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Author: admin

08 Nov

Posted at 21:47h in Resource Management
1 Like

The Schedule development is a complex process which requires many data, calculations, skills and knowledge. Even, if the data is available, most of the Planners fail to accurately develop. Many Planners try to come up with a sensible solution but when they get checked in detail, many inaccuracies are discovered. We did discuss one of them (assigning direct resources to LOE or WBS summary) in a  previous article (see it here). In this article, we will discuss another practice which...

06 Nov

Posted at 07:54h in Project Management
2 Likes

Many a times, in order to develop a Schedule, we receive data from the project team in an Excel file which requires to be captured as WBS and/or Activity into the Schedule. There are many ways to capture these into a Schedule e.g. manual entry, using P6 export/import function, open the XER file in Notepad then add the WBS and activities, and some other Excel based tools. In most of these instances, the Planner is required to do much more...

03 Nov

Posted at 20:44h in Progress Measurement System
2 Likes

Most often, when discussions are held regarding weight value and basis for calculations, man-hours and cost comes to the project control professional’s minds. Also, we know on some Projects; Duration of the activities gets used due to lack of info or incompetency of the practitioners. But it seems, there is another way as well which is very weird and seems popular on some Projects. This practise is done in 2 ways: The planner copies the schedule into an Excel file. He/she assumes...

01 Nov

Posted at 20:59h in Resource Management
3 Likes

If something incorrect gets repeated many times or if many people do it, will not be correct. When it comes to resource loading, many do it incorrectly and they keep repeating it on most Projects or even teaching others it in incorrect ways. They hope it will be considered and accepted as correct if many people do it the same way. One of the incorrect practices is loading resources on to LOE or WBS summary activities. In this post, we will review...

28 Oct

Posted at 09:31h in Resource Management
0 Likes

Couple of days ago, a Planner was desperately requesting for help. His planning manager was asked to load resources and send the Schedule to the Client. He did not do it, did not communicate to the team and then 2 days before the due date took leave!! Then few hours before the submission, everybody was pushing the Planner to do the resource loading!!Couple of months prior to this, the same planning manager had rejected our support and training proposal saying...

23 Oct

Posted at 21:22h in Project Management
0 Likes

The image, illustrates two S-curves for a Project:1- The Red curve and blue bars are developed based on the distribution of E, P, C budget2- The black curve and orange bars are developed based on a detailed ScheduleWhich one represents the project plan progress more accurately? Obviously the 2nd one!What is the chance of delivering a Project successfully using the high level S-curve? Wouldn’t be high!Could the PM make accurate decisions based on the high level S-Curve? Most-likely not!The 1st...

23 Oct

Posted at 21:16h in Progress Measurement System
0 Likes

Revisions and reworks of drawings are unavoidable as part of the Engineering. As a result, the progress measurement and reporting have to be able to manage the reworks and revisions. On most instances, the planner uses the 2 practices below:1- Does not change the progress of the drawing until the rework progress catches up!2- Changes the progress as per the rework progress On the 1st one, the progress does not fluctuate but stays flat. As a result, the Engineering team would...

14 Oct

Posted at 19:03h in Earned Value Management
0 Likes

Implementation seems to be a mystery despite many people alleging to be well versed in it. Not only small projects/ companies but also big corporates are failing even after having taken on board consultants at an astronomical costs to implement. Hereunder are some of the reasons for failure: 1- Many familiarize themselves on the EVM during a preparation to write exams 2- During preparation, it gets taught "WHAT IT IS" and how to use the formulas to only pass the exams ! 3-...

13 Oct

Posted at 07:54h in Progress Measurement System
1 Like

Reference to our post about Weight value and Earned value, there were comments as regards using the mixture of M-H and cost for Engineering, Procurement and Construction phases. Man-Hour could be used in some project. But, almost in all the EPC Projects, weight value calculation is not a straight forward process and using the mixture of Cost and Man-Hours is an INCORRECT practice. For example, on the attached table, the weight value of Engineering and Construction are based on M-H. The...

13 Oct

Posted at 07:48h in Earned Value Management
2 Likes

There are several techniques and methods to forecast a project's finish date. Here are three of them: 1- Forecast Date from Schedule2- Risk based, probabilistic Forecast date3- Forecast date based on the performance, using EVM formulas (earler or later than No.2) These could be explained as per the following: 1- Project would finish on the Schedule’s date, if everything goes as per the plan. What is a chance of having everything as per the plan?2- Project would finish on P70/P80 date if the...