Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

The instructional approach is based on the building contractor's point of view, and the intent is to provide a good working knowledge of building, maintaining and monitoring schedules for construction projects. Learners will both individually and collaboratively work with "Microsoft Project" management software to develop and track a construction schedule. It is suggested that students entering this course have a basic understanding of construction sequencing and assembly. It is recommended that students complete BCT 170 Excel for Contractors prior to enrolling in this course.

Upon successful completion students should be able to:

• Assemble and use various construction schedules to manage a construction project.
• Prioritize scheduled tasks in order to streamline planning strategies, shorten overall construction schedules, and reduce costs.
• Communicate effectively with team members by recognizing and utilizing best practices for planning and scheduling of construction tasks.

1. Learners will individually demonstrate the understanding and use of basic concepts that help develop a construction schedule via the following:

A. Assemble and sketch a WBS (Work Breakdown Structure).
B. Develop an activity list with durations.
C. Develop and sketch logic diagrams.
D. Compute and sketch a CPM (Critical Path Method) diagram.

2. Successfully complete several In Class Projects which will represent the culmination of concepts, issues, and themes necessary to achieve the course outcomes. 

3. Successfully complete one "Final Project" which will represent the culmination of concepts, issues, and themes necessary to achieve the course outcomes. This project will be completed individually using "Microsoft Project" scheduling software. Each learner will demonstrate their ability to develop a baseline schedule.

Themes, issues and concepts:

• Purpose of Benefits of Scheduling
• Time Management and Resource Planning
• Personal Time Management / Wellbeing / Philosophy for Success
• Natural Activity Logic and Sequence
• Scheduling Terminology
• Types of Schedules
• Diagramming
• Scheduling Planning
• Scheduling Monitoring and Management
• Scheduling Reporting
• Resource Loading
• Critical Path Method
• Computer Scheduling Software
• Team Building and Collaboration
• Apply "Best Interest of the Project" approach to scheduling methodologies.

Process Skills:
1. Identify the levels of scheduling
2. Identify and develop Work Breakdown Structures (WBS)
3. Identify and develop activity list
4. Develop and assign duration to activities
5. Identify and develop bar charts
6. Identify, develop, compute and manually sketch a CPM schedule
7. Develop a baseline schedule in MS Project
8. Add labor and cost resources to a baseline MS Project schedule
9. Update a CPM baseline schedule
10. Analyze and adjust scheduling problems
12. Work collaboratively with fellow students to analyze and solve scheduling problems