New Article: Managing the Sands of Time: How IT Projects Reflect an Hourglass
Course Spotlight: Project Scheduling Fundamentals with Microsoft Project
Resource Article: Take Back Control of Deadlines and Constraints in Your Schedule
On-Demand Replay: Crashing the CPM Schedule in MS Project: Back to Basics Ways of Working
PM Best Practice: Stop Managing the Clock, Start Managing the Flow
Tuesday Brief: Tuesday Brief: Time management in project work goes deeper than tracking dates. This week we're looking at how schedules hold together under pressure and what to do when they don't.
New Article:Managing the Sands of Time - How IT Projects Reflect an Hourglass
Ronald B. Smith, MBA, PMP draws on the hourglass image to unpack how time, tasks, and momentum operate in IT project management. The piece covers how bottlenecks form, why individual tasks carry more weight than they appear to, and what the reset factor of failed iterations can teach you about building better workflows. A grounded, readable piece that connects the big picture to the daily decisions PMs make under deadline pressure.
Course Spotlight: Project Scheduling Fundamentals with Microsoft Project
Eric Uyttewaal's three-lesson course covers the Forecast Scheduling mindset, how to build dependency networks that hold up when things change, and what to do when your schedule tells you you're three weeks behind. The course introduces the 4D approach (Deliverables, Durations, Dependencies, and Deadlines) and makes a strong case for why avoiding start and finish date entry is one of the most important habits a scheduler can build. Best suited for PMs who already have some hands-on experience in Microsoft Project.
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Resource Article: Take Back Control of Deadlines and Constraints in Your Schedule
Deadlines and constraints sound interchangeable, but in Microsoft Project they behave very differently, and confusing the two is one of the most common ways schedules lose their integrity. This practical guide walks through exactly when to use each, how commitment dates from sponsors or clients should always be entered as Deadlines rather than constraints, and what happens to your critical path and total slack when you get it wrong. Worth bookmarking for the next time a stakeholder hands you a fixed date and you need to model it correctly.
On-Demand Replay: Crashing the CPM Schedule in MS Project - Back to Basics Ways of Working
When the deadline isn't moving and the schedule is already under pressure, crashing is one of the most important tools in a PM's kit and one of the most misunderstood. Tony Woodrich, PMP, CCP walks through CPM schedule crashing using a real project example, covering schedule development, fast tracking, selective activity crashing, and how to balance time compression against cost impact. The University Dean's Office example makes the technique feel applicable well beyond construction or defense contexts.
What You'll Learn:
Schedule development and fast tracking fundamentals
How and when to crash a CPM schedule
Selective activity crashing to optimize time while controlling costs
Balancing schedule compression against cost increases
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PM Best Practice:Stop Managing the Clock, Start Managing the Flow
Deadline pressure rarely comes from running out of time. It comes from not managing what's happening to the time you have. In practice, that means identifying bottlenecks before they stall progress, sequencing tasks deliberately rather than reactively, and treating every small delay as a signal worth reading. The clock is always running. The flow is the part you can actually control.
