At a recent training session attended by local perth based construction planners/schedulers, a positive debate was entered into, discussing the virtues of planners with years of site based experience (but only a few years of software experience), versus those planners with excellent technical and software experience but limited actual exposure to site.

The arguments for both styles of planner / scheduler were strong.

The pro site experienced planners (nicknamed “Sitewise” planners - derived from the term “streetwise”), were quick to point out the virtues of their years of experience and know-how which enabled them to build realistic programmes from scratch. Those with trades backgrounds, also noted their added ability to understand production rates, rules of thumb, and construction methodology for the small detailed activities.

The Technical Planners (nicknamed the Geek Planners), rebutted with their ability to source the relevant information from various engineers and supervisors on the site/office, compile the detailed programmes then produce relevant and complex reporting from the schedule data.

At JCA we have Planners in our team fitting both stlyes, and concur with the merit’s of all. Regardless of the background of the Planner, most importantly we feel that excellent communication skills is essential. Much emphasis has been made to ensure that all JCA planners reach a suitable level of technical/site and communication skills to suit the assignment they are carrying out.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 18th, 2006 at 11:41 am and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.