Date: May 1992

Author(s): M. Syal

Construction planning is a critical stage in the project development and delivery phase of the building project. This stage lays the framework upon which most of the construction decisions are made. Despite its importance, most of the construction firms go through this stage in an arbitrary fashion.

This problem is particularly critical in the case of small to medium size building projects and associated construction firms, where no one has a well defined responsibility for construction project planning. Advanced computer-based technologies can assist such firms in producing accurate, realistic, and consistent cost and time plans by providing required design and construction inputs at the construction project planning stage.

This report provides two things. First, it gives a framework of the construction project planning (CPP) process in detail. This process is explained with a view to provide various steps required to generate cost estimate and construction schedule. Secondly, it defines the knowledge of the construction process which is used by project planners for the selection of construction methods with emphasis on the small to medium size building projects in a design-build environment.

This report can assist builders by providing a picture of the CPP process followed by an example of the construction method selection (CMS) process. For builders interested in applying models of the CPP process, an example, using two work items associated with the basement wall system of a building project, is provided as a demonstration application.

Additional steps need to be taken before the ultimate goal of a complete project plan generation system is developed. Some of the prominent areas of future research required to meet the goal include: computer implementation of the CMS model, development of other key steps of the CPP process, hierarchical breakdown structure for providing work item information and time-cost trade-off’s among selected alternatives.