Showing posts with label PROJECT MANAGEMENT. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PROJECT MANAGEMENT. Show all posts

Monday, November 22, 2021

Factor affecting construction work scheduling

Developing a work plan for construction work in a contract required some basic important information. In a contract, it will always emphasize "TIME". In other words, TIME IS THE ESSENCE OF A CONTRACT

Generally, the term "time is the essence" simply means that a contract must have a starting date and closing date. This will be a guide for any work plan. Whatever scope of works is involved in order to complete a project, it shall be done within this period of time. This limited time available for any construction work in a contract will determine which construction method to be applied. The agreed construction period in a contract will also directly affect the type of machinery to be used and how much manpower need to be engaged. 

Despite the time frame given, manpower, and machinery we are chosen, when we plan a construction schedule, the bottom line is how much we are going to pay for all the costs. We shall be aware of the cost implications versus the agreed contract sum. In other words, when planing a construction work schedule, these major two (2) factors shall be balanced off. The two important factors are always "Time" and "Cost".

In general, to shorten the construction period, more manpower or machinery is required or more advanced construction technic is needed.

Friday, October 4, 2019

Managing delay in construction project.

Hai all.

In my previous posting, we discussed on the reasons of delay. The three type of delay are due to contractor fault, Client matters and unforeseen external factor.

Now in this posting, our the question is how to manage delay in construction? The discussion here will focused base on why delay happened? Who's fault is it?

Delay due to contractor own fault. This type of delay as mentioned in previous posting, contractor will not be granted extension of time (should the construction work overshoot the agreed construction period). Instead, contractor will be panelised as allow in the contract.

Hence how to avoid the delay beyong agreed construction period and avoid being panelised? There are  three (3) major method can be applied.

1. Working longer hours
2. Increase manpower, machine, plants and equipment
3. Change the construction method.

However, prior to deciding on which method to be use, contractor have to keep in mind that when they in the delay mode the most important issue is time and reputation.

As the remaining construction period getting shorter, contractor need to speed-up their works and to ensure that they completed the construction project as agreed in the contract. Thus the cost to expedite the construction work will be the second priority to be achieved. Nevertheless, as much as possible, contractor need to stay within the contract value to ensure or minimised losses due to the delay.

Delay caused by client and by external factor. This type of delay is much more easy to dealth with. Most contractor will prefer to apply extension of time(EOT). However proper documentation must be in-place. Prior to EOT application, contractor shall fulfill all of the procedure as mentioned in the contract. Some of the procedure are, to serve notice to client and to keep and produce any documents that can proved the delay was originated from client. Apart from that, contractor need to proved that the event will and already affected the critical path of the project.




Sunday, September 29, 2019

Why construction project delay?

Hi readers, it has been quite sometime that this blog had been not updated. Today we meet again through this posting.

Construction delay, construction delay, construction delay !!!!

Why its happened to most of the contractor? What is the reason behind this delay?

First of all,what are the main reason for delay?
There are three (3) major type of delay.
1. Delay due to contractor fault.
2. Delay due to client reason.
3. Delay due to unforeseen external factor.

What are the root cause for construction delay due to contractor fault.

1. Fail to estimate and plan for the project budget and cash flow.
2. Fail to plan for a proper construction activities & work flow sequence
3. Fail to understand the construction procedure
4. Fail to procure required materials, machinery, equipments and construction experts in order to run constructions activities smoothly.
5. Lack of technical knowledge in the works undertaken.

Bear in mind, delay due to contractor own fault will not be granted for any extension of time. Extra working period taken by contractor to complete the project will be charge liquidated and ascertained damages by client. Not only that,  further delay to the project by contractor can caused stern action being taken against contractor up to termination of the contract and all termination.

How about delay on part of the client. Here are some of the reasons why.

1. Design change by client
2. Delay in payment to contractor.
3. Delay in client decision(s)
4. Additional scope of work requested by client.
5. Insufficient information given to contractor.

Delays due to client fault will always resulted in contractor being granted reasonable extra time to enable contractor complete the project.


Apart from contractor and client fault, unforeseen external factors also can be the reason for delay. In numerous occasions, reasons of nature and unforeseen human activities that can hindered both contractor and client to perform their duties diligently. What are the two mentioned before. Here are some of it.

Due to nature;
1. Extreme increment weather
2. Natural disaster

Cause by human;
1. Riots
2. Global or internal economy crisis
3. In sufficient workforce in construction industries
4. Sudden material shortage
5. Changes in government policies.
And etc.

Delay due to unforeseen external factors resulted to contractor being awarded extension of time or worst case scenario, mutual termination.

Now we know reasons why delays occur in construction. Then the question is, how do we solve this issue?

Keep on following this blog for the next posting. Thank you and have your nice day.

Monday, April 10, 2017

Project Quality Plan (PQP)

Project Quality Plan is a quality control manual that describe how the quality control of the construction works is going to be executed. Since it is a manual that going to be a reference document all of the construction personnel especially the top management, the content of the manual shall be able to covered all aspect of the quality control task.

As written earlier in the article "Quality Control in Construction works" , the content shall consist of the followings but not limited to the list below.

Section A : General Information
A1. Project information
A2. Project brief,
A3. Project locality and site utilization plan,
A4. Work program
A5. Quality control Organisation Chart
A6. Job Description

Section B: Document Control
B1: Document control Procedure

Section C : Quality Control
C1. Inspection and test plan
C2. Procedure and method of Inspection and testing
C3. Quality assurance and quality control forms and records
C4. Construction work method statement


1. Project Information
Project information and project brief shall describe the general information of the project such as title of the project, total contract value, commencement date and completion date of the project, client name and contact information, consultants name and their contact information, contractor name and contact information, amount of Liquidated and ascertained damages, project duration and amount of minimum allowable progress claim at one time by contractor (if applicable).


2. Project Brief
Shall contain brief description of the project such as the scope of work, quantity of works, standard and requirement to be adhere to for by the project, start and completion date of the project.


3. Project Locality and Site utilization plan
In this section either some narrative work to be included such as description on how to reach the project site, distance from the nearest center of the town and etc. However Most of the Project Quality Plan will insert the Locality plan showing the location of the project site and the site utilization plan which shows the location of important structure for the construction purpose such as site office, site accommodation, working yard, Laboratory, Machinery yard, Storage area and any other structures that deem to be important in order to enable a smooth construction works to take place.


4. Work Program
It is a must in a compiled "Project Quality Plan" to be inserted with a Master Work Program. The purpose of the work program is to help contractor, client and client representative to monitor the progress of the project. Work program shall be established in such a way that it shows all related activities in correct sequence and dependency. It shall include also the Critical path of the project.

5. Project Organisation Chart
Project Organisation chart shall consist of all key personnel that involved in the project. It is always preferable to have an organisation chart base on the Hierarchy Technic.it shall include the post, the name and the contact number of each top key personnel. With the hierarchy technic, indirectly it show the line of communication.


6. Job Description
In Project Quality Plan, all Top Personnel post have to be clearly describe. This is to ensure that person/s who read the PQP Understand the authority of each top personnel engaged for the project. Among top post are Construction manager, Project Manager, Quality Assurance & Quality Control Manager, Engineers and ect.


7. Inspection and Test Plan
Usually being inserted in a tabulated format. Normally will contain the type of work, Type of test to be conducted, Frequency of test, Acceptance Criteria and related inspection and testing form to be use.


8. Procedure and testing method
The procedure shall describe when shall the request of inspection and testing shall be submitted and to whom it shall be address to.The procedure is either in flowchart format or in narrative format.


9.Quality Assurance & Quality control forms and records
All of related forms for the purposed of QAQC shall be included under this section. It's ranging from Site memo, Request for information, Request for inspection, Inspection Check list, Inspection Form, Non conformity Form, Approval Chit , Record of inspection form, Site instruction form and ect.


10. Construction work method statement
Any work method statement for the construction of any structure shall be inserted under this section.

Monday, April 3, 2017

QUALITY CONTROL IN CONSTRUCTION WORKS

A successful construction is a completed project that being delivered to client by contractor which fulfil the contract specification and requirement, the stipulated time frame given as per contract, economic and of course meet the contractor profit margin.

The key to the successful project is lies in the ability of all parties to execute a good project management which requires all parties to have a practical and effective project organisation, effective project planning and tracking, effective procurement team, effective physical construction team and effective quality control team.

As the subject of this article, "Quality control in construction work", there is a few area  that need to be emphasised in order to assure all parties that the quality management is practical and effective. To begin with this quality control, it is always being a good practice to set-up a quality control organisation which need to be documented and understood by all all relevant personnel. in other words, the "Project quality plan".

All thing that required in order to have a good and well plan quality control shall be documented and compile in a manual name as "project quality plan". Among those items are namely as the following list.

1. Project brief,
2. Project locality and site utilisation plan,
3. Work program
4. Quality control Organisation Chart
5. Job Description
6. Inspection and test plan
7. Procedure and method of Inspection and testing
8. Quality assurance and quality control forms
9. Construction method statement

However the content of the "Project Quality Plan" is not limited to those listed items. The "Quality Control" in principal is divided into three stages that is planning stage, Executions and monitoring and the last stage is to analysed the outcome of the plan to ensure the effectiveness.  

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Document control in construction management

Document control is part and parcel of the important area for construction personnel to look into. The important of this are to help every party involved in a particular construction work get the right information at the right time and it help protecting interest of every party.

Due to the heavy work load personnel tend to be distracted from performing a proper document control. For example, there is important documentation that already being distributed to respective personnel, however the sender had overlook on the acknowledge receipt of the document. Thus if there will be an issue arise mentioned that the document was not received or the sender have not do the submission yet, then the sender will having problem to proof that he actually had distribute that particular document.

Looking at the scenario above, this can indirectly affecting the smooth progress of the project. The document might be needed for the purposed of material approval, notice, application of extension of time or progress claim or design change. When this issue of document control become so critical it will start affecting the completion of the construction work. Some of the issue might have to be solved at arbitration level.

For the sake of a well manage construction works and meeting the goal of any construction project, document control should not be taken lightly. I have to be part of the construction procedure. Regardless how it supposed to be carried out, whether by incorporate any document control software or conventional method, Document Control Have To Be Executed in such a manner which will have a positive impact on the project or construction works.

Monday, October 3, 2016

construction cost estimation : Flexible pavement

Cost estimation for construction of flexible pavement is very important to enable a smooth construction activities in road constructions. In order to do cost estimation of Flexible pavement for road, there are numbers of important information that we need to know about the flexible pavement. Below are some of the important parameter required to enable the cost estimation.
 
1. Flexible pavement structure, dimension and quantity.
2. Construction material required
3. Construction Methodology or work method statement
4. Construction work duration 

 
General flexible pavement structure
(credit to Kontraktor Malaysia Facebook)
Construction Material for flexible pavement.
  1. Suitable soil (well compacted) for sub-grade
  2. Down Crusher Run ( Crush and well Graded Granite stone) for Flexible pavement Sub-base and base course
  3. Prime Coat
  4. Asphaltic concrete Binder Course (ACB)
  5. Tack coat
  6. Asphaltic Concrete Wearing Course (ACW)



Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Estimating construction rate per unit of work

Competitive tendered price is one of the greatest factor to win a construction project. However in any business, one of the main factor is to make money. This is true and also applied to construction industry. Therefore winning a project is just a small portion of construction business but be able to secure and deliver projects within the budget is the main agenda of construction business.


HOW TO ACCOMPLISHED THAT TARGET???????


The answer is knowing how to estimate and doing the breakdown of the BUILT-UP RATE PER UNIT OF WORK.


Building the rate is in theoretically knowing the cost of every single item or component that involved in order to deliver the end product. In general these are some of the item that need to be include while estimating rate per unit work or product.


(1). Cost of the construction material
(2). Cost of the Logistic or transportation
(3). Labor cost
(4). Machinery cost
(5). Allow cost for wastage of material
(6). PROFIT MARGIN


Each of the item, from item no. (1) to item no. (5) need some simple calculation and have to be present into "per unit rate". It is then sum-up to create the cost of construction of a unit product.The next procedure is to apply item no.(6) into the sum-up cost.


For example if the cost of construction of a unit product is "W" and targeted profit margin is "Y%", the profit will be "W" X "Y%". let say that the outcome of this calculation is "Z". Hence the built-Up rate is the sum of "W" + "Z"


Calculation:
Item (1) + (2) + (3) + (4) + (5) = W
Profit Margin = Y %
Profit = W x Y% =  Z
Built-Up rate per unit product = W + Z


Built-up rate offered MUST inclusive of PROFIT and Construction Cost.









Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Traffic Management in road construction

Traffic management is part and partial of road construction that must be look into. Even though it do not contribute to any of the road construction it self but it does  affect the progress of the work. Traffic management become very significant if the construction site is within the existing road. As we all know existing road is road that already open to public.Thus there will be moving vehicle every now and then. We certainly do not want to see any accident occur during construction period which involve our site. Therefore a safe and practical traffic management plan must be in place.

Some of the normal measures and tools that we applied during construction work are:-

1. Provide flagmen at both end of our construction site and equip them with and Personal Protective equipment and communication tools, such as walkie talkie to enable the to guide the existing traffic efficiently.

2. Erecting some warning sign along the existing road to inform public in advance before they reach the construction area.

3. Provide detour sign if the existing traffic need to be redirect into our temporary road.

4. Erect safety barrier along the construction site to prevent existing traffic entry into our work place

5. Install "blinker" before and along the construction site to provide warning sign that public user of the existing road is approaching construction site or they are driving just adjacent to the construction site.

6. Publish construction work notice on newspapers or main stream media to alert public or road user on the coming or ongoing construction work along the road.

7. Periodic monitoring and maintain all safety and warning sign that had been installed to ensure that it is in good and practical condition.

All of the above but not limited to the listed planed safety measures in this article shall follow the minimum standard of traffic management plan required by the authority.

Traffic Management can save life, time and money.

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

7 important factor affecting Roadworks cost estimation

7 important item that must be consider while doing cost estimation for road construction.
  1. Cost of the construction material needed to construct a road.
  2. Delivery cost for the construction material.
  3. Machinery and labour cost involve during construction period.
  4. material wastage, labour and machine inefficiency during construction. 
  5. Increase of the price of construction material, Labour and machine in the near future.
  6. indirect cost such as Insurance premium, material handling cost, safety and others.
  7. profit margin.

Thursday, October 9, 2014

WORK PROGRAM AND THE S CURVE

Every construction project will need a well documented WORK PROGRAM or Work schedule. It is as a guide for the construction players on When and how can they achieve the target Completion date. For Planners they are well verse with Work Program. There is lots of computer aided program that can be utilised to enable them to come out with a professional look of a work program. Some of the computer aided program are, Microsoft Project, Primavera, Esteem and may more. The most common are Primavera and Microsoft Project. For a small scale project, work program even can be produce by using Microsoft excel or Office.org.

Most of the work program software are designed in such a way that it can also produce the "S-CURVE"."S-Curve" is a graphical presentation which showing informations such as "Schedule S-Curve", "Actual S-Curve", dates, Percentage of work and may more. Normally this is a method that commonly used to show the overall progress of a project. On the S-Curve graph, we will see what is the value (either in terms of dollar and cents or percentage) of previous work achieve, target value, and progress on the month of reporting.

S-Curve and Work program are both related. Changes to Work Program might affect the S-Curve. S-Curve in actual fact is derive from the work program it self. Without work program, people can still produce S-Curve but the question is, is it tally with what we planned to do?

To those who are new on the planning work, Work Program, once it being amended, it might affecting informations which you want to show on your S-curve.

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Usage of Request for information

What is Request for Information (RFI) in construction work? In construction works Request for information is a method that normally being applied at construction site to obtained certain information with regards to works issues. It is ranging from the construction drawings, site condition and may others site matters. Site Manager, Site supervisor, site engineer or any site technical assistant are among the common personnel that have been using the "Request For Information (RFI)" method or form as a way of communication to officially obtained any information which will affecting the construction works.

                                                              

This RFI is commonly being issued out by contractor to the consultant or client site representative once there is any doubts arise from unclear instruction, specifications, drawings or plans or even the locality of the proposed structure. When contractor write and issue out a  "Request for information", in actual fact, they already put it on record that they are having an construction related issue which might hindered them from starting the construction for certain work or structure. As such it is a proof that they already highlighting something which might cause delay in construction progress, extra  construction cost, safety issue, site conditions or it might be only a request to confirm the validity of a verbal instruction, construction drawings or plans that had given to them unofficially. 

                                                             

Client site representative shall not take the "request for information" lightly since it having its legal value. In some cases, client site representative might not be in the position to provide such information to the contractor site personnel. If such situation occurred, with the issuance of "request for information" by contractor site representative, they then can convey or redirect the matter to their respective department or person in-charge to get the valid response or answer.

In construction, the line of communication when using the "Request for information" is between contractor site personnel and client site representative. By looking to those two parties we can say that the usage of "Request for information" Form is mostly at construction site level. 

If we notice in the above paragraph, the words "mostly" was used, this is merely because "Request for Information" also sometimes being used between headquarters and site as an internal communication in the same organisation. However the usage of "Request for information is not limited only to those application but it can be customised to suit the needs of an organisation.

Friday, July 25, 2014

Construction project stages

Construction is not about physically constructing a structure only but lot of other things involve. Construction in-whole are involving a few stages. Those stages start with setting goal by the owner (consultant/contractor's client) then followed by designing stage. Once the designers completed their design, they must first get approval from the client prior to the call for tender. Designer have to get their design as closed as they can as what had been describe by their client. This is important as to minimised any interruption during construction period due to design change. It is also important for the client in order not to burst their allocated budget for the whole project.

Upon approval of their design then consultants can proceed with the tender stage. This can be done via open tender such as through media advertisement. However some might one to call for invited tender. Invited tender is a bidding process where consultant will look for list of trusted, well reputable and competent contractor to submit their tender price for the purposed construction work.

After submission tender price, together with the client consultant, have to evaluate and come to a conclusion to whom must they award the contract. Another important part of this process is to counter check if client budget is enough. If the price they get burst their budget, the client might want to reduce the scope of work or call for another round of tender. Usually this is termed as re-tender process.

                                                    

Next before the construction can really start, upon deciding who is the contractor that can do the construction work, client will send an official "Letter of Intent" or most of the time, Client will  issue "Letter of Acceptance" or "Letter of Award". Once the official letter was sent out to the winner of the tender, consultant then need to prepare the contract document for both parties to sign.

Right after the signing process, by procedure wise, only then the awarded contractor can proceed with their physical construction work. While dealing with the construction of the structure, it is vital for every parties to keep their record of everything or important event as accurate, complete and safe as they can. This is because  those entire documents might have legal value in it. Among the records are letter of Award, Construction site diary, construction test and inspection approval, design change record, instruction from the client, records of construction meetings (site meeting, technical meeting and others important meeting or discussion) and may more.

Another important document that have to be kept properly and can be access by all parties involve is the "Master Work Program". This will show, when contractor going to start a certain work and when will they finished. Other than that, by having this master work program, client, consultant and contractor can monitor their construction health. Construction health is whether the construction work is ahead of schedule, on time or delayed. If the progress of the construction work shows delay, this is where all parties need to know why, and how to speed-up the progress or client might need to revised the construction completion date by granting Extension of Time base on valid reason as mentioned in the contract to the contractor. However if the records shows that reasons behind the delay is due to contractor negligence, client can by virtue of the signed contract and by any applicable law, penalised the contractor. Commonly happened is contractor being slap with the "Liquidated and Ascertained Damages (L&AD)" as allow in the contract.

                                                             

Upon completion of all of the construction scope of work and if the client satisfied with the end product, Client then will issue a letter of completion to contractor. This letter normally termed as "Certificate of Practical completion (CPC)". As mentioned earlier, "construction in whole involving a few stages", then bare in-mind, the issuance of CPC does not meant that the whole construction is over. Upon issuance of the CPC, another stage that will follow is the "post-construction" stage. This is a stage where all constructed structure being put into real test. The in-operation of the structure and all other components reassemble a complete structure will reveal all defects to the structure have. Defects in construction simply mean works that is done but does not functioning well. When this happened, client together with their consultant need to identify if is a defect due to contractor works or not. If it the answer is "yes", then client can request the contractor to rectify the defects as long as the defect occurred within the defect liability period. Inspection on the defect must be performed in the present of client, consultant and contractor and list of defects must be served officially to the contractor.

When the defect liability period is over, client has to close the construction account which normally termed as "closing of project account". In this stage client will released whatever money due to their contractor and consultants or recouped back whatever amount due to them from the contractor or consultants.

The next and final stage of the whole construction project is the post mortem by client them self. By performing this stage, client can evaluate, in overall, the cost, the construction period, functionality of the project and whether or not the project achieved their earlier goal. The result of the post-mortem will provide a better understanding and can be incorporated into the new project that they wish or planned to do.

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Construction project manager roles and responsibility

Construction work, regardless any type of construction, a contractor will always need a competent Project manager. A person  that had been engaged to become a project manager must be able to handle these scope of work.

  1. Dealing with, client, consultants, local authority, supplier, sub contractor and local residence.
  2. Preparing a master work program
  3. keep and maintained all of important activities through the project.
  4. Attend any meetings that required his input. eg. Site meeting, Claim meeting, coordination meeting.
  5. Monitoring the overall progress to ensure timely completion of a project.
  6. Prepare weekly and monthly report.
  7. Monitoring and ensure that the construction work meet all the Quality requirement.
  8. Ensure that the end product is as per construction drawing.
  9. Dealt with any design change.
  10. Ensure that accommodation, transport and site office for client and consultant is always well equipped and maintained
  11. Assessing the value of the work done and submit the progress claim.
  12. Preparing application of Extension of time if any is required.
  13. Dealt with any matter arise with regards to the construction work.
  14. Dealt with any requirement and  documentation for the purpose of closing the project upon completion. 

In the event that there is any dispute, A Project Manager need to know what is in the contract, what can and what are allowed. Some of the construction work ended up in arbitration or in court, then the knowledge of contract act and tort law might be helpful.

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Construction manager delegation of power

cConstruction manager or project manager is an important element for any construction field. Thus, it is important for them to be available at all time during construction period. However in real life, everybody need sometime to rest or leave for what ever reason. In view of this situation, it is always a good practice to perform "power delegation" procedure. This is a procedure to authorised a competent personnel to take over the manager duty when ever he or she will be on leave for a substantial period of time such as one week. Most of the construction company only make known the delegation of power to the person affected but in most cases they fail to notify other organisation on the issue. This scenario seems to be only a minor matter any it would not affect the construction work but it do affect the works if drastic or urgent decision is required in which the decision only can be make by authorised personnel. Hence any delegation of power shall be make official and all organisation that involved shall be officially inform.

The content of the delegation of power shall clearly stated the name of the person that will take over the responsibility, his scope of work and his limit of authority. If required may be the period he or she be in power also shall be stated.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Critical Path Calculation

How to determine “Critical Path” in a project ?
To determine “critical Path” in a project  required:-

  • Knowledge in the sequence of every task until completion of the project.
  • “Start” and “ Finish” date need to be pre-determine base on current available resources or planned resources for the project.
  • Calculation on the Numbers of float days for individual task and also Numbers of Total float days for each of single path or series of task which formed a path.



Calculation on Individual Float and Total float need us to do the following  steps :-

  • Forward Pass Method ( Begin from the Start date to completion date of a project ).
  • Backward Pass Method ( Begin with the completion date to Start date).
  • Individual Float Calculation required the Information on the Early finish date and Late finish date Which can be obtain from the step 1 and Step 2.
  • Total float required us to add all of the individual float that resemble series of task to form a Path.



Individual Float calculation for a Task.



Formula : Individual Float = Late finish date – Early finish date

Example 1.
Individual Float = 28.04.2014 – 28.03.2014
=   30 days  



Example  2.
Individual Float = 28.03.2014 – 28.03.2014
=     0 days



Total Float calculation for a Path.

Formula : Total Float = Activity 1+Activity2+Activity3+Activity4


Path1 Total Float   = Individual Activity 1 + Individual Activity 2 + Individual Activity 3 +                                     Individual Activity 5
                                 = 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 0 days

Path 2 Total Float  = Individual Activity 1 + Individual Activity 4 + Individual Activity 5
                                 = 0 + (27.04.2014 – 18.04.2014) + 0
                                 = 0 + 9 days + 0 days = 9 days float


Critical path is the path that consist of activities with “0 days” of float.

Normally critical path when show in a chart or work program it is colored in “RED”


Further reading reference:
Critical Path Methods in Construction Practice
Critical Path Method,
Critical Path

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

How to Create A Work program with Microsoft Excel version 2010

Creating a simple work program and display it as a Bar chat is relative cheap. This can be done by doing it with Microsoft Excel. However It is very tough to display the critical path and it seems to be impossible to show the logic link between bars. Another disadvantage of this is that it might only practical and applicable to a small scale project that having not more than ten (10) activities. It is due to the complexity of the process in creating the bar chart and it is very time consuming. Below are free step by step guidance to produce a simple work program using Microsoft Excel.

Step 1.
 Open the Microsoft Excel Program and create table as picture below (table can be customized according to what information you want to display.


Step 2:
Insert your the task in the task column and task ID  in the ID column and arrange it according to level of work or in words it shall be the work breakdown code.

Step 3:
Set the DURATION column by highlighting the column and right click. The dialogue box will appear. from the dialogue box, select "format cell". I should appear like picture below.


After selecting the "format Cells", a dialogue box will appear as below.

 Now Under category, Select Number. I set the decimal point to "0" decimal places. then click OK.

Step 4:
Now start Insert Number of duration. See the following Picture.


Step 5:
In this stage or step 5, for column level as " Start " and " finish", highlight both column, Right click and select " Format cells", a dialogue will appear and under the " Category" select Date and set the " date format". See picture below.

Step 6:
After you select your date format which is shown under the "type" tab. Click "OK". Than Start by inserting the start date as per sequence of work. As a guide you can fill the sequence number base on the ID into the "Predecessor" and "Successor Column". Picture below.


For the "Start", "Finish", "Predecessor" and "Successor" column, If you are familiar with Excel Function or Formula, it is better to use the features since with that Features you can easily create links between cells. Or else you will have to fill and calculate it manually.

Step 7:
Next step is to group task under a major task. To do this, First select "Data Tab". See Picture Below.
Then, identify which is the major task. Next highlight the "Rows" which represent minor tasks that form the major task. Picture Below
 After Highlighting the minor task, Click on the " Group" Icon under " Data Tab". It will automatically display the Sheet Like picture below.
The finish product is as picture below.


After you fill in all the data you needed in the table. It is now we can start to create the " Bar Chart".

Step 8

To create the “bar Chart” , First highlight the Row and column that contained the “ Task”, “Duration”, “start” and “Finish”. Next, Click on the “Insert tab” , then go to “ bar”  then click the icon “ Stacked Bar”. See picture below.


Once you click on the icon “ Staked Bar”, a Bar chart will automatically appear in your work Sheet. It shall look like the picture below.


Step 9:
Next, in the Start and finish Column, Identified the Earliest date to start work. Right Click on that cell, then click “ format cell”. A dialogue box like below will appear.

Inside the dialogue box, under category, click on “number”. Once you click on the “number”, under the sample, you will see a set of number. In this example the number is  41703.00. This number is actually represent the date of 05/03/2014. See picture below. Write down this number on a piece of paper. After you done with this step, Click the “cancel” tab. The dialogue box will close by itself. Next, do the same thing to the last date which you are going to complete your work or task. You will need those number to customized the date axis range on your chart later on.

Step 10.

Right Click on the “X” axis and then Click “ format axis”. Refer to picture below.

After you click the “format axis” a dialogue box will appear as below.


Inside the axis option check the minimum value to fixed and insert the number for start date which you write down earlier  in step 9. Do the same for maximum Value but inset the number which will represent the last completion date of the work.

Still on the dialogue box, click on the number, then go to the category And choose “ date” and choose the date format type which you want to display on your chart. After that step, you can choose the alignment tab in the dialogue box to align the position of your date. See Picture below.




One you done with it, click “Close”. Your Chart Should appear like this.


Step 11
Right click on the “Y” Axis and click Format Axis. A dialogue box like below will appear.


Inside this dialogue box, look for the “ Category in reverse order”.  “Checked “ the box and next Close the dialogue. Your chart should be displayed as below.


Step 12
In the Chart, Right click in between two bars. Then Click “select data” . See picture below.

One you had click on the “select data” a dialogue box as below will appear.

Click on the “Duration” follow by clicking on the “move down” button. This will change the position of your “Duration”.  Once you done with that, Click “ OK” tab. It will close the Dialogue box. This action will make your Chart look as this following picture.



Step 13
Still on the chart. Right Click on any of the green bar. 

Then, click on the “fill colour” icon. Picture below.

Choose the “no fill” . Your chart should be as follows.

Repeat this step 13 but now do the same for the bar that is “red” in colour.The end product for this step  shall be displayed as below.


Step 14
Now identify the “Critical Path” and recoloured it into red. You should have a Bar chart as below.



Step 15
If you want to show both “ Start” and “ Finish” date, Click on the bars that represent the “Start” bar
 (already recoloured with no fill in step 13),then click the “ Add data level’. 


Your chart will look like this.

Now the start date had been inserted. However the date been displayed and overlap with other information. We don’t want this display. Hence we need to re format the “ X “ axis. To Do That we need to change the Minimum Value and the maximum value of “X” Axis. See the pictures below.  For Minimum value, entered value that is less than 41703 and for Maximum Value entered number greater than 41848.





Next, for the “finish date” do the same procedure as what had been done for “ Start Date”  but for  “ the Finish date” click on the “finish Bar” which had been recoloured earlier with “No Fill”. Your end product shall be displayed as follow.

Basically, Your work program created with Microsoft Excel is now completed. However  for a better presentation of Your  Bar Chart, you Can present it as Chart on its own or you can rearrange is such a way  to be display with full description.

a) Bar Chart represent the work program  on its own.


b) Work program with full description.


Congratulation. You just finish creating the work program by using Microsoft Excel.