On most construction projects, the Integrated Project Execution Schedule will usually be completed at Level 4 while Level 5 is considered as a temporary document for coordinating site activities that will be detailed weekly by the project team. Nevertheless, for those project owners and contractors who have Artificial Intelligence (AI) on their road map, having an Integrated Project Schedule detailed at Level 5 is a must and not an option.
Let us explain the difference between Schedule Levels 4 and 5. In a Level 4 schedule, the scope of work for Foundations will show as Foundation 100, Foundation 101, and so on. On the other hand, in a level 5 schedule, each foundation will be detailed into the tasks of Excavation, Lean Concrete, Reinforcement, Formwork, Pouring, Formwork Stripping, Concrete Protection, and External Backfilling, and Internal Backfilling. The same concept will apply for the “HVAC System Installation” which will be detailed into Ducts Installation, Equipment Installation, Piping Installation, Electrical Installation, Instrument Installation, and Functional Checks.
Since one of the key requirements of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on capital construction projects is to improve the predictability of project completion date and at completion cost, actual project performance data and events need to be associated with their relevant schedule tasks to make their prediction meaningful. In addition, the cost-loaded schedule detailed to level 5 will improve the capturing of activities progress percent complete values, which will be the basis for calculating the interim payment certificate or earned value amount. Similarly, it will improve the ability to capture actual labor and equipment resource hours spent on executing those tasks.
When using a Project Management Information System (PMIS) like PMWeb to manage all project business processes, each transaction will be linked to schedule level 5 activities. In addition, all supportive documents either attached to those transactions or simply uploaded into the PMWeb document management repository will also have the link to schedule level 5 activities. This ensures that every single record or document relating to the project is associated with its relevant schedule level 5 activity.
In addition, some project management business processes use the schedule level 5 activities to aggregate and consolidate the captured data like those of daily reports and timesheets where actual spent labor and equipment resource hours will be recorded. PMWeb daily report and timesheets modules allow assigning the daily reported hours against each scheduling level 5 activity. Those hours can be classified as normal working hours, premium working hours, overtime working hours, idle hours, among other categories if needed.
Furthermore, other business processes use the schedule level 5 activities to calculate the amount of due payment or expected revenue like the interim payment certificate and requisition modules. For example, the activity percent complete will be the basis for calculating the earned value and actual cost incurred in performing the same scope of work of a project.
For documents uploaded into the PMWeb document management repository, whether those were associated with single or multiple business process transactions, PMWeb also allows having the project schedule task field as one of the document attributes. This enables having the option to assign attributes including task identification to documents that are uploaded in bulk to a folder or sub-folder in the document management repository.
PMWeb allows the project team to link risks identified and captured in the project risk register with their relevant schedule level 5 activities. Like other risk registers, each risk will have a description, type as per the risk breakdown structure, occurrence likelihood, impact, individually responsible for the risk, probability, and impact value. These will serve as the basis to calculate the risk score or exposure, the estimated cost impact of the risk, the weighted estimated cost impact of the risk, and delay impact when considering the risks score or risk exposure, notes among others.
It is highly recommended that in addition to the requirement to have a detailed Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is to also has a meaningful description of the level 5 activities as well as a structured activity numbering or identification. This will help the project team members who are not part of the project planning and scheduling team, to have a better understanding of what each project schedule activity stands for.
The PMWeb schedule import function allows importing schedule activities. By doing so, their duration, remaining duration, percent complete, planned and actual start and finish dates, and WBS levels are imported into the PMWeb schedule module to become available for use with other project management processes managed in PMWeb.
PMWeb schedule module allows uploading all schedule updates with the option to select which schedule version or update will become the schedule to be used while linking the schedule activities with their relevant records and documents. The current active schedule can be changed when needed. The additional advantage of capturing all schedule versions in PMWeb is that PMWeb allows creating reports to compare those schedule versions.
By linking records generated from the project management business processes and documents, labor and equipment resource hours, details of generated revenue and cost incurred cost, and potential risks to relevant project schedule level 5 activities, organizations will not only have the wealth of trustworthy granular meaningful data tracable to its source and auditable, but also data associated with the detailed project schedule activities that represent the backbone for managing the execution of the capital construction project. Organizations can further increase the value by standardizing the procedures followed in developing and maintaining their integrated project schedules as well as their project management business processes across their complete projects’ portfolios. This will help grow the captured data volume in a structured format which is also a requirement for improved Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML).
