A Gantt chart for construction scheduling
Break the project into tasks with durations and dependencies — foundation before plinth, slab before blockwork — and see them on a Gantt chart. If the schedule already exists in Excel, import it rather than typing it again.
Baselines
A baseline freezes the plan as agreed. Progress is then measured against it, and when the scope or dates change you save a new baseline without losing the earlier ones. That history matters when a client asks why the handover moved.
S-curve: planned against actual
The S-curve plots cumulative planned progress against cumulative actual progress over time. When the actual line falls below the planned one, the gap is the delay — visible weeks before it becomes a missed milestone.
Earned value in plain terms
Earned value turns progress and cost into a few numbers you can act on:
| Measure | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| CPI (cost performance index) | Value of work done for every rupee spent. Below 1.0 means over budget. |
| SPI (schedule performance index) | Work done compared with work planned by now. Below 1.0 means behind schedule. |
| EAC (estimate at completion) | What the project is likely to cost at the end if the current trend holds. |
| VAC (variance at completion) | The expected overrun or saving against the budget. |
Actual cost comes straight from the accounts, because bills and payments post as they happen — see construction accounting.
Progress from site, every day
Site engineers record work done in the daily progress report on their phone. That progress is what the S-curve and earned value are calculated from, so the office is not waiting for a weekly spreadsheet.