Construction Management 411
Project Planning and Control

Course Introduction

This course, Project Planning and Control, covers the process of planning, scheduling, and setting up control systems to effectively manage a project. It is the second of the construction management courses leading to the UW certificate in Construction Management. The object of this course is to furnish you with the skills and knowledge you need to effectively plan and schedule a project. Once the work is underway, you will use the control systems to monitor, forecast, and solve problems as they occur. You will learn the elements of project planning and ways to set up meaningful control systems that can help assure the contractor of a successfully completed project.

I always found project planning and control to be the part of the project that I looked forward to the most, and I hope you will enjoy it, too. When you do this well, your reward is not only knowing that your company has made or exceeded its profit projections, but seeing the direct results of your work.

You will apply the project planning and control techniques you learn to the same project you used in CM 410, Estimating. This project provides real world continuity to the Construction Management curriculum. To perform the work for this course effectively, you will first have to make sure the estimate you submitted in CM 410 is complete and accurate. Although everyone's bid was different, the list of lowest subcontractors should be the same, and all bids should be within the grading accuracy used in CM 410.

Course Objectives

When you have finished this course, you will be able to

• review and adjust the work breakdown structure you developed in the estimating process for use in project planning and control;
• learn how to assemble a project team and develop a work plan for the project;
• define the activities in a project and determine their relationship to each other;
• develop a network schedule using the activities you have defined;
• determine the early and late dates and float for each activity and find the critical path through the network;
• apply resources to the activities;
• develop a cash flow chart for the entire schedule;
• monitor work progress and modify the schedule to reflect change orders and other impacts;
• establish an earned-value system that will be used for forecasting and to anticipate problems; and

The Online Environment

Your online course offers several advantages to the traditional classroom, including the comprehensive Online Student Handbook, the ability to communicate electronically with students and with your instructor, and links to a rich array of online resources.

Online Student Handbook

This handbook answers questions about your online learning course, such as how to purchase your text, schedule an exam, obtain a transcript, and get technical help if you need it. The handbook also provides additional resources, such as how to order books or journals from the library and how to study for an online course.

Communication with Your Instructor and Student Peers

• Online Discussion Forums, designed by the University of Washington award winning Catalyst team, allow you to communicate with other currently enrolled students and with your instructor. We encourage you to use the forum to exchange ideas, resources, and comments about your course work with other students in this course. This unstructured forum is monitored by your instructor.
• You can use e-mail to ask me a question or preferably post your question on the forum. I will reply on the same forum.

Library Resources

As an online student, you have access to a wealth of Web resources compiled to provide fast, easy access to information that supports your online learning experience. Organized by subjects, Library Resources link you to sites with help for writing and research, study skills, language learning, and library reference materials. All links have been assessed for credibility and reliability, and they are regularly monitored to ensure their usability.

Project Planning and Control

Project planning and control is not as intensive as bid estimating. Once a bid has been won, and the contract awarded, the pressure is much reduced. It becomes the project manager's function to plan, schedule, and control the work so as to preserve at least the profit that was included in the bid. Effective project managers will figure out ways to increase the profit and thus provide value to their company.

Even though it is not as intense as estimating, project planning and control is just as important. Many projects have been bid and won that had enough money in them to perform the work successfully, only to fail due to lack of planning. Lack of planning is the major reason why projects lose money and construction companies fail in business.

Course Requirements

To complete this course, you must do the following:

• read the assigned sections of the text and this course guide;
• participate in weekly teleconferences;
• complete and submit all assignments on time; and
• submit the course project.

Procedures

You, individually, will plan the work for the course project, develop the network schedule, and set up control systems. You will do all work manually and draw the networks by hand. You may use spreadsheets and word processing software to aid in your work but you may not use scheduling programs. These programs perform functions behind the scenes, and show only the results, and it is important that you (as well as professional schedulers) know and understand the procedures. This prevents such statements as "I don't know how I got this answer; the computer did it." By manually doing the work you know exactly what operations are being done and why, and you can verify the validity of the information.

The construction industry employs two basic styles of network diagrams, bar chart and the precedence diagram method (PDM). Bar charts have been the mainstay for years because they are easy to construct manually and to understand. Computer applications have been written for both the bar chart and the precedence diagram. Your textbook discusses both types of network diagrams. In this course, we will use the bar chart as the basis for learning network scheduling. You will use precedence diagrams when you create your rough draft and convert to a bar chart for the final draft. The basic principles of both network diagrams are similar, and you should have no trouble converting from one style to the other.

About the Texts

The required texts for this course are:

• Newitt, Jay. Construction Scheduling: Principles and Practices. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2004.
• Building Construction Cost Data 2006, 64th edition. Kingston, Mass.: R.S. Means Company, 2006. (Same text used in CM 410)

I will refer to these books as Newitt and Means. You can buy Newitt at the University Book Store (they do mail order), or any other establishment that can order textbooks. Means is the same book you used in the Estimating course.

The course text is your basic resource as you learn project planning and control techniques. The course guide you are reading is a supplement to the text; in it, I discuss means and methods I have found to be effective.

As you learned in Estimating , construction is not an exact science and there are often several ways to accomplish the same thing. I am hoping that your exposure to more than one method will allow you to make intelligent choices and discover the direction that works best for you.

About Reading Assignments

You'll find a reading assignment at the beginning of each lesson. I suggest you read the text first, and then my comments in this course guide. This way you will get the main subject of the lesson first and then the supplemental information that goes along with it.

About the Course

This course is divided into five lessons. Most lessons include a reading assignment and an assignment. There are also teleconferences scheduled throughout the course and a general discussion forum for communicating with classmates.

The lessons concentrate on techniques of project planning and control. The Newitt text discusses the technical aspects of planning and scheduling, providing the kind of detail you will need to establish sound project management skill. The course guide provides you with additional information that I have found helpful in making the schedule meaningful and creating effective control systems.

• Lesson One: In this lesson, you will learn concepts that will serve as a foundation for four primary objectives of project management: quality, time, budget/costs, and safety.
• Lesson Two: In this lesson, you will focus on a specific type of schedule—the bar chart. This lesson also explains Critical Path Method (CPM) and how its use helps the scheduling process.
• Lesson Three: In this lesson, you will need your estimating information (from CM 410) regarding man hours to determine duration. You will also learn forward and backward pass—a mathematical calculation that gives you early and late dates and critical paths for your project.
• Lesson Four: In this lesson, you will learn how to use the schedule to balance resources and forecast cost. You will also learn how to control cost using a schedule.
• Lesson Five: In this lesson, you will learn about project communication and additional scheduling techniques

In addition a course project (discussed separately) represents a significant part of the course work.

About Teleconferences

You will participate in weekly teleconferences during the course. The first teleconference will be a "kick-off" call where you will have a chance to meet the instructor, get to know other students a bit, and learn the expectations for the class. This also provides an opportunity to clarify what you don't understand, so please review the course material beforehand. Be sure to read at least through Assignment 1, as this call will cover the first assignment as well. Have any questions or comments ready.

Teleconferences for this course are scheduled Thursday evenings; you are required to dial in at the designated time. If you have problems with the scheduled date or time, contact your instructor to make other arrangements. See the Course Calendar for teleconference dates and times.

Teleconferences are also important to this course because we will discuss your work on your Course Project. Note: The physical nature of this project prevents you from actually turning in the finished product as it is a schedule you build throughout the course on a length of paper from a butcher paper roll. Your instructor will rely on your descriptions, comments, and questions during the teleconferences to determine your comprehension of this task.

You should receive teleconference instructions with your registration materials or access the link from your Course Syllabus.

About Discussion Forums

The General Discussion Forum enables us to simulate one of the features of a classroom setting; we'll be able to share our questions and ideas through threaded online discussions.

As in the previous course, you are encouraged to exchange information, ideas, and general course questions with other students. You will find a General Discussion Forum linked from your Course Syllabus. This forum is for your benefit. The instructor does not monitor this forum, but you may find classmates a useful resource for answering questions you may have about the course material, assignments, or the course project. As in Estimating, the online discussions allow you and your classmates to share knowledge and help each other learn.

About the Assignments

Each lesson includes an assignment (check the Course Schedule for the due dates). Unlike Estimating, assignments are not necessarily part of your course project. Rather, they are designed to give you practice in skills that you will use for planning, scheduling, and controlling work. Most assignments consist of several parts including teleconference discussion topics, exercises from the text, and work on a topic specific to project planning and scheduling in general or to your course project.

The final assignment for the course is the Course Project, which includes submitting a Rough Draft Schedule and a Cost-Loaded Bar Chart. Note: The physical nature of this project prevents you from actually turning in the entire finished product as it is schedule you build throughout the course on a length of paper from a butcher paper roll. Your instructor will rely on your comments and descriptions during the teleconferences to determine your comprehension of this task.

Your instructor will use your assignments, project work, and teleconference participation to evaluate your understanding of the material and to provide you with feedback.

You will turn in assignments by e-mail. To receive full credit, your assignment must be postmarked by the due date. Refer to About Submissions below for complete submission details.

As in Estimating, the best way to keep control of your work is to do it and turn it in on time. This should be a standard operating procedure for all project managers. We will emphasize the theme of on-time work throughout this course.

About the Course Project

In the Estimating course, the course project was the object of your bid; this accounted for a significant portion of your grade. The same is true in Project Planning and Control. The Course Project (the same one we used in Estimating) is the project that your company successfully bid on and for which it was awarded the contract. You must now do the planning and scheduling and set up the project controls. This is the start of your project management work; it will determine how well you manage a project and realize the profit bid.

The tasks for the course project are outlined in Assignment 5.
You will be working on these tasks throughout the course. I encourage you to review this assignment as soon as you start this course and work toward completing it as the course progresses. While some lesson assignments are designed to be a part of the course project, you will also do considerable work beyond these to complete the course project schedule. Keep in mind the physical nature of this project prevents you from actually turning in the entire finished product as it is schedule you build throughout the course on length of paper from a butcher paper roll.

Meeting Deadlines

Owners often include in the contract a requirement that a network schedule be submitted for owner review and approval within so many days after the contract award or after the Notice to Proceed with the work. There is obviously no bid day for this course; the dates your course project schedule and your work on each assignment are due, however, are shown in the course guide (you could think of the course guide as your contract for this part of the course project). If your work for any assignment is late it will be considered non-responsive and will be marked down severely.

"Presenting" the Finished Schedule

In the real world of construction, the project manager (or team) must present the schedule to the owner at a meeting; but in this distance learning course you will not be able to make this presentation. As you complete your schedule, however, do so as if you were going to present it to an owner. You might want to include an outline of the points that you would present and answers to questions that you anticipate the owner might ask. This will help you to justify the logic of the work and consequently increase your confidence that the work will be completed on time.

Submission Guidelines

You will submit your completed assignments to the instructor by e-mail. If this is technically impossible for you for any reason, make arrangements with the instructor at the beginning of the course to arrange a backup method (e.g. regular mail).

For all assignments:

• Save a copy of each assignment as a precaution.
• Submit only one assignment at a time.

To receive full credit, your assignment must be postmarked by the due date. Refer to the Course Schedule on the Course Syllabus for due dates. Please make arrangements with the instructor in advance if you must turn in any assignment late. You may lose credit if you fail to do so.

Assignments will not be returned; however, your instructor will provide feedback via return e-mail.

E-mail Attachments

• Send assignments as MS Word attachments as follows:
  To: sage_cm@msn.com
  Subject: CM411_ # (where # is the assignment number)
• Use the following convention for naming your Attachment:
  yourlastname###_# (where ### is the course; # is the assignment)
• Save a copy of each assignment as a precaution.

Regular Mail (by arrangement)

• If for some reason, you need to mail an assignment, contact your instructor for the address.
• If you are using U.S. mail, send a copy to your instructor and keep the original for your files.
• Be sure to include a SASE (self-addressed, stamped envelope) if you wish to have your instructor return the assignment with comments.

About Exams and Grading

There are no quizzes or exams in this course. You will be evaluated on your homework assignments, participation in teleconferences, and course project. Since this is a distance learning course, your instructor relies on these factors to assess your understanding of the course content. Your successful learning of the material in this course benefits you and your future career as a construction manager, so I encourage you to get the most out of this course, as well as the other courses in the Construction Management curriculum. If you do not understand something be sure to e-mail your instructor.

As in Estimating, we will use industry practices for this course. All work, therefore, must be submitted according to the requirements of the assignments and the project—no more and no less—and must be submitted on time.

Relative grading weight for each component of the course is shown in Table i.1

Table i.1—Grading Weight for CM411 Components

Written Assignments	30 points
Teleconference Participation	20 points
Project Schedule and Controls	50 points

Even though you and other students are encouraged to help each other in online discussion assignments, you must do the written assignments and course project by yourself.

Course Grading and Deadline

I use the grading standards developed by the Department of Construction Management at the University of Washington for assigning grades in this course. The grading scale is shown in Table i.2.

Table i.2—Grading Scale for CM 411

Grade		Percentage
A	4.0–3.9	100–97.5
A–	3.8–3.5	97.4–92.5
B+	3.4–3.2	92.4–88.7
B	3.1–2.9	88.6–85.0
B–	2.8–2.5	84.9–80.0
C+	2.4–2.2	79.9–76.2
C	2.1–1.9	76.1–72.5
C–	1.8–1.5	72.4–67.5
D+	1.4–1.2	67.9–63.7
D	1.1–0.9	63.6–60.0
D–	0.8–0.7	59.9–57.5
F	0	57.4 and below

• Each lesson is designed to be completed in a two-week period. Plan on submitting the first assignment in the first week and the second assignment in the second week. This will give you a consistent workload and will not overwhelm you at any one time. Avoid cramming at the last minute.
• Planning and sequencing activities is not as easy as it looks. You can do it quickly—and it will probably be full of errors that may not be apparent to you—or you can think it out and develop a good sequence. Remember: you are not experienced at this yet, so take the time to think it through.
• Your Estimating course emphasized organizing your work. The same holds true for Project Planning and Control. I hope that you can see the value of good organization and that you will apply it to this course. We won't specifically emphasize organization in this course but it is an important aspect of all of your construction management work.
• Turn in your work on time. There is a severe penalty for late assignments.
• Take advantage of the knowledge of experienced schedulers.

Study Tips

The amount of work required to complete this course varies for each student. In general, however, the work is the same as a course you might take in the classroom. Learning online can be challenging, but working regularly is what cements the ideas and helps you master the concepts. If you try to sit down once a week to do a lesson, it may be more difficult than if you work a shorter amount of time, several days a week.

The following study tips may help you learn the material in this course:

• Read the introduction and objectives for each lesson in this course guide to help you focus as you read the textbook.
• Read the exercise or assignment material in the textbook.
• Read through the related commentary in the online course guide.
• Have a pencil in your hand and work through the examples along with the authors of the text and this course guide. Make sure you understand the steps to each solution.
• Draw pictures! Many times in this course, a picture can help clarify what is being asked. I've included illustrations throughout this course.
• If you don't understand something, or are getting frustrated, send your instructor an e-mail. Sometimes you can get hung up on little things (that may seem like big things) that can prevent you from making progress. A point of clarification or explanation from the instructor can often get you on your way.

A Final Note

Once a project is won, the project manager has a tremendous amount of work to do. Project planning and control is one of these tasks; it is vital for preservation of the proposed profit. This course is designed with this in mind; I am giving you what I have found works best for me in doing this work on schedule. Newitt looks at the same subject from a more academic viewpoint, to help you understand how various parts of the process work. As your career in construction management progresses you may find it helpful to refer back to the text from time to time to review some of the principles.

The Newitt text includes review problems at the end of each chapter. I've assigned some of these as written assignments. I encourage you, however, to work any problems that you think will help you understand the concepts discussed in the text. Do what works best for you; what is helpful for one project manager may not necessarily work for another.

About the Developer

Rocky Gerber has over 30 years of experience in the construction industry including ten years of senior management experience. He has successfully completed complex projects with long-term schedules and a multitude of subcontractors on highly technical projects involving the interface of demanding design and constructability factors. His particular area of expertise is government and public school projects. In addition he teaches scheduling, computer applications, Methods & Materials and project management classes for the University of Washington Construction Management Program on a regular basis.

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