Let’s map out your project management timeline
Keep your team on track for what’s happening when
Browse topics
A project management timeline is a detailed schedule for your project. It spells out all of the tasks involved and a deadline for each so that your entire team can see when individual steps will take place and when the whole project will be wrapped up.
You and your team are rebranding your website, and there’s one question on everybody’s mind: how long is this project going to take?
Will you have it done by the end of the week? The end of the quarter? Will it be ongoing as you gather new testimonials and assets to include? Will it continue to grow and grow?
Pinpointing when a project will be completed and delivered is tough, and 48% of projects don’t meet their originally scheduled end date. A project management timeline can keep your team on the straight and narrow to prevent your projects from stretching into eternity.
How to create a project management timeline
From fostering a “we’re going to take down this project together” attitude to helping your team stay organized, a project timeline is a must-have for completing projects without tearing your hair out.
But while the perks are evident, there’s still a big question that needs to be answered: how do you create one? Follow these steps to draft a project timeline that supports your team in doing their best work.
1. Understand the project scope
Imagine you’re asked to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Initially, it might seem like a quick task. However, if you then specified that you wanted it on homemade bread from a specific recipe, with a unique jelly only available from a particular farmer's market open on Sunday mornings, and requested that the crust be removed and the sandwich cut into a star shape, suddenly, the process becomes more complex and time-consuming.
This analogy highlights the importance of understanding the scope of a project. The project scope encompasses everything needed to complete the project, including tasks, time, and resources. By identifying all requirements from the outset, you can create a more realistic timeline and proactively address scope creep—when project requirements expand beyond the initial agreement. Scope creep is a common issue, affecting 52% of projects.
To define your scope, you'll figure out your project's:
- Goals: What will your project accomplish?
- OKRs: How will you measure the success of your project?
- Deliverables: What is the output of your project?
- Tasks and activities: What steps must you take to produce those deliverables?
- Exclusions: What won't you complete as part of this project?
- Constraints: What limitations are you working with?
Once you have this information, you can consolidate it into a project scope statement. This statement serves as a reference for you and your team throughout the project, enabling you to focus on the essential aspects while setting aside anything that falls outside the scope.
2. Identify your project tasks
Your project timeline shouldn't revolve around a single end date for the entire project. Instead, you must establish milestone dates for various tasks throughout the project.
To get technical, this process is called creating a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), which involves breaking down your large project into different deliverables. This approach simplifies the identification of tasks associated with each deliverable.
In our PB&J example, the ultimate deliverable is a finished, gooey, crustless, star-shaped PB&J sandwich. However, several other deliverables must be completed to achieve this final product. These might include:
- Homemade loaf of bread
- Specific jelly from the farmer's market
- Peanut butter
Now that we have identified each of our separate deliverables, it's simpler to discern the tasks associated with each one:
Deliverable #1: Bread
- Choose a bread recipe
- Purchase ingredients to bake bread
- Bake bread
- Give bread an hour to cool
- Slice bread
Deliverable #2: Jelly
- Find the time and location of the farmer's market
- Drive to the farmer's market
- Purchase the jelly
- Return home
Deliverable #3: Peanut butter
- Visit the grocery store
- Purchase the peanut butter
- Return home
Deliverable #4: Finished sandwich
- Gather a knife and other supplies
- Spread peanut butter on one slice of bread
- Spread jelly on another slice of bread
- Put two pieces of bread together
- Remove crust
- Slice the sandwich into a star-shape
- Put the sandwich on a plate to serve
Looking at all those steps, it's clear that the process isn't as straightforward as it may seem. While you might initially be tempted to jot everything down on paper to ensure nothing is overlooked, it's essential to make this information accessible to your entire team.
Consider using a collaborative knowledge-sharing platform like Confluence to store notes, responsibilities, and project details. This allows everyone to create consistent documentation that all teammates can access.
3. Assign time estimates to each task
You've outlined your deliverables and their associated tasks, but we haven't discussed time yet, so we're not quite at the stage of creating a timeline. In this step, you'll estimate the time required to complete each task. Review the tasks outlined under each deliverable and estimate the time needed for each one.
It's crucial to involve your project team in this process, as they'll have a more realistic understanding of how long their assigned tasks typically take. This collaboration helps guard against the planning fallacy, which suggests that people tend to underestimate the time required for tasks. Your team can provide valuable insights and act as a reality check to ensure your time estimates are accurate.
4. Put your tasks in order
Now that you have your project tasks and time estimates ready, it's time to arrange them in chronological order to establish a logical sequence for you and your team to follow. As you create this sequence, there are a few key considerations to keep in mind:
- Task and resource dependencies: These are resources or tasks that cannot be used simultaneously or completed until a subsequent task is done. For example, you can't spread the peanut butter until you've baked and sliced the bread.
- Concurrent tasks: Some steps can happen simultaneously, allowing you to save time. For instance, you can run to the farmer's market while the bread is cooling off.
By paying attention to these factors, you can develop a realistic and efficient timeline for your project.
5. List deadlines
It's important to remember that time estimates alone do not constitute a schedule. You must assign firm deadlines to tasks. "This should take three hours" is different from stating, "This task will be completed by Tuesday."
Thankfully, your time estimates will aid in setting more realistic deadlines for your project tasks. To err on the side of caution, include a buffer to ensure you don't cut things too close. Unexpected surprises are inevitable, and you'll appreciate having some flexibility built into the timeline.