Project Management, Scheduling, and Supervision
Project Management, Scheduling, and Supervision
This domain tests planning and control: critical path schedules, submittals and RFIs, daily documentation, supervision, and coordination. The exam rewards practical understanding of how schedule logic and field records affect time and money.
Scheduling and control
- A CPM schedule links activities by predecessors and durations; the critical path is the longest path and has zero total float.
- Total float is the time an activity can slip without delaying project completion; free float is slip without delaying the next activity.
- Update schedules with actual starts, finishes, and remaining durations; document delays contemporaneously.
Supervision
- Maintain daily reports, RFIs, submittal logs, meeting minutes, and inspection records.
- Coordinate subcontractors, verify work against plans and specs, and correct defects promptly.
- Integrate safety into supervision: hazards observed in the field must be corrected and documented.
Worked example. Activity A (5 days) precedes B (3 days) and C (4 days); B precedes D (2 days); C precedes D. Path A-B-D = 10 days; A-C-D = 11 days, so A-C-D is critical and total float on B is one day. Reasoning: compare complete paths; the longest controls completion, and B can slip one day without moving D.
Traps. Treating total float and free float as identical; failing to update a schedule after changes; relying on memory instead of daily records; letting a subcontractor's delay become undocumented.