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CE 401 – CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT

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by J. Hinze, Construction Planning and Scheduling

• Planning:
• “what” is going to be done,
• “how”,
• “where”,
• by “whom”, and
• “when”
for effective monitoring and control of complex projects
“ ”
by J. Hinze, Construction Planning and Scheduling

• Scheduling:
• “what” will be done, and “who” will be working
• relative timing of tasks & time frames
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by J. Hinze, Construction Planning and Scheduling

• Planning and Scheduling occurs:

• AFTER you have decided how to do the work
• “The first idea is not always the best idea.”
• Requires discipline to “work the plan”
• The act of development useful,
• But need to monitor and track
• only then, is a schedule an effective management tool
• as-built schedules
• An organizational tool for complex projects
• A first step in creating a schedule
• Useful for defining the Scope of Work
• After decided how to do the work
• Consists of:
• Goal statement for project
• Subdividing goal into smaller & smaller portions
• Upper two or three levels
• require only general knowledge
• don’t get too detailed too quickly
• The deeper you go, the more knowledge you need
• Bottom level tasks:
• simple enough to estimate durations
• can assign crews
• each task has a natural sequence relative to other tasks
 Warehouse WBS

To construct a 5-unit
warehouse for light industry
Complex

Site Preparation Foundation Structural Systems Finishing

Survey Soils Analysis Excavate Soil Backfill & Compact

Site Boundaries Elevation Building Locate

Data Points Footprints Buried Services

Could be used to define scope of

work for surveyor sub-contract
• Bar Charts (Gantt Charts)
• length of bar = task’s duration
• commonly used, require little training
• precedence relationships difficult to show
• precedence = the sequencing relationship between tasks
• Network Diagrams
• Critical Path Method (CPM)
• w/in construction - most important
• Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)
• like a generalized CPM
• assumes that an activity’s duration cannot be precisely determined
• takes most likely, optimistic, pessimistic estimates
• computes an expected duration/activity and expected project duration
• Identifies those chains of activities (critical paths) that control
how long a project will take.
• Two variations:
• Activity-on-Arrow (AOA)
• activities are the arrows or lines
• Activity on Node (AON)
• also known as a Precedence Diagram
• activities are nodes connected together by lines
• Float = the amount of time an activity can be delayed without
delaying the project
• Critical = activities with no float; these activities can not be
delayed w/o extending project duration
• Contingency = include a time allowance to account for time
slippage & other delays
• Slippage = difference between actual and scheduled progress
• Primavera P3, MSProject, etc.
• Uses CPM for calculating project duration
• Offer Gantt and Precedence views
• Gantt the default
• Activities can be viewed in other forms: activity and resource
calendars, spreadsheets
• Useful for
• updating and tracking
• sorting, filtering, resource leveling
• Specify a base calendar
• calendar days vs. working and non-working days
• specialized activity and resource calendars
• tasks that cannot be performed on specific days
• days that resources are available
• (otherwise assumed that resources are available at all times on every
working day)
• Specify the project start or finish date
• Input activities from the WBS
• basic info needed: name, duration, predecessors, and successors
• if relevant: resources utilized plus associated costs
• Collapsing the schedule
• consolidating subtasks within their summary tasks to view main
project activities w/o cluttering the screen
• Expanding the schedule
• showing sub tasks w/in respective summary tasks
• Link lines
• the line that connects the bars of linked tasks on the Gantt chart
• Linking
• creating relationships between activities
• finish-to-start, start-to-start, finish-to-finish, or start-to-finish
• can include lag or lead times
• Network loop
• circular logic within a set of activities
• all loops must be eliminated for computations to be made
• Progress bar
• graphical representation of the % completion of an activity at a
specific date
• shown adjacent to, or within, the activity bar
• Summary task
• representing a general activity of construction
• duration calculated from sub-tasks
• Create a baseline schedule
• original schedule created at the beginning
• actual progress is compared to
• After input of schedule
• choose Gantt view
• use GanttChart Wizard to calculate CPM
• Can filter and show only CPM
• in drop-down menu:
• project  filtered for  critical
• to get back to full task list:
• project  filtered for  all
The following seven tasks are required for the erection of a building
roof structure. Some of the tasks can be completed simultaneously;
the overhang with soffit can be constructed while the deck is being
installed.
1 Place & secure trusses, 2 days
2 Install roof deck, 7 days
3 Apply vapor barrier, 2 days
4 Apply roof cladding, 2 days
5 Construct roof overhang, 4 days
6 Install soffits, 4 days
7 Apply flashing, 6 days
Project Scheduling with Known Activity Times
Project Scheduling with Uncertain Activity Times
Considering Time-Cost Trade-Offs

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PERT
• Program Evaluation and Review Technique
• Developed by U.S. Navy for Polaris missile project
• Developed to handle uncertain activity times
CPM
• Critical Path Method
• Developed by Du Pont & Remington Rand
• Developed for industrial projects for which activity times generally were
known
Today’s project management software packages have combined
the best features of both approaches.

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PERT and CPM have been used to plan, schedule, and control a
wide variety of projects:
• R&D of new products and processes
• Construction of buildings and highways
• Maintenance of large and complex equipment
• Design and installation of new systems

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PERT/CPM is used to plan the scheduling of individual activities
that make up a project.
Projects may have as many as several thousand activities.
A complicating factor in carrying out the activities is that some
activities depend on the completion of other activities before they
can be started.

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Project managers rely on PERT/CPM to help them answer questions
such as:
• What is the total time to complete the project?
• What are the scheduled start and finish dates for each specific activity?
• Which activities are critical and must be completed exactly as scheduled to
keep the project on schedule?
• How long can noncritical activities be delayed before they cause an increase in
the project completion time?

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A project network can be constructed to model the precedence of
the activities.
The nodes of the network represent the activities.
The arcs of the network reflect the precedence relationships of the
activities.
A critical path for the network is a path consisting of activities with
zero slack.

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 Frank’s Fine Floats is in the business of building elaborate
parade floats. Frank and his crew have a new float to build and
want to use PERT/CPM to help them manage the project .
The table on the next slide shows the activities that comprise
the project. Each activity’s estimated completion time (in days)
and immediate predecessors are listed as well.
Frank wants to know the total time to complete the project,
which activities are critical, and the earliest and latest start and
finish dates for each activity.

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 Immediate Completion
Activity Description Predecessors Time (days)
A Initial Paperwork --- 3
B Build Body A 3
C Build Frame A 2
D Finish Body B 3
E Finish Frame C 7
F Final Paperwork B,C 3
G Mount Body to Frame D,E 6
H Install Skirt on Frame C 2

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Project Network

B D
3 3 G
6
F
3
A
Start Finish
3 E
7
C H
2 2

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Earliest Start and Finish Times

Step 1: Make a forward pass through the network as follows:

For each activity i beginning at the Start node, compute:
• Earliest Start Time = the maximum of the earliest finish times of all
activities immediately preceding activity i. (This is 0 for an activity with no
predecessors.)
• Earliest Finish Time = (Earliest Start Time) + (Time to complete activity i ).
The project completion time is the maximum of the Earliest
Finish Times at the Finish node.

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Earliest Start and Finish Times

B 3 6 D 6 9
3 3 G 12 18

6 9 6
F
0 3 3
A
Start Finish
3 E 5 12

3 5 7 5 7
C H
2 2

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Latest Start and Finish Times

Step 2: Make a backwards pass through the network as follows:

Move sequentially backwards from the Finish node to the Start
node. At a given node, j, consider all activities ending at node j.
For each of these activities, i, compute:
• Latest Finish Time = the minimum of the latest start times beginning at
node j. (For node N, this is the project completion time.)
• Latest Start Time = (Latest Finish Time) - (Time to complete activity i ).

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Latest Start and Finish Times

B 3 6 D 6 9
3 6 9 3 9 12 12 18
G
6 9 6 12 18
F
0 3 3 15 18
A
Start 0 3 Finish
3 E 5 12
7 5 12
C 3 5 H 5 7
2 3 5 2 16 18

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Step 3: Calculate the slack time for each activity by:
Slack = (Latest Start) - (Earliest Start), or
= (Latest Finish) - (Earliest Finish).

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Activity Slack Time

Activity ES EF LS LF Slack
A 0 3 0 3 0 (crit.)
B 3 6 6 9 3
C 3 5 3 5 0 (crit.)
D 6 9 9 12 3
E 5 12 5 12 0 (crit.)
F 6 9 15 18 9
G 12 18 12 18 0 (crit.)
H 5 7 16 18 11

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Determining the Critical Path
• A critical path is a path of activities, from the Start node to the Finish node,
with 0 slack times.

• Critical Path: A–C–E–G

• The project completion time equals the maximum of the activities’ earliest
finish times.
• Project Completion Time: 18 days

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Critical Path

B 3 6 D 6 9
3 6 9 3 9 12 12 18
G
6 9 6 12 18
F
0 3 3 15 18
A
Start 0 3 Finish
3 E 5 12
7 5 12
C 3 5 H 5 7
2 3 5 2 16 18

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In the three-time estimate approach, the time to complete an
activity is assumed to follow a Beta distribution.
An activity’s mean completion time is:
t = (a + 4m + b)/6
An activity’s completion time variance is:
2 = ((b-a)/6)2
• a = the optimistic completion time estimate
• b = the pessimistic completion time estimate
• m = the most likely completion time estimate

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In the three-time estimate approach, the critical path is
determined as if the mean times for the activities were fixed
times.
The overall project completion time is assumed to have a normal
distribution with mean equal to the sum of the means along the
critical path and variance equal to the sum of the variances along
the critical path.

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Example: ABC Associates

Consider the following project:

Immed. Optimistic Most Likely Pessimistic

Activity Predec. Time (Hr.) Time (Hr.) Time (Hr.)
A -- 4 6 8
B -- 1 4.5 5
C A 3 3 3
D A 4 5 6
E A 0.5 1 1.5
F B,C 3 4 5
G B,C 1 1.5 5
H E,F 5 6 7
I E,F 2 5 8
J D,H 2.5 2.75 4.5
K G,I 3 5 7

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Example: ABC Associates

Project Network

5 3

6
6 1

5
3 4

5
4 2

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Activity Expected Times and Variances

t = (a + 4m + b)/6 2 = ((b-a)/6)2
Activity Expected Time Variance
A 6 4/9
B 4 4/9
C 3 0
D 5 1/9
E 1 1/36
F 4 1/9
G 2 4/9
H 6 1/9
I 5 1
J 3 1/9
K 5 4/9

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Earliest/Latest Times and Slack

Activity ES EF LS LF Slack
A 0 6 0 6 0*
B 0 4 5 9 5
C 6 9 6 9 0*
D 6 11 15 20 9
E 6 7 12 13 6
F 9 13 9 13 0*
G 9 11 16 18 7
H 13 19 14 20 1
I 13 18 13 18 0*
J 19 22 20 23 1
K 18 23 18 23 0*

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Determining the Critical Path
• A critical path is a path of activities, from the Start node to the Finish node,
with 0 slack times.

• Critical Path: A–C– F– I– K

• The project completion time equals the maximum of the activities’ earliest
finish times.
• Project Completion Time: 23 hours

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Critical Path (A-C-F-I-K)

6 11 19 22
5 15 20 3 20 23
13 19
0 6 6 7 6 14 20
6 0 6 1 12 13
13 18
6 9 9 13 5 13 18
3 6 9 4 9 13
18 23
0 4 9 11 5 18 23
4 5 9 2 16 18

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Probability the project will be completed within 24 hrs
2 = 2A + 2C + 2F + 2H + 2K
= 4/9 + 0 + 1/9 + 1 + 4/9
=2

 = 1.414

z = (24 - 23)/(24-23)/1.414 = .71

From the Standard Normal Distribution table:

P(z < .71) = .5 + .2612 = .7612

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PERT/Cost is a technique for monitoring costs during a project.
Work packages (groups of related activities) with estimated
budgets and completion times are evaluated.
A cost status report may be calculated by determining the cost
overrun or underrun for each work package.
Cost overrun or underrun is calculated by subtracting the
budgeted cost from the actual cost of the work package.
For work in progress, overrun or underrun may be determined by
subtracting the prorated budget cost from the actual cost to date.

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The overall project cost overrun or underrun at a particular time
during a project is determined by summing the individual cost
overruns and underruns to date of the work packages.

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Consider the following project network:

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Earliest/Latest Times

Activity ES EF LS LF Slack
A 0 9 0 9 0*
B 0 8 5 13 5
C 0 10 7 17 7
D 8 11 22 25 14
E 8 12 13 17 5
F 9 13 13 17 4
G 9 12 9 12 0*
H 12 17 12 17 0*
I 12 16 21 25 9
J 17 25 17 25 0*

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Activity Status (End of Week 11)

Activity Actual Cost % Complete

A $6,200 100
B 5,700 100
C 5,600 90
D 0 0
E 1,000 25
F 5,000 75
G 2,000 50
H 0 0
I 0 0
J 0 0

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Cost Status Report
(Assuming a budgeted cost of $6000 for each activity)

Activity Actual Cost Value Difference

A $6,200 (1.00)x6000 = 6000 $200
B 5,700 (1.00)x6000 = 6000 - 300
C 5,600 (.90)x6000 = 5400 200
D 0 0 0
E 1,000 (.25)x6000 = 1500 - 500
F 5,000 (.75)x6000 = 4500 500
G 2,000 (.50)x6000 = 3000 -1000
H 0 0 0
I 0 0 0
J 0 0 0
Totals $25,500 $26,400 $- 900

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PERT Diagram at End of Week 11

Earliest Start

Earliest Finish
Remaining
work (weeks)

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Corrective Action
Note that the project is currently experiencing a $900 cost
underrun, but the overall completion time is now 25.5 weeks or a
.5 week delay. Management should consider using some of the
$900 cost savings and apply it to activity G to assist in a more rapid
completion of this activity (and hence the entire project).

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In the Critical Path Method (CPM) approach to project scheduling,
it is assumed that the normal time to complete an activity, tj ,
which can be met at a normal cost, cj , can be crashed to a reduced
time, tj’, under maximum crashing for an increased cost, cj’.
Using CPM, activity j's maximum time reduction, Mj , may be
calculated by: Mj = tj - tj'. It is assumed that its cost per unit
reduction, Kj , is linear and can be calculated by: Kj = (cj' - cj)/Mj.

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