Project Planning Vs Project Manager - Useful Video

Useful Video - Difference between Project Planning Vs Project Management

 

http://www.projectmanager.com/project-planning-vs-project-management-spot-the-difference.php

 

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Contribution: By Primavera Community, UAE

Understanding P6 Dates- By Ron Winter

"Much Ado about Dates" Understanding P6 Date Information Ron Winter, PSP and F. Burak Evrenosoglu, CCE PSP

Presented at the AACEi Annual Conference, July 1, 2009

More Details about Author : http://www.ronwinterconsulting.com/published.htm
 
1. IntroductionSince its initial introduction in early 80’s, Primavera Project Manager (P3™) scheduling software has been a popular tool used by schedulers, project managers and claims consultants. The construction industry relies heavily on this software to develop, maintain and analyze project schedules. In 1999, Primavera introduced an entirely new Critical Path Method (CPM) scheduling package designed for enterprise-wide project management which changed names almost yearly. P3 remained "P3" while this new enterprise-wide software is now called either P5 (short-hand for Primavera Project Manager™) or P6™ (for Enterprise Version 6.)

Besides a fundamental shift in the way that dates are conceptualized, Primavera Inc’s newest and most powerful scheduling software, P6, has more kinds of useable dates than any other software in existence. The majority of P6 users are unaware of the underlying calculations for new date fields and their usage.

P3 users are frequently confused by the issue of dates when converting to P6. This is partly
because the same company produces both P3 and P6 and partly due to the incorrect assumption that P3 must be an earlier version of the current P6 software. Date fields with similar names in both P3 and P6 behave differently in one than in the other. A plethora of new date fields in P6 create a steep learning curve. A lack of documentation regarding these features creates a potential for real confusion.

This paper discusses the underlying calculations for P6 date fields and their potential uses. It also identifies the issues related to them. For brevity, this paper assumes that the reader is familiar with the P3 date characteristics and deals mainly with differences that an experienced P3 user would understand or expect. Highlights of some of the P6 date issues discussed in thispaper include:

Schedulers are familiar with early and late dates. The whole purpose of CPM is to

calculate the early and late dates so that the criticality of activities can be determined.

P6 and P3 use fundamentally different method to calculate and store traditional CPM
dates.
In addition to the traditional CPM date fields, P6 contains numerous other date fields

that are not included in traditional college courses on CPM scheduling. Planned start/finish dates are confusing to many P6 users. This is because planned dates are neither static like baseline dates nor dynamic like early and late dates once the activity has progressed. Planned dates might end up being your baseline dates,and yet they are not truly a baseline. Planned dates do not always display planned information. In some instances they display budgeted and current information as well. So the question becomes, how do the planned start/planned finish dates come into play for you as a project manager?

Many P6 users are puzzled to see complete activities where early and late dates differ from actual dates. Does that mean P6 calculates early and late dates for completeactivities? If so, total float for complete activities can be calculated. Is this as-built float? So how do the early/late dates come into play for you as a claims consultant?

P6 introduced a new float field called remaining float which is dependant on resource leveling. So how does remaining float come into play for you as an earned value professional or as a scheduler? Flexibility and abundance of date fields can be a benefit to the scheduler in developing the work plan if the scheduler is aware of the underlying calculations and uses them purposefully. 

Similarly, claims consultants must understand the P6 date fields so that they can analyze clients’schedules in their original format, without converting to P3.

Level Definitions for programme

                                                  Core Scheduling Papers: #6

Schedule Levels – Major Projects

Level 1 Schedule Executive Summary, also called a Project Master Schedule (PMS). This is a major milestone type of schedule; usually only one page, it highlights major project activities, milestones, and key deliverables for the whole project. It is used to summarise the project schedule in reports and other documents when a more detailed schedule is not required. Frequently developed by the ‘client’ as part of its initial feasibility studies for the project and then maintained by the contractor. Can be used to integrate multiple contractors / multiple project schedules into an overall program schedule.

Level 2 Schedule Management Summary, also called a Summary Master Schedule (SMS). Maintained as a summarisation of the Level 3 Project Coordination Schedule(s). It depicts the overall project broken down into its major components by area and is used for higher-level management reporting. Frequently developed by the ‘client’ as part of its commitment planning for the project and then maintained by the contractor. Can be used to integrate multiple contractors / multiple project schedules for the overall control of a program. It will include the Level 1 information expanded to show activities by area or major item of capital equipment.

Level 3 Schedule Project Coordination Schedule (PCS) also called a Publication Schedule. Initially developed as an integrated CPM overview of the project, the Level 3 schedule is then maintained as an integrated rollup or summary of the Level 4 schedule activities for reporting status to senior management and to report monthly status to major clients, etc. The schedule consists of a set of integrated Level 4 schedules based on Critical Path Methodology (CPM) and is developed with detailed input from the project management team. Usually developed by the ‘main contractor’ as part of its tendering process for the project or by the project team during the initial phases of planning. The Level 3 schedule spans the whole of the project and is used to support the monthly report. It includes all major milestones, major elements of design, engineering, procurement, construction, testing, commissioning and/or start-up. If the Level 4 schedules are primarily developed by trade/sub-contractors, during the initial phases of the project the Level 3 schedule provides the schedule framework and constraints used by the subcontractors to develop their tenders. During the execution phase of the project this schedule defines the overall critical path and is the primary coordination tool for the overall project.

Level 4 Schedule Execution Schedule, also called a Project Working Level Schedule. Level 4 is the detailed working level schedule, where each schedule is an expansion of part of a Level 3 schedule, and is established within the integrated project schedule. This is the key working level CPM schedule displaying the activities to be accomplished by the project workforce and is required for every project. The dates generated by the schedule activities represent the anticipated start and completion of work required to complete the project. If there is no ‘Level 3’ schedule, activities in future months/years may be summary in nature but still provide approximate start and completion dates for major pieces of work (this is called ‘rolling wave scheduling’). Developed by the ‘contractor’, ‘subcontractor’ (trade contractor), or the project team prior to commencing work on the project execution, or work in a phase or area of the project. The Level 4 schedule may be for the whole of the project or a part of the project depending on the size of the project and complexity of the work. A critical factor is keeping each ‘Level 4’ schedule to a sensible size that can be easily managed, updated, validated, etc. ‘Level 4’ schedules may be for major sections of the work or for discrete processes such as a ‘Design Schedule’, ‘Procurement schedule’ and/or a ‘Commissioning Schedule’. Generally, the ‘Level 4’ schedule represents the area of authority of a section manager or engineer, so one manager is responsible for all of the work in the schedule. Activities are generally over a week in duration (depending on the nature of the project). Where used, short term ‘look ahead’ are produced from this level; typically ‘Three Week Look-ahead’ schedules are updated every two weeks. Level 5 Schedule Detail Schedule. The further breakdown of the activities of a Level 4 Schedule. A short term schedule used to map out the detailed tasks needed to coordinate day to day work in specific areas. Blog Contributor: Karthik T. (Planner, UK)

© Practical PM Pty Ltd, 2010 www.mosaicprojects.com.au/Planning.html

Topic: Delay and Disruption Protocol

This Protocol has been prepared by the Society of Construction Law for determining extensions of time and compensation for delay and disruption. Published on October 16th 2002, It exists to provide guidance to all parties to the construction process when dealing with time/delay matters. It recognises that transparency of information and methodology is central to both dispute prevention and dispute resolution.

http://www.scl.org.uk/

Learning Outcomes:

It's a useful literature to be aware of delay determination and methods of delay analysis recommended by SCL

Please give me your feedback

Thanks

Nitin

Benefits of Safety

Benefits of Safety 

• Obtain measurable safety environment scores based on positive KPI’s
• Provide opportunity for continuous improvement throughout project lifecycle
• Provide simple tools that act as motivational means for the workforce

Safety

Safety 

With over 5 year ’s international experience on renowned projects in Australia and Middle East, Nitin has consulting expertise in the following areas:

• Develop positive performance Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) for safety environment measurement
• Monitoring and providing feedback of safety performance during the project against positive KPI’
• Trend analysis of safety positive and negative KPI’s during the project
• Performance measurement of safety systems in construction