MODULE 4

PLANNING AND SCHEDULING

PROJECT PLANNING

- The process of identifying all the activities necessary to successfully complete the project. Should
include a clear description of the required work before the work is started.
- The heart of good project management because it provides the central communication that
coordinates the work of all parties.
- Can best be described as the function of selecting the enterprise objectives and establishing the
policies, procedures, and programs necessary for achieving them.

STEPS IN PROJECT PLANNING

1. A determination of the general approach to the project.

2. Breakdown of the project into job steps or ‘‘activities’’ that must be performed.
3. Ascertainment of the sequential relationships among these activities.
4. Graphic presentation of this planning information in the form of a network.
5. Endorsement by the project team.

DESIRED RESULTS OF PLANNING

1. Finish the project on time

2. Continuous (uninterrupted) flow of work (no delays)
3. Reduced amount of rework (least number of changes)
4. Minimize confusion and misunderstandings
5. Increased knowledge of status of project by everyone
6. Meaningful and timely reports to management
7. You run the project instead of the project running you
8. Knowledge of scheduled times of key parts of the project
9. Knowledge of distribution of costs of the project
10. Accountability of people, defined responsibility/authority.
11. Clear understanding of who does what, when, and how much
12. Integration of all work to ensure a quality project for the owner

WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE

- Project management tool that takes a step-by-step approach to complete large projects with
several moving pieces. By breaking down the project into smaller components, a WBS can
integrate scope, cost and deliverables into a single tool.
- It is the cornerstone of the project work plan.
- The smallest unit in the WBS is a work package, which must be defined in sufficient detail so the
work can be measured, budgeted, scheduled, and controlled.
- The development of the WBS is a continuing process that starts when the project is first assigned
to the project manager and continues until all work packages have been defined. After the
activities are identified, it is relatively easy for a good planner to determine the schedule for a
project.
PRINCIPLES OF PLANNING AND SCHEDULING

There must be an explicit operational plan to guide the entire project. The plan must include and
link the three components of the project:
a. Scope
b. Budget
c. Schedule
Too, often planning is focus only on schedule without regard to the important component of
scope and budget.
1. Begin planning before starting work, rather than after starting work
2. Involve people who will actually do the work in the planning and scheduling process.
3. Include all aspects of the project: scope, budget, schedule, and quality
4. Build flexibility into the plan, include allowance for changes and time for reviews and approvals
5. Remember the schedule is the plan for doing the work, and it will never be precisely correct.
6. Keep the plan simple, eliminate irrelevant details that prevent the plan from being readable
7. Communicate the plan to all parties; any plan is worthless unless it is known.

RESPONSIBILITIES OF PARTIES

1. OWNER. Establishes the project completion date, which governs the scheduling of work for both
the designer and contractor
2. DESIGNER (Design Organization). Develops a design schedule that meets the owner’s schedule
3. CONTRACTOR. Develops a schedule for all construction activities in accordance with the contract
documents

PROJECT SCHEDULING

- The process of determining the sequential order of the planned activities, assigning realistic
durations to each activity, and determining the start and finish dates for each activity.

PURPOSE OF SCHEDULING

1. To show the relationship of each activity to others & to the whole project
2. To identify the precedence relationships among activities
3. To help make better use of people, money, & material resources by identifying critical bottlenecks
in the project
4. To encourage the setting of realistic time & cost estimates for each activity

TECHNIQUES FOR PLANNING AND SCHEDULING

1. Size
2. Complexity
3. Duration
4. Personnel
5. Owner’s requirement
METHODS OF SCHEDULING

1. Gantt Chart
2. Network Analysis System
a. Critical Path Method
b. Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)

GANTT CHART

- A program chart, a bar chart, a graphical time-scale of the schedule, developed by Henry L. Gantt.

CHARACTERISTICS OF GANTT CHART

1. Simple, easy to use/interpret, does not require extensive interrelationships of activities

2. Difficult and require significant time to update, does not show interdependences of activities,
does not integrate costs or resources with the schedule
3. An effective technique for overall project scheduling, but has limited application for detailed
contraction work.

NETWORK ANALYSIS METHOD (NAS)

- Provides a comprehensive method for project planning, scheduling, and controlling.

- A general title for the technique of defining and coordinating work by a graphical diagram that
shows work activities and the interdependences of activities.

CRITICAL PATH METHOD (CPM)

- The critical path estimates the minimum project duration and determine the amount of schedule
flexibility on the logical network paths within the schedule model
- Developed in 1956, now commonly used in engineering and construction industry.
- ACTIVITY. The performance of a task required to complete the project, such as, design of
foundations, review of design, procure steel contracts, or form. concrete columns.
- NETWORK. A diagram to represent the relationship of activities to complete the project.
- DURATION (D). The estimated time required to perform an activity. The time should include all
resources that are assigned to the activity.
- EARLY START (ES). The earliest time an activity can be started.
- EARLY FINISH (EF). The earliest time an activity can be finished and is equal to the early start plus
the duration. ( EF = ES + D )
- LATE FINISH (LF). The latest time an activity can be finished.
- LATE START (LS). The latest time an activity can be started without delaying the completion date
of the project. ( LS = LF - D )
- TOTAL FLOAT. The amount of time an activity may be delayed without delaying the completion
date of the project. (TF = LF - EF - LS - ES )
- FREE FLOAT. The amount of time an activity may be delayed without delaying the early start time
of the immediately following activity. ( Float = LS – ES or LF – EF )
- CRITICAL PATH. Series of interconnected activities through the network diagram, with each
activity having zero, free and total float time.
- NODE. Determine the activity information.
 FORWARD PASS COMPUTATION

- Involves the computation of the Earliest Start time (ES) of each activity.
- When two activities merge, the later of the Earliest Finish time (EF) becomes the ES of the
successor activity.
- The Earliest Finish time (EF) of the last node is the overall duration of the project.

BACKWARD PASS COMPUTATION

- Provides the Latest Finish time (LF) by which an activity must be completed if there is to be no
delay in the project.
- Determine LS & LF times for each activity.

PROGRAM EVALUATION AND REVIEW TECHNIQUE (PERT)

- The application of the critical path method (CPM) to calculate project duration with uncertainty.
- It uses three quantities in estimating the duration of a single activity:
- PROBABILITY CONCEPT. The activity duration time (Te) of an activity is given by the expected time
or mean time required to complete the activity
𝑎 + 4𝑚 + 𝑏
𝑇 =
6
a) OPTIMISTIC TIME. The shortest duration which could be anticipated for an activity
b) PESSIMISTIC TIME. The duration of the activity when everything takes a long time to complete.
c) MOST LIKELY TIME.
The standard deviation (𝜎) and the variance (𝜈) of the β-distribution are given by:
𝑏−𝑎
𝜎=
6
𝑏−𝑎
𝜈=𝜎 =
6
- UNCERTAINTY ANALYSIS. When the times of individual activity are uncertain, the total project
completion time becomes uncertain. It is assumed that the variance in the total project
completion time (V) can be computed by adding the variances along the critical path.
𝑉=𝜎 = 𝜎
- DEVIATION. Ts is the scheduled completion time. 𝜎 is the standard deviation of the critical path.
𝑇 −𝑇
𝑧=
𝜎