Project activity list vs. project activity schedule

Project activity definition: it is any kind of work that is focused on accomplishing a project. The less resources (time, budget, labour) are spent to support these activities without defecting from quality and project scope, the more effective are the project plan and management. There are two essential tools used to manage project activities: project activity list and project activity schedule. Both these charts are generated from expertise and professionalism of project managers along with requirements and objectives of project stakeholders. Each of these instruments has own specifics and purposes. Let’s describe some essentials of these two project activity charts:

• Project activity list (aka project activity sheet) is an instrument which is used to describe sequence of tasks, successive operations or steps which are necessary to complete the project. This kind of project activity plan can be represented as a plain to-do list or as a task tree where all work components are grouped and shown in interrelated manner. Project activity reports are usually created as a task list showing which tasks are completed, in progress etc.

• Project activity schedule (aka project timeline) is a type of work plan that shows tasks and project phases in regard to their time parameters. Such a schedule can be represented on a calendar-like project activity template with different scale of the time grid. In other words there can be templates outlining activities and tasks for a day, week, month and a year. 

Good example of software which supports both kinds of project activity plans is VIP Task Manager with its project activity list templates (Task list and Task tree views), and Calendar project activity template with adjustable time grid. With a help of this program you can create and share project activity schedules and project activity sheets in real-time regime between multiple team members collaborating at the same project, because it functions through client-server technology allowing you to arrange project activity networks consisted of multiple workstations.

 These interactive tools can be used to build custom project activity reports and project activity diagrams of different kinds. This software can act like a project activity log or archive storing a database of tasks described with multiple attributes, so if you want to obtain review of pending or completed tasks you can easily retrieve necessary information from this project activity log.