| Course | HS460 Project Design and Management for Health Care |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 6 |
| Paper type | Schedule and milestone plan |
| Length | About 880 words, 6 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | BS in Health Science |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for HS460 Unit 6
Forty-Six Working Days From Posting to First Saturday: A Unit 6 Schedule and Milestone Plan With the Critical Path Marked
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
HS460: Project Design and Management for Health Care
Unit 6 Schedule and Milestone Plan
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
Tillford Family Health, its activities, durations and dates are composite; the sources cited are real.
Source of the Activities
Every activity comes from a work package in the breakdown, and each carries its package code, so the schedule adds no work the scope did not contain. Thirty-one activities were derived from the twenty-two packages; some packages, such as hiring the weekend medical assistant, split into several activities because they pass through distinct steps.
The Hiring Chain
The longest chain, and the critical path, runs through package 1.2:
1. Post the position (1.2a): 2 working days. Predecessor: position approved (1.1).
2. Collect applications (1.2b): 10 days.
3. Interview and check references (1.2c): 8 days.
4. Make an offer and receive acceptance (1.2d): 3 days.
5. New hire's notice period with current employer (1.2e): 10 days.
6. Orientation and competency check (1.2f): 8 days.
7. First supervised Saturday (1.2g): 5 days, counting the week leading to it.
Total: 46 working days. Estimates come from the practice manager's last two hires, which took 41 and 52 working days.
Other Chains
The clinical protocols chain, from drafting the triage sheet to partner signatures, runs 31 working days, giving it 15 days of float. The site chain, from the landlord agreement through supply ordering to the walk-through, runs 28 days. The patient access chain runs 24 days but must finish two weeks before opening so patients receive mailed notices in time; its latest start is therefore set from the opening date backward.
The Network
A hand-drawn network diagram shows activities as boxes and dependencies as arrows. The critical path is traced in red: posting, applications, interviews, offer, notice, orientation and the supervised Saturday. Two other chains join the critical path at the end: protocols must be signed and the walk-through complete before the first Saturday. Drawing the network before any chart makes it clear why activities wait on each other.
Finding the Critical Path
The critical path was found by adding durations along each chain from start to opening and comparing totals. The hiring chain, at 46 days, is longest; every other chain finishes earlier and has float. A delay of one day anywhere on the hiring chain delays opening by one day; a delay of up to fifteen days on the protocol chain does not. Scheduling guidance defines the critical path as the longest sequence of dependent activities, which determines the shortest possible project duration (Project Management Institute [PMI], 2021).
The protocols feel like the project's hardest work, but the date the clinic opens depends on a stranger's notice period at another employer.
Milestones
1. Charter approved: day 0.
2. Weekend medical assistant position posted: day 3.
3. Offer accepted: day 23.
4. Protocols signed by all partners: day 33.
5. Patient notices mailed: day 36.
6. Walk-through complete: day 44.
7. First Saturday: day 47.
Milestones are spaced so the partners see progress every two to three weeks, and each is something that either happened or did not.
The Gantt Chart
A spreadsheet Gantt chart shows all thirty-one activities against calendar weeks, with milestones as diamonds and the critical path in red. It is printed on one page for the partners' meetings.
Schedule Risks
The notice period is the largest uncertainty: a candidate who must give four weeks' notice instead of two adds ten days. Two responses are prepared. The practice can start interviews before the posting closes, overlapping steps 2 and 3, which saves about five days. And if the hire falls through, a medical assistant from the weekday staff can cover the first two Saturdays at overtime rates while recruiting continues, which protects the opening date at extra cost. Project texts recommend identifying such options for the critical path before the schedule is baselined (Kerzner, 2017).
Why the Partners See Milestones, Not the Chart
The partners meet monthly and have little time for a thirty-one-line chart. Milestones answer the only questions they ask: is the project on track, and is anything they must decide coming up? A milestone that slips is reported with its effect on opening and the response chosen. The full chart stays with the operations coordinator and the practice manager, who use it to manage daily work.
How Durations Were Estimated
Each duration has a basis written beside it. Hiring steps use the practice's last two hires. Protocol drafting uses the lead nurse practitioner's own estimate, checked against the time a similar protocol took last year. Supply lead times use vendor quotes. Where no history existed, as for the landlord agreement, the estimate is padded and marked as uncertain, so the partners know which dates are soft.
Baseline and Updates
Once the partners approve the schedule, it becomes the baseline. The operations coordinator updates actual dates every two weeks and reports any change to the critical path in the status note. Research on large projects finds that schedules slip most when early estimates are treated as certain rather than revisited (Flyvbjerg, 2014), which is why updates are routine rather than exceptional.
References
Flyvbjerg, B. (2014). What you should know about megaprojects and why: An overview. Project Management Journal, 45(2), 6-19. https://doi.org/10.1002/pmj.21409
Kerzner, H. (2017). Project management: A systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling (12th ed.). Wiley.
Project Management Institute. (2021). A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK guide) (7th ed.). Project Management Institute.
Reading the HS 460 Unit 6 instructions
Unit 6 typically asks for a project schedule: activities with durations and dependencies, a network diagram, the critical path, a Gantt chart and milestones. Four pages is common. Derive activities from your work breakdown so nothing new appears. State dependencies before assigning dates. Draw the network to show why activities wait, then the Gantt chart to show when. Find the critical path by comparing the total duration of each chain, and calculate float for the others. Choose milestones that a sponsor can follow without reading the chart. Give each duration a basis, and prepare responses for the critical path before the schedule is baselined. Mark the critical path clearly on both the network and the Gantt chart.
How the HS 460 Unit 6 example is put together
A section explains that activities come from packages and keep their codes. The hiring chain is set out in seven steps totaling forty-six working days, with estimates from the last two hires. Other chains are summarized with their float. The network section describes the hand-drawn diagram and critical path, and a section explains how the path was found, citing scheduling guidance; the highlighted sentence notes that a stranger's notice period sets the opening date. Seven milestones and the Gantt chart follow. Schedule risks with two prepared responses, why partners see milestones, how durations were estimated, and baseline updates close the plan. Each estimate carries a short basis beside it. Updates are reported every two weeks in the status note.
Where the points sit in the HS460 Unit 6 rubric
Schedules are generally scored on derivation from the work breakdown, correctness of dependencies, accurate critical path analysis, quality of milestones and realism. Critical path analysis and dependencies often weigh most: graders check that the path is found correctly and that float is understood. Derivation earns credit when activities carry package codes. Milestones are judged on whether they are meaningful to the sponsor. Realism includes documented estimating bases and prepared responses for the critical path. A readable network and Gantt chart add points. Schedules that list dates without dependencies, or misidentify the critical path, tend to lose points. Explaining the float on non-critical chains, and how it was used, often earns additional credit.
HS460 Unit 6 help: mistakes that cost points
A frequent reason schedules are returned is dates assigned before dependencies are worked out. Another is a critical path chosen by intuition rather than by comparing chain totals. Some students add activities that the work breakdown never contained. Milestones are often too many or too vague. Durations without a basis invite doubt. Responses for the critical path are rarely prepared. Bring us your work breakdown and any history on how long similar tasks took, and the schedule will be built from those packages with the critical path traced. Gantt charts printed without the critical path marked lose much of their value to the sponsor.
Get an HS460 Unit 6 example written to your instructions
Scheduling needs your own activities, so pass along your work breakdown, the Unit 6 prompt and the rubric. Within 24-48h you receive a first sample free of charge, dependencies drawn, the critical path found by totals, and a milestone table your sponsor could read at a glance. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
More HS460 papers and BS in Health Science samples
- HS460 Unit 1: Project Charter
- HS460 Unit 2: Discussion Board Post
- HS460 Unit 3: Scope Statement
- HS460 Unit 4: Work Breakdown Structure
- HS460 Unit 5: Stakeholder Register
- HS460 Unit 7: Budget Worksheet
- HS460 Unit 8: Risk Register
- HS460 Unit 9: Seminar Reflection
- HS460 Unit 10: Project Closeout Report
- HS450 Unit 6: Competitive Position Paper
HS460 Unit 6 questions, answered
How is the critical path found without software?
By listing every chain of dependent activities from start to finish, adding their durations and picking the longest. With thirty-one activities, the example does this by hand in a small table and double-checks it against the Gantt chart. Float on any other chain is the gap between its total and the critical total, which is how the example can name eight days on the landlord's agreement.
What is the difference between a milestone and an activity?
An activity takes time and uses resources; a milestone is a point in time with zero duration, marking that something is done or decided. The example's milestones include the transfer procedure signed and the first public Saturday. Giving a milestone a duration, or listing ordinary tasks as milestones, is a frequent correction on graded schedules.
Should the schedule include the six Saturdays after opening?
Yes, if the charter defines the project's end there, as the example's does. Those Saturdays are the final activities before handover, and leaving them off would make the schedule end at opening while the project carries on. The example shows them as six short activities linked in sequence, followed by the handover milestone.
Where can I find a free HS460 Unit 6 sample paper?
The whole Unit 6 plan appears here, with thirty-one activities, a forty-six-day critical path and seven milestones.
How is the critical path found in a small project schedule?
Add the durations along each chain of dependent activities from start to finish; the longest chain is the critical path, and the others have float.