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Executing projects successfully requires good schedules. They鈥檙e developed by identifying the resources and sequencing necessary. They鈥檒l encourage 鈥渨hat-if鈥� conversations about contingent events. But all too often this effort is not given the attention that it deserves. It is given lip service and considered just another bureaucratic project function. Sometimes this effort is relegated to team members with less experience.

Schedule creation is not a simple, technical task. A truly effective and useful schedule is the result of efforts undertaken by an entire team of experienced project experts. These experts include project users, maintainers, financiers, designers, managers, superintendents, foremen, craft workers and engineers 鈥� as well as project owners and contractors. This team of experts applies its knowledge to develop the sequences and logical order of activities needed. This knowledge often is attained only after many years of attendance in the School of Hard Knocks.

Seeing too many projects stumble and fail because project sponsors did not have a grasp of what the steps were needed brings home the importance of a project schedule. When done well, it identifies and focuses on the long lead times that contemporary projects require. The dye in most projects is cast at the onset, where the critical resource decisions are made. Attempting to make up for a lack of good decision-making results in reputations lost and dollars squandered.

Projects succeed or fail based on a wide variety of different influences and activities. There are the knowns, the unknowns, and the unknown unknowns. Successful projects require visionaries, good design, engineering and construction; great coordination 鈥� and owners willing to see them through. Ensuring that the project components are well coordinated and delivered is critical. Those projects that fail to pay adequate attention to this coordination in advance result in major disappointments 鈥� or worse.

Knowing where the pitfalls are before they occur is the mark of a truly experienced project expert 鈥� and one that provides high value to a project. While it is often acknowledged that the construction industry rarely builds two completely identical projects, there are numerous similarities that can be adapted. It is the combination of these adaptations and the understanding how the various players influence a project that is needed for project success.

The need to 鈥渨ar game鈥� all reasonable possible scenarios is essential, including the outlier events. Today鈥檚 nuclear construction snafu in the Southeastern United States is a current illustration of the failure of thorough project risk analysis. Who would have thought that a major U.S. firm, after being bought up by a world-renowned technical firm, would nevertheless fail? There may be a tendency to point to the size and complexity of those projects as perhaps challenging the current ability in the construction industry. However, even small, local projects similarly implode as project sponsors fail to grasp the scope of resources needed.

There is an adage that suggests that schedules become outdated pretty quickly after they are created. But the value in creating a schedule is in the planning effort. A successful schedule demands a committed planning effort from all the major players involved. It will require them to think. Despite all those efforts, project elements can and will change quickly. The randomness of the human experience doesn鈥檛 support a linear path to success.

The advantage of an in-depth planning effort, however, lies in the ability to pivot a project relatively easily. For it is in that planning development process that all of those who are responsible invest themselves in determining what is necessary to ensure success. Without that original thinking, revising a plan becomes very difficult. Making decisions in a crises environment, which is when it may be determined that plans need to be revised, seldom results in good outcomes.

Scheduling is not the same as being an IT expert in scheduling programs. IT experts write programs, but project management is responsible for their execution. In fact, the IT industry has a rather notorious reputation when it comes to on-time and on-budget project execution. Modern technology has resulted in more visual experiences in communicating planning efforts. But this technology cannot replace the knowledge gained through experience, which provides exposure to the interplay between all of the impacts and resources that affect a project.

Some overly simplistic programs are simply starting points. Other programs have such a high degree of complexity that they require continual 鈥減atches,鈥� become unworkable and remain incomprehensible to all but the technical cognoscenti. Innovation and improvements are still needed and essential. Industry professionals are not going to become luddites and go back to pencil and paper. But it is important to balance human knowledge and interaction with modern, technological tools to ensure that the schedule becomes one of the important activities in successful project management.

Christian Steinbrecher is president of Ukiah Engineering. He is the author of ASCE Oregon鈥檚 report card on Oregon鈥檚 infrastructure and a past recipient of ASCE Oregon鈥檚 Engineer of the Year award. Contact him at 503-297-4827 or [email protected].