A practical project timeline is a brilliant way to deliver your project’s value when it’s needed. There’s no place for optimism. It has reasonable estimates with a degree of variability built in so any issues that arise don’t lead to a scheduling disaster! Here’s how to build one:

• Use PERT instead of single-number estimates. PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique) makes you think through the best, worst, and most likely time estimates for each task. This approach yields a better, more thought-out result, which exposes the uncertainty that a single value estimate hides. The PERT weighted average tends to be closer to reality. It also gives you a basis for conversation when a task estimate doesn’t look right. That’s usually a sign the work isn’t well understood and needs further analysis.
• Learn from project histories. Historical data is often underused. There is a lot to learn from project histories. If a similar task took twice as long as planned on the last three projects, there’s no reason to think things will be different this time unless something has changed significantly. Pull actual values from past schedules. (None of our memories are as good as we think!) This technique is also a good way to catch systemic issues, like a particular type of task consistently causing problems, or a vendor who consistently underestimates the time to produce deliverables.
• Use an AI tool to double-check your estimates. Generative AI tools can provide a sanity-check for a draft schedule. Feed in the task list and ask it to find suspicious dependencies, optimistic durations, as well as steps that are missing entirely. Remember, AI doesn’t replace human judgment and the team’s expertise, but it’s a fast second opinion to check before you debut the schedule.
• Make sure the team members doing the work provide your estimates. PMs, sponsors, or team leaders who haven’t gotten their hands dirty in a while tend to be optimistic, so they aren’t the ones to estimate a practical schedule timeline. The person who’ll perform the work usually has firsthand, current knowledge of the true complexity of the work. Also, estimates from team members builds ownership and buy-in. If a task runs long, it feels like a shared problem to solve rather than a target someone else set.
• Build contingency into the plan as a whole and do that openly. When every task owner pads their estimate or the project manager arbitrarily doubles an estimate (you KNOW you have seen or done this!), the schedule ends up bloated, but somehow still unreliable That’s because no science has gone into building a reasonable timeline. A better approach is to use PERT estimates for each task and then include a visible contingency at the phase and project level. That provides flexibility to manage the inevitable surprises. Also, because it’s visible, it provides reliable information about what happens during the project – which makes project histories even more useful. It also provides a succinct and defensible answer when a stakeholder asks if or where wiggle room has been built into the schedule.
• Re-evaluate the schedule at every milestone. A timeline built at the start of a project is a best guess, when few hard facts are available. Regularly revisit estimates, dependencies, and the critical path. When possible, use rolling wave planning, where the near-term work is detailed and the future work is estimated at a high level. When that work becomes near-term, you know more and can produce better estimates. That way, you won’t over-commit to numbers that are still part conjecture.

While this week’s suggestions are worthy of being put into practice immediately, I have another assignment for you to ponder. Give yourself permission to learn from your experience in every project. Remind yourself that the initial baseline schedule (as well as the whole project plan) isn’t fixed! There will be changes. So, think about how to convey that to the people who want to set scope, budget, time and quality; and develop your personal approach to embracing and wrangling the uncertainty that is project management.

For more about scheduling, check out my Project Management Foundations: Schedules course.

Coming Up

It’s official! I’ve started a complete rework of my popular Project Management Foundations course. It was the #4 most popular LinkedIn Learning course in 2025. And the improvements and enhancements we’ve planned might notch it higher in the rankings.

In this edition, I’m narrowing the focus to project managers’ most important responsibilities, key skills, and effective techniques. It will also emphasize the practical aspects of how everything helps you deliver successful projects in the real world. That will get you going quicker and make your efforts more effective. In addition to videos, the course will include text to provide background info, infographics for high-level perspectives, and AI role play to practice common PM situations. There will be two levels of challenges: easier ones for people newer to project management and others for project managers who want to move up. And the content will also be in line with PMBOK® 8th edition.

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This article belongs to the Bonnie’s Project Pointers newsletter series, which has more than 105,000 subscribers. This newsletter is 100% written by a human (no aliens or AIs involved). If you like this article, you can subscribe to receive notifications when a new article posts.

Want to learn more about the topics I talk about in these newsletters? Watch my courses in the LinkedIn Learning Library and tune into my LinkedIn Office Hours live broadcasts.

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Delegation is a great way to free up your time while helping others expand their capabilities. But merely handing off a task to someone else often doesn’t accomplish either of those objectives. Proper delegation is an intentional transfer of ownership that requires shifting the workload, authority, and data necessary to complete the task. Here’s how to create a support structure to guide the delegate:

• Define their decision-making authority. The person you assign might be hesitant to act or lack confidence to grab their task with gusto if they don’t know how much authority and autonomy they have. Task execution can affect budgets, project timelines, risk and issue strategies, and more, so you know that decisions will need to be made. Tell your delegate exactly where their decision-making power begins and ends. That way, team members feel empowered and accomplish much more when they know they can decide without waiting for a green light.
• Help them build relationships. Success comes from teamwork, especially cross-functional collaboration. However, a newly delegated team member might not have the relationships needed to succeed on their tasks. By proactively building bridges for them, you give them credibility, increase the probability of good results, and even save time.
• Communicate the task ownership change. Inform stakeholders that a task has been delegated to make sure that it receives the proper priority — as if you, the project manager, were still spearheading it. When people know about the shift in task ownership, they won’t (or are less likely to) question the delegate’s right to drive the task forward and hold others accountable.
• Get them technical support. Make sure the delegate has access to key technical and team leaders. The most meaningful delegations stretch the delegate’s skills, so access to specialized help when needed helps the delegate learn while completing the task successfully. Make a list of specific experts and message them, asking them to prioritize inquiries from your team member.

Have you ever delegated a task to someone else or had a task delegated to you? Any stories or lessons learned from those experiences? I’ll give you an example from my younger years. I took over as project manager for one part of a huge program. Basically, the delegation was “This is Bonnie. She’s going to manage our part of the project.” No knowledge of authority, relationships, or technical support. At least the client knew I was on board. I figured out the authority, relationships, and technical support on my own, but it took several very stressful months.

For more about delegation, check out Dorie Clark’s Delegating Tasks course.

Coming Up

It’s official! I’ve started a complete rework of my popular Project Management Foundations course. It was the #4 most popular LinkedIn Learning course in 2025. And the improvements and enhancements we’ve planned might notch it higher in the rankings.

In this edition, I’m narrowing the focus to project managers’ most important responsibilities, key skills, and effective techniques. It will also emphasize the practical aspects of how everything helps you deliver successful projects in the real world. That will get you going quicker and make your efforts more effective. In addition to videos, the course will include text to provide background info, infographics for high-level perspectives, and AI role play to practice common PM situations. There will be two levels of challenges: easier ones for people newer to project management and others for project managers who want to move up. And the content will also be in line with PMBOK® 8th edition.

_______________________________________

This article belongs to the Bonnie’s Project Pointers newsletter series, which has more than 105,000 subscribers. This newsletter is 100% written by a human (no aliens or AIs involved). If you like this article, you can subscribe to receive notifications when a new article posts.

Want to learn more about the topics I talk about in these newsletters? Watch my courses in the LinkedIn Learning Library and tune into my LinkedIn Office Hours live broadcasts.

_______________________________________

According to the Project Management Institute’s (PMI) Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) 8th Edition, project managers are responsible for ensuring that their project delivers value. Completing projects within the triple constraints of time, scope, and cost isn’t enough. Let’s look at examples of how projects might produce value: 

• Tangible financial returns are the most common shape that value takes for most projects. They are financial benefits that the organization gains from a project and can be measured directly. Examples include Return on Investment (ROI), payback period, and Return on Assets (ROA). 
• Intangible value items are benefits you can’t always measure with a hard, specific number, such as improvements in customer satisfaction, community perception, or reputation as a high-quality provider. Assigning a number to this type of value is, essentially, guesswork. But this type of value can be crucial to a company’s success.
• Social Value, which PMI calls Value for People, represents an outcome that increases the value a project delivers for people. Examples include expanding access to a product or service to people in remote communities or to those who speak various languages. A service that displays wait-times for medical services is probably a sunk cost for the medical facility, but it makes things less stressful for patients. Expanded definitions like Social Value offer greater flexibility in justifying projects. Of course, they also increase expectations for the outcomes a project manager must track and manage.
• Value for the physical environment is a measurable value of a net benefit to the physical environment, such as reduction in waste, improvement in resource consumption, or decreases in environmental impact, such as net-zero energy policies.
• Increased operational efficiencies represent measurable value from strengthening operational efficiency and streamlining workflows within the organization. This type of value is often demonstrated through improvements in areas like communication or the deployment of new technologies to reduce complexity. Many of these directly or indirectly result in tangible financial returns. But they don’t have to in order to be considered valuable. For instance, outcomes that increase employee safety might increase costs, but deliver greater efficiencies because fewer skilled staff days are missed, and there is a more positive perception of the company’s care and concern for its employees. 

Are you already focused on value delivery? Great, you are a valuable project manager! If you want to learn more about this focus on value, check out Cyndi Snyder Dionisio’s course, Introducing the PMBOK® Guide—8th Edition.

Coming Up

It’s official! I’ve started a complete rework of my popular Project Management Foundations course. It was the #4 most popular LinkedIn Learning course in 2025. And the improvements and enhancements we’ve planned might notch it higher in the rankings.

In this edition, I’m narrowing the focus to project managers’ most important responsibilities, key skills, and effective techniques. It will also emphasize the practical aspects of how everything helps you deliver successful projects in the real world. That will get you going quicker and make your efforts more effective. In addition to videos, the course will include text to provide background info, infographics for high-level perspectives, and AI role play to practice common PM situations. There will be two levels of challenges: easier ones for people newer to project management and others for project managers who want to move up. And the content will also be in line with PMBOK® 8th edition.

_______________________________________

This article belongs to the Bonnie’s Project Pointers newsletter series, which has more than 105,000 subscribers. This newsletter is 100% written by a human (no aliens or AIs involved). If you like this article, you can subscribe to receive notifications when a new article posts.

Want to learn more about the topics I talk about in these newsletters? Watch my courses in the LinkedIn Learning Library and tune into my LinkedIn Office Hours live broadcasts.

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