01 · Purpose
Why and when to use it
Why?
It helps the team coordinate work and recognise when delays threaten an agreed review or delivery date.
When?
Create an initial plan in Define, then update estimates as measurement and cause investigation reduce uncertainty.
Who takes part? The leader maintains the plan with activity owners; the sponsor agrees important milestones and changes to commitments.
02 · Application
How to apply it
Start with: Work packages, network logic, effort estimates, calendars, resource commitments and review requirements.
- Convert work packages into activities with named owners.
- Estimate effort and duration separately.
- Apply predecessor relationships and realistic working calendars.
- Place review milestones where decisions are needed.
- Check resource conflicts and agree an achievable baseline schedule.
- Update actual progress, forecast completion and escalate significant slippage.
03 · Example
A warehouse dispatch project
Original illustrative example. All quantities, targets, roles and timings below are fictional teaching assumptions, not findings from a real project.
| Week | Planned work | Review or condition |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Confirm charter, scope and measure definitions | Define review: mandate and measurement approach agreed. |
| 2–3 | Validate data and establish baseline | Measure review: baseline sufficiently reliable. |
| 4–5 | Investigate and test cause explanations | Analyze review: causes supported by evidence. |
| 6–9 | Select and test changes | Pilot review: benefits and guardrails evaluated. |
| 10–12 | Implement, monitor and transfer ownership | Control review: sustained performance and handover evidence. |
04 · Interpretation
What the result tells you
The dates are an initial planning scenario, not a reason to declare a phase complete without evidence. If cause verification needs more work, revise the forecast and discuss the effect on the goal.
Completion check: An agreed calendar schedule with activity owners, milestones, assumptions and a review routine.
05 · Judgement
Mistakes and limitations
Common mistakes
- Confusing eight hours of effort with one elapsed day when staff are only partly available.
- Omitting approval and waiting time.
- Changing dates silently rather than recording a revised forecast.
Limits of the tool
A calendar plan is sensitive to uncertainty, availability and competing operational work. Detailed plans for later phases should remain provisional until the required evidence is available.
07 · Reading
Sources and further reading
Toolset backbone: Six Sigma+Lean Toolset: Mindset for Successful Implementation of Improvement Projects, second edition, edited by Stephan Lunau, with Renata Meran, Alexander John, Olin Roenpage and Christian Staudter (Springer, 2013). This reference identifies the toolset; the book text was not available for a chapter-level comparison in this development pass. The explanations, application sequence and fictional examples here are original LeanTrainingLab teaching material. Linked readings provide background; they do not prescribe every example or target.