A Healthy Programme

Over the years I have worked on numerous construction projects. They all had a ‘Construction Programme’ as a primary document. The quality of these programmes have differed enormously with some being just the classic excel spreadsheet programme which contains minimal data through to the opposite version which is produced in a programme software. In some instances this would contain links on its links and tasks on its tasks! The programme is far too detailed to follow.

The programme plays a vital part of many contracts, whether it is a contract obligation under the JCT or NEC4. It is so important to not only prepare your programme correctly but also look after that programme.

NEC 4 Clause 32.1

• The Contractor shows on each revised programme
• The actual progress achieved on each operation and its effect upon the timing of the remaining work
• how the contractor plans to deal with any delays and to correct notified defects and
• any other changes which the Contractor proposes to make to the Accepted Programme

By establishing some simple steps you will find that you save a lot of time and money when it comes to delays on site and dealing with EOTs & LADs. Here are a few steps to creating a ‘Healthy Programme’:

Links

When you add all the tasks containing the start & end dates then you need to link or constraint flag the tasks. The key here is to link all your tasks, so that they have a link into and out of the task. Doing this to your programme will stop tasks jumping out of sequence. The programme will become stable. Once the programme is fully linked you will be able to utilize the critical path reports in the programming software.

Grouping Task

The larger the programme the more you will need to do this. This is quite simple but it will mean you have more control over the look of the programme. As an example imagine you were building a 3 storey office block. In the latest progress month you wanted to highlight the 2nd floor tasks. Grouping well would enable you to minimise the 1st & 3rd floor and just show the 2nd floor. This would help clients, managers and team member from getting lost in the detail of the programme.

Progress

Discipline is the key here. When you commence the project, build in regular periodic progress reports. Making sure that every task has been reviewed. Another good practice at this stage would be to make note of any good or bad variance of the task progress. This information will be very valuable later in your report

Reschedule

Now the Reschedule !!! It is a step that I have seen many companies miss out. The reschedule is one of the most important things to do in a progress period. By hitting the reschedule button you will be provided with the most up to date information on key milestones and the critical path. I understand that this button brings a level of dread to managers as it will reveal information that you may not want a client to see. BUT at the end of the day the facts are still there even if you don’t hit the button. At least this way you will be able to stay ahead of the game with the chance to mitigate around your own delays, properly report client delays and also identify what critical tasks to focus on.

Commercial Management

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