Within a few years of its’ introduction, Critical Path Method (CPM)- a project modelling technique developed in the late 1950s- succeeded in making positive performance impacts in both manufacturing and the defence industries.  “The critical path method was developed at the DuPont Company in 1957 by a pair of mathematicians who were looking at ways to avoid the costs of plant shutdowns and restarts caused by inefficient scheduling. Their research showed that money could be saved by focusing efforts on performing the right tasks at the right times, rather than flooding the problem with labor to stay on schedule. This saved DuPont 25 percent on shutdowns...” (http://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/history-critical-path-method-24351.html) This created big hopes and excitement for CPM to also improve construction project delivery performance.  Construction companies began adopting CPM in the late 1950s and early 1960s. By the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, the personal computer made CPM affordable and accessible to the masses; so how has construction performance fared since  CPM became the standard for construction planning and scheduling?

The concept of Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) Stages is an important tool when gauging progress towards claiming a company or project to be deemed a modern, 21^st century digital construction operation.  Viewing the maturity process as stages in a journey, will help the industry move from  the 2D CAD files, plan racks, and Gantt chart’s that clutter and wallpaper jobsite offices, to computer graphics, structured project data, information transparency and, ultimately, into the integrated systems of the digital age that is driving enormous production gains in industries that construction serves every day.

The A/E/C industry needs a revolution in the tools it uses to get work done. As a project manager in any discipline knows, anxiety about unfinished work is constant. Most of this anxiety is a result of how work is managed, not whether it’s actually getting done. It comes from a psychological condition called the Zeigarnik Effect. The Zeigarnik Effect is the tendency to experience intrusive thoughts about an object that was once pursued and left incomplete.

The large project planning tools that dominate the industry usually serve to document a guess (plan) before the project starts and then as a post mortem information capture during project completion. Most do this well. However, most aren’t built to manage the rapidly changing environment of day-­to-­day work. They aren’t nimble or user friendly enough to keep up with constantly changing daily tasks. Much less the collaboration and communication that’s required to keep information current. Email ends up being the primary tool for managing day to day work. As the inbox piles up with work the Zeigarnik Effect takes over and every email can become an intrusive thought.