What comes first, the chicken or the egg?
Having worked within the planning and scheduling of projects and tenders for the past decade, I’ve had my fair share of conundrums such as, “what comes first? The chicken or the egg?”.
So, should the cost estimate produce the program to deliver the works or should the program determine the cost estimate?
The considered answer is both. Although it will come in iterations, your tender planning must allow for iterations with time for rework before the deadline or pens down date. These iterations include;
Change in delivery strategy
Improvements to timeframes, and
Improvements/Adjustments to cost.
The next question here is, how do we navigate these iterations in a timely manner? I explore my tried and tested strategy below.
Align Early
Complete a high-level delivery strategy to determine what resources will be required to deliver the scope
Complete the material take-offs to assign your production rates and material lead times
Turn this into a draft program so you can assess the critical paths and resource utilisation, and
Refine these as the tender progresses.
Don’t Forget
Make sure that you ask the below questions early on in the tender phase, and for the love of winning, don’t forget!
Have you considered the duration prior to the works commencing?
How about the post construction period?, and
What about expected inclement weather periods?
Asking these questions early on, ensures that your program and estimate is on track.
Monitor Changes
As the tender compilation continues, subcontract estimates and internal self-perform production rates will be agreed or requests for information (RFI) answered, which allows for joint review sessions.
You may find in these review sessions that your program is coming in too late, or the cost estimate is too high (or vice versa). This is the time to go back to the high-level delivery strategy and make the necessary changes, these changes then need to be reflected in both the cost estimate and the bid program.
Finalise Alignment
Once the program delivery timeframes are finalised, it can then feed into finalising the cost estimate items such as indirect costs, which can make up a large proportion of your estimate, so it is vital to align these.
Summary
If in doubt - work with a qualified and experienced Programmer/Scheduler. Aligning your cost and program at the tender stage will put you in a good place to win the works and then transition into delivery and performance management.
An experienced Programmer/Scheduler will help you achieve the best possible program and will work collaboratively with your Estimator (and overall bid team) to deliver a detailed program and accurate estimate for your tender.
Written by Riley Small, Pre-Contracts Engineer/Programmer