Planning is a general term that sets a clear road map that should be followed to reach a destination. It is a decision-making process that involves the break down of the project into definable, measurable and identifiable tasks/activities and then establishes the logical interdependence among them. When this planning is applied to construction work, it is called construction planning.
Construction plans my exist at different levels which include corporate strategic plans, pre-tender plans, pre-contract plans, short-term construction plans, long-term construction plans etc. These levels of plans differ from each other but they are unique in four (4) steps in which they are carried out viz,
a. Performing breakdown of work items involved in the project into activities.
b. Identifying the proper sequence by which the activities should be executed.
c. Representing the activities in lines or charts.
d. Estimating the resources, time and cost of individual activities.
The WWWH of Project Planning
WWWH stands for What, Where, Who and How a project should be done. These are the basic questions that are asked while preparing construction plans.
What: this involves what the project hopes to achieve/accomplish. These decisions are often taken by high level managers which comprises group of individuals or enterprising people. The high-level mangers usually appoint the strategic planners.
Where: this involves where the project would be done. It also includes the time i.e. ‘‘when’’ the project is expected to commence. This is often the decision of strategic planners.
Who: this answers the question of who carries out the project? This is often the task of middle level managers and operational managers of the organization.
How: this answers the question of how the project would be executed. It involves the minute details of the work assigned in addition to finding the requirements of machinery and workforce to carry out the work. It also involves the plan of day-to-day activities of the project.
Advantages of Construction Planning
Although events can never be predicted exactly, planning is important as factors beyond control may interfere and upset plans and no work can be achieved successfully without planning.
1. Planning minimizes uncertainties: certain uncertainties like unavailability of work force, equipment, raw materials etc due to strike and natural calamities may upset plans. However, with short term alternate plans, adverse effects of these uncertainties can be minimized. Without a plan, many uncertainties will creep in into a project and hamper the other wings of work force.
2. It exercises good control: with proper planning, there is optimum use of materials and man power which result in cost reduction in the construction industry. There will be good control on every wing of the construction activity. Cash flow for the activity is streamlined avoiding unnecessary holding of the funds or hampering of the works due to cash shortage.
3. Planning focuses on objectives: a construction plan may have an objective of specializing itself in irrigation projects, building construction, producing precast products etc. It has equipment and expertise in achieving particular objective. Planning helps the managers of all department to work for achieving the objective and periodically revise the plan in the interest of achieving the objective.
4. Planning leads to success: occasionally, unforeseen factors may affect success to some extent but planning puts the organization definitely on the path to success. If the work is carried out as per the plan without any hindrance, an organization can make good profit and become competent for obtaining more works.
Project Activity
Project activity is defined as any function or decision in the project that consume time, resources and cost. A project is usually broken down into activities and activities are assigned duration in preparation for work schedule.
There are three types of project activity namely:
Production activities: these are activities that involve the use of resources such as labour, equipment, materials, or subcontractor. This type of activity can be easily identified by reading the project drawings and specifications. Examples are excavation works, concrete works, asphalting works etc. Each of the production activity have resources, cost and duration.
Procurement activities: these are activities that specify the time for procuring materials or equipment that are needed for a production activity. Examples are brick procurement, utility manufacturing and delivery etc.
Management activities: these are activities that are related to management decisions, such as approvals, vacations etc.
Project Network
This is the graphical representation of the project activities and their relationship. Project network follows after the project have been broken down into activities. The network shows the duration of each activity and how the activities relate to each other or the sequence of starting and completion of the project.
There are two popular methods of preparing project networks. They are:
1. Activity Network
2. Gantt Chart
Before I proceed to discuss these two methods, I would like to call our mind to one important process in preparing project network. This is the assigning of duration to a project. Duration is assigned to a project based on the size of the activities and the resources involved in the project. The size of the activities would be determined from the quantity estimation of the project. So, the project schedular would liaise with the quantity estimator to get this information. The quantity estimation does not suffice to assign duration. Information on the labour gang to complete the project and from experienced people who have done similar work in the past is also necessary to make an informed decision. Basically, three kinds of time are determined: optimistic time (to), most likely time (tm) and pessimistic time (tp). See HOW TO ASSIGN DURATION TO A GIVEN PROJECT TO LEARN MORE.
ACTIVITY NETWORK OR NETWORK ANALYSIS OR CRITICAL PATH METHOD (CPM)
This is the type of planning tool where activities are presented in the form of network of events that are linked to each other and shows dependence. It is based on a single estimate of the average time required to perform an activity. CPM was developed in France for programs consisting of largely determinant activities. There are two ways in which activities can be presented in CPM either manually or programmed. These are;
i. Activity on Arrow (AOA) representation
ii. Activity on Node (AON) representation
Activity on Arrow Network:
In this method, the arrow represents activities while the nodes represent the start and end times of the activity while the duration is the difference between the start and end times of the activity. The length the arrow connecting the nodes has no significance and may be straight, curved or bent. When one activity depends upon another, both appear on the diagram as two arrows having a common node. Each activity must have a unique i-j numbers where i (the number at the tail of the arrow) is smaller than j (the number at the head of the arrow) (see diagram below).
Activity on Node Network:
In this method, also called the precedence diagram method, the nodes represent activities and the arrows represent logical relationships among the activities. If the arrow starts from the end side of an activity (activity A) and ends at the start of another activity (activity B) then A is a predecessor of B (see diagram below).
Purpose of CPM
In project analysis using CPM, the ultimate aim is to find the critical path. The critical path is the shortest path in which the project can be completed if the project would be completed within schedule. Thus, activities that fall within the critical path should be taken seriously. There should be no delay or float in this path. As a build up to the determination of the critical path, other important terms are also determined viz: Earliest Start Time (EST), Earliest Finish Time (EFT), Latest Start Time (LST), Latest Finish Time (LFT), Float (total float, free float, intermediate float), slack etc.
Important terminologies in Activity Network
Critical path: activity networks are often called critical path analysis because of the importance of this path. Critical path is the path in a project with the shortest duration. It is the path that is sought in preparing network diagram. In this path, any delay would affect the overall completion duration of the project. Effort is made to ensure that nothing affects or obstruct thus path.
Dummy: dummy is an activity with zero duration, consumes no resources and usually represented with dashed lines. Dummy activities are used in situations where more than one activity arrow leave the same node and arrive another node or when one activity depends only upon two preceding activities and another activity depends only upon one of these two preceding activities. They are normally used to adjust the network diagram.
Earliest Start Time (EST): this is the earliest time an activity can be started, assuming that all the activities prior to it have taken place as early as possible.
Latest Start Time (LST): this is the latest time an activity can start, consistent with the completion of the project in the stipulated time. The LST of an activity is determined by subtracting the activity duration from the LFT of the succeeding event i.e. LST = LFT – duration.
Earliest Finish Time (EFT): this is the earliest time by which an activity can be completed assuming that all the activities prior to it begin at their EST i.e. EST = EFT – duration.
Latest Finish Time (LFT): it is the latest time by which an activity must be completed to ensure the completion of project in the stipulated time.
Float: this is the spare time associated with an activity. It is important as it gives us information about the impact a delay on one activity will have on the whole project. Activities with no float are critical activities and lie on the critical path. The spare time on non-critical activities can be used to delay the start of some activities. This can enable one resources such as a person or machine to carry out more than one activity without affecting the critical path.
There are three types of float:
Total float (TF): this is the full amount of time by which the start of an activity may be delayed without causing the project to last longer, i.e. TF = LFT – EFT.
Free float (FF): this is the amount of time by which the start of an activity may be delayed without interfering with succeeding activity, FF = EST (at the end of activity) – EST (at the beginning of activity + duration of activities).
Interfering float (IF): this is the difference between the total float and the free float of an activity. Any delay in starting that results in the consumption of any part of the interfering float time of an activity will result in retarding the completion time of some following activities but will not delay the overall project time, i.e. IF = TF – FF.
Note: on critical path, TF, FF, and IF are zero.
How to construct activity network
1. Write down the original vertices and then a second copy of them by the side. If activity ‘y’ must follow activity ‘x’ draw an arc from original vertices ‘y’ to show vertex ‘x’.
2. Make a list of all the original vertices which have an arc incident on them.
3. Delete all vertices found in step 1 and their corresponding shadow vertices and all arcs incident to these activities.
4. Repeat step 1 and 2 until all the vertices have been used.
Example
Table 1 below shows the activity predecessors and durations (in weeks) for a construction project
Table 1; project activities and assigned project time
Questions
- How can you interpret the activity durations denoted as to, tm, and tp
- Using the activity on arrow method, construct the project network
- Estimate the earliest start and finish times as well as latest start and finish times for all activities (tabulate on the network for each activity) using PERT.
- Calculate the free floats and total float for the activities.
- State the critical path.
- Explain the critical path.
- What is the probability that the project will be completed on its expected completion date?
- Assuming this project involves the construction of an elevated steel water tank to supply an existing university hostel, what would activities, A, B, and C represent in actual construction.
- When must you start the project in order to complete on the 20th of November, 2022?
- By how long will the entire project be delayed if activities D and H were delayed by 2- and 5-weeks respectively. Explain your reasons.
Solution
a. to represents the optimistic time, tm represents the most probable time while tp represent the pessimistic time. These three times are used to compute the duration of the project. See the post How to assign duration to a given project. See table 1 for the duration of the project.
Table 2; Estimated duration of the project
b. The project network
c. Estimation of EFT and LFT
Table 3; Activity table with EST, LST and floats
d. See Table 3 above
e. The critical path is the one marked and constitute activities C, F, H, and J. The minimum duration for the project is 22 weeks (Note: adding all durations in the critical path gives the shortest time for completion of the project).
f. The critical path is the most important path in project network analysis. Any delay in this path would delay the whole activities. In planning, resources should be channeled to ensure that there is no delay in the critical path.
g. There is high probability that the project would be completed on its expected completion date in so far as every care is taken to avoid any delay in the critical path of the project.
h. Activities A, B, and C could represent digging of stanchion bases, preparation of stanchion support reinforcement cages and preparation/welding of stanchions/steel columns respectively.
i. To complete the project in 22 weeks, the project must start on 19th June, 2022.
j. If the project is delayed by 2 weeks on activity D, it would not have any effect on the project duration because activity D has a total float of 3 weeks. Therefore, delay of 2 weeks would have no effect. If activity H is delayed by 5 weeks, it would delay the project by 5 weeks because activity H is on critical path and it has zero float. Therefore, there is no room for delay on activity H.
BAR CHART (GANTT CHART)
Bar Chart is a representation of items in the form of bars. A special type of bar chart used in project planning is called Gantt chart. This technique was developed by Henry L. Gantt in 1971 (Henry Gantt was an American Engineer and Social Scientist).
Gantt chart involves plotting the earliest start time (EST) to each activity followed by a bar to represent its duration. The exercise is continued until the latest finish is also plotted depicting what is supposed to be the total time required to actualize the project.
Gantt chart has the unique features that it does not only help you determine how long a project should take, and the resources needed and layout of order of the project but also help to manage dependencies between tasks and to monitor the progress of the project. Through Gantt chart one can see what he has achieved at a point in time and can take any remedial action to bring the project back on course. Gantt chart can be prepared with Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Project or Primavera..
The shortcomings of the Gantt Chart (which makes network diagram have some advantage over it) is that:
1. It does not show a logical relationship between the project activities.
2. It does not identify those activities that are in control of the project duration (critical activities) or even show the effect of change in one activity on the entire project.
Microsoft Project
Microsoft (MS) Project is one of the important tools used for drawing up a project plan and monitoring it.
Information required for project programme of wok
Prior to preparing project construction program in MS Project, the following information should be obtained:
1. Construction methodology
2. List of major operations
3. Sequence of operations
4. Gang size/output
5. Period agree with subcontractor because it affects duration and dependencies of operation.
6. Number of gangs for each operation that is number of resources available for each operation
7. Types and sizes of plants and equipment.
8. Key dates and activities timing. Key days include public holidays such as Christmas, Eid el Kabir etc. Activity timing could relate to time to allow concrete to harden after casting, time preparation and removal of formwork etc
9. Construction cycles
After organizing the information above, the next operation is to;
1. Compile quantities of the project from Bill of Quantities (BOQ).
2. Prepare calculation sheet for duration and gang from the BOQ.
3. List task items and append duration to each of them.
With these information, one can begin the process of creating the Gantt Chart in MS Project. Before we proceed with the processes of creating Gantt Chart, it is important we identify and define key elements in MS Project and associated terms.
MS Project is a project management software program by Miscrosoft. It is a very handy tool for project managers that helps them develop a schedule, assign resources to tasks, track the progress, manage the budget and analyse workloads for an ongoing project.
See Important Videos below:
Key elements in MS Project
Resources: these are things needed to perform a particular task such as for preparation of concrete, resources required are cement, sand, water and aggregate. In cooking for instance, the caterer is the human resource, indomie or crayfish is the material resource, equipment resources are the gas cooker, pot etc. There are three classes of resources namely; human resources, material resources and equipment/plant/cost resources.
Allocation: this implies assigning resources to a particular task.
Scheduling: this can be manual or automatic in MS Project and involves allocation of duration.
Predecessors and Successors: predecessors are tasks preceding a particular task while successors are tasks succeeding a particular task.
Gantt Chart: this shows the overall duration of the project with defined constraints.
Critical path: this is the longest path in a network diagram.
How to prepare work schedule in MS Project
Preparation of work schedule in Microsoft project follows through a logical order outlined below:
i. Preliminary settings
ii. Creation of and assigning of calender
iii. Work breakdown structure
iv. Predecessors and types
v. Split tasks and recurring tasks
vi. Defining resources
vii. Assigning resources and cost schedule
viii. Baseline and tracking project progress
ix. Customization and printing of program of work
x. Overview of program of work
xi. Project reports
I. PRELIMINARY SETTINGS FOR OVERALL LAYOUT
Go to file >> options >> general tab and set up the details (videos available on request)
File >> options >> display – choose calender type (Gregorian calendar or ….)
File >> options >> schedule – choose calendar options for all projects or for the particular project, choose when week starts and when fiscal year starts, default worst start time and end time, hours per day, hour per week and days per month. You can also choose whether to go by auto schedule or manual schedule here etc.
In the preliminary settings, the general tab, display and schedule are three main places that need editing. Other places that require editing are proofing, language, advanced, customize ribbon, quick access toolbar etc and these can be done according to one’s choices (To get full training or full training video, visit and/or contact: SOJ Consult).
II. CREATION AND ASSIGNING CALENDAR
Calendar is the most important aspect of MS Project as it helps to determine duration of a particular task or the entire project cycle.
What needed to be learnt here include:
i. How to create calendar and edit it
ii. How to make exemptions in calendar marking holidays for instance
iii. Defining work days and time
iv. How to assign calendar to project
Go to project >> change working time >> create new calendar, name your own calendar and begin to edit. Choose days you want to make working days and days you want to make non-working days. Once you are done, click ok. To assign calendar, go to project >> project information to assign the calendar. Change start date and select the edited calendar under the calendar (To get full training or full training video, visit and/or contact: SOJ Consult).
III. WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE
This is the breakdown of deliverable-oriented composition of project into smaller component. It is like showing sub projects and tasks under them. It is a key project deliverable that organizes the team’s work into manageable sections. Deliverable is the tangible end product of a project that will be delivered at the completion of certain tasks e.g if your task is casting concrete for floor slab, the deliverable is the concrete that is cast.
How to create work breakdown structure for a simple drawing
a. List all work activities under the task name of the MS Project and add duration associated
b. Arrange the work into WBS structure using indent and outdent tab. ‘Indent’ tab to put activities inside a group and ‘outdent’ tab to put activities outside a group.
c. To put group of tasks under a task, select all activities below the task and click indent. Note: to do indent easily, change from manual schedule to automatic schedule.
d. Having indented all, to put tasks into WBS format, create a column by right clicking and inserting column, then type WBS and click enter (To get full training or full training video, visit and/or contact: SOJ Consult).
Download completed practical example in PDF (including split and recurring tasks):
IV. PREDECESSORS AND TYPES
Predecessors are relationship between two successive tasks. Predecessors precede a particular task while successor is a task after another task.
Types of predecessors
Finish to Start (FS): for two tasks A and B, task B cannot start until task A has finished.
Start to Start (SS): task B cannot start until task A has started.
Start to Finish (SF): task B cannot finish until task A has started.
Finish to Finish (FF): task B cannot finish until task A has finished.
Among all these classes, there is special condition called lag, which can be positive or negative. Positive lag is the space from finish of one task to another. If a successive task starts a day or two after predecessor task finishes, it is positive lag. Negative lag occurs when a successive task starts a day or two days before preceding task finishes (To get full training or full training video, visit and/or contact: SOJ Consult).
Download completed practical example in PDF:
V. SPLIT TASKS AND RECURRING TASKS
Split task is activity or task that occurs irregularly or does not follow a particular sequence e.g cleaning done on work site. Recurring task is activity or task that is repeated on regular basis (daily, weekly, monthly or yearly) e.g. a meeting every Monday at 9:00 am, maintenance in the project schedule etc. to call in this tool, go to >> task >> split task…. (To get full training or full training video, visit and/or contact: SOJ Consult).
VI. DEFINING RESOURCES
Resources are the things needed to perform a particular task. A resource could include anything that is used to complete project including human, equipment and other materials. Resource schedule is about how to assign resources to our tasks. This involves first assessing resources sheet. To assess resource sheet, click the dropdown icon beside Gantt chart and select resource sheet…… (To get full training or full training video, visit and/or contact: SOJ Consult).
Download completed practical example in PDF (including assigning of resources):
VII. ASSIGNING RESOURCES AND COST SCHEDULE
Assigning resources means defining a resource to a particular task e.g. assigning bricklayer/labourer as human resource; block, cement and sand as material resource and wheel barrow/trowel/shovel/head pans as equipment resource to complete the task of laying of blocks. In MS project, human resources are known as work resources, material resources remain material resources, while equipment resources are known as cost resources. In assigning resources, it is important to note the duration, number of resources and hour rate of resources. These are necessary because they enable the computation of cost schedule which is the cost or budget of a particular task or the entire project. Mathematically, cost schedule = number of resources x working time (duration) x hour rate of resources.
To assign resources, visit the assign resources ribbon in MS Project…. (To get full training or full training video, visit and/or contact: SOJ Consult).
VIII. BASELINE AND TRACKING PROJECT PROGRESS
Baseline tracking involves keeping a check on your project progress. In MS project, baseline is represented by a gridline that shows what actual schedule was initially planned for and then sets out a status date, the day we want to report our project and our project object such as assigning the percentage of work completed to each task. Baseline can be accessed by going to tracking Gantt chart >> baseline….. (To get full training or full training video, visit and/or contact: SOJ Consult).
IX. CUSTOMIZATION OF PROGRAM OF WORK
Customization involves adjusting the background colour of the schedule, the font size, type/style and colour together with other changes to make the output readable and presentable (To get full training or full training video, visit and/or contact SOJ Consult).
Download free copy of fully edited and presentable project schedule:
X. PRINTING OF PROGRAM OF WORK
There are usually two programs of work to print after preparation of project schedule. These are the progress report showing the percentage of work completed and project plan that is used at the inception of the project. The project plan which is prepared before the commencement of the project is usually pasted within the company premises where it can be easily accessible by relevant project participants. Printing of program of work includes necessary header and footer customization together with how to set the legend, insert company logo and print the schedule into a single sheet of PDF document (To get full training or full training video, visit and/or contact: SOJ Consult).
XI. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF PROGRAM OF WORK
Overview is a statement in diagram format of what is done and when it should be done. There are many templates available for this in MS project such as construction plan, annual report preparation etc. (To get full training or full training video, visit and/or contact: SOJ Consult).
XII. REPORTS IN MS PROJECT
Reports required include but not limited to project overview, project report, cost overview report, resources overview report, resources-cost overview report etc. (To get full training or full training video, visit and/or contact: SOJ Consult).
Download PDF copies of cost overview report, project overview report and work overview report:
Thanks for reading!
