Mastering Project Controls in the Design Phase: Schedule Development, Review, and Best Practices

1. Introduction

While construction schedules are firmly established as an industry standard, research reveals a startling discrepancy in the earlier stages of a project's lifecycle. My experience with some projects involving infrastructure project demonstrated that during the design phase, virtually no schedule program or control had been enacted by the project architect or owner. This lack of oversight creates a critical vulnerability in project success.

For owners and project managers, understanding how to implement rigorous project controls during the design phase is not just a bureaucratic exercise; it is a necessity for financial and temporal certainty. This blog explores the state of design phase scheduling, the critical distinction between schedule design and development, and the best practices for review and monitoring.

2. The State of Design Phase Scheduling: Gaps and Requirements

The current landscape of design phase scheduling is characterized by a significant lack of control, despite the presence of contractual milestones. While design-services contracts generally establish required durations or dates for the completion of schematic design, design development, and construction documents subphases, a comprehensive schedule is rarely prepared. Specifically, it is very rare to find a schedule that is maintained to show all activities, interdependencies, and responsibilities involved in producing each major design submittal.

2.1 The Contractual Void

This widespread failure in project controls is largely attributed to inadequate provisions and requirements specified in owner-architect contract documents. For example, the AIA B-107 document, used on several projects as the owner-architect form of agreement, indicates that the only requirement regarding design schedule control on the part of the architect is to "§ 3.1.3 As soon as practicable after the date of this Agreement, the Architect shall submit for the Owner’s approval a schedule for the performance of the Architect’s services. The schedule initially shall include anticipated dates for the commencement of construction and for Substantial Completion of the Work as set forth in the Initial Information. The schedule shall include allowances for periods of time required for the Owner’s review, for the performance of the Owner’s consultants, and for approval of submissions by authorities having jurisdiction over the Project. Once approved by the Owner, time limits established by the schedule shall not, except for reasonable cause, be exceeded by the Architect or Owner. With the Owner’s approval, the Architect shall adjust the schedule, if necessary, as the Project proceeds until the commencement of construction.".

Even in public-sector capital programs that utilize contract forms other than the AIA model, provisions for the submittal and maintenance of a design schedule are often not enforced by the owner in the same manner as they are with a construction contractor. Furthermore, these contracts often lack remedies or penalties for non-adherence, meaning the architect faces little commercial risk for failing to maintain a schedule.

2.2 Increasing Owner Scrutiny

The status quo is shifting as more scrutiny is placed on owners to ensure that the requirements of the design contract are met. Owners are increasingly looking for ways to ensure that design professionals provide information and report on progress monthly. In many cases, owners are now requiring schedule updates as a prerequisite for payment.

To remedy the current gaps, project owners must ensure that design-services contract documents include adequate requirements for the architect to develop, submit, and maintain a design schedule. Provisions concerning the schedule submittal should address:

Timing: When the initial schedule submittal is due (e.g., within a specific number of days from the notice to proceed).
Format: The required format for the schedule submittal.
Frequency: How often update submittals are required.
Remedies: Consequences for inadequate design progress or failing to make a required submittal.

Recognizing that the fees paid to architects may not be sufficient to provide for the level of effort required for effective schedule control, owners have options. They may include an allowance budget item for a third-party consultant to develop and maintain the schedule with the architect, or negotiate separate fees for this effort to be included as a "pay item" on the architect's invoices. In this manner, the project is assured of effective schedule control, and the architect's commercial risk is mitigated.=

3. Schedule Design vs. Schedule Development

A common pitfall in project controls is rushing immediately into creating activities and bars on a chart without a structural plan. According to AACE International Recommended Practice No. 61R-10 'Schedule Design - As Applied in Engineering, Procurement, and Construction', schedule design is independent from the schedule development process. Schedule design is the planning step leading to schedule development.

3.1 Defining Schedule Design

Schedule design involves the collection, coordination, and organization of the inputs necessary to translate the execution strategy into a well-developed schedule. It does not address the mechanics of schedule development but instead provides the framework to enable an efficient and accurate facilitation of that process.

If a team proceeds directly into schedule development without schedule design, the resulting schedule may not suit its intended purpose. Schedulers often tend to focus on the mechanics of development while ignoring the primary purpose of the schedule: to communicate the scope and sequence of activities necessary to complete the project. Therefore, all schedule development should be done after the schedule design process is complete.

3.2 The Framework Framework

A necessary component of schedule design is the creation of a glossary to provide definitions for any terms used in the development. This ensures a common understanding of the process and maintains clarity and consistency throughout the schedule.

The design process must also address the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). The WBS should identify the entire scope of work. During the design phase, the team must determine the required level of detail for each WBS category and element. This framework ensures that the schedule accurately represents the project's proposed means and methods for accomplishing the work.

3.3 Resource and Budget Integration

A critical aspect of schedule design is determining the required schedule integration with estimate (resources) and budget development. The relationship between the planning and the schedule development processes needs to be realigned so that sufficient planning is performed to provide the schedule development process with detailed and accurate data.

Additionally, the process used to determine specific scheduling software should take place during schedule design. Factors to be considered include:

Hardware and software platforms and versions.
Compatibility and integration capabilities.
Identification of users and levels of access.
Data sources for import and export.
Scheduling requirements such as the use of master schedules, sub-schedules, and methods for validation.

Incorporating lessons learned and historical data from other projects is also vital for effective schedule design. The project management team and other professionals in the organization can be a valuable source for this information.

4. Developing the Design Schedule: From Deliverables to Activities

Once the schedule design—the framework—is established, the team moves to schedule development. The purpose of the schedule development process is to document the outputs of the planning process and develop a time-phased project controls tool that helps guide the project toward desired results.

4.1 Translating Deliverables into a Plan

In the traditional design-bid-build project delivery method, the design team is tasked with delivering a set of documents by a certain date. However, measuring progress during this phase is distinct from construction. During construction, progress is easily measured by tangible metrics, such as cubic yards of concrete poured. During design, however, progress is associated with the completion or partial completion of deliverables, such as technical studies, drawings, design calculations, and specifications. This makes the measurement of progress more subjective.

To create a viable schedule, one method is to create a design schedule that details the plan for achieving the agreed-upon deliverables. Adequate scope definition will go far toward meeting the design team’s best contribution to meeting the project schedule.

4.2 Level of Detail and Interdependencies

Schedule activities need to be defined such that the start and finish of the activity are easily discernible, and the scope is broken into manageable pieces. It is crucial to avoid defining tasks that may start and stop periodically. If tasks have too little detail, the schedule will lack the flexibility to make changes during execution and will fail to provide insight into the current status of the project.

While design-services contracts establish dates for schematic design and construction documents, a robust schedule must show the interdependencies involved in producing each major design submittal. As project planning and design progress beyond the conceptual phase, schedule activities will be added to identify important features of the work, such as site areas to be modified, key equipment to be installed, and major systems to be operationally tested.

4.3 Resource Planning and Contractor Integration

Preparing the project baseline or contract schedule is a labor-intensive planning effort which requires an understanding of the scope of work, knowledge of key technical tasks, procurements, and deliverables, as well as the sequence and timing for project execution. The design schedule must facilitate the integration of various contractors or trades by establishing an appropriate level of detail.

However, challenges remain. Design phase construction schedules often have a tendency to represent the work at a higher level with not much detail. For a variety of reasons, they often do not portray accurate estimated durations for construction success. These duration inaccuracies in the design phase may occur due to a lack of accurate quantity details. While these schedules identify key construction milestones and portray the overall plan for the client, they generally do not link specific detailed craft interfaces.

5. The Schedule Review Process: Baselines and Specifications

The development of a schedule is only as effective as the review process that validates it. Construction contract schedule specifications frequently require reviews of the project baseline schedule but often provide very little guidance about how that review process should be accomplished.

5.1 The Challenge of Specifications

A baseline schedule is generally required to be reviewed and accepted by the owner on most government projects and larger private projects. However, schedule specifications often fail to provide adequate measures for the timely acceptance of the baseline schedule. Many specifications do not contain any means of ensuring that the contractor actually has full-time staff and computer facilities dedicated to developing the baseline.

To combat this, owners and engineers should spend the necessary time during the design phase to draft a detailed scheduling specification that reflects the control the owner wants exercised on the project. Specifications should be evenhanded and address potential problems without being so detailed that they eliminate the contractor's ability to properly plan and control the work efficiently.

5.2 Reviewing the Baseline Submission

When reviewing the baseline schedule submittal, the focus should be on two primary areas: compliance with the specification and whether the schedule represents a reasonable and realistic management tool.

For specification compliance, a useful tool is to develop a checklist directly from the requirements listed in the specification. This is an easy and efficient way to determine if the baseline schedule meets the requirements. Major aspects for reviewing a baseline schedule include several steps, often outlined in checklists or standard procedures.

Crucially, the baseline must represent a reasonable plan for the duration and sequence of the work as envisioned on "day one". A baseline schedule is considered "fatally flawed" when its mechanics or insufficient scope of work prevent the scheduler from forecasting a reasonable date for completion.

5.3 The Approval Process and Timing

Two areas that owners routinely fail to enforce are the specifications regarding the time periods for each submission and the owner's review time period. Typical schedule specifications require that the baseline schedule be submitted within a specified time after the Notice of Award, usually 30 or 45 days.

If the owner allows the contractor to exceed these time submittal requirements, it sets a precedent that other submissions can also exceed requirements. More importantly, if the baseline is not submitted until after work begins, it may no longer represent the initial plan but instead include the benefit of as-built information. If an impact occurs early in the project, the lack of a baseline schedule prevents the benefit of analyzing the impact effectively.

The specification should clearly state the number of calendar days the owner will need to complete the review and respond to or return the contractor's submittal. Approval of the baseline schedule is a sensitive issue that can create turmoil among parties, yet it is essential for protecting the long-term interests of both contractors and owners.

6. Project Controls and Monitoring: The Schedule Log

Once the design schedule is established and work begins, the focus shifts to monitoring. While schedulers traditionally focus on the individual project baseline and successive updates, there is significant analytical value in keeping a detailed log of schedule updates produced during the course of a project.

6.1 The Schedule Log as a Control Tool

AACE International Recommended Practice No. 93R-17 develops the concept of the construction schedule log as a useful project controls tool. The schedule log collects and organizes contemporaneous schedule data from the various baseline(s) and update submissions generated during the course of a project into a single document for tracking, analysis, and management purposes.

The schedule log's primary purpose is documenting schedule-related changes from update to update over the course of the project. It tracks the project’s path over time and aids the project team in charting the course to completion. Additionally, it serves as a useful tool for briefing project outsiders who may have an interest in reviewing the history of the project schedules.

6.2 Data Sources and Content

Much of the data compiled in the log is derived from requirements grounded in schedule specifications. The log should be a tabular format that collects schedule as-planned and as-built information.

Suggested data items to track include:

Critical Path: Number of activities on the critical path, whether defined by total float or longest path.
Activity Metrics: Number of activity starts and completions for the period and for the overall project.
Variances: Changes in percent complete, time gain or loss for the period, and net time gain or loss on the original completion date.
Resources: Planned and actual manpower and variances.
Modifications: Schedule data changes, including added/deleted activities, durations, relationships, and resources.

6.3 Trend Analysis and Administration

The schedule log serves as a trend identification and analysis tool. Because many projects do not proceed exactly as planned, there will be variances to estimates, revisions to schedule logic, and project scope changes. The log allows for the exploration of statistics and trends that analysis of schedule updates over time might provide.

Administratively, the log provides a quick reference to what schedules were submitted, when they were submitted, and their respective approval status. This tracking capability is vital for the development and analysis of time extension claims. Many industry claims consultants will develop a schedule log prior to embarking on a forensic schedule analysis effort to ensure they are working with the proper schedules and to identify periods requiring further scrutiny.

7. Risk Analysis, Claims Protection, and Quality Metrics

Even with a robust schedule and a detailed log, projects face uncertainty. Schedules, no matter how carefully designed and developed, rarely incorporate any assessment of risks that occur on most projects.

7.1 Risk Assessment Techniques

The lack of a process to gather and use lessons learned from the collective experience of project management professionals lowers the likelihood of success and leads to a greater risk of claims . To mitigate this, the industry utilizes both qualitative and quantitative risk analysis.

Simple performance metrics can facilitate schedule risk assessment. However, there is a need for substantial effort to initiate research through analyzing a large number of baseline schedules to develop effective quantitative schedule quality metrics and thresholds. Research is needed to set the proper threshold for each metric.

7.2 Claims Protection and Delay Analysis

A baseline schedule is frequently used to justify or deny time extensions and inefficiency losses, meaning it has enormous financial consequences. Experienced construction scheduling professionals often refer to scheduling as a "two-edged sword".

To protect against claims, schedule specifications should provide guidelines for Time Impact Analysis (TIA) to avoid ambiguity during assessment. This includes defining what constitutes a delay event and when it is recognized. Proper baseline schedule review should consider possible delay events to correct schedule shortcomings in advance of baseline approval.

7.3 Quality Metrics and Project Outcomes

There is a correlation between industry metrics and developing a reasonable schedule. In a study comparing current industry metrics against completed case projects, it was observed that case study projects with higher baseline schedule quality had less schedule delay.

Despite the advancement of the scheduling profession over the last five decades, there are still no reliable standards to determine if project timeliness has improved over time or if one project is at greater risk of finishing late than another. Furthermore, there has been little inquiry into the impact of a schedule's initial conditions—its baseline—on its eventual outcome.

Some studies argue that a detailed CPM scheduling approach from the top down may not be sufficient to shield against schedule risk during the project execution phase. This supports the theory that factoring contingencies alone may not be sufficient to avoid schedule performance risk. Therefore, incorporating risk assessment techniques as part of the standard schedule monitoring and controlling process is essential.

8. Conclusion

The design phase of a project is often the most neglected regarding schedule control, yet it sets the trajectory for the entire project lifecycle. As evidenced by reviews of major civic facilities, the absence of a schedule program during design is a common failure. To rectify this, owners must enforce clearer specifications for schedule reviews and updates, ensuring that design schedules require the same rigor as construction schedules.

Schedule Design must be treated as a distinct planning step that precedes Schedule Development. This ensures that the framework—including WBS, coding, and resource integration—is robust enough to support accurate reporting. Furthermore, the use of tools like the Schedule Log and the application of risk analysis metrics are vital for monitoring progress and protecting against claims. By bridging the gap between design deliverables and rigorous project controls, stakeholders can ensure that the "blueprint" for the project's time is as precise as the blueprint for its construction.