Planning Techniques Land and Construction Management

What is planning? Definition: (Oxford) A formulated and detailed method used to meet objectives In construction: Selecting appropriate methods and order of work for a particular project to determine time and cost

What types of plans are there? Strategic ( FYP’s) Project Simple-Complex

Why plan? In general Murphy’s Law Reduce uncertainty and meet objectives In construction To improve project performance

Planning Who has the responsibility of planning in an organization? Management When do you plan? When you want a degree of certainty on meeting objectives Monitor the progress of the plan

Planning for construction projects Bar Charts Line of Balance Critical Path Method (CPM)

Adverse Events in Construction Design stage Construction stage (see pg3 of Cormican) Post-occupancy

Success Factors Eg. Career Success 1.Attitude 2.Knowledge 3.Skills (technical, social, analytical, technological) 4.Experience

Why do plans fail? Murphy’s Law If anything can go wrong, it will If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong Corollary: If there is a worse time for something to go wrong, it will happen then If anything just cannot go wrong, it will anyway If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which something can go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way, unprepared for, will promptly develop Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something

Why do plans fail? (2) Linear thinking (X+Y=Z) in a non-linear world (X+Y=Z 3 ) Too ambitious Adam Smith’s nature of man-self interest

When in need, plan again! Contingency plan Hope for the best, expect the worst Suggested Reading: Walker, D. H. T. and Shen, Y. J. (2002) Project understanding, planning, flexibilty of management action and construction time performance: two Australian case studies. Construction Management and Economics, 20,