It can get difficult to analyze the mountain of schedules you’re responsible for and our good friend Jerome Ijachi Odeh pulled together a list of 10 Must-Have Primavera P6 Layouts....ones you probably should be using everyday. So to help you take advantage of P6's powerful layout features (like these ones we've already told you about), here is a little sneak peek of 10 must-have Primavera P6
Primavera P6 Analysis Articles
Trying to analyze that Primavera P6 schedule? Here are some relevant articles that might help.
Out of Sequence Progressing in Primavera P6: Why Do We Care?
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In this post, we’re talking about as-built progress schedules, out of sequence and how that affects everything. But why do we care? What is as-built about and why do we have to fix out of sequence progress in Primavera P6? First, let me start by letting you know that I have a brand-new course that's coming out; it is the Advanced P6 Progressing course. In this course, we cover out of sequence
Bad P6 Progressing: Analysis With Deltek Acumen Fuse
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In this post, we're talking about bad P6 progressing. That's right. Bad P6 progressing. I'm about to launch a brand-new course called "Advanced P6 Progressing". In this new course, I show you how to progress all sorts of different ways, earn value, financial periods, and much more. But one of the things that we really dive deep into is bad P6 progressing - what you should not do when you progress
Analyzing Relationships With Deltek Acumen Fuse
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I am on a mission to learn and master Deltek Acumen Fuse software and I am bringing you along for the ride. Deltek Acumen Fuse is a powerhouse app that becomes an incredible tool in your arsenal if you’re doing P6 scheduling all the time and getting hammered by people who are analyzing it on the other end. So, I’m going to teach you how to get the best use out of Acumen Fuse. In this
What is the DCMA 14-point schedule assessment?
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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 Deltek Acumen Fuse and
How to Show the Critical Path in P6
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Not sure how to show the Critical Path in Primavera P6? Not sure if your project's critical activities might be hiding? Don't worry. Here are 4 easy ways you can laser-in on your project's Critical Path in P6 (including 3 reasons you might not have one). 4 Easy Ways to Show the Critical Path in Primavera P6 1. Check the Gantt Chart By default, the P6 Gantt chart will show your project's
Types of Schedule Delays in Construction Projects
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A 2020 report on worldwide Construction Claims states the global average value of a construction delay dispute to be a staggering US$30.7 million, a trend that has climbed upward from 2010. The report also indicates that the average dispute took 15 months to reconcile. You can read the full report from Arcadis here. Although claims and disputes are the inevitable result of delays to a project,
Use Primavera P6 Reflections To Merge Scenario Projects
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Reflection projects are a little-known but very handy feature in Primavera P6 Professional. A Primavera P6 Reflection project is essentially a copy of a project but with one snazzy built-in trick - the ability to merge the copied project back into the original at any time. If the genius of this trick hasn't struck you yet, it will. This merging ability was designed to help planners work with
How to Audit Your Primavera P6 Global Activity Codes
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I had a very simple question posed to me in the Plan Academy Member's Community area recently about auditing P6's Activity Codes. It was this: How can I prepare a report to see which projects use my Global Activity Codes? ie: Can I prepare a report where I can see all the “Global Activity Codes” used in each project in my Primavera P6 database? Posted by one our P6 trainees, it was a question
The Surprising Benefits of Project Risk Analysis
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“How do I convince my team that this is worth the effort?” This is one of the frequently asked questions that we run across during our discussions with project teams and it is a good question that deserves an answer. Project risk analysis is not without cost. It takes time and effort to develop the culture, processes and tools to perform them effectively and often, in the same way it takes
How To Find Relationship Lag in Primavera P6
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It's not very easy to find Relationship Lag in Primavera P6 project schedules. There aren't really any features to highlight which relationships have lag or lead time. But understanding how leads or lags are used on your Primavera P6 project is a vital part of analyzing a project schedule. We need a process to find relationship lag in Primavera P6 schedule. And I'm going to show you
How To Perform As-Planned Delay Analysis On A Construction Schedule
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When there are delays on a construction project and a delay claim has been issued, it's vital to determine who caused the delays and what happens next. Forensic Delay Schedule Analysis is broad area of expertise in project controls whereby a set of techniques are used to analyze a schedule and figure out who is at fault, whether a Time Extension should be granted and if there's monetary
How to Show the Baseline Critical Path In P6
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All project controls professionals know how critical is it to monitor our project's critical path. And we all know that comparing our project performance to a baseline is also essential. Most of us are doing this critical path and baseline monitoring in Primavera P6 every day. But what about monitoring our project's critical path vs our baseline critical path in P6? Of course, as we execute a
Primavera P6’s Longest Path Conundrum (and How To Fix It)
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It's become generally accepted across many industries using Primavera P6 that identifying and tracking a project's Longest Path is THE best method to keep your project's deadline in sight. And we've discussed that here on the blog before - that a project's Critical Path identified as the Longest Path, rather than the path where Total Float equals 0, provides the clearest Critical
Compare XER Files With Change Inspector
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What's the easy way to compare XER files? Are you an owner or client who uses Primavera P6 but has to review a schedule that is constantly being updated from a 3rd party? When receiving an updated schedule, a few common questions might include: What actuals data was changed since the last update? Were any activities added or deleted and how do I find them? Were there any other
Project Metrics vs KPIs – Knowing The Difference
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I had a manager once, back in my IT days, who suddenly insisted, "If I get another 12-page project report, I'm tossing it." It was too much data to process, so I paired my report down to a 1-page project dashboard that highlighted KPIs for all of my projects. He loved it. And it soon became a template that was adopted throughout the office. That was 12 years ago. But today, we're all still
What in the World is an S-Curve? [In under 100 words]
14 Comments![What in the World is an S-Curve? [In under 100 words]](https://www.planacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/definition-of-S-curve-264x200.jpg)
An S-curve is a graph of the expenditure of project resources over time. Typical S-curves graph either costs or resource hours over time. The S-curve graphs the cummulative value of expenditures on the y-axis, giving the graph it's S shape. S-curves will often graph planned values, with the actual curve overlayed for comparison. The real benefit of the S-curve is that it shows the total
Critical Path vs Longest Path
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When it comes to your project's Critical Path, there are few topics more important to your client. The expectation is that YOU, dear scheduler, are the expert. So YOU had better know your project's Critical Path inside and out. But wait! ......Is it the Critical Path you should be reporting on, or the Longest Path? The terms Critical Path and Longest Path are often used interchangeably when
What is Primavera P6 Visualizer?
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The new version of Primavera P6, r8.3, has been released recently, and one of the new features is a stand-alone software, called the Primavera P6 Visualizer. This software provides you with a visual, read-only version of the plans you’ve stored in the P6 database. The Primavera P6 Visualizer is a good choice for those team members who are not supposed to change anything in plans, but need to
Create a P6 Project Dashboard in Excel
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Tutorial Files Excel Spreadsheet (Excel 2007+): PTuts_Project_Dashboard.xlsm - 1.5Mb One of our previous site manager told us (the project control team), that if we bring to him another report that have more than 1 page, he will just throw it away (sic), actually managers care only about the big picture, and don’t bother reviewing every small details. The purpose of this tutorial is to
Quick Tip: Mixing AND and OR Options in Primavera P6 Filters
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Building a filter where all the conditions are either 'And' or ‘Or’ between each row is pretty straightforward. However, if you want to mix them up a little its not so obvious how you should do that in Oracle Primavera P6 Professional. This quick tip will show you how. Example: I want to find all the milestones in the project that have a date variance that is not equal to zero. In other words,
Excel VLOOKUP Tutorial – Step by Step for Primavera P6 Users
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Primavera users are also Excel users. As many of you know, Microsoft Excel has many useful functions in different areas such as Financial, Date & Time, Math & Trig and so on. One of these areas is Look up & Reference. The functions in this area are dealt with lists, indexes and arrays and help us to find some special information in these listed data or other. This required information
How To Shade Non-Workable Time on the P6 Gantt Chart
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It turns out that people like pictures. Yes, that's right, we love pictures....and we love the Gantt Chart. What makes the Gantt Chart so essential is that it simplifies something that is complex. It gives us a snapshot and a trend that our brain can digest rather than just text and numbers. Getting the Gantt Chart to look the way you need it is a really key skill for Primavera
How to Build a Lookahead Filter in Primavera P6
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A lookahead filter in Primavera P6 provides us with the ability to create lookahead reports. Lookahead reports are one of the centerpieces of consistent project reporting and controlling. Lookahead reports filter and highlight upcoming activities in the project. Most common lookahead reports focus on activities scheduled for the upcoming week, next 2 weeks, next 3 weeks, next month and next 3
