processes there should not be any occurrence of a cost overrun through out the phases of the project in the first place. What probably would be affected is the time and size alterations of the project. Nevertheless, it is always easier said than done or it simply applicable in theoretical nature only. The changes that are removed to a project or added are just a deviation to the original plan of the project just as said earlier. However, one’s ability to handle changes through out the phases of the project should be directly proportional to one’s ability to plan and execute the project at first. One should put in mind all the necessary inflows of uncertainty at first or with the ability to put a clause to each step on the way of the risk that the project might as well undertake (Meredith & Mantel 2008).

This anyway is the dilemma that most project managers have in their completion of their work as managers and problem solvers. Leaving change in the picture is clear that other aspects do affect projects leading to cost overruns and schedule cuts or outflows. The biggest question is getting to know them alongside understanding ways in which one can outlay them in the future. They are there and they do not occur in the hiding or in specific phases of the project; they do occur in all those phases of a project and they can be big or just in small chunks that accumulate forming the unexpected in the end. To be specific, let us look at the four major ones that are foreseeable. They are: estimating values inaccurate, lack of good and real time visibility and control, lack of proper historical information to the subject in question and poor methodology in determining the project progress (McCain 2004).

Time management has become a problem to most project management. Through proper planning, project managers can avoid this problem of schedule overrun. To do so, managers have to understand what project management time entails. These can be summarized in a few words: defining activities needed to complete projects, arranging these activities based on their dependencies, coming up with required resources and time for each activity. They also need to develop solutions based on schedule of the project, and working on the activities within the estimated time limit (Schwalbe 2010).

An overrun of time my affect, quality, time, and in the end increasing the risk involved for the success of the project. Few elements can lead to schedule overrun, which entails increase in the overlaid reworks identified in the process of quality assurance, long activities as initially stated, if the stipulated resources are not available and lack of proper coordination. Project manager can take corrective action to schedule back in time by use of compression techniques. Compression technique is not necessarily applied in the occurrence of a schedule overrun, but can be applied incase they is a possibility of it happening or its being anticipated by the manager. Project management team can identify schedule-overrun risk during performance review and prevent the happening. Through quality management plan in planning stages at an earlier time can also help a lot in ensuring a proper time keeping. Schedule compression is an important toll in project management, as it shortens the project schedule without affecting the project scope, to achieve schedule constraints, putting dates, or other objectives that assist in scheduling (Meredith & Mantel 2008).

When there is a gap in the running of a project if you are the project manager an action needs to be taken for the understanding, conceptualizing and solving the problem when it occurred. Steps need to be taken this are as follows and are applicable to the manager: first step is to analyze the situation, talk to the one in question and understand what is not working as required to be, check the functionality of the problem is or was tabulated in the outflow of the project, or during planning. If its was in the plans ware there but the team interpreted it wrongly find the gaps by discussing with your team to find the cause of the overrun and find the root cause ensuring its as clear as its (McCain 2004). Document the course of the problem if the gap in the functionality of the project phase is identified correctly with the defect and authorize the problems to be fixed or corrections to be done as soon as possible with the correct standard procedures.

In each phase or correct the flow of each part of the project correcting the root cause and identify what need to be changed in the process. This will be followed by necessary improvements of the project development. Make sure all your team members understand the relevant improvements or changes done. If any of your team members does not understand, they need to be trained and implement the changed process. Monitor the use of the process or the changes made based on the outcome and make further adjustments to improve and simplifying the whole system.