Scheduling for Estimators

During the bidding period, estimators often draw simple bar charts to represent the construction schedule. Bar charts are great tools for telling people when things need to be done and how long they have to do them. They are lousy tools for actually analyzing the demands of a project schedule. Bar charts make it easy for estimators to lie to themselves about the project duration and that leads to bad estimates.

It’s easy to look at the project specifications to determine the owner’s time of completion requirements. It’s easy to draw a bar chart that reflects these requirements. The problem is that the bar chart does not analyze project logic. A more sophisticated tool, the critical path schedule, is required to properly understand what must really happen in order for a project to be completed in accordance with the specified time restraints.

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Introduction

Bar Charts are not adequate

Using Preliminary critical path schedules

The scheduling process

Listing and Sequencing

Logical Connections and Lag

Assigning Durations

Summary

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