Planning and Scheduling - Introduction (Planning Engineers Manual)

Planning and scheduling are two terms that are often thought of as synonymous.  However, they are not. Scheduling is just one part of the planning effort. The term  planning is used in many ways and different contexts. We commonly hear about financial planning, such as retirement planning and college education planning.

Although this type of planning may include other aspects (such as what to do after retirement or which college to choose for your child), the main focus is on finance. Governments, as well as large corporations, have planning units or teams in almost every department. At the individual level, a young person may have plans for marriage, a career, and so forth. However, in the context of this book, the term planning is restricted to meaning project planning, with an emphasis on construction projects.

What Is a Project? 

Before we define project planning, we need to define a project.  The Project Management Institute (PMI 2008) defines a project as ‘‘a temporary  endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result’’.  The key  words in this definition are temporary and unique: any project must have a starting

point and an ending point, and it must have a deliverable product or service that is unique. As a generic example, a secretary of education’s saying ‘‘We need to improve our students’ SAT scores’’ does not constitute a project. However, saying ‘‘We need to improve our students’ SAT scores by an average of 15 points in 5 years’’ may qualify as a project.

Some government agencies have specific but ongoing work that they call a project, such as maintenance of a certain facility or park compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Technically, these are not projects because they have no well-defined deliverable product or service and starting and ending points. Each could be called a program, instead, with several projects inside each program. Basically, we need to

distinguish among:

Program: A ‘‘program’’ maymean different things to different people depending on the context. In project management, a program—usually—is a group of related projects and/or services intended to meet a common objective and usually managed by one entity. A program could also indicate a large and complex project that is divided into several projects for more effective management. The PMI defines a program as ‘‘A group of related projects managed in coordinated way to obtain benefits and control not available from managing them

individually. Programs may include elements of related work outside of the scope of the discrete projects in the program.’’

Programs may be:

Temporary/one-time programs: For example, the City of London (UK) may have all the construction projects for the 2012 Summer Olympics under one program. Once this program culminates with the completion of its projects; by the opening of 2012 Summer Olympic Games, it will be completed and closed. The maintenance of these facilities, later on, is a different matter.

Ongoing (usually periodic/annual) programs: These include projects such as road maintenance and storm water programs for a public works department in many municipalities. Many private and public institutions have maintenance programs for their existing facilities. Such a program usually has annual budget and covers numerous small projects—as many as the budget allows. The program usually lives as long the facility does.

One important note: In the UK, as well as in some other countries that use British terminology, the schedule (timeline) of the project is called program (spelled programme).  This is not the program that we are discussing.

Portfolio: This is a group of projects, not necessarily related or dependent, usually under one project manager or department. The PMI defines it as ‘‘A collection of projects or programs and other work that are grouped together to facilitate effective management of that work to meet strategic business objectives. The projects or programs of the portfolio may not necessarily be interdependent or directly related.’’

Project: Defined above.

Subprojects: These are segments of the original project that are divided according to specialty, responsibility, phase, area, or other criteria. To the person in charge of a subproject, the subproject is a project, except that he/she has to consider not only the internal relationships among its activities but the external relationships as well (with activities in other subprojects in the same project). For example, in a residential or commercial development project, building the infrastructure may be regarded as a subproject. In fact, building the sewer system in the development can be a subproject (to the entire development project) or even a sub-subproject (to the infrastructure subproject).

Are Projects Unique? Some people may think of two construction projects as identical just because they have the same design. In project management, we may have similar projects, but every project is unique. Differences may come from a difference in location (soil type, weather conditions, labor market, building codes, unforeseen conditions, etc.), in management type and experience, or in circumstances (and how

much Murphy’s Law is involved).

Project planning has been defined as ‘‘the process of choosing the one method and order of work to be adopted for a project from all the various ways and sequences in which it could be done’’ (Antill and Woodhead 1990, Callahan, Quackenbush, and Rowings 1992). The PMI defined the planning process in the as ‘‘Those processes performed to establish the total scope of the effort, define and refine the objectives, and develop the course of action required to attain those objectives’’. Project planning serves as a foundation for several related functions, such as cost estimating, scheduling, project control, quality control, safety management, and others.

Planning and Scheduling - Planning Engineer's Manual

Scheduling is the determination of the timing and sequence of operations in the project and their assembly to give the overall completion time. As mentioned previously, scheduling focuses on one part of the planning effort.

Project planning answers the questions What is going to be done? How? Where? By whom? and When (in general terms, the project’s start and end)? Scheduling deals with when on a detailed level.

In fact, scholars have generally separated planning from scheduling ‘‘CPM separates planning and scheduling, and once project information is collected and expressed as a network plan and activity time estimates assigned, CPM calculations can be made.

Planning ceases and scheduling starts when the first computation is performed that shows a project duration. The project duration is then compared with the desired schedule and scheduling begins.’’ (O’Brien and Plotnick, 2009)

To get an idea about the relationship between project planning and scheduling, assume that you are planning a family vacation ‘‘project’’ for next summer. Your plan may include considerations such as these:

• Who will go on the trip?
• Which places do you want to visit? (You would like to visit many places, but your time and monetary resources are limited.)
• What is the time frame for the vacation (just the starting and ending dates)?
• What is the total budget for the ‘‘project’’ (including the contingency you did not tell other family members about)?
• What types of activities do you want to participate in during the trip (sharp
• differences among the family members)?
• What means of transportation do you plan to use (your car, a rental car, air, train, bus, RV, bicycles, etc.)?
• What other issues, such as accommodations, food, and clothing, need to be addressed?

The project schedule is simply the itinerary, such as this:

• Leave home in Tampa, Florida, on June 8, 2010.
• Arrive in Panama City, Florida, on June 8, 2010.
• Leave Panama City on June 15, 2010.
• Arrive in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 15, 2010.
• Leave Atlanta on June 22, 2010.
• Arrive in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, on June 22, 2010.
• Return home to Tampa on July 7, 2010.

Note that not only the plan and the schedule are related, but also many of the elements of the plan are interrelated. For example, most of the choices in the plan (length of stay, type of accommodations, means of transportation, type of activities, food, etc.) affect the budget. Since different means of transportation have longer time durations than others, they may affect not only the cost but the schedule as well.

Clearly, a lack of clarity of scope before the project starts may lead to heated arguments and dissatisfaction. In real projects, it may lead to huge budget overruns, schedule delays, and different parties’ dissatisfaction. Therefore, it is important to have a clear understanding of the project’s scope (objectives), and decide who the ‘‘project manager’’ is. Many issues are at stake in this example, but demonstrating the concepts of planning and scheduling is our objective.

In the context of construction projects, a typical plan for an office building project may include the following:

• A scope definition, such as a five-story building for commercial use (offices) with a total area of about 30,000 square feet. The location is also part of the planning, although, in some cases, the exact location may be selected later or a few sites are mentioned as candidates.
• A schematic or conceptual design. This is not a must but helps one to visualize the project. The final design may later differ significantly.
• A budget number (e.g., $6 million). The planner must be aware of all project-related expenses, such as the cost of land, permits, design fees, construction, and so forth.
• A time frame (i.e., when the project is expected to start and end).
• Other pertinent information that may be used to justify the project or clarify some of its aspects. If an investor is doing the planning, a pro forma helps predict the rate of return and helps in making the decision whether or not to build the project.

PMI defines project management plan as a ‘‘formal, approved document that defines how the project is executed, monitored and controlled. It may be summary or detailed and may be composed of one or more subsidiary management plans and other planning documents. The objective of a project management plan is to define the approach to be used by the project team to deliver the intended project management scope of the project.’’

The project manager creates the project management plan following input from the project team and key stakeholders. The plan should be agreed on and approved by at least the project team and its key stakeholders. It is a good practice, used by professional project management and consulting firms, to have a formal project management plan approved in the early stages of the project and applied throughout the project. Many owners (clients) require the contractor to submit a project management plan and have it approved as part of the contract documents.

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