To be able to develop a project management plan, we need The project contract which is a very important
document to the planning engineers as it is our authorized reference to all the documents we will
prepare , Project contract usually contain the following (Examples Project Management Plan):
Bill of Quantities (B.O.Q) which identify the project elements along with quantities, unite rates and
budget cost associated with brief description of the specified materials used to execute each item.
Sample of the B.O.Q
B.O.Q
Project contractual milestones which will be the core of the time schedule dates and timing.
The design drawings and specifications which help to identify the activities sequence in our schedule.
THE PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN COMPONENTS FROM PLANNING ENGINEER POINT OF VIEW
A project plan, according to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, is: “…a formal, approved
document used to guide both project execution and project control. The primary uses of the project plan
are to document planning assumptions and decisions, facilitate communication among stakeholders, and
document approved scope, cost, and schedule baselines. A project plan may be summarized or detailed.
and from planning engineer point of view it contains the following elements:
1- Detailed Time Schedule:
The detailed time schedule is the core of the project management plan and it should be done by the
following sequence :
A- From the B.O.Q we should be able to create the activity list which is simply a list of the activities
required to execute the project without any durations or sequence.
B- From the project design drawings we will be able to understand the project elements and this will help
us creating the initial Work Break Down Structure W.B.S, W.B.S is “Is the process of subdividing project
deliverable and work into smaller, more manageable components. and Each descending level of the WBS
represents an increasingly detailed definition of the project work.”
Sample of the WBS ( I prefer to create the WBS in primavera and the below picture showing how it looks
like in primavera P6)
WBS
C: now we should combine the activity list with the WBS i.e (if we have an activity for the reinforcement
concrete slab , and we have in our WBS four floors, it means we need to repeat this activity four times
one activity for each floor), This exercise could be done in primavera directly, However i prefer to do it in
excel first because the excel is more flexible and contains lot of formulas which will help us to divide the
quantities for each activity and estimate the budget cost and resources which we will need later on.
Therefore the next step is to create activity list in WBS order with quantities distribution and budget cost
this is called cost loading (See example of cost loading in the below photo)
D: After creating the cost loading we will go further to create our time frame using primavera and start
filling the WBS we have created earlier in item No. B with the activities as per item no. C (This step could
be done by importing the activities directly from excel to primavera which i will explain in details later on,
check primavera section.) ,activities durations and activities relationships and run the schedule and adjust
the durations and relationships to achieve the project milestones and completion dates.
Time Frame
2- Cash Flow
after finalizing the time frame we will be able to populate the schedule with the budget cost for each
activity as per item no. c, and once we run the schedule the cash flow can be created from the primavera
as per photo below
Cash Flow
3- Manpower Histogram
to create Manpower histogram we need to create an excel sheet similar to the cost loading but we
calculate the manpower instead of the budget cost (Resource Loading) as per below example:
after the completion of the resource loading sheet we will upload the primavera with the manpower
budgeted units for every activity and this will create the manpower histogram (see sample below) :
4-Shop Drawings tracking log:
The Shop Drawings tracking log should be coordinated with the technical department to provide the
planning engineer with a list of the forecast shop drawings for all trades, the planning engineer should
drive this process by supplying the technical department with the proper form to fill the shop drawing list
and then planner fill the planned dates from the schedule and give the form to the document controller to
keep updating it.
5- Materials Tracking Log:
The Materials Tracking Log should be coordinated with the procurement department to provide the
planning engineer with a list of the materials along with forecast delivery durations for all trades, the
planning engineer should drive this process by supplying the procurement department with the proper
form to fill it and then planner fill the planned dates from the schedule and give the form to the document
controller to keep updating it.
To know how to do all the documents mentioned above check our free course: How to make a time
schedule step by step