Project Scheduling for Architects and Engineers

Why are architecture & engineering projects continually behind schedule and over budget? Even when you’ve got the most powerful, up-to-date project planning and management tools there are things you must consider.

Work Backwards

Not all AE projects start with a defined start date that leads to a calculated finish date. Some start with a defined finish, leading to a calculated start. For example, toy factories plan backward from the holiday season. The objective is to determine when the toy development cycle should begin in order to ensure delivery to the retail market by early November. This type of planning is really no different from the more typical fixed-start type of project.

The Perfect Level of Detail

Often architecture and engineering project managers wonder, “How much detail should I plan to?” And here’s the best answer: “Break down your project into as many manageable small chunks (activities) as needed, enough for you to have sufficient insight to be comfortable reporting the forecast during planning as well as tracking how well you’re performing during execution.”

Notice that the answer doesn’t give an actual number. If your project is building a garden shed, breaking it down into 100,000 activities actually hinders your ability to see the big picture.

On the other hand, building a highly complex AE project, 100,000 activities probably won’t give you the granularity you need to track performance down to the working-shift level. Beyond being tracked against a plan, project performance more and more is being measured using industry benchmarking.

It’s one thing to come in on-time against the agreed-upon plan, you should also find out how you actually ranked against other similar-sized projects of a similar nature.

The Building Blocks of a AE Project Schedule

Building the project schedule can be a challenging process, mainly because of the numerous variables you’re likely to encounter. Here are some key elements to consider as you build the schedule:

• Project:  The overarching entity that encapsulates your total scope.
• Work breakdown structure:  WBS is your breakdown of project deliverables (not to be confused with the work needed to make these deliverables). What’s listed here represents value.
• Activities:  The work required to deliver deliverables. Unlike WBS, activities don’t represent value, only expenditure.
• Logic links:  The glue between activities. Logic links define the sequence of work.
• Leads and lags:  These are durations on logic links. A lag is a positive duration, while a lead is a negative duration. An example of a lag is the drying period following a painting activity. There’s no means for tracking performance during execution if the work scope is partially modeled using leads/lags.
• Resources: The labor and materials available to the project.
•  Resource assignments: A rundown of how the labor and materials are used in order to execute the work.
• Calendars: These define the working and nonworking periods.
• Calendar assignments: Calendars can be applied to projects, activities, or resources, as well as logic.
• Constraints: These are the devil of CPM scheduling, and they’re used to artificially drive schedule dates. There is a better way to plan, namely using the S1 // S5 maturity framework.

This is an excerpt from the “Planning a Great Project for Dummies” eBook.

To download your complimentary copy, click here.

This helpful book spells out a five-part process for creating project schedules that are well-formed, risk-adjusted, and optimized, leading to more realistic and achievable project plans.

Highlights include:

• Build a sound basis of forecast for your project: pick the right building blocks when building a project schedule
• Look for hotspots and identify risks: figure out what roadblocks could derail your project, then adjust accordingly
• Optimize your plan: adjust your risk-adjusted schedule so your project can realistically meet stakeholder objectives
• Bring the team on board: win the buy-in your project needs from the people who will make it succeed

 Download “Planning a Great Project for Dummies” eBook. now, click here.