The importance of scheduling on construction projects
Planning is important on any Project no matter how large or small. Planning is integral to the process of Project Integration. “Project Integration Management includes the processes and activities to identify, define, combine, unify, and coordinate the various processes and Project Management activities within the Project Management Process Groups” (PMBOK, 2017)
Part of the Planning process involves having a well-prepared Programme of Works, which should be realistic and defined to a level of detail applicable to the various stages of the Project. Ultimately this should include; logically sequenced activities decomposed sufficiently enough to be able to track progress and cost; well estimated activity durations and resources; the critical path of the works; adequate float based on the outcome of Risk Analysis, being the time element of the risk contingencies; all time constraints, i.e., deliveries and fixed dates; important Project Milestones, and crucial for the buy-in of the Programme of Works, is the input of all Project Parties.
Developing the Programme of Works is an iterative process so as to ensure that it is in line and up to date with all the other Project Management Processes and documentation. It is critical that the Programme of Works is baselined before the commencement of each stage.
Once the Programme of Works has been baselined, tracking and reporting of progress must be performed in line with the requirement of the Project Management Plan. It is important that the tracking includes the updating and inputting of as-built data into the Programme of Works, so as to, capture historic Project information. Reports shall be structured in a manner that reflects as-planned (baseline) vs as-built milestones, any time risks and recovery plans if applicable.
Effective project scheduling plays a crucial role in ensuring project success.
Carl Benecke (Project Manager at iAS)
