Construction Management >> Project planning and scheduling

After defining the scope and objectives of a project it is important to prepare a list of activities required to complete the project and then prepare a schedule of these activities. CPM and PERT are powerful tools for planning and scheduling of complex projects.

Project scheduling plays an important role in the following:

• estimating the time and cost of the project. 

• serve as the basis for allocating resources,

• estimating cash flows

• establishing the extension of time and the associated cost to be awarded for delays and variations.

• monitoring and control of project performance

The following items should be considered carefully while preparing project schedule:

•   The activities of work which consume resources;

•   Milestone dates and Critical dates for completion;

•   The resources (labour, construction equipment and materials) based on the  proposed construction techniques and methods;

•   The duration of project activities based on the available resources, the production rates and the quantity of work to be done;

•   Total demand for resources;

•   The sequencing of project activities based on the relationship between them;

•   The critical path of the project;

•   The working days in the calendar and potential problems (climatic, political, social etc);

•   The delivery time of equipments;

•   Access to the project site;

•   Types of labour (direct hire or by subcontractor);

•   Subcontractors job;

•   Local holidays and shut-down periods;

•   Working hours for different resources involved in the project (e.g. 8 hours/day, 6 days week etc);

•   Work of other contractors on the site;

•   Financial restraints of the client.