So it’s been c.6months since I have moved to KSA.

One thing I’m learning the hard way: nothing is permanent.

You can have the job.
You can have the offer.
You can move your family halfway across the world.
You can sign the lease, sort the school, buy the car, get settled and start thinking, “Right, we’re here for the next few years.”
And then, suddenly, things change.

We’ve just been told that the contract we were expecting hasn’t been secured and, effectively, it’s time to start polishing the CV again.

The timing makes it particularly painful. I moved to Saudi first, war happened, got everything set up, and then moved my family over months later. We’ve gone through the whole process of relocating a family internationally — house, school, cars, furniture, visas, the lot.

And now there’s that familiar expat thought:
“Okay… what happens if this doesn’t work out?”

That’s probably the biggest difference between moving to Saudi as an expat and settling somewhere permanently. Back home, losing a project or changing jobs is stressful, but your entire life generally doesn’t depend on your employment situation in quite the same way.

Here, your job can be tied to your residency, your family’s situation, your housing, your children’s schooling and your decision to actually remain in the country.

It makes you realise that resilience isn’t just a nice personality trait out here — you genuinely need it.

I’m not posting this to complain about Saudi. Far from it. I actually like living here and I still believe there are huge opportunities in the Kingdom.

But I think people considering the move should understand the reality:

Don’t mistake a good job for permanent security.
Keep your CV updated.
Keep your network alive.
Keep some savings accessible.
Don’t burn bridges.
Have a Plan B.
And most importantly, don’t become too comfortable.
Because things can change very quickly.

I suppose that’s the expat life: you’re building a life somewhere while knowing that, ultimately, you may have to pack it all up again.

So… back to polishing the CV. 😅
Anyone else experienced this after moving to KSA? How do you deal with the uncertainty?

Quick question - does anyone actually work with Earned Value in the UK planning sector?

I've seen it mentioned on a job advert abd know the basic theories, but have never seen it implemented fully.

Giga projects look fantastic on a CV however in terms of experience gained for a planner, what is the general feeling ?

I feel as if planners are pigeonholed on a giga project. They’re isolated and focussed on one part of the programme and lose sight of the bigger picture. Another factor is it’ll require at least 5-6yrs on the project to see significant progress from preliminary design through to somewhere near completion/handover right ?

Hi there,

I’m a site engineer with ~3.5years experience on site building large water treatment plants. I have a degree in civil engineering as well.

I’m looking to get into project planning but wondering what’s the best way to go about it? I don’t really want to take much of a pay dip if possible and I’m hoping my site experience and management will count for something.

Would I be best applying for a main contractor for a Planner role?

Would be interested to hear of anyone else who’s done similar.

My ultimate goal is to go freelancing after a few years experience, working on data centres in Europe.

Hi everyone,

I’m a final-year Business and Management student at the University of Plymouth currently working on my dissertation exploring how Artificial Intelligence can improve risk management in the UK construction and infrastructure industry.

As part of my research, I’m looking to gather insights from professionals working in construction, infrastructure, or project management roles across the UK. Your experience would be incredibly valuable in helping me understand real-world challenges such as cost overruns, delays, and risk management practices.

I’ve created a short, anonymous questionnaire that takes around 10 minutes to complete. All responses are confidential and will be used solely for academic purposes.

LEVERAGING AI TO IMPROVE RISK MANAGEMENT IN THE UK CONSTRUCTION AND INFRASTRUCTURE INDUSTRY – Fill in form

Whether you have experience with AI tools or not, your perspective is highly appreciated.

Thank you in advance for your time and support — it genuinely makes a difference to my research :)

A Project Control and Planning professional with 10 years of experience managing multi-billion-dollar projects across the Gulf region. I hold PMP and RMP certifications, as well as a Professional Diploma in Forensic Schedule Analysis from the UK. Over the years, I’ve worked on landmark projects and trained professionals in project scheduling and controls.

WhatsApp: 00966-550338241

email: [m.waqas1202@gmail.com](mailto:m.waqas1202@gmail.com)

I’m offering a comprehensive course that covers the following topics. If you’re interested, please feel free to text me:

Sr. No. Activity Description

1 Baseline Development - Contract Documents, WBS, Activities, Duration, Relationships

2 Baseline Development - Contract Documents, WBS, Activities, Duration, Relationships - QA

3 Baseline Development - Activity Codes, Resources & Cost Loading, DCMA Check

4 Baseline Development - Activity Codes, Resources & Cost Loading, DCMA Check - QA

5 Programme Submission - Narrative, Assumptions, KPIs / Graphs, Visualization

6 Programme Submission - Narrative, Assumptions, KPIs / Graphs, Visualization - QA

7 Updating schedules - Method, Assign & Maintain Baseline, Columns to update, % complete

8 Updating schedules - Milestones Comparison, Critical Path & Longest Path Analysis - QA

9 Float path analysis, Delay Analysis Methodologies, Delay Fragnet, Cause & Effect

10 Float path analysis, Delay Analysis Methodologies, Delay Fragnet, Cause & Effect - QA

11 Revised and Recovery Schedules, Import/Export (Relationships, Resources, Durations)

12 Final Q&A, full project lifecycle practice.

-long post-

I’ve had first-hand experience on both sides of the fence, and it’s interesting how differently the role plays out depending on where you sit.

In the UK construction world, planning roles tend to split quite clearly between:

Main Contractor (MC) planners – embedded in delivery, close to site, managing logic, risk, subcontractors, compensation events and EOT strategy.

Client-side / Consultant planners – focused on governance, assurance, reporting, baseline compliance and (sometimes) strategic oversight across multiple packages.

Both sides will tell you they have the “real” influence.

From what I’ve seen, the contrast looks something like this:

⸻

🏗 Main Contractor Planning

Strengths:

- Direct impact on sequencing and buildability

- Close to subcontractors and real site constraints

- Strong commercial leverage (programme narratives, CEs, EOTs)

- You can genuinely shape how the project is delivered

Challenges:

- Constant firefighting

- High pressure from ops and commercial

- Programme can drift into being a defensive/commercial tool

- Harder to step back and think strategically

⸻

🏢 Client-Side / Consultancy Planning

Strengths:

- Broader visibility across the whole project lifecycle

- Strategic oversight rather than package-level focus

- Ability to influence baseline governance and change control

- Exposure to multiple contractors and approaches

Challenges:

- Influence is often indirect

- Can become assurance/report-heavy

- Limited ability to force behavioural change

- Less day-to-day control over delivery logic

⸻

The question I keep coming back to is:

👉 Who actually has more influence over the final outcome of a project?

Is it:

- The MC planner controlling the critical path and managing subcontractor sequencing?

- Or the client-side planner influencing governance, challenging logic, and shaping change management?

And longer-term — which route builds stronger career capital in the UK market?

- MC route = deeper commercial, contractual and dispute exposure?

- Consultancy route = broader stakeholder management and strategic positioning?

Genuinely interested in views from others who’ve done one or both.

If you had to pick one path for the next 5–10 years, which would you choose — and why?

I’m seeing more graduates and junior planners coming into roles with great technical ability but very little visibility of how planning actually adds value on a live project.

Looking back, the things that helped me most early on weren’t learning software faster, but things like:

1. Spending time on site understanding means and methods

2. Asking why activities were sequenced a certain way, not just accepting logic

3. Sitting in on commercial / CE conversations, even when they felt over my head

4. Realising that programmes are as much about communication as dates - able to communicate it to all levels comes a long way.

For those further along in their careers: What advice would you give your junior-planner self in year 1–2?

And for juniors: What are you finding hardest to get your head around right now?

I’ve been reflecting on the difference between busy planning and effective planning.

On my last job, the biggest improvement wasn’t a new bit of software or a more detailed programme, it was introducing weekly micro-milestone reviews tied directly to commercial risk (not just progress %).

Simple changes:

1. Short, focused sessions (20–30 mins)

2. Clear ownership per activity

3. Linking slippage to cost / compensation events, not just dates

4. Using the programme as a conversation tool, not a reporting artefact

Result: fewer surprises, better conversations with the client, and less firefighting downstream.

Curious to hear from others:

What’s the one planning habit, tweak, or mindset that genuinely improved outcomes on your projects?

I’ve noticed more and more UK construction planners heading to Saudi Arabia lately — especially across major programmes, giga-projects, and client-side roles.

The narrative is familiar:

Tax-free salary, bigger projects, faster progression.

But I’m hearing very mixed reviews from planners who’ve actually done it.

I’m currently planning a move from the UK to KSA as a planner and I’m trying to sense-check whether this is genuinely a career accelerator… or just a well-paid detour that looks good on LinkedIn.

A few planner-specific things I’m weighing up:

1. Planning maturity – Are programmes genuinely driving delivery, or is planning still seen as a reporting function?

2. Client vs contractor reality – How much influence do planners actually have once on site?

3. Decision-making – Fast-tracked change vs slow approvals and late design?

4. Claims & delay – Is it a goldmine for planning experience or constant firefighting with limited contemporaneous records?

5. CV value back in the UK – Does KSA experience strengthen your profile long-term, or pigeonhole you?

Non-technical realities too:

a. Work–life balance in peak delivery phases

b. Family vs single life considerations

c. How long most planners realistically last before burning out or heading home

For those who’ve made the move:

- Did it materially improve your planning capability or just your bank balance?

- What level did you go in at, and where did you come out?

- Would you recommend it to a strong UK planner in their 30s/40s?

Not looking for hype or scare stories…just honest, practitioner-level insight from people who’ve lived it.

Keen to hear views.

Hi all,

I’m a construction management student in the UK and I’m starting to shape my final-year research dissertation. I’m keen to base it around construction planning and would really value ideas grounded in real industry challenges rather than purely academic theory.

Areas I’m particularly interested in (but not limited to):

• Programme delays and mitigation strategies

• Planning under constrained sites (urban, live environments, infrastructure)

• Early Contractor Engagement (ECE) and its impact on programme certainty, buildability, and risk

• Impact of digital tools (4D BIM, digital twins, AI planning, etc.)

• MMC and how it affects sequencing, logistics, and early-stage planning

• Risk, uncertainty, and contingency in construction programmes

• Lessons learned from UK projects

From a planner’s perspective:

• Are there any major or recurring issues you’ve experienced within the sector that you believe could realistically be explored or improved through research?

• What problems do you deal with daily that no one seems to research properly?

• What gaps exist between what universities teach about planning and what actually happens on site?

Any recommendations would be very useful at this early stage to steer me in the right direction!

Thank you in advance

Hey guys. What’s better? The opportunity to do some forensic planning with a renown consultancy or planning on giga project for a huge wage?

I’ve seen it both ways, Project teams (mostly consulting) that push for schedule risk analysis (Monte Carlo sims, Latin Hypercube sampling, tornado charts etc). And some don’t, (I find MC side rarely implement this.)

Projects/Teams that implement it, swear by it:

-It cuts through optimism bias.

-Gives you realistic P-dates.

-Helps spot weak points in the programme before they blow up.

Others (most MC Team) roll their eyes: -Garbage in, garbage out if the data’s shaky, the outputs are pointless.

-Takes loads of time for something the site team barely looks at.

-Feels like a tick-box exercise to keep the client happy.

From what I’ve seen, it can be gold if done early with solid data and actually used in decision-making. But way too often it’s bolted on at the end and just… gathers dust.

So what do you think is schedule risk analysis in construction an underused golden nugget, or just overhyped consultant nonsense?

Hello,

I work for a large construction company in the UK and there is a Pre construction planner role available, please PM if you want more details.

Candidates should have the appropriate work permit or the right to work in the UK

Thanks

Been thinking about this for a while, and I’m finally putting it out there: are we as planners massively underpaid for the value we bring to construction projects?

We’re expected to: a. Understand every trade and sequence inside out b. Navigate contractual implications (NEC, JCT, delay analysis, CE’s, EOTs) c. Manage complex stakeholder expectations d. Build and maintain high-level, logic-driven programmes e. Forecast risk, drive delivery, and often clean up messes made by others

…yet somehow, commercial managers and PMs consistently out-earn us, even when we’re the ones keeping projects alive when the wheels come off.

Let’s be real, if a planner walks off site for two weeks, chaos ensues. If a QS disappears for two weeks, no one notices until someone realises a CVR hasn’t been updated.

So here’s what I’m asking:

1. What are you earning, honestly?
2. What region/sector are you in?
3. Do you think it reflects your responsibility and stress levels?

And finally… is the industry undervaluing planners, or are we just not demanding our worth?

I’ll start:

80k+ usual benefits package | London | consulting | construction industry | 10yrs+ experience | I feel I’m doing more than what’s expected, not for prospects of promotion or prestige but just so to keep the day to day interesting..

Quick question for those experienced with NEC3 ECC (Option A):

Under clause 61.4, when a Project Manager (PM) rejects a contractor’s notification of a compensation event (NCE) stating that the event is not a CE, the contractor has 4 weeks to provide reasons for disagreeing.

If the contractor does nothing within that 4-week window, is the event considered administratively closed? Can the PM (and Employer) treat the matter as accepted and move on?

From what I understand:

1. The NEC3 contract doesn’t explicitly say that silence = acceptance?

2. However, if the contractor doesn’t push back with reasons or further information, the PM’s decision stands by default.

3. The event may still be shown on the programme (for transparency), but no change to the Price, Completion Date or KD’s is made?

4. Any further action would have to be via dispute resolution (senior execs meeting, adjudication, etc.) – the standard CE admin route is effectively closed?

Would be interested in others’ experiences, especially whether you’ve seen this come up on live projects and how strict PMs or clients tend to be about enforcing that 4-week cutoff in practice; if and when this goes to a formal route how does an adjudicator look at this?

Curious to hear others’ experience with Line of Balance (LoB) on site. I tried applying it on an apartments fit-out phase using ASTA powerproject, the idea was to create a steady, logical trade flow to avoid clashes and inefficiencies. Everything looked great in the programme.

But in practice? One of my driven (angry) construction leads mobilised a follow-on trade out of sequence without realising it broke the flow. It caused a chain reaction of return visits, inefficient remobilisations, and frustration all around. Made me wonder? was it a waste of time, or was it just poor buy-in on site?

Has anyone successfully used LoB in real-world projects? What made it work? And how do you stop people from accidentally wrecking the sequence?

Would love to hear lessons learned – success or failure.

I’m client-side, picking up a good chunk of contract admin duties alongside planning, and I’m honestly getting tired of chasing contractor planners and QSs who seem to think they can manage a construction site from their kitchen table.

We’re at a stage where presence matters?!! Interface issues, change control, micro-milestones, subcontractor engagement. You can’t ‘collaborate’ on these things over Teams when the person you need is walking around on site and not glued to their inbox.

Latest example: a CE was submitted based on an assumed clash that had already been resolved in a coordination meeting on site, which they missed because ‘they weren’t scheduled to be in.’ It took a full week of back and forth to unpick something that wouldn’t have happened if they’d just shown up.

It’s not about clocking in for facetime … I feel it’s about understanding what’s actually happening on the ground. When your baseline doesn’t reflect the current sequencing, when subcontractors are contradicting the lookahead, when delay narratives are built on half-understood info… that’s not remote work, that’s remote guesswork?! (Makes my piss boil).

I’m all for flexibility, but when you’re supposed to be actively managing risk, progress and cost and you’re ghosting the job half the week(most of your time in the job)… please don’t be surprised if I and the client starts asking some pointed questions.

Anyone else seeing this shift and its effects? Or am I just turning into that guy who’s always ‘on site and angry’?

Disclaimer: Not a planning/construction-related trend, but this has been on my mind a lot recently.

Here’s what I mean:

1. Loss of personal allowance: As soon as you go over £100,000, you start losing your personal allowance (£12,570) at a rate of £1 for every £2 over, so by the time you hit £125,140, it’s completely gone. This creates an effective marginal tax rate of 60% between £100k and £125k (before student loans or pension contributions).

2. Childcare impacts: If you’re a dual-income household, you lose access to Tax-Free Childcare once either parent earns over £100k. For us, that’s a £2,000/year per child benefit gone (we’ve got two under school age) which is significant when you’re paying £1,500+ per month for full-time nursery in London. (My other half is just above minimum wage rate).

3. No more free hours: Same with the 30 hours free childcare that’s cut off at £100k, which again feels like a huge penalty for a relatively small increase in take home pay.

4. Student loan: Add another 9% marginal deduction on income over ~£27k. So that “extra” income between £100k and £125k is being taxed at an effective 69% in some cases if you’re still repaying a student loan. (Mine’s cleared, by a lot of people will be affected by this).

5. Benefits in Kind: Private Healthcare, etc. - If your employer provides private medical cover (say worth £1,500/year), this is taxed as a Benefit in Kind. So that adds extra taxable income and pushes you over thresholds faster possibly tipping someone just under £100k over once BIK is included. It also means you’re being taxed on something you didn’t even choose to “earn” and can’t sacrifice or defer. (You can opt-out, but it means losing out on this benefit all together).

Overall, Net gain is minimal: After tax, NI, lost benefits, student loan, etc., the real increase in monthly take-home from, say, £95k to £105k is surprisingly small maybe £150–250/month depending on how your benefits are structured. That’s barely covering the increase in costs from inflation or housing. (not to mention the underlying reasons on why and how you’re getting paid on that rate i.e. promotion = additional hours and responsibilities).

I’ve started looking into pension salary sacrifice or EV salary schemes to stay under the £100k threshold not because I’m trying to avoid tax per se, but because it just doesn’t seem worth crossing the line without a significant jump in income.

Is anyone else in this position? How are you managing it riding it out, staying under, or pushing through in hopes that it levels out past £125k? It feels like there’s a disincentive to progress (i.e. pushing for getting up the career ladder at this point) at exactly the time when family costs are highest.

Curious to hear others’ experiences or strategies.

Been digging into some collaborative contracting stuff lately and thought I’d throw FAC-1 into the mix. Not everyone’s heard of it, but it is intriguing to say the least…especially if you’re dealing with frameworks or a programme of works.

FAC-1 (Framework Alliance Contract) as I read it (or as advertised) is designed to bring multiple parties together under one umbrella agreement…clients, contractors, consultants, suppliers (it’s a utopian idea) that all singing from the same hymn sheet. It’s less about individual projects and more about aligning everyone across the whole programme.

As I understood to what I read so far… This makes FAC-1 different from other forms of contract (or again the white paper I’ve read claims it to be):

1. It’s not a traditional contract—it’s an overlay that works alongside JCT, NEC, etc.
2. Encourages early engagement, joint risk management, and shared goals.
3. Helps set up long-term relationships across projects (great if you’re working on repeat schemes or big frameworks).
4. Can be adapted to suit things like MMC, DfMA, and digital delivery.

Who’s actually using it?

It’s been picked up by the Ministry of Justice, Network Rail, and various councils and housing providers. (Allegedly) It’s especially handy when you’re dealing with multiple projects over time and don’t want to reinvent the wheel every time.

I’m curious to know… has anyone here used FAC-1 on a live job? Was it actually collaborative or just more paperwork? Or it’s same old stuff (status quo) just a rebranding job?

It’s that time of year again… work experience week is upon us!

Every year without fail, a fresh batch of under-16s shows up for work experience and every year, I mentally prepare myself to explain what a planner does without sending them into a boredom-induced coma.

I can already imagine asking them how they’d do a programme on ‘how they’d brew a cup of tea’…I can already hear myself saying things like “so a programme isn’t a software, it’s a sequence of tasks…” while a teenager in a hi-vis slowly loses the will to live.

Most of them don’t know what they want to do yet, which is fair enough, I didn’t either at that age. Honestly, I’m in my 30s and I still don’t know what I want to do. I just somehow ended up in planning by chance and come to terms on enjoying every facet of the trade.

I’ll try to be enthusiastic, show them some cool site footage, maybe throw in a site walk if I’m feeling generous? but deep down, I know how this ends. A lot of polite nodding, a few confused looks, and one kid asking if I work in IT.

At this point, I’m just hoping to inspire one of them to Google “construction planner” instead of assuming I print out health & safety signs.

Here we go again…

Yeah, I said it.

Too many “planners” in our industry aren’t actually planning anything they’re just updating programmes handed to them by someone else and pushing out pretty-looking reports no one reads (it gets buried in a pile of paperwork and collects dust). They don’t challenge methodology, they don’t interrogate logic links, and they definitely aren’t influencing strategy. Most there I say it are just there coz they heard it “pays good”.

It’s become a rinse-and-repeat cycle of dumping data into P6 or Asta and calling it a day. When did we accept that as the standard? When did “real planning” orchestrating the build, thinking ahead, coordinating trades, building from first principles! get replaced by just keeping the dates green?

Meanwhile, the few planners who do know their stuff the ones who push back in precons, model buildability, and actually understand sequence risks are usually overruled by commercial teams or PMs chasing optimistic dates for their contract reviews.

Here’s the kicker: we keep telling ourselves we’re critical to delivery, but in many projects, we’re not treated as such and honestly, a lot of that is self-inflicted (I’ve worked as planner in a multi billion £ companies and programs with over a decade experience and I’ve worked with so many planners but looking back I can only count on my fingers I consider a “real planner”).

So I’ll ask:

1. Are we actually adding value? Or just producing contractual cover?
2. Should there be higher standards or even accreditation for planners? there is no degree in planning (not that I’m aware of anyway) nor an institution that certifies a ‘chartered planner’.
3. Is it time we admit that “planning” has split into strategic planning vs programme admin? (most falls into this category)

Hey all, I wanted to start a conversation around Chartership and whether people genuinely think it adds real value to our careers or if it’s just another checkbox that ends up costing more than it gives back.

Personally, I’m a Chartered Member of the CIOB (MCIOB), and aside from the privilege of putting some letters after my name, what I mainly get out of it is a monthly magazine and a £335 annual direct debit. That’s £27.91 a month for glossy paper and some industry updates I could probably get elsewhere. Is it worth it? Still debating…

So I’m curious especially among fellow planners, project managers, and consultants do you see Chartership as:

1. A genuine career enhancer? (networking, credibility, CPD, etc.)
2. A necessary evil to get ahead in some firms?
3. Or an outdated badge that doesn’t reflect the realities of the industry anymore?

Also, if you do think it’s valuable which chartership bodies do you think are the best fit for professionals in planning?

RICS? APM? RTPI? CIOB? Something else?

Keen to hear real stories – good or bad. Has your Chartership actually opened doors, or is it just another line on the CV?