Tracking a project effectively is one of the most challenging requirements a project manager will face. Every customer has its own set of requirements and data that they want to consider; but in general, it’s all about costs, schedule and scope. The effectiveness of a project tracker is vital for a project progress as it represents a snapshot of the current conditions and can be useful for
Primavera P6 and Project Management - Articles and Tutorials
Articles and tutorials that discuss all aspects of Primavera P6 and project management for planners & schedulers.
8 Traits Of Successful Project Controls Professionals
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Unlike engineers who typically study engineering or banking professionals who study finance, project control professionals are a group of individuals who come from a diverse background. In my career I have worked with engineering, business, finance, economics and political science college graduates. I have also worked with individuals who had no college degree having worked their way up through
10 Top Project Management Podcasts You Should Start Listening To
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Time is of the essence and podcasts are a great way to get in your daily or weekly learning sessions. It’s all about convenience and we’ve put together a list of the top 10 Project Management Podcasts that can help you grow within your industry. Check out the top 10 Project Management Podcasts you should start listening to, and have bookmarked. Projectified™ with PMI
Construction Projects: What I Saw On My Visit To London
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London is a big and inspiring city. I had the chance to spend a week there for a bit of work and a bit of play. I managed to attend 2 excellent conferences, although they are quite underelated. I attended Chris Ducker's first Youpreneur event, and then later the 7th Project Controls Expo. As I walked around the city during the course of the week, I saw lots of construction activity going on in
My Favourite Quotes About Learning On The Job
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Learning often comes with a curve that can pull you up quickly and leave you wondering if you are cut out for what you are trying to accomplish. It can be comforting, motivating and inspiring to know that people from all walks of life have felt exactly like you do. To do just that for you, I've gathered together some of my favourite quotes that are designed to encourage and support you when
7 Productivity Killers You Should Avoid [INFOGRAPHIC]
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The internet is rife with tips about productivity tools, techniques and hacks. So many of us are searching for ways to improve our productivity, get the most out of our time and find great tools to help us. Implementing techniques and tools is great, but we can't ignore the "silent productivity killers." A study from the University of London found that people who multi-tasked while doing a
My Favourite Quotes on Construction & Building
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Throughout history, builders have always been revered for their ability to mold the natural elements into something new, perhaps something never seen before. Building is therefore a creative act on a momentous scale. For those lucky enough to be involved in Construction & Building, it's an incredible joy to be involved in bringing forth from mere drawings and ideas a structure that will
Ask Plan Academy: How To Fix P6 Partial Durations
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Today we're starting a new series on Plan Academy where will be answering your Primavera P6 and project controls questions in video rather than in text. Video is such a great medium to explore and it's one that I want to continue to hone my skills with. So welcome to Ask Plan Academy. Here's a great question from Raj: "In Construction, is it acceptable to have partial durations on my project?
The Ultimate Project Planning and Scheduling Glossary
Don't Let Terminology Stop You From Reaching Your Project Goals You've probably heard terms like Predecessor(s), Physical Completion, Precedence Diagramming Method, Loop, and Hammock thrown around the office or in the field once or twice but what do they mean in regards to the project at hand? We've gathered 70 of the most important terms and compiled them in an e-book reference for you.
6 Tips To Manage Decision Fatigue: It’s Not as Difficult as You Think
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Are you overwhelmed with all of the decisions you have to make as soon as you walk into work? You might have decision fatigue. In one day have you ever felt like you’ve made so many decisions that it would suffice for a whole month? Each decision we make adds to decision fatigue. According to Wikipedia, in decision making and psychology, decision fatigue is when the quality of decisions
Primavera P6 64-Bit or 32-Bit: Which Should You Install?
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There was a decision to be made. It was just a simple check box. But looking back now, I'm as surprised as Robert Frost to the difference it made. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. --Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken. Not that installing software
Earned Value Management Formulas Cheat Sheet
Do you remember every Earned Value formula? I sure don't. That's why a cheat sheet is a handy way to keep the most important Earned Value formulas right beside you, when you need them. Make sure you're really on budget, and don't wait for a surprise. Keep Important Earned Value Management Formulas Right At Your Finger Tips. Download our Earned Value Management Formulas Cheat Sheet, print it
Building Status Reports – September 2015
Primavera P6 Genius Bar is a series where Michael answers questions to your most pressing Primavera P6 problems, in a live online format. Hi Folks, We haven't run the Genius Bar as much as I had hoped throughout this year, but I'm giving it a comeback. September 2015's Primavera P6 Genius Bar had some great questions about reporting, reflections and baselining - all very relavant topics for
74 Days Early: How One Construction Co. Beat Its Deadline & Won Millions (And How They Did It)
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341,000 vehicles a day traveled that section of the Santa Monica Freeway, making it amongst the busiest stretches of freeway in the Unites States of 1994. When the Northridge earthquake struck in January, 2 bridges fell from the I-10 causing death and devastation and leaving the Calfornia Department of Transportation (CalTrans) in a major pickle. The closure of the highway was estimated to have
The Biggest Resume Formatting Mistakes To Avoid [INFOGRAPHIC]
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Are you in the middle of a career change, or looking for a position in Project Management and not sure how to craft your resume? It's always said that a one page resume with value is better than a 5 pager. These days, the best way to go is to always give your resume a facelift specific to the industry and position. By targeting the job and formatting your resume appropriately, this will help
10 Ways eLearning Can Maximize Your ROI [INFOGRAPHIC]
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Are you looking to invest in eLearning for your team but don't want to deal with the lost in revenue and added expenses? Can investing in eLearning positively impact your ROI and your team anyways? - That's the question people tend to ask. Back in the day, investing in training for your team was like a field trip. Time had to be taken off of work resulting in loss of revenue, resources to
How To Create A Pivot Chart in Excel
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Are you faced with a mountain of excel data, and need to consolidate it into a usable format so that it can be easily filtered grouped and sorted? Welcome to the world of pivot tables! Pivot Tables are part of most spreadsheet or business intelligence software packages. They can be used with any kind of data that is stored in columns, but are extremely useful when the data is so large that it
When should I use Free Float? [in under 100 words]
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In layman's terms, Free Float tells you if an activity is "bumped up" to its successor activity (FF=0) or if there is a delay between the activity and its successor (FF>0). Use Free Float to help you understand if you have flexibility to delay / extend an activity without delaying its successor. You can bump right up to it. This is valuable in manual resource leveling where you may have to
Advanced Critical Path Analysis In Primavera P6 – February 2015
You're monitoring your project's Critical Path, but are you on-top of Near-Critical Activities? In this broadcast, Michael shows you how to use P6's built-in analysis tools to understand: the difference between Critical Path by Total Float vs Longest Path how to alter P6's definition of a Critical Activity how to perform Multiple Float Path analysis in P6 to identify near-critical paths
The Project Control Manager’s Guide to Getting Your Team Up and Running with Primavera P6
So, how exactly do you get your team up and running on Primavera P6? The answer is simple. Download this guide to learn 11 easy, efficient and effective steps that will help get your team up and running in no time at all. As a Project Control Manager, not only will it save you and your team valuable time and money, but it will save everyone the frustration and discourse that often comes with
The Origins Of Hammocks In Project Scheduling
When I think of a hammock, the first thing that comes to mind is a hammock hanging in the nice cool breeze between two tall palm trees in the Caribbean. In an article written by Patrick Weaver “The Origins of Hammocks and Ladders”, published in the PM World Journal, we get a glimpse of the origins of hammocks and why they were created in the first place. A hammock is an activity that hangs
4 Simple Tips To Have A Productive Team During The Holidays
It’s that time of the year and the holiday craze is unavoidable – it’s everywhere you turn. Are you feeling the crunch as yet? As we get ready for the holidays socially and professionally, don’t forget to pencil it in when scheduling all of those projects. It’s well known that lack of time, pressure to reach end of year expectations and fear of having work tiptoe its way into holiday time can
How To Recognize Chaotic Project Management Practices [INFOGRAPHIC]
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15.7 MILLION New Project Management Roles will be created between 2010 and 2020. Project management is making a big impact in several industries like Construction, business services and Oil & Gas among many others. 68% of projects fail due to poor project management according to IBM. With the increasing demands of project management, try avoiding the negative statistics and become a
Primavera P6 Professional 8.4 is Out: Should You Upgrade?
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A few days ago, Oracle released the latest updates to the Primavera P6 suite under version 8.4. At first, this seemed just like another version update with a few enhancements and bug fixes. But after I took a closer look, Primavera P6 Professional 8.4 ushers in some major architecture and feature changes for P6 Professional standalone users. Let's see what's new to understand what I
Bottom Up Planning for Builders – November 2014
Watch the recording. Is a Level 4 schedule too much detail for you? Learn how a Level 4 construction schedule can be built in 15 minutes. Watch and learn from planning & forensics expert Mike Testro for some live planning in this broadcast. Oh - and a special suprise - we're using Asta Power Project - not P6. But don't be fooled - we're talking about planning concepts, not software
[Quiz] World’s Biggest Construction Projects – Did They Come In On-Time or On-Budget?
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Project nightmare or dream development? The Eiffel Tower, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Titanic....did these construction projects hit their targets? Take our Quiz to see if you know how these iconic construction projects performed - did they come in on-time or on-budget? Enjoy & Have fun!
12 Quotes To Supercharge Project Controllers Daily Habits
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Project controls is vital to any 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 control planners, finding inspiration for success may be as guide-less as a feather floating in mid-air, or requires much effort like trying to recapture that feather that is
Forensic Delay Analysis – A Primer for P6 Schedulers – September 2014
If you work in project controls long enough, you're likely to learn about Forensic Delay Analysis the hard way - by being involved in some sort of claims dispute. Or you can watch this recorded webinar with our special guest Raf Düa to get a head start. This talk is focused on explaining the foundations of the processes Forensic Analysts use to help resolve delay claims in major projects across
Risk Management vs Risk Analysis – June 2014
To help us unclutter the confusion around Risk Analysis vs Risk Management, our guest Risk Analysis and Modeling expert Eric Torkia, M,Sc. shared his profound knowledge of Risk Analysis with us during this special members-only live webinar. Eric has helped companies world-wide understand the intricacies of building sound Risk Models to help predict the fallout from: un-realistic
Setting Up LOEs and Resource Loading Them
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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
How You Should Be Using Duration Types in Primavera P6 – March 2014
Our webinar this month was all about using P6's Duration Types feature to help you with resourcing. The Duration Types field offer 4 ways to adjust how the following Resourcing calculation executes: Duration x Units/Time = Units. In this LIVE webinar recording, you'll learn The basis for the resourcing equation : Duration x Units/Time = Units How P6's 4 Duration Types affect this
Layouts For Standard Tasks, How To Add Cost-Loaded Lump Sum, And Much More – February 2014
February 2014's webinar was a live Primavera P6 support webinar where members asked questions about Primavera P6 issues that they were struggling with. Here's what we covered in this support webinar: Layouts for standard tasks such as adding activities, interrogating a schedule, status updates, earned value management, cost management, schedule management. How to add cost loaded lump
