Masterclass in Construction: Planning & Scheduling

Explore the history of planning and scheduling in construction; master the critical path method, relationship types, leads, lags, and total and free float, plus the critical chain method.

Discover the origins of the Gantt chart and its impact on modern construction management, and see how activities, calendar, and bar charts track start and finish dates and parallel tasks.

Discover the critical path method, the longest sequence of activities that determines project duration, using milestones, durations, and relationships in Primavera P6 to drive construction schedules and 4D planning.

Explore the four activity relationships in the critical path method—finish-to-start, start-to-start, start-to-finish, and finish-to-finish—and why start-to-finish is discouraged for construction and waterfall methodology.

Explore lags and leads in the critical path method, using positive and negative lag with start-to-start relations to reflect waiting times, resource sequencing, and curing or material delays.

Explore total float and free float, including calculating total float as late finish minus early finish and free float as delay without delaying successors, and identify the critical path.

Examine hard and soft constraints, reveal how hard constraints can disrupt the critical path and create negative float, and learn to limit constraint use in construction schedules.

Students learn how project, task, and resource calendars shape schedules by capturing working hours, bank holidays, and site availability, including weekend and overtime variations for trades.

Explore the mathematical logic behind critical path calculations and how activity network diagrams use durations, relationships, leads and lags to determine total and free float.

Explain how to read an activity network diagram with a to h, using finish-to-start, start-to-start, and finish-to-finish relationships, and identify the critical path a-d-f-g-h.

Explore triangle planning and scheduling to reveal how scope, time, resources, and cost depend on each other and ripple through the schedule.

Submit the tender program as a communication tool, then submit and baseline the work program for approval after award; monitor progress and revise it when sequence, scope, or time changes.

Explore rolling wave planning and the six levels of planning, from level zero to level six, with level three yielding the first meaningful critical path and increasing detail as needed.

Learn rolling wave planning for long-term construction projects, detailing near-term work while outlining future activities at a lower level of detail, with milestones guiding wave boundaries.

Develop a closed network for construction planning by ensuring every activity has a predecessor and a successor, except the start and finish milestones, to secure a reliable critical path.

Learn to identify and correct out of sequence in project schedules by retaining logic, revising relationships, and using start to start or finish to finish constraints to preserve schedule integrity.

Explore how a work breakdown structure hierarchically organizes the total scope into work packages, linking scope, time, and cost for planning, controlling, and delivering construction projects.

Coordinate interface milestones to enable work packages, unlock design approval, and govern procurement-to-install dependencies to keep construction and installation on schedule.

Learn how the critical chain differs from the critical path, focusing on resource dependencies and buffers for project control. Buffers expose margins, reduce delays, and guide proactive actions.

Explore the history and foundations of planning and scheduling, including duration, relationships, work breakdown structure, and the critical path, activity network diagrams, rolling wave planning, and critical chain method.

Examine information loop and gap analysis to map data flow and identify gaps. Assess project delivery methods, contracting party responsibilities, and uncertainties in the built environment for planning and scheduling.

Define the project life cycle as detail evolves and resources mobilize, turning early on-site efforts into the construction asset through the information loop and guiding rolling wave planning toward completion.

The gap analysis identifies five gaps in construction service delivery, guiding project definition, planning, budgeting, and execution to minimize client surprise and align expectations with outcomes.

Explore the four project delivery methods in construction—traditional design bid build, design and build, EPC turnkey, and management contracting—along with their advantages, risks, and how responsibilities shift among participants.

Illustrates risk distribution between client and contractor across design and build, traditional, and management contracting, highlighting contractor design and timing risk and client-dominant variations.

High uncertainty projects drive change, complexity, and risk, challenging traditional predictive approaches and change control. Subject matter experts collaborate to apply adaptive solutions across simple to complex projects.

Explore the four categories of uncertainties in construction projects—environmental, regulatory, resource, and project-specific—and learn how proactive contingency planning mitigates risks to ensure smoother project execution.

Explore the information loop, gap analysis, and rolling wave planning in the life cycle of a construction project, and compare design-bid-build, design-build, and EPC delivery while addressing uncertainties.

Compare vertical and horizontal construction projects from a planning perspective, examining sequencing, bottlenecks, accessibility, and crew limits, and how schedules adapt to shifting critical paths.

Building construction projects face site and subsurface constraints like rock and groundwater that drive planning and scheduling, while limited access, crane design, and complex systems affect pace and resource decisions.

Industrial construction projects face site conditions, remote locations, complex design, and resource bottlenecks, making logistics, procurement, front end engineering design, and skilled labor critical to schedule success.

Explore infrastructure and civil construction as horizontal projects, including pipelines, roads, bridges, and rail, and learn to manage site conditions, geographies, and logistics through proactive recovery, resequencing, and dynamic scheduling.

Explore utility construction projects and how site conditions, regulatory delays, and specialized equipment impact planning and contingencies; learn risk allocation for public-sector contracts.

Explore a high-rise building scheduling example balancing inner and outer core activities, and learn how a three-level safety margin and added relationships guide resequencing for reliability.

Explore a fitout project schedule detailing scaffold installation, MEP installation, ceiling and floor finishes across three zones. See how resequencing and fast tracking save time while guarding floor tile quality.

Port construction scheduling adapts to whale breeding season by delaying dredging and reclamation to March, using a non-working calendar or time constraints to resequence breakwaters, revetments, piling, and deck installation.

Explore vertical and horizontal construction projects in planning and scheduling, noting space constraints in vertical projects and mobilization advantages with logistics challenges in building, industrial, civil, and utility projects.

Explore advanced scheduling techniques in construction projects, including pert program evaluation and review technique and location based scheduling chart to prevent resource movements from clashing with the proposed schedules.

Explore Pert scheduling with optimistic, realistic, and pessimistic scenarios to estimate durations, assess schedule risk, and resequence activities for on-time delivery while managing resources.

Master location based scheduling, aka vertical production method, to optimize resource utilization by coordinating zones and locations for parallel work and clear progress.

Master construction planning with advanced scheduling techniques, including pert scheduling, variances, what-if scenarios, and location-based scheduling, to stay on track and maintain the rate of progress.