CHAPTER THREE

3. PROJECT PLANNING
3.1. Introduction
Project Planning: defined as ‘drawing up a method or scheme of acting, doing, proceeding,
making, etc. developed in advance.’ (In advance) is a key operational part of the definition, and
requires experience and foresight. Optimum utilization of different resources human, equipment
and material, at all times, ensure appropriate preparedness at all times, and finally the successful
completion of the project. Each agency/stakeholder carries out its own planning exercise and it is
important to ensure proper coordination to ensure that the agencies do not work at cross
purposes, and the common goal is served. The basic perspective here is that of a contractor or
constructor.
It should also be noted that plans are drawn up at each of the stages or phases of a project,
though different terminology is used at times depending upon the stage of the project.
For example, initially when the project is in the planning during conception stage could be
referred to as a feasibility plan, while in the engineering and execution stage, terms such as the
preliminary plan and construction plan, respectively, are commonly used.
Activities involved in construction planning
Defining the scope of work:
Defining Work Tasks /work breakdown
Identifying activities involved:
Establish project duration:
Define procedures for controlling and assigning resources:
Developing appropriate interfaces:
Monitoring and dissemination of information:
Revisions in plans
Defining the scope of work:

Since all activities involve consumption of different resources to different extents, it is important
that the scope of work involved is properly and, to the extent possible, completely defined.

Any addition, deletion or modification in the scope could have serious repercussions in terms of
time of completion and cost, and even could be the root of litigation, besides souring the
relationships between different agencies.

For example if felling trees and leveling the ground is added (at a later date) to the scope of a
contractor awarded a job for construction of roads, would obviously cause difficulties!!

Defining Work Tasks /work breakdown

In order to successfully accomplish contract and corporate objectives, a plan is required that
defines all effort to be expended, assigns responsibility to a specially identified organizational
element, and establishes schedules and budgets for the accomplishment of the work. The
preparation of this plan is the responsibility of the program manager, who is assisted by the
program team assigned in accordance with program management system directives. The detailed
planning is also established in accordance with company budgeting policy before contractual
efforts are initiated.
Keeping this in view, in planning a project, the project manager must structure the work into
small elements that are:
 Manageable, in that specific authority and responsibility can be assigned
 Independent, or with minimum interfacing with and dependence on other ongoing
elements
 Integra table so that the total package can be seen
 Measurable in terms of progress

After project requirements definition, the first major step in the planning process is the
development of the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). A Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is
a product-oriented family tree subdivision of the hardware, services, and data required to
produce the end product. The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is structured in accordance
with the way the work will be performed and reflects the way in which project costs and data
will be summarized and eventually reported.

The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a tool that defines a project and groups the project’s
discrete work elements in a way that helps organize and define the total work scope of the
project. WBS also provides the necessary framework for detailed cost estimating and control
along with providing guidance for schedule development and control. Additionally the WBS is a
dynamic tool and can be revised and updated as needed by the project manager. Each descending
level of the WBS represents an increased level of detailed definition of the project work.
Defining Precedence Relationships among Activities
Once work activities have been defined, the relationships among the activities can be specified.
Precedencerelations between activities signify that the activities must take place in a particular
sequence. Diagrammatically, precedence relationships can be illustrated by a network or graph in
which the activities are represented by arrows. The arrows are called branches or links in the
activity network, while the circles marking the beginning or end of each arrow are called nodes
or events.

Identifying activities involved:

This part of planning is very closely linked to defining the scope,
It involves identifying activities in a particular job. Since different activities involved consume
different physical resources to varying extents, it is crucial that these activities are exhaustively
listed, along with the resources required.
For example, though different agencies may be concerned with ‘environmental impact
assessment’ it is important for them to identify the tools or parameters each will be using so to
plan effectively.
Establish project duration:
This can be done only with a clear knowledge of the required resources, productivities, and inter-
relationships. This information is used to prepare a network and other forms of representations
outlining the schedules. It may be remembered that the duration required for any activity is
related to the resources committed and it may be possible to reduce the project duration by
increasing the resource commitment, even at additional cost. Thus a balance between time and
project cost is required to arrive at an optimum level of resource commitment.
Define procedures for controlling and assigning resources:
It is important that the planning document prepared is followed by others involved in the
execution of the project, or its individual phases. Thus, the procedures to be followed for
procurement and control of resources to different activities – manpower, machines, material and
money are also laid down.
Developing appropriate interfaces:
The planner needs to devise evolve an appropriate system for MIS reporting. Tools such as
computers, formats for reporting, etc are widely used and it may be noted that several software
are readily available to aid the planner.

3.2. Principles of planning

Planning techniques range from simple bar charts to computerized network analysis. Some
reference is made to these later, but all the techniques are based on certain important principles-

 The plan should provide information in a readily understood form, however complex the
situation it describes;
 The plan should be realistic. There is no point, for example, in planning a building to be
completed in six months if the delivery period for cement is five months;
 The plan should be flexible. Circumstances will almost inevitably change during the
constructing stages. It should be possible to alter certain elements without disrupting the
entire plan;
 The plan should serve as a basis for progress monitoring and control;
 The plan should be comprehensive. It should cover all the stages from briefing to
commissioning. It is a common misconception that planning is necessary only for actual
construction. Even on a small project, the time between the decision to build and the
taking-over of the completed works is often two or three years. Out of this period, only
nine months or a year may have been spent on physical construction. On a large and
complex project the proportion of total time spent on building may be as low as 20 or 25
 per cent. The rest of the time will have gone on planning permissions, compliance with
statutory requirements, financial authorization, design tendering, and so on. It is therefore
essential to plan the total project period.

3.3. Types of planning

 Time Plan  Construction Equipment Plan

 Material Plan  Manpower Plan
 Resources Plan  Finance Plan

Time plan: Time is the essence of all construction projects, and contracts often have clauses
outlining awards (bonus payments) or penalties (as liquidated damages) for completing a work
ahead or later than a scheduled date.
Some of the common reasons for delays could be a sluggish approach during planning, delay in
award of contract, changes during execution, alterations in scope of work, delay in payments,
slow decision making, delay in supply of drawings and materials and labor trouble.
Some commonly used scheduling techniques are as follows:-
 Critical path method (CPM),
 Program evaluation & review technique (PERT),
 Precedence network analysis (PNA),
 Line of balance technique (LOB),
 Linear programmer chart (LPC) and
 Time scale network (TSN).
The choice of the method to be used in a particular case depends on the intended objective,
nature of the project, target audience, etc. Some of these methods are discussed in greater detail
elsewhere.

Resources plan: a resource plan, combines manpower, materials, equipment, budget or cash
flow, is also drawn up for a project to show the overall requirement of the different resources in
the project. Such a plan can be prepared only on the basis of the schedule of a project. In a
manner of speaking, the relationship between planning for time and other resource is similar to
the relationship between design and analysis of a structure.
Manpower plan:-This plan focuses on:
 estimating the size of work force,
 division in functional teams and
 Scheduling the deployment of manpower.
 establishing labour productivity standards,
 providing suitable environment and financial incentives for optimum productivity, and
 Grouping the manpower in suitable functional team in order to get the optimum
utilization.
Material plan:-The material plan involves:
 identification of required materials, estimation of required quantities,
  defining specification and forecasting material requirement besides identification of
appropriate source(s),
 inventory control,
 procurement plans, and
 Monitoring the usage of materials.
Construction equipment plan:
Modern construction is highly mechanized. The role of heavy equipment in ensuring timely
completion of projects cannot be overemphasized. Machines are used for mass excavation,
trenching, compacting, grading, hoisting, concreting, drilling, material handling, etc.
Induction of modern equipment’s could improve productivity and quality besides reducing cost.
At the same time it should be borne in mind heavy equipment are very costly and should be
optimally utilized in order to be productive. It is also important that the characteristics of
equipment are kept in mind when drawing up an equipment plan.
Finance plan: Large construction projects require huge investments, and a long time to
complete, it is obvious that all the money is not required at any one point in time.
Contractors fund their projects from their Working capital and a combination of avenues such as
mobilization advance for the project, running account bills paid by the client, secured advances
against materials brought at site, advance payments, and credits from suppliers against work
done, capital inflow can be looked upon as the lifeline of any large project. Careful planning for
funds and finances has achieved added significance in cases when projects are funded by the
private sector or financial institutions that view the project as a financial investment and seek
returns in monetary terms also.
3.4. Components project cycle

The acquisition of a constructed facility usually represents a major capital investment, whether
its owner happens to be an individual, a private corporation or a public agency. Since the
commitment of resources for such an investment is motivated by market demands or perceived
needs, the facility is expected to satisfy certain objectives within the constraints specified by the
owner and relevant regulations. With the exception of the speculative housing market, where the
residential units may be sold as built by the real estate developer, most constructed facilities are
custom made in consultation with the owners. A real estate developer may be regarded as the
sponsor of building projects, as much as a government agency may be the sponsor of a public
project and turns it over to another government unit upon its completion. From the viewpoint of
project management, the terms "owner" and "sponsor" are synonymous because both have the
ultimate authority to make all important decisions. Since an owner is essentially acquiring a
facility on a promise in some form of agreement, it will be wise for any owner to have a clear
understanding of the acquisition process in order to maintain firm control of the quality,
timeliness and cost of the completed facility.

From the perspective of an owner, the project life cycle for a constructed facility may be
illustrated schematically in Figure 1-1. Essentially, a project is conceived to meet market
demands or needs in a timely fashion. Various possibilities may be considered in the conceptual
planning stage, and the technological and economic feasibility of each alternative will be
assessed and compared in order to select the best possible project. The financing schemes for the
proposed alternatives must also be examined, and the project will be programmed with respect to
the timing for its completion and for available cash flows. After the scope of the project is clearly
defined, detailed engineering design will provide the blueprint for construction, and the
definitive cost estimate will serve as the baseline for cost control. In the procurement and
construction stage, the delivery of materials and the erection of the project on site must be
carefully planned and controlled. After the construction is completed, there is usually a brief
period of start-up or shake-down of the constructed facility when it is first occupied. Finally, the
management of the facility is turned over to the owner for full occupancy until the facility lives
out its useful life and is designated for demolition or conversion.

Of course, the stages of development in Figure 1-1 may not be strictly sequential. Some of the
stages require iteration, and others may be carried out in parallel or with overlapping time
frames, depending on the nature, size and urgency of the project. Furthermore, an owner may
have in-house capacities to handle the work in every stage of the entire process, or it may seek
professional advice and services for the work in all stages. Understandably, most owners choose
to handle some of the work in-house and to contract outside professional services for other
components of the work as needed. By examining the project life cycle from an owner's
perspective we can focus on the proper roles of various activities and participants in all stages
regardless of the contractual arrangements for different types of work.

In the United States, for example, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has in-house capabilities to
deal with planning, budgeting, design, construction and operation of waterway and flood control
structures. Other public agencies, such as state transportation departments, are also deeply
involved in all phases of a construction project. In the private sector, many large firms such as
DuPont, Exxon, and IBM are adequately staffed to carry out most activities for plant expansion.
All these owners both public and private, use outside agents to a greater or lesser degree when it
becomes more advantageous to do so.

The project life cycle may be viewed as a process through which a project is implemented from
cradle to grave. This process is often very complex; however, it can be decomposed into several
stages as indicated by the general outline in Figure 1-1. The solutions at various stages are then
integrated to obtain the final outcome. Although each stage requires different expertise, it usually
includes both technical and managerial activities in the knowledge domain of the specialist. The
owner may choose to decompose the entire process into more or less stages based on the size and
nature of the project, and thus obtain the most efficient result in implementation. Very often, the
owner retains direct control of work in the planning and programming stages, but increasingly
outside planners and financial experts are used as consultants because of the complexities of
projects. Since operation and maintenance of a facility will go on long after the completion and
acceptance of a project, it is usually treated as a separate problem except in the consideration of
the life cycle cost of a facility. All stages from conceptual planning and feasibility studies to the
acceptance of a facility for occupancy may be broadly lumped together and referred to as the
Design/Construct process, while the procurement and construction alone are traditionally
regarded as the province of the construction industry.

Owners must recognize that there is no single best approach in organizing project management
throughout a project's life cycle. All organizational approaches have advantages and
disadvantages, depending on the knowledge of the owner in construction management as well as
the type, size and location of the project. It is important for the owner to be aware of the
approach which is most appropriate and beneficial for a particular project. In making choices,
owners should be concerned with the life cycle costs of constructed facilities rather than simply
the initial construction costs. Saving small amounts of money during construction may not be
worthwhile if the result is much larger operating costs or not meeting the functional requirements
for the new facility satisfactorily. Thus, owners must be very concerned with the quality of the
finished product as well as the cost of construction itself. Since facility operation and
maintenance is a part of the project life cycle, the owners' expectation to satisfy investment
objectives during the project life cycle will require consideration of the cost of operation and
maintenance. Therefore, the facility's operating management should also be considered as early
as possible, just as the construction process should be kept in mind at the early stages of planning
and programming.