Tips for Building Good Schedules

From the current issue of ENR Engineering News-Record (Why the Best Schedulers Don't Rely on Software):

• Keep work breakdown structure (WBS) simple.
• Provide clear description for all activities.
• Do no use negative lags.
• Model parallel work using start-to-start (SS) and finish-to-finish (FF) relationships.
• Don't update a schedule based on percent complete.
• Make milestone easy to find, e.g., at top of each section.
• Don't embed milestones into a schedule (hard to find).
• If the milestone is good, that section is good.

Several good points - - knowing a software package versus knowing how to schedule, a lack of training in the art and science of schedule develop, etc.  I love the comment about just because you know Microsoft Word doesn't make you a writer.  You can replace Word with Project and writer with scheduler and get the point.

The article recommended the book - CPM in Construction Management.