You've got a job to do; you've sequenced and scheduled it
But, in the middle of your critical path there is another independent project (or task) over which you have no control. In effect, your schedule has a break in its sequence over which you have no influence.
Yikes!
This is all too common in construction projects where independent "trades" (meaning contractors with different skills, like electrical vs plumbing) are somehow sequenced by some "higher" authority.
So, what do you do?
If you have advance notice of this critical path situation, you should put both cost slack and schedule slack in your project plan, but there may be other things you can do.
Cost slack is largely a consequence of your choices of schedule risk management.
Schedule risk management may have these possibilities:
- Establish a coordination scheme with the interfering project .... nothing like some actual communication to arrive at a solution
- Schedule slack in your schedule that can absorb schedule maladies from the interfering project
- Design a work-around that you can inexpensively implement to bridge over the break in your schedule
- Actually break up your one project into two projects: one before and one after the interposing project. That way, you've got two independent critical paths: one for the 'before' project and one for the 'after' project
At the end of the day: communicate; communicate; communicate!
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