Any testimonial to the amazing accomplishment of the 100th AACE Recommended Practice needs to squarely start with the vision and energy of Ted Douglas, CCP PSP FAACE Hon. Life. Working with the Technical Board sometime around 2002, he designed and described around 20 planning & scheduling recommended practices. He then began to lead by example in authoring and leading teams of other P&S professionals to start the process. I know this because I was swept up in the quiet tsunami that was a part of this effort.
I really became active in this process when I realized that this was much more than establishing a body of knowledge; it was fundamentally changing the way professional schedulers were viewed by their co-workers. Project schedulers often work as the sole person on the team who understands the mechanics of CPM scheduling. Their work was only respected in relation to the confidence that others had in the person who was scheduling.
Not only do recommended practices give guidance to the project scheduler, but they also act as proof to the wider audience that the person is, indeed using the proper methods and drawing conclusions that could be trusted. Sometimes the only barrier between an aggressive attack on the project scheduler was a thin piece of paper with AACE Recommended Practice printed on it. That thin piece of paper has stood the test of time in guarding as well as guiding the modern scheduling professional in the 21st century. Hooray for AACE Recommended Practices and Ted Douglas!