Schedule Issues

The nature of projects that include team members from different backgrounds and different cultures, were those have to interact and work together to complete certain project. Conflict arise due to differences in way team member perceive things, personalities, misunderstanding and needs, because of that project managers need to address those issue and know how to deal with them. One of the main causes of conflict and considered a big challenge is delivering projects on time (Schwalbe, 2010: 212).

Many reasons could lead to schedule conflict; I believe lack of collaboration and team synergy are the main drivers behind schedule conflict. Due to project team nature, they differ in attitudes, perception and the level of control over them, some people have a great level of respect to deadlines, while others prefer and produce more if no pressure is set on them. In addition to that, team members differ in the level of detailed schedule they need to accomplish a task, some require detailed schedules to help them complete their part, while others prefer more flexible schedules (Schwalbe, 2010, 212). Other than team member’s perception and attitude, the community they belong to or cultural background has a great impact on project schedule, religious holidays are a good example of ethnic or cultural differences that affect project schedule.

Another important factor that could cause schedule conflict is as described by Schwalbe “time is easily and simply measured” (Schwalbe, 2010, 212). In other words, when a project schedule is defined, with clear milestones, task level start and end dates and deadline, anyone even without project management knowledge can judge project performance based on delays against set time. Although it might seem like a correct way to measure project performance, approved changes should be taken into account because usually those will delay project deadlines and affect other tasks within the project.

Aggressive deadlines set by managers could as well lead to schedule conflict; the amount of pressure on team members due to unrealistic schedules will lead to conflict. To avoid schedule conflict or at least minimize some of its effects, project managers should insure s.m.a.r.t. Milestones that are specific, measurable, assignable, realistic and time-framed are defined. Activities should be defined along with their expected output; as well activities should be defined in the proper order, with realistic time frames based on resource capabilities, availability, and tools available.

It’s important for project managers to control schedules through progress reports, schedule change controls, variance analysis, and performance measurement. Those will help project manager to know the status of the project schedule and manage known and unknown changes.

Reference:

Terje I Vaaland, Håkan Håkansson, Exploring interorganizational conflict in complex projects, Industrial Marketing Management, Volume 32, Issue 2, February 2003, Pages 127-138, ISSN 0019-8501, 10.1016/S0019-8501(02)00227-4. (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0019850102002274) (Accessed 24 December 2011)

Schwalbe, K., (2010), Information Technology Project Management (with Microsoft Project 2007 CD-ROM), 6th ed., Course Technology, 2010, ISBN 978-0-324-78692-7

Verma, V., (1998), ‘Conflict Management’, The Project Management Institute Project Management Handbook, Ed: Jeffrey Pinto. 1998 isbn 0-7879-4013-5, [Online], Available from:

http://www.iei.liu.se/pie/teio04/allmanna_filer/1.171778/conflManagementVerma.pdf

(Accessed 24 December 2011)