Chapter Four

Project Planning and

Scheduling
 Contents

 Introduction
 Scheduling technique
 Bar Charts
 Network Scheduling
1. Critical Path method(CPM)
2. Program Evaluation and Review Techniques(PERT)
 Construction Project Planning
• Planning: ‐
 A trail and error approach is no longer valid for the
construction industry and proper planning is now vital.
 The amount of detailing in planning is likely to be the function
of the size of the firm, the complexity of the project and the
expertise of the management.
 The programs usually developed are:
– Performance Schedule
– Financial (Cash Flow) Schedule
– Equipment Schedule
– Material delivery Schedule
– Manpower Schedule
– Responsibility Schedule
 Construction Project Planning
The construction planning may be said to consist
of the following steps:
 Choice of Technology and Construction
Method:
 Determination of job activities:
 Job Logic /Sequential Relationships/ or
Precedence:
 Determination of duration of activities:
 The presentation of this planning information in
the form of a schedule or network,
 Construction Project Planning
 Job Logic /Sequential Act Description Pre
Relationships/ or Precedence: d.
 For a project of any A Site clearing __
consequence, there is always B Removal of trees __
more than one general
C General excavation A
approach and no unique order
of procedure exists. It is the D Grading general area A
planner’s responsibility to E Excavation for utility B,C
trenches
examine the workable choices
F Placing formwork & B,C
and select the most suitable reinforcement for concrete

alternatives. G Installing sewer lines D,E

H Installing other utilities D,E

I Pouring concrete F,G

 Construction Project Planning
Determination of duration of activities:
 All formal scheduling procedures rely upon
estimates of the durations of the various project
activities as well as the definitions of the
predecessor relationships among tasks
 Formally, the probability distribution of an activity's
duration as well as the expected or most likely
duration may be used in scheduling.
 A probability distribution indicates the chance that
particular activity duration will occur. In advance of
actually doing a particular task, we cannot be
certain exactly how long the task will require.
 Scheduling Techniques
Bar chart (Gantt chart)
 The bar chart is probably the best known of all the
planning techniques.

 The project split into a logically related individual

activities each represented graphically by scaled
lines.
.
 The beginning and the end of each bar
represent the time of start and the time of
finish of that activity
 Once the project has started, the Gantt
chart can further be used as a tool for
project control.
 This is achieved by drawing a second line
under the planned schedule to indicate
activity progress.
 The relative position of the progress line to
planned line indicates percentage complete
and remaining duration.
 Example
Draw the bar chart for "finalization of design
and work orders" for a building project.

Activity Description Time of Completion

A Site selection and survey 4 weeks
B Design 6 weeks
C Preparation of drawings 3 weeks
D Preparation of specification
and tender document 2 weeks
E Tendering4 weeks
F Selection of contractor 1 week
G Award of work order 1 week
Bar chart for a building Project
 The benefits of Gantt chart can be clearly
seen not only are the calculations simple
but it combines all the above information
on one page.
 Advantages of Bar chart
 Useful to report information to people who
are concerned about a project but may not
be involved in day‐today management.
 A simple format and readily understood at
all levels of management,
 It can provide a quick, visual overview of
a project in convenient way to monitor job
progresses, schedule equipment and
crews and record project advancement
 Disadvantages:
Interdependencies among activities are difficult to
show. The bar chart itself doesn’t provide a
basis for ascertaining which activities are critical
and which are floaters.
 It is not an adequate planning and scheduling
tool because it doesn’t portray a detailed,
integrated and complete plan of operations.
 Can't tell what will be the effect of a delay today
will have on the timing of future activities.
 Network Scheduling

 The most common network scheduling

methods are Critical Path Method (CPM)
and Program Evaluation and Review
Technique (PERT).
 Two approaches may be used for the
assessment of duration for activity
completion.
 Network
Scheduling
 The CPM is the deterministic approach, in
which we may assume that we know enough
about each job or operation, so that a single
estimate of their duration is sufficiently
accurate to give reasonable results.
 The PERT approach is the probabilistic
approach, in which one may only be able to
state limits with-in which it is virtually certain
that the activity duration will lie. Between
these limits we must guess what the
probability of executing the activity is.
 Network Diagram

 Both methods (CPM and PERT) are

extensively used as dynamic control tools
in the management of a large project.
 They give the project manager a
comprehensive picture of the project
status at any time.
 Network Diagram

 For a project plan to be effective it must

equally address the parameters of
activity time and network logic.
 As project becomes larger and more
complex, the Gantt chart was found to be
lacking as a planning and control tool,
because it could not indicate the logical
relationships between activities.
 Activity: Any individual operation, which utilizes
resources and has a beginning and an end, is called
activity.
 It is actual performance of a task. An activity requires
time and resource for its completion. While An event is
that particular instant of time at which some specific
part of a project has been or is to be achieved.
 A project may be divided into activities that are time
consuming tasks or subprojects like: assembly of
parts, mixing of concrete, preparing budget, etc.
 Predecessor activity: Activities that must be
completed immediately prior to the start of another
activity are called predecessor activities.
 Successor activity: Activities that cannot be
started until one or more of other activities are
completed, but immediately succeed them are
called successor activities.
 Concurrent activities: Activities that can be
accomplished concurrently are known as concurrent
activities. It may be noted that an activity can be a
predecessor or successor to an event or it may be
concurrent with one or more of the other activities.
 Dummy activity: An activity which does not
consume any kind of resource but merely depicts
the technological dependence is called a dummy
activity.
 It may be noted that the dummy activity is
inserted in the network to clarify the
activity pattern in the following two ways:
 one is to make the activities with common
starting and finishing points
distinguishable, and
 the other one is to identify and maintain
the proper precedence relationship
between activities that are not connected
with arrows
 Examples Dummy
1.activity
For example, consider a situation where A and
B are concurrent activities, C is dependent on
A, and D is dependent on A and B both.
2. Another situation, consider a case where B
and C have the same job reference and they
can be started independently on completion
of A. But, D could be started only completion
of B and C.
Dummy Activities
 Rules for Drawing Network
Diagram
 In order to draw a network diagram, the
following general rules have to be
considered:
 Each activity is represented by one and
only one arrow in the network:
 This implies that no single activity can be
represented twice in the network.
 This is to be distinguished from the case
where one activity is broken into segments.
Sequence of Activity
 Common Errors in Drawing
 Networks
Three types of errors are most commonly observed
while drawing network diagrams.
1. Dangling: To disconnect an activity before the
completion of all activities in a network diagram is
known as dangling. As shown in the figure below,
activities (b - c) and (d - e) are not the last activities
in the network. Error of dangling
2. Looping (or Cycling): Looping errors is also known
as cycling errors in a network diagram. Drawing an
endless loop in a network is known as an error of
looping as shown in the following figure.
3. Redundancy: Unnecessarily inserting the dummy
activity in a network diagram is known as the error of
redundancy.
Drawing error diagram
Critical Path Method (CPM)
 The Critical Path Method (CPM) was
developed in 1957 by Remington Rand
Univac as a management tool to improve the
planning and control of a construction project
 CPM was initially set-up to address the time
cost trade-off dilemma often presented to
project managers, where there is a complex
relationship between project time to
complete and cost to complete.
 Time Estimate and Critical
Path in Network Analysis:
 Once the network of a project is
constructed, the time analysis of the
network becomes essential for planning
various activities of the project.
 An activity-time is a forecast of the time
an activity is expected to take from its
starting point to its completion under
normal conditions.
The main objective of the time analysis is to
prepare a planning schedule of the project,
which should include the following factors:
 Total completion time for the project.
 Earliest time when each activity can start.
 Latest time when each activity can be started
without delay of the total project.
 Float for each activity, i.e., the amount of time
by which the completion of an activity can be
delayed without delaying the total project
completion.
 Identification of critical activities and critical
path.
Determination of Floats Times
 Total float: The amount of time by which the completion of
an activity could be delayed beyond the earliest expected
completion time without affecting the overall project duration
time.
 Free float: The time by which the completion of an activity
can be delayed beyond the earliest finish time without
affecting the earliest start of a subsequent (succeeding)
activity.
 Independent float: The amount of time by which the start of
an activity can be delayed without affecting the earliest start
time of any immediately following activities, assuming that
the preceding activity has finished at its latest finish time.
 Con’d
 Total float=Total time-Activity duration
=(LFT-EST)-d
=(LFT-d)-EST or LFT-(EST+d)
=LST-EST or LFT-EFT
 Free float =EST of following activity-EFT of activity

 Independent float=Total float-free float

Value of total float
 Example 1
• A maintenance project consists of the following activities,
whose precedence relationships are identified by their
node numbers and activities also
Activity Predecessor duration
Activity Nodes
A - 1-2 2
B A 2-3 5
C A 2-4 3
D B 3-5 6
E C 4-5 9
F C 4-6 5
G D,E 5-7 4
H F 6-7 4
I G,H 7-8 6
 determine
1.Draw a network diagram for the project
2. Calculate earliest and latest activity times
for each activity
3. Calculate TF, FF and IF for each activity
4. Determine the critical path
 Example 2
 Consider the following project to
manufacture a simple mobile stone
crasher. The list of each activities, their
relationship, and the time required to
complete them are given in the following
table. We are interested to find the time it
will take to complete this project. What
jobs are critical to the completion of the
project in time?
List of Activities
Activity Symbol Duration Restriction
(weeks)
Preliminary design A 3 A < B, Cl
Engineering analysis B 1 B < Dl, F, H
Prepare layout I Cl 2 Cl < C2, Dl
prepare layout II C2 2 C2 < E
Prepare material request Dl 1 Dl < D2
Receive requested material D2 1 D2 < E
Fabricate Parts E 4 E<J
Requisition Parts F 1 F<G
Receive Parts G 2 G<J
Place subcontracts H 1 H<I
Receive subcontracted parts I 5 I<J
Assemble J 2 I<K
Inspect and test K 1
 Solution:

 First the network diagram is constructed

 Then, it is necessary to find out the
earliest and latest completion time of for
each activity in the net work.
 The earliest and the latest times are re-
calculated by using ‘forward pass’ and
‘backward pass’ computations,
respectively.
 The solution now starts by the forward
pass computation.
tep1. Determination of Earliest Time
(E j )
 Forward Pass Computation
 The purpose of the forward pass computation is to find
out earliest start times for all the activities.
 For this, it is necessary to assign some initial value to
the starting node 10.
 Usually this value is taken to be zero so that the
subsequent earliest time could be interpreted as the
project duration up to that point in question.
 Rules for the computation are as follows:
Rule 1. Initial event is supposed to occur at
time equal to zero, that is,

E10 0
Rule 2. Any activity can start immediately when all
preceding activities are completed.

Ej for node j is
given by

E j  Max.[ Ei  Dij ]
 Rule 3. Repeat step2 for the next eligible activity until the
end node is reached.

E10 0
and

E 20  Max.[ E i  Di 20 ]
For node 20, node 10 is the only predecessor and hence

i 10
contains only one element. Therefore,
 E j  Max.[ Ei  Dij ]

E 20  E10  D10, 20 0  3 3
,

E 21  E 20  D20, 21 3  2 5
,
E30  E 20  D20,30 3  1 4

E50  E30  D30,50 4  1 5

E 60  E30  D30, 60 4  1 5
,
Consider node 31, where there are two emerging
activities, i.e.

E 31 Max.[ E i  Di ,31 ]
The collection i consists of node 21 and 30 that are preceding
node 31, Therefore,

E31  Max.[ E 21  D21,31 5  0 5, E30  D30,31 4  0 4] 5

can be computed
and values of E32 as:

E32  E31  D31,32 5  1 6

Once again, for node 40 and 70;

 E 40 Max.[ E 21  D21, 40 5  2 7, E32  D32, 40 6  1 7] 7

E 70  Max.[ E 40  D40,70 7  4 11, E50  D50, 70 5  2 7, E 60  D60,70 5  5 10] 11

and values of E80 , and E90 can be computed as:

E80  E 70  D70,80 11  2 13

E90  E80  D80,90 13  1 14

 From this computation, it can be inferred that this job will
take 14 days to finish as this the longest path of the network.
 Activities along this longest path are: 10 – 20 – 21 – 40 – 70 –
80 – 90. This longest path is called the critical path. In any
network, it is not possible that there can be only one critical
path.
 For example, if in the above network, let
E30 5

 days, then 10 – 20 – 30 – 60 – 70 – 80 – 90 can be also

critical, in that case two critical paths exist having the
same duration for completion of the project.
 Step2. Determination of Latest Time ( Li )
Backward Pass Computation
 In forward pass computation, the earliest time when
a particular activity will be completed is known.
 It is also seen that some activities are not critical to
the completion of the job.
 The question a manager would like to ask is: Can
their starting time be delayed so that the total
completion time is still the same?
 Such a question may arise while scheduling the
resources such as manpower, equipment, finance
 If delay is allowable, then what can be the maximum
delay? For this, the latest time for various activities
desired.
 The backward pass computation procedure is used to
calculate the latest time for various activities.
 In forward pass computation, assignment of was
arbitrary, likewise for the backward pass computation, it
is possible to assign the project terminal event the date
on which the project should be over.
 If no such date is prescribed, then the convention is of
setting latest allowable time determined in forward pass
computation.
 Rule 1. Set
Li  Ei or TS

Where TS is the scheduled date for completion and

Ei is the earliest terminal time.

Rule 2. Li  Min. j [ L j - Dij ]

i.e. the latest time for activities is the minimum of the latest
time of all succeeding activities reducing their activity time.

Rule 3. Repeat rule 2 until starting activity reached.

Latest times for activities of the network are calculated below:
By rule1, set

L90 14
. Applying rule 2, it is to determine

L80 L40
L70
L32
L60
L31
L50
L80  Min. j {L j - D80, j } 14  1 13 for j 90

L 70 Min. j{L j - D 70, j} L80 - D 70,80 13  2 11

(j contains only one node 80)

L60  Min. j {L j - D60, j }  L70 - D60,70 11  5 6

(j contains node 70)

L50  Min. j {L j - D50, j }  L50 - D50,70 11  2 9

(j contains node 70)
L40  Min. j {L j - D40, j }  L40 - D40,70 11  4 7
(j contains node 70)

L32 Min. j {L j - D32, j } L32 - D32,40 7  1 6

(j contains node 40)

L31 Min. j {L j - D31, j } L31 - D32,32 6  1 5

(j contains node 32)

Now consider node21, for this node, there are two
succeeding activities, namely 21 – 40, and 21 – 31. Hence,
  L40  D21, 40   7  2 5
L21  Min. j (31,40) {L j - D21, j }  Min.   Min.  5
 L31  D21,31   5  0 5 

Similarly, for node 20, and 30,

 L21  D20, 21   5  2 3

L20  Min. j (21,30) {L j - D21, j }  Min.  Min.  3
 L30  D20,30   4  1 3 

 L31  D30,31   5  0 5

 
L30 Min. j (31,50,60) {L j - D30, j }  Min. L31  D50,31  Min. 5  1 4  4
L  D   5  1 4 
 31 60, 31 
 and like the other one, for node
10,

L10 Min. j {L j - D10, j }  L20 - D10,20 3  3 0

The minimum value of L10 0

is no surprising result. Since, started with Li  Ei
, it is always possible to
have
L10 0

If this is not so, it means that some error is made in calculations

of forward pass or backward pass values.
Network diagram with critical
path
Recall that path 10 – 20 – 21 – 40 – 70 – 80 –
90 was defined as the critical path of this
network. Along this path, it is observed that
the latest and earliest times are the same
implying that any activity along this path
cannot be delayed without affecting the
duration of the project.
 Step 3.Computation of Float (L f )

By definition, for activity 60 – 70, the float is one day

L60  E 60 6  5 1
This float represents the amount by which this particular
activity can be delayed without affecting the total time of the
project.
 Also, by definition, free float, if any will exist
only on the activities merge points.
 To illustrate the concept of free float, consider
path 10 – 20 – 30 – 50 – 70, total float on activity
50 - 70 is four days and since this is the last
activity prior to merging two activities, this float
is free float also.
 Similarly, consider the activity 30-50 which has
a total float of 4 days but has zero free float
because 4 day of free float is due to the activity
50-70.
 If activity 30-50 is delayed up to four
days, the early start time of no activity in
the network will be affected.
 Therefore, the concept of free float
clearly states that the use of free float
time will not influence any succeeding
activity float time.
 Step 4. To Identify Critical Path

 Identifying the critical path is a byproduct

of boundary time calculations. A critical
activity has no leeway in scheduling and
consequently zero total float. It is
important to note that the value of slack,
associated with an event, determines
how critical that event is. The less the
slack, the more critical an event is.
 The earlier calculation shows that the path or
paths which have zero float are called the
critical ones or in other words, a critical path
is the one which connects the events having
zero total float or a minimum slack time.
 If this logic is extended further more, it would
provide a guide rule to determine the next
most critical path, and so on.
 Such information will be useful for managers
in the control of project. In this example,
path 10 – 20 – 30 – 60 – 70 – 80 - 90 happens
to be next to critical path because it has float
of one day on many of its activities.
 Boundary Times Duration for the Start and Finish of Activities
Start Finish Total Float
Activity Duration
(i - j) Earliest Latest Earliest Latest
Dij
(1) (2) (3) E i (4) (6) - (2) (5) (3)  (2) (6) (7) (4) - (3)
A 3 0 0 3 3 0
B 1 3 4 4 5 1
C1 2 3 3 5 5 0
C2 2 5 5 7 7 0
D1 1 5 5 6 6 0
D2 1 6 6 7 7 0
E 4 7 7 11 11 0
F 1 4 8 5 9 4
G 2 5 9 7 11 4
H 1 4 5 5 6 1
I 5 5 6 10 11 1
J 2 11 11 13 13 0
K 1 13 13 14 14 0
 Program Evaluation and Review
Techniques (PERT)
 The US Navy set up a development team
with the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation,
and a management consultant Booz Allen
& Hamilton, to design PERT as an
integrated planning and control system to
manage their Polaris Submarine project.
 The PERT technique was developed to
apply a statistical treatment to the
possible range of activity time durations
 A three time probabilistic model was developed, this includes:

t
Optimistic time 0limit of completion time if every thing goes all-righ

Pessimistic timet p limit of completion time if every thing goes

all-wrong (in case climatic conditions,
explosions, accidents, etc., come into effect
to retard the activity).

Most likely time t l the duration that would occur most often if
the activity was repeated many times
under the same conditions.
 The three times were imposed on a normal
distribution to calculate the activity’s
expected time te as,

(t o  4t l  t p )
te 
6
Normal Probability distribution
 Each activity in a PERT network also has a
variance with its completion of time. This
variance measures the dispersion of
possible duration. A large variance means
a wide variation in the outside limits of
estimate and indicates less confidence in
estimating:
2
2  t p  to 
  
 6 
99.7 % within t e 3
95.0 % " t e 2
68.0 % "
t e 
 Basic PERT Procedure
 Compute mean and variance of all jobs
 Conduct forward and backward pass on the project
 Identify the critical path
 Obtain variance of critical path by adding variance of
activities
 Obtain the distribution of the project duration
 Make probability statements about the project
 Chance of meeting the target date
 Probability of exceeding a given ceiling date
 Probability that the project duration is confined to an interval of
time
 A contractor has received order for
constructing a cottage on a sea side
resort. The delivery of materials must be
planned and the complete job finished in
13 weeks. The work involves and the time
required to complete each activities are
given in the table below.
Job Description Time, days
to tl tp

A Buying bricks and cement 8 10 14

B Roof tiles 20 24 30
C Preparing foundation 12 14 16
D Erecting shell structure of 18 20 24
building
E Laying drains 12 14 15
F Wiring for electrical 16 20 26
G Constructing roof 8 8 10
H Plastering 12 12 18
I Landscaping 4 4 6
J Painting and cleaning 10 12 14
K Laying pathway 4 4 4
L Installing doors and fittings 4 4 4
M Plumbing 20 24 30
N Flooring 8 10 12
 Question

a) construct a logical PERT diagram.

b) find the critical path and project duration.
c)determine whether the project is completed
within the planed estimated time or not?
Solution:
Before constructing the PERT diagram, the
expected time (te) for each of the activities has
to be calculated by using the following formula
 (t o  4t l  t p )
te 
6
where

to = optimistic time

tl = most likely time

tp = pessimistic time
and also the precedence of the activities has to be determined.
Job Description Immediate Time, days (t o  4t l  t p )
te 
predecesso to tl t 6
p
rs

A Buying bricks and cement - 8 10 14 10

B Roof tiles buying D 20 24 30 24
C Repairing foundation A 12 14 16 14
D Erecting shell structure of C 18 20 24 20
building
E Laying drains C 12 14 15 14
F Wiring for electrical G 16 20 26 20
G Constructing roof D 8 8 10 8
H Plastering G 12 12 18 13
I Landscaping K 4 4 6 4
J Painting and cleaning B,F,I,N 10 12 14 12
K Laying pathway E 4 4 4 4
L Installing doors and G 4 4 4 4
fittings
Network Diagram
Activity Duration Start Finish Total
(i - j)
Dij
Earlies Earlies Lates Float
Latest
(3)tEi (4) (6) - (2)
t  (2)
(5) (3) (6) t
j L
(7) (4) - (3)

(1) (2)
A 10 0 0 10 10 0
B 24 0 20 24 44 20
C 14 10 10 24 24 0
D 20 24 24 44 44 0
E 14 24 64 38 78 40
G 8 44 44 52 52 0
H 13 52 63 65 76 11
I 4 42 82 46 86 40
J 12 86 86 98 98 0
K 4 38 78 42 82 40
L 4 52 72 56 76 20
M 24 52 52 76 76 0
N 10 76 76 86 86 0
 Difference b/n CPM & PERT
CPM
 CPM is an activity oriented
network
 In CPM time estimates are
of a fair degree of accuracy
 CPM follows deterministic
approach
 In CPM, cost is the
governing factor
 Project duration is fixed
that the cost is minimum
 The path joins the critical
activities
PERT
 PERT is an event oriented
network
 Time estimate are not that
accurate & there is uncertainty
attached
 PERT follows probabilistic
approach
 In PERT time is the governing
factor
 Cost is directly proportional to
time
 In PERT, critical path is the
path which joins the critical
events