Endeavor to Persevere
Computerized scheduling programs have many flaws and to think that computerized date driven schedules are an easy solution to a successful project only exacerbates scheduling frustrations. Construction scheduling programs do not take control of a project as the advertisements state. These programs only take the credit that rightfully belongs to others, who make it their business and livelihood to construct.

Construction scheduling is not the same as scheduling baseball games even though many onlookers perceive logic driven schedules in that manner. There are no hard or fixed dates for a reason. Construction schedules are fluid and the start and finish dates are constantly changing with each new update. Furthermore, there are too many unknown variables in construction schedules, both human and physical, that are impossible to know until whatever happens, it happens. That is the nature of the beast. Then there is the lengthy duration of a project that makes it impossible to predict accurate timelines, which eventually encounter physical obstacles or unintended circumstances in its path. Every schedule is like a Star Trek journey: To go where no man has gone before. Every construction project is a new challenge with differing conditions. Even identical projects will encounter different conditions. In other words, construction is controlled chaos.

Schedulers should not get upset that things do not happen on schedule and that their efforts are constantly being mocked or demeaned by others, who cannot do any better or even have a clue what computerized scheduling is all about. Ever try explaining positive or, even worse, negative float to a foreman, superintendent, project manager, or the contractor himself. After many years in the construction business, I can unequivocally state that none of the aforementioned in the business of construction knows how to make a schedule that can accurately or even approximately predict workflow from start and finish. Start and Finish Dates rely on a set of relationship ties that, as a schedule progresses, are automatically changed according to field progress. Most in-progressed activities will force the standard activity relationship default, Finish-to-Start, to a Start-to-Start status. The bottom line for schedulers is to rely on a logical and a best guess sequential list of a sufficient number of work activities with reasonable durations such that progress can be reasonably measured and accurately tracked by actual field dates and completion percents.

It is impossible to make a perfect schedule, but it is absolutely possible to make a very useful worklist with work activities that are in sequential order and based on logic. The scheduling operation should be; to use schedule (worklist) data to organize and then to glean information that will provide guidance, knowledge, and a path to a successful project. Use the data to develop charts, tables, graphs, and a project history; so that physical percent complete, work rates, and acceleration figures can be calculated and tracked. Tracking work progress will provide a treasure trove of cold hard facts that can be turned into something useful, instead of being tossed into the circular file. This is the niche that computerized scheduling fills.

Remember the old and forgotten Primavera program, Suretrak. That was a program with the right title and the title accurately described the objective, which was to track progress for the construction team to adapt, plan, and execute their means and methods.