A Level of Effort activity is used primarily to resource-load an ongoing support activity in Primavera P6 schedule. It’s a handy activity type.
We’ve previously sighted some example activities you might use a Level of Effort activity type for, such as:
- project management activities
- equipment maintenance activities
- client meetings
These are all considered support-type activities; they support the real heavy-lifting-type work – the installing, the erecting, the pouring and such.
If you’re not us to speed on LOE’s, check out our Level of Effort FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions).
A Level of Effort activity not only has dates that are dependent on its predecessors and successors, but it also gets actuals or progress data in the same way.
Yes, a Level of Effort activity gets it’s actual start and finish dates from the activities it summarizes. What do I mean by “summarize”? I’m referring to the string of activities that a Level of Effort is connected to at its head and tail. It’s said to summarize these activities.
As you progress those summarized activities, the Level of Effort activity automatically calculates it’s own progress. P6 will update it’s Actual Duration, Remaining Duration and Duration % Complete.
Yes, what about Level of Effort and Percent Complete Types?
Well, I thought I would first show you how this all works with Duration % Complete percent complete type set on a Level of Effort. Watch the video below to see how progressing affects a Level of Effort using Duration % Complete.
How does a Level of Effort get progress when it’s set to Physical Percent Complete?
Since Physical Percent Complete is uncoupled from dates and durations, there’s an extra step. You’ll need to manually update the LOE Physical Percent Complete field. Watch this second video to see how a Level of Effort is affect by progress when it is set to the Physical Percent Complete percent complete type.
Wrap-Up
Level of Effort Activities in Primavera P6 get their progress information from the activities they summarize. Armed with a bit more knowledge of P6, you should be on your way to building some killer schedules now! Go get ’em!
Michael A wonderful tutorial as always. Could you have an upcoming tutorial on “Project Tracking and progress updating”, showing best practices for project tracking?
@TM I’ll see what I can do.
Do the activities the the LOE summarizes have to be completed in order?
I set up a spool removal project with 23 different locations, each with a WBS and they all have 2 or 3 activities per location. The first activity of each location was completed the same week and the other steps are stepped out after that. After setting up a LOE it does grab the first start date but it finishes on the same day and has a 100% status even tho there are several steps not completed.
You need to ensure your original duration is changed to match your at completion duration. Then your duration % will work fine.
@Luke,
It sounds like the LOE’s successor activity might be incorrect. LOE’s reflect the status of the activities they summarize. So if the LOE is 100% complete, it’s possibly not summarizing the right activities?
The LOE doesn’t care if the activities are executed in order, but P6 usually does. Check out our post on handling out of sequence activities.
M
TX Michael,
Could please explain how can I record the % involvement of resources assigned to different projects with LOE?
E.g. I hv construction manager assigned to construction activity (LOE) for four projects, how can I show % of involvement of this resource for different projects?
Best
Neda
Hi Michael,
Thanks for your tutorial on LOE.
Considering your 2nd video, “Physical % Complete” on LOE, How did you mention 6%?, Is that an assumption? otherwise, can we go for Duration%Complete=Physical % Complete, it would give us 6.67% ?
Waiting for your response
Regards
Asif
How can I have some tasks EG Procurement excluded from % Complete.
In other words I do not want these tasks to affect my %
This works well but one issue I’m having is external activities with relationships to activities inside the LOE ‘hammock’, can cause the progress to regress if they are not on schedule. For example, if I am pouring a foundation, I want my LOE to span from say excavation to final grouting, I can excavate and start forms but if there is a delay in say, rebar delivery, that delay will cause my remaining units to regress as it pushes it’s successor activities. Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Josh
Josh – do you mind sending me a word doc with a few screenshots of this in action? michael[at]planacademy[dot]com
Hi, what to do if the LOE do not calculate % complete and do not allow to enter manually Activity complete % either Actual MH? Do I miss something in the settings?
Thank you.
I’m going to guess that maybe your LOE is not setup with the proper relationships. LOEs will summarize the activities that they are linked to (see above). So are the relationships in place properly?
I’m having a similar issue, LOE’s in a Project that in some cases show a Duration % reflecting the overall duration for the WBS, and in other cases show 0% can’t work out what the missing piece is
Hi, great article but just wanted to point out the link to the Level of Effort FAQ article links back to this page. Cheers.
Hi,
Can u please give an example where all activities (including LOE) is updated in unit % complete. As the activities are updated with unit % complete, will LOE be updated automatically as unit % complete?