6.4Toolkit
The essentials in 30 seconds
- Start clean: calendar set, automatic mode, WBS and milestones, linked tasks, resources entered, overallocations resolved and baseline saved.
- Draw quickly: a few memorable landmarks (link rather than date, task type, critical path, baseline, CPI/SPI) that speed up decisions.
- Rule: a checklist ticked every time is better than a method known by heart — on the day, you execute.
Meriem's thread — the sheets near her screen
After a quarter, the sheets below stay near Meriem's screen in Algiers: the “before starting” one displayed, the others in her notebook. “What saves me,” she says in substance, “is not knowing the points, it is ticking them every time — especially the day before a site starts.”
Adapt the wording to your project context, keep the structure: it is what prevents oversights and variances.
Ready-to-use landmarks
A good checklist makes a task fast, repeatable and free of omissions; good landmarks speed up decisions. Adapt them to your context and your project, but keep the structure.
Three key moments
A project is played out at three moments: starting on sound foundations, keeping the right reflexes, then tracking and closing cleanly. Three sheets, three obligatory passages.
Tick, don't recite
You no longer think under pressure: you execute the sheet near the schedule. What is ticked is done; what is assumed done is not.
Before starting a project
- Start date and calendar set (working days, time off)?
- Mode for new tasks set to automatic?
- WBS structured (phases + subtasks) with milestones?
- Tasks linked through dependencies (no hard dates)?
- Resources with rates, capacity and calendar entered?
- Baseline saved before starting?
Landmarks & reflexes to draw quickly
- Link rather than date; automatic mode; minimal constraints
- Work = Duration × Units; choose the task type (variable to fix)
- Wrong calendar = whole schedule wrong (working days, time off)
- Critical path = zero-float tasks that set the finish
- Baseline BEFORE starting; without it, no variance tracking
- CPI/SPI < 1 = drift (cost/schedule); anticipate
Track & close a project
- Actual progress entered every week (actual work, % complete)?
- Variance to baseline reviewed (schedule, cost, critical path)?
- Overallocations created by the catch-up audited/levelled?
- Costs and EVM (CPI/SPI) up to date for management?
- Unforeseen events recorded and impact communicated to the client?
- End-of-project debrief (drift? cause?) documented?
Script ready to say — starting a project (30 s)
“Calendar set? Automatic mode? WBS and milestones? Tasks linked? Resources entered? Overallocations resolved? Baseline saved? If any answer is no, I fix it before starting.”
Keep this near the next project to launch.
Script ready to say — closing a project (30 s)
“Progress up to date? Variance to baseline reviewed? EVM up to date? Unforeseen events recorded and communicated? Debrief documented?”
The last safety net before closing a project.
Copy-paste template — my checklists
[ ] Calendar + start date
[ ] Automatic mode
[ ] WBS + milestones
[ ] Linked tasks (no hard dates)
[ ] Resources (rates, capacity)
[ ] Overallocations resolved
[ ] Baseline saved
[ ] Progress updated every week
[ ] Closing debrief documentedCopy-paste template — quick control grid
Linked? -- tasks in dependencies, no hard dates
Auto? -- automatic mode enabled
Calendar? -- working days, time off, public holidays
Rates? -- costs entered (different from 0)
Baseline? -- baseline saved before starting
Up to date?-- this week's progress enteredVSE / small budget
Sheets on one page displayed on the wall: the essentials (start clean, link, baseline, update) are enough.
Algiers SME
Build local realities into the sheets: irregular supplies, bad weather, several sites, a known point of contact.
Remote / hybrid
Add a written validation line to tracking: at a distance, a dated and ticked milestone avoids misunderstandings.
Intercultural
Make labels explicit in writing: what seems obvious (who validates, which format) is not obvious to everyone.
48h challenge — apply it tomorrow
Take 1 real project, run the “Before starting a project” checklist, then “Track & close a project”, and tick where it stands.
- I have ticked a checklist on a real project.
- I can draw quickly on the startup sheet and the landmarks.
- I have done the 48h challenge or scheduled its date.
Meriem is starting a new site. What should she tick first?
Tip: keep these checklists near your schedule and your templates (.mpt) — a quick check (linked? auto? baseline? up to date?) is enough to diagnose a schedule's health.