1. An Evaluation of Professional Scheduling Practices and Training Issues in Mississippi
Claire Freeney
School of Engineering Technology, University of Southern Mississippi
International Center for Engineering Education
Thesis Committee: Dr. Tulio Sulbaran, Mr. Desmond Fletcher and Mr. David Marchman
2/19/2019
Claire Freeney

2. Identifying the Scheduling Problem
Interviews with four superintendents and three project managers with whom I had previous job experience.
Personal field experience.
Preliminary review of literature on the subject of scheduling training in the national construction market.
2/19/2019
Claire Freeney

3. Literature Review: in progress
Many state, local, and federal agencies are beginning to require contractors to ensure they are able to build a job they bid on through testing and certification, not just return the low bid.
The Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) and the Associated General Contractors (AGC) in other states offer accessible training programs to contractors in many fields including scheduling.
The Mississippi ABC chapter offers only four classes in safety, first aid, and plans reading.
In the construction industry averaged .1 hours of managerial training per person nationwide.
2/19/2019
Claire Freeney

4. Literature Review: in progress
“ In 2001 the construction industry spent less than half of one percent of its 820 billion in revenue in the U.S. on research.” S.Narayan Bodapati, Ph.D., Southern Illinois University. ENR – 10/29/01.
The amount of money spent on formal training is very low and second only to mining out of all industries. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Total wage and salary costs of training by industry and size class, May-October, /3/03. Available online:
One of the most important areas that can continue to improve is the communications at the planning/scheduling-design-construction level. Banik, Gouranga C. Research Needs to Improve Management and Organization in Construction. ASC Proceeding of the 38th Annual Conference, April
2/19/2019
Claire Freeney

5. Hypothesis
A lack of training at the managerial level is a main reason for scheduling delays in Mississippi.
Contractors would be likely to participate in training programs if they were made available, affordable, and accessible to their managerial workforce.
2/19/2019
Claire Freeney

6. Research Design Objective: completed
The research objective is to describe Mississippi contractors’ scheduling problems and training needs by quantifying their practices and opinions with descriptive statistics.
To gather this data an original survey tool was developed.
2/19/2019
Claire Freeney

7. Survey Design: completed
The fundamental research questions were determined.
Example:
What kind of training do people responsible for scheduling have?
What method of training or accreditation program would best meet the needs of construction industry in Mississippi?
If a scheduling training or certification program were provided would this be effective in reducing the amount of delays due to bad scheduling and schedule noncompliance?
2/19/2019
Claire Freeney

8. Survey Literature Review: completed
The survey includes many established elements of good design.
Less than twenty questions.
Three compartmentalized sections identifying the purpose of each set of questions.
Likert scales for each question, most questions have a similar number of answers.
Questions progress logically, but are organized to not become tedious.
The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) and ABC’s logo at the heading of the survey and cover letter reference the well known institutions.
The survey is three pages total due to the requirements of the USM Office of Research Subject Protection to provide a separate cover letter. The actual survey is one and a half pages long for easy reading.
2/19/2019
Claire Freeney

9. Survey Mailing: In progress at present
The Director of Safety and Education of the Mississippi ABC chapter, Mr. Herb Ward, consented to fax the survey to all twelve hundred active members.
A follow up survey will also be faxed by ABC two weeks after the initial mailing.
2/19/2019
Claire Freeney

10. Data Collection: yet to complete
All surveys are directed to return by fax to the School of Engineering Technology office at USM to my attention.
2/19/2019
Claire Freeney

11. Statistical Analysis: yet to complete
Consultation with USM resident statician.
Employ Microcase, a statistical program, to compute reliability using the internal consistency method and validity with the face validity and convergent validity methods.
2/19/2019
Claire Freeney

12. Analysis of Data: yet to complete
Presentation of data and quantitative conclusion.
This is the objective, quantitative analysis and description of what results the survey yielded
Graphical interpretations of the data.
2/19/2019
Claire Freeney

13. Concluding Interpretation: in progress, yet to complete
More training programs available to the Mississippi construction management could only benefit a state and an industry that have very low workforce continuing education and training rates.
Lack of training and improvement in training could become a hindrance to the Mississippi market as many other states require more certification and testing rather than solely awarding contracts based on low bidding.
2/19/2019
Claire Freeney

14. Further Research Ideas: in progress, yet to complete
How can Mississippi and ABC offer training programs that benefit contractors?
How can the School of Engineering at USM use the collected data to improve the graduate and undergraduate programs? Or extend classes to working professionals?
If training programs are subsequently offered how can we improve those programs?
2/19/2019
Claire Freeney