CM 3210 - Construction Scheduling

• Without reference, the student can describe at least one advantage and disadvantage for each of the following: the Gantt chart, CPM AoA, CPM AoN, CPM PDM, linear activity schedule, and PERT
• Given the contract documents for a building construction project of moderate scope ($3 to $5 million), as well as a detailed (Level 4) copy of the CSI UniFormat and MasterFormat, the student can disaggregate the work to define an appropriate set of activities that includes pre-construction tasks
• Given an array of appropriate construction project activities, the student can logically constrain and sequence the activities to create a coherent project network
• Given an array of appropriate construction project activities, the student can estimate their respective durations, based on available resources and work quantity takeoffs
• Given a logic network of construction activities, their respective durations, and the unconstrained resources to be applied against each activity, the student can perform a forward and backward pass to establish the project duration, determine the critical path(s), and schedule the early start of each activity all without additional references
• Given a construction project early start schedule prepared with unconstrained resources, without additional references, the student can level the schedule if any resources become constrained
• Given necessary crash-cost curves, the student can optimize the resources to be applied, in order to deliver the project at least total cost
• Given a logic network and the activities, shortest expected, most probable, and longest expected durations, students can perform a PERT analysis with only normal probability tables and the variance formula as references
• Given the contract documents for a building construction project of moderate scope ($3 to $5 million), as well as a task list with assigned resources, durations, and precedences, students can correctly load a standard scheduling software package to obtain an accurate activity schedule and typical reports

• Some course topics related to scheduling are briefly introduced in CM 3011, and pre-construction activities are introduced, as well. Calculation of activity durations relies on knowledge of detailed production estimating.

• Construction planning vs. scheduling
• Types of construction schedules (Gantt, CPM, AoA, AoN, PDM, PERT)
• Event time calculations
• Logic types
• Dummy activities
• Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
• Activity duration determination
• Time vs. cost
• Forward and backward passes
• Critical path and its significance
• Float or slack
• Resource leveling
• AoN networks
• PDM networks and lag
• Scheduling pre-construction activities
• Linear activity scheduling
• Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)
• Project control issues (linked to CM 3013 )

• Gantt chart preparation
• AoA network preparation
• Early start schedule preparation and resource summary
• AoN network preparation
• Scheduling software capabilities and applications