Planning Vs Scheduling

[NickC]

Hi All

I am relatively new to PM and I am also the only person in my organisation who manages projects, so I am figuring out some of the basics for myself!

This may sound like a daft question, but how do you use your project plans?

Lets say you have many work packages and tasks within your project plan and all the resources are allocated. Then some work packages run late and you need to review when they can be completed. Do you:

1. Keep the original dates in the project plan and show them as late?
Problem with this is that you are not identifying new resource clashes for the delayed work.
Benefit of this is that people may be more encouraged to catch up if the work is shown as late.

Or

2. Reschedule the work to a new time in the interests of resource management.
Problem with this is that work will always appear to be on time if it keeps getting pushed back. I am concerned that people will not be motivated if they know that the plan will change to suit late work.


I'm interested to hear how people manage this situation.

I am thinking that I should:

Baseline the project from day one which is the version of the plan that I refer to when reviewing project status with the team.

Use a 'live' plan that is reviewed on a more frequent basis and that reschedules late work from a practical point of view.

Use fixed milestones for each work package and project stage within the live plan to show when rescheduled work is forecast to overrun. I feel that this will act as a summary baseline.

I'm hoping to get some opinions from more seasoned PM's about this.

I appreciate any comments.

Thanks

Nick