APMBoK defines project planning as,' the unique, transient nature of project means that strategy, and plan for their execution, has to be developed'. In short planning is the process of decision making process carried out well before the execution of the project (Ackoff 1970). It basically answers the question like
What is to be done? (task)
How to achieve a define task? (methodology)
At what time the task should be performed? (logical sequence and timing)
Who is responsible to execute the work and using which resources? ( Assigned resources)
Effective project planning is on e the curial ingredient for the successful completion of project within budget, on time and at defined quality.
The department of civil engineering at Illinois Institute of Technology conducted a survey among top 400 Engineering contractors, to identify the most important and contributing factor to improve the productive of task. Majority of the companies responded to the survey by stating project planning has the greatest potential to improve the productive of the task (Ardit 1985). Planning process can be bifurcated into different stage where different level of the management is involved. Planning process involves every one in the organisation from top to bottom. Typical the corporate management body or the owner defines the goals that project needs to achieve. Defining the methodology and evolving the path for execution is usually done by the middle level management. Finally the lower level management is responsible for the devising the solution for the problem and executing the work and delivery the project in within the tolerance limit (Laufer A and Tucker R.L 1987)
Planning evolution and management involvement (Laufer A and Tucker R.L 1987 p 246)
This hierarchical chain arrangement is difficult to maintain, due to the ever changing dynamic nature of the project. The need of frequent modification in the plan disrupts the cycle represented. The picture is still worsening by the physical distance between the site and headquarter (office).
The concept of planning is misunderstood as scheduling, resulting over emphasis given to scheduling under the name of planning (Clough, 1972). Generally construction project has three golden goals time, cost and quality to be achieved. Out of these three qualities is the term which is vague and loose in definition, while cost and time are tangible and easy to quantify (Mintzberg, 1982). The cost and time are associated with the measurable economic value therefore scheduling is over emphasised in the industry. Where as planning involves following stages:
Planning for the planning process
Collecting information
Preparing plans
Information diffusion
Evaluation of the planning process
In large organisation there is a standard protocol for planning procedures. This is usual practise in ISO 9000 certified companies where in the manual define the procedure of who will do what, at what time and how he will achieve the objectives.
The planning cycle (Laufer A and Tucker R.L 1987 p 252)
Objective of planning
The process of planning has four main objectives: execution, communication, control and forecasting. Planning is the input for project manager to carry out decision making during execution. In short planning forms as the guide line for management personal for undertaking operation decision. The construction projects are complex and involve number of contractors, Architect, independent Engineers, suppliers. Thus maintaining the proper coordination and communication among these parties becomes the key function of project management. The interdependence of activities is complex and very complicated, planning provide the clear buffer or regular time intervals at which communication between the different parties should be conducted. This could be summarised as programming which forms the most important element of planning.
Programming techniques
A cluster of programming techniques are available for preparing the master programme of the project. The different choice of programming techniques is based on the type and the extent of project undertaken. Let us discuss the history, development and application of few of them.
Bar Chart
The evolution of bar chart can be traced back to 1900 where Henry Gantt first introduced the graphical representation of work against time. These were graphical representation of blocks were popularly know as 'Gantt charts'. In this technique the activity is denoted in term of a block or bar across the timeline, this makes them easily understandable across all the levels of the management in the organisation. Usually a colour coding system is adopted to indicate the progress of work. Project managers and site engineers can easily understand the slip in the schedule of activities and can manage the milestone.
The relationship defines the logical sequence of the activities in the programme. Usually the types of relationship used are:
Finish to start
Start to start (parallel)
Finish to finish
Diagrame
The 'Gantt chart' forms an efficient for contractor and owner to perform their financial planning and exercise control as well. This technique is mostly popular in small and medium small organisation. These companies tend to use Gantt chart for it practical benefits on site. Besides other reason can be the medium and small organisation can not afford professional planner who understand the network analysis and complex relationship of activities, therefore they tend to employee people with the working knowledge of project management.
Critical path method
Critical path method is most the phenomenal development done in the field of project management since few decades. J.W. Mauchley, J.E. Kelley and M. Walker in 1957 developed the basic principal foe critical path method. This method was applied as the pilot project on the chemical plant project in Kentucky. The success story of critical path method then after began in 1958, when induatry pick up this technique as a programming tool for the complex and large programes. The critical path method was basically developed for the large and complex project only.
Limitations of planning
The technology has improve to it limits, the process of project is becoming more and more dynamic. This has the direct implication on the main objective of planning, 'forecasting and predicting'. If only the process of planning would have been 100% accurate then there was no need for a monitoring and control system. The ability to predict and preparing for the future, is diminish due to complexities involved in project execution these days. Therefore project planning needs to be superimposed with monitoring and control in such a way that it forms a continuous planning and control cycle. In short the project planning can be looked up as the process of setting up the targets and control system is to assure the course of action is smoothly maintained and desired targets are achieved (Harrison 1981). This is achievable only when the control system is designed by taking into account the scope of and focus of planning, level of details worked out and lot of other element that will enhance the process of project control. Broadly there are three risks that need to be addressed by the control system.
Theoretical risk - the risk originating due to incorrect formulation of the problem statement, taking wrong decisions, making incorrect assumptions.
Directive risk - the risk resulting due to the failure of management to execute the solution on site.
Environmental risk - the risk due to unexpectedly natural calamities or unfavourable changes in environment that will pose a treat to project.
The choice of control system will mainly depend upon the amount of the three major risk involved in the project. As per Laufer and Cohenca (1989) in a study made on a 20 million dollar construction project for a span of 18 months they found that, completely three months were invested on planning. While the project control consumed the fifteen month (with the re-planning) during the course of construction. This indicates that as per the level of uncertainly in the project is directly proportional to the project control. Further to improve the precision of decision making capacity of the project manager there are forecasting model. Based on the past performance with the aid of mathematical model and calculation forecasting in the project can be done. The data pertaining to past performance is of key importance, the accuracy of forecast is based on this data only. The early warning regarding potential delay can be very helpful for project manager to manoeuvre the project accordingly (Ahuja, Nandakumar 1985).
References
Russell Ackoff (1970), 'A concept of corporate planning, Long Range Planning
Volume 3, Issue 1, September 1970, pp 2-8
Arditi, D (1985), 'construction productivity improvement', journal of construction division, ASCE vol 111, pp 1-14
Laufer A and Tucker R.L 1987, 'Is construction project planning really doing its job? A critical examination of focus, role and process' ,construction management and economics, vol 5, pp 243-266.
Mintzberg, H. (1982) A note on that dirty word efficiency. Interfaces vol 12, pp 101-5.
Harrison, F.L. (1981) Advanced Project Management. John Wiley and Sons, New York.
Dora Cohenca, Alexander Laufer and William B. Ledbetter (1989), 'factors affecting construction planning efforts', Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, Vol. 115, No. 1, pp 70-89
Ahuja, H.N. and Nandakumar, V. (1985),'Simulation model to forecast project completion time', Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, ASCE Issue 4, pp. 325-342
Role of project controls
"A project" is defined by PMBOK as 'temporary endeavour undertaken, to create a unique product or service'. Every project has a definite end and definite beginning. Unique implies that it is different from usual business activities. For monitoring the gap between the two variables of planned and actual performed result, project utilise the control system. (Shai et al 2004)
A structured approach towards project planning and control is recommended for extraction of recommended benefits from the project. The development of project plan forms the first phase of planning cycle. The project plan defines the quality of work, time frame within which the work needs to be completed and budget allotted for the work. The monitoring and control system use project plans as a datum and outlines the project objectives. (Burke, 1993:245)
The role of project control system is to identify the any divergences of project from the baseline (in terms of time, quality and cost). It is essential for an effective control system that performance is measured while there is still time to take corrective action (Gido & Clements, 1999). To apply the corrective actions for bringing project back on track is the function of project control system.
Decision Making
Revise update
Circulate Reports
Evaluate & Forecast
Change Control
Authorize work
Expedite
Monitor Progress
Baseline Plan
What If Loop
The model for project control involves three levels, where first is measuring the state of system. Then next is comparing the actual measurement with the desired state of system. Finally if there are large differences then taking corrective action to return the system to its desired state (Saad H 2003). This section overview the project control cycle proposed by Burke (2000). The project control cycle is represented as a sequence of steps that will guide project towards the successful completion.
Figure Project control cycle (Burke 2000)
The initial project plan forms the baseline plan and this acts as a trigger to start the project control process. The base line plan outlines the boundaries for managing the project. It defines the tolerance level for acceptance of work in terms of quality, time and cost.
Authorisation of work:
The project manger has the authority to delegate and authorise the scope of work. This function communicates and disseminates information and instruction to the responsible parties involve in the project. In this stage project manger and the appointed contractor agree on the reporting and applying control.
Expedite:
After the issuing of orders and contract, the very next step is of project expediting. This involves follow up function, to make sure the instructions are happening, orders have been placed, material is procured, and work is actually started on the planned dates. Any divergences from schedule must be reported thought the data acquisition system.
Monitoring progress and tracking:
To be effective in operation a control system must collect routine records of the work executed at a reasonable cost. The accuracy of the data is of prime importance, as the efficiency of results is directly proportional to the accuracy of the input data. The timely action on unforeseen event is only possible when the data acquisition method is prompt and fast.
The progress status is the raw data which comes from major two sources;
From the on site operation, and infers the physical completion of activity on that project.
The other is from the accounting department, which maintains a record of expenses on resources and/or funds commitments.
Change control:
The change control stage ensure that all the changes in scope that are made to the base line plan should be through the change control route way. In this way change control could facilitate the traceability of previous baseline configuration. It forms a framework to monitor, evaluate and update the scope baseline to accommodate any scope changes in project. This will also highlight the current status of project in baseline.
Evaluation and forecast:
This is a processing function which is used to analyse the project performance by comparing the actual project progress achieved against the planned progress. This simple comparison is also done between the quantities e.g. The amount of concrete, built up area, square meters of slab. During this stage the forecasting of project is also done by the extrapolation the pervious trends. It may develop the "what if analysis" report to simulate and control the areas of uncertainty.
Decision making:
The decision making function combines the results from the control systems and based on the experience and expertise decides an appropriate corrective action. IN fact it could be argued that the whole idea of generating reports is for meaningful decision making. Decision making is integral part of the project management. The typical outline of the decision making process as defined by Koller (2005) is as follows-
Project objective definition
Defining the problem
Gather the relevant information
Developing the alternative and options
Evaluate and decide the course of action
Execute the decision.
These are the intrinsic part of the process of decision making and play an important role in project control.
Revise the baseline plan:
The final step in the project control cycle is to update the baseline plan if any corrective action is taken on project work. This new baseline now will be used for further use and the old baseline plan will be stored as archive.
