14 Introduction to Project Scheduling
Learning Objectives
After reading this chapter, you should be able to:
- Define the different types of schedules that may be developed for managing the activities and phases of a project
- Understand the purpose of various schedule types and presentation approaches
- Understand the complexity and planning effort required to develop different types of schedules
Introduction to Project Scheduling for Construction Projects
Project schedules are critical for planning and managing a construction project. There are a number of methods and visual representations of construction schedules. Different project participants have different needs for schedule information. For example, an owner may only need to know higher-level information regarding the key project milestones and general activities, while a trade contractor will need to have a much more detailed understanding of the schedule for their specific scope of work.
A very common method for scheduling construction projects is the Critical Path Method (CPM). A CPM schedule is developed by creating activities for each of the tasks that need to be incorporated into the schedule, and then sequencing these activities with relationships. Once the activities and relationships are defined, the overall shortest schedule time to complete the project can be calculated. The ‘critical’ activities that define the shortest time to complete the project can be identified in a critical path(s) within the schedule. This method is also sometimes referenced as a network schedule. This scheduling approach is frequently completed using computer applications such as Microsoft Project or Oracle Primavera. The Network Scheduling chapter discusses CPM scheduling in more detail, along with showing how to calculate a schedule.
4D Modeling:
The previous chapter defined 4D modeling as an approach to visualize the changing conditions on a project site. A 4D model can be a very valuable scheduling tool for developing and visualizing/analyzing a schedule.
Questions
