Type of Project Plans

Planning the entire project from its inception to completion requires as vast coverage, varied skills, and different types of plans. The nature of plans encountered in a typical construction project, are indicated below.

Types of project plans


Development stage
Nature plan
Inception stage
Project feasibility plan
Engineering stage
Project preliminary plan
Implementation stage
Project construction 
                                                                                 

Project feasibility plan

Planning by the client begins as soon as he gets the idea about developing a facility to fulfill certain motives. His early thought process conceptualize the cost, time and benefit implications of the project. Only when he is convinced about the soundness of his idea does he decide to go ahead with the feasibility studies.
The feasibility study team examines the needs of the client and ways to fulfill them. It defines the overall scope of work and breaks it down into various task groups. It develops an outline plan of work, and assesses the time and costs of accomplishing the project. This outline plan, developed by the feasibility team during the inception stage, forms the basis for identifying project objectives and developing the project plan.


Project preliminary plan

Acceptance of the feasibility studies marks the commencement of the preliminary plan-making process. Its main aim is to provide direction to the client managers and staff employed during the development phase of the project. The project preliminary plan forms the basis for developing the project construction plan. The preliminary plan may include the following:

a.     A project time schedule and the skeleton network to highlight the work dependencies, project milestones and the expected project completion time.

b.     The project design and drawing preparation schedule.


c.      A breakdown of project work into contracts, along with a schedule of contracting activities, including the tender preparation period, tender finalization period, and the contracted works commencement and completion dates.

d.     A resources preliminary forecast indicating the phased requirement of men. important materials, plant and machinery.


e.      Resources procurement system.

f.       Project organization and staffing pattern.


g.     Preliminary forecast of funds requirement.


Project construction plan

The client entrusts the construction of project facilities to the project management team headed by the project manager or the resident engineer. This management team may be from the client’s own construction agency or from a client appointed construction management consultant firm or from a suitably organized combination of these. The planning chief, who is a member of the project management team, is entrusted with the task of developing the project construction plan. This plan includes the contracted works plans and the commissioning plan, as applicable. The work programmes are derived form the targets set out in the project plan.
The project construction plan as well as the contracted works plan further include the following plans:

a.     Time plan:  It depicts the schedule of project activities for completion of the project within the specified time.

b.    Resources plan:  It forecasts the required input resources of men, materials, machinery and money for achieving the project completion time target and cost objectives.


c.     Plan for controlling project: It encompasses the design of control system, monitoring system, codification system and the computerized information system.