Do What is Right for You

“Many times in life, whether a thing

is worth doing or not really
depends on how you look at it.
Take up all courage and do
something your heart tells you to
do, so that you may not regret not
doing it later in your life."
Primavera - Basics

Jay Shukla & Kinjal Trambadia

Purpose of Course
• To familiarize participant with Primavera
Software, a well known project planning and
scheduling and monitoring tool.

• Duration : 2 days

• Methodology : Practicing with given manual

“What is Planning”

• Planning is the determination of a project's

objectives with identification of the activities to
be performed, methods and resources to be
used for accomplishing the tasks, assignment of
responsibility and accountability, and
establishment of an integrated plan to achieve
completion as required
“What is Plan” ?
• Planning a project is an integral part of managing a
project and a " Plan" is the output from this process

• A "Plan" is normally one or more documents which

outline how a project is to be executed

• The most important point is that a plan must be

understood by all those involved in a project and the way
a plan is presented must be understood by the project
team members and possibly more than one presentation
form may be required.
Planning Vs Scheduling
• A plan is not a bar chart , a bar chart is an output of the
planning process.

• A plan has many elements:

– It identifies what has to be delivered to the client, the
deliverables
– The best method of delivering it , the project methodology
– What is needed to complete the project , the resources
– How long it is going to take , the programme

• Once these parameters are evaluated then the project may be

Programmed. This is often termed as a "Schedule"
Purpose of Planning

• The ultimate purpose of planning is to build a model that

allows you to predict which activities and resources are
critical to the timely completion of the project.

• Strategies may then be implemented to ensure that

these activities and resources are managed properly,
thus ensuring that the project will be delivered both On
Time and Within Budget.
 Project Planning Metrics

A change in anyone of these components normally results In

a change in one or more of the others.
Planning Cycle
Define a Project

• A project is a set of activities and their associated

information that constitutes a plan for creating a product
or service. A project has a start date and finish date,
WBS, resource assignments and expenses. It can also
include risks, work documents and project-specific codes
and calendars.
Characteristics of a Project
• 5 Aspects of a Project
– Schedule, Resource, Cost, Quality and Risk (HSE)
• For a Project Management Software, It covers
– Schedule: Timeline (core)
– Resource: Man, Material, Plant
– Cost: Money
– Risk: Identify, classify and quantify
• Life Span of a Project
– Planning: establish baseline when project starts
– Controlling: monitoring, updating during project
• execution
– Managing: changes, variations and revision
– Closing Out: Administrative closure, documentation
Planning software allows:
• Record the WBS- the deliverables
• Break the deliverables into activities
• Assign durations, constraints, predecessors and successors to
activities
• Calculate the start and finish dates
• Assign resources and/ or costs to activities
• Optimize the project plan
• Set Baselines to compare progress
• Approve work
• Record the actual progress
• Compare progress against the original plan
• Amend the plan for scope changes etc. and
• Produce management reports.
Define an Activity
In SMART Way

• Specific: scope of work to be clearly defined

• Measurable: able to measure progress (%), resource (MH) and

cost (Rs)

• Achievable: realistic based on current Productivity

• Resource Availability: make ready for man, material and plant

• Time-bound: have start and finish date

Procedures to Set up a Project
• Add a project to EPS and assign one of OBS

• Set up WBS

• Add a list of activities

• Determine activity’s duration based on volume of work, production

rate and past work experience

• Assign a WBS to activity

• Assign a calendar to activity

• Link activities

• Allocate resources to activity from resource pool

• Allocate cost to activity

• Schedule project, review and establish baseline

When a Project is on the way…
• Record progress, man hour and cost and update plan

• Analyze and report project status using earned value method

• Revise baseline when there are substantial changes and the

programme can not reflect the actual situation any more

• Manage changes

• Lean construction (last planner) application

Performance Measurement
with Earned Value Method : 3 Parameters
• Planned Value PV (BCWS, Budgeted Cost of Work
Schedule): Budget x Schedule completion % (% of
original duration, time elapsed)

• Actual Cost AC (ACWP, Actual Cost of Work

Performed): Actual cost up to data date

• Earned Value EV (BCWP, Budgeted Cost of Work

Performed): Budget x Actual completion %
Performance Measurement
with Earned Value Method : Measurement Index

• Schedule Variance (SV): SV=EV-PV > 0, ahead

of schedule

• Cost Variance (CV): CV=EV-AC > 0, spending

less than planned as of measurement date
An Example

• Suppose we plan to finish an activity by June 29 with a

budget of $10,000 (PV or BCWS). It is now June 29
(data date, or measurement date), and we have spend
$9,000 (AC or ACWP), but only 70% of the work is
complete (EV, or BCWP=$10,000 x 70%=$7,000). We
are not only behind schedule (SV=EV-PV=$7,000-
$10,000= -$3,000), but over budget (CV=EV-
AC=$7,000- $9,000= - $2,000.
Manage Changes
• Record and control budget changes
• Record and track issues
• Define and monitor thresholds
• Manage risks: identify, categorize and prioritize
• Categorize and track activity-related work
products (deliverables) and documents
P6/P5 Module Overview
Project Management Module: Features

Centralized database for all project data (data

resides on server)

Layout presentation and grouping based on

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

Hierarchal structure on EPS, OBS, projects,

activities, resources and costs with codes and
values
P6 Module Overview
• Before Add a Project, Establish the Framework

Enterprise Project Structure (EPS)

Organization Breakdown Structure (OBS)
Global Calendars
Resource pool
Budget structure
Coding structure like project code and activity code
(for filtering, grouping and data analysis)
EPS and OBS
• Enterprise Project Structure (EPS)
– Company-wide hierarchical project
breakdown Structure

• Organization Breakdown Structure (OBS)

– Company-wide hierarchical responsible
managers for the projects
P6 Module Overview
• EPS and OBS: Work Side by Side
OBS

PM1 PM2 PM3

PJ1

PJ2

PJ3
EPS
 EPS and OBS: Example
OBS

Proces Civil Piping Equip Instru Electri Constr

s ment ments cal uction
Project
A
Project
B
Project
C
Project
D

EPS
OBS Example
EPS Example
EPS – Project Example
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
Continuation from EPS, with project the highest
level, next by deliverables and breakdown to the
activity level

Company-wide standard WBS template

Vs.customised project-based WBS

Play an essential role in P6. Can be assigned

resource, budget and earned value
WBS Example
Calendars
Global
Project specific
WBS specific
Resource specific
Coding Structure: Project Code
Coding Structure: Resource Code
Resource and Role
Resource includes
People
Material
Plant
Role
Required personnel skill and proficiency level -> Job
title and function
Resource calendar
Resource limit (MH / day)
Resource cost ($ / MH)
Budget and Cost

Top-down approach: for upper management

Bottom-up approach: for accurate estimate

Budget (total) and spending plan (monthly distribution)

Resource dictionary and cost account

Budgeted cost=Budgeted unit (man-hour) x Price per unit

($/MH) for each activity

Roll up to Project, EPS or WBS level

 P3 Vs. P6

P3 P6 Remarks
Scope Project based Enterprise-wide
project project
management a age e management
Project Structure Single Multiple (EPS), Hierarchical
Global (Enterprise) Enterprise Project
Structure (EPS)
Work Project Manger Project Mangers for Hierarchical
Responsibility Multi-project (OBS) Organization
Breakdown
Structure (OBS)
User Single Multi-User
Database PC based 16-bit Server Based, SQL or For stand alone use
database Oracle (MS SQL) MSDE
File Structure Multiple File Single File (*.xer)
Schedule Calculations
• When a schedule has a Closed Network scheduling the project will
identify the:
• Critical Path(s)
• Total Float
• Free Float
Closed Network
In a Closed Network every activity, except the project
start milestone(s) and finish milestone(s). has one or
more:
• Start Predecessors, and
• Finish Successors.
Critical Path(s)
• The Critical Path is the shortest duration that a
project may be completed in and a delay to any
activity will delay the end date of the project,
shown in red below :
Total Float
• The Total Float is the amount of time an activity may be 
delayed without delaying the end of a project .
• An activity with Total Float may delay another activity,
• May be displayed in a column and in the Gantt Chart, as 
per the thin black bar below and
• May be negative .
Free Float
The Free Float is the amount of time an activity may be
delayed without delaying another activity.

• Displayed only in a column and
• Is never in the negative.
Constraints
• To correctly model the impact of events outside the
logical sequence, you may use constraints.

• A constraint would be imposed to specific dates such as:

– The availability of a facility to allow work to
commence, or
– The predetermined time a project must be
complete by

• Constraints should be cross-referenced to the supporting

documentation such as contract documentation
Milestone Dates.
Constraints Type
• There are two types of constraints :

• Project Constraints which includes the

Project
– Start Date and Project Finish Date, and

• Activity Constraints; the two most common

are Start On or After (Early Start) and Finish
On or Before (Late Finish )
Primavera File Types
Primavera propriety file formats :
• XER - Exchange one or more projects between
Primavera databases
• PLF - Exchange Layouts between Primavera databases
• ANP- Saves the position of activities in an Activity
Network
• ERP- Exchange Reports between Primavera databases
regardless of the database
• PCF - Exchange Global Changes between Primavera
databases
• XML - A new Primavera PM format introduced with
Primavera Version 6.0 which is used to import data from
the Project Manager module.
Project (* .mpp). This is the default file format that Microsoft Project uses to
create and save files. Microsoft Project 2007 is a different format to the
2000 - 2003 format, which is different to 98 format
• Note: Primavera 6.0 and 6 .1 will not import any .mpp file when Microsoft
Project 2007 is installed as MSP 2007 disables this function
Primavera 6 .0 and 6. 1 will import or export to the following file types:
• Project 2000 - 2003 ( * .mpp)
• Microsoft Project 98 ( *.mpp)
• MPX ( * .mpx). This is a text format data file created by Microsoft Project 98
and earlier versions
• Microsoft Project formats such as Project Database ( .mpd), Microsoft Access
Database ( *.mdb) and ( *.mpt) can be imported, however Microsoft Project
is required to be installed on the computer.
• Primavera Project Planner P3 and SureTrak files saved In (P3)format. A 
SureTrak project in SureTrak format should be saved in Concentric ( P3)
format before importing .
• XLS. Primavera Version 5.0 has a new function allowing the Import and 
export of data in xls format
Now Lets get our hands dirty!