PLANNING

SCHEDULING AND
PERT
PREPARED BY GROUP3
 WHAT IS PLANNING
SCHEDULING?
is an important part of the
construction management.
Planning and scheduling of
construction activities helps
engineers to complete the
project in time and within the
budget.
 PLANNING SCHEDULING
The term Construction does not
only denotes physical activities
involving men, materials and
machinery but also covers the entire
gamut of activities from conception
to realization of a construction
project. Thus, management of
resources such as men, materials,
machinery requires effective
planning and scheduling of each
 FINANCIAL
Project scheduling impacts the overall finances of
a project. Time constraints require project
managers to schedule resources effectively. This
is particularly true when resources must have
highly specialized skills and knowledge in order to
complete a task or when costly materials are
required. Completing a project in a short time
frame typically costs more because additional
resources or expedited materials are needed.
With accurate project scheduling, realistic
estimates and accurate projections prevent last-
minute orders that drive up costs.
 DOCUMENTATION
Creating a comprehensive work breakdown structure
allows you to create a chart, such as a Gantt chart, that
lists the project tasks, shows dependencies and defines
milestones. Management consultant Henry Gantt
designed this type of chart to show a graphic schedule
of planned work. Its role in business projects is to
record and report progress toward project completion.
Your project schedule also allows you to assign human
resources to the work and evaluate their allocation to
ensure you have the appropriate levels of utilization.
You may also develop a program evaluation and review
technique chart, or PERT chart, to help you analyze
project tasks.
EXAMPLE OF GANTT CHART
 MANAGEMENT
Effective project managers conduct
regular meetings to get status
reports. They use project scheduling
meetings to check in with their team
members and prevent costly
misunderstandings. These regular
meetings ensure that work flows
from one process to the next and
that each team member knows that
he needs to do to contribute the
 QUALITY
Project scheduling ensures one task gets completed in a
quality manner before the next task in the process begins.
By assuring that quality measures meet expectations at
every step of the way, you ensure that managers and
team members address problems as they arise and don't
wait until the end. No major issues should appear upon
completion because youve established quality controls
from the very beginning of the scheduling process.
Effective project managers understand that ensuring
quality control involves managing risks and exploiting
opportunities to speed up the schedule when possible to
beat the competition and achieve or maintain a
competitive edge with a more reliable product.
 PLANNING
Planning is one of those aspects that
affects the outcome of so many
different things in life.
By definition, planning is an orderly /
step by step proposal on how an end
product / goal will be achieved and
when it comes to construction, this
starts the day the idea to put up a
structure is conceived.
 PLANNING
Bearing in mind that there are so many
different personnel (professionals) involved in
the construction process, one has to ensure
that each of these is duly included in the
planning process. The planning in construction
phase entails determining the resources
required for the project and should not only
focus financial planning but also time,
materials, suppliers as well as human resource
i.e. labour. The equipment needed for the
project is also determined at this phase.
 PLANNING
Whether documented (as should ideally be the case) or
not, a project plan should address the following areas with
regard to the project;
The scope of the project i.e. time and
cost within what time do you want to complete your
construction and working within what budget?

Objectives of the project what kind of

structure are you setting up and what will be the necessary
requirements needed to be put in place to ensure that the
project meets its intended objectives? Is it a hospital, road,
school, mall or home?
 PLANNING
Milestones what activity or stage of the project will
signify substantial progress?

A work schedule and breakdown

structure given the different tasks that make up the
construction process, it is important to clearly indicate when each
of these tasks will be carried out and the systematic sequence
that the different tasks will follow.

Progress tracking with respect to the schedule, one

should be able to track the progress of the project based on
actual output against planned output and determine whether the
project is on course or lagging.
 IMPORTANCE OF PLANNING
Planning helps to minimize the cost by
optimum utilization of available resources.
Planning reduces irrational approaches,
duplication of works and inter
departmental conflicts.
Planning encourages innovation and
creativity among the construction
managers.
Planning imparts competitive strength to
the enterprise.
There are often additional costs on
projects due to poor planning
because:
1. personnel and equipment are standing idle, waiting for
access, materials or equipment
2. management use their valuable time to make
emergency arrangements to procure materials, organize
access and rearrange work sequences which should
have been organized ahead of time, instead of
managing the project
3. materials which arent on site have to be expedited at
additional expense
4. there are delays to the project schedule
5. theres a knock on delay to follow-on trades and
subcontractors which results in further delays and costs
 SCHEDULING
Scheduling is the fitting of the final
work plan to a time scale. It shows
the duration and order of various
construction activities. It deals with
the aspect of when to do it.
Scheduling of the programming,
planning and construction process is
a vital tool in both the daily
management and reporting of the
project progress.
 IMPORTANCE OF
SCHEDULING
1.The schedule is useful when formulating
tender or bid estimates because:
A. It enables you to see whether the duration the client has
stipulated is achievable. Who wants to win a project with
an impossible duration where you could be penalized for
completing it late? If you cannot meet the clients schedule
submit an alternative bid based on your schedule, or dont
bid for the project.
B. When you know the overall project duration you can
calculate your overhead costs (preliminaries), which are
your management, supervision and running costs.
C. If the schedule is resourced you can use it to either
calculate, or certainly check, your tender estimate.
 IMPORTANCE OF
SCHEDULING
D. I like to submit my tender schedule with my bid price. I
believe this strengthens your bid as it demonstrates to the
client youve thought through the project and know how you
will construct it.
E. The tender schedule could also demonstrate to the client
the obligations they need to fulfil (such as when they need
to provide access or information).
F. The tender schedule can be used to forecast the
contractors cash flow. More contractors have failed
because of insufficient cash flow than because their projects
lost money, and sometimes this is due to contractors taking
on projects that are a drain on their cash flow because they
are too large or have unfavourable payment conditions.
 IMPORTANCE OF
SCHEDULING
2. Its possible with a correctly constructed
schedule to move the critical path through different
activities. This process could either shorten or
extend the overall project duration. By doing this I
was able on one project to shorten a 44 week
schedule to 40 weeks. Its a bit like finding a route
to a destination. Whether youre using Google Maps
or an App on your Smart device, the program
analyses thousands of routes and then provides
several choices. Some routes may avoid tolls, while
others are best when there is no traffic, while some
have a shorter distance but longer duration.
 IMPORTANCE OF
SCHEDULING
3. With a properly resourced schedule
its possible to change the
sequencing of activities and extend
or shorten durations in such a
manner that the use of resources is
smoothed and optimised. This helps
reduce the peak resource demands
and maintains continuity of
resources, eliminating resources
having to be demobilised and then
 IMPORTANCE OF
SCHEDULING
4. The schedule shows the team the
goals/targets/milestones and when they must be
met. It then shows the route that the team must
follow kind of like following a map to get to your
destination. It provides the sequence of tasks to
guide Project Managers and Supervisors as to
which activities they need to be working on, and
which are the next ones they should be planning
for. Without this map or schedule you may find
individuals in the team pulling and working in
different directions, maybe even not knowing
when the target must be achieved.
 IMPORTANCE OF
SCHEDULING
5. They provide the dates when construction
materials are required on the project site.
6. They can be used to monitor the progress of
subcontractors and suppliers.
7. A project schedule supplied to subcontractors
when they tender, which is then included in
their contract document, reduces opportunities
for them to misunderstand the construction
project durations or resources required, which
lessens the possibility of claims and disputes.
 IMPORTANCE OF
SCHEDULING
8. A resourced construction schedule allows you to
plan the mobilisation of resources. You know how
many of which type of resource you need and
when.
9. Many contractors see the schedule as an
opportunity for the client to use it to bash and
penalise them. I see it as an opportunity to ensure
the client meets their obligations (such as
providing access and information) timeously. An
approved project construction schedule is a
valuable aid when preparing extension of time
claims.
 IMPORTANCE OF
SCHEDULING
10. Importantly the schedule provides
feedback on whether the
construction work is proceeding
according to schedule and whether
the project will be completed in time.
When its detected that progress is
slipping action can be taken to
recover the slippage which may
include bringing on additional
resources or working extended shifts.
 WHAT IS PERT?
A PERT chart is a project
management tool used to schedule,
organize, and coordinate tasks within
a project. PERT stands for Program
Evaluation Review Technique, a
methodology developed by the U.S.
Navy in the 1950s to manage the
Polaris submarine missile program.
 PERT is a method to analyze the involved tasks
in completing a given project, especially the
time needed to complete each task, and to
identify the minimum time needed to complete
the total project.
This project model was the first of its kind, a
revival forscientific management, founded by
Frederick Taylor (Taylorism) and later refined
by Henry Ford (Fordism).DuPont's
critical path methodwas invented at roughly
the same time as PERT.
 PERT ANALYSIS
What is a PERT analysis? The
program (or project) evaluation and
review technique, commonly
abbreviated PERT, is a statistical
mathematics tool, used in General
project management, which was
designed to analyze and represent
the tasks involved in completing a
given project.
The PERT formalism has these elements
and rules:
Directed arcs represent activities, each
of which has a specified duration. This
is the activity on arc formalism; there
is also a less-common activity on
node formalism. Note that activities
are considered to be uninterruptible
once started.
Nodes are events or points in time.
 The activities (arcs) leaving a node
cannot begin until all of the activities
(arcs) entering a node are completed.
This is how precedence is shown. You
can also think of the node as enforcing
a rendezvous: no-one can leave until
everyone has arrived
There is a single starting node which
has only outflow arcs, and a single
ending node that has only inflow arcs.
 There are no cycles in the network. You
can see the difficulty here. If an outflow
activity cannot begin until all of the
inflow activities have been completed,
a cycle means that the system can
never get started!
EXAMPLE OF PERT CHART
 A network diagram can be created by hand or by using diagram
software. There are two types of network diagrams, activity on arrow (
AOA) and activity on node (AON). Activity on node diagrams are
generally easier to create and interpret. To create an AON diagram, it is
recommended (but not required) to start with a node namedstart. This
"activity" has a duration of zero (0). Then you draw each activity that
does not have a predecessor activity (aandbin this example) and
connect them with an arrow from start to each node. Next, since
bothcanddlistaas a predecessor activity, their nodes are drawn with
arrows coming froma. Activityeis listed withbandcas predecessor
activities, so nodeeis drawn with arrows coming from bothbandc,
signifying thatecannot begin until bothbandchave been completed.
Activityfhasdas a predecessor activity, so an arrow is drawn
connecting the activities. Likewise, an arrow is drawn frometog. Since
there are no activities that come afterforg, it is recommended (but
again not required) to connect them to a node labeledfinish.
 ADVANTAGES
PERT chart explicitly defines and makes visible dependencies
(precedence relationships) between the work breakdown
structure (commonlyWBS) elements.
PERT facilitates identification of the critical path and makes
this visible.
PERT facilitates identification of early start, late start, and slack
for each activity.
PERT provides for potentially reduced project duration due to
better understanding of dependencies leading to improved
overlapping of activities and tasks where feasible.
The large amount of project data can be organized & presented
in diagram for use in decision making.
PERT can provide a probability of completing before a given
time.
 DISADVANTAGES
There can be potentially hundreds or thousands of activities and
individual dependency relationships.
PERT is not easily scalable for smaller projects.
The network charts tend to be large and unwieldy requiring several
pages to print and requiring specially sized paper.
The lack of a timeframe on most PERT/CPM charts makes it harder to
show status although colours can help (e.g., specific colour for
completed nodes).
During project execution, however, a real-life project will never
execute exactly as it was planned due to uncertainty. This can be due
to ambiguity resulting from subjective estimates that are prone to
human errors or can be the result of variability arising from
unexpected events or risks. The main reason that PERT may provide
inaccurate information about the project completion time is due to
this schedule uncertainty. This inaccuracy may be large enough to
render such estimates as not helpful.
 PERT centers on the concept of time and allows flexible
scheduling due to variations in the amount of time it
takes to complete one specific part of the project. A
typical PERT network consists of activities and events.
An event is the completion of one program component
at a particular time. An activity is defined as the time
and resources required to move from one event to
another. Therefore, when events and activities are
clearly defined, progress of a program is easily
monitored, and the path of the project proceeds toward
termination. PERT mandates that each preceding event
be completed before succeeding events, and thus the
final project, can be considered complete.
 Once the expected time is computed, the critical path is
established. The PERT network considers all potential variables,
thus quantifying the scheduling and planning of the project. In a
comprehensive view of PERT, it becomes clear that despite the
fact that some steps of the process are independent, the next
step will depend on the successful completion of prior steps.
The basic difference in PERT and CPM is in how the diagrams are
drawn. In PERT, events are placed in circles (or rectangles) to
emphasize a point in time. Tasks are indicated by the lines
connecting the network of events. In CPM the emphasis is on the
tasks, which are placed in circles. The circles are then connected
with lines to indicate the relationship between the tasks. CPM
use has become more widespread than the use of PERT
applications.
 Another key to PERT is to analyze and revise the data owing to a
constant state of flux. Factors influencing project management
take many forms, including personnel, materials, equipment and
facilities, utilities, and environmental conditions. For
example,absenteeism,sickness, vacations, and even strikes
can affect personnel supply, or sudden changes in climatic
conditions (snow, flooding from rains, etc.) may have an
environmental impact. Various methods have been established
to adjust the PERT network in order to allow for unpredictable
situations. In recent years,computershave provided one major
means of network analysis and revision, especially on larger
projects. Computers are significantly useful for computations of
the critical path and slack time. Smaller networks can generally
be managed with manual computations and are usually
developed, evaluated, and revised without great difficulty.
 What is the critical path in project
management? In project
management, a critical path is the
sequence of project activities that
add up to the longest overall
duration. This determines the
shortest time possible to complete
the project.
Forming a construction plan is a highly challenging
task. As Sherlock Holmes noted:
Most people, if you describe a train of events to
them, will tell you what the result would be. They
can put those events together in their minds, and
argue from them that something will come to
pass. There are few people, however, who, if you
told them a result, would be able to evolve from
their own inner consciousness what the steps
were which led up to that result. This power is
what I mean when I talk of reasoning backward.