#11: Use Professional Technical CPM Schedulers To Supercharge Your Construction Management Career

CPM scheduling is a trade in and of itself.

If you’re a contractor and you’re expecting PM’s, CM’s or Superintendent’s to create and maintain project CPM schedules, you will be let down and disappointed. And it won’t be their fault. I know you have been doing it for years. But what have been the results? Not exactly construction management beyond reproach I’ll bet.

If you work in construction management on the owner side of the contract and you or your forces are responsible for reviewing and validating the contractor’s CPM baseline schedule and period update reviews: Employ an expert to perform a technical schedule review. There is no better way to limit your risk. There is no better way for you to mandate profound construction management strategies that will ensure successful project outcomes. It’s a silver bullet.

It will save you from embarrassing situations related to your responsibility for managing the project. Like accepting or approving a schedule that is seriously flawed.

I will tell you that I have firsthand experience, when it comes to finishing projects late and blowing profit margins on constructive acceleration costs; both as a Superintendent and a Project Manager. Those experiences are what drove me to become a Professional Technical Scheduler. There is no substitute for a valid CPM schedule to manage the day to day work of a project.

Therefore, there is no project work that is a higher priority than CPM schedule development and maintenance. I’m not saying that because that is what I do. That is why I do what I do. Remember, I started out as a Superintendent – progressed to a Project Manager – then to a Professional Technical Scheduler. The scheduling piece is the most vital piece. The scheduling piece is the most concentrated and the most powerful part of project management. Yet it is underated, underleveraged and misunderstood.

Without a valid schedule, efficient project management is not possible, and the Superintendent’s work is multiplied. A valid schedule is an integral part of project human resource management and at the core of all legitimate project change management. Because the schedule is interlinked with the cost of the project, and the cost of the project may be the single most important project aspect, the schedule is key to extraordinary project outcomes.

There is another side to schedule validity that is seldom mentioned that I think is equally important. The valid CPM schedule is so comprehensive and capable of organizing such complex projects, that it literally enables order and high level leadership that could not be possible otherwise. The valid CPM schedule allows for smooth projects. Smooth projects lift up the experience of the stakeholders involved with them.

When the stakeholder’s experiences are lifted the stakeholder’s are successful. Stakeholder project success leads to stakeholder promotion. Stakeholder promotion leads to stakeholder career success.

To really appreciate the importance of the situation, you have to consider and understand the alternative: What is the alternative to valid scheduling?

Invalid scheduling:

1. Invalid baselines & updates (invalid baseline & update review for those of you on the owner’s side) lead to the schedule not being used to manage the project
2. Excel detached look-ahead schedules (spreadsheets/checklists) are substituted for valid CPM schedules.
3. The schedule/contract/construction are not in-sync
4. The project is delayed
5. Cost over-runs follow
6. Stakeholder project experience is depressed
7. Stakeholder relationships are weakened
8. Stakeholder careers are threatened

If you’re thinking – can all this really go back to the schedule? You bet your ass it does! The better question is: Can all this really be fixed with a valid schedule? Yes it can! Don’t wait any longer. Projects don’t fix themselves. Projects that are slipping need to have specific strategies installed to recover lost time. The cost for additional planning is only a fraction of the costs required for reckless project acceleration.

If you need help finding a competent scheduling consultant in your area, you can email me at don.santos@alphacorporation.com or tel. 434-987-9987.

The construction industry is amazing. The proof is everywhere you look. But, it’s no secret, to those of us in the profession that construction management has a bit of a dark cloud over it – known for high stress levels, high burn out and high turnover ratios, which drive  the whole Too Green Too Few phenomenon. It does not have to be that way. We can take responsibility for leading our projects in a manner that lifts up the stakeholders, and remove a piece of that cloud.