The Master Schedule (A Primary Document)
by Ken Black
One common objective that all companies share is that of assuring that results conform to requirements. Anything that is important should be established as a requirement. Anything that must be a certain way, because any other way might impact safety, quality, cost or schedule, should be treated as a requirement. All requirements must be under formal change control.
Schedules are Requirements
Every organization works to schedules. Every organization has one or more high-level schedules which drive subordinate level schedules. Development-oriented activities have development schedules. Production-oriented activities have production schedules. Maintenance-oriented activities have maintenance schedules. Schedules become requirements once they are documented, validated and released.
Higher-level schedules are often referred to as master schedules. A build completion schedule for deliverable end-items is a master schedule. A schedule for when major development tasks are to be completed is a master schedule. Schedules change. The items and/or events that are being scheduled also change.
Herein lies the challenge; how to accommodate change and keep the requirements clear, concise and valid? How to accommodate changes to the master schedule and also the items and events being scheduled? They are interdependent. One cannot be controlled without controlling the other.
Per the CMII model, important information about an item is linked to that item. For example, design definition and process definition for an item are individually linked to that item. Such documents, per the CMII lingo, are referred to as "primary documents."
A change to any one of those linked document sets may cause other information sets to change. Appropriate linkages make it relatively easy to assess the overall impact of a change. Change effectivities are used to keep impacted information sets properly synchronized.
The master schedule should be treated as a primary document and linked to the highest level items which drive requirements for all subordinate level items. Such a linkage makes it easier to assess the impact of changes and assure that all affected elements are properly addressed.
A change to the master schedule ripples down through the entire physical item hierarchy and may impact previously assigned change effectivities. Changes to the master schedule must therefore be reviewed and approved just as changes to design or process definition are reviewed and approved.
Per the closed-loop change process, Change Admin. II chairs the board that develops change implementation plans and assigns effectivities. Any change to the master schedule must be approved by the appropriate Change Review Board. It is also appropriate to establish Change Admin. II as a co-owner of the master schedule.
Institute of Configuration Management Scottsdale, AZ 85261-5656 Tel: (480) 998-8600 Fax: (480) 998-8923 Email: info@icmhq.com