Comparative visualization of construction schedules: Fid-Bau Portal

Comparative visualization of construction schedules

Tory, Melanie / Staub-French, Sheryl / Huang, Dandan / Chang, Yu-Ling / Swindells, Colin / Pottinger, Rachel

Abstract Managing change in project schedules is a complex problem in construction management. To effectively manage, analyze, and revise schedules, planners need to identify when and how activities and constraints can be changed, develop various schedule alternatives, and determine the effect of changes on related activities. Existing software tools enable users to generate and visualize a schedule from a list of activities and time-based constraints, and to show multiple bars for an activity to reflect different versions of a schedule. However, there is little visual support for interacting with schedules, and for exploring and comparing alternative versions of a schedule. We present a schedule visualization tool called TASM (Tool for Advanced Schedule Management) that addresses these limitations. TASM augments traditional Gantt charts and network diagrams by directly representing constraint types, network chains, and flexibility of activity timing. We also implemented new techniques to visualize schedule differences when comparing multiple schedules. Our tests demonstrate that these techniques enhance traditional schedule visualization methods.

Highlights ► We evaluated visualization techniques to interact with construction schedules. ► We graphically represent constraint types, network chains, and activity timing. ► We developed new techniques to visualize differences in schedule alternatives. ► We evaluated the techniques implemented using inspection and user‐based methods. ► Tests demonstrate the superior performance of visualization techniques implemented.