Schedule, Cost, and Resource Plan

Three Documents, One Operating Picture

The scope statement defined what; the schedule, budget, and resource plan define when, how much, and who. What follows is the Meridian project's working schedule, resource load model, and cost baseline: the three documents Sam Torres locked with Elena Vasquez's approval at the end of Week 3 of planning.

Project Schedule — Month by Month

The schedule is built from the WBS work packages. Activities within each work package are listed here with their dependencies, owners, and critical path designation.

The critical path runs through six linked points: lease signature (M1), IT design (M2), server room readiness (M3), server migration (Month 6), IT acceptance (M5), and physical move (M8). Delays on any critical path item push the project end date directly. The only scheduled float exists at M4 (fit-out), where a 2-week buffer separates QG-3 from the start of server migration. Float, also called slack, is the amount of time an activity can be delayed without pushing the project end date. The critical path does not end with the physical move. Month 8 activities, including decommission, exit inspection (QG-5), and landlord walkthrough, remain on the critical path because the project is not complete until the current landlord formally accepts the vacated space. A delay in QG-5 pushes the project close date regardless of how smoothly move week went.

Resource Load Model

Before locking the schedule, Sam mapped each team member's hours against the calendar to find overloads. One appeared immediately.

At 140% of capacity across three months, Priya would not hit any of her deadlines. The resolution was delegating the seating assignment work package to Tom Walsh, who had available capacity in those months because the fit-out was in contractor hands.

The fix took one planning session. Without the resource load model, the same collision would have surfaced in Month 4 when Priya was already behind and had three department heads expecting deliverables from her simultaneously.

Marcus Chen peaks at 95% in Months 3–4 (cabling installation) and again in Months 6–7 (server migration). Tom Walsh peaks in Month 5 at 90% as the fit-out reaches final inspection. No team member exceeds 100% in the adjusted plan.

Cost Baseline

The cost baseline is the approved, time-phased budget against which actual spend is measured. It is built from the WBS work package estimates, not estimated at a project level and divided down.

The contingency reserve of $22,000 is held by the PM and drawn down only per the risk management plan. It does not appear as a spend line in monthly reports. When it is drawn, for example if R-03 materializes and the fit-out contractor causes a delay requiring recovery costs, that draw-down is reported separately to Elena Vasquez. The baseline ($163,000) is what the team manages to. The $22,000 exists for risks, not for budget overruns caused by poor planning.

What's Next

The schedule, cost, and resource plan close out the core planning documents. The project also needs plans for managing risk, quality, procurement, and communications: four supporting plans that complete the project management plan. The next chapter presents all four.

Reflect

• Priya came in at 140% of capacity before adjustment. The fix was delegation. Work through what options would have been available to Sam if Tom Walsh had also been at capacity in those months, and identify which you would have chosen.
• The cost baseline is built bottom-up from work package estimates. Sam's base estimate is $163,000 against a total budget of $185,000, a contingency buffer of $22,000 (about 13.5%). Consider whether 13.5% is too little, too much, or about right for a project of this type and risk profile, and identify the factors that would push that percentage higher or lower on a different project.
• Six milestones mark the critical path, and only M4 (fit-out acceptance) carries float. Walk through what happens if Marcus Chen's server migration work in Month 6 hits a problem that takes 3 weeks to resolve, and trace the downstream impact on M5, M6, and the lease expiry date.