What do construction project planners do?

Construction project planning is receiving growing attention as the limitations of formal deterministic planning are becoming more widely recognised. In particular, the last planner and critical chain approaches are diffusing rapidly. However, little of this debate has been informed by empirical examination of what construction project planners actually do. The research reported here draws on three different research projects. One on the overall context of construction project planning, and two focused on requirements capture for the virtual construction site system. For the later project, 18 construction planners were interviewed on their daily practice. The results show that construction planning for principal contractors is more about negotiation with other interested parties and rapid decision-making based on heuristics than detailed analysis.