Management of Scheduling:

Critical path analysis (CPA) has been with the construction industry since it was commercially developed in the 1960’s. The process has not changed much over the years, except that it has become more accessible through computerisation, but also more complex with the added functionality that the computer has provided in processing power. The major change, however, is brought by the environment of project management which has become much more chaotic with constant changes to information and its quality.

Fast tracking is the preferred procurement strategy in construction today and this chaos creating process has changed the relationship between the project information set and the planner, resulting in a lot of strain on critical path analysis. In order for the planner to be able to continually get the best from CPA he has to have a greater understanding of the nature of information and how it is used in a logic diagram.

The three courses we offer help the planner to understand the concepts of change and the modeling of information to create a reliable or controllable schedule. Information has to be considered as having a quality which determines what can be done with it. The highest quality is required if the information is essential in pure CPA modeling. And as the quality of information reduces, the manner in which it can be used changes. The interface between various qualities of information often is confused and complex and this needs to be managed.

Sometimes going back to basics is a good way to understand the changes which have taken place and how they have affected us. We hope to explore the process of critical path analysis and look at how it can be used in a modern world without losing too much of the enormous benefits it has provided over the years.

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