Scheduling Project Management Tasks

A detailed schedule is one of the best tools that a project manager can have. By scheduling yourself in advance to do all of the necessary management tasks, you stay much more organized throughout your project. You know exactly what you need to do to get started, what you need to do for the planning stage, and so on. Plus, before you commence work on your project, you can ask yourself: how often do I want to meet with my team? how often do I want to conduct project reviews? and schedule yourself to do these periodic tasks.

Here's a summary of the steps that you should go through for each project:

1. Initiating
   • Develop Charter
   • Deliver Preliminary Scope Statement
2. Planning
   • Set Up Project Environment
   • Define Scope
   • Develop Detailed Schedule
   • Develop Risk Plans
   • Plan For Quality
   • Organize Resources
   • Develop Procurement Plans
   • Develop Financial Plan
   • Develop Support Plans
   • Develop Project Management Plan
3. Executing
   • Acquire Team
   • Direct and Manage Execution
   • Manage Team Performance
   • Assure Quality
   • Manage Communication
   • Communicate with Subcontractors
4. Monitoring and Controlling
   • Monitor and Control Project Work
   • Integrated Change Control
   • Scope Verification
   • Schedule Control
   • Manage Finances
   • Perform Quality Control
   • Manage Project Team
   • Produce Performance Reports
   • Manage Stakeholders
   • Risk Monitoring and Control
   • Contract Administration
5. Closing
   • Close Project
   • Contract Closure

Now, you'll notice that some of these tasks will be ongoing throughout the project, like managing team performance, assuring quality, and schedule control. Before each project, you should make a checklist and a list of deliverables that will keep you on track throughout your project. There will be a lot of similarities from project to project, so after the first time this will be very easy to do. You may want to schedule yourself to do some tasks weekly or monthly, depending on the task and the length of your project. Maybe you want to add in some of your own tasks, or maybe there are some that you can live without, but this is a great start to managing any project.

Kathlika Thomas is the head author of the IT Project Blog, which provides tips, tools and videos for project managers. She is a seasoned project management professional, has roots at Accenture (one of the big five consulting firms), and has managed numerous international projects. Kathlika has also developed a number of workshops and training programs related to business analysis, business intelligence and project management.

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