How to plan a construction phase

Planning a construction phase means breaking a section of the sequence into clear tasks, putting them in the right order and giving them realistic durations. The following guide gets there in five steps.

1. Collect tasks

First list every activity in the phase – without ordering them yet. Use the trades as a guide. Better to detail finely at the start and merge later than to forget something essential.

2. Set the order

For each task, determine what must be finished beforehand. These dependencies give the logical order and show what can run in parallel.

3. Estimate durations

Estimate each task’s duration from experience or reference values. Separate the pure execution time from waiting times such as curing or delivery lead times – both belong in the plan, but as separate tasks.

4. Add slack and milestones

Place slack where delays are likely and mark important completions as milestones. That keeps it visible whether the phase is on schedule.

5. Check the plan

Finally check the critical path: the chain with no slack that sets the end date. Moving a task on it moves the phase’s end. These tasks deserve the most attention.

In Menira this plan is built visually: tasks by drag and drop, dependencies as links, the critical path highlighted – and, at the end, print-ready as a PDF.

Read on

• Construction schedule
• Critical path
• Milestone
• Dependency