Project Planning and Scheduling Overview

Project Planning and Scheduling

• Project planning and scheduling is a process used by construction businesses to map out all project activities, needed resources, personnel, and any other pertinent details.
• A project plan is a comprehensive document encompassing project risks, budget, organization, scope, goals, objectives, and a project schedule.
• A project schedule outlines forecasted dates and sequences for all project activities.
• Construction planning involves choosing relevant policies, procedures, and processes to achieve project goals.
• Construction scheduling is adapting the detailed project plan to a functioning calendar that factors in scope, time, cost, and quality.

Link Between Project and Planning Process

• Projects are unique activities with a set start and finish
• Projects have fixed objectives
• Planning is a continuous process
• Planning defines project objectives and organizes activities

How Does the Planning Process Work?

• Inputs to the planning process include goals, project charters, stakeholders, and objectives.
• The planning process involves steps that create the project plan like defining scope, budget, schedule, risk, and quality.
• Project management plans are outputs of the planning process.

Project Planning Guidelines

• Project planning guidelines involve risk analysis, monitoring of project progress, emphasis on quality standards, and flexibility for change.

7 Areas of Project Planning

• Well-defined goals
• Resource planning
• Task planning
• Risk identification
• Communication
• Scheduling
• Quality control

Important Tasks in Project Planning and Scheduling

• Procurement strategy and design process precede project planning and scheduling; and follows the project scheduling process.

Definition of Procurement

• Procurement involves the process of acquiring goods, services, and other works from external sources.
• This includes selecting contractors, negotiating prices, and awarding contracts.
• It's a crucial process in construction projects to maximize value for money, minimize risk, enhance project management, and ensure high-quality standards.

Construction-Related Items That Can Be Procured

• Equipment
• Materials
• Labour
• Services

Procurement vs Purchasing

• Purchasing is a transactional step within the procurement life cycle.
• Purchasing focuses on getting the best prices, while procurement is the larger process encompassing vendor relationships and sourcing.

Definition of Procurement Strategy

• A procurement strategy is a plan for acquiring materials and services needed for a construction project.
• It includes policies and procedures for selecting vendors, evaluating bids, and awarding contracts.

Principles of Procurement Strategy

• Public accountability: Reflects transparency to the government
• Transparency: Practices involving clear rules, procedures, and conditions for all parties to understand.
• Open and fair competition: Assures equal opportunities for all participants
• Value for money: Maximizes the best return on money spent.
• Fair dealing: Ensures that all bids are processed fairly and fairly.

What is a Project Schedule?

• Project scheduling is the process of organizing tasks, resources, and due dates in an ideal sequence for project completion on time.
• Project scheduling encompasses creating a list of project milestones and deliverables, defining task dependencies and resource allocations, along with setting task durations and scheduled events.

Benefits of Project Scheduling

• Aligning team members on project goals
• Ensuring adequate resource allocation
• Illustrating task interdependence
• Identifying challenges early
• Enhancing communication
• Establishing task interdependence

Approaches to Project Scheduling

• Resource-oriented scheduling focuses on effectively using and scheduling resources
• Time-oriented scheduling emphasizes determining the project completion time considering precedence relationships between activities.
• Hybrid approaches are commonly used.

Scheduling Techniques

• Bar Charts (Gantt Charts): Commonly used for visual representation of tasks and their duration, useful for non-complex projects.
• Network Diagrams (Precedence Diagram Method): Visual representation of project activities with their dependencies.
  • Activities on Arrow (AOA)
  • Activities on Node (AON)
• Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT): Technique to estimate task duration and help in proper project scheduling and coordination.
• Critical Path Method (CPM): Minimum completion time calculation for a project considering predecessor and successor activities.

How to Determine the Critical Path Method Network

• Each task is represented by a box with information such as task name, earliest start/finish time, latest start/finish time, and task duration.
• Detailed parameters will be displayed.

There are four parameters of each activity of the network:

• Earliest Start Time (ES)
• Earliest Finish Time (EF)
• Latest Start Time (LS)
• Latest Finish Time (LF)

Calculating ES and EF

• Calculating the ES and EF involves a forward pass calculation through the network.

Calculating LS and LF

• Calculating the LS and LF involves a backward pass calculation through the network.

Calculating Slack/Total Float

• Total float is the amount of time an activity can be delayed without affecting the project.
• LS minus ES, EF minus LF

Identifying the Critical Path in the Network

• The critical path is the longest path in the network.
• Activities on the critical path directly affect the project's completion time.

How to Interpret and Present Results

• Critical path method results clarify project completion time.
• Results highlight critical tasks and slack times in other tasks.

Outcomes of Critical Path Identification

• Total project completion time is identified.
• Scheduled start and finish dates are established.
• Critical tasks needed for completion are highlighted.
• Slack time for non-critical tasks is identified.

Crashing the Critical Path Method

• Shortening the project scheduling network.
• Overlapping, shortening, and breaking down critical path tasks to speed project completion.

Conclusion

• Project planning and scheduling are crucial for successful construction projects.