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Projatech, Project Planning, Scheduling & Controls Using Primavera P6 & Microsoft Project; Consulting, Training & Workforce

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Q: Microsoft Project schedule doesn't import properly in Primavera 6.??

Always check to see there is no blank lines between list of activities in MS Project; check the same in resource list. Also make sure none of the resources have the first 10 character the same; as Primavera truncatesresource name and if the names are the same it doesn't import properly.

Q: Minimally, what items should I check when I am performing schedule quality assurance?

Cri ter ia Items To Be Ch eck ed

Project Scope All project scope to be covered in the schedule.Provide Project Execution Plan.

Completeness Schedule is complete with equipment lists, man-hour calculations, material take-offs, bid tabs,

quotations from vendors, construction / fab yard

labor productivity factors, etc.

Development

Basis

It is developed with the help of work experts or

based on previous experience; not based on

information from a single person. Why Check These Items?

Broken Logic N o B ro ke n L og ic Act iv it ie s w it h b ro ke n log ic do no t con tr ib ut e in d ri ving th e p ro je ct an d m ay su rp ri se yo u lat er byhindering the completion of a project. Only two activities, start and finish of the project may have broken

logic. All other activities must have at least one predecessor and one successor. An activity having all

its successor with "SS" relationship is l ike having no successor; such activity must have another

successor with "FS" or "FF" relationship. If there are more than two activities with broken logic, pleaseensure there is a solid reason behind it. "SF" type relationships are rare; avoid or justify these

relationships. If there are excessive number of relationships, clean up unnecessary relationship by

observing "Relationship Free Float" and remove those relationships having very high "Relationship Free

Float". Excessive use of SS or FF relationship makes the logic questionable. It may compress the

schedule unnecessary and resource overload the schedule.

No Activities with only SS successors

No Activities with SF Relationships (rare

exceptions)

Avoid excessive number of predecessor or

successors, and avoid excessive use of SS or FF

relationships.

Constraints No Hard Constra ints Hard constra ints defini te ly create a misleading longest path and a ll soft constraints, necessary or not ,may create a misleading longest path. Constraints should only be used if absolutely justifiable by work

requirement and there is no other means of developing the logic. There should not be any constraint on

the longest path. It makes it very difficult to see the entire path. Checking longest path is necessary to

understand if schedule logic is designed properly. Where possible, try using activities with "Expected

Finish" instead of a constraint.

Minimal Soft Constraints

No Constraints on Longest Path

Lag Minimal number of Activities with Lag (NoUnnecessary Lag. Justify all Lag)

If project work dictates lag, then having lag is perfectly fine otherwise it may create a misleading critical

path or unnecessarily lengthen the project. Unnecessary lag is also difficult to find and correct. Where

possible replace lag longer than 10 days with an activity.

Longest Path To extend from Start to Finish of Project A critical path should extended from the beginning to the end of a project. A very long or short criticalpath indicates a poor work logic or a schedule not fully developed. Just having longest path is not

enough, having correct sequence of work and verifying significance of work is also important..Verification of Sequence and Importance of

activities

Critical

Activ ities

Verification by stakeholders When a schedule contains constraints, there may be additional critical activities in the schedule other

than the ones on the Critical Path. Verifying and monitoring these activities is very important.Critical, Near

Critical,

Longest, and

Near Longest

Paths

Avoid having multiple critical paths. Also avoid

several short near critical/Longest paths. Verify

sequence and Importance of activities or Longest

and Near Longest paths.

Critical path identifies those activities that determine finish of the project as of the day of review. If the

project doesn't progress as planned, any of the near critical paths can become Critical soon. Thus,

verifying and monitoring near critical paths is also essential. Properly sorted longest and near longest

path helps verify quality of a schedule when verifying sequence and importance of activities on the path.

Activ ity

Duration

No excessively long duration activities; Eng 7-21

Days, Proc >3 Days, Const 3-14 Days

Very long duration activities reflect an underdeveloped schedule. An underdeveloped schedule lacks

efficiencies in work sequencing that can be achieved by breaking down activities to proper duration. A

very short duration activities unnecessarily make a schedule cumbersome and unmanageable. It further

reduces the effectiveness and utilization of a schedule. Ideally, activity duration should not be no more

than 2-3 times schedule update cycle and no less than one update cycle.

Free Float Minimal amount of activities with Free Float higherthan 30 days; otherwise good explanation for

each (Procurement excluded)

Excessive total float is a result of many activities with free float or a few activities with excessive free

float. Too many activities with excessive free float is a sign of poor logic, broken logic, and/or schedule

having too many parallel paths. Too many parallel paths indicates less likelihood of finishing the project

on time.

Total Float N o N eg at ive F lo at N eg at ive f lo at is a s ig n o f con st ra in t i n a sche du le th at ca n' t b e sat is fi ed as plan ne d. Wh en su chconstraint date is not met, negative float is created. Negative float means, work can't be performed per

schedule logic. To correct the problem, you may take one or more of the following actions... 1. remove

the constraint 2. Constraint date needs to be pushed into the future 3. Work needs to be expedited to

cover negative float 4. Schedule logic needs to be changed to shorten the schedule 5. Work scope

needs to be reduced 6. Split long duration activities to find work that can be performed in parallel 7.

Assign more resources to shorten activity durations 8. Shorten activity duration by changing activity

calendar for longer work-week.

Activ ity &

Resource Dist.

Activ ity and Res Dist: Both similar bell-shaped

curves

Distribution of activities depict how well the schedule is developed. If the histogram is lopsided, it may

mean the schedule is underdeveloped on one side or over developed on the other si de.
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A sudden jump in resource requirement may be unrealistic in actual work situation. A lopsided

distribution may also be unrealistic to achieve.

Resource peak demands need to be verified. The question is if it realistic to acquire/have that many

resource at one time at one location?

Individual resource assignment and total resource assignment figures need to be verified with the

Estimate provided by the contractor.

Check Weekly & Monthly overall project and

individual resource peak usage.

Each Resource Max Limit (# of heads or crew

size) to be verified

Total resource units and Individual resource units

to match the latest estimate. Provide latest

summary estimate.

Milestones &

LOE Activities

All critical and contractual milestone and LOE

activities depicted in the top WBS (Eng, Proc,

Const, T/A, etc)

Proper use of milestones help summarize a schedule and monitor its progress properly. Milestones

should be used for start of something significant, mark major accomplishments, monitor contractual

dates or track procurement items or watch for major deliverables. Milestones can also be used to

determine physical progress of the project, determine Earn Value and Performance Indexes. Physical

progress can be determined within each group of activities where activities are grouped by work

package, work area, unit, etc.

Milestones should never be used in place of work activities!

Not too few or too many milestone (3%-5%). No

milestone is to replace any task activity

Predecessors to all major milestones are verified

to be correct

WBS Structure Structure matching Company recommendations orprovide a good explanation

A good WBS should follow Company recommendations and structured to match with how actual work is

planned, such as, civil, mechanical, piping, etc. Both Cost Estimate format and Cost Breakdown

Structure should match the WBS. The purpose of WBS is to break work down into smaller segments for

easy progress monitoring and reporting. WBS structure is determined before schedule development

starts in early Ph-3

Must match cost structure & Estimate

Primavera

Setups

Project Calculat ion Tab Primavera is a very flexib le and robust scheduling application. It has many defaults and configurations --

if not properly configured it gives incorrect results. Before schedule development starts, all Primavera

defaults should be set according to Company recommendations. These items can also be fixed later if

not set initially.

Project Default Tab

Resource defaults

Task Dependent Activity defaults and duration

type assignment

Risk Register Provide Updated Risk Register A risk register should be developed on Company recommended template in Ph-2 and then updatedmonthly. It helps avoid many issues that can potentially delay the project. It also helps determine

schedule and cost contingency and provides justification for your contingency figures. It also set's

correct expectation for project success.

Activ ity

Description

To contain a Verb and enough detail for it to make

sense when viewed by others outside its WBS

structure

Frequently even the people involved in schedule development don't understand description of an activity

when reviewing schedule or providing updates; especially if the activity is observed outside its WBS.

Thus, all activity description must contain a verb and enough detail that even an outsider could

understand the task when outside its WBS. Shorten long description by using common acronyms or by

removing vowels from some words, such as, "Construction" can be stated as "Cnstrctn"

Others

Q: Minimally, what item in a schedule should I keep an eye on during project execution?

Criteria Description Reasoning

(Please Do Not Edit)

How often is project updated? During engineering: Once or Twice per month.During construction: every week or every other week.

Is There Any Out of Sequence

Progress?

If there are more than 10% completed or in-progress activities

with out-of-sequence progress, question the contractor or ;

consider revising logic per Company schedule change

management procedures and then update Primary baseline.

Any significant number of Out Of Sequence progress indicates that schedule logic was not

designed appropriately and it is not being followed. In this case, remaining logic needs to be

improved so that it reflects a realistic work plan. Most current baseline should be updated

accordingly.

Has there been any modification in

the schedule since latest baseline?

For example: change of logic,

addition or deletion of activities,

changes in constraints or constraint

date, etc.

If any of the following is observed in comparison to the current

Baseline, follow Company schedule change management

procedures and update primary baseline: (Logic changes,

Original Duration, Budgeted Units, Constraints, New Activities,

Deleted Activities, Activity Description Change.) Also conduct

schedule quality assurance and complete "Structural Quality"

worksheet in this workbook.

Any modification in the schedule may make a schedule unsuitable for comparison with the

baseline if the baseline wasn't updated accordingly; thus making progress monitoring difficult. Any

modification in the schedule may have major affect on finish of the entire project, or finish of one

or more milestones. It may also reduce Total Float for many activities. Thus such modification

may not only delay project finish date, but also make it more risky. That is why, all modification

should be approved by stakeholders after analyzing a what-if scenario of those changes.

Are th ere exces sive n umber of

activities starting or finishing on

Data Date?

There should not be more than 2% of activities starting or

finishing on Data Date, except when following original SS logic.

If there are, then it means we are lagging behind in work.

If activities are not completing or starting as scheduled they will end up on the data date. This

reflects that either logic or activity durations weren't planned properly.

Are th ere mor e than 5% o f remain ing

activities In-Progress and Actual

Duration of most of these activities

is higher than the Original duration?

At any time there should be approximately 5% of remaining

activities in progress; except near project completion. It is

especially concerning if most of these "In Progress" activities'

actual duration is higher than original duration.

Too many activities in progress points toward two things. 1. Contractor starts too many activities,

claims that most of the work is completed for each activity, but the last portion of activity takes

extremely long to complete. The contractor may do so to show better than actual performance

and to earn more hours than actual accomplishment to get paid higher than what contractor

deserves. 2. On the other hand, there may be issues with safety, procurement, engineering, etc.,

that is keeping the contractor from completing those activities. If it is reason # 2, the activities

need to be "Suspended" to keep Primavera from adding to "Actual Duration" and efforts need to

be directed towards resolving root cause of delays.

Is Data Date being changed and

progress updated on regular

intervals based on agreed timetable?

Is schedule being updated and data date changed on regular

intervals based on agreement with Company? If not, the

procedures need to be established.

Sometimes many other projects are dependent on a single project; while other times many types

of reporting is dependent on update cycle. Thus it is important to have update cycle and data

date changes coordinated with all other parties. For linked projects; all projects should have the

same data date at all times.

The value in activity field "Original

Duration" has not been modified for

any activity since baseline.

1. For activities Not Started, Original Duration to Match

Remaining and At Complete Durations; if not, correct these

figures and change project default setting by checking "Link

Budget and At Completion for not started activities" in Project

"Calculations" tab.2.Activity Original Duration should not be modified in Current or

Baseline Schedules without following Change Management

Process and appropriate approvals. (Original Baseline is never

modified once approved)

The original duration is designed to keep this duration available for comparison with actual

duration. Changing original duration makes it difficult to judge progress.


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There has been no modifications in

Resource Budgeted Units for any

activity or any resource since

baseline.

1. For activities Not Started, Budgeted Units to Match

Remaining and At Complete Units; if not, correct these figures

and change project default setting by checking "Link Budget

and At Completion for not started activities" in Project

"Calculations" tab.

2. Budgeted Units should not be modified in Current or Primary

Baseline Schedules without following Change Management

Process and appropriate approvals. (Original Baseline is never

modified once approved)

Once cost estimate is approved, resource budgeted units are assigned to activities, and baseline

is established, there should not be any changes to Budgeted Units. Any change would make it

difficult to judge productivity accurately.

Were there any new activities added

to replace Placeholder activities in

the schedule to provide work detail?

After formal schedule quality assurance and formal approval,

activities can only be added to replace any placeholder activity.

The new activities should not span beyond the original

placeholder activity's time span. After replacing placeholder

activities with detailed work activities, a schedule quality

assurance is needed and baseline updated.

Adding new activities means there is a need to check schedule for quality to ensure the new

logic is created properly and it is interfacing with the rest of the schedule appropriately.

For completed activities are you

noticing a trend that most of activity

"At-Complete" Durations are largerthan Original Durations?

If more than 10% of In-Progress or Completed activities have

At Complete durations higher than Original Duration, then

discuss the plan with stakeholders and see if there is a need to

revise durations for the rest of the schedule following Companyschedule change management procedures. Update the

baseline, when done.

If most of the completed activities are showing "At-Complete" duration larger than original

duration, it means it is taking longer to do work than planned. It also means that initial estimate

of work duration was not correct. It would be advantageous at this point to revise durations for

remaining work to come up with a realistic plan with a realistic finish date. Update most currentbaseline with revised plan. (Never change original approved baseline)

For completed activities, are you

noticing a trend that most of

activities' "At-Complete" resource

units are higher th at Budgeted

Units?

(Applicable only if you are i nputting Actual

units in Primavera)

If too many In-Progress and Completed activities have At

Complete resource units higher than Budgeted Units, then

discuss the plan with stakeholders and see if there is a need to

revise activities' resource units following Company schedule

change management procedures and then update baseline..

If most of the completed activities are showing "At-Complete" Units more than Budgeted Units, it

means it is taking more labor hours to do work than planned. It also means that initial estimate

of work labor units was not correct. It would be advantageous at this point to revise labor units

for remaining work to come up with a realistic plan. Update your cost estimate accordingly as

well as your most current baseline. (Never change original approved baseline)

In comparison to the latest baseline,

during each update cycle, are you

noticing a trend where Total Float

Variance is growing?

If more than 25% of major milestones are having significant

Total Float variance from Project Baseline, have the schedule

reviewed by stakeholders. If necessary revise plan according to

Company schedule change management procedures and

update baseline.

If Total Float is reducing, it means that it is taking longer to complete work than planned. Such

delay is reducing Total Float for remaining activities and slowly bringing them near critical. It is

also likely that project will not finish as planned. It would be advantageous at this point to revise

durations or labor units for remaining work to come up with a realistic plan with a realistic finish

date. Update most current baseline with revised plan. (Never change original approved baseline)

In comparison to the latest baseline,

during each update cycle, are you

noticing a trend where activity Finish

Date Variance is growing?

If more than 25% of activities are having significant Finish date

variance from Project Baseline, have the schedule reviewed by

stakeholders. If necessary revise durations for the remaining

activities by following Company schedule change management

procedures and update baseline.

A one time Finish date variance could just be an indication that project started later than

planned, but an increasing variance indicates that it is taking longer to complete work than

planned. Such delay is pushing remaining activities to a later finish date. It is likely that project

will not finish as planned. It would be advantageous at this point to revise durations or labor

units for remaining work to come up with a realistic plan with a realistic finish date. Update mostcurrent baseline with revised plan. (Never change original approved baseline)

If you are following Company

recommended rule of credit for Earn

Value management system, do all In-

Progress Activities have 25%

duration completion?

Check to make sure all in-progress activities have a "Duration

Percentage Complete" equal to 25%

If you are following Company recommended rules of credit then all In-Progress activities should

have 25% duration percentage complete to credit 25% of labor units as earned. The remaining

75% will be marked earned when activity completes.

Is there any Actual Start or Actual

Finish Date After the Data Date?

No activity should have such activities after the data date. Any activities having Actual Start or Actual Finish date after data date means actual work started

or finished in the future; which is not realistic. Such information should be corrected immediately.

Misc. Comments or Exceptions

Q: What items should I minimally check when I am performing a baseline comparison.


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Q: What items should I minimally check when I am performing an schedule quality assurance.


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Q: What is the best method of assigning Float contingency in a schedule among different contractors/disciplines?

Q: What is the best method of assigning schedule contingency among different contractors/disciplines?


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Q: How can I assign a constraint and still be able to see the entire longest path in Primavera?


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