Setting Up for Success: Creating Your Project Schedule

Wednesday, October 21, 2015 6:30 PM by Drew Levan in Budgeting and Costs


Last week’s blog focused on establishing an exhibit budget for design-build projects. This week’s blog is focused on an equally important step in the project planning process, setting the project schedule. The size of the overall exhibit budget will correlate to the project schedule duration, but there are also other project parameters that will also have an impact on determining the overall length.

Typical project parameters we see that impact the length of a project schedule include:

  • Time required to review and approve design phase deliverables, we typically recommend two weeks.

  • Number of design phase deliverables, we typically recommend four.

  • Separating the project into multiple contracts, that can be dividing a design-build project into two separate contracts or approaching a project as a design-bid-build.

  • Size of the selected exhibit design and exhibit fabrication team.

The majority of our design-build projects take between 18 and 24 months to complete once the contract is signed. In addition, most projects take between three and four months from the time a request for proposal (RFP) is released to the time when a contract is signed. The table below provides approximate durations for each phase in a design-build project after the RFP is released. RFP Release to Proposal Due Date1 MonthRFP Evaluation, Interviews, and Award1-2 MonthsContract Negotiations1 MonthDesign Phase12 – 16 MonthsFabrication Phase5 – 6 MonthsShipping, Installation, Closeout1 – 2 MonthsTotal**21 – 28 Months** Fill out this quick form to download an example of a detailed project schedule Gantt chart (download will begin immediately). The detailed project schedule includes a sequenced listing of each task in a typical design-build project.

Online Form Project Schedule Chart

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