UNIT-IL B.Tech Evening Civil 6" Semestar Subject: Construction Project Management Planning Techniques Many different methods for planning exist, each with their own benefits and drawbacks in different situations. No one technique will be suitable for every situation, in fact, a number of these techniques will usually be required for a successful overall strategy. Different methods are used to cover different timeframes, areas of the business and utilise different skill-sets. Strategic Planning Strategic planning aims to ensure employees and other stakeholders are all working towards a ‘common goal and their energy, focus and resources are all aligned towards this. Agreements are made about the direction the organisation wants to move in and how every contributor can ensure this happens. As well as the overall goal and how they are going to get there, a strategic plan also often lays out how the success of the strategy will finally be measured. Action Planning Unlike strategic planning, this type of planning is far more focused on day-to-day activities. Individual, team or project activities are organised and set out in a timetable. This helps to focus attention on the task at hand, rather than focusing on the bigger picture. This increases levels of motivation and efficiency, as well as providing a useful tool for monitoring and evaluation after the task has been completed. Specific details are planned for to the level of who will be where, when and the exact amount of resources they will require, Tactical Planning This type of planning builds on the strategic plan already set out, by breaking the tasks down into short-term actions and plans. tt is usually drawn up by lower-level managers as they have better knowledge of their departments and day-to-day running of the business. The extra level of detail in a tactical plan increases efficiency and helps individuals and teams to know exactly what is required of them. Operational Planning This type of planning aligns different functions of the business, for example HR or marketing, with the overall goals and objectives of an organisation, This includes planning levels of resources, processes, where people are needed and department budgets. This is important for each individual departmentbut also overall integration within the business, ensuring every area of a strategy is covered and no two departments are working on the same project. Simplicity and clarity are key as the plan must be easily understood and distributed across the organisation Assumption-based Planning (ABP) Al plans make assumptions about the future and identifying these assumptions are crucial to any plan. In the scenario of any assumption not occurring the organisation must have plans for how to react to this. Once these assumptions have been identified itis then important to identify which will have the biggest impact on the business if they were to fail. ‘Signposts’ can then be set up to monitor any potential issues and actions can be taken to manage the assumptions made. Finally, hedging actions can be taken to prepare for the instance where assumptions fail. As the business environment becomes more unpredictable and volatile ABP has become more crucial to strategies. Contingency Planning This type of planning involves preparing for the worst case scenario to occur. All strategies have the potential to fail when they are affected by internal or external factors. This may bea supplier suddenly closing down, damage or loss of property or a change in government legislation. These events are often unavoidable, and hence instead of attempting to block them, plans need to be made for the event of them occurring. Firstly, a risk assessment should take place, highlighting the greatest potential risk to the business. Once risks have been highlighted plans can be made for if they occur, laying out the actions required, the triggers to the events, timeframes for action and budgeting, Contingency plans are often unused by the completion of the strategy, and hence ignored by many companies, but to initiate a strategy without one poses a serious risk to any business. Although they are rarely called upon, when they are they often save companies vast amounts of money. What is a bar chart? Abar chart (or graph) organises information into a graphic using bars of different lengths. The length Of these bars is proportional to the size of the information they represent. For example, here is a vertical bar graph showing the popularity of different colours among a group of children Gantt Chart vs. PERT Chart vs. Network Diagram: What Are the Differences? Project management can be boiled down to organization. Having the right information lined up and available to you is what leading a project is all about. But how can you make sure you're getting the statistics you need to make the right decisions? There are different types of diagrams that serve as ideal tools to help you plan, organize and control your project. They help project managers do their jobs better, by facilitating task coordination and stakeholder communications. Diagrams help you manage the triple constraint of time, cost and scope, Which are the forces that exert their rule over every project. Often they are most useful for project scheduling, which is a process that can be greatly simplified with the help of diagrams. Let’s compare three of the more popular examples of project management diagrams: Gantt Charts vs. PERT charts vs, network diagrams. What are they used for, what are the pros and cons, when in the project cycle are they used, which is best for what purpose? First, let’s define each, then compare the pros and cons.What's a Gantt Chart? A is used to visually represent project schedules ona timeline. A typical online Gantt chart, is broken up into two halves. Tasks are listed on the left side in a traditional spreadsheet fashion, but the timeline to the right offers a quick and easy way to understand the project schedule in its totality. ProjectManager is a project management software with features that let you in only minutes. Getting started is easy ~ you can start from scratch, or you can use one of five- builtin, industry specific templates. Once you're up and running, you can add tasks, set dependencies between those tasks, and calculate the exactly how long your project is estimated to take. If you're looking for a Gantt chart that can fulfil all your project needs, try What's a PERT Chart? PERT stands for Program Evaluation Review Technique, and refers to the method of using a graphic to plot the tasks that must be done to complete a project. It uses arrows to show the tasks needed to reach an event, which are symbolized by nodes. A node represents a completed project phase. They are used to help estimate the time it will take to complete tasks in a project. PROJECT What Is a Network Diagram? A isa schematic that shows all the tasks in a project, who is responsible for them and the flow of work that is necessary to complete them. In other words, they help visualize the project schedule. Like the PERT chart, it is also made up of arrows and nodes that show the course of tasks through the life cycle of a project. It can be used to track progress and scope once a project has been executed.Terminal cement Terinat Terminal |, [ Terminal son {*] cement cement |*] element |—} Teminal Terminal eement element Comparing & Contrasting Gantt Charts, PERT Charts & Network Diagrams It can be easy to confuse these three diagrams. They all work to help with schedules, and often do so in similar ways. But, for however much in common these three diagrams may have, there are distinct differences. Let's compare the Gantt chart, which is the workhorse of project management, to the PERT chart and network diagram, which are both network-style graphics. We'lltake a look at what they do and don’t do, so you know which is most viable to helping your project. Gantt Chart vs. PERT Both Gantt charts and PERT charts are visual tools that help organize tasks when building a project schedule, The obvious difference is that @ PERT is a network diagram, while a Gantt is a bar chart. PERT charts are great in that they clearly show you when a task is dependent. That i, if one task can’t start or end until another task has started or ended. Because it assists with calculating the critical ‘path, you can also know what the early or late starts are for your tasks, which helps you predict how likely it is that you'll get to end the project earlier. This means you can save time and make better decisions, managing data and what-if analysis. A traditional Gantt chart typically doesn’t have this capacity. (On the negative side, it’s hard to scale @ PERT chart. They can be a problem when working on larger projects, as it becomes overly complicated and difficult to quickly discern. If you want to print out the chart that, too, can be a problem because of their unruliness and size. The larger the project, the more complex the PERT chart and more difficult to read it. It’s also not a good tool to measure project progress, for which a Gantt has got it beat. Making @ PERT chart is time-intensive. Furthermore, @ Gantt tends to focus on the time required to complete a task or its duration. The Gantt chart, at its most basic, isa simpler tool. Tasks are listed with a start and end date, and a line represents that span of time on the bar chart. They are especially easy to use with the help of a Gantt chart maker. When it comes to Gantt chart vs. PERT, the decision is up to you, of course, and the scope of your project. Both have their pluses and limitations. But what about a network diagram? Gantt Chart vs. Network Diagram Like PERT charts, network diagrams are a flowchart that show the sequential workflow of project tasks, Whereas a Gantt is a bar chart that shows the project schedule in a graphic representationGantts tend to focus on tasks and time management while the project is ongoing. The timeline is easy to see, as itis clearly marked from its start date to end date. Resources can be added to the Gantt to help with allocation. Also, progress can be tracked, as well as status. Network diagrams, on the other hand, are great for planning. They help to identify all the tasks you'll heed to complete your project. This includes finding those critical tasks and identifying float. This all works to make ordering materials and equipment easier, which assists in your financials. However, network diagrams are not without their problems. One of the biggest is time. It takes a while to make one, and often time is the one constraint in a project you have the least amount of control over. So, you want to use your time as efficiently as possible. They can also bite into your bottom line. Network diagrams, like PERT charts, can be overly complicated as the project grows in size. PROCEDURE FOR NUMBERING THE EVENTS USING FULKERSON'S RULE - QUANTITATIVE TECHNIQUES FOR MANAGEMENT Explain Fulkerson's rule of numbering events An event represents the accomplishment of task. In a network diagram, beginning and ending of an activity are represented as events. Step1: Number the start or initial event as 1 ‘Step2: From event 1, strike of all outgoing activities. This would have made one or more events as initial events (event which do.—snot_—shave— incoming activities) Number that event as 2. ‘Step3: Repeat step 2 for event 2, event 3 and till the end event. The end event must have the highest umber. Example : Draw a network for a house construction project. The sequence of activities with their predecessors is given in the following table, below. Sequence of Activities for House Construction Project Starting and | Description of actin Predecessor | Time duration finishing event (days) A Prepare the house plan ~ 4 B Construct the house A 58 c Fix the door / windows B 2 D Wiring the house B 2 E Paint the house c 1 F 6.6), Polish the doors / windows D 1Fix the doors (2 days) Paint the house (1 day) (4 Prepare the house plan Construct the YY an we ~ (1 jo 2 PN ~ ™ NAF (4 days) (58 days) : a 5 Polish the doors (tay) Wiring the VY house (2 days) Qe © Network diagram representing house construction project. The network diagram in the above figure shows the procedure relationship between the activities Activity A (preparation of house plan), has a start event 1 as well as an ending event 2. Activity B (Construction of house) begins at event 2 and ends at event 3. The activity B cannot start until activity A has been completed. Activities C and D cannot begin until activity B has been completed, but they can be performed simultaneously. Similarly, activities E and F can start only after completion of activities C and D respectively. Both activities € and F finish at the end of event 6 Example : Consider the project given in the following table and construct a network diagram. Sequence of Activities for Building Construction Project ‘Activity Description Predecessor A Purchase of Land - B Preparation of building plan - ¢ Level or clean the land A D Register and get approval AB E Construct the building c F Paint the building D Solution: The activities C and D have a common predecessor A. The network representation shown in Figure Network representing the Error violates the rule that no two activities canbegin and end at the same events. It appears as if activity Bis a predecessor of activity C, which is not the case. To construct the network in a logical order, itis necessary to introduce a dummy activity as shown in Figure. Network representing the Error(b) Correct representation of Network using Dummy Activity Cc Dummy Example : Construct a network for a project whose activities and their predecessor relationship are given in Table. Activity Sequence for a Project Aciviy [AT 8 c oveve Predecessor | : A TevTelcl[ove]y ui] te lo = x Solution: The network diagram for the given problem is shown in Figure with activities A, 8 and C starting simultaneously. Network DiagramExample : Draw a network diagram for a project given in Table. Project Activity Sequence 9 m o ° Fy a " Activity [A | B Immediate |- [A |B |A |D [Ge [Dd [D> |# |[# [FH] GT Predecessor Solution: An activity network diagram describing the project is shown in figure below: Network Diagram What is Work Breakdown Structure? ‘A Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a deliverable-oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed by the project team to accomplish the project objectives and create the required deliverables. A WBS is the cornerstone of effective project planning, execution, controlling,monitoring, and reporting. All the work contained scheduled, and budgeted in the WBS is to be identified, estimated, Work Breakdown Structure Diagram he Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is developed to establish a common understanding of project scope. Itis a hierarchical description of the work that must be done to complete the deliverables of @ project. Each descending level in the WBS represents an increasingly detailed description of the project deliverables. The first two levels of the WBS (the root node and Level 2) define a set of planned outcomes that collectively and exclusively represent 100% of the project scope. At each subsequent level, the children of a parent node collectively and exclusively represent 100% of the scope of their parent node, Here is a Work Breakdown Structure example: Quality of a Work Breakdown Structures A well-designed WBS describes planned outcomes instead of planned actions. Outcomes are the desired ends of the project, such as a product, result, or service, and can be predicted accurately. Actions, on the other hand, may be difficult to predict accurately. A well-designed WBS makes it easy to assign elements of the WBS to any project activity. A good WBS should exhibit the following characteristics:* Definable-can be described and easily understood by project participants. © Manageable-a meaningful unit of work where specific responsibility and authority can be assigned to a responsible individual. + Estimateable-duration can be estimated in time required to complete, and cost can be estimated in resources required to complete. * Independent-minimum interface with or dependence on other ongoing elements (i.e. assignable to a single control account, and clearly distinguishable from other work packages). ‘+ Integratable-integrates with other project work elements and with higher level cost estimates and schedules to include the entire project. * Measurable-can be used to measure progress; has start and completion dates and measurable interim milestones. © Adaptable-sufficiently flexible so the addition/elimination of work scope can be readily accommodated in the WBS framework. Guidelines for Developing Work Breakdown Structure The develooment of Work Breakdown Structure involves subdividing the major project activities or sub-activities into smaller, more manageable activities until the activities are defined in sufficient detail to support the management and development of project works. The items at the lowest level of @ branch are known as work packages. Here are some tips in developing a Work Breakdown Structure that can express works effectively: 1. Always express Work Breakdown Structure activities at the lowest levels of granularity in verb form. 2. Review the Work Breakdown Structure. Make sure all deliverables have been fully covered by the works defined in the Work Breakdown Structure. 3. Ensure that testing and training have been taken into account. 4. Ensure that non-IT work packages are also included such as, documentation and review activities are included in the structure. 5. Ensure that other supporting activities such as, product/service launch and implementation activities are planned. 6. Ensure that delivery approval cycles are taken into account. 7. Include project management deliverables on the project as well (e.g. production of Project, Plan]. Include any deliverables that must be met or delivered by the customer or any external parties. Check the Work Breakdown Structure against the project approach specified in Project Charter for any activities that needs to be included in the Work Breakdown Structure. Different Forms of Work Breakdown Structure Generally speaking, there are three typical ways in structuring works with a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). They includes phase-based structures, deliverable-based structures and responsibility-based structures.Phase-based structures Define and structure project activities based on the project phases. Project Phases h Risk Breakdown Structure Risks are everything in any IT project. The existence of risk causes negative impact on project schedule, costs and quality. In project management, Project Manager is responsible for managing risks and to ensure that the project will be delivered on time, within project and up to the standard user expected One of the popular risk management tool is the Risk Breakdown Structure, Risk breakdown Structure is the hierarchical decomposition of risks, starting from the root node element that represents the project, and going down to the various risk categories, and then finer level risks. Besides presenting project risks in a Risk Breakdown Structure, it is possible to combine the use of Color Legend in representing the impact of risk. Take a look at the Risk Breakdown Structure example below, a legend of Impact with five items has been setup, representing the five levels of impacts that risks may have on the project with five distinct color code. Organizational Breakdown Structure Organizational Breakdown Structure, or sometimes known as Organization Chart, is a widely used project management tool for representing project organization. It typically begins with the project sponsor, and with all key stakeholders included. In presenting the organization structure, consider the organization or group that is requesting the project and the level of their sponsorship and authority, Here is an Organizational Breakdown Structure example’FESO IRIE A RIKPERT CHART Target Mi Acquir ‘Ae ae fy ; 2 Kick Off “s c paste . oe as - vg “s —S> fCantant