Work planning schedule vs. spreadsheet

Work planning and scheduling include two necessary instruments which provide work managers and performers with a complete picture of workloads and related requirements. These instruments are listed and explained in the paragraphs below:

• Work planning spreadsheet is an electronic list of job elements (tasks, steps, activities) where all elements are recorded as a one-by-one sequence (to-do list) and described with any number of attributes, for example their costs, priorities, start dates and deadlines. Such a work planning sheet actually provides unlimited capabilities in recording and describing tasks, so scheduling (specifying tasks with setting up their start dates and deadlines) in a spreadsheet is just a small part of its functionality that can provide you with really all-round planning and scheduling through listing multiple parameters like resources, milestones, job statuses etc. 

• Work planning schedule is an instrument which mainly shows time parameters of tasks and activities. Classic scheduling means using a time grid which is a special calendar allowing visual depicting the tasks on time grid of appropriate scale. This method clearly shows durations of tasks and their places on a time map of a project. This kind of instrument has a variety of appearances where one is called a chronological line, or just a “timeline” that represents chronology of job components and business events. 

Modern software solves a lot of problems related to paper-based planning such as slow speed of updating and turnover, and helps the work managers to do really effective task planning job by using both these tools at the same time for creating complex well-balanced work plans, and all this is within functionality of single software package like one that is considered below.

Good example of work planning and scheduling software is VIP Task Manager that allows multiple users to collaborate in real-time regime through client-server technology. This software provides adjustable work planning schedule (Calendar view), versatile work planning spreadsheet to create and assign to-do lists (Task List), and Task Tree view for effective job planning in terms of multi-level projects. With a help of this tool you can create and share calendar between your teammates working in the same network with you as well as with people working in remote locations (via Internet). Electronic sheet of this tool is fully interactive so you can use it to report and control work progress in real-time by checking task statuses and other indicators.