No construction vendor wants to stand up and say a build is going to be delivered a month late —and nobody on the project ownership team wants to hear it.

Not having these conversations in the first place is one of the primary aims of better schedule management. Careful planning is foundational to Scott-Long Construction’s approach; since 1961 we’ve helped clients methodically understand and control risks, which means a good night’s sleep for many a project owner or member of a committee that approves a big project. This is why we rigorously vet scheduling and project management tools.

While “stuff happens,” rigor in the planning stage and discipline on the ground are how we mitigate pitfalls on big commercial builds, complicated renovations, and other redevelopment initiatives. It’s how you account, communicate, plan, and respond to the unknown that sets a trusted construction partner apart from the company you engage when you’re under pressure and out of options.

Why Scott-Long Went With Phoenix CPM

We tested and adopted Phoenix CPM, ​​a focused construction project scheduling solution, because it supports our methodology and our cultural focus.It’s an old story in commercial software: Software engineers don’t necessarily understand your business. They optimize a version of your workflow that has nothing to do with what you need on the ground, and all of a sudden your processes are subordinated to the tool. It should be the other way around, which is why we went with Phoenix. Here’s more about the why:

• It’s a standalone tool that focuses intensely on scheduling and supports the Critical Path Method; it lets us build on our existing scheduling methodology and tools without having to disrupt our workflow; sequencing of outcome-critical components—framing, excavation, etc.—and cost control are a major focus here.
• It didn’t take a bunch of painful training; the interface was easy to get running with, easy and smooth for disparate teams to use in the field or at the office.
• We liked features such as those that let us track fixed costs per activity, define and assign resources with a persistent cost view, and resource allocation functionality that quickly graphs usage, as well as over- and under-allocations.
• Of particular note: The status-on-master view, which meant more insight into project status, which is critical for when you have several teams onsite, each working on different systems or phases, and a stakeholder needs a quick, understandable view of how it all rolls up at a given point in time. “What’s happening, where are we, and why?” is a question you want to deliver an answer to, quickly.
• Whether we’re giving direction to a subcontractor or helping somebody on the ownership level, we found the timescaled network diagram also helped us communicate schedules more clearly, —with less painful document management and sharing.
• Lag-to and unlimited comparisons helped us increase accuracy and productivity.

We also admired the central value proposition of Phoenix: Get projects done early. This isn’t always possible, but seeing and defeating the biggest time-killers on your project brings you as close as possible to what you promised and avoids the dread sensation of being over-time and over-budget, with no end in sight.