Project Planning & Scheduling
Project planning & scheduling is at the heart of any project and is the logical listing of activities, deliverables and milestones within a project.
Establishing a robust construction or project plan at the outset of a project is paramount. This will provide everyone with a performance measurement baseline to work with throughout the project. This is what the project team will use to track overall progress and performance, monitor and control changes throughout the project lifecycle. Effective project planning & scheduling is a critical component of successful time management.
The processes for building a schedule usually refer to the first six processes of time management:
- Plan schedule management
- Define project activities
- Sequence activities
- Estimate resources
- Estimate durations
- Develop the critical path and project schedules
A projects critical path is developed by compiling a list of all tasks required to complete the project, the dependencies between the tasks and an estimate of time (duration) that each activity will take to complete.
With this information, you can determine the critical path by identifying the longest stretch of dependent activities and measuring them from start to finish. Once you’ve identified which activities are on the longest, or critical path, you can more easily discern which have total float, or can be delayed without making the project longer.
When you have a sound plan created for the project you can then monitor and report the progress of the project against the plan on a regular basis. This will enable the project team to deliver positive project outcomes through dealing with challenges before they have a major detrimental effect on the project. It is important to regularly check the integrity of the programme throughout the project life cycle and to perform risk analysis of the plan to further identify the key project challenges.
What are the Benefits of Project Scheduling?
Reliable Predictions of Timelines and Budgets
Companies’ base decisions on the assumption that a project will be completed on time or within its financial budget. Effective planning highlights issues and concerns early.
Deliver success
By monitoring planned progress and through the identification of issues and challenges early in the process you can increase a project or programmes success rates.
Enables collaboration
Robust planning with effective processes ensures everyone is on the same page with tasks, dependencies and deadlines, everyone can work as a team to deliver a positive outcome.
Save time, money and waste
Through regular tracking, reporting, and effectively communicating progress, resources can be deployed to best effect, this can save time, money and waste.
Key competencies and skills within this area
- Effective Communication skills
- Negotiation Skills
- Scheduling
- Time Management
- Leadership & people management
- Technical expertise in the project area
- Risk Management
- Cost Management
- Logical thinking and problem solving
- Earned Value Management ,EVM
- Primavera P6, Asta Power Project, Microsoft Project, Advanced Excel
- Synchro PRO, BIM, 4D
- NEC 3/ 4, JCT, FIDIC Contract knowledge
- Subject Matter Expertise e.g. MEP, Civil Engineering, Construction…
Positions we recruit for
- Planning Engineer
- Senior Planner
- Principal Planner
- Lead Planner
- Planning Manager
- Head of Planning
- Scheduler
- Construction Planner
- Project Planner
- Assistant Planner
Specialist Industries we recruit within:
- New Build & Construction
- Rail
- Civil Engineering
- Utilities
- Telecommunications
- Renewable Energy
- Nuclear
- Defence
- Mechanical & Electrical
