Project Management > Planning, Control, Schedule

A typical schedule for a bathroom or restroom renovation project might be as follows. The durations and activities and sequencing can vary according to size of the project and specific project circumstances. But overall, the activities and sequencing can be as follows. Patch existing floor to accept new flooring 3d Infill slab at removed toilet waste and supply plumbing 1d Infill slab at shower floor 1d Install plumbing drains 1 Reglaze windows with double glazing 2 Repair damaged partitions due to tile removal 3d Install metal studs for gypsum board ceiling at shower 1d Install gypboard at shower ceiling 1d Install new plumbing chase partitions framing 2d Install plumbing lines […] Read More

When doing quantity takeoffs for masonry bricks, please make sure that you not only look at the plan and the exterior elevations, but also the flashing details as well, in the case of a building exterior brick. Those details will most probably show you the detail of where the brick is extending below the slab level – if any. This will not be visible from the exterior elevations and can lead to mistakes of a few percent in calculation. Another important factor to remember when doing brick takeoffs is that it is always necessary to include your waste factor. Brick is one of those trades that requires a 10% waste […] Read More

In most many small companies, the procedures for handling extra work is not very well established. In order to make sure that everyone on the jobsite complies with the paperwork for extra work is to implement an extra work ticketing system. This means, whenever an extra work will be performed, it must go through the change order process and be approved by the entity who will actually pay for it. The tickets must be numbered, be assigned proper WBS codes, recorded in change order logs,  and that is how they can be tracked. Having an approval process in this manner will also prevent gold plating or scope creep. Gold plating […] Read More

When writing work scopes, have your specs and drawings open in front of you all the time and try not to duplicate what is already indicated in those documents. What you should primarily include in your work scope mainly are, clarifying the areas that the subcontractor might tell you later that it wasn’t part of his deal, as well as clarifying the gray areas that may occur during execution of the work, due to the construction methods applied. Pay attention to items that might not be clear between two different trades because if such an item exists, most probably both of those subcontractors are going to raise their hands up […] Read More

Per the PMBOK (r) , the Project Management Body of Knowledge, Project Schedule uses the most number of inputs and is used by the most number of processes or documents, either directly or indirectly. Also, the most number of processes fall under the Planning process group. (see Pages 61 and 173 of PMBOK(r) Edition 5). Indeed, the schedule relating to so many other processes is also true in a real life project. So much information can go into the preparation of schedule and can be executed and be tracked by it. The process groups of Execution, Monitoring & Control, and Closeout are all based on the foundation of a well […] Read More

In a schedule, calculating overall duration based on probabilities can be very counterintuitive. For example lets say there are few activities in parallel, and lets assume they all have same start date and same most likely duration. And also let’s assume that their most likely duration to finish is 10 days, minimum expected duration is 5 days or maximum in 15 days. So they all have a distribution of probability that will look like a triangle, raising from 0 from 5, topping at 10 and decreasing to 15 again. we can all say at once that most likely duration to finish altogether is 10 days but that is wrong. Because […] Read More

Construction projects usually cost a lot of money, usually more in comparison to other types of projects in other industries, because construction involves materials, labor, equipment, and it is affected by so many factors from real life.  For example, you can call a software project of $5 million in size a very large project to develop, where the same amount for a construction project is considered a small size project, where you can not even build a single story office building… Therefore keeping construction costs in line is very important task in construction. This is planned during planned stage, controlled during monitoring and controlling stage, and is executed by execution […] Read More

This post is written from a General Contractor point of view. below we will list some key items to be considered when processing submittal logs. All the materials you use on a project will need a formal submittal that needs to be approved by the Architect, Engineers and other consultants as applicable. The making of your submittal log does not start when you start receiving submittals. If this is the case it means you are already late. You should start a submittal log before the project starts, first by going through all your drawings and specifications and determine what submittals are needed. The best way to do is first looking […] Read More

Below we will explain how to create a new project i Primavera P6 Picture 1: The first thing you do is to select EPS, Enterprise Project Structure. This will determine where your project will reside. This is important in the sense that the resources and rates available for your project as well as the group in which it will reside. Picture 2: Here you create a Project ID and Project Name Picture 3: Project Start date is today’s date by default. Choose a different date if you like. Also by default the finish date is blank but you can choose to assign a date. This will determine the schedule calculations […] Read More

When a project is considered to be undertaken or not, the decision involves a business case, make or buy decision and analyzing the costs vs benefits. The things that need to get approved before a project is executed are: The work scope, drawings and specifications, the contracts between the buyer and sellers, at a minimum but in almost all cases more items will be needed. Project Life Cycle: The main stages of a project from initiation to completion are as follows: A) Initiation B) Planning C) Execution D) Monitoring & Controlling E) Closing During initiation stage the biggest item for a construction project is to produce the plans and specifications, […] Read More