Introduction - Construction Project Scheduling and Control - page 2

PLANNING AND SCHEDULING
Planning and scheduling are two terms that are often thought of as synonymous. How-
ever, they are not. Scheduling is just one part of the planning effort. The term planning
is used in many ways and different contexts. We commonly hear about financial plan-
ning, such as retirement planning and college education planning. Although these
types of planning may include other aspects (such as what to do after retirement or
which college to choose for your child), the main focus is on finance. Government
organizations, as well as large corporations, have planning units or teams in almost
every department. All plans in the individual units must be aligned with the organiza-
tion's “ strategic plan, ” which is the long-term plan for the organization itself in terms
of operations and growth. At the individual level, a young person may have plans for
marriage, a career, and so forth. However, in the context of this topic, the term plan-
ning is restricted to mean project planning, with an emphasis on construction projects.
What Is a Project?
Before we define project planning, we need to define a project. The Project Man-
agement Institute (PMI) defines a project as “a temporary endeavor undertaken to
create a unique product, service, or result” (PMI, 2013, p. 573). The key words in
this definition are temporary and unique : any project must have a starting point and an
ending point, and it must have a deliverable product, service, or result that is unique.
As a generic example, a secretary of education saying “we need to improve our
students' SAT scores” does not constitute a project. However, saying “we need to
improve our students' SAT scores by an average of 15 points in five years” may qualify
as a project. Another example: a newlywed couple may decide on saving money to
buy a house. This is not a project, but saying “we are planning to save $50,000 in
the next five years” may qualify as a project.
Tip Box 1.1
Every project must have a start point, a finish point, and a deliverable.
Some government agencies have specific but ongoing work that they call a project,
such as maintenance of a certain facility or park compliance with the Americans with
Disabilities Act or other regulation. Technically, these are not projects because they
have no well-defined deliverable product or service and/or starting and ending points.
Each could be called a program , instead, with several projects within each program.
Basically, we need to distinguish between a program and a project:
• Program :A program may mean different things to different people, depend-
ing on the context. In project management, a program usually is a group of