P. Epperson – Page 6 – Construction and Schedule Management Services

Construction Scheduling. Problems Modifying header and footer variables in Primavera P6 version 15.2?

CPM Consultant Professional Project Management — Project Management

It seems that there is an issue with Primavera P6 version 15.2 that makes it “impossible” to modify the variables for the header and footer sections.

This had me stumped too. But I found a work- around.

You can still add the variables by selecting modify and typing in the variable you want. Such as [cd] for current date or [filter_list] for the filters used or [project_name] for the project name…. There are commands for most all of the variables. I don’t have a complete list, but the common variables I use for most layouts is listed below.

Data Date: [data_date]

Project ID: [project_id]

Project Name: [project_name]

Layout Name: [layout_name]

Filter List: [filter_list]

Current Date: [cd]

Page: [page_number]

Pages: [total_pages]

What other methods have you found to work around this issue?

Does anyone have the full list of commands?

I’d love to hear what you think!

Please visit https://conschmanservices.com to learn more about Construction and Schedule Management Services, LLC

Please visit my LinkedIn account to learn more about me.

Please visit my “The Blue Book” ProView.

Paul Epperson CCM, PMP, PSP, PMI-SP

Construction Scheduling. Are you Including the Complete Project Scope in the Schedule?

person-question-300x300 When you begin the planning for your project schedule, are you defining the project scope and breaking it down into work packages? Do you ever discover that work may have been missed if you had not completed this exercise?

You are not alone.

It’s just so easy to take off and start building the activities to build the project. It’s already in our head and all we need to do is get that plan on paper. Right?

I’ve found that even for a simple project, it makes the schedule development much more effective if the project team goes through the process of breaking the project down into the basic work packages and cross checking with the bid documents. This is often when we discover some piece of the scope is not included in any bid package. It happens….

This is why planning is a very important part of the schedule development. During the planning process, the work packages are developed, the sequencing of the work package delivery is worked out, the coordination of the work package execution is worked out… The list goes on…

I like to work through the planning process and then develop the WBS for the project schedule. This helps me determine how to develop the activities that create the deliverable work package and also helps with the preferential logic to coordinate work packages and resource usage.

The planning process is also a good place to develop the project calendars, activity coding, and resources. I like having these in place before I start developing the activities. It makes it easier to make the assignments as I go and keep the momentum of developing the work flow going. Having to stop and create a calendar or activity code breaks my flow. I also hate going back and trying to make calendar or code assignments after all the activities are developed. Some activity coding is simple to assign, but activity coding for responsibility, area, level, or CSI is more difficult to go back and add. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

The process of sequencing the activities and assigning the durations is easier for me then too. I can compare similar work through the use of activity coding. I can also use the resources I assigned early to make cost loading easier.

What other methods have you found to plan and develop your project schedules?

I’d love to hear what you think!

Please visit https://conschmanservices.com to learn more about Construction and Schedule Management Services, LLC

Please visit my LinkedIn account to learn more about me.

Please visit my “The Blue Book” ProView.

Paul Epperson CCM, PMP, PSP, PMI-SP

Construction Scheduling. Are you using Calendars Appropriately in Your Project Schedules?

excalmation-mark Do you understand the need to develop specific activity, resource and project calendars? So you put the effort into this process? Do you understand how calendars can help you?

Many, many smaller projects have project schedules with calendars that are set to whatever the default calendar setting is. Typically, this is a 5 day work week calendar with 8 hour work days.

You may ask, what is wrong with this?

Well, the short answer is, you are not allowing your schedule program to effectively schedule the work for you. You should really have a calendar for each different work week, such as a 4-10 hour day calendar, (if you have a resource working this shift). A 7 day work week calendar with no holidays is very helpful for project milestones because the total float is in calendar days. A typical work week calendar with defined holidays and anticipated weather related non-work days is a great way to ensure weather sensitive activities have anticipated “weather days” assigned.

For this post, I will only talk about activity calendars. Resource calendars can add complexity, and must be addressed, but not in this post…

For activity development, I prefer to keep things simple. I use the appropriate calendar, based on the planned work week for the work tasks. This includes holidays and any other don-work days identified in the contract. I develop a weather day calendar, based on the appropriate normal work week calendar to assign to my weather sensitive activities. I use a 7 work day week calendar, with no holidays or any other non-work days for my contract milestones and as the default for the project. This allows the team to see calendar day total float values.

Of course, the use of multiple calendars creates a little confusion when reviewing the schedule. The total float values for a string of activities will be different based on the calendars assigned. The actual start date to finish date durations will not match the “work day” duration assigned. These types of issues confuse many people. But once you use the calendars appropriately, you are letting the schedule better model your plan for the work.

Isn’t this what the schedule is supposed to be used for at its’ most basic level?

What other methods have you found to model and manage work with calendars?

I’d love to hear what you think!

Please visit https://conschmanservices.com to learn more about Construction and Schedule Management Services, LLC

Please visit my LinkedIn account to learn more about me.

Please visit my “The Blue Book” ProView.

Paul Epperson CCM, PMP, PSP, PMI-SP

Construction Scheduling. Don’t let the Near Critical path Sneak up on Your Project!

Surprise Do you diligently keep track of the work on your project’s critical path?

How we define the critical path is a topic for another time. For now, let’s just focus on what we are tracking as critical based on total float values, which do tie into the longest path definition with variances for calendars…..

How often has the critical path for your project shifted during the project duration? Do you show as much diligence with tracking the near critical activities as you do the critical path activities?

You should, and I’m betting that you do. But, sometimes, it still sneaks up on us!

I prefer to keep my eye on both. And then I usually only focus on the nearest couple of near critical paths. 80/20 rule….. By staying aware of the calendars assigned to the activities on my near critical path(s) and looking at the trend for slippage for these activities, I generally find I realize the pending in time to intervene. I like that much better than after the fact, but I’d like to deal with the pending impact sooner, as I’m sure we all would.

I do this by comparing the past near critical path activities to the current activities to look for slippage in my layout and filter. This helps. I also like to track the schedule slippage of the activities with a total float value lower than a specific total float value dependent on the schedule status. I find it easier to spot the start of the trend and make a note to track that activity next update. I then look at the drivers to see what is causing the slippage. Pretty simple. There are more elaborate methods of analysis for determining trends and slippage and identifying potential impacts, but I like to start with the simple methods to get an immediate fix on the schedule status.

There are always “exceptions to the rule”, but this is one I try to follow.

What other methods have you found to successfully identify the near critical path negative trend?

I’d love to hear what you think!

Please visit https://conschmanservices.com to learn more about Construction and Schedule Management Services, LLC

Please visit my LinkedIn account to learn more about me.

Please visit my “The Blue Book” ProView.

Paul Epperson CCM, PMP, PSP, PMI-SP

Construction Scheduling. The problem with Start to Start Relationships. Or, Why doesn’t a Delay to this Activity Duration push my Finish Date?

person-question-300x300 Do you regularly use Start-to-Start SS relationships? Perhaps you add a lag to drive the start of the successor out a few days?

Have you had problems with this practice? Perhaps a delay to the completion of the predecessor activity is actualized, but does not impact the schedule?

This is a common practice, unfortunately. The best practice is to add an additional successor with a Finish-to-Start FS relationship, or even a Finish-to-Finish FF relationship. This will provide the logic that allows the delay to the completion of the activity to drive other work. Without that additional successor activity, what you have is an “open end” and the activity finish does drive any successive work. It could never complete and you would not see the problem in the logic.

This condition is simple to prevent. Just make it a practice to always add a FS or FF successor when using a SS relationship. The problem usually happens when you’re trying to recover time and start to schedule work concurrently. You simply forget to add the additional successor….

Personally, I like to develop my schedules with all FS relationships unless the plan actually calls for a SS condition. If I have the need to use SS relationships, I assume my work isn’t broken down into enough detail to allow me to sequence the work logically.

There are always “exceptions to the rule”, but this is one I try to follow.

What other methods have you found to successfully utilize SS relationships, with or without lags?

I’d love to hear what you think!

Please visit https://conschmanservices.com to learn more about Construction and Schedule Management Services, LLC

Please visit my LinkedIn account to learn more about me.

Please visit my “The Blue Book” ProView.

Paul Epperson CCM, PMP, PSP, PMI-SP

Construction Scheduling. How do we, as Schedule Consultants, “Value” our Services?

Question Do you provide proposals to contractors or owners for your schedule development and management services? Do you provide a lump sum hard bid based on the project? Or, do you provide an hourly rate for your services? Which is best? Are there circumstances that make one the better choice?

I still struggle with this issue.

At some point, all of us are asked to propose on a project.

So, what do you do? What do you use as your guide for setting a lump sum price proposal? Do you estimate your hours based on past, similar projects? How do you account for relying on a new project team for input and reviews?

Do you provide an hourly billable rate? How does your client budget for you services? Do you provide a budget estimate of hours and your rate for their use?

I typically provide a budget estimate based on my estimated hours and billable rate. But even then, coming up with the hours for a new client and team, and hoping for proactive input for development and updates/revisions is very subjective. But I do my best to provide a budget estimate they can have confidence in.

There must be a better way to go about pricing our work based on the value we bring to the project.

What works for you? Have you figured out a “safer” way to price the project scheduling services you will provide?

I believe that we, as planning and scheduling professional consultants, should strive to provide the best possible schedule support to assist the project team with providing a successful project.

The question is: As consultants, how do we “value” this?

We must always maintain our integrity and be honest with our client.

What has your experience been?

Real scheduling is messy. But we all deal with issues all the time…..

I’d love to hear what you think!

Please visit https://conschmanservices.com to learn more about Construction and Schedule Management Services, LLC

Please visit my LinkedIn account to learn more about me.

Please visit my “The Blue Book” ProView.

Paul Epperson CCM, PMP, PSP, PMI-SP

Construction Scheduling. Spotting a Potential Resource Issue Early. Or, Why isn’t my Contractor Keeping up?

Question Would you like to be able to spot a potential contractor or subcontractor production shortfall early? Perhaps get ahead of the lagging work?

There are many ways to mine this info and establish the trend. I’ll offer a very simple method for P6 here.

If you set the percent complete type to physical, display the physical percent complete and the duration percent complete columns along with the start and finish date columns, you can spot potential production issues quickly when you update.

Personally, I like to run my cost based on my physical percent complete, but different project types require different methods….. But for this method, we will be basing the cost complete on the physical percent complete prorated over the entire duration.

Once you have the actual start date and physical percent complete you should enter the expected finish date to establish the revised scheduled finish date for the activity. Doing this will result in a different duration percent complete than the physical percent complete you entered based on actual work completed. The variance will show if the production rate for this work was accurate as actualized to date or if the actual production rate is better or worse than planned.

If the work is 50% physical complete and the adjustment to the scheduled finish date forces the duration percent complete to be 65%, you may want to investigate to find out if the original assumptions were incorrect or if this resource is adequate to meet the production as planned. If the same resource is having problems for several activities, there could be a trend that needs attention.

Simple. There are more accurate ways to measure this, such as resource man hours or units completed. But this is a quick, easy way to spot an issue just by looking at the schedule as you update or look over the schedule in a meeting…..

What other “easy” ways have you found to monitor the work and spot potential production issues?

I’d love to hear what you think!

Please visit https://conschmanservices.com to learn more about Construction and Schedule Management Services, LLC

Please visit my LinkedIn account to learn more about me.

Please visit my “The Blue Book” ProView.

Paul Epperson CCM, PMP, PSP, PMI-SP

Construction Scheduling. Why are there no schedule requirements in the RFP?

person-question-300x300 Are you ever asked to develop the project baseline schedule and find out there are not any requirements for the schedule in the contract documents. It could happen…..

Or the requirements are “fuzzy” at best or so limited as to be of little value.

At some point, all of us have come across this scenario, or soon will.

So, what do you do? What do you use as your guide for setting the critical path, activity and duration types, and resource and cost loading? Does your company have guidelines for this situation? Do you have a preferred method you fall back on in these situations?

I have a couple of guidelines based on useful schedule specifications I’ve worked with in the past. But I have to find out what the project team wants from the schedule before I can decide which requirements to employ.

Does your client want to project and track progress using resources? Does the owner? Does your client want to use cost loading? If so, by unit cost or lump sum? What does your client expect or understand about setting the critical path? Will the project be resource driven? Or will durations and logic rule with resources handled via logic? What about constraints? Calendars and weather days?

There are many more variables we work with every day. Without schedule requirements for the project, we are left deciding which settings and approaches are best for the specific project. With experience, we can become comfortable with this situation. But what if the project is a new industry or contract type for you?

How do you approach these situations in your company?

I believe that we, as planning and scheduling professional consultants, should strive to provide the best possible schedule support to assist the project team with providing a successful project.

The question is: As consultants, how do we accomplish this?

We must always maintain our integrity and be honest with our client.

What has your experience been?

Do you just default to the simplest methods and settings?

Do you advise your client to convene a team meeting with the owner to see if they can agree on some basic requirements?

Do you just pull one of you favored specifications out of the drawer and run with that?

Real scheduling is messy. But we all deal with issues all the time…..

I’d love to hear what you think!

Please visit https://conschmanservices.com to learn more about Construction and Schedule Management Services, LLC

Please visit my LinkedIn account to learn more about me.

Please visit my “The Blue Book” ProView.

Paul Epperson CCM, PMP, PSP, PMI-SP

Construction Scheduling. How do we, as Scheduling Consultants, help our clients succeed against the odds?”

There are times when the schedule update process shows the project has not made adequate progress to maintain the schedule as planned. It could happen…..

The problem starts when we work with our contractor client to correct the out-of-sequence relationships and make the necessary revisions to best model the team’s path going forward.

At some point, it becomes apparent that nothing we can do to the schedule, which doesn’t include adding cost/resources, is going to model a plan to complete on time. We typically look at resequencing work on the critical (longest) path, which may or may not include costs. We look at reducing durations to work on the critical (longest) path, which almost always includes costs. This is an iterative process as the critical (longest) path continually shifts as we change the various paths.

So, what happens we’re working with the contractor’s team to bring the project back on schedule? We strive to find the most cost-effective method of reducing the time required to complete the project, but there is soon going to be a point of diminishing returns for costs to “recover” the schedule.

What do you tell your client?

Does your client arbitrarily direct work to be scheduled concurrently or reduce durations greatly without input from the subcontractor?

Does your client look at past delays or change orders and consider re-visiting them to request additional time they did not pursue during the “honeymoon” phase?

I believe that we, as planning and scheduling professional consultants, should strive to keep the project on course and assist eh project team with providing a successful project.

The question is: As consultants, how do we accomplish this?

We must always maintain our integrity and be honest with our client.

What has your experience been?

Do you tell your client to “suck it up, we can’t afford to get back on schedule”?

Do you advise your client to convene a team meeting with the major subcontractors to see if they can assist with developing a recovery plan, at the least cost to the project? They are often well aware of the problem and have great ideas….

Do you suggest your client convene with the subcontractors and then meet with the owner to see if there is a way to provide what the owner absolutely needs to make the project successful for them and allow you to finish some of the work later than required?

Real scheduling is messy. But we all deal with issues all the time…..

There is power in building team consensus and almost every owner and contractor I have had the pleasure to work with have wanted a successful project and were willing to work with the entire project team to accomplish it.

I’d love to hear what you think!

Please visit https://conschmanservices.com to learn more about Construction and Schedule Management Services, LLC

Please visit my LinkedIn account to learn more about me.

Please visit my “The Blue Book” ProView.

Paul Epperson CCM, PMP, PSP, PMI-SP

Construction Scheduling. When the work continues and the schedule doesn’t… Or, “Which way did they go?”

person-question-300x300 There are times when the schedule update process gets side railed or thrown off course.

The problem comes when we don’t revise our baseline schedule and the work continues, at risk, with a disputed change order(s) and no approved revised baseline schedule to measure the pending change order against. How do we determine the change order impact? We know we need to use the most recent approved schedule. Is this the Project Baseline Schedule now? I’ve heard this argument many times.

Of course it is, it is the approved schedule at the time of the change order work insertion to create the fragnet to evaluate schedule impact. The approval of the “new” schedule which includes the changed work or delay deems it the “Revised” Baseline Schedule.

What happens to our schedule metrics and baseline cost or resource curve or projected budget cash flow? We have to revise those as well.

So, what happens when the work continues for a couple of reporting periods, the owner refuses to acknowledge change orders or delays and the schedule is reporting negative float / is behind schedule? The owner demands a recovery schedule, right? The contractor asserts they are delayed by the owner and need the change order finalized and added to the schedule to get back on schedule. Should the owner pay the contractor’s invoices when they’re behind schedule? Or hold retainage? Should the contractor stop work until the contract issue is settled? Or continue at risk creating the necessity of forensic claims analysis to resolve the unresolved change issues and delay conditions?

I believe that we, as planning and scheduling professional consultants, should strive to keep the project on course and ensure the entire project team understands the repercussions of not resolving the issues timely.

The question is: As consultants, how do we accomplish this?

We must always maintain our integrity and be honest with our client.

What has your experience been?

Have you kept updating the schedule, even while running deep into negative total float?

Do you advise your clients to force the settlement of overdue change orders?

Do you refer your client to a good Forensic Schedule Consultant you know?

Real scheduling is messy. But we all deal with issues all the time…..

I’d love to hear what you think!

Please visit https://conschmanservices.com to learn more about Construction and Schedule Management Services, LLC

Please visit my LinkedIn account to learn more about me.

Please visit my “The Blue Book” ProView.

Paul Epperson CCM, PMP, PSP, PMI-SP