All organizations depend heavily on project planning tools to forecast when various projects will complete. Completing projects within specified times and budgets is critical to facilitate smooth business operations. In our high-technology environment, many things can impact schedule. Technical capabilities can often fall short of expectations. Requirements are insufficient in many cases and need further definition. Tests can bring surprising results––good or bad. A whole host of other reasons can lead to schedule slips. On rare occasions, we may run into good fortune and the schedule can be accelerated.
Project schedules are inherently uncertain, and change is normal. Therefore, we should expect changes and find the best way to deal with them. So why do projects always take longer than anticipated? One reason is inaccurate schedule estimating. The following discussion presents a description of shortcomings in the traditional methods of schedule estimation and how simulation and advanced analytics can be applied to address these shortcomings.
