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
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CPM Scheduling 101: How Primavera Scheduling Works
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You've probably heard of CPM Scheduling at some point. While you may feel like you don't need to concern yourself with it, there's decent likelihood that you'll be up to your armpits in the Critical Path Method once that big project gets rolling. Yes, Primavera P6 does run all sorts of fancy algorithms when you hit F9 - but having at least a fundamental knowledge of how CPM Scheduling works is
Convert an EPS Activity Code to a Project Activity Code in Primavera P6
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The Primavera P6 EPS Activity Code is great when we want to have a set of Activity Codes available to certain projects based on where they sit in your EPS structure. An example might be having a set of Activity Codes for each Department in your database. Typically, EPS nodes would be set up for each Department, allowing an organization to specific a set of EPS Activity Codes for each Department
Create A Festive Gantt Chart Xmas Tree In Primavera P6
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For all you creative types out there who love to create something awesome in a manner which is rather non-traditional....this tutorial is for you. We've already shown you have to colorize the P6 Gantt chart, but in the spirit of the holidays, here are the steps to create a festive Gantt chart Xmas tree (Holiday Wreath) in Primavera P6, complete with decorations. Getting Started with the Gantt
Plan a Festive Holiday Wreath in Primavera P6
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Back by popular demand is another festorial in Primavera P6. Who says the lowly Gantt Charts can't be fun & festive? In the spirits of the holidays (and of using Project Management software in ways never intended), I'd like to present you with an Advanced-level Festorial on creating a holiday wreath (Xmas tree). Show off your skills, impress your project controls manager (or your
Can Mastering Oracle Primavera P6 Enhance Your Career?
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Yes mastering Oracle Primavera P6 can enhance your career... Here’s how and why you should work your way up to a Project Controller or Manager position. In Numbers: The Construction Project Controller/Manager job ranked #1 in the top construction jobs in the United States in 2021. It also ranked #52 in the Best 100 Jobs in the United States - also ranking #2 in the highest salary rankings for
Use Expected Finish in Primavera P6 to Speed Updates
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I'd love to see some stats on the average size of a Primavera P6 schedule. I've never come across any stats, but based on experience and lots of consulting and web-research, it's pretty clear that today's project schedules are the chunky big brother to their slim and compact sibling of 10 or 15 years ago. Schedules are becoming bloated with data. Why? We have computers & software that
7 Earned Value Management Formulas To Know For Project Controls
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As a project controls professional, one of the most important things to understand is that there are a huge number of different formulas that can make your life significantly easier on a daily basis -- provided that you know when, where and how to utilize them properly. Have you ever spent countless hours of your precious time trying to figure out if the value of the project you're working on
6 Ways To Clean Up Your Primavera P6 Database Nightmare
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This is the first part in our series on Primavera P6 databases and data cleansing. Many of you work in Primavera P6 databases that are a complete nightmare - hundreds of global calendars, duplicate resources all over the place, redundant codes and more copies of projects than anyone should ever need in their lifetime. You may act like these don't bother you, but somehow logging in to P6 in the
Construction Mental Health… Why Bother Talking About It?
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Why talk Construction Mental Health in the first place? The construction industry has been painted with masculine tones for decades. We often assume that in this predominantly masculine work culture, issues such as mental health are just not that prevalent. Well… that is wrong! “The real mental epidemic today is that we are all struggling to put on a show and pretend that everything's OK all
20 Quotes To Supercharge A Project Controller’s Daily Habits
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Project controls are vital to any construction contracting business. Providing practical estimates of appropriate time, cost, and results of the project is an essential foundation leading up to effective decisions made by management. For project controls planners, finding inspiration for success may be as guide-less as a feather floating in mid-air, or requires as much effort as trying to
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
P6 Export to Excel: Number Formatting Secret
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We all struggle with the same issue when exporting data from Primavera P6 to Microsoft Excel for analysis, progress updating and graphing. Excel does not seem to recognize numbers as numbers! That is because P6 formats all data exports as text (appends an apostrophe in front of all data). This makes getting clean data from P6 (even filtered data) extremely difficult. Often we would like to
How To Run a Schedule Check Using Deltek Acumen Fuse
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In this post I’m going to do talk about a tool that’s new to me: Deltek Acumen Fuse. Although the tool itself has been around for a long time, many people (myself included) haven’t integrated it into their toolkits, and it’s time to change that. If your department is serious about project scheduling and you're not using Deltek Acumen Fuse, then you're missing out on some serious power-house
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
How To Import P6 Assignment Codes from Excel
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Perhaps you’ve noticed that as of December 2020, there are some new features in Primavera P6 EPPM (Enterprise Project Portfolio Management), which we are going to take a look at today. Specifically, we’ll talk about Assignment Codes, one of the new Primavera P6 features here to make our jobs easier. But only, of course, if you know how to use everything right. Note: If you didn’t read my last
Primavera P6: How To Use Assignment Codes as Cost Accounts
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Cost accounts: love ‘em, hate ‘em? I’ll tell you what, though: If you're cost-loading a Primavera P6 schedule, you should be using cost accounts. Now, chances are good you haven’t yet because they’re hard to use. I get it; they’re really inflexible. They were designed so that you set them up once for a whole database, and you can't have different versions of them for different projects. Ergo,
Primavera P6 Version 20.12 Is Out. Here’s What’s New.
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Just before the Christmas break, Oracle quietly released Primavera P6 Professional version 20.12. I've had a few days to explore this latest version of P6. Here's what's new in Primavera P6 Professional version 20.12. In case you forgot, Oracle publishes updates to the on-premise version of Primavera P6 annually in December. So we've all had a full year to adjust to Primavera P6 version 19.12 -
Primavera P6 Settings Video Series – NEW
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Primavera P6 sure has a lot of settings. Endless options, preferences, customizations and tools means a lot of confusion for almost any regular P6 user. Luckily, to try and help ease your climb up the mountain that mastering P6 can feel like, Plan Academy has been releasing a series of helpful videos covering the many settings and options inside the sometimes-perplexing software. If you follow
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,
Track Construction Delays with this Free Delay Log Tracker
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Construction delays costs both Owners and Contractors millions of dollars each and every year. According to a Arcadis' 2020 Global Construction Disputes Report, the global average value of disputes was $30.7 million USD in 2019. That's a lot costs tied up in claims, legal battles and disputes. With so much importance put on managing costly construction delays, why don't we have a better
Benefits of Cost-Loading Your Construction Schedule
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Should you cost-load your construction project schedule? What are the benefits of cost-loading your schedule? Whenever either construction Owners or Contractors are looking at a new project, that's when these important questions come up. I'm going to look at the benefits and tradeoffs of cost-loading a construction schedule from the perspectives of both the Owner and the Contractor. Let's
How To Help Your Project Controls Team Love Online Learning
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Offering online learning for a construction project controls team, to me, seems like a no-brainer. Project controls is tough work. If I had a team of project controllers, I would want them to feel valued and supported in their jobs as much as possible. Because I'm in the business of educating project teams, I do my best to stay on top of workplace trends related to learning, productivity and
Primavera P6 Pro v19.12 is here. Here’s What’s New.
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Primavera P6 Professional version 19.12 was released by Oracle on Dec 23rd of last year. Let me highlight some of the new features, bug fixes and enhancements that you'll want to know about. Let's go! What's new in Primavera P6 Professional version 19.12 Watch the video to see what's new. Read-on for a detailed list of ALL of the
Quickly Export From Primavera P6 To Excel
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Faster is better. That should be Oracle Primavera's mantra. Well, in this case it is! Exporting Primavera P6 data to Excel could not be faster & easier with this quick tip. Getting Primavera P6 Activity data into Excel is essential. Excel's data crunching, grouping, pivoting and filtering is just so much easier to use than Primavera P6's. Even generating S-curves and graphs is better in
Construction Project WBS – Examples to Get You Started
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When it comes to planning a construction project, many of us prefer to re-use elements from previous plans and schedules. But what if you're starting from scratch with no construction project examples to draw from? And are your past projects adhering to construction WBS best practices? Most project planners start building their construction schedule by establishing a Work Breakdown Structure.
Primavera P6: Download a Free Trial
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Primavera P6 Professional is likely the most-used construction project management software package around today. Now at version 20.12, project controls planners & schedulers use Primavera P6 Professional to manage construction projects big and small around the globe. The Primavera P6 download process will let you download a free trial of Primavera P6 Project Management. And we'll take you
Plan Academy Named Spring 2019 “High Performer” by G2Crowd
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Bill Gates once said "We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve.” And as a budding online training enterprise, we at Plan Academy truly value the feedback of our clients. We love hearing from our students. And we always take their feedback into consideration when we plan a new course or training event. That's why we're excited to announce today that Plan Academy has
How To Import & Export Activity Layouts in Primavera P6
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Primavera P6's Activity Layouts can be a super-feature for helping you to plan, analyze, and progress a schedule. But what about exporting Activity Layouts to other copies of Primavera P6? In this post I'll show you how to import and export those precious Primavera P6 Activity Layouts. The Activity screen is where we spend 95% of our time as Primavera P6 users. Having a facility to configure
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
Open Zipped XER files in Primavera P6 v18 – New Feature
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As of Primavera P6 version 18, you can now import zipped XER files directly into Primavera P6. There's no need to uncompress them first. Primavera P6 will read the zip archive directly. Check out our zipped xer files video tutorial to see firsthand how it all works....and also what doesn't
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