PROJECT PLANNING TOOLS

Lecture 3
Date: July 11, 2022
 PROJECT PLANNING TOOLS
1. WBS (Work Breakdown Structure)

2. Bar Chart (Gantt Chart)

3. Linked Bar Chart

4. Milestone Chart

5. Network Analysis: CPM (Critical Path Method) and PERT (Program/ project Evaluation and Review
Technique)

6. Line of Balance (LOB)

7. Logical Framework Approach- (LFA)

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1. WBS (Work Breakdown Structure)
• Designed to capture the project task in visual, organized manner
• Originally developed by US department of Defense
• Is widely used in all types of Business, construction, and production projects.
• Project is broken down into small works or components from top to bottom.
• The concept is fairly logical and intuitive
• The bigger project can be divided into sub-projects with their own objectives aligned with the main
objective
In planning, work must be structured into small elements that should be -
• Manageable: - [in terms of size and responsibility.]
• Independent: - [Works /tasks should be independent and self-contained (mutually exclusive); overlap in work
may leads to ambiguity, confusion and conflict.
• Integratable:- The works must of a parts to the whole.

• Measurable:- It must be as far as objectively measurable

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• Note:
• An important design principle for work breakdown structures is called the 100% rule. The principle means if the
entire project is 100% in terms of works/ costs/performance then all the subdivisions at the second level must
have 100% values in total.
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• The combined WBS can be shown as below.

• Furthermore, interior has to be broken down into (1) Acoustics (2) General Interios
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2. Bar Chart (Gantt Chat)
• A conventional, simple and oldest method
• Henry L. Gantt who developed it during 1900 AD
• Horizontal axis represents the time and the vertical represent the jobs or activities.

Item Item Time in Months/Weeks

No, Discripeiton 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

1 Excavation

2 PCC

3 RCC footing

4 RCC wall

5 Plastering

6 Painting

7 Fencing
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• Benefits of Bar Chart are as follows:
1. Easy to construct
2. Easy to understand
3. suitable for small projects
4. Easiest way of communicating information with common personnel
5. Final presentation of the Network Analysis is also in this form.
• Demerits of Bar Chart:
1. Lacks degree of details
2. The activities bigger or small are depicted by the same straight line. Important or
unimportant activities cannot be distinguished.
3. Does not show the interdependencies of the activities clearly.
4. Ddoes not show the progress of the work
5. Less effective tool for monitoring and control
6. Not suitable for large projects.
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3. Linked Bar Chart: - Activities are linked to each other by line or dotted line with arrow in order to show
dependencies in Bar Chart.
• (Example of Link Bar Chart and Mile Stone Chart )

Item Item Discripeiton Time in Months

No, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

1 Excavation

2 PCC

3 RCC footing

4 RCC wall

5 Plastering

6 Painting

7 Fencing
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4. Milestone Chart: -
• Improved version of Bar chart
• Important milestones (events) are indicated by small inverted triangles / circles / squares
• The milestones are specific stage or point where major activity (either begins or) ends
• Generally, it focuses mainly on end-dates by which something needs to be complete or by which certain
objective needs to be achieved

5. Network Analysis (CPM and PERT):

[A network is a series of related activities which result in some product ( or services) which in turn
contribute to the goals of a business or industrial or similar other organization.]
• Network analysis is the improved version of Milestone Chart.
• Network is used for project/ construction planning, scheduling and controlling. Network is a flow
diagram consisting of activities and events connected logically and sequentially.
4.1 Critical Path Method (CPM)
4.2 Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)
•
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6. Line of Balance: - It is suitable for the project with repetitive activities like mass housing, multi-storey
buildings, long compound walls, other linear type of construction (Refer to the Separate Detail
Sheet)
• originated by Good Year in early 1945.
•Suitable for repetitive works, like mass housing , multistorey housing, compound walls etc.
•
• -Let 10 housing units are to be constructed
• -The activities are divided into three major activities e.g. Sub-structure, Superstructure, and finishing.
• -Sub-structure takes 4 weeks to complete.
• -Superstructure takes 10 weeks
• -Finishing works takes 5 weeks.
• -Buffer time between each activity is of 1 week.
• -The Time taken to complete a single house = 4+1+10+1+5=21 weeks.
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Example:

• Let 10 housing units are to be

constructed
• -The activities are divided into
three major activities e.g. Sub-
structure, Superstructure, and
finishing.
• -Sub-structure takes 4 weeks
to complete.
• -Superstructure takes 10
weeks
• -Finishing works takes 5
weeks.
• -Buffer time between each
activity is of 1 week.
• -The Time taken to complete a
single house = 4+1+10+1+5=21
weeks.
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• 7. Logical framework Approach (LFA): This is an important planning tool for especially new projects.
This is done in 4x4 matrix table. It is used for designing, planning and monitoring of a project.
This technique is very useful for planning a “overall project” and is not very suitable for
construction planning.

( It will be done later)

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NETWORK ANALYSIS (CPM)
Network preparation Method.
1. Project is broken down into activities or tasks by Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) from top to bottom.
2. Activities, event, and dependencies (predecessor and successive activities) are listed down
3. Time duration for each activity is estimated as follows:
Q (Quantity of works)
Time duration = ------------------------------------
R (Resource allocated) x P (Productivity)
• [e.g. Brick work quantity = 20 Cu.M; A mason can join 0.65 cum of brick work per day; if we have 4 masons at
our disposal than
• Time duration = 20/(4x0.65)=7.7 say 8 days]

1. Network is drawn in sequentially, logically, and considering dependencies of activities.

4. For big project, different small networks for different works are prepared independently.
1. This network can be joined to make the master networks [the network for the complete project] the event
common to smaller networks is called ‘Interface event’.
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NETWORK ANALYSIS (CPM)
Drawing a network:-
• Before drawing a network, we need to understand following terminologies that are used.
• Activity: - Activity represent some action and as such is a time-consuming effort necessary to
complete a particular part of overall project. It is usually depicted by an arrow.
• Dummy Activity: - An added activity which is used to complete the network during network analysis
and which has no duration or zero duration.
It is used for two purposes: (1) Grammatical purpose (2). Logical purpose.
• Event: -Event represents the start and completion of an activity and as such it does not consume any
time. It is generally depicted by circle, hexagon or square.
• Head event: - The completion event of an activity is called Head Event.
• Tail event- The start event of an activity is called Tail event. It is denoted by j.
• Path: - A path is continuous chain of activities through a network, which connects the first event to
the last event.
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NETWORK ANALYSIS (CPM)

• Earliest start time (or Est):- for an activity is the earliest

possible time an activity can begin on the assumption that all
activities preceding to it started at the earliest possible times.
• Or
Earliest Start Time or Earliest event time E st is the earliest
time at which an event can occur.
It is calculated as E jst = Ei (preceding event/ Tail event) + tij (under
consideration)

• Earliest finish time (or Eft):- Earliest finish time is the earliest
time by which an activity can be finished.
It is the sum of the earliest start time and the estimated
time to perform the concerning activity.
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NETWORK ANALYSIS (CPM)
After of above terminologies we can draw network as follows:

• List down all the activities with their predecessors or successors or both [ make a table], with their
corresponding duration
• Activities are shown with arrows and events are shown with circle. [It can also be other way round]
• Draw network sequentially, logically, and considering dependencies and successor activity of
activities. Write down duration of each activity.
• Remember, network starts from a single point (start event) and closes at a single point (event).
• Now try to make network with trail and error that is logically justified and gives true picture of
activities.
• Assign respective durations. The beginning of the network (event 0) has duration 0.
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NETWORK ANALYSIS (CPM)
• Class work (Example 1) :
• Draw a network diagram for the following information.

Activity Duration Predecessor Successor

Activity activity

A 8 - D, E

B 11 - F

C 10 - G

D 7 A F

E 12 A -

F 9 B, D -

G 9 C -
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NETWORK ANALYSIS (CPM)

• Finding out the Critical Path;

1. Path A+E = 8+12 = 20
2. Path A+D+F = 8+7+9 = 24 Critical
3. Path B+F = 11+9 =20
4. Path C+G =10+9 = 19
End of the Lecture 3