THE EFFECT OF PROJECT SPECIFIC VARIABLES ON THE LEVEL OF DETAIL OF CONSTRUCTION SCHEDULES

Abstract

Schedule is an important tool used in the planning and control of projects. Effective use of scheduling can improve productivity and result in savings for the client and the contractor. The lower costs and increasing efficiency of computers and software have helped in popularizing the use of scheduling techniques even with the small contractors. Even though the scheduling techniques are utilized more today, there is a lack of standardization among scheduling techniques and their specifications. The level of details in a schedule determines the efficiency of the schedule. A construction schedule should have enough details that the project team members understand the scope and it should not be too complex that it is ineffective. There should be a fine balance between the level of detail and simplicity of the schedule for it to be efficient as a management tool. In this study the relationship between the level of details in a schedule and the project specific variables, contract sum, contract duration, project type, client type and contractor grading were analyzed. The objective was to find which variable influences the level of detail of the schedule most. Samples were collected from contractors engaged in general building and civil engineering projects in Singapore. Statistical tests were done to test the hypotheses. All the contractors were found to be using computerized scheduling techniques. One measure of the level of details of the schedule, the number of activities was found to have a statistically significant relationship with the project specific variables.