1.5.8 Planning and Scheduling

Too many people equate the scheduling function to that which simply produces the finished reports. Actually, planning, scheduling, monitoring, and updating constitute the fundamental activity through which all others follow. Sequences affect estimates, schedules become contract and subcontract commitments in their purchasing and performance phases, extended delays dramatically affect multiple trades, and the time of completion affects everyone’s wallet.
Chronically missed schedules cause extremely disproportionate costs and interferences resulting in economic loss, problems that permeate multiple organizations, and bad reputations that are difficult to shake off. In contrast, those companies that actually give the scheduling function the effort it deserves enjoy higher profits, better relationships, and improved reputations as direct results.
From that standpoint, planning and scheduling remain everyone’s responsibility. The time-status of every component must habitually become the focal point around which all other information is arranged. The potential effect of every issue on the progress schedule must always be a key consideration throughout each issue’s resolution.
Duties include:

• Identifying each major construction activity, its relationships with other activities, and all necessary support
• Correlating the activity list with the contract documents and the schedule of values
• Soliciting and confirming all information from the best combination of sources, incorporating it into the plan, and distributing it in a timely manner
• Monitoring actual progress relative to planned progress continually, assessing its actual and potential impacts, displaying cause and effect relationships, and determining necessary corrections
• Monitoring the plan’s implementation and maintaining all documentation relative to good and bad performances of all parties in a manner that is complete, correct, and well correlated and can be used most effectively by the project management, finance, and legal efforts