The S-Curve as a Tool for Planning and Controlling of Construction Process—Case Study

Abstract

One of the key tasks of an investor and a contractor at the stage of planning and implementing construction works is to measure the progress of execution with regard to the planned deadlines and costs. During the execution of construction works, the actual progress of the works may differ significantly from the initial plan, and it is unlikely that the construction project will be implemented entirely according to the planned work and expenditure schedule. In order to monitor the process of deviations of the deadline and the budget of the investment task, several rudimentary methods of planning—as well as the cyclical control of the progress of construction projects—are used. An effective tool for measuring the utilization of the financial outlays of a construction project is the presentation of the planned financial flows on a timeline using a cumulative cost chart, the representation of which is the S-curve. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the course of an sample construction project comparing the planned costs of the scheduled works with the actual costs of the performed works, as well as identifying the reasons leading to the failure to meet the planned deadlines and budget of the project implementation. As part of the research conducted at a construction site of a hotel facility, the authors of this paper analyzed each of the 20-month effects of financial expenditures on construction works that were developed and processed by the Bank Investment Supervision (BIS) over a period of three years (between 2017 and 2019). Based on these results, charts and tables of the scheduled and actual cumulative costs of the completed construction project were prepared, the careful analysis of which enables interesting conclusions to be drawn.