This is the second in our series of articles dealing with construction management agreements (CMAs). In this article we address scheduling—the key to a successful project.

In order to provide an owner with the protection of a properly scheduled project, the CMA should contain provisions relating to the preparation of the project schedule, the updating of the schedule, and the handling of delays to the schedule.

Preparing the Project Schedule

The most widely used form of scheduling is the critical path method (CPM). The CPM calculates the minimum completion time for a project by representing the sequence of activities that will take the longest time to complete. The length of the critical path then becomes the sum of the interrelated activity durations along the path. Preparation of the schedule requires that all of the necessary activities be identified, work days be established and assigned to the activities, and the activities be logically connected in the sequence they need to be performed.