How to Get Earned Value/Progress of Each Activity to Overall Project

Once you’ve developed planned value data, the next step is to calculate earned value from the lowest activities to track overall project progress. To measure project progress, list the activities (including WBS) with budgeted hours or cost.

See the picture below to understand how you can track the overall progress of the various disciplines – piping and structure.

Develop A Progress S Curve That Will Make You An Expert – Part 4

You may think creating progress s curve for a project that involved multiple disciplines sounds overwhelming, but with the steps by steps tutorial, it couldn’t be easier. Learn how you can set up the progress S Curve in a few minutes.

Once all activities have been identified and assigned value ̶ budgeted cost or hours and a milestone system established, getting planned values, earned values and overall progress (percent completion) is a straightforward task. So, follow the five steps process below.

Sample Pipeline Construction Project WBS for Refinery/Chemical Plant

Sample WBS for piping construction project for a refinery or chemical plant may be organized as the following. It is worth to be organized by location wise (i.e. platform and pipe rack, platform and equipment around piping) prior to “Phase” WBS. Timely completion of piping construction is not only depending on timely receiving of engineering drawings and materials from Owner/EPC Contractor but timely availability of the infrastructure should also be addressed. Sometime it refers to work front availability. Developing WBS is mainly depending on the project scope. It should be defined according to the project specific as every project is different, for instance, “Demolishing” WBS may also be added under “Phase” level priority to “Installation” WBS if your project scope involved a considerable amount of piping demolishing scope. “Above Ground” and “Under Ground” WBS can be left in case no underground piping work is included in the project.

Oil and Fuel Storage Tank Construction Project – Sample WBS

Oil and Fuel Storage tanks (API 650 design) are typically used in petrochemical plants. They are large field fabricated storage tanks operating at low pressures or atmospheric pressures. There are various types of tanks such as fixed roof tanks and floating roof tanks, etc. Tank bottom is usually constructed of overlapping steel plates welded by manual or automatic welding technique. Tank shells are constructed from courses of steel plates. E.g. First shell course, 2nd shell course and so on.

In this article, we will focus on a specific type of tank, external floating roof type with single deck and internal pontoon. Sample Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) for an external floating roof type designed tank construction project can be decomposed as the following. As tank erection work is only focused, detailed WBS for foundation work is intentionally left at level 1.  It is just to show that foundation is required for the above ground storage tank.

Sample Layout to Find External Links and Broken Logic (No Predecessor or Successor)

Activity with no predecessor or successor in the schedule does not drive the whole project. With the exceptional case, there may be some activities without predecessor or successor such as project start milestone, project finish milestone and an external link activity such as civil work completion of other project.

For example; equipment delivery on site date (equipment supplied by Owner/EPCm Contractor) could be an external link if you are a Constructor with both of you and Owner/EPCm schedule are internally linked. A quick way to identify the broken logic and external date activities is to create a layout and run the report as and when required.

The advantages and disadvantages over Retained Logic vs. Progress Override Option in P6

While Retained Logic and Progress override are the two options available in P6 which enable the scheduler to analyse in different scenarios, each option has advantages and disadvantages.

Retained Logic Option

Advantages

1. It produces the most realistic schedule if the levels of detailed information are available and schedule logic were design appropriately. It maintains all predecessor relationship and will not allow the remaining portion of an in-progress task to resume until its predecessor complete. Fig-1 (Foundation work begins as the work front available, but it is not allowed to start remaining work until piling work complete on the remaining piles).

How to Constraint A Schedule Wisely

Many of us use constraints which impost a date on finish or start of an activity/milestone especially on major event (i.e. equipment delivery date, subcontractor’s foundation completion date, contract award date, project completion date, etc. ) in schedule as Primavera P6 schedule date might be changing whenever we schedule. And it is not feasible to readjust those date changes again and again. In some cases, we might use hard constraints (e.g. Mandatory Finish) to monitor the dead line date as soft constraints (e.g. Start on or After, Finish on or After, etc.) don’t hold the dead line date.

But! There might be a problem when hard constraint (inflexible constraint) is used in the schedule.

How to Modify Activity ID and Name Using Global Change

Global change feature in Primavera P6 helps you to make changes the selected activities or all the activities. Suppose you might want to change its Activity ID and Name (activity description) using Global change as and when required.

In order to demonstrate this tutorial, assume that the following are the existing Activity ID and Name (description).

Activity ID	Activity Name
A1000	New Activity 1 (engineering)
A1010	New Activity 2 (procurement)
A1020	New Activity 3 (construction)
A1030	New Activity 4 (construction)
A1040	New Activity 5 (construction)

To create a Global Change, go to Tools, then select Global Change.

Select New in Global Change Window to get Modify Global Change view

Beginners' Tips for Customizing Activity Layout in P6

The schedule bar chart is a key to your team. Creating a user-friendly schedule layout that is readable and easily understandable for the users is one of the main tasks of planning, scheduling, and project controls professionals. Hundreds of layouts can be made depending on recipients’ requirements by changing the appearance of the schedule bar chart. You may wish to highlight the significant activities for your team or show some activities to stand out among the busiest activities by customizing bar chart appearance.

Changing of bar chart appearance is only made by the bar dialog box and filters. It is the art of changing and customizing bar style, bar color and filter list.

Three things you need to know about the bar chart in order to be mastering in schedule layouts.

(1)    Understand how the existing bars works

(2)    Know how to customize existing bars

(3)    Know how to add the customized new bars

How to Assign Activity Resource and Budgeted Unit in P6

Before new resources are added into P6, the following items are to be considered.

(1)  Define the trade of resource required. For instance, steel erection fitter, 25 tons crane may be required for steel structure erection work. See Steps to Estimate Activity Resource Unit(Budgeted Labor Unit)

 

(2)  Check the contractual working hours per day. For example, according to contract, max working hours per day per man is 10 hours, max working hours per week per man is 54 hours. Update the resource calendar accordingly.

(3)  Current resource availability per trade. For example, 4 Steel erection fitters are available in your project team at the point when schedule is being developed. Hence, Maximum Units/Times = 40 hours/day based on 10 hours per day and 4 men. In other words, 40 hours of work load can be performed by 4 numbers of steel erection fitters in one day.

Steps to Estimate Activity Resource Unit (Budgeted Labor Unit) for P6

The sequence of steps producing budgeted labor unit of each activity as follows;

Study design and construction methodology

It is assumed that you are a mechanical construction contractor. You got a project requires installing a pipe rack for a chemical plant. Construction drawings are provided by engineering contractor. According to layout drawings and isometric drawings, a layer of pipe rack is to be erected on an elevated new steel structure. Pre-fabricated steel structure is to be erected on the foundations done by other. The new pipe rack header is to be connected with existing facility. Field welding, flanges and threads fitting, bolting, field pipe supports, NDT (X-Ray etc.) test and hydrostatic test are to be performed. Pre-fabricated piping and structure members are already on site delivered by engineering contractor. Scaffolds and crane are required to erect piping and steel work.

Sample Work Activities for Separator Vessel Manufacturing

Manufacturing work steps and activities are defined depends upon on the scope of pressure vessel components, type of materials and inspection. The following is a sample work activities for a Carbon Steel material cylindrical or spherical separator pressure vessel manufacturing. This will help you develop a preliminary schedule. The full scope of work, inspection test plan and method of statement shall be studied with the consultation of your team in order to get a final schedule which is realistic and meaningful.

Sample WBS for Separator Pressure Vessel Manufacturing

The following is a sample WBS for a cylindrical or spherical separator pressure vessel manufacturing. It is used to separate oil, gas and water from the total fluid stream (mixed phase) in the process industry. Separators can be either horizontal or vertical. Similar WBS can be applied for both types. 

    1. Engineering
     1.1 Document submission and approval
    2. Procurement
     2.1 Main Body (shell plate, dish head)
     2.2 Accessories (i.e. flanges, pipe, nozzle neck, gaskets, copper tubes, etc.)

Sample WBS for Design and Build Project

Design and build contracts are usually performed by the contractor, who is responsible for the detailed design and construction. Below is a simple WBS for a building construction which may differ from your project scope, nature and organization’s preferences. However, this is a starting point for you to explore your idea to suit your project needs.

1. Design and Engineering

1.1   Architectural Design

1.2   Civil and Structural Design

1.2.1      Design Preparation and Submission

1.2.2      Design Review

1.2.3      Design Revision

1.2.4      Design Approval for Construction

1.2.5      Issue Construction Drawing

How to Use User Defined Date with Customized Bar in P6

User defined date field can play an important part of your schedule reporting and driving your project team. It can be used as early indicator of your project status in order to mitigate potential delay and highlight as early as possible. Suppose you have a project with a fix project completion date that has been agreed with your client. Your team must be working on the particular dates (internal baseline) that have been agreed within your team which is ahead of your client’s completion date.

Your planned dates are earlier as to provide additional floats that can be used to mitigate the residual risks without affecting contract completion date. So you may want to populate user defined dates which are the Target Dates for each task that you have planned based on the client completion date. Once the agreed based line project is developed within your team, populate the user defined dates on each task or some tasks as agreed with project manager. Once the project is progressed, current project performance can be monitored using user defined date by means of schedule bar chart reporting that would bring attention to your project team.

How to Import Activity Resource Data into P6 with Excel

Importing activity resource data with excel spreadsheet is to

(a) To update the Resource Names/ID, Budgeted Units, Max Units/Time and Resource Type which already have in existing project.

(b) To add Resource Names/ID, Budged units, Max Units/Time and Resource type for the new activities do not have resources and budgeted unit.
In order to facilitate the process of importing resources, you need to define necessary resources in Resource dictionary. Activity resources that you are trying to import to P6 should be available in the Resource dictionary. As default, there are 6 activity resource columns in Resource dictionary; Resource ID, Resource Name, Resource Type, Unit of Measure, Primary Role, Default units/time.

How to Create and Assign Baseline (Target) Plan in Primavera P3

Follow the below steps to create targeted plan in Primavera P3.

1. Open the project you want to create a baseline,

2. Go to > Tools > Project Utilities > Targets,

3. If you want to create a target plan using current project plan, Click the target column in Targets box and enter four digit project name (SPJ2) for the target project. Target project name must be different with project name (SPJ1). See figure below.

Schedule Control Using Baseline Methodology

Before you update the schedule for the first time, create a baseline to make a complete copy of original schedule and plan data. Project schedule, resource hours and cost can be used a baseline methodology of presentation that identifies original schedule and compares against the current project status.

- With the help of project manager, identify the project milestones in schedule from the major milestones that contained in master schedule (executive level) and leve3 control schedule.

- Once all stakeholders and the project team agreed the plan (schedule, resource hours and cost estimate), make sure schedule is quality checked.

- And then, the original project plan shall be used to create a project baseline or targeted plan.

- Save a copy of baseline schedule separately as a backup. Below is a simplified process flow diagram of setting new baseline. If you are unsure how to save a baseline schedule in Primavera P6, learn more at
How to fix the problem – Baseline Changes with the Data Date changes

Baseline Schedule Control Process

- As the project progress, review the project schedule on periodically basis.

- Prepare project status report such as milestone report, critical and nearly critical reports, schedule variance, cost variance to analyse how well your project is going.

- Bring up the issue with the project team if the project performance is poor, find the reasons and resolve the slippage by expediting work if practical.

- Make sure your team is actively participating in periodic schedule reviews.

- If the project team decides not to resolve the slippages, the team should make a judgement call whether to initiate or not to initiate Change Management Process.

- Complete change management process in accordance with your change management procedure if the changes are required.

- Update the changes schedule, resources in the schedule . Make sure your team agreed with changes you made before re-baseline the plan.

- Finally, set the new baseline as Primary Baseline (BL1) in Primavera P6 , Target 2(target-1 is original baseline ) in P3, Baseline 1 in MS Project.

Tips and Tricks on Schedule Integrating and Statusing using P6

If you are an owner’s representative planner you may have a difficulty to integrate contractor’s schedules into your integrated schedule. There are two ways of schedule integration; (1) Using Copy and Paste Activities (2) Update to an Existing Project.

Schedule Integration Using Copy and Paste Activities 

Integrating schedule developed by contractors may not be easy if the WBS structures are different from your project. If all the WBS Codes are the same, it can be imported and updated easily. If it doesn't exist, multiple schedules developed and updated by contractors can be integrated into your schedule using copy and paste activities in P6.

Once the project progresses, the new information might be added to contractor’s schedule due to changes of sequences for some reason. It is typical that contractors would issue the revised schedules during project execution. The revised reschedules can also be integrated into your schedule by copying WBS from the contractor’s schedule and pasting into your schedule.

The following diagram shows the process of work flow when multiple schedule are integrated into one. Suppose your schedule containing owner’s activities has been developed (Step-1) and the three contractor schedules required to integrate into your schedule have been issued to you (Step-3).

How to Work with Look-ahead Schedule Using P6

Ideally, you have to report the look-ahead schedules after you've completely satisfied with your estimations and schedules of the project and approved by project manager and/or client, and project started progressing. To be able to communicate the project team what the upcoming activities or next goals are within look ahead period so that the necessary resource planning are done ahead of the planned date, look ahead schedule is deployed in scheduling. It is a tool to help you maintain control of your work and also indicate how importance planning is meeting overall project schedule.

In addition to that, your client may also request to produce the look ahead schedule consist of upcoming activities within the next three weeks, for instance, so that they are aware what and when the necessary actions to be taken (e.g. document review by client, permit approval operation, etc), when would be the interfaces required among the stakeholders, what activities are being done, and what activities/deliverables are expected to be done in next two to three weeks.