Essential Skills for Project Scheduling and Planning

The DIXONTECH Essential Skills for Project Scheduling and Planning course equips project professionals with practical tools and techniques to develop, monitor, and control project schedules effectively. Based on the PMBOK® Guide and best practices from PRINCE2® and APM, the programme strengthens participants’ ability to manage timelines, dependencies, critical paths, and resource allocation to ensure projects are delivered within scope, time, and cost.

TRAINING TOPICS

• Project planning and scheduling fundamentals
• Work Breakdown Structure development
• Network diagrams and critical path method
• Gantt charts and milestone planning
• Resource planning and allocation
• Estimation techniques and time forecasting
• Schedule compression and risk analysis
• Monitoring tracking and progress reporting

BY THE END OF THIS TRAINING COURSE, DELEGATES WILL BE ABLE TO:

• Build and analyse detailed project schedules
• Identify dependencies and critical paths
• Allocate resources efficiently
• Control schedule changes effectively
• Communicate schedule performance clearly
• Use scheduling software for tracking
• Align planning with organisational goals

TRAINING IS TAILORED TO

• Project managers and coordinators
• Planning and scheduling engineers
• Project controllers and analysts
• PMO professionals and team leaders
• Construction and engineering managers
• PMP® or PRINCE2® certification candidates

TRAINING METHODOLOGY

This DIXONTECH programme integrates practical workshops, case simulations, and digital tools. Participants apply scheduling techniques such as WBS development, network diagramming, and critical path analysis using software including MS Project and Primavera P6, reinforcing learning through real-world planning scenarios.

DAY 1

INTRODUCTION TO PROJECT PLANNING AND SCHEDULING

• Global project management standards overview
• Project lifecycle and planning phases
• Scope deliverables and success criteria
• Role of scheduling in project success
• Scheduling tools and software overview
• Triple constraint scope time and cost
• Scheduling challenges case study

DAY 2

WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE AND ACTIVITY DEFINITION

• Hierarchical Work Breakdown Structure creation
• Work packages and control accounts
• Activity identification and dependencies
• Precedence Diagram Method sequencing
• Network diagram development
• Decomposition techniques application
• WBS development workshop

DAY 3

ESTIMATING NETWORK ANALYSIS AND CRITICAL PATH METHOD

• Time estimation methods and accuracy
• Expert parametric and three points estimating
• Project network analysis
• Critical path and float calculation
• Forward and backward pass techniques
• Schedule compression methods
• Critical path case exercise

DAY 4

RESOURCE PLANNING LEVELING AND CONTROL

• Resource identification and classification
• Workload allocation and balancing
• Managing resource constraints
• Resource levelling and smoothing
• Cost time trade off analysis
• Risk integration with scheduling
• Resource allocation workshop

DAY 5

SCHEDULE MONITORING REPORTING AND OPTIMISATION

• Schedule baselining and change control
• Progress tracking and updates
• Earned Value schedule control
• Forecasting and trend analysis
• Dashboards and visual reporting
• Scheduling lessons learned
• Final schedule simulation and presentation