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Q: Microsoft Project
schedule doesn't import properly in Primavera 6.??
Always check to see there is no blank lines between list of
activities in MS Project; check the same in resource list.
Also make sure none of the resources have the first 10
character the same; as Primavera truncates resource name and
if the names are the same it doesn't import properly.
Q: Minimally, what items
should I check when I am performing schedule quality
assurance?
|
Criteria |
Items To Be Checked |
|
Project Scope |
All project scope to be covered in the schedule.
Provide Project Execution Plan. |
|
Completeness |
Schedule is complete with equipment lists, man-hour
calculations, material take-offs, bid tabs,
quotations from vendors, construction / fab yard
labor productivity factors, etc. |
|
Development Basis |
It is developed with the help of work experts or
based on previous experience; not based on
information from a single person. |
Why Check These Items? |
|
Broken Logic |
No Broken Logic |
Activities with broken logic do not contribute in
driving the project and may surprise you later by
hindering the completion of a project. Only two
activities, start and finish of the project may have
broken logic. All other activities must have at
least one predecessor and one successor. An activity
having all its successor with "SS" relationship is
like having no successor; such activity must have
another successor with "FS" or "FF" relationship. If
there are more than two activities with broken
logic, please ensure there is a solid reason behind
it. "SF" type relationships are rare; avoid or
justify these relationships. If there are excessive
number of relationships, clean up unnecessary
relationship by observing "Relationship Free Float"
and remove those relationships having very high
"Relationship Free Float". Excessive use of SS or FF
relationship makes the logic questionable. It may
compress the schedule unnecessary and resource
overload the schedule. |
|
No Activities with only
SS successors |
|
No
Activities with SF Relationships (rare exceptions) |
|
Avoid excessive number of predecessor or successors,
and avoid excessive use of SS or FF relationships. |
|
Constraints |
No Hard Constraints |
Hard constraints definitely create a misleading
longest path and all soft constraints, necessary or
not, may create a misleading longest path.
Constraints should only be used if absolutely
justifiable by work requirement and there is no
other means of developing the logic. There should
not be any constraint on the longest path. It makes
it very difficult to see the entire path. Checking
longest path is necessary to understand if schedule
logic is designed properly. Where possible, try
using activities with "Expected Finish" instead of a
constraint. |
|
Minimal Soft Constraints |
|
No Constraints on Longest Path |
|
Lag |
Minimal number of Activities with Lag (No
Unnecessary Lag. Justify all Lag) |
If project work dictates lag, then having lag is
perfectly fine otherwise it may create a misleading
critical path or unnecessarily lengthen the project.
Unnecessary lag is also difficult to find and
correct. Where possible replace lag longer than 10
days with an activity. |
|
Longest Path |
To extend from Start to Finish of Project |
A critical path should extended from the beginning
to the end of a project. A very long or short
critical path indicates a poor work logic or a
schedule not fully developed. Just having longest
path is not enough, having correct sequence of work
and verifying significance of work is also
important.. |
|
Verification of Sequence and Importance of
activities |
|
Critical Activities |
Verification by stakeholders |
When a schedule contains constraints, there may be
additional critical activities in the schedule other
than the ones on the Critical Path. Verifying and
monitoring these activities is very important. |
|
Critical, Near Critical, Longest, and Near Longest
Paths |
Avoid having multiple critical paths. Also avoid
several short near critical/Longest paths. Verify
sequence and Importance of activities or Longest and
Near Longest paths. |
Critical path identifies those activities that
determine finish of the project as of the day of
review. If the project doesn't progress as planned,
any of the near critical paths can become Critical
soon. Thus, verifying and monitoring near critical
paths is also essential. Properly sorted longest and
near longest path helps verify quality of a schedule
when verifying sequence and importance of activities
on the path. |
|
Activity Duration |
No excessively long duration activities; Eng 7-21
Days, Proc >3 Days, Const 3-14 Days |
Very long duration activities reflect an
underdeveloped schedule. An underdeveloped schedule
lacks efficiencies in work sequencing that can be
achieved by breaking down activities to proper
duration. A very short duration activities
unnecessarily make a schedule cumbersome and
unmanageable. It further reduces the effectiveness
and utilization of a schedule. Ideally, activity
duration should not be no more than 2-3 times
schedule update cycle and no less than one update
cycle. |
|
Free Float |
Minimal amount of activities with Free Float higher
than 30 days; otherwise good explanation for each
(Procurement excluded) |
Excessive total float is a result of many activities
with free float or a few activities with excessive
free float. Too many activities with excessive free
float is a sign of poor logic, broken logic, and/or
schedule having too many parallel paths. Too many
parallel paths indicates less likelihood of
finishing the project on time. |
|
Total Float |
No Negative Float |
Negative float is a sign of constraint in a schedule
that can't be satisfied as planned. When such
constraint date is not met, negative float is
created. Negative float means, work can't be
performed per schedule logic. To correct the
problem, you may take one or more of the following
actions... 1. remove the constraint 2. Constraint
date needs to be pushed into the future 3. Work
needs to be expedited to cover negative float 4.
Schedule logic needs to be changed to shorten the
schedule 5. Work scope needs to be reduced 6. Split
long duration activities to find work that can be
performed in parallel 7. Assign more resources to
shorten activity durations 8. Shorten activity
duration by changing activity calendar for longer
work-week. |
|
Activity & Resource Dist. |
Activity and Res Dist:
Both similar bell-shaped curves |
Distribution of activities depict how well the
schedule is developed. If the histogram is lopsided,
it may mean the schedule is underdeveloped on one
side or over developed on the other side.
A sudden jump in resource requirement may be
unrealistic in actual work situation. A lopsided
distribution may also be unrealistic to achieve.
Resource peak demands need to be verified. The
question is if it realistic to acquire/have that
many resource at one time at one location?
Individual resource assignment and total resource
assignment figures need to be verified with the
Estimate provided by the contractor. |
|
Check Weekly & Monthly overall project and
individual resource peak usage. |
|
Each Resource Max Limit (# of heads or crew size) to
be verified |
|
Total resource units and Individual resource units
to match the latest estimate. Provide latest summary
estimate. |
|
Milestones & LOE Activities |
All critical and contractual milestone and LOE
activities depicted in the top WBS (Eng, Proc,
Const, T/A, etc) |
Proper use of milestones help summarize a schedule
and monitor its progress properly. Milestones should
be used for start of something significant, mark
major accomplishments, monitor contractual dates or
track procurement items or watch for major
deliverables. Milestones can also be used to
determine physical progress of the project,
determine Earn Value and Performance Indexes.
Physical progress can be determined within each
group of activities where activities are grouped by
work package, work area, unit, etc.
Milestones should never be used in place of work
activities! |
|
Not too few or too many milestone (3%-5%). No
milestone is to replace any task activity |
|
Predecessors to all major milestones are verified to
be correct |
|
WBS Structure |
Structure matching Company recommendations or
provide a good explanation |
A good WBS should follow Company recommendations and
structured to match with how actual work is planned,
such as, civil, mechanical, piping, etc. Both Cost
Estimate format and Cost Breakdown Structure should
match the WBS. The purpose of WBS is to break work
down into smaller segments for easy progress
monitoring and reporting. WBS structure is
determined before schedule development starts in
early Ph-3 |
|
Must match cost structure & Estimate |
|
Primavera Setups |
Project “Calculation Tab” |
Primavera is a very flexible and robust scheduling
application. It has many defaults and configurations
-- if not properly configured it gives incorrect
results. Before schedule development starts, all
Primavera defaults should be set according to
Company recommendations. These items can also be
fixed later if not set initially. |
|
Project “Default Tab” |
|
Resource defaults |
|
Task Dependent Activity defaults and duration type
assignment |
|
Risk Register |
Provide Updated Risk Register |
A risk register should be developed on Company
recommended template in Ph-2 and then updated
monthly. It helps avoid many issues that can
potentially delay the project. It also helps
determine schedule and cost contingency and provides
justification for your contingency figures. It also
set's correct expectation for project success. |
|
Activity Description |
To contain a Verb and enough detail for it to make
sense when viewed by others outside its WBS
structure |
Frequently even the people involved in schedule
development don't understand description of an
activity when reviewing schedule or providing
updates; especially if the activity is observed
outside its WBS. Thus, all activity description must
contain a verb and enough detail that even an
outsider could understand the task when outside its
WBS. Shorten long description by using common
acronyms or by removing vowels from some words, such
as, "Construction" can be stated as "Cnstrctn" |
|
Others |
|
|
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|
Q: Minimally, what item in
a schedule should I keep an eye on during project execution?
|
Criteria |
Description |
Reasoning |
|
(Please Do Not Edit) |
|
How often is project updated? |
During engineering: Once or Twice per month.
During construction: every week or every other week. |
|
|
Is There Any Out of Sequence Progress? |
If there are more than 10% completed or in-progress
activities with out-of-sequence progress, question
the contractor or ; consider revising logic per
Company schedule change management procedures and
then update Primary baseline. |
Any significant number of Out Of Sequence progress
indicates that schedule logic was not designed
appropriately and it is not being followed. In this
case, remaining logic needs to be improved so that
it reflects a realistic work plan. Most current
baseline should be updated accordingly. |
Has there been any modification in the schedule
since latest baseline?
For example: change of logic, addition or deletion
of activities, changes in constraints or constraint
date, etc. |
If any of the following is observed in comparison to
the current Baseline, follow Company schedule change
management procedures and update primary baseline:
(Logic changes, Original Duration, Budgeted Units,
Constraints, New Activities, Deleted Activities,
Activity Description Change.) Also conduct
schedule quality assurance and complete "Structural
Quality" worksheet in this workbook. |
Any modification in the schedule may make a schedule
unsuitable for comparison with the baseline if the
baseline wasn't updated accordingly; thus making
progress monitoring difficult. Any modification in
the schedule may have major affect on finish of the
entire project, or finish of one or more milestones.
It may also reduce Total Float for many activities.
Thus such modification may not only delay project
finish date, but also make it more risky. That is
why, all modification should be approved by
stakeholders after analyzing a what-if scenario of
those changes. |
|
Are there excessive number of activities starting or
finishing on Data Date? |
There should not be more than 2% of activities
starting or finishing on Data Date, except when
following original SS logic. If there are, then it
means we are lagging behind in work. |
If activities are not completing or starting as
scheduled they will end up on the data date. This
reflects that either logic or activity durations
weren't planned properly. |
|
Are there more than 5% of remaining activities
In-Progress and Actual Duration of most of these
activities is higher than the Original duration? |
At any time there should be approximately 5% of
remaining activities in progress; except near
project completion. It is especially concerning if
most of these "In Progress" activities' actual
duration is higher than original duration. |
Too many activities in progress points toward two
things. 1. Contractor starts too many activities,
claims that most of the work is completed for each
activity, but the last portion of activity takes
extremely long to complete. The contractor may do
so to show better than actual performance and to
earn more hours than actual accomplishment to get
paid higher than what contractor deserves. 2. On the
other hand, there may be issues with safety,
procurement, engineering, etc., that is keeping the
contractor from completing those activities. If it
is reason # 2, the activities need to be "Suspended"
to keep Primavera from adding to "Actual Duration"
and efforts need to be directed towards resolving
root cause of delays. |
|
Is Data Date being changed and progress updated on
regular intervals based on agreed timetable? |
Is schedule being updated and data date changed on
regular intervals based on agreement with Company?
If not, the procedures need to be established. |
Sometimes many other projects are dependent on a
single project; while other times many types of
reporting is dependent on update cycle. Thus it is
important to have update cycle and data date changes
coordinated with all other parties. For linked
projects; all projects should have the same data
date at all times. |
|
The value in activity field "Original Duration" has
not been modified for any activity since baseline. |
1. For activities Not Started, Original Duration to
Match Remaining and At Complete Durations; if not,
correct these figures and change project default
setting by checking "Link Budget and At Completion
for not started activities" in Project
"Calculations" tab.
2.Activity Original Duration should not be modified
in Current or Baseline Schedules without following
Change Management Process and appropriate approvals.
(Original Baseline is never modified once approved) |
The original duration is designed to keep this
duration available for comparison with actual
duration. Changing original duration makes it
difficult to judge progress. |
|
There has been no modifications in Resource Budgeted
Units for any activity or any resource since
baseline. |
1. For activities Not Started, Budgeted Units to
Match Remaining and At Complete Units; if not,
correct these figures and change project default
setting by checking "Link Budget and At Completion
for not started activities" in Project
"Calculations" tab.
2. Budgeted Units should not be modified in Current
or Primary Baseline Schedules without following
Change Management Process and appropriate approvals.
(Original Baseline is never modified once approved) |
Once cost estimate is approved, resource budgeted
units are assigned to activities, and baseline is
established, there should not be any changes to
Budgeted Units. Any change would make it difficult
to judge productivity accurately. |
|
Were there any new activities added to replace
Placeholder activities in the schedule to provide
work detail? |
After formal schedule quality assurance and formal
approval, activities can only be added to replace
any placeholder activity. The new activities should
not span beyond the original placeholder activity's
time span. After replacing placeholder activities
with detailed work activities, a schedule quality
assurance is needed and baseline updated. |
Adding new activities means there is a need to check
schedule for quality to ensure the new logic is
created properly and it is interfacing with the rest
of the schedule appropriately. |
|
For completed activities are you noticing a trend
that most of activity "At-Complete" Durations are
larger than Original Durations? |
If more than 10% of In-Progress or Completed
activities have “At Complete” durations higher than
Original Duration, then discuss the plan with
stakeholders and see if there is a need to revise
durations for the rest of the schedule following
Company schedule change management procedures.
Update the baseline, when done. |
If most of the completed activities are showing
"At-Complete" duration larger than original
duration, it means it is taking longer to do work
than planned. It also means that initial estimate of
work duration was not correct. It would be
advantageous at this point to revise durations for
remaining work to come up with a realistic plan with
a realistic finish date. Update most current
baseline with revised plan. (Never change original
approved baseline) |
For completed activities, are you noticing a trend
that most of activities' "At-Complete" resource
units are higher that Budgeted Units?
(Applicable only if you are
inputting Actual units in Primavera) |
If too many In-Progress and Completed activities
have “At Complete” resource units higher than
Budgeted Units, then discuss the plan with
stakeholders and see if there is a need to revise
activities' resource units following Company
schedule change management procedures and then
update baseline.. |
If most of the completed activities are showing
"At-Complete" Units more than Budgeted Units, it
means it is taking more labor hours to do work than
planned. It also means that initial estimate of work
labor units was not correct. It would be
advantageous at this point to revise labor units for
remaining work to come up with a realistic plan.
Update your cost estimate accordingly as well as
your most current baseline. (Never change original
approved baseline) |
|
In comparison to the latest baseline, during each
update cycle, are you noticing a trend where Total
Float Variance is growing? |
If more than 25% of major milestones are having
significant Total Float variance from Project
Baseline, have the schedule reviewed by
stakeholders. If necessary revise plan according to
Company schedule change management procedures and
update baseline. |
If Total Float is reducing, it means that it is
taking longer to complete work than planned. Such
delay is reducing Total Float for remaining
activities and slowly bringing them near critical.
It is also likely that project will not finish as
planned. It would be advantageous at this point to
revise durations or labor units for remaining work
to come up with a realistic plan with a realistic
finish date. Update most current baseline with
revised plan. (Never change original approved
baseline) |
|
In comparison to the latest baseline, during each
update cycle, are you noticing a trend where
activity Finish Date Variance is growing? |
If more than 25% of activities are having
significant Finish date variance from Project
Baseline, have the schedule reviewed by
stakeholders. If necessary revise durations for the
remaining activities by following Company schedule
change management procedures and update baseline. |
A one time Finish date variance could just be an
indication that project started later than planned,
but an increasing variance indicates that it is
taking longer to complete work than planned. Such
delay is pushing remaining activities to a later
finish date. It is likely that project will not
finish as planned. It would be advantageous at this
point to revise durations or labor units for
remaining work to come up with a realistic plan with
a realistic finish date. Update most current
baseline with revised plan. (Never change original
approved baseline) |
|
If you are following Company recommended rule of
credit for Earn Value management system, do all
In-Progress Activities have 25% duration completion? |
Check to make sure all in-progress activities have a
"Duration Percentage Complete" equal to 25% |
If you are following Company recommended rules of
credit then all In-Progress activities should have
25% duration percentage complete to credit 25% of
labor units as earned. The remaining 75% will be
marked earned when activity completes. |
|
Is there any Actual Start or Actual Finish Date
After the Data Date? |
No activity should have such activities after the
data date. |
Any activities having Actual Start or Actual Finish
date after data date means actual work started or
finished in the future; which is not realistic. Such
information should be corrected immediately. |
|
Misc. Comments or Exceptions |
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Q: What items should I
minimally check when I am performing a baseline comparison.
Q: What items should I
minimally check when I am performing an schedule quality
assurance.
Q: What is the best method of assigning Float
contingency in a schedule among different contractors/disciplines?
Q: What is the best method of assigning schedule
contingency among different contractors/disciplines?
Q: How can I assign a constraint and still be able
to see the entire longest path in Primavera?
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