Primavera Project Management P6 Course session 4

PRIMAVERA P6
PROJECT
MANAGEMENT
Mohamed Adel

7/6/2018 11:03 PMThis material is copyrighted and not allowed to be shared without the permission of the course owner2
SESSION 4
Topic Status
Creating Calendars 100%
Setting Up the Enterprise Project Structure 100%
Setting Up the Organizational Breakdown Structure 100%
Reviewing Work Breakdown Structures 100%
Defining Budgets 100%
Defining Resources and Roles 100%
Establishing Project Codes 100%
Working with User-Defined Fields 100%
Till now we finished the following topics

Topic Status
Critical Path Method (CPM)
Establishing Activity Codes
Working with Activities
Working with Cost Accounts and Project Expenses
Performing Top-Down Estimation

Implementing Schedules
• General: Measurable amount of work performed to convert inputs into outputs.
• Activity based costing (ABC): Aggregations of actions performed in an organization which are useful for ABC
computations.
• Activities are the fundamental work elements of a project. They are the lowest level of a work breakdown
structure (WBS).Activities represent work that must take place in a determined amount of time.
• Project management: Smallest unit of work having four characteristics: (1) definite duration, (2) logic
relationships with other activities in the project, (3) resource consumption, and (4) an associated cost. Often
used as an alternative term for task.
So…Here We Are
What is an activity???...
1. Introduction

Use the Activity Table or Activity Network layouts to add activities and build your projects. Within these layouts,
you can define the following activity information:
• Activity ID and name – to uniquely identify and describe the activity
• Predecessor and successor relationships – to define relationships with other activities in the same project or
in different projects in the enterprise project structure (EPS)
• Activity start and finish dates
• Activity calendar
• Activity type, duration type, and percent complete type; whether an activity is a start or finish milestone;
how to keep an activity’s unit values, duration values, and resource units/time values synchronized; and how
to calculate an activity’s percent complete
• WBS element
1. Introduction

• Activity codes and values – to categorize activities
• Constraints on the activity’s scheduled start and finish dates
• Expenses
• Work products and documents, standards, and deliverables
• Resources
• Roles – to identify skill requirements for staffing the activity
• Notes and feedback – to communicate with the resource working on an activity
• Notes about performing the activity
• Steps – to divide the activity into smaller units
• Activity Step Templates – to define sets of reusable steps common to many activities in a project or across
projects
1. Introduction

But before going into Primavera let’s discuss about some definitions…so please pay attention.
2. CRITICAL PATH METHOD

Early start
Is the earliest time that an activity can start. An activity near the end of the path will only start early if all of
the previous activities in the path also started early. If one of the previous activities in the path slips, that
will push it out.
Early finish
Is the earliest time that an activity can finish. It’s the date that an activity will finish if all of the previous
activities started early and none of them slipped.
Late start
Is the latest time that an activity can start. If an activity is on a path that’s much shorter than the critical
path, then it can start very late without delaying the project – but those delays will add up quickly if other
activities on its path also slip!
Late finish
Is the latest time that an activity can finish. If an activity is on a short path and all of the other activities on
that path start and finish early, then it can finish very late without causing the project to be late

Free float
s the amount of time that an activity can be delayed without delaying the early start date of any successor
activity.
Free Float = ES of next activity - EF
Total Float
is the amount of time that an activity can be delayed from its early start date without delaying the project
finish date.
Total Float = LF - EF (or LS - ES)

What is CRITICAL PATH METHOD (CPM)
• the Critical Path Method or Critical Path Analysis, is a mathematically based algorithm for scheduling a set of
project activities
• It is an important tool for effective project management
• Commonly used with all forms of projects, including construction, software development, research projects,
product development, engineering, and plant maintenance, among Others
• Any project with interdependent activities can apply this method of scheduling
• The essential technique for using CPM is to construct a model of the project that includes the following:
i. A list of all activities required to complete the project (also known as Work Breakdown Structure)
ii. The time (duration) that each activity will take to completion
iii. The dependencies between the activities.

Exercise

Example

Practice Exercise

3. Activities relationship
Lead
Lead refers to a relationship
whereby the successor activity
begins before the predecessor
activity has completed.
Lag
Lag refers to a relationship
whereby the successor activity
cannot start right after the end of
its predecessor.

1. Establishing Activity Codes
Creating Activity Codes and Values
Activity codes represent broad categories of
information, such as design, quality control, or
location. For each code, you can define specific
values that further describe that category. For
example, if your organization has more than one
location, you can create a Location code with values
such as New York, San Francisco, and Chicago. You
can then associate activities with a specific location,
such as New York, and define an unlimited number
of values for each code.
Activity Codes
Global EPS Project

Create global activity code values
Choose Enterprise, Activity Codes. Choose Global. Select the activity code for which you want to create a value,
then click Add. Type the value’s name and description. The value cannot exceed the maximum character length
specified for the activity code. Click the Display Options bar, then Filter By, Current Projects’ Values to view only the
values assigned to the open projects. 7/6/2018 11:03 PMThis material is copyrighted and not allowed to be shared without the permission of the course owner21
Create global activity codes
Choose Enterprise, Activity Codes.
Choose Global, then click Modify. Click
Add, then type the name of the global
activity code. Specify the maximum
number of characters for the activity
code’s values.

Create EPS-level activity codes
Choose EPS, then click Modify. Click
Add to select the EPS to which you
want to apply the activity code. Next,
type the name of the EPS activity code.
Specify the maximum number of
characters for the activity code’s values.

Create EPS-level activity code values
Choose Enterprise, Activity Codes.
Choose EPS. Select the activity code for
which you want to create a value, then
click Add. Type the value’s name and
description. The value cannot exceed the
maximum character length specified for
the activity code.

Create project-level activity codes
Open the project for which you want to create activity codes, then choose Enterprise, Activity Codes. Choose
Project, then click Modify. Click Add, then type the name of the project activity code. Specify the maximum
number of characters for the activity code’s values.

Create project-level activity code values
Choose Enterprise, Activity Codes. Choose Project. Select the activity code for which you want to create a value,
then click Add. Type the value’s name and description. The value cannot exceed the maximum character length
specified for the activity code.

Convert EPS-level activity codes and values
You can convert an EPS-level activity code and its values to a global activity code with global values. Choose
Enterprise, Activity Codes. Choose EPS, then click Modify. Select the code you want to convert, then click
Make Global. Click Yes to convert the code and its values.
Convert project-level activity codes and values
You can convert a project activity code and its values to a global activity code with global values. Choose
Enterprise, Activity Codes. Choose Project, then click Modify. Select the code you want to convert, then
click Make Global. Click Yes to convert the code and its values.
Note: If you change activity codes or values, the module applies your changes to all activity
assignments. In addition, if you convert project activity codes to global activity codes, the
module applies these changes to all activity assignments.

Grouping and Summarizing by Codes
Use global, EPS, and project activity codes to group activities and projects in Activity Table, Gantt Chart, and Activity
Network layouts. Grouping helps you to focus on specific activities. The following example shows activities grouped
by the global activity codes Location and Project Manager.

2. Group by activity code
In the Activities window, click the Layout Options bar, then choose Group and Sort. Under Group By, click the first
available line, then select the project, EPS, or global activity code by which you want to group.

Summarize groups
By default, the module summarizes the data included under each group band at the group band level in the layout
and shows summary bars in the Gantt Chart. If the Gantt Chart is not displayed, click the Layout Options bar, and
choose Show on Top, Gantt Chart. The summary data are current up to the date when data were last summarized.
To display summary bars in the Gantt Chart, click the Layout Options bar, then choose Bars to display the Bars dialog
box.

3. Adding Activities
Choose Project, Activities, to
display the Activities window.
To add an activity to a project,
use the Activity Table and Gantt
Chart, or Activity Network.
Depending on your user
preferences, the New Activity
wizard may start to help you add
an activity.

Defining General Activity Information
Use the General tab to define general
information for the selected activity,
including duration type, WBS
assignment, primary resource, activity
type, and activity calendar.
In the Activities window, select the
activity whose general information
you want to define. Click the Layout
Options bar, then choose Show on
Bottom, Activity Details; click the
General tab.

4. Activity Types
There are six different ways that activities can behave
Each type will react differently to scheduling and each
type will have its own effect on dates:
• Start milestone
• Finish milestone
• Task dependent
• Resource dependent
• Level of Effort
• WBS summary
Activity Types
WBSsummary
LevelofEffort
Resourcedependent
Taskdependent
Finishmilestone
Startmilestone

Start milestone
A milestone represents an activity which has no time associated with it, though it can have costs and a resource
assigned as responsible for noting this activity as completed. Use these in the case where an activity needs to
report when it starts, not its progress or finish date. An example start milestone would be the beginning of the
construction phase of a project once all of the design phase has been completed. In this example, the start
milestone serves as a placeholder that marks the end of one set of tasks and the beginning of another.
Another example of a start milestone would be the delivery of a certain item to a job site. The item is scheduled
to be delivered at a certain date, and that is the milestone. In this case there may be expenses associated with it,
such as the payment for the delivery. There may also be a resource assigned; perhaps a specific person needs to
be there to receive the delivery. Progress payments can be milestones in the schedule, too. These activities will
have a start date, Early Start date and Late Start date. The start date will be calculated as the day after the
predecessor finishes work, but can vary based upon calendar settings and settings within the scheduling options.
About 5-10 percent of the schedule activities are designated as this type in a typical schedule.

Finish milestone
This is very similar to a start milestone, but represents the completion of a set of tasks. The main difference
between start and finish milestones is that start milestones cannot have finish constraints and finish
milestones cannot have start constraints. (Activity constraints are discussed later in this chapter and within
best practices section of this chapter.) These activities will have a finish date, Early Finish and
Late Finish date. The finish date will be calculated as the day after the predecessor finishes work, but can vary
based upon calendar settings and settings within the scheduling options. Use these in the case where an
activity needs to report when it finishes, not its progress or Start date. A good metric is that about 5-10
percent of the schedule activities are designated as this type in a typical schedule.

Task dependent
Task dependent activities are those that use the predecessors and successors to derive the sequence of activities.
These depend upon predecessors to finish and their successors depend upon them to start. This is most like the
natural order of the work and behaves in that way if all settings are correctly set. Choose this setting to have the
schedule calculate all dates (Early and Late Start, and Early and Late Finish) based on the progress of its
predecessor. The activity calendar is used to calculate dates in addition to predecessor progress. About 80 percent
of the schedule activities are designated as this type in a typical schedule. Therefore, the most common Activity
Type default should be task dependent.
Briefly Task Dependent is the most common type of activity. Using this duration type, a Task Dependent activity will
calculate its start as the next unit of time after the currently scheduled finish date of its predecessor in the logical
sequence that is created by its relationships. If activity A has a calculated finish date of end of working time as
Tuesday, then activity B will start at the beginning of working time Wednesday. But this will depend upon each item
in this table (assigned resource or role, calendars, settings, constraints, and so on).

Resource dependent
This activity depends on the resource for scheduling. Resource dependent activities are principally used in
conjunction with resource loaded schedules where resources have their own resource calendars. Resource
dependent activities rely on the assigned resource calendars to calculate all dates (early and late). For this scenario
to be successful entirely, the activity should only have those resources with their own
calendars assigned to it. This dictates that each resource's calendar be meticulously maintained either as a specific
person's or craft's (shared) calendar. The activity can only be scheduled using timeframes in the assigned resources'
calendar that was designated as working time. The resource, as a specific person, should have a valid P6 license in
order to manipulate their respective calendar. This type of activity is only appropriate when the work simply cannot
be scheduled or worked by another person or resource and work will stop and resume only during available
timeframes in the resource calendar. In the case of a non-labor resource, to schedule accurately, the resource
calendar needs to be up-to-date and indicate that resource's availability in terms of working time and non-working
time. Material resources do not rely upon a resource calendar since units of measure are not hours as in the case of
labor and non-labor resources.

In the case of a non-labor resource, to schedule accurately, the resource calendar needs to be up-to-date
and indicate that resource's availability in terms of working time and non-working time. Material resources
do not rely upon a resource calendar since units of measure are not hours as in the case of labor and non-
labor resources.

The following chart shows the difference between a task-dependent activity and a resource-dependent activity
during schedule calculations.

For example, assuming two days budgeted duration, two resources are assigned. Resource 1 is not available on
Monday and Resource 2 is not available on Tuesday. When the budgeted duration is two days, the start date is
determined for a task-dependent activity type as the first day after the predecessor's finish date. However, for a
resource-dependent activity type, the finish date is calculated as the earliest two days from which each resource
assigned can be completed. As a task-dependent activity, regardless of the resources' calendars, the activity is
always a two-day planned duration. As a resource-dependent activity, the activity depends on planned progress
based on when each resource can complete two days of work each. If the activity starts on Monday, Resource 2
can begin work, but Resource 1 is not available. On Tuesday, Resource 1 can work, but Resource 2 is not available.
On Wednesday, Resource 1 can complete his second day of work, and Resource 2 can complete her second day
of work. Therefore, the activity will display three calendar days of execution for two days of work. If the same
activity were delayed by logic to begin on Wednesday, then the activity will display two calendar days of
execution time for the two days of work.

Level of Effort (LOE)
are activities that are supportive in nature and are often referred to by a legacy feature from P3—Hammock
activities. This is an activity type where some work takes place regularly for the length of a phase or for the entire
project. Therefore it is attached at both ends to targets that can change independently of each other. When the
ends do move, then the work is automatically added to the schedule according to units per time. LOE can also be
used to roll-up activity information from a separate project.

The planned duration was calculated by P6, based on the span of time created by Drawing Set one (five days) and
successor Drawing Set Two (also five days) for a total of 10 days for the LOE activity. You can assign resources or
materials to the activity as a burn rate or units per time totaling the $1,500 weekly cost. As drawing sets are added
or delays occur (with appropriate relationships created) an additional $1,500 per extra week is added and the
planned duration will expand on the LOE activity, too. 7/6/2018 11:03 PMThis material is copyrighted and not allowed to be shared without the permission of the course owner42
For example, two hours of travel time and a three-hour meeting takes place during the design phase of a project at
a cost of $1,500 for room rental, gas, catering, and so on. In P6 this work could be represented by a LOE type
activity called Project Management Meetings and Expenses.

A good example is security. If you are capturing the time a security team is engaged on the job site, you
would tie the Start Mobilization at Job Site Start Milestone activity as a predecessor to the Monitor Security
of Job Site activity, and place a Finish Milestone (Complete Job Site Removal) as the successor.
As the predecessor activities of the LOE are statuses with actual dates, the LOE itself will automatically inherit
the earliest of these dates for its actual start date. As the data date is moved, and based on the balance of
activities' cumulative remaining duration within the context of the LOE, P6 will adjust the progress
accordingly. As the last successor to the LOE activity is "statused", P6 will automatically use the latest
successor date for the LOE Actual Finish

WBS Summary activity
is a type of activity that is rarely used but can be powerful when needed. The WBS Summary requires no
relationships because it inherits its dates from all other activities within the same WBS component when the
schedule is calculated (F9). This is useful when the project activities are more detailed than the level at which
actuals or costs are reported and collected.
When using this type of activity, clearly state that it is a summary activity in
the description field. There are no other visual indicators that this is a WBS
Summary type unless you look at the General tab of the activity details.

5. Duration Types
Duration Types
FixedDurationand
Units
FixedDurationand
UnitsperTime
FixedUnits
FixedUnits/Time
The Duration Type of an activity is the next
activity component that may affect dates.
Duration Type is often misunderstood and
often misused. Many tutors explain each one
and examine how each affects the scheduling
algorithm, but let's explain the algorithm and
then test it using each type.
The duration type calculates using the
standard algorithm already discussed:
Duration=Units / Units per Time

But the duration type lets the user decide what part is input and what part is calculated. Think of it as a triangle.
The Duration Triangle is shown as follows:

Here are the rules for using the triangle:
• Fix one side.
• Input or change second item.
• P6 calculates the third item.
• If your goal is to fix one item, that is to solidify that item so that it remains unchanged by the calculation, and
you then input a second, then P6 will calculate the third item.
• To understand which item to solidify (fix) is to understand in general how your business (the project) runs, and
specifically how activities will specifically differ. What input do you know during the planning stages of your
project? Some know the durations, others may know the units, and many know that we have limited time per
day or limited production (units/time).

Let's look at four scenarios:
Example A:
P.M.T. Company knows that the project has to deliver this activity within 20 days. Recent budget cuts leave no
overtime dollars to expend and resources are spending six hours a day on project work, leaving two hours for
training and meetings. A project manager at this company would be wise to select the fixed duration and
units/time duration type. This P.M.T. project manager would budget 20 days duration (fixed) and then input the
units/time as 6h/d. When the schedule is calculated (F9) the units would calculate 120 units (hours) for that
activity.

Example B:
The planners at MISC Engineering know they have 12 drawings to deliver for an activity and they know that
they typically can produce two drawings per day. The scheduler chooses fixed units duration type and
inputs the 12 drawings as units, and inputs 2/d for Units/Time. The calculated duration is six days. After
reviewing the schedule they need to make up three days time to meet contracted dates. So they add
another resource (making production rate 4/d) and then recalculate (F9) to see that the duration is now
three days.

Example C:
Zed Co Project Office knows it has 800 lines of code to deliver in four days. The IT PM chooses fixed
duration and units activity type and inputs the 800 units and the 4 days duration. The F9 calculation
results in 200 lines of code per day (200/d). If the PM adds another resource, the new calculation is more
achievable at 100 lines of code per day for each resource. Of course this assumes that the coding can be
accomplished independently, which does not often reflect reality.

Example D:
Davidoff Bentley Manufacturing has a production rate of 800 engine parts per day on its main production
line. They are currently bidding on a competitive bid contract to deliver 80,000 engine parts. They will
receive a premium bonus if they deliver in less than 90 days. The head of planning chooses fixed units
duration type on the summary activity and inputs 80,000 units, then inputs 800/d units per time. The
F9 calculation delivers a 100 day duration. The planner changes the type to fixed duration and units and
inputs 90 days before recalculating. The result is 888.89/day. So he works with quality control to find a way
to deliver 89 more parts per day or he adds shifts to the line.

1. Fixed Duration and Units:
This type is mostly used when we deal with Task Dependent Activities. It is the default duration type in P6. This
duration type is used for which the duration and total resources (for the activity) are fixed. Take example of an
activity, Excavation for Foundations; let us assume that this activity needs 10 days to complete and the total
resources required are 60 labor units. What we do in P6, is that we define the said activity, assign the duration
type, add its duration and then add resource, labor; P6 automatically calculates Units/Time for this (i.e. 60/10 =
6 labor units/day). Now let us assume that during Schedule Optimization, we need to reduce these 10 days to
finish the project in time. Let us decrease the duration from 10 days to 5 days. We can see that the total units
i.e. 60 labors will remain the same but the units/time will increase to 12units/day and this is what mostly
happens in field i.e. to speed up the job, we increase the usage of resources per time period, keeping the
overall resources consumption constant and thus saving the time.

2. Fixed Duration and Units per Time:
This type of duration type is used when a minimum number of resources are required per time period for an
activity. This can better be understood if we take an example of a crane for which, say, two operators are
required to operate. Now, no matter for how many days a crane is operating, same two number operators will
be required. Even if the numbers of operators are increased, the work or job will not be finished before time
unless an additional crane is added to the resources. This type of duration is also used for Task Dependent
Activities.
To differentiate between the “Fixed Duration and Units” and “Fixed Duration and Units per Time”, we have to
again discuss the “Excavation for Foundation” example. If the same scenario is kept as discussed in “Fixed
Duration and Units”, the decrease in the original duration will cause the total resource units to reduce (i.e.
Resource Units per time period is kept constant).

3. Fixed Units:
This type is mostly used for Resource Dependent Activities. This type should be assigned for activities in which
the total amount of work is constant. Let us take the example of “Excavation for Foundation”. Assume that 60
cubic meters excavation needs to be done for which 10 days are required (assumed duration) i.e. we need to
excavate 6 cubic meters per day. Now if we want to speed up the job, we have to increase the per day work
done. Let us increase the per day excavation from 6 to 12 cubic meters (per day). We will see that the activity
duration will become 5 days and the total excavation i.e. 60 cubic meters will remain the same. This example is
fairly similar to that of “Fixed Duration and Units”; the difference between the two is that if Units/Time is
increased or decreased in “Fixed Duration and Units”, the duration will remain constant and total units of work
will change. And if Units/Time is changed in “Fixed Units”, the duration will change and the total units of work
will remain constant. (It is important to understand what to change and what to keep constant and this
understanding will come from experience and discussion with experienced people.)

4. Fixed Units per Time:
This is somewhat similar to “Fixed Duration and Unite per Time” (not exactly similar!). It is also used for Resource
Dependent Activities. The same crane example is also applicable here. For Instance, two operators are required to
operate the crane; to speed up the job; the increase in number of operators will have no effect unless the numbers
of cranes are increased.

Primavera Project Management P6 Course session 4

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