FACULTY OF ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE AND

URBAN PLANNING

PROFESSIONAL ACADEMIC SCHOOL OF CIVIL

ENGINEERING

CONSTRUCTION SCHEDULING METHODS

COURSE:
PROJECT ENGINEERING AND VALUATIONS

STUDENT:
VALERA VENTURA, Joseph Alexander

TEACHER:
Eng. RUIZ SAAVEDRA NEPTON DAVID

Pimentel-Peru
2021
 INDEX

INDEX 2

INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................3

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK...........................................................................3

THE CONCEPT OF PROGRAMMING OF WORKS............................................8

PROGRAMMING METHODS AND TECHNIQUES.........................................11

GANTT DIAGRAM...........................................................................11
THE PERT METHOD (Program Evaluation Review Technique)
Program evaluation and review technique..........................................13
THE CPM METHOD: Critical Path Method......................................20
Methodology........................................................................................................................22

Critical route:..........................................................................................................25

PROJECT CONTROL...........................................................................................32

PROGRAMMING WITH MICROSOFT PROJECT 2007...................................35

MICROSOFT PROJECT DATABASE.................................................................35

BIBLIOGRAPHY..................................................................................................36

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 INTRODUCTION
In the execution of civil works, it is necessary to control the programming and
budget for various activities in the construction of the project, encountering in
most cases the problem that for this control there are not the necessary tools that
allow you to do it easily, quickly and efficiently.

The lack of control in programming generates a deficiency in the monitoring of

the activities carried out within a construction project, resulting in the builder
significant loss not only of time for the final delivery of the project and of
resources that are poorly invested in the construction of the building as a result
of the lack of effectiveness due to not verifying in time what is happening in
each of the stages of execution of the construction project. As a result of this
lack of control, a failure to meet the deadlines and budgeted value of the building
is generated, which is reflected in the higher final value of the project.

Here is a written guide for project control with the help of Microsoft Project
2007 that serves all people in charge of a construction project, in order to
achieve clarity for both the builder, the auditor and the owner of the work. at
every moment of the execution of all project activities, in order to be able to
make the right decisions at the right time and carry out projects that are within
the budget according to compliance with the schedules made.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
To carry out the construction of a project, it is necessary to plan the activities to

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be carried out, in order to find an order of execution that allows the works to be
carried out in an orderly, methodical and functionally effective manner. With
these items you can plan the development of the project, taking into account the
following parameters:
 Construction method.
 Duration of activities.
 Correlation between activities.
 Resources necessary to carry them out, such as: labor, materials, tools and
equipment
It is also important to establish the time, place, personnel, quality, economy and
safety in each of the activities, according to the particular project to be carried
out.

When all the aforementioned parameters are defined, the programming with
which the construction of the project will be carried out can be made; which
ultimately is nothing more than a construction project control tool.

Currently there are several methods; CMP critical path methods and the PERT
method to carry out logical and orderly scheduling of a project.
The CPM method: critical path method, it is a deterministic method, it is based
on performance to know the duration of activities, it was created in 1957 by
Morgan R. Walker and James I. Killey for the construction of a Dupont chemical
plant.

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The PERT method: technical evaluation and review program, is a probabilistic
method, works with probability statistics, is based on concepts such as standard
deviation, variance, etc., to know the duration of activities, was created in 1958
by the firm Allen and Hamilton (Chicago), for the US Navy, to control the
launch program of the Polaris projectile, with a reduction of two years in the
project.

FIGURE1 : CRITICAL PATH DIAGRAM

For construction programming and control, today there are tools such as the
Project 2007 software. The first thing to do is determine the final objective of the
project, as well as its main phases necessary to achieve it; There must be an
order of carrying out activities according to their correlation, knowing what
resources, both labor and materials and equipment, are needed.

FIGURE2 : LIST OF ACTIVITIES TO BE CARRIED OUT AND

THEIR CORRELATION.

After having the logical sequence programmed, it is of great importance to

monitor and properly manage the project that is already underway, and it is at
this point where the tool that we are going to implement is of great help, as it
allows modifications to be made to the progress and predict what may happen in
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terms of cost, quality and time in all the resources used, that is, labor, materials,
equipment, etc., to achieve the final objective of the project.

FIGURE3 : WORK CALENDAR FOR SCHEDULED ACTIVITIES.

FIGURE4 : ALLOCATION OF RESOURCES, THESE MAY BE LABOR,

MATERIALS, EQUIPMENT AND TOOLS.

It is hoped that with this work a manuscript will serve as a guide for the
administration and control of construction projects.

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 FIGURE5 : SCHEDULING OF EXECUTION TIME AND ASSIGNED
RESOURCES.

FIGURE6 : MONITORING THE EXECUTION OF THE WORK, TO TAKE

NECESSARY CORRECTIVES IN TIME.

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 THE CONCEPT OF PROGRAMMING OF WORKS

As the degree of complexity of a given project increases and with the aim of
optimizing and improving its development, the need arose to have correct
planning and effective control regarding the different activities that make up the
work. that without these fundamental instruments for the process, the
construction of infrastructure would proceed without a specific direction where
possibly the initial budget would not cover all the costs that the work requires for
its proper development.

Then, as the years went by and with the constant but progressive development of
new construction projects, changes in construction systems and the adaptation of
new technologies, planning tools have been developed, such as project
scheduling, which is a technique to plan and control the correct development of a
certain process over time and thus be able to establish a reference model to carry
out due control in its execution. This is where the need arises for the person in
charge of carrying out the programming and control of a certain civil work to
have tools that allow him to evaluate all the variables that affect the project,
which are given by the inputs, the human resource and economical to which
must also be added the component of time and environment, which are the most
difficult to manage, apart from the fact that these must be programmed correctly
and control exercised over the entire construction.

Currently, thanks to technical advances, both in construction and in different

technological branches, especially in computing, it is possible to implement and
further optimize new planning and control systems in order to guarantee agile
and effective development. of construction projects, where we convert the basic
principles into systematized solutions that

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They can be adapted to solve specific problems and thus establish the optimal
cost of the project.

To fully comply with the normal development of the planned or programmed

activities within the execution of a certain project, a plan or program must be
created which must have a clear definition of what is intended to be achieved
with its development, dividing it into activities and determine the correlation that
exists between each of them. In this way, if the duration of each of the activities
that make up the work is known, the total duration of the project can
consequently be known, therefore the programming of a project also serves to
determine the most convenient method or path to develop. in a construction
project, for this reason it must include factors such as: order, place, time,
personnel, equipment, quality, economy and safety of each of the activities,
whose final objective is in accordance with the better use of resources, not only
in the economic field, but at the same time is related to the protection of the
environment.

The schedule is part of the correct fulfillment of the project and represents all
those activities that must be carried out in a certain time to achieve its
completion, as mentioned above, for this it is necessary to develop an action plan
and prepare a list of activities to follow. , where the plan must have a clear
definition of the objective, carry out the subdivision of the activities and
determine the interrelation that exists between them, the program consists of
determining the duration of each activity and estimating the total duration of the
project. These times can be determined based on three possible factors:

 The experience of the staff in charge of carrying out the programming

(similar works or with similar characteristics).
 The amount of work to be done.

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 The assigned resources.

Based on the above, we can define programming as the development of a

network or diagram in which all the activities into which the project is divided
are outlined, explaining the type of relationship between one and the other as
well as its previously analyzed duration and defined, programming is also the
process of selecting which method is the most convenient to adopt in a project,
taking into account all the ways and sequences in which it can be developed,
which is generally used to link scheduling and organization, with in order to
ensure that all work required to complete the project is completed.

Therefore, the construction program must have the greatest possible breakdown
to have better precision in calculating the final duration of the project, which is
why it is considered necessary to divide the project by work chapters, which not
only describe the work to be done, but also include the estimated duration of the
tasks and the resources necessary to carry out the work in the expected time. In
cases where some type of information is not available, some activities will need
more time than calculated, others will be done in less time and some will be
done exactly according to the estimated duration. However, during the life of a
project that includes a large number of simple or compound items, these delays
or advances will tend to compensate for each other.

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 PROGRAMMING METHODS AND TECHNIQUES.

After having obtained the plan in which the list of tasks to be carried out was
specified and organized, as well as the duration of the activities, the interrelation
between them, the dates on which each activity will be carried out were
calculated, the clearances and restrictions, we proceed with this information to
create the schedule with the help of Microsoft Project, but first we will describe
a little the different types of most used programming techniques, some are very
simple to prepare and easy to interpret, but they have certain types of limitations,
others are quite useful but relatively complex in their preparation.
The most commonly used techniques in programming a work are:

 Bar chart or Gantt chart

 PERT (Program Evaluation Review Technique).
 Critical Path Method (CPM)

GANTT DIAGRAM

For project control there are several tools, a first tool is the GANTT CHART, it
was invented by the North American engineer Henry L. Gantt in 1917, one of
the precursors of contemporary industrial engineering. Gantt attempted to
distribute the various activities of a project according to a calendar, in such a
way that the duration period of each activity, its start and end dates and also the
total time required for the execution of a job could be visualized. The instrument
developed by Gantt also allows the development of each activity to be followed,
by providing information on the percentage executed for each of them, as well as
the degree of advance or delay with respect to the initially scheduled deadline.

This instrument allows the user to model the planning of the tasks necessary to
carry out a project. Its success lies in the simplicity with which the progress of
the project can be observed in a graph. A disadvantage is that this diagram does

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not allow the relationships to be identified. existing between activities, this is
why to control complex projects, with many activities to be executed, it is
necessary to implement techniques based on precedence networks, which allow
determining durations and paths to follow, in the most appropriate way to
achieve goals in the time frame. expected, thus being able to allocate resources
and calculate budgets very approximately. These methods are PERT, CPM,
LPU and ADM.

The Gantt chart relates two variables that are time versus activity and the latter
can be of various types: planned, executed and accumulated activity, which is
how we then have several types of bar charts, where each of these manages its
Gantt chart which are described below.

 Planning graph: In which the promise is recorded.

 Execution graph: In which reality is recorded.
 Accumulation graph: This summarizes everything above.

In a Gantt chart, each task is represented by a horizontal bar, while the columns
represent the execution time of the project, either in days, weeks or months,
depending on its duration. The estimated time for each task is shown through a
horizontal bar whose left end determines the expected start date and the right end
determines the estimated end date (See Chart No 1). Tasks can be put in
sequential chains or can be performed simultaneously.

F IGURE N O 8 - G ANTT DIAGRAM .

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 If tasks must be performed sequentially, the order of priority between them
can be shown using arrows that go from the most important tasks to the least
important ones.

F IGURE N O 9 – ARROW DIAGRAM .

In the figure you can see how it is possible to track the progress of the
project, by filling in the horizontal bars as the execution of the tasks is carried
out and drawing a vertical line that allows you to see on the left side the tasks
already executed, those that have not yet been executed will be on the right
side of the line and those that are in execution will be seen crossed by it.

THE PERT METHOD (Program Evaluation Review Technique) Program

evaluation and review technique

It was designed for the United States Navy in 1958 by the firm Allen and
Hamilton, to allow the coordination of the work of thousands of people who had
to build missiles with Polaris nuclear warheads.

The PERT technique arose as a consequence of the technological effort made

during the Cold War with the objective of completing the construction of the
first nuclear submarines (Polaris series) as soon as possible. The use of this
method, created in collaboration between the North American Navy, the
aeronautical company Lockheed and the consulting firm Booz-Allen &
Hamilton, made it possible to reduce the estimated completion period of the
submarines by two years. At the same time, although independently, the
multinational chemical sector Dupont de Nemours created an analogous method,
called CPM. (Critical Path Method, critical path method). The CPM method It
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was later improved, introducing the relationship between the duration of the
activities that make up the project and its cost. In this way, projects were
programmed at a minimum cost. (notes second year of technical engineering in
management computing)

It is an instrument used to carry out the planning, execution and control of

projects and due to its use it does not imply much direct optimization. This
technique is used to provide information on which decisions can be made where
the probability of meeting the specific delivery dates of the project in the shortest
period of time and minimizing execution costs is determined.

This method also identifies those activities that are most likely to suffer
problems and/or inconveniences, indicates at which points the greatest effort
should be made to avoid delays, evaluate the effect of changes in the program
and finally analyze the effect when presented. a deviation from what was
scheduled, an example of all of the above could be the assessment of the effect
of a possible change in the allocation of resources from less critical activities to
those that were identified as having problems.

All PERT-type systems use a project network to graphically visualize the

interrelationship between its elements, this representation of a project plan shows
all the relationships of origin, regarding the order in which the activities must be
carried out, but in order to carry out An optimal application of the PERT
technique is essential starting from three initial data:

 Know the set of activities that have to be carried out.

 Estimate the time necessary to carry out each of them.
 Determine the order in which the activities must be carried out,
that is, indicate which of them should precede the others.

The objective of the PERT method or probability theory is to program a

mathematical model suitable for the description and interpretation of a certain
class of observed phenomena and statistics operates through this tool. This
method would then be applied in specific cases when it is necessary to program a
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work for which there is little experience, and therefore, the duration times of its
various activities are uncertain and for this it is necessary to resort to this
technique and it is This is where the application of the PERT method arises.

F IGURE N O 10 - PERT METHOD DIAGRAM.

As mentioned above, the main difference between PERT and CPM is the way
time estimates are made. PERT assumes that the time to perform each of the
activities is a random variable described by a probability distribution. The CPM
method, on the other hand, deduces that the times of the activities are known
deterministically and can be varied by changing the level of resources used.

For the great variety of events that occur within the common life, the curve that
most closely approximates reality is the normal distribution curve. Likewise,
within this type of distribution, the parameters that must be taken into account to
find the probability of occurrence of a value are the average value and the
standard standard deviation “χ , σ ” .

Over the years and due to the great progress and extensive experience that has
been had in construction, it has been noted that this distribution is not the one
that best fits the results obtained. The one that most closely resembles the
variations in the data is the beta distribution (β). According to the above, the
time distribution assumed by the PERT for an activity is a beta-type distribution,
in which three time estimates are defined for each of the activities, these are:

 The most optimistic time estimate, a.

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 The most probable time estimate, m.
 The most pessimistic time estimate, b.

The shape of the distribution is shown in figure No 4. The most probable time is
the time required to complete the activity under normal conditions. Optimistic
and pessimistic times provide a measure of the uncertainty inherent in the
activity, including equipment breakdowns, labor availability, material delays,
and other factors.

F IGURE N O 11 - B ETA DISTRIBUTION CURVE .

6.1.1.1 Most optimistic time (a): Expresses the minimum time that will be
necessary to carry out the work, its calculation considers all the circumstances
that must occur in carrying out the activity suitable, assuming that everything
must go well and without produce failures that may affect the duration of the
activity. For these reasons, this assessment is considered very unrealistic, that is,
it is counting on exceptional luck, which corresponds to a probability of
occurrence of 1%.

6.1.1.2 Most probable time (m): Corresponds to the normal time in which
the activity can be carried out and whose result is frequently obtained by
repeating the activity many times, under the same circumstances or conditions.

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6.1.1.3 Pessimistic time (b): It is the inverse of the optimistic time. Except
for uncontrollable situations, such as the effects of nature, this tells us the time
that would be needed if everyone who had to carry out the activity executed it
poorly . Practically, the probability that it will take a longer time than the
pessimist to complete the activity is 1%.

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Once the three time estimates have been made, they are reduced by means of
statistical principles to a single time estimate which we will call estimated time
Te (Z) and to other statistical concepts already mentioned above.
As we already know, these execution times or three time estimates follow a
Beta-type distribution and according to the characteristics of this distribution and
making certain assumptions that are valid for the desired practical purposes, it
has been found that the expression for the calculation of the expected time Te
(Z), would be the following:

to  4m b
Ta Z
n 6
ba
Z
6
F IGURE N O 12 - EXPECTED TIME FORMULAS .

The hypothesis that supports this formula proposes the division of uncertainty
with the assumption of a 50% chance that it is correct. That is, if on a graph we
place the possible values of the duration on one axis and the possibility of each
of them on the other, the value of the estimated time will divide the area of the
curve into two equal parts, as can be seen in graph No. 5.

F IGURE N O 13 - NORMAL DISTRIBUTION CURVE .

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In summary, the expected final time of a project is the sum of all the expected
times of the activities on the critical path. Similarly, assuming that the activity
time distributions are independent (actually a very questionable assumption), the
project variance is the sum of the variances of the activities on the critical path.

This technique has proven to be an effective tool in the design, development and
defense of projects. It has a certain advantage over the Arrow Diagram and
networks, when the achievement of objectives is uncertain, which through its
probabilistic calculation allows determining the possible durations of activities
through the implementation of its theory of uncertainty.

The PERT network consists of the following elements:

 Tasks, activities or stages, represented by an arrow. Each task is assigned a

code and a duration, however the length of the arrow is independent of the
duration of the task.

 Stages, that is, the beginning and end of the task. Each task has a start stage
and an end stage, except for the start and end stages, each end stage is a start
stage of the next task. The stages are generally numbered and represented by
a circle, but in some other cases they can be represented by other shapes, that
is, they can be squares, rectangles, ovals, etc.

 Dummy tasks, represented by a dotted arrow indicating limitations of task

chains between certain stages.

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 F IGURE N O 14 - PERT R ED .

THE CPM METHOD: Critical Path Method

The critical path method can be defined as an administrative process of planning,

programming, execution and control of each and every one of the component
activities of a project that must be developed within a certain time and at the
optimal cost.

The CPM Method (Critical Path Method) was developed in 1957 in the United
States of America, by an operations research center for the firms Dupont and
Remington Rand, seeking control and optimization of costs through adequate
planning and programming of operations. the component activities of the project.
Initially, the United States Navy (USA) in the same year, due to the constant
problems presented in project management, created the Pert method (Program
Evaluation and Review Technique) which fulfilled the function of controlling
the execution times of the various activities that make up space projects, due to
the great need for them to be completed within the available time intervals.
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Both methods provided the necessary administrative elements to form the
current critical path method, using control of execution times and operation
costs, to ensure that the total project is executed in the shortest time and at the
lowest possible cost.

The field of application of this method is very extensive, due to its great
flexibility and adaptability, it ranges from the initial studies for a given project to
the planning and operation of its facilities. To this we can add an indeterminable
list of possible applications of a specific type, therefore we can affirm that the
critical path method is applicable and useful in any situation in which a series of
related activities has to be carried out. to achieve a certain objective. In order to
obtain the best results, it should be applied to projects that have the following
characteristics:

 That the project be unique, not repetitive, in some parts or in its entirety.

 That the entire project or part of it must be executed in a minimum time,

without variations, that is, in critical time.

 That the operation cost is the lowest possible and is executed within the
established time.

Within the scope of application, this programming technique has been used in
the planning and control of all types of civil works, such as the construction of
hydroelectric plants, construction and paving of roads, construction of buildings,
repair of ships, research of markets, regional economic studies, audits,
distribution of operating room times, factory expansions, sales plans, population
censuses, etc.
The benefits that come with the application of the critical path method will be
presented according to the skill with which it has been applied. It should be
noted that the citic route is not the “ panacea” that solves all administrative
problems that arise within the development of the project; any incorrect
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 application will produce adverse results. However, if the method is used
correctly, it will establish a more orderly and better balanced work that can be
executed in a more efficient manner and in the shortest possible time.

The main benefit that this method gives us is that it summarizes the general
image of the entire project as much as possible, which makes it easier for us to
identify omissions, errors and contradictions in the planning of activities; In
general, it ensures that the project is executed with the minimum of problems.

The most frequent mistake made in practice is that this programming method is
used only at the beginning of the project, that is, the plan is developed and
programmed to later hang the resulting diagram on the wall and forget about it
for the rest. of the life of the project. The true value of the technique is greater
when it is applied dynamically, that is, as unforeseen events or circumstances
arise, the critical path method provides the ideal means to identify and analyze
the need to rethink or reprogram the activities of the project, reducing to a
minimum the adverse result of such unforeseen events. Likewise, when an
opportunity arises to improve the project schedule, the CPM makes it possible to
easily determine which activities should be accelerated so that said improvement
is achieved.

Methodology

The critical path method is basically made up of two cycles:

Planning and Programming

 Definition of the project.

 Activities list.
 Sequence Matrix.
 Time Matrix.
 Activities Network.
 Costs and pending.

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  Network compression.
 Time, resource and economic limitations.
 Delay probability.

Execution and Control

 Project approval.
 Work orders.
 Control charts.
 Reports and analysis of progress.
 Decision making and adjustments.

As for the first cycle, it ends until all the people responsible for the various
processes involved in the project are in full agreement with the development,
execution times, direct and indirect costs, construction systems, coordination,
etc., taking as reference the designed critical path. When the first network is
finished, there are usually changes in the

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activities, sequences, in times and sometimes in costs, so there is a need to
design new networks until there is complete agreement among the people who
make up the execution group, with respect to the second cycle, it ends at the time
of carry out the last activity of the project and in the meantime there are constant
adjustments due to the differences that arise between the programmed work and
the executed one, therefore it is necessary to graph in the control schemes all the
decisions that are made to adjust the project to reality. proposed plan.

In summary, the Critical Path Method (CPM), or critical path method, is a

project programming and control technique that consists of the preparation of a
network or mesh that presents the precise sequence in which the scheduled
activities must be carried out, It can also be defined as the sequential set of
activities whose delay or advance in their execution has a direct impact on the
completion time of the entire project.

What distinguishes the CPM from the PERT is that in the latter, the foreseeable
duration times of the activities are determined according to a probabilistic
analysis that is calculated from an optimistic, average and pessimistic time,
whereas in the CPM it is only required a time estimate, all calculations are made
with the assumption that activity times are known and as the project progresses,
these estimates are used to control and monitor progress, in the event that any
delays occur in the project , efforts would be optimized to get the project back on
schedule by changing the allocation of resources.

The network of activities presents a logical relationship between them, in the

sense that some come before others, depending on whether or not they are
compliance requirements to begin with the following, that is, they specify the
sequence and also indicate those activities that, without being sequential, can be
run simultaneously (precedences).

The construction of the network requires knowing and defining:

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  All operations that must be executed to obtain a final result.

 The relationship that exists between these activities (dependency,

simultaneity, sequence), and the time it takes to complete each of them.

Advantages offered:

 The activity mesh graphically shows the sequence and dependency that
exists between the operations of a project.

 Indicates the operations that can be altered in duration without causing

damage to the total execution of the project.

 It indicates which are the determining or critical operations within the

project as a whole, and allows determining the general effect that the
variation in the duration of one or several activities causes on the project.

Critical route:

The critical path in a project is the succession of activities that give rise to the
maximum cumulative time, it determines the shortest time it can take to
complete the project if all the necessary resources are available, in other words,
the critical path is the longest path of all the possible routes within the project
and in an analogous way the loose route of a project could be defined as the
shortest path of all the possible paths within the project.

Every project has at least one critical path, although it may be the case that there
is more than one and that all paths are critical, in these cases the project can be
called hypercritical.

When developing the model, the following concepts must be taken into account:

 The arrows between activities are not vectors and therefore we are not

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 interested in their length, shape, or direction. This is because the model that
is represented is logical and not to scale.

 The shape of the arrows is not important, since they will be drawn
according to the needs and presentation comfort of the network. They can be
horizontal, vertical, ascending, descending, curved, straight, broken, etc.,
these have a head and a tail; In the tail the activity begins and the one that
precedes ends, in the head the activity ends and the one that follows begins.
In the middle of these the activity takes place and there will be simultaneous
activities.

 The arrows connect to form a project model by answering the questions:

What activities precede? What activities follow? and What activities are
simultaneous?

 Events are represented by circles, nodes or knots. Therefore, every activity

starts from an event that we call the beginning and ends in an event that we
call the end.

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 In cases where there is a need to indicate that one activity has an
interrelation or continuation with another, a dotted line, called a fictitious
activity , will be drawn between the two, which has a duration of zero.

 Several activities can end in one event or start from the same event.

The following should be avoided:

 Two activities that start from the same event and arrive at the same event.
This produces confusion of time and continuity. You must open the initial
event or the final event into two events and join them with a league.

F IGURE N O 15 - WAY OF PRESENTING THE ACTIVITIES THAT BEGIN FROM THE SAME EVENT AND
ARRIVE TO
ONE SAME EVENT .

 Starting an activity from an intermediate part of another activity. Every

activity must invariably begin in one event and end in another. When this
case occurs, the base or initial activity is divided into events based on
percentages and the secondary activities are derived from them.

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 F IGURE N O 16 – WAY OF PRESENTING AN ACTIVITY THAT PART FROM AN INTERMEDIATE
PART OF ANOTHER
ACTIVITY .

 Leave events loose when finishing the network. All of them must relate to
the initial event or the final event. It is recommended that there be only one
start event and one end event.

F IGURE N O 17 – EVENTS SHOULD NOT BE LEFT LOOSE WHEN FINISHING THE NETWORK .

To understand the concepts described above a little more, below we will perform
an application example:

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Application example: You have the following activities to execute
the construction of a foundation:

NUMERATION ACTIVITY DURATION

1-3 Initial explanation 1 month
1-2 Sewer construction 2 months
3-4 Final explanation 4 months
3-5 Construction of fills 1 month
2-5 bridge construction 2 months
4-5 Construction of affirmed 3 months
5-6 pavement construction 1 month

 The dotted line 2-3 is known as a virtual or fictitious activity (without

duration) and indicates that it is necessary to complete activity 1-2 before
starting activity 3-4

F IGURE N O 18 – PRESENTATION OF THE NETWORK OF ACTIVITIES .

 If the network is traversed from left to right and at each node or event the
accumulated (greatest) time necessary to get there is marked, the early
initiation times are obtained.

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 If the network is traversed in the opposite direction and the time of each
(minor) activity is subtracted from the final time, the so-called late
completion times are obtained.

F IGURE N O 19 – REPRESENTATION OF LATE COMPLETION TIMES

 The critical path is determined by the events or nodes where the early start
and late finish times are equal.

Then the critical path from the previous exercise will be:

F IGURE N O 20 – REPRESENTATION OF THE CRITICAL PATH .

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According to the above, we can begin to define the concepts of fluctuations,
whether free or total.

Fluctuations can be defined as the margins that activities have to delay their
initiation or completion, without affecting the duration of the project, being
calculated based on its initiation or completion, its result always being the same
and as mentioned in the previous paragraph, they can be fluctuations. total, free,
independent or interference.

 Total fluctuation: It is defined as the difference between the final late

completion time compared to the initial early initiation times and duration of
the activity and this means the time that the activity can be delayed without
the project suffering any delay.

 Free fluctuation: It is defined as the difference between the final early

initiation time compared to the initial early initiation times and duration of
the activity and means the time that the activity can be delayed without
interfering with the early initiation of other predecessor activities.

 Independent fluctuation: It is defined as the difference between the final

early initiation time compared to the initial late completion times and
duration of the activity and means the additional margin of time that exists
in an activity if the preceding activities finished as late as possible. , and
subsequent activities will begin as soon as possible.

 Finally, the interference fluctuation is defined as the difference between the

total fluctuation and the free fluctuation.

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As a final conclusion, the critical path is the longest path (in terms of time) from
the beginning to the end of the project and as you can see, its construction is very
simple; However, this has very important implications which must always be
kept in mind.

 The sum of the durations of the critical activities is equal to the duration
of the project and any type of delay or advance in a critical activity
implies a delay or advance in the project.

 In the case of having additional resources (personnel, money, equipment,

etc.), these must be applied with priority to critical activities; Otherwise
resources would be wasted and misused.

 From the definition of the critical path, the responsibility for the success
or failure of the project is determined exactly.

PROJECT CONTROL

The control process must be carried out taking into account its effectiveness and
efficiency. Effectiveness is the fulfillment of declared goals, usually expressed in
the form of deadlines and execution sequences, related to different parts of the
work. Efficiency, for its part, is related to the rational use of resources (materials,
labor, equipment), and is measured by the relationship between the value of the
product generated and the cost of the resources used (for example the value of
man hours considered in relation to the built area in square meters). (Botero Luis
Fernando, Construction without losses, 2006).

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Each of these dimensions implies a different emphasis on control. Focused on
efficiency, control must improve the way in which resources are used,
increasingly reducing the resources necessary for production. Regarding
effectiveness, control seeks to increase the probability of carrying out activities
as planned, correcting and preventing deviations between what was planned and
what was actually executed. Botero Luis Fernando, Construction without losses,
2006)

The concept of planning and control includes five main stages, according to the
model proposed by Laufer & Tucker (1987), which is within the scope of their
research Botero Luis Fernando, Construction without losses, 2006)

Preparation of the planning process: At the beginning of the project, there

is a need to plan the planning and control project itself (situation described in
previous paragraphs). In this stage, the procedures and standards to be adopted in
its execution are defined, such as hierarchical levels, main responsible parties,
techniques to be used, etc. Botero Luis Fernando, Construction without losses,
2006)

Information collection: Plan management must be based on the systematic

collection of production data. Said information is produced in formats and
periodically varies according to the various sectors of the company and the other
participants in the process. It is necessary, then, to build an information system
that facilitates this work. Botero Luis Fernando, Construction without losses,
2006)

Preparation of plans: this phase is the one that generally receives the most
attention from those responsible for planning, and is frequently mistakenly
confused with the concept of planning itself. Based on

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With the data collected, work plans are generated, using different planning
techniques. Botero Luis Fernando, Construction without losses, 2006)

Dissemination of information: The information generated from the

preparation of the different plans must be disseminated among its users
(production, acquisitions, etc.), and therefore must be well defined in its nature,
its periodicity, its presentation format. and its feedback loop. Botero Luis
Fernando, Construction without losses, 2006)

Preparation of the planning process: At the end of the project, the

planning process must be evaluated, in such a way that it generates continuous
improvement, especially for future projects. Botero Luis Fernando, Construction
without losses, 2006)

One of the most typical problems in the planning process is the excessive delay
in information feedback, which prevents corrective actions from being carried
out in a timely manner.

The planning and control process, as already said, is often confused with the
preparation of different plans (programming), even though it is only one of its
subprocesses. The collection of data and the dissemination of information, in
general, are deficient in most companies, rendering the efforts made to produce
the plans ineffective.

To manage the time of this project, the various programming techniques

explained in the following section are used. The cost part is mentioned later.

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 PROGRAMMING WITH MICROSOFT PROJECT 2007

Microsoft Project is a program or software used to manage a specific project.

This application allows you to organize information about the assignment of
time to tasks, associated costs and resources, both work and materials, of the
project to that deadlines can be respected without exceeding the budget and thus
achieve the objectives set. Microsoft Project is an effective and flexible project
management tool that can be used to control simple or complex projects, which
will help us schedule and carry out detailed monitoring of all the activities that
make up the work and thus monitor its progress.

MICROSOFT PROJECT DATABASE

Microsoft Project stores details about the project in its database, then uses this
information to calculate and control the schedule, costs and other elements of the
project, by creating a plan, so the more information you provide, the more
precise will be the plan.

As if it were a spreadsheet, Microsoft Project shows the results of the

calculations immediately, but the project plan is not created until the main
information about all the tasks is entered and only then will it be seen when the
project will end. on the dates on which the tasks are scheduled.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

ANTILL and WOODHEAD. Critical path method and its applications to

construction

BOTERO Luis Fernando. Construction without losses. 2006 CUBIDES Ernesto.

Administration and work scheduling

MARMEL, Elaine. (2007). Step by Step Microsoft Office Project 2007. 394 p.
Mexico. Ingramex Lithographic

NORIEGA SANTOS Jorge. Critical trajectory

RAMÍREZ M. Evelio. Cost analysis and work scheduling.

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