Techniques for Computing Estimate to Complete

Written by Amit Parmar

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Estimate to Complete (ETC) in PM terminology mean the amount that is left to

spend. Primavera calculates ETC for every activity where cost is allocated. It help
us to forecast the Estimate at Completion (EAC) which is calculated as Estimate at
Completion = Actual Cost + Estimate to Complete. Actual Cost is into put every
time when we update our project, hence calculating ETC is important to give us an
accurate forecast for EAC which can help us to prepare our cash flow.

Options for ETC can be changed in following 2 ways:

1. Project Level – If you want to change the settings for all of your projects
then goto Admin> Admin Preferences and define the default setting for all
projects.
2. Project level – If you want to change settings only for a particular Project or
WBS then goto Project>WBS>Earned Value tab>ETC calculations

There are two options for calculating ETC.

 The first option calculates ETC as the remaining cost.

 The second sets of options calculate ETC based on Earned Value (BCWP)
Option 1 – ETC= Remaining cost for activity

This option is the default option and assumes that the remaining cost is ETC and
does not factor EV in calculating your ETC. This would at times not give an
accurate description for ETC and hence at EAC cause it does not factor in the
performance of your project.

Option 2 – ETC= PF*(Budget at Completion-Earned Value)

The Performance Factor (PF) is a user-selected value used only for computing ETC
based on Earned Value. PF can be used to factor in the performance of your
project based on your CPI and SPI values.

Case 1 – PF=1

ETC = PF * (BAC-EV)

Where:
BAC = is the Total Budgeted Cost of your current project is assigned as Project
Baseline.
BAC = is At Complete cost values if the baseline is another project.
EV= is the Earned Value.
If we choose PF=1 then it means that ETC is what was initially budgeted i.e. (BAC)
minus what is earned (EV) as opposed to what is spent which is option 1.

Case 2 – PF=1/CPI

ETC = PF * (BAC-EV)

CPI (Cost Performance Index) indicates how efficiently the project is running by
defining a rate at which it is earning money vs. spending money.

CPI = Earned Value / Actual Cost

Ex – If CPI is 0.8, indicating that for every Rs.100 spent, the project earns Rs.80.

If we choose this option for PF then it means that ETC = what was initially
budgeted (BAC) minus what is earned times the rate at which the project is
earning vs. spending money.

In this case, since PF = 1/CPI, the performance factor will increase ETC letting the
project manager know that more work needs to be done than would be indicated
by just BAC-EV.

Case 3 – ETC = PF * (BAC-EV) where PF=1/(CPI*SPI)

SPI (Schedule Performance Index) indicates how efficiently the project is running
by comparing the rate at which the project earns money versus how much we
should be spending based on the baseline dates. It generally indicates whether
we are ahead or behind schedule.

SPI = Earned Value Cost / Planned Value Cost

Example: If SPI is 0.9, it indicates that for every 10 days elapsed in the baseline
project, only 9 days worth of work is accomplished. In this case, using a CPI of 0.8
as defined above since PF = 1/(CPI*SPI), the performance factor will increase ETC
letting the project manager know that more work needs to be done than would
be indicated by just BAC-EV or (BAC-EV) * 1/CPI.
ETC = what I initially budgeted (BAC) minus what I have earned times the rate of
how quickly the project is progressing. This would give us a clearer estimate of
how much we will be spending based on our spending and schedule progress.

Case 4 – ETC = PF * (BAC-EV) where PF=Customized Value

In this option we can enter our own customized value for PF. If the value you
enter is greater than 1 it will increase the ETC indicating that more effort needs to
be expended if the project is to finish on time and on budget. If the value you
enter is less than 1 it will decrease the ETC indicating that the project is ahead of
schedule. This option can be used by companies who want to use their own
custom formulas and values for estimating the At Completion Values for a project.

Earned Value Definitions

Written by Amit Parmar
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Before I start my posts on Earned Value Management (EVM), I would like my

readers to go through some common EVM definitions that you would read in my
upcoming posts. This would help you grasp the topics faster and it would also be a
revision to your EVM concepts

* Budget At Completion (BAC)

This is always the Total cost from the Baseline, calculated using the Baseline
Budgeted Values or Baseline At Completion values depending upon the ‘Earned
Value Calculation’ setting (Admin, Admin Preferences, Earned Value).

If the ‘Earned Value Calculation’ is set to ‘Budgeted Values with Planned dates’ or
‘Budgeted Values with Current Dates':
BAC = BL Budgeted Labor Cost + BL Budgeted Non-Labor Cost + BL Budgeted
Material Cost + BL Budgeted Expense Cost.

If the ‘Earned Value Calculation’ is set to ‘At Completion Values with Current
Dates':

BAC = BL At Completion Labor Cost + BL At Completion Non-Labor Cost + BL At

Completion Material Cost + BL At Completion Expense Cost.

* Actual Cost (ACWP)

Actual Cost (ACWP) is the actual total cost incurred on the activity as of the
project data date. ACWP is the same as the Actual Total Cost.

ACWP = Actual Labor Cost + Actual Non-Labor Cost + Actual Material Cost + Actual
Expense Cost

* Cost Variance (CV)

Cost Variance is the difference between the Earned Value and the actual cost of
that activity.

CV = EV – Actual Cost

* Earned Value Cost (BCWP or EV)

Earned Value Cost (EV) is the portion of the budgeted total cost of the activity
that is actually completed as of the project data date. Also known as the
Budgeted Cost of Work Performed for the activity. The method for computing the
performance percent complete depends on the Earned Value technique selected
for the activity’s WBS.

EV = BAC * Performance % Complete

* Planned Value Cost (BCWS or PV)

Planned Value Cost (PV) is the portion of the budgeted total cost of the activity
that is scheduled to be completed as of the project data date according to the
baseline dates. Also known as the Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled for the
activity. The Schedule % Complete specifies how much of the activity’s original
duration has been completed so far based on the baseline dates.

PV = BAC * Schedule % Complete

* Cost Performance Index (CPI)

A CPI greater than 1 means that Earned Value is greater than the actual amount
spent. A CPI of less than 1 means that the Earned Value is less the. n the actual
amount spent.

CPI = EV / Actual Cost

* Schedule Performance Index (SPI)

An SPI greater than 1 means that Earned Value is greater than the Planned Value.
An SPI of less than 1 means that the Earned Value is less then the Planned Value.

SPI = EV / PV

* Estimate to Complete (ETC)

Estimate to complete is the estimated cost left to complete on the activity. The
calculation can be customized at the WBS level (On the ‘Earned Value’ tab in the
WBS view).
It can be computed as either:

ETC = Remaining Total Cost for the activity

ETC = PF * (BAC – EV)

Where ‘PF’ is a multiplier to weight the ETC calculation. This can be either ‘1’,
‘1/CPI’ or ‘1/(SPI * CPI)’ or user defined amount.

* Estimate At Completion (EAC)

EAC is the estimated cost at completion for the activity.

EAC = Actual Cost + ETC.
Technique for Computing Performance Percent
Complete
Written by Amit Parmar
1 Comment

On our projects we estimate percent complete for each work package or activity
for reporting progress and on projects where work cannot be measured this
estimate is simply a guess. But a guess does not give a confident estimate of the
real percent complete and Primavera provides us with alternate methods of
computing performance percent complete for our activities.

If you goto admin > admin preferences > earned value, you can choose a different
method for computing performance percent complete for an activity.

The options that you can choose to compute performance complete are :

1) Activity % Complete – This option is the default option for computing

performance. In this the performance percent complete is equal to the activity’s
percent complete

2) Use WBS Milestones – We can use this option if you have weighted milestones
for a particular WBS or Project and you would like to update your performance
percent as and when these milestones are completed (we will look at how we can
use WBS milestones for performance percent in next blog post)
3) 0/100 % Complete – We can use this option if an activity does not get credit for
partial completion and only gets credit for full completion. Which means that
performance percent complete does not get updated until an activity is not 100%
complete.

4) 50/50 % Complete – This option assumes that an activity is 50 percent

complete when it begins and gets credit for the last 50 percent only when it is
complete. Hence the performance percent complete is 50% when your activity
gets started and 100% when it is complete.

5) Custom % Complete – In case you do not want to use the above 2 options and
want to use a custom percent complete for updating then you can use this option.
one of the most common options used on projects is 20/80.

Using the above options on a single project or WBS

If you change these options in Admin Preferences panel then the rule gets
enforced on all the projects in your EPS but if you want to only enable this on one
Project or WBS then you can open your project and then goto WBS window and
choose WBS details and under the earned value tab you can choose the WBS for
which you want to enforce a different rule. You have to choose the Top WBS node
if you want to change the rule for the entire project
Earned Value Calculations-Admin Preferences
Written by Amit Parmar
7 Comments

We have all seen the “Earned Value Calculation” option in Admin Preferences but
do you know how it affects your Earned Value calculations? These options are
helpful when we use a Revised Baseline and that baseline is delayed from plan.
We can choose whether to use Planned dates, Start/finish dates or At Completion
Dates for EV calculations.

Let’s take a look at how these settings affect Earned Value (EV), Planned Value
(PV) And Schedule Performance Index (SPI).

Where,

Schedule Performance Index (SPI) = Earned Value (EV) / Planned Value (PV)
Earned Value = Budget at Completion (BAC) x Performance PCT

Planned Value = Budget at Completion (BAC) x Schedule PCT

1: Assigning Costs

We create an activity A1and assign a resource with cost to it. Since the project is
not progressed, SPI is zero.
2: Project is updated and is on schedule

We update this activity by a couple of days and check the SPI

SPI is 1 cause the project is on schedule.

3: Project is updated again and is behind schedule

We deliberately delay the activity A1 by a couple of days and check the values for
it.

The Performance % Complete (above) remains the same but the Schedule%
complete increases cause the schedule is delayed.This makes the PV increase and
the SPI decrease.

4: Increase the At Completion Cost for activity (A1) from 80,000 to 100,000

Increasing At Completion Cost simulates a cost overrun and helps explaining the
third option in earned Value settings.

5: Baseline

We would now save this baseline and change the Earned Value Calculations
settings in Admin Preference to see what effect does it have on the calculations.

6: Choosing different Admin Preference options

a) Budgeted values with planned dates

When we choose this option Primavera calculates EV, PV, SPI using activity’s
Planned Dates in the baseline. You will see no change in the values after choosing
this option.

Here Schedule% = (Current DD- BL Start)/BL Duration = (24-20)/10 = 40% , hence

the values for PV & SPI do not change.

b) Budgeted values with current dates

When we choose this option Primavera calculates the durations from Start/finish
dates hence you will notice that the Schedule % and PV decrease causing the SPI
to increase.

Here the BL duration is calculated using the Start/Finish dates and BL Duration =
12 therefore Schedule %=(24-20)/12=33.33%

c) At Complete values with current dates

When you choose this option Primavera calculates EV and PV using the following
formulas :

EV Cost = At Complete Cost * Performance PCT

PV Cost = At Complete Cost * Schedule PCT

SPI = EV Cost / PV Cost

PV = 100000*33.33=33,333
These options help us when we are creating a Revised Baseline and want to
monitor our earned value against the current rate of progress as opposed to what
was planned.

Performance % Complete Calculations in the WBS Bar

Written by Amit Parmar
28 Comments

Performance % complete calculations in the WBS bar

In my last post I talked about how inputting cost is important in Primavera and we
saw how Performance % Complete gets rolled up to the WBS. In this post we will
see how these values are calculated.

Continuing from my last example, we know that for each activity:

Activity % Complete = (Duration % Complete) or (Units % Complete) or (Physical

% Complete) depending on the percent complete type of the activity

The formula for Earned Value for each activity is

EV = Performance % Complete * BAC (Budget at Completion)

Where BAC = Total budgeted Cost for the project saved in the Baseline

And PF = Activity % Complete

hence for each activity in the previous example EV is calculated by the above
formula, therefore EV for each activity is:

1. Activity A – EV = 20%*18,700 = 3,740

2. Activity B – EV = 23%*8,500 = 1955
3. Activity C – EV = 5%*5800 = 290
Figure 1

2) After EV is calculated for all activities using cost as the common denominator, it
gets rolled up to the WBS level.

Then at the WBS level PF is calculated using the same EV formula :

PF = EV/BAC

Therefore, Performance % Complete at WBS is calculated as:

PF% = 5985/33000*100=18.1363= 18.14%

hence the percentage complete at the WBS level is calculated using cost as a
common factor. The same can be seen in the above screenshot.

Why is entering cost important in Primavera

Written by Amit Parmar
9 Comments

Why is entering cost important in Primavera (even when you don’t want to
monitor it)

Primavera is one of the most widely used tools for Project Management in the
construction industry today. Mostly while monitoring projects on-site, we don’t
enter cost information in the tool for reasons like non-availability of cost info or
the cost data being confidential. But what most people don’t realize is that Cost is
one of the most important data that needs to be entered in Primavera. Besides
being used to monitor monetary performances of our project, cost also directly
affects the EV & % complete calculations.

Let’s see the following example to gauge importance of cost in Primavera:

Activities in Primavera can be progressed in the following 3 types:

1) Duration % Complete

2) Units % Complete

3) Physical % Complete

Let’s assume we have 3 activities A, B, C:

[Click on image to enlarge]

All of these activities have different % complete type, which can be seen in the
Activity Name.

Case 1:

None of these activities have been assigned cost and are being used to monitor a
project.

[Click on image to enlarge]

We update these activities as we would normally update a project.

 [Click on image to enlarge]

After updating we can see that only values of Units % Complete and Duration %
complete get rolled up whereas Physical % complete does not roll up at all.
Activity % Complete only stays till the activity level.

So in situations where the activity % complete type differs, we don’t get a correct
% complete at WBS level.

Case 2 –

Let’s Cost load our program and assign a baseline to it. We then update our
program as we usually do.

[Click on image to enlarge]

We add another column called Performance % Complete and the values of %

complete get rolled up in this column at the WBS level. And hence we get a
correct % complete at the summary level.

It is true that this would work only in cases where Activity % complete types
differ, but there are other cases like if you are using Primavera Web Module
where you cannot show any % complete bar in Portfolios except Performance %
complete. Hence when we use Primavera in an Enterprise setup, it becomes more
than necessary to add costs to our networks.
Note – The calculations of Performance % Complete would be covered in my next
post because I didn’t want to make this post too long.

70 Project Scheduling Terms That Every Planner Needs To Know

March 4, 2015 By Reshma Sadhu 8 Comments

The number of project scheduling and planning terms out there can be overwhelming.
Interpreting and communicating a plan can become a task in itself if you are not up-to-date
with the planning jargon. So here is a list of 70 Project Scheduling terms every planner should
know for smooth sailing – check out the glossary below to brush up on your terms.

If you have any terms that are essential and not listed – feel free to leave a comment below
with the term and definition.

A
Activity: A task or process to be accomplished in a set period of time as part of working toward
a larger project goal. An Activity can be assigned to a resource(s) and have an associated cost.
Activities are ordered with logic links.

Actual Cost: The real amount paid or incurred for labor or materials.
Activity Relationship: An ordered link between 2 activities representing the order of execution.
The 4 relationship types are:
FS – Finish to Start
SS – Start to Start
FF – Finish to Finish
SF – Start to Finish

Approved Change Requests: Documents of approved changes made to the project contract as a
whole (cost, schedule, plan). These are first reviewed by all stakeholders before being
approved.

Arrow Diagraming Method (ADM): Arrow diagramming method is a network diagramming

technique used in Project Management in which activities are represented by arrows. ADM is
also known as the activity-on-arrow (AOA) method.

ADM is used for scheduling activities in a project plan. Precedence relationships between
activities are represented by circles connected by one or more arrows. The length of the arrow
represents the duration of the relevant activity. ADM only shows finish-to-start (FS)
relationships, where each activity is completed before the successor activity starts.

B
Backward Pass (Backward Plan): Critical path calculation process which having calculated
earliest date for activities on the network. Works backwards to find activities latest start and
finish dates/float

Bar Chart: A chart on which activities are represented by Bars. The Bars length is represented
by the activity Duration, and is lined-up on a X-axis time scale.

Base Line: A set of dates and costs frozen at the start of the project and used as a basis for
performance evaluation as the project progresses.

Budgeted Cost: The amount planned ahead and placed aside to execute an activity or an entire
project from start to finish.
C
Change Estimate: An Estimate evaluating a potential change to a project. Often the estimate
focuses on Cost, Schedule and Resource changes.

Change Impact: The effect of a project change on project cost, schedule and resourcing.

Committed Cost: A cost which has not yet been paid, but an agreement, such as a purchase
order or contract, has been made such that the cost is no longer recoverable.

Cost Breakdown Structure (CBS): A breakdown of the project into cost elements for cost
control planning. A CBS will deconstruct a project into various cost elements or types such as
area, phase, discipline, or materials.

Critical Activity: An activity that is on the project’s critical path.

Critical Path: A project’s critical path is the sequence of network activities which add up to the
longest overall duration. This determines the shortest time possible to complete the project.

Critical Path Method (CPM) Scheduling: A project modeling technique and algorithm for
scheduling a set of project activities. Developed in the late 1950s, CPM scheduling aims to build
a model of a project that contains:

1. A list of all activities required to complete the project (typically categorized within a work
breakdown structure),
2. The time (duration) that each activity will take to complete,
3. The dependencies between the activities and,
4. Logical end points such as milestones or deliverable items.

Critical Path Method Scheduling then uses an algorithm that computes Early and Late dates for
each activity in order to determine the project’s Critical Path.

Critical Path Analysis: The analysis of a project schedule by its critical path or longest path. The
analysis aims to understand whether the project can be completed on time and what key
activities or milestones are a risk to the project’s timely completion. An advanced analysis may
consider near-critical paths or other risk paths of the project.

D
Date Constraint: A date restriction imposed on an activity’s start or finish date in scheduling
software. Applying a constraint will swap the computed date to a date imposed by the user.
Often used to imposed deadlines or to delay activities in a schedule.
Direct Labour: (1) Labour which can be directly related/allocated to the output of a productive
account or cost centre, compared with indirect labour which is not directly related to
output. (2) Labour employed directly by owner or main contractor, as opposed to sub-contract
labour.

Doubled resource estimated duration (DRED): Measures the length of an activity duration if
the assigned level of resources have doubled.

Duration: The number of calendar periods it takes (or is estimated to take) from the time the
execution of an element starts to the moment it is completed.

E
Early Start: The earliest time an activity can start within the logic and imposed targets in the
network.

Early Finish: The earliest time an activity can finish within the logic and imposed targets in the
network.

Estimate: Evaluation of expected quantities, time and man-hours, with allowances and
provisions for expected unknowns.

Estimated Cost: An approximated cost derived through a cost estimation technique such as
using historicals or empirical methods.

Estimate to Complete: The estimate of remaining costs, man-hours or quantities to the

completion of defined scope.

Extensions of Time: A contractual extension of time to reflect agreed claims or scope changes.
Sometimes used to minimize the risk of invoking penalty clauses.

F
Float: Float is the amount of time that an activity in a project network can be delayed without
causing a delay to: subsequent tasks (free float) or the project completion date (total float).

Forward Pass: The first step in the CPM scheduling algorithm. The forward pass calculates each
activity’s early start and early finish date.

Free Float: The amount of time that spans from the completion of one previously scheduled
activity and extends to the point at which the next scheduled activity is set to begin.

G
Gantt Chart: A time-based activity chart in which a series of horizontal lines shows the amount
of work done or production completed in certain periods of time in relation to the amount
planned for those periods.

H
Hammock: An activity, joining the start of the leading activity to the end of a series of network
activities and where duration reflects the overall time and related logic for the series, at plan
and subsequent monitoring stages.

Histogram: Bar chart indicating estimated or actual manpower resources work or costs
expended over time.

I
Incurred Cost: Expenses incurred from project activities.

Indirects: Indirect costs are costs that are not directly accountable to an activity or work
package. Indirect costs may be either fixed or variable. Indirect costs include administration and
personnel . These are those costs which are not directly related to production. Some indirect
costs may be overhead. But some overhead costs can be directly attributed to a project and are
direct costs.
K
KPI: A Key Performance Indicator is a type of performance measurement. KPIs evaluate the
success of an organization or of a particular activity in which it engages.

L
Lag: A scheduled delay on a logic link whereby a successor activity will be delayed with respect
to a predecessor activity

Late Finish: The latest possible date the activity must finish without affecting the target finish
date for the project.

Late Start: The latest possible start date for an activity to start without affecting the target
finish date for the project.

Lead: The amount of time whereby a successor activity can be advanced with respect to a
predecessor activity. Often this is referred to a negative lag.

Level of Effort Activity: A support-type project activity that must be done to support other
work activities or the entire project effort.

Loop: A logic error where a succeeding activity attempts to start prior to a preceding activity.

Lost Time: Productive time lost because of inclement weather, labour problems, equipment
failure or other cause.

M
Master Schedule: A high-level summary schedule or a schedule that is a combination of other
independent sub-schedules.

Milestone: An event to mark specific points in time along a project timeline. These points may
signal anchors such as a project start and end date, a need for external review or input and
budget checks, among others. In many instances, milestones do not impact project duration.
Instead, they focus on major progress points that must be reached to achieve success.

Monte Carlo Simulation: A computerized probabilistic method used in modeling risk.

N
Network (Project Network): A project network is a graph (flow chart) depicting the sequence in
which a project’s terminal elements are to be completed by showing terminal elements and
their dependencies. It is always drawn from left to right to reflect project chronology.

O
Open ends: Any project Activities without a predecessor or a successor activity.

P
Percent Complete: A percentage value between 0 and 100 that indicates the partial
completeness of an activity, project or work package.

PERT: Programme Evaluation and Review Technique is a statistical tool, used in project
management, which was designed to analyze and represent the tasks involved in completing a
given project. First developed by the United States Navy in the 1950s, it is commonly used in
conjunction with the critical path method (CPM).

Physical Completion: Progress assessed by a physical measurement.

Planning: Project planning is part of project management, which relates to the use of schedules
such as Gantt charts to plan and subsequently report progress within the project environment.
Initially, the project scope is defined and the appropriate methods for completing the project
are determined.

Planned Cost: An approved estimated cost for the project or items that will be used.

Planning Engineer: A specialist engineer who develops the project timescale schedules, and
manages them using a software package.

Predecessor(s): A predecessor activity is an activity that determines the start date or finish date
of a following activity based on a logical relationship.
Potential Change Requests: Documentation that tracks potential changes to your project’s
estimated costs, resources or supplies. Allows you to identify any anticipated impacts to the
project scope. Once reviewed by stakeholders, a change order can be requested to have these
changes implemented.

Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM): Precedence Diagramming Methodis a network

diagramming technique used to establish order or execution in project schedules. PDM network
diagrams use boxes, referred to as nodes, to represent activities and connects them with
arrows that represent the dependencies between activities.

Procurement: Procurement is the acquisition of goods, services or works from an outside

external source. It is favourable that the goods, services or works are appropriate and that they
are procured at the best possible cost to meet the needs of the acquirer in terms of quality and
quantity, time, and location.

Project Control: The setting and monitoring of cost/schedule deliverables, identification and
anticipation of variances and implementation of preventive and recovery actions of approved
changes.

R
Resource Leveling: A process using resource analysis that aims to remove or reduce resoure
over-allocations by adjusting the start or finish dates of resource-loaded activities.

S
Schedule: A schedule is a listing of a project’s milestones, activities, and deliverables, usually
ordered with intended start and finish dates. Those items are often estimated in terms of
resource allocation, budget and duration, linked by dependencies and scheduled events.

Schedule Contingency: Extra duration that is added to the project’s schedule baseline during
the planning phase to reduce any impacts of unforeseen events.

Schedule Risk: Risk events that jeopardize completing the project on time.

S-Curve: Cumulative graph against time for tracking overall progress cf with plan: for cost,
manhours, materials.etc. CP1/SP1 can be calculated from the variance on this form of graph.
T
Target Date: A fixed activity due date or deadline.

The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS): WBS is a hierarchical and incremental decomposition
of the project into phases, deliverables and work packages. It is a tree structure, which shows a
subdivision of effort required to achieve an objective; for example a program, project, and
contract.

Total Float: Total float is the difference between the finish date of the last activity on the
critical path and the project completion date.

W
Weighted Percent Complete: Overall progress completion measurement, using activity
weightings to normalize disparate activities.

Work Package: A work package (WP) is a subset of a project that can be assigned to a specific
part for execution. Because of the similarity, work packages are often misidentified as projects.

(ADM Image by Gui Siedes at wikimedia.org

PERT image by Jeremykemp at en.wikipediaderivative, from Wikimedia Commons)

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in December 2014 and have been updated for
comprehensiveness.

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Killer Interview Questions For Hiring A Project Controller

February 13, 2015 By Reshma Sadhu 3 Comments

Hiring for any position is always risky business. There are no guarantees once the interview is
over that the winning candidate can actually walk the talk and perform up to your needs.

From a project controls standpoint, are you hiring people that can walk-in and get up and
running quickly? Do they know the software inside and out? Are you certain they have the skills
and procedural project management & industry knowledge you’re counting on?

Well, we’ve put together 11 killer project controller interview questions that will help you cut
to core of your scheduling candidates’ knowledge and skills during the interview.

1. What are the early warning signs you look for when reviewing progress against a
schedule?

Good because: Despite many efforts a schedule can quickly spiral out of control and this will
determine if they have a plan to minimize avoidable gaps and delays.

Bad response: “I don’t usually review or analyze the schedule. That’s the PM’s job. I just
manage the scheduling content and do what they tell me.”
2. What is a good use of lag on a project?

Good because: Find out if your potential scheduler knows proven best practices in planning and
scheduling. Proven best practices across construction discourage any use of lag or lead time on
projects.

Bad response: “Curing concrete or letting paint dry.”

3. If given someone else’s schedule, how would you go about analyzing it?

Good because: You’ll discover how your candidate breaks large tasks into manageable pieces
and how they deal with abiguity. Are they confident enough to ask for help on the pieces that
fall outside their expertise? Do they have a system to follow for analyzing outside schedules?
We do.

Bad response: “I would look through the notes in the schedule. This sort of thing is easy.”

4. How do you communicate the monthly schedule analysis?

Good because: A monthly schedule report has different information for different audiences.
Can they recognize that not all audiences want to see the same data? Can the candidate
analyze and understand the important issues and trouble spots?

Bad response: “I would just print out excel spreadsheets with all of the data.”

5. How would you deal with an incomplete project or one that has missing
information?

Good because: This question tells a lot about how they handle missing data and if they would
be proactive in filling in the pieces from the team – trying to create a clear plan of action.

Bad response: “I guess it’s someones job to get me all of the information.”
6. How do you schedule, manage and track Permits, Right of Way and/or Utility
Relocation?

Good because: Since these items fall into the “red-tape” of dealing with outside access, you
want to find out how they are going to keep these items on track and in constant focus on the
schedule. A couple of milestone may not be enough to make sure these items get continued
focus.

Bad response: “Isn’t that the manager’s responsibility?”

7. Tell me about your successes in a team environment.

Good because: This will help you work out how they view themselves in the context of a team.
New research suggests that most of us can fall into 2 categories – givers and takers. Are they
givers? Find out by listening to their language – are they using “me” and “I” or are they talking
about their team in terms of “us” and “we”. Do they share the credit or blame someone else for
mistakes.

Bad response: “It was all me. I drive the team to reach success in all projects I handle.”

8. What is your approach to delivering bad news so the message won’t destroy
your relationships?

Good because: This shows how well they deal with confrontation – unavoidable and common
in project environments. Are they thinking about fostering productive relationships or just
covering their butts when things go wrong?

Bad response: “If it’s bad news, I usually just send a short email letting management know.”

9. How would you go about winning over a PM that doesn’t take your input into
consideration?
Good because: Relationships stuff again. Are they able to tread lightly and be
persuasive? When personalities clash are they able to rise above?

Bad response: “If he doesn’t want to listen to me, that’s his problem.”

10. How would you rate your level of enthusiasm about project controls?

Good because: People who are enthusiastic about their professional are going to uplift the
team and help everyone stay optimistic. Having passion for what you do is contagious to those
around you.

Bad response: “It’s OK.”

11. How have you improved project controls processes at your previous company?

Good because: Project Controllers don’t necessarily get the chance to influence final project
decisions but they do get the opportunity to offer suggestions. This shows if they have ideas
and want to expressing them, hopefully making things a bit better for everyone.

Bad response: “I keep my head down and plus, that’s he Manager’s job.”

Many thanks to David Doughty and Corey Smart for their input and feedback on this article.

What interview questions would you add or have asked when conducting an interview to hiring
a Project Controller?

You stepped into work today and were suddenly whisked away to a meeting, only to hear that
you will be taking over full responsibility for someone else’s project plan and schedule.
Whether you like it or not you will have to tackle understanding this new schedule. So what
now!? Before you freak out in a quiet little corner, breathe and take the first steps of trying to
understand as much as you can of the Primavera P6 schedule you’ve just been handed.

Here are 4 tactics that you can utilize to avoid getting overwhelmed when taking over someone
else’s schedule, whether it is a straightforward plan or disastrous abomination.
1. Figure Out How The Plan Was Created By Reviewing All
Documentation
Ask for ALL supporting documentation before you try to unravel your new schedule.

Here’s a list of what you should inquire about:

 Request the Project Charter

 Ask for the approved Work Estimate
 Ask for any Scoping docs
 Ask for any relevant Drawings
 Request all Specification documents
 Get and read any relevant Contractual documents
 Is there a Document Repository on a file share somewhere these and other documents
might be located? Find out and start getting up to speed.

2. Look At The Bigger Picture – Dates, Durations, Deadlines

Don’t get lost in the little details of project execution and controls.

Find the 4 key project dates and analyze them:

 Planned Finish Date

 Planned Start Date
 Data Date
 Must Finish By Date – the project’s Deadline

Make sure these dates line up correctly. For example: ensure the Data Date is within the
bounds of the Planned Start and Finish Dates.

3. Do A Walk Through With The Project Manager

Reach out to your project manager or project sponsor and schedule a meeting for a thorough
review of the schedule so that you are able to understand the goals, key dates, progress, etc.

Some questions that you can ask for clarity are:

  What was working well with the previous scheduler? What was not working well?
 What reporting or statusing processes should you know about? Other processes?
 Does the schedule have known gaps? Is it missing scope?
 What areas of the schedule should you focus on addressing first?
 Does the schedule represent accurate progress in the field? Is it up to date?
 What impacts do you foresee that will affect the schedule?

4. Evaluate The Project’s Size

Knowing the size of the project that you are tackling is important. This will help you accurately
determine the number of activities and structure of the project plan.

There are 2 features in Primavera P6 that can help you determine the size of your project. Here
we will look at:

1. What is the overall duration of the project?

2. How many activities make up the schedule?

Activity Count in Primavera P6

1. Add the Column “Activity Count” to your Activity layout. This is a simple column with a
value of “1” in each activity field. Use it to tally the number activities on screen.
2. Turn off any Filters and Group by WBS.
3. Note the totals for the column “Activity Count” for the project and for each phase or
WBS level.

What You Should Look For:

 How long is the schedule in days?

 Could it be better divided into multiple schedules?
 How many activities make up the schedule?
 Are there enough activities to represent the duration of the project? (i.e.: is there
enough detail?)
 Are there too many activities? (i.e.: is there too much detail?) Overly large schedules are
hard to update, change and manage. Can you combine or merge

Monte Carlo 101: How Monte Carlo Schedule Simulations Work

February 3, 2015 By Michael Lepage 5 Comments

The term Monte Carlo Simulation just has that aura and feel about it…… it sounds complex. But
in reality it’s not as complex as we think. Let’s see if we lay it out for you in straightforward
terms.

What is a Monte Carlo Simulation?

A Monte Carlo simulation is simply a way to understand how inputs into a system might affect
the outputs. Let’s say you have a box of coins that you pour out onto a table. Once they all
drop, you count tails and heads and come up with a ratio that you plot on a graph. Then you do
this same experiment 1000 times to see what the results and the graph look like. This process
uses a Monte Carlo Method.

Now, if you programmed a computer to model this same process and you ran the model 1000
times or more, graphing the results, you would have a Monte Carlo simulation.

Monte Carlo and Scheduling

Now in scheduling, let’s assume that our schedule is a model and that the CPM Scheduling
algorithm that we run to calculate the project’s finish date is our simulation.

Let’s then try to understand our duration estimates using this Monte Carlo method. So let’s find
a way to vary our activity durations, then run the simulation (aka CPM Scheduling) to see what
happens.

We can vary our durations by changing them from a single value to a range of values – from
Most Likely duration to Least Likely duration and somewhere in the middle.

So now our project’s activities each look like this:

The Simulation, Simplified

Now, let’s take Job 1, use the Best-Case number, and run CPM Scheduling. What’s our Finish
Date? Oh!

Now, let’s take Job 1, use the Expected number, and run CPM Scheduling. What’s our Finish
Date? Wow.

Now, let’s take Job 1, use the Worst-Case number, and run CPM Scheduling. What’s our Finish
Date? Hmm.

And so on….

Making the Simulation Even Better

To give richer results, let the computer try every number between Best-Case and Worst-Case,
choosing one at random.

And to make the results even richer, program the computer to pick a set of random durations
for each Job, (within the range [Best-Case to Worst-Case]) and run CPM Scheduling. Plot the
Finish Date of the project on a graph.

Repeat a lot of times (1,000x, 100,000x or more). Then, plot a distribution of calculated project
Finish Dates.

And you get something that looks like this.

What Are The Benefits of Monte Carlo Simulations?

A Monte Carlo schedule simulation provides a project’s decision-maker with a scope of possible
results and the probabilities each outcome might happen. It gives you the extreme
possibilities—the results of going-for-broke and for making more conservative decisions—along
with all possible ramifications for middle-of-the-road decisio

In 2005, US Defense Contract Management Agency implemented a 14-

point schedule assessment to help the Department of Defense evaluate the enormous
volume of contracts and schedules they were tasked with managing.

Years later, the DCMA’s 14-point Schedule Assessment has become a guideline that is widely
used and has been incorporated into many software tools such as Acumen Fuse and Primavera
P6 EPPM.

But what exactly is the DCMA 14-point schedule assessment checking?

Well, essentially it’s evaluating whether a schedule is well-built – whether it adheres to a set of
best practices considered important to the success and manageability of a project. These best
practices are broken down into a list of 14 checks
1) Checking the Logic
Are is the logic complete? Are there missing links. We all know that a schedule is a network, and
if that network is not complete because of missing logic, an accurate Critical Path is not
possible.

2) Looking for Leads

Negative Lags are often referred to as “Lead Time”. Negative lags can cause all sorts of
problems. Plus they can be confusing. Here, the goal is to have NO negative lags in your
schedule

3) Looking for Lags

The DCMA is a bit more forgiving when it comes to positive lags, but the goal here is to
minimize their use in your schedule. The goal is no more than 5% of relationships should have a
lag. Here’s how you might find those lags.

4) The Right Relationship Types

P6 and other software supports 4 relationships types, but that doesn’t mean you should build a
schedule using only Start-Start relationships. Finish-Start is best. DCMA says your schedule
should use Finish-Start 90% of the time (or more).

5) How ’bout those Hard Constraints

Hard constraints can really affect logic (as we’ve told you) and can disable a schedule from
being logic-driven. I say you can do without hard constraints. DCMA says don’t have hard
constraints on more than 5% of all constrained activities.

6) Rein-in your Total Float

44 days is all you get. High Float activities may not be linked properly and can cause havoc on
your Critical Path. This check looks for activities with Total Float values over 44 days. Again, the
goal is less than 5% of activities can have Float values of 44 days or more.

7) Negative Float is Never Good

If you’re followup these checks up to here, you may not have a problem with Negative Float.
Ideally DCMA says avoid having Negative Float in your schedule. If you do, make sure you’ve
documented a plan to mitigate being late.
8) Break Down Those Long Durations
When is an Activity too long? When it’s longer than 2 months, says the folks at DCMA. You’ll
want to limit long duration activities to no more than 5% of all Activities. Or just break those
long activities down into a series of shorter ones for more detail.

9) Check for Invalid Dates

No Actual dates in the future, beyond your Data Date; and no Forecast dates in the past before
your Data Date. Primavera P6 may not allow some of these conditions, but remember these
checks can be applied to a schedule built in any software package.

10) Load it up with Resources and Costs

DCMA likes their schedules to be resource and cost-loaded. And if you are following this path as
well, make sure not to leave out workable Activities; milestones excluded.

11) Subvert Activity Slippage

We all want to deliver on time. This check looks at how many activities have finished late as
compared to the baseline. It’s a good generic check to see if your project will deliver on time or
not.

12) Critical Path Integrity

The 12th check is one that tests the integrity of your schedule’s Critical Path, looking for fluidity
driven by good logic linking. Here DMCA checks that introducing a delay in the schedule results
in the project’s finish date being equally delayed.

13) Critical Path Length Index (CPLI)

This check is a bit difficult to explain. I’ve deferred to Ron Winter’s explanation who sums it up
this way:

“The Critical Path Length Index (CPLI) is one of the ‘Trip Wire checks’ that is supposed to gauge
the realism of completing the project on time. Most construction schedulers will find this test a
little bizarre. We are to measure the ratio of the project critical path length plus the project
total float to the project critical path length. The critical path length is the time in work days
from the current status date to the “end of the program.” The target number is 1.0 with a value
of less than 95% as a failure.”
Thank you, Ron.

14) Baseline Execution Index (BEI)

The Baseline Execution Index is meant to help you understand how well you are performing
against your project’s baseline. The BEI sums up how many activities are ahead or behind
schedule against the baseline. A BEI of 1.0 means you are right on track. DCMA says a BEI of less
than 0.95 puts you on notice.

How to Show the Critical Path in P6

December 9, 2013 By Michael Lepage 18 Comments

Can’t find your Critical Path in Primavera P6? Don’t worry, it might be hiding. Here are 4 easy
ways you can laser-in on your project’s Critical Path in P6.

4 Easy Ways to Show the Critical Path in P6

1. Check the Gantt Chart
By default, the P6 Gantt chart will show your project’s Critical Path activities in bright red. This
makes it easy to have a quick glance at the Gantt Chart et voila!, your Critical Path stands-out
like a safety vest.

Hey! It’s not working! I don’t see any red Critical Path activities on my project.
What gives?

Glad you asked. Maybe your Gantt chart looks like this instead.
Primavera P6, by default, uses Total Float to decide if an Activity is Critical or not. Activities with
a Total Float value of 0 (or less) usually show red on the Gantt. If you have no red Activities, you
may have a Must Finish By date set on your project. If your project is finishing earlier than the
Must Finish By deadline, then you may not have any activities with 0 or less Float values
which means there are no Critical activities.

If that’s the case, tell P6 to show Critical Path by the Longest Path rather than by Total Float.

1. Press F9, and then click the Options button.

2. Find the setting “Define Critical Activities as”. Choose Longest Path.
3. Reschedule your Project.
4. Notice the Gantt chart now. You should see a red Critical Path now.

You can always read more about the Critical Path vs Longest Path.

2. Use the Critical Path / Longest Path Columns

Edit your columns and go digging for one called “Critcal” and another called “Longest Path”.
Add one or both of these nifty columns to your Activity Layout to show clearly which activities
are Critical.
3. Turn On a Filter

Using a Filter can also be a quick and effective way to manifest your Critical Path. Click the
Filters button to turn on the Critical Path filter. This will show only the Critical Activities. There’s
also a filter for the Longest Path.
4. Check the Schedule Log

Lastly, you can always check the P6 Schedule Log. The Schedule Log is a log file that gets
updated every time your project is scheduled. Press F9 and make sure the box labeled “Log to
File” is checked on. Then, click the “View Log” button to open the Schedule Log.

Once you have the log file open in Notepad, you’ll have to scroll down to the section labeled
“Exceptions”. But you should see in the log a list of your project’s Critical Activities.

6 Interview Must-Dos To Nail That Project Controls Job

July 28, 2014 By Reshma Sadhu 1 Comment

So you’ve spent a few weeks filling out applications and making phone calls, and finally, the
moment you’ve been waiting for – you’ve just received a call for the job opportunity that
you’ve had your eyes on.

To increase your odds of landing the job, here are 6 must-dos that should be on the top of your
priority list.

1. Do Your Research
Make sure you know who you will be working with. Make sure to Google your potential
employer or reach out to your network for contacts who have worked with them. This will
work in your favour by connecting what the company specializes in to your skills and expertise.

Inquire about the interview style – whether it is a one-on-one interview, with a recruiter, or
panel. This will help you to determine your preparation and whether or not you may be expect
to complete a presentation, demonstration, or need to carry a portfolio.

2. Be Ready To Relate A Story

Interviews can be tough if you’re not prepared with your A-game. For example, you may be
given case questions where the interviewer provides you with a scenario and asks you to
develop a project plan/outline around it. Through these questions you can prove your
knowledge and capabilities.

Be ready for it – be able to provide examples of moments when you had to deal with stressful
situations carrying out projects or managing your team, but was able to remain calm and
professional. Tell them a story they can relate to.
3. Get Ready For These Top Project Management Interview
Questions
We’ve compiled a list of some of the most common interview questions in the project
management realm. Make sure you can provide great answers to these top queries:

 Why would you like to work in this position?

 If you were faced with XYZ conflict, how would you deal with it? What steps would you take?
 How would you fit in our company?
 What would you do if you were relied upon to solve an issue with little or no direction?
 Can you explain the basic components and operations of XYZ blueprint/drawing?
 Can you tell us about a situation when you have had difficulty with a co-worker. How did you
handle it?
 What types of projects did you manage while working at XYZ?
 What is your greatest and worst project achievement? What did you learn?
 Can you give me an example of a typical project size and budget you’ve managed or had
responsibility on?
 Tell us about a situation when the project was in trouble and how you dealt with it….
 What personal strategies do you use to handle stress, tough deadlines and long work hours?

4. Ask Questions
Interviews give companies an opportunity to get a glimpse into your skills and experience, but
also how you handle yourself as professional and a problems-solver. At the end of the
interview, you get a chance to ask questions to the interviewer, and this is your chance to
finish-up strong.

Create a lasting impression, as this Forbes article points out, with some smart and thought-
provoking questions.

 What level of responsibility could I expect in this position?

 [Interviewers name], what do YOU like most about working at XYZ company?
 Is there any reason you wouldn’t hire me?
 How could I help your company meet it’s goals?

5. Avoid Criticizing….anyone
We’ve all been in some unsavory situations in the workplace, and sometimes it leads to you
looking for new opportunities. Regardless of how it went down, never criticize a past employer
or it’s employees in an interview.

Take a minute to process, formulate your response, and answer accordingly. Remain positive,
and if it was a negative experience, add how you have or are currently working on making it
better.
NEVER bad mouth previous employers or anyone for that matter. Every situation is a learning
experience, whether it be a positive one or a negative one, there will always be something to
take away that will help you to evolve.

6. Have Your Project Portfolio Ready

Be prepared to discuss your personal contributions that you have made in past projects and at
past employment opportunities. Whether it was a success or not, discuss how you overcame
that difficulty, what you learned from it, and how you will bring those positive results into the
position you are interviewing for.

Have examples and projects prepared to link to questions an employer may throw at you. A
great thing to do is to prepare a 1-page portfolio with any documentation or even referrals that
highlight your achievements and the results they produced.

Here are some additional resources that may help:

 Interview Preparation Tips

 How to Discuss Your Project Management Experience in an Interview
 How to Ace A Project Management Interview

Setting Up LOEs and Resource Loading Them

May 24, 2014 By Mannix Carney 6 Comments

Introduction
I would like to introduce the use of Level of Effort (LOE) activities to resource load a schedule.
This technique is particularly applicable to an engineering design environment. I often have to
create schedules with input from five or more engineering disciplines. The cost estimates vary
in accuracy and the scope can change depending on the engineering design developments and
the client’s requirements.

In this environment I have found resource loading at the activity level to be cumbersome and
ineffective for clear communication.

I often conduct a simple “sanity check” where I compare the hours estimated to the scheduled
activities in a meeting environment. The use of LOE resource loading allows me to tweak the
scheduled activities or the estimated hours based on an engineering discipline’s feedback.

This technique can also be useful as a halfway step to resource loading at the activity level. If
the project team wants to experiment with the cost estimate figures and quickly see the
results, LOE resource loading can be an effective way to do that.

Download: LOE resource loading.xer

Step 1

In this example, the project is broken into five disciplines. The disciplines and estimated hours
are as follows:

Discipline Estimated Hours

Project Management 800h

Process Engineering 280h

Mechanical Drafting 500h

Civil Engineering 250h

Electrical Engineering 250h

Total 2080h

Step 2

We create a resource code for each discipline in the enterprise -> resource window:

Step 3

A schedule containing the planned activities is shown below. We have used LOE activities in the
resource section to create resource loaded LOE activities that span the duration of each
discipline’s scope.
Take process engineering as an example. The way to create the LOE is to set the first activity as
a start-start predecessor and the last activity as a finish-finish successor. The LOE activity will
stretch between the first and last activity when you hit F9. We apply the process engineering
resources to both the process engineering resource LOE and all the process engineering
activities.

We then put the budget of 280 hours into the resource loaded LOE activity and set the process
engineering activity resources to zero.

This means that the scheduled activities and the resource loaded LOE are tagged as a process
engineering resource but only the LOE contains the budgeted hours. This little detail becomes
important when you want to filter by resource.

The schedule now is resource loaded with the estimated hours for each engineering discipline.
The activities can be adjusted easily and the LOE resource loaded activity will readjust and
respreads the hours accordingly.
This technique is useful in an environment like engineering design where the estimated hours
and the scheduled activities can change depending on the nature of the project.
Using the Resource Usage Spreadsheet for Easy Filtering and
Reporting
As the schedules I use are often in excess of 3000 activities across five disciplines, it’s very
handy to have some filtering options. I have found the resource usage spreadsheet with the
resource option selected to be very good in this situation.
If I am asking a specific discipline for feedback on their scheduled activities and budgeted hours,
I can just show them their section of the schedule. I find switching between the discipline
specific option and the overall schedule an excellent way to get both detailed input as well as
an overview.

Step 1

Now we click on the resource usage spread sheet option at the top of the page. When we click
on the – display activities for selected resource – we are able to filter just the activities and the
resource loaded LOE for each discipline.

Step 2

As I am often filtering a lot of activities – I usually do one more step. I filter for activities that
have resources in them. This will just select the resource loaded LOEs. To do this I set the filter
to just show Budgeted Labour Units that are greater than 0 hours.
Wrap Up
We can now click on each resource type and filter to the planned activities along with the
estimated hours per month.
This technique allows us to modify the estimated hours and the planned activities in a meeting
setting quickly and easily. I have also used it as a halfway step towards resource loading the
schedule at an activity level.
The resources can also be shown in a graphical format by clicking on the resource usage profile
option. There is the option to scroll though each resource or see the entire project as a stacked
histogram.
The Biggest Problem with Primavera P6 Calendars, And How You Can Fix It

March 3, 2014 By Michael Lepage 12 Comments

As planners and schedulers, we are tasked with managing mountains of project data everyday;
progress updates, scenario projects, reports, reports and more reports. Data can quickly take
over your life if you’re not careful. And you don’t have time for that.

That’s why a good system for organizing aspects of your project and project data goes a long
way.

My biggest frustration with Primavera P6 Calendars is the Global Calendar register and it’s
constant unruliness. (If you have a nicely organized Global Calendar register, send me a
screenshot because I’d like to see it.)

For most, me included, the Global Calendar register is usually an unorganized dump of any
calendar that anyone ever thought of, mostly with unintelligible names.

And then, of course, there are the Calendar copies.

Why do we have 6 copies of calendar “QJ03-Global” numbered -1 to -6? I see P6 Global

Calendar registers with 100’s of Calendars everyday, with no clear way to discern which Global
Calendars were meant to be there, which were artifacts of project imports, and which can be
reused for a future project.

If your Primavera P6 Calendar register looks like alphabet soup, then here are some seriously
easy tips for helping to get your Global Calendar register organized.

Organize Primavera P6 Calendars with a simple Prefix

Having a standard Global Calendar naming convention is the best way to get your Primavera P6
Calendars under control.

Primavera will let you name Calendars anything you want. But since the Global Calendar list can
only be organized alphabetically, adding a prefix to your Calendar names is going to quickly
organize the list. Here are some ideas for new naming convention:

 DEPT-calendarname
 YY-calendarname

You can add a Department acronym to group all departmental Calendars together.
Alternatively, grouping them by year of creation is an option as well with a YY prefix.

You can also combine both concepts for something like this:

 DEPT-YY-calendarname
Organizing P6 Global Calendars by Project
Many companies have given up on trying to reuse Global Calendars for other projects, which
was how the designers meant them to be used. Primavera P6’s Global Calendars are too prone
to editing by users to allow for re-use on other projects.

Project Calendars have proven too difficult to work with as well and many companies have also
given up on trying to focus there – mainly because importing projects in your database always
adds Global Calendars to your register from those imported projects.

But all is not lost. Use a ProjectID prefix to help organize Calendars, like so:

 PROJID-calendarname

This tip alone will solve many issues for organizing your Primavera P6 Global Calendar register.
Combine this strategy with our first tip will yield even better organization.

 DEPT-PROJID-calendarname
 YY-PROJID-calendarname

Use This Simple Calendar Audit Layout

I’m a big proponent of keeping things organized, but I don’t want to spend hours doing it. But
taking 5 minutes to purge and organize every few months goes a long way.

This simple Calendar layout will show you which Primavera P6 Calendars are being used and
which are not assigned to any project. Use it to find and delete any Calendars that are not
assigned to projects.

These are likely artifacts from imported projects that have been deleted. Unfortunately, P6
Global Calendars don’t get deleted when their originating project is deleted.

1. Open ALL projects in your database. (Not recommended in P6 EPPM).

2. Setup the Group and Sort as follows. Make sure “Hide if Empty” is NOT checked.
3. Click OK.
Look for any Calendar entries with no projects listed underneath them.
You can see quite a few in the screenshot above. Those entries represent Global Calendars that
are not assigned to any project. I recommend you delete these Primavera P6 Calendars. You’ll
see a much cleaner Global Calendar register as a result.

Wrap-Up
I’ve heard that improvements are coming for Primavera P6 that address the issues around
lingering Enterprise Data artifacts during importing of .xer files. I’m looking forward to seeing
these, possibly in 2014. It will take use one step closer to having a project database that is
easier to organize and requires less time to maintain. Now, time to get back to scheduling, what
Primavera P6 was designed for.

What is High-Level Resourcing?

October 31, 2013 By Michael Lepage 5 Comments

We all know how versatile Primavera P6 is as a planning, scheduling and project resource
management tool. P6 can handle incredibly detailed project schedules where you can plan and
track thousands of work tasks by the hour.

But Primavera P6 is also an ideal tool for creating high-level project plans and schedules. High-
level resourcing is the process of planning your resource needs across a high-level project plan.

What is a high-level project plan?

You’ve probably hear the term Level 4 schedule or Level 5 schedule. According to AACE
(American Association of Cost Engineering), Engineering and Construction projects (other types
too) adhere to different schedule levels of detail. AACE defines Levels 0 through to 5, where a
Level 0 schedule is essentially a single bar and a Level 5 schedule is a very detailed work task
schedule broken down by categories like phase, discipline and work area. It is possible, and
sometimes necessary, to go beyond Level 5.

A high-level project plan (or schedule) is usually a Level 1 or a Level 2 schedule. The detail of the
work remains at the gross level, showing only the major components of the project (eg: Design,
Engineering, Procurement, Construction, etc.).
Why resource-load a high-level project plan?
Resource-loading a high-level project schedule can help you assess your overall resource
demands and can be an aid in the resource planning process.

By performing high-level resourcing you can start to better assess when teams are going to be
needed, where there might be lulls in work and how many resources you are going to need.

And of course a high-level resource plan will also help you forecast your costs and cash flow at a
high-level as well.

How can I resource a high-level project plan in Primavera P6?

Performing high-level resourcing is a fairly straightforward process, especially if you’re simply
resourcing a Level 1 plan. Simply assign resources or resource teams or crews to the high-level
activities.

What’s a resource team or crew?

When performing high-level resourcing, to help you save time and manage the data better, you
might want to re-create some resources as teams or crews. Rather a resource like “Electrician”,
you might want to create high-level resources like “Electrical Crew” or “Earthworks team”
where a single resource represents the team or crew that may be made up of a several trades.

NOTE: It’s interesting to note that Primavera P6 EPPM (the web-version) has a high-level
resourcing tool as of version 8.x. Using the P6 EPPM high-level resourcing tool, you can build a
high-level resource plan without building a schedule. You can assign resources to a project
without actually assigning them to an activity. The effect is that the resource’s availability
shows that he/she is booked for the duration of the project. Then after you’ve built a schedule,
you can tell P6 to use the schedule’s resource assignments and ignore the high-level resource
plan. It’s a nice feature that IT companies especially love.
How do Level of Effort Activities help with high-level
resourcing?
Level of Effort Activities can be used to help you with high-level resourcing as well. Since a Level
of Effort summarizes many activities, you can use a Level of Effort activity for a single resource
assignment, rather than assigning the same resource to multiple activities.

For example, in the screenshot below, I’ve used a Level of Effort to represent some specialized
equipment, a Crane who will be used to assist in the steel, roof and windows work. This
approach can be handy if you really want to highlight this assignment on task list as well – it’s
very clear.

Level of Efforts are usually used on projects to represent “non-critical” supportive tasks, but in a
high-level plan they are equally useful for crew or equipment assignments that span across
large sections of the plan.

WBS Summary activities can also be useful in high-level planning in much the same way.

Wrap-up
High-level resourcing goes hand-in-hand with high-level planning and can be a really useful
process to help you do a rough assessment of manpower needs and budgetary spending. The
nice part about working at a high-level is that you can put a quick schedule together in minutes,
not days. If you’ve resource-loaded and cost-loaded your plan, then you can use Primavera P6’s
Resource Usage Profile graph or Activity Usage Profile graph to get a rough cost curve and
resource demand chart.

Here’s A Quick Way To Keep Your Milestones in Focus in Primavera P6

September 26, 2013 By Michael Lepage 4 Comments

Milestone Activities in any schedule usually represent the most important deadlines, deliveries,
start ups or drop-dead dates for a project. These are undeniably dates that you’ll want to stay
on top of and keep close at hand in case you’re asked for a report or to check on the health of
the project. But it can be difficult to search for milestones in a large schedule, and at the least it
may take a few clicks to turn on a filter to show only your milestones. Filters are great, but once
you filter for milestones alone, you can’t see what activities are impacting a milestone, since
the filter hides all other activities.

What if your manager or even the client shows up and wants a quick word about key
milestones? Will you filter first or scroll and seek?

A Smart Way to Focus on Milestones in Primavera P6

It comes down to laying out your project data smarter. I’m an advocate for planners and
schedulers thinking of themselves as data architects. Project schedules contain a mountain of
data and it’s the planner/scheduler’s job to manage it and organize it into a coherent system.

The foundation of your project’s organizing system is the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).

Give Your Milestones a Home in Your WBS

In terms of a project’s layout, a smart layout choice is to put all of your key milestones together
under a single Work Breakdown Structure element right at the top of the project.
Here’s how:

1. Simply add a new WBS element called “Key Milestones” or something similar at the top of the
project.
2. Cut & Paste (or drag and drop) your project’s milestones under this WBS element.

Easy to Find, Easy to Focus

The result is handy layout where milestone are easily found right at the top of your schedule,
leading to impressing your client or project manager. Now it’s easy to keep those key dates and
deadlines in focus while the project moves forward. No more filtering either.

This type of layout has been widely adopted in the scheduling community and many companies
enforce this layout as a template for their schedules.

Q&A

Question: My project is very large and it will take too long to Cut & Paste all of my milestones.

Answer : You could use a Global Change like this one to move all milestones to a single WBS
element.
This Global Change will move all Start or Finish Milestones to the WBS specified in the
“Parameter/Value” column. Go ahead and build it and give it a try. Please make a backup of
your project first.

AND….remember to update or re-baseline your project if you adopt this layout. You’ll want
your baseline to match.

Question: Should I move all of my project’s milestones to a Milestones WBS?

Answer : Depending on the size of your project and the total number of milestones, I would try
to aim for moving only the top 25-50 milestones to keep things clean. This could also be a
rotating list, and completed milestones could be moved back to their originating WBS and more
current / nearer milestones moved in as they are a high-priority to the project. However the
challenge with rotating milestones is that a changing list will not match your baseline and it will
make baseline comparison difficult.

How To Write Better P6 Activity Names – These 5 Easy Ways

September 11, 2013 By Roshan Vani 14 Comments

Every planner knows that WBS and Code Structure are essential elements needed to
successfully maintain a Primavera P6 schedule network.

But what about your Primavera P6 Activity Names?

A sometimes overlooked schedule quality issue is the use of well articulated activity
descriptions. Planners who began their career in P3 or earlier versions were limited to 48
characters in the activity description. This has created an industry habit of abbreviations and
acronyms that at times may only be understood by a small group of individuals knowledgeable
of the project. One of the key roles of a planner is to present the execution plan to the project
team. Poorly named activities can cause confusion, disagreement among the vested
stakeholders and in some extreme cases manifest themselves in schedule delays.

5 Tips to Improve Your Primavera P6 Activity Names

Newer versions of Primavera P6 and beyond allow many more characters in the activity
description field. Follow these 5 simple tips to improve the overall quality of your schedule
network and respective activity descriptions.

1. Use an action word.

When adding an activity description you always want to add an action word first. For
construction related activities consider such words as install, construct, place, or fabricate. For
Engineering use action words such as develop, issue, or incorporate. Make sure you follow the
action by the activity to be performed.
For example: “Install Lower Base Slab”.

2. Don’t abbreviate unless you absolutely have to.

When developing your activity descriptions do your best to spell out what you are trying to say.

For example instead of

“FREP lwr fndn concrete”

try

“Form, Rebar, Embed & Place lower foundation concrete.”

The more abbreviations your schedule contains, the greater potential for confusion, particularly
for those unfamiliar with the schedule or your naming conventions.

3. Be descriptive!

The activity description needs to be as descriptive and detailed as possible. For construction
activities consider adding the location, utilizing column references, direction, room numbers,
and floor elevation.

Example: “Install North Lower Base Slab Col 1 – Col 5, Floor 1”.

This type of description will give your reader vital information about where this activity is
physically located. Always assume that your reader will not be using your code grouping &
sorting when reading yours schedule. Make sure each activity can stand on its own without any
coding headers.

4. Uniformity

Developing standard activity descriptions, similar to activity IDs, will help standardize your
schedule. Try to come up with a standard structure that can be conveyed to the entire planning
team. This is especially good practice when working with multiple users in the same program.

An example for an engineering schedule could be “*Action Word* – *Deliverable* – *System*”.

Below are some other examples to help keep uniformity in the schedule.

Use the <Action Word> – <Deliverable> – <System> template.

1). Develop Mechanical Data Sheet – Horizontal Pump

2). Issue Piping Isometrics (Dwg #) – Cooling Water System

3). Issue RFQ (PO #) – Horizontal Pump

4). Award Purchase Order (PO #) – Horizontal Pump

5. Don’t scream!

THERE IS NO NEED FOR ALL OF YOUR ACTIVITIES DESCRIPTIONS TO BE CAPTILIZED! For some
reason there are several planners that prefer to work in all-caps. Do us all a favor and please
turn the caps lock off. There is no need to scream and it adds no value to the final produ

How to Export Resource Assignment Data to Excel from P6

May 23, 2013 By Kazem Salehiyan 21 Comments

Export P6 Resource Assignments to Excel

As you know Primavera P6 has a lack of graphical features so often we schedulers need to
export everything to other software packages (mostly Excel) to produce an understandable
schedule and graphs. I always had a problem exporting resource related data to Excel with the
standard exporting feature on P6 until I found this way to use the Reports feature. Here you
can use the current screen to develop a report and instead of making it a text report, we can
have it produce an Excel report. This tutorial is good for anyone who wants to develop better
resource curves and analyze resource assignments.

Step 1 – Select the Assignment tab

When you opened the desired project, on the left hand side, you can choose different options.
In this case, to see the assignments, you need to select the aAsignment tab

Step 2 – Resource Assignments page

In this table, we have a resource assignments table on the left hand side and time-distributed
data on the right. We can modify these tables in some different ways. I describe my way below:
Step 3 – Filter the resources

Right-click on the left table and choose Filters.

In the Filters screen write the following formula:

<where Budgeted Units/Time is greater than 0>. In this way you will have only the resources
that have assignment not all the resources that has been defined.
Step 4 – Choose spreadsheet fields

Right-click on the right hand table (spreadsheet) and from the menu choose Spreadsheet Fields
and then Customize.

In the open menu we have two categories of columns, Cumulative and Time interval. We’ll
select Cum. Budgeted Units from Cumulative and Budgeted Units from the Time Interval – in
this way we will have data for each month separately and cumulatively. You can select any kind
of data for your report purposes. For this report we do not need any specific column on the left
hand table. What we need is just the resource name but it is visible that you can add any
specific column to that table whenever is needed according to your report requirements.

Now we have data to develop S-curves. Now we focus on exporting these data to Excel.

Step 5 – Run the Report Wizard

Go to Tools menu and select Report Wizard.

Step 6 – Use current screen

In the report wizard menu, select “use current screen” radio button and hit Next.

Step 7 – Use Time distributed data

In this menu tick “ Time distributed option” and below it select “ Activity Resources and Role
Assignment” and hit Next.

Step 8 – Finishing the Report

In the following screens, you can simply click Next.
On this screen you can give a name to your report.
On this screen click “Run Report”.

Step 9 – Change the format of report

Select the “ASCII Text File” radio button and make sure that the “View File when done” box is
selected and click OK.

Now you have the data in an Excel file as the following screenshot:
Wrap Up
The reason that we do all of these efforts to export the data to Excel is as follows:

1. We do not have too much graphical features in P6 so we cannot develop perfect managerial
reports in Primavera P6 alone.
2. Resource curves in Primavera P6 do not show the percentage progress and monthly increments
and this is not good when you look at a curve from a project manager’s perspective.
3. If you want to calculate the manpower for each, in P6 you have to divide all man hours for every
month to an exact number (for example 208) but as you know the working hours in each month
is different because we have different for each month. Consequently we will not have a perfect
estimation of manpower needed for each month in P6 while we can have an exact estimation in
Excel.