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Scheduling
Once the planning stage has been completed and the preliminary network diagram drawn, the scheduling may be commenced. This involves the allocation of begin times to all the activities in the network diagram.
The practical difficulties of estimating times are considerable. The important point to keep in mind concerning time estimation is that the time allocated to each activity should be realistic rather than desirable. In practice, the estimation of times for each of the activities that make up a project is derived from a person (or persons) with considerable previous experience in performing or managing similar tasks. Alternatively, the duration of particular activities may be extracted from records concerning similar tasks carried out in the past.
Once the estimated times have been agreed upon for all the activities, they can be inserted on the network diagram. Such times are then referred to as activity duration times and are usually placed beneath the arrows representing the relevant activities. The size of the project will determine whether the duration times are estimated as days or weeks.
We now have a graphic summary of the project in terms of activity sequences and their duration times which have been estimated as necessary to carry out the project.
Figure 9: Network with durations for each
activity and how the times were arrived at.
With kind permission of Construction Training Australia “Plan and Organise Work” page 24.
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