Construction Project Planning: The Essentials

Construction project planning is an essential element in the management and execution of construction projects. A good construction plan is the basis for developing the budget and the schedule for work. It involves the definition of work tasks and their interactions, as well as the assessment of required resources (plant, material and labour) and expected activity durations. The use of technology is also an important consideration in construction project planning, and it is important to select the right tools for the job. The extent to which the project planning process will be used within the context of the intended project control process should also be considered at the project outset. All project plans should be contractually compliant.

Historically there has often been a distinction between time and cost planning as the figure illustrates. In terms of project expenditure a distinction is normally made between costs incurred in the undertaking of an activity and indirect costs not being specific to a construction activity but required for the overall achievement of the project (such as borrowing expenses and overhead items). However on other less predictable projects, the scheduling of work activities over time has been an important part of the construction planning process. Construction planning techniques like the Critical Path Method (CPM) and Programme Evaluation & Review Technique (PERT) have since the 1960’s been used to undertake scheduling functions.

The main components in establishing a project plan are as follows:

1. Set the required project start date

2. Set the required project completion date

3. Select appropriate project methodology or project life cycle

4. Determine the scope of the project in terms of the phases

5. Select the project review methods to be used

6. Identifying any required milestones

7. List tasks, by project phase

8. Estimate the resource necessary to accomplish each task

9. Estimate the resource available to accomplish each task

10. Determining task dependencies

- Which tasks can be done in parallel

- Which tasks require the completion of other tasks

11. Establish project control or review points

12. Perform project cost estimation and cost-benefit analysis

Costs for each activity can be attributed to each resource, which provides a total project cost. The project plan should be optimized to achieve an efficient balance between resource usage and project duration. Once the plan has been developed and agreed, the plan becomes what is known as the baseline against which progress will be measured throughout the project. Analyzing progress compared to the baseline is known as earned value analysis. The baseline will be updated on a regular basis to account for project changes such as additional works and variations and to develop mitigation strategies if delay or disruption has occurred. This is commonly known as change management.

With the continued development of computer applications to help undertake the complex calculations required to accurately determine completion dates and key milestones and with their ability to incorporate resource and costs quantities within their calculations, scheduling has now become an important part of the project control system. Leading Project Planning systems such as Primavera now enable robust and dynamic models to be developed which can be used for change management, project monitoring, delay analysis and project forecasting.

The techniques, tools and technologies required to undertake effective construction project planning will be discussed in the following pages:

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