In order to complete a project under a deadline, a team must guage its resources (time and skills of team members, availability of computer services, etc.), it must estimate the time required to complete all necessary milestones, and then it must allocate its resources to the attainment of its milestsones and to the project's completion. Of equal importance, a team must prioritize its milestones so that, in the event of difficulty, a meaningful partial completion of the project is possible. A team must achieve its milestones through the completion of tasks that are sensibly designed and carried out under review. Areas of responsibility must be clear and cover all activities, and it is wise to make sure that someone can serve in a backup capacity for any assignment.
This chapter gives a few guidelines for the third team assignment:
the Schedule Plan.
Since this will be accomplished with the help of Microsoft Project,
much of its format will be out of your hands,
and we will only concentrate on general considerations.