Aqaba University of technology

Faculty of engineering
Department of civil engineering

Construction Project Management

Methods of Project Scheduling for

Construction Projects

By: Ahmad Albardini & Mohammad Algharabli

Supervised by: Dr. Mahmoud Alhasanat

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 Abstract

The objective of this research is to highlight and analyze the different types

of scheduling methods for construction projects in order to determine

which one is the best method to use before starting projects, such as multi-

story buildings, houses, roads, highways, airports, and so on. There are

many strategies for scheduling construction projects; they include critical

path method, Gantt chart, Work Breakdown Structure, S-curve, activity on

node diagram, and so on.

Each of these methods is used for work schedules; they could be different

in the way of giving less or more information, and selecting them would be

based on the goal of our project and project requirements.

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Introduction

Project scheduling is a series of activities organized in a timetable diagram,

and this structure will tell you exactly when, where, how, and what
activities should proceed first. Project planning is arranged by project
managers in order to find out the purpose, the cost, time duration, and the
procedure of the total project. Although project planning is taking some
time to create, it does worth it since it is going to save a lot of time later
after starting the project. Due to the absence of planning, sometimes, lots
of issues will happen, such as delaying the material delivery, machines,
equipment, and project activities and as a result, wasting lots of time with
losing a lot of money at the same time.

Obviously, there are notable benefits to create a simple schedule.

Companies that are able to successfully finish projects on time according to
the planned schedule, therefore, will get an advantage over the companies
which fail in this regard. For better management, there are some strategies.
First, required tasks or activities have to be revised; Next, the available
strategies should be determined and analyzed to realize which one works
best for a particular project; the deciding on the project goals will ease the
method selection, and lastly, the project network could be develop (Gray,
102). In this stage, the engineer should have all the information about the
project, including size, topography, time required to finish, cost, resource
availability, and so on.

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Methods of Project scheduling
Project managers use different methods of project scheduling in order to
estimate the time required for projects before starting. The period of
working on a project can be divided into three parts, which are before,
during, and after completion of construction. The first part, before
planning, includes planning and estimation of the project duration, cost,
materials, number of workers, and sequence of activities. Project
scheduling is important because once everything is planned, everyone,
including engineers, workers, contractors, and the owner of the project will
get an idea about when they have to start and finish constructing, how
much the project costs, what materials, machines, equipment are needed,
how many workers and engineers are required, what type of skills from the
workers and engineers are sought, and so on (Planning). So during the
construction period, most of the issues and operations would be clear and
understandable prior to happening.

Project planning and scheduling are used for the purpose of deciding
project activities, duration, money, required materials, and relations
between each activity in order to finish a particular work. There are many
methods for scheduling. However, based on the project goal, one 4 of them
has to be chosen and used to create a good plan before working on the
project. There are many methods to schedule projects, such as the
following:

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1- Critical Path method
critical path method was developed “in the late 1950s”, and since then,
it is used widely for scheduling projects, especially in construction,
aerospace and defense, software development, IT, etc; In this method,
activities are connected by using dependencies in a network diagram
and forming paths, making forward and backward calculations (Kathy).
The critical path of a project can also be determined using a software,
for instance, “Primavera P6 or Microsoft Project helps to analyze the
critical path of a project which consists of thousands of activities (Kathy).
The critical path itself represents the set or sequence of activities which
will take the longest time to complete. The duration of the critical path
is the sum of the activities' durations along the path. Thus, the critical
path can be defined as the longest possible path through the "network"
of project activities. The duration of the critical path represents the
minimum time required to complete a project. Any delays along the
critical path would imply that additional time would be required to
complete the project.
In this method, activities should be listed according to which activity
proceed and which activity follows. Using this method will let us know
after how many months, weeks, or days the project will be completed
and also clarifies the construction process for workers, contractors,
engineers, and supervisors to know the procedure and deadlines for
each activity in the project. In other words, this method tells the earliest
starts (ES), earliest finishes (EF), latest starts (LS), and latest finishes (LF)
of each activity in the project. I believe this method is much more

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 efficient than other methods for scheduling because this method gives
information about the duration, earliest start, and the deadline, in which
each activity should be completed.

2- Gantt chart
Gantt chart is a type of bar chart that illustrates a project schedule,
named after its inventor, Henry Gantt (1861–1919), who designed such
a chart around the years 1910–1915. Modern Gantt charts also show
the dependency relationships between activities and the current
schedule status.

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Gantt chart is a bar chart used to illustrate a project schedule, that
includes some milestones and it is not as detailed as a full CPM,”
explains The Balance, adding that “It normally includes start/end dates
of activities and a summary of activities of a project.” However, it lacks
the complexity of more comprehensive approaches and doesn’t include
the resources or materials needed to complete it.
Preparing the Gantt chart doesn't need a particular software; A simple
Excel Template can be used to make one and update it anytime. By
using an excel template, Gantt chart can be made for scheduling and
planning any types of construction projects. First, the 6 activities are
listed in the first column and their durations in the second column. Then
the dates of starting and ending the project are filled up at the top in the
first row. After that, a horizontal bar is drowned for each activity
according to its time required.

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3- Program Evaluation and Review Techniques (Pert)
The program (or project) evaluation and review technique (PERT) is a
statistical tool used in project management, which was designed to
analyze and represent the tasks involved in completing a given project.
First developed by the United States Navy in 1958, it is commonly used
in conjunction with the critical path method (CPM) that was introduced
in 1957.
PERT is a method of analyzing the tasks involved in completing a given
project, especially the time needed to complete each task, and to
identify the minimum time needed to complete the total project. It
incorporates uncertainty by making it possible to schedule a project
while not knowing precisely the details and durations of all the activities.
It is more of an event-oriented technique rather than start- and
completion-oriented, and is used more in those projects where time is
the major factor rather than cost. It is applied on very large-scale, one-
time, complex, non-routine infrastructure and on Research and
Development projects.
PERT offers a management tool, which relies "on arrow and node
diagrams of activities and events: arrows represent the activities or work
necessary to reach the events or nodes that indicate each completed
phase of the total project."

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4- Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
WBS in project management is a method for completing a complex,
multi-step project. It's a way to divide and conquer large projects to get
things done faster and more efficiently.
The goal of a WBS is to make a large project more manageable. Breaking
it down into smaller chunks means work can be done simultaneously by
different team members, leading to better team productivity and easier
project management.

5- Activity on Node diagram: is another method used to create project

networks. Nowadays, this method is used mostly; In this method, each
task will be presented in different shapes of boxes, in which they are
joined together by an arrow (Gray, 166). And, the arrows represent the
relation between the activities and the order of each of them.

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 This method is similar to the critical path method. It presents the name,
number, and duration of each activity. However, it doesn't show the ES,
EF, LS, and LF on the network diagram as shown in figure 7. The
difference between this method and the critical path method is that in
the activity on the Node Diagram method, the letter of each activity is
written in the circle, but in the critical path method, the letter of each
activity is written over the arrow.

6- S-curve (cumulative progress chart): is a graphical representation of

project progression in percentage versus time. Same as the Gantt chart
method, this method presents both the planned and actual scheduling
of the project. The purpose is to see the difference and progress of the
work and improve future scheduling. Similar to the time-scaled arrow
diagram, this method only shows the duration, starting, and finishing
date of each activity without deciding on the earliest and latest start

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with the earliest and latest finish. It is also called cumulative progress
chart.

As a result, the best method to use for project scheduling and planning
based on what previously were mentioned could be the Gantt Chart
Method. In the Gantt chart method, the weight of each activity is
determined; the cost is calculated in a separate column; the planned
and actual working dated are recorded and could be shown.

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Conclusion

In conclusion, planning and scheduling construction projects is very crucial

in order to avoid project delays and cost overruns. So, the progress and
completion of the construction project during the whole period of working
will depend on how effective is the manager's schedule. The more detailed
and clear the plan, the better and more understandable it will be. There are
many methods available for planning projects, including critical path
method, Gantt chart, S-curve, activity on node diagram, work breakdown
structure, Program Evaluation and Review Techniques (Pert), and so on.

After analyzing all of the techniques available, we have reached the

conclusion that the Gantt chart method is the best method to use in terms
of giving most information required for the contractors, workers, and
everyone else working in the site during the construction work. This
method will allow determining the weight, progress, cost, actual and
planned work, duration of each activity, and also it is very understandable
and clear. Planning reduces the amount of delays and supports the project
run much more smoothly.

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References

 Gray, C. F., E. W. Larson, and McGraw-Hill. "Project Management:

The Managerial Process." Defining the Project Scope. 2005.
 Kathy. “Scheduling Techniques and Project Schedule Management.”
Project cubicle, 20 Mar.2018.
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Program_evaluation_and_review_tech
nique
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gantt_chart
 https://constructionblog.autodesk.com/construction-project-
scheduling/
 https://www.wrike.com/project-management-guide/faq/what-is-
work-breakdown-structure-in-project-management/

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