MONTHLY COLUMN:

CONSTRUCTION PROJECT SCHEDULING TODAY: ISSUES & CONTROVERSIES

Construction Scheduling Specification Issue

By Earl Glenwright, PSP, PE

Colorado, USA

Editor’s note:  This is the 6th article in a series on construction project scheduling that was introduced in a Guest Editorial by Earl Glenwright in the January edition of PM World Today.  Please read that introduction at http://www.pmworldtoday.net/archives/2010/Jan.html, where Earl sets the stage for articles on this important aspect of managing construction projects.

Let’s start at the beginning {because I have heard that is very good place to start}. While the preparation of the Schedule Framework* should have been done prior to putting out a project for Bid, most often it has not been. By default then, the first thoughts about the Schedule requirements are when the Bid documents are prepared.

The objective of the scheduling exercise is to assure that a valid and realistic work plan and schedule is prepared by the Contractor’s staff that can be used to coordinate the ancillary functions of the Owner, sub-contractors, permits, inspections, and delivery of materials that are not available locally.

Last month we discussed the major unresolved issues in construction scheduling.  In the ‘Issues’ survey findings ‘Inappropriate Schedule Specifications’ was one of the top ranked problems.  Remember these responses?

• “Most Schedule Specifications are inconsistent with current capabilities”.

• “Owners and Consultants have never scheduled and they try to write a technical specification when they have no clue what it means.”

• “Predatory lawyer written Contract schedule clauses”. [i.e. payment]

Way back when, schedule specifications were very lengthy, probably due to the newness of the method, and somewhat instructive.  Even though instruction paragraphs are no longer needed, the specification in terms of pages has not been significantly reduced. It is still common to see 10-12 page specifications…

To read entire paper Click Here

About the Author Earl Glenwright, PSP Author Earl Glenwright, PSP, has a career spanning 40+ years in construction project scheduling. Earl is certified as a Planning and Scheduling Professional [PSP] by the Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering International [AACEi]. He frequently gives presentations at their annual conferences. Earl has both a BS in Civil Engineering and MBA degree and is a Registered Professional Engineer. Earl’s career has included multi-year positions in several countries including Brasil, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan. He currently lives in Colorado and Bulgaria. Prior to 1988 he was employed by the [US] Bureau of Reclamation and the [US] Army Corps of Engineers. After retiring in 1988 he has been a free-lance consultant for both contractor’s construction scheduling and small business Enterprise Project Management. His experience includes large and very large [super-mega] construction projects, very small projects such as construction planning, and scheduling for home construction by his Habitat for Humanity affiliate. Through his extensive scheduling experience he has been recognized as a Subject Matter Expert [SME], a Master Scheduler, and an Expert Advisor. Earl has been active in the Project Management Institute (PMI) for 30+ years. He has presented “Time & Cost” training at PMI’s annual seminar-symposia, and was a member of the initial PMBoK Guide Project Team, the 2000 update team, and the project team that prepared the 3rd edition. Earl has recently presented ‘workshop/seminars’ for Bulgarian project scheduling and controls persons which cover the 3 phases of scheduling: framework preparation/planning, schedule development, and schedule management and control. The workbooks are dual language English and Bulgarian. Earl can be contacted at earl_csss@yahoo.com.