Hello!
I am new to planning (6 weeks). It is my first job in the construction industry also.
I have been taken on as a planning engineer for a small-medium sized main contractor in the UK. I am the only planner currently and I have taken over from an experienced guy who was here for years.
So far I have been using ASTA v12 to draw up tender programmes and a few contract programmes also. I am not sure if this is normal or not but when I am doing the programmes I mostly use Finish to start relationships. Most of the time the client supplies us with a start date and end date for the project so I just slot all the the necessary activities in FS relationships between the dates. I use the prelims, drawings and past projects to determine the durations and spit the project up into sections, i.e Extension, Refurb, Building 1 or into phases of work if requested.
To my knowledge, construction is mostly finish to start activites as most things cannot start until another is finished, or sometimes mid way through completion therefore almost all of the tasks are critical I would imagine?
Clients sometimes as for the "critical path" shown in asta. When I click to show it most of the project is in red, is the correct? Or should I try having more tasks on start to start?
My firm do not really use the programmes to work out a finish date as my boss tells me when he wants it finished so I just squeeze the tasks to suit!
I also noticed that most of the programmes which were done before I arrived were not linked at all really, I am not sure why but is this acceptable? Should I always link tasks?