Schedule Margin

Welcome to Schedulosophy.

As this is written, comments are proliferating within AACE and NDIA discussion groups about Schedule Margin. What in some quarters is held up as a best practice is plainly not well understood by leaders in the program management and scheduling professions. Nor, it may be suggested, should it be well understood. It is, at best, an emerging practice.

Questions abound about whether Schedule Margin should be funded, or not? Should it be maintained in or out of the performance measurement baseline? How is it derived? Where should it be placed? Do the answers to these questions vary with project circumstances?

Supposedly, Schedule Margin mitigates risks, specifically unknown unknowns. An often repeated rule of thumb is that there should be one month of Schedule Margin for each year of a project. Yet prominent projects are propelled not weeks or months, but years behind schedule, even with the application of Schedule Margin.

Before embracing Schedule Margin as a best practice, the profession needs to actually study it, develop a body of evidence, elaborate its principles, and validate its effects. At this time, Schedule Margin has not earned a place at the table with established practices like CPM.

Thank you for visiting Schedulosophy.