Planning & Scheduling

Planning:
Process of choosing the method and
order of work

Scheduling:
Process of determining the
interrelationship of associated
timings of operations.
Prof. Dr. L. A. Qureshi
Network Techniques

Planning & Scheduling with the help of network

diagrams is called Network Techniques.

Network Techniques (Network Programming)
encompass the methods of PERT (Program
Evaluation & Review Techniques) and CPM
(Critical Path Method).

Initially developed in late 1950’s. Prior to this,
there was generally accepted method of Planning
& Scheduling or controlling construction works.

Prof. Dr. L. A. Qureshi

Network Techniques

Present day network techniques offer a more formal

approach to Project Management.
--- They have been adopted by some larger construction
companies and Government agencies.
----Many packages are commercially available on a wide variety
of computer systems.
----Many contracts include a network plan as part of their
conditions.

However, the full utilization of techniques has yet to
be reached.

The development of the techniques is on-going with
both user and theoretician contributing to this
development.
Prof. Dr. L. A. Qureshi
Why Construction Industry is adopting
Network Techniques too slowly?

The construction Industry has generally been slow in taking up

these techniques and their universal acceptance across the
industry is still not present.

The techniques have both advantages as well as
disadvantages but three reasons are generally advanced for
reluctance to universally acceptance of the techniques:
1- Certain sections of the construction industry refused to
acknowledge that sound analytical techniques are better
than established classical and traditional methods.
2- Some contractors have had bad first experiences with
using these techniques.
3- There was lack of suitable user-friendly computer
programs to do the tedious and elementary arithmetic
involved, in the past.
Prof. Dr. L. A. Qureshi
Steps in Construction Scheduling

Splitting of the project into work activities

Determining logic relationships/interrelationships
between activities.

Construction of Network Diagrams.

Assigning durations to work activities. (PERT and
CPM use different techniques for this)

CPM Calculations resulting in start times, finish
times and float calculations of activities.

Marking of Critical Path

Construction of Bar Charts / Time phased diagrams.

Prof. Dr. L. A. Qureshi

Activity

 An element of work performed during the course of a project.

Or
An amount of work that can be identified so that we know
what it involves and can recognize, when it starts and
finishes.
 An activity normally has an expected duration, an expected
cost, and expected resource requirements.
 Activities may be
---- On-site Activities like Excavation, Pouring, Plastering,
Brickwork etc.
---- Off-site activities like ordering materials, deliveries,
fabrication of steel, and anything which affect the
construction work.
 Activities may be Detailed or Coarse in their description.

Prof. Dr. L. A. Qureshi

Network Diagrams

Any schematic display of the logical relationship of

project activities.

Always drawn from left to right to reflect project
chronology.

Usually a combination of arrows and nodes.

A Network for a project is not unique.

Mainly of two types:
1. Arrow Diagram
2. Node Diagram / Precedence Diagram

Prof. Dr. L. A. Qureshi

 Arrow Diagrams

Activities shown by
Arrows. Relationship
between activities
shown by nodes /
events.

Length of arrows
does not obey any
scale.

Prof. Dr. L. A. Qureshi

Prof. Dr. L. A. Qureshi
Prof. Dr. L. A. Qureshi
Predecessor-Successor Relationship

There is Start-to-finish
relationship between
activities, also called
Predecessor-Successor
Relationship.

Prof. Dr. L. A. Qureshi

Prof. Dr. L. A. Qureshi
EVENT NUMBERING

Events are numbered in

an Arrow Diagram.

For any given Activity,
the head event number
should be greater than
the tail event number

Each Activity should
have a unique I & j pair.

Situation in Figure 2.14
is not allowed.
Prof. Dr. L. A. Qureshi
Prof. Dr. L. A. Qureshi
Prof. Dr. L. A. Qureshi
MILESTONES

Events of some
special significance
are called Milestones.

Prof. Dr. L. A. Qureshi

CONCURRENT RELATIONSHIPS

Works done parallel to each other

constitute Concurrent Activities. For
Example, shop steel fabrication for a
building may be carried out concurrently
with site activities such as earthmoving
and foundation works.

Prof. Dr. L. A. Qureshi

Prof. Dr. L. A. Qureshi
AGGREGATED ACTIVITIES & CIRCUITS

If a group of activities is replaced by one

single activity, it is called Aggregated
Activity.

Activities B to F in In Fig 2.7 (a) are
replaced by activity H in Figure 2.7 (b).

A Circuit or Loop of activities is given in
Fig 2.8.

Such Circuits or Loops violate the logic of
precedence of activities, thus, not allowed.

Prof. Dr. L. A. Qureshi

Prof. Dr. L. A. Qureshi
DUMMY ACTIVITIES

An activity having zero duration and zero cost (and

uses zero resources) is called Dummy Activity.

Dummy Activity is represented by Dashed Lined
Arrow.

A Dummy Activity may be
---- Logic Dummy - To fulfill logic relationship
---- Numbering Dummy – To avoid same i, j pair for
two activities’
---- Start / Finish Dummy – To give single start or
finish activity in the network.

Prof. Dr. L. A. Qureshi

Prof. Dr. L. A. Qureshi
Prof. Dr. L. A. Qureshi
Prof. Dr. L. A. Qureshi
ARTIFICIAL ACTIVITY

When a time delay is needed in a

construction sequence, an Artificial Activity is
introduced.

An Artificial Activity is associated with time

duration but has zero cost.

Prof. Dr. L. A. Qureshi

Prof. Dr. L. A. Qureshi
Activity Durations

Activity duration is forecasted by any of the several means,
including:
(1) Check Past Records.
(2) Check Standards and / or cost guides, if available.
(3) Ask the workers, who will do it
(4) make an educated guess

Any time units may be allotted to activity durations like days, hours,
weeks, months, shifts, etc.

In CPM, a single duration is forecasted for an activity.

In PERT (Program Evaluation & Review Techniques), 3 durations are

forecasted for an activity and mean taken by weighted average
method. Then, Project’s Duration or any Event Completion Time is
calculated by probability distribution.
Prof. Dr. L. A. Qureshi
CPM Calculations

 Calculates the following for each activity

EST = Earliest Starting Time
EFT = Earliest Finishing Time
LST = Latest Starting Time
LFT = Latest Finishing Time
TF = Total Float
FF = Free Float
 Total Float is Maximum time for which an activity can be
delayed without delaying the project.
 Free Float is maximum time for which an activity can be
delayed without delaying the start of proceeding activity.
 Total Float = Free Float + Interfering Float

Prof. Dr. L. A. Qureshi

 EXAMPLE: SINGLE SPAN BRIDGE PROJECT
(ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION)

Activity Code Operation Dependence Est. Dur.

(Days)
ENA Earthworks, north abutment - 5
ESA Earthworks, south abutment ENA 4
CONN Construction, north abutment ENA 14
CONS Construction, south abutment ESA, CONN 12
COMN Compaction, north abutment CONN 2
CIMS Compaction, south abutment CONS, COMN 2
RNB Road, north of bridge COMN 2
RSB Road, south of bridge RNB,COMS 2
PB Prefabricate bridge deck - 18
TD Transport deck to site PB 2
EB Erect bridge deck TD, CONN, 3
CONS,
COMN
LBS Lay bridge surface EB, RNB, RSB 2
ICB Install crash barriers etc. EB 1
L Landscape RNB, RSB 1

Prof. Dr. L. A. Qureshi