| dc.description.abstract | With the government′s promotion of construction automation and the introduction of scheduling knowledge worldwide, the use of professional scheduling software in Taiwan′s public construction projects has increased significantly. As projects become larger and more complex, it is becoming more difficult to control the projects. Compared with the manual calculation and drawing, professional scheduling software can determine the critical path(s) of project more accurately and make project managers to control the project progress more precisely. However, due to the improper use of scheduling settings by unprofessional project managers, unclear terminologies and definitions of schedule management, lack of professional knowledge, and unfamiliarity with the operation of professional scheduling software, schedule network diagrams are like to contain many errors in terms of the accuracy of the critical path, resulting in ineffective schedule control and causing difficulties on schedule extensions and contract disputes between contract parties. The critical path in the schedule network diagram is mainly determined by the logical relationship and constraints settings. Wrong and invalid settings make the network diagram lose its original function of progress updating, control and early warning. Although professional scheduling software in the market today is plenty to help project managers plan and manage the project schedule, they do not provide detailed instructions for scheduler the consequence of improper logical relationships and constraints on the critical path, as well as how to use it correctly and effectively. How to solve these problems systematically is the research problem of this study.
In order to verify the validity of the critical path generated by setting logical relationships and constraints, hypothetical cases were tested using Microsoft® Office Project or Oracle® Primavera® P6TM. And then, through practical cases using schedule network diagram, the results caused by the improper operation and setting conditions are presented. Finally, this study proposes the proper ways to use the schedule network diagram in terms of constraints date settings, to avoid the problems of misconfiguration and improper uses. Hopefully, the outcomes of this study will help project managers to make better use of professional scheduling software and schedule network diagrams to effectively control projects and improve the performance of schedule management, furthermore, to reduce the contract disputes in the construction sector in Taiwan. | en_US |