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    DecipherTheDisaster

    *

    12 Tactics to AnalyzeA Primavera P6

    Schedule Youve

    Just Inherited

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    Table of Contents

    Is this Guide right for me? 2

    A Cruel Inheritance 4

    A Long, Long Time Ago 5

    The Plan 7

    Scope: Schedule Mechanics 8

    Preparation 9

    Download and Import Layouts 10

    Tactic 1: Review ALL Documentation 11

    Tactic 2: See the Big Picture 12

    Dates, Durations and Deadlines 12

    Tactic 3: Do a Walk Through 14

    Tactic 4: Assess Your Projects Size 15

    Tactic 5: Unravel Your Schedules Work Breakdown Structure 16

    Tactic 6: Tallying Activity Types 19

    Tactic 7: Check Project Calendars 20

    Tactic 8: Measure Your Milestones 21

    Tactic 9: Fix Open-Ended Relationships 22

    Tactic 10: Learn about Leads & Lags 23

    Tactic 11: Check Constraints 24

    Tactic 13: Out of Sequence Activities 25

    Next Steps 26

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    Decipher the Disaster

    Curated by Michael Lepage

    Michael Lepage is a Primavera trainer

    and consultant. He is also an editor and

    author at the Planner Tutorials Hub. He

    has lead implementations of Primavera

    for companies large and small. He really

    enjoys writing and teaching and flying

    remote control helicopters.

    Follow me on Twitter

    @PlannerTuts

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    A Cruel Inheritance

    It happens. You become the new owner of a project schedule that is monstrous, complex and

    undecipherable. WHO put it together and WHAT were they thinking?

    Activities: 8,200 by last count .and growing

    WBS: 10 levels deep

    Resources: no naming convention to speak of

    Costs: $Millions$ on the Cost Curve

    Relationships: serious gaps

    and we havent even looked at any dates yet.

    The boss wants to discuss key milestones with you this afternoon! Go!

    This situation happens every day in our project-driven economy. Planners come and go for

    many reasons and what is left behind is the fruit of their labours a schedule. Whether that

    schedule is good or bad is up to its new owner (YOU) to decide.

    In some situations, you may be able to discuss the schedule with whoever developed it. Then

    hopefully youll have a proper transition and get up to speed fast with their help. In other

    situations, the person who created the schedule is gone and not coming back.

    This guide is for the situation where there is no project plan handoff.

    Truly understanding someone elses work and rationale for planning and developing it a certain

    way is a big task. There is no silver bullet solution to this inheritance dilemma. But there are

    some proven Tactics you can use. Read on.

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    A Long, Long Time Ago

    A long, long time ago:

    Project schedules were simpler. I dont mean that projects were easier or simpler to

    accomplish. But we didnt have the sophisticated tools that store terabytes of project data in a

    project schedule. Schedules used to incorporate less data, were easier to create, manage,

    update and understand.

    Today:

    There are no limits on data. A 5,000-line project schedule has become the norm. Schedules

    are required to accommodate large scope, hundreds of resources, multiple estimates, store

    key scenarios and schedule work packages by 15-minute intervals. Today, projects often track

    to numerous baselines and get updates coming from a dozen contractors. Clients require that

    every detail is estimated, documented, reviewed, approved, updated, tracked and

    statused.weekly.

    Planners and Schedulers need to know their project schedules intimately. A planner must

    master all of that data. Their teams rely on them to set the pace and track performance,

    forecast problems, highlight risks and manage the mountain of project data.

    We all know.

    if you dont have a handle on your schedule, youre in trouble.

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    In the popular book and movie The DaVinci Code, Robert Langdon is faced

    with solving a murder in the Louvre. The victim is found in the Grand Gallery,

    naked and posed like DaVinci famous drawing, the Vitruvian Man, with a

    cryptic message written beside his body and a pentacle drawn on his chest in

    his own blood.

    When asked by an official why the body was laid out so cryptically, Langdon

    replies

    Captain Fache, obviously I cant tell you why.

    When we open up a project we havent ever set our eyes on and try to grasp the meaning

    behind the data, it can feel like were trying to crack DaVincis code.

    Ironically, what we need to get our bearings is a PLAN.

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    The Plan

    If youve recently inherited or become the owner of an Oracle Primavera P6 schedule that

    need deciphering, then this guide is for you.

    Primavera P6 is a great tool for building complex project schedules. Its also a great tool for

    analyzing complex project schedules. Many features in Primavera can be used to help

    decipher your project schedule. Then you can determine if your schedule is a disaster or not.

    This guide will walk you through a process to help you reveal how your plan was built. During

    this process well also answer the key question:

    Was this project schedule built well?

    Big Picture FIRST

    To get a handle on your new schedule, you need to focus on the big

    picture first. Understanding the context for the project is as important as

    understanding the details. Start with our Big Picture Tactics.

    Scrutinize the Details

    Once we have a firm footing, then we can use Primaveras features to

    help us focus on specific scheduling details. Well show you specific

    Tactics to use and steps to take to decipher your schedule.

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    Scope: Schedule Mechanics

    This guide is geared to helping you get your head around

    your project with a focus on the schedule mechanics ofyour project. We will not cover any topics on resourcing,

    resource assignments, leveling, costs or cost-loading.

    Well focus rather on the true foundation of your schedule

    which addresses how it was built and organized, how it

    was linked together, and how it was scheduled.

    The Resource management and Cost management aspects of a schedule are also important

    and we may address them in a future publication.

    So if youre ready, lets begin!

    Schedule

    Resources$$

    Don't be afraid to

    give up the good to

    go for the great.

    John D. Rockefeller

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    Preparation

    Create a Working Copy of Your Schedule

    Before you begin deciphering your schedule, youll want to preserve the original in case you

    ever have to go back.

    Step 1: Make a Copy

    We recommend you create a copy of your schedule and re-name the copy

    something appropriate, perhaps appending todays date to the name. Thiswill preserve the original you were handed. With a working copy and the

    original still in the database, youll be prepared for anything.

    Step 2: Just Schedule It!

    Open the working copy of your project plan and reschedule it. This will

    make sure its been updated and scheduled in case it hadnt been done in

    a while. Rescheduling will also update many calculated fields and the

    Schedule Log file which well use later on. Dont worry, its only a copy.

    You can always restore it to the original schedule.

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    Download and Import Layouts

    In order to make deciphering your schedule an easier process, weve created some very useful

    Primavera P6 Activity Layouts for you to use alongside this guide. Well reference a layout

    for each Tactic we present. Weve even got a tutorial on how to import / install them.

    We recommend you download and install the layouts into your Primavera P6 user account

    before you get deep into analyzing your project. Heres how:

    Installing the Activity Layouts

    1) Gotohttp://www.plannertuts.com/decipher-activity-layoutsto download the Primavera

    Activity layouts.

    2) Read this tutorial to for instructions on how to import / install Activity layouts in P6:

    http://www.plannertuts.com/tutorials/importing-exporting-emailing-layouts-in-oracle-

    primavera-p5-p6-134/

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    Tactic 1: Review ALL Documentation

    Do you get everything you need? Ask for ALL supporting documentation before you try to

    unravel this schedule. Heres a checklist:

    Request the Project Charter

    Ask for the approved WorkEstimate

    Ask for any Scoping docs

    Ask for any relevant Drawings

    Request all Specification documents

    Get and read any relevant Contractual documents

    Is there a Document Repository on a file share somewhere these and otherdocuments might be located? Find out and start getting up to speed.

    Speed Reading 101

    Once you are armed with as much documentation as is

    relevant to your task and the project, its time to speed read.

    Do this:

    1. Get a stack of Post-it-Notes.

    2. Scan & Tag : Go through each document, briefly

    scanning each section. Put a Post-it-Note on any

    page that may be an input to the project schedule.

    3. Get rid of documents that were not relevant this should leave you with a short list of

    10-15 important pages.

    4. Spend some time reviewing the 10-15 important pages in detail.

    The steps outlined above are an easy way to remove that feeling of overwhelm that shows up

    when faced with..well, reviewing a monster stack of documents. The goal is to find whats

    important and get out. You could easily spend many days reviewing and trying to understand

    project documentation. Just get whats important and move on.

    1

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    Tactic 2: See the Big Picture Dates, Durations and Deadlines

    To see the big picture youll need to gather some high-

    level information about your project. That means

    understanding where the project sits in terms of execution

    and progress. Heres how:

    4 Key Dates

    To begin, there are 4 key project dates you should be

    concerned with:

    Planned Finish Date

    Planned Start Date

    Data Date

    Must Finish By Date the projects Deadline

    Find them and jot them down on a piece of paper. Now go through the following analysis of

    these dates.

    What to look for

    Essentially, you want to ensure these dates line up properly with each other. For example:

    ensure the Date Date is within the bounds of the Planned Start and Finish Dates. Here are

    some specific items to check in.

    Project Start Date

    Do a quick check to make sure the schedule reflects the proper Start Date from the

    project specification. Check this on the Projects screen, using the Dates tab.

    2

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    Must Finish By date / Planned Finish

    If there is a Must Finish By Date set, then someone has a project deadline in mind. If

    theres no deadline set, then you may need to ask why or why not? Is this an error or

    is it intentional? Better find out.

    Is the project set to finish before the Deadline? This is the first gauge to see how much

    hot water you are in. If the Planned Finish Date falls after the Must Finish By Date, then

    one of your first tasks in owning this schedule should be to help plan the work to finish

    before the deadline.

    If the Planned Finish Date falls before the Must Finish By Date, then its a better

    situation, but by how much? Its important to know how much time there is until a

    project becomes late.

    The Data Date

    Notice the projects Data Date. It should be an indicator of when the project was last

    updated with status information or actuals.

    If the Data Date matches the Planned Start Date - this is an indicator that your project is

    still in the planning or acceptance stage. No actuals have been should have been set in

    the schedule.

    If the Data Date exceeds the Planned Start Date, then you schedule should have been

    progressed as well.

    The Data Date should usually not exceed todays date.

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    Tactic 3: Do a Walk Through

    The best way to understand your current schedule is to do a

    walkthrough. Request some time with your projects projectmanager or someone who understands the schedule to do this.

    Walk through the schedule line by line to understand the

    schedule mechanics. This is not the time to fix things, but

    rather to make notes and to help you get a good feel for the

    project, its goals, key dates, impacts, progress, etc. Bring a

    notebook.

    Here are some potential questions or areas to focus on:

    What to ask and what to look for:

    - What was working well with the previous scheduler? What was not working well?

    - What reporting or statusing processes should you know about? Other processes?

    - Does the schedule have known gaps? Is it missing scope?

    - What areas of the schedule should you focus on addressing first?

    - Does the schedule represent accurate progress in the field? Is it up to date?

    - What impacts do you foresee that will affect the schedule?

    Were sure you will come up with more questions, but those listed above should give you some

    ideas to be prepared for a Walkthrough of your new schedule.

    3

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    Tactic 4: Assess Your Projects Size

    Understanding how big a project plan is can be helpful in understanding a projects scope and

    structure. Primavera has some built-in fields to show you exactly how many activities are inyour project plan.

    Well focus on 2 components relating to the size of a project:

    1) What is the overall duration of the project?

    2) How many activities make up the schedule?

    In Primavera

    1. Open the Project Sizing

    Layout.

    2. Note the projects duration.

    3. Note the total number of

    activities for the project and

    for each phase or WBS.

    What to look for

    a) How long is the schedule in days?

    b) Could it be better divided into multiple schedules?

    c) How many activities make up the schedule?

    d) Are there enough activities to represent the duration of the project? (i.e.: is there

    enough detail?)

    e) Are there too many activities? (i.e.: is there too much detail?) Overly large schedules

    are hard to update, change and manage. Can you combine or merge activities or use

    steps to remove unnecessary activities?

    4

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    Tactic 5: Unravel Your SchedulesWork Breakdown Structure

    A Work Breakdown Structure is the fundamental organizing structure of a project schedule. If

    your project doesn`t have one, then it might be flawed from the start.

    A WBS provides a common framework for the natural development of the

    overall planning and control of a project and is the basis for dividing work into

    definable increments from which thestatement of workcan be developed

    and technical, schedule, cost, and labor hour reporting can be established.

    Wikipedia

    Essentially, you want the answer to: Is this project well organized?

    A well-organized project is the product of a well-organized planner / scheduler. If its well

    organized, its going to be much easier to decipher and easy to understand.

    In Primavera1. Open the WBS Summarized Layout.

    5

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    What to look for

    Many companies enforce a specific WBS structure that ensures consistency across projects.

    Often this standard WBS will map to a CBS (Cost Breakdown Structure) to ensure the projects

    costs are accumulating in the right buckets. In some cases, the WBS in your project is the one

    youre stuck with check with your project cost engineers to see if thats the case.

    In the case where your projects WBS has been set by the planner, then its a good idea to

    check the following:

    WBS Levels

    Common Structure: Many WBSs follow a structure that incrementally elaborate a project.

    The idea is to organize the work in a meaningful and incremental fashion. A common structureis shown here:

    Level 0: Project SummaryLevel 1: Phase / SystemLevel 2: Sub-System or DisciplineLevel 3: Work Package

    Depth: We want to include enough depth in the WBS to capture all our project activities at a

    manageable level. However, going too deep will create a system thats hard to follow.

    0 AircraftSystem

    1 Air Vehicle

    1.1 Airframe

    1.1.1Airframe

    Integration

    1.1.2Fuselage

    1.1.3 Wing

    1.2Propulsion

    1.3 VehicleSubsystems

    1.4 Avionics

    2 SystemEngineering

    3 ProgramManagement

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    Three(3) to six(6) levels of depth is usually sufficient. Ten(10) levels is too deep.

    Completeness

    The WBS should capture 100% of the projects scope at every level. In decomposing the work

    from one level to the next, the sum of the work at the child level must equal 100% of the work

    represented by the parent. Essentially, this really means :

    a) Do not add extra work that is NOT in-scope at any level

    b) Do not leave out any work that IS in-scope at any level

    Check your projects WBS for the items above.

    The challenge is not

    to manage time, but

    to manage ourselves.

    Stephen Covey

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    Tactic 6: Tallying Activity Types

    Checking to see what Activity Types are used on your project is another check to ensure good

    scheduling practices were implemented. Depending on the size and type of your project,expect Start and Finish Milestones and mostly Task Dependent activities. A few WBS

    Summary activities are ok, as well as Level of Effort activities. Resource Dependent activities

    tend to be rarely used unless there is a specific or particular circumstance.

    In Primavera

    1) Open the Activity Types layout

    2) Analyze your activities.

    What to look for

    1) Is the majority of the project using the Task Dependent type?

    2) Are there start and finish milestones in the project?

    3) How are Level Of Effort activities used? Are they used appropriately?

    4) How are WBS Summary activities used?

    5) How are Resource Dependent activities used?

    6

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    Tactic 7: Check Project Calendars

    The Activity Calendars your project uses will affect how activities are scheduled and what

    dates work will land on (or not land on). Youll want to make sure that each activity has beenassigned an appropriate Calendar, and that each Calendar is configured properly.

    In Primavera

    1) Open the Project Calendars layout.

    2) Note what Calendars your project is using.

    3) Open each Calendar to ensure each is setup properly

    What to look for

    1) Is each Calendar setup properly? Does each

    Calendar reflect accurate working / non-work times?

    2) Does each Calendar include corporate or stat holidays as non-work time? Is that a

    requirement of your project?

    3) Are the Time Periods set accurately for your Calendars? (Edit your Calendar, click the

    Time Periods button)

    4) Are your projects activities assigned an appropriate Calendar?

    7

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    Tactic 8: Measure Your Milestones

    According to PMIs Practice Standard for Scheduling, a milestone will represent the start or

    completion of a portion or deliverable of the project and may also be associated with externalconstraints, such as the delivery of specific required permissions or equipment. Each project

    should have a start milestone and a finish milestone.

    Heres how to check your projects milestones.

    In Primavera

    1) Open the Project Milestones layout.

    2) From the Activities screen, goto View -> Filters

    3) Place a checkbox next to the Milestone filter, ensuring no other filters are checked on.

    4) Analyze the projects milestones and dates.

    What to look for

    1) Are there both start and finish milestones?

    2) Is there both a project start & finish milestone?

    3) Are the milestones to mark the beginning andcompletion of each phase of the project?

    4) Are there too many milestones? Not enough?

    5) Are the milestones properly linked with

    relationships?

    8

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    Tactic 9: Fix Open-Ended Relationships

    Good relationship linking is an essential part of a good schedule. A poorly-linked project

    schedule can steal away endless amounts of time fixing activity order and dependencies.With regard to your projects activity network, one main concern is open-ended activities.

    Open-ended Activities dont land in the projects Activity Network and can impact your projects

    Critical Path. Ideally, you have only 2 open-ended activities the projects Start and Finish

    Milestones. Of course, thats reallyideal.

    In Primavera

    1) Open the Open Ends layout

    The Open Ends layout filters out any WBS Summary activities and keeps only

    activities that have no Successors or Predecessors (or both) listed.

    2) Examine the list of Open-ended Activities in your project

    What to Look For

    1) Open-Ended activities other than the projects Start or Finish milestone that should have

    successors and predecessors assigned.

    2) An Open-Ended activity cannot be on your Critical Path. Analyze open-ends and

    determine proper linkages for those activities

    3) Aim to eliminate open-ends on your schedule. (WBS Summaries should not be counted

    as open-ends)

    4) Aim to use primarily Finish-to-Start relationships in the project. Simplicity is key to a

    good activity network.

    9

    "There cannot be a stressful

    crisis next week. My schedule

    is already full."

    Henry Kissinger

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    Tactic 10: Lookout for Leads & Lags

    In keeping with Tactic 8s theme of good relationship and network logic, you need to

    understand if your project plan has any Relationship Leads or Lags. Relationship Lag or Leaddelays should be minimized or not used at all. Lag or Lead delays have poor visibility on

    project schedules, are hard to find and hard to document. Its highly recommended to remove

    any lag or lead delays in your schedule. Lags can easily be replaced with an activity

    describing and documenting the delay, offering good visibility.

    Helpful Resources

    1) Read our tutorial onbuilding a P6 report to find lead or lag delaysin your Primavera

    schedule. Build a quick reusable report in P6 to ferret out lag or lead entries.

    In Primavera

    1) Build the lag report as outlined in the tutorial above.

    2) Open your project and run the report.

    What to Look For

    1) If there are leads or lags, check activity Notebooks to see if there is any documentation

    as to why they are being used.

    2) Aim to remove lag entries and to replace them with real activities that represent and

    describe the delay.

    3) Aim to remove lead entries by revisiting each activitys relationships and relationship

    types.

    10

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    Tactic 11: Check Constraints

    Activity Constraints can get you into a lot of hot water! How? Well, essentially Constraints

    override network logic and delay activities to start or finish on a user-specified date. Granted,sometimes using a Start on or After constraint to delay an activity is necessary. But many

    inexperienced schedulers use Constraints much too often or sometimes instead of using

    Relationshipsand without adding any documentation to the Activity. This becomes a major

    mess for someone like you who has to figure out why an Activitys dates were changed with a

    Constraint.

    Thus, youll need to check your projects constraints and decipher them quick!

    In Primavera

    1) Open the Activity Constraints layout

    2) Examine the list of Activities that have constraints in your project.

    What to Look For

    1) Look for any documentation in each constrained activitys Notebook. If youre lucky

    youll soon know why a Constraint was added to a specific activity.2) Check project documentation for reasons constraints are used on key activities.

    3) Check for Mandatory Constraints. Mandatory Constraints are NOT recommended and

    should be avoided as they override relationships and destroy a projects fluidity.

    Remove any Mandatory Constraints or replace them with a soft Constraint.

    4) Remove any Constraints that you think are not necessary. The fewer Constraints in

    your schedule, the easier it will be to update, change and manage. Keep the list of

    constrained activities down to a dozen or less.

    11

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    Tactic 13: Out of Sequence Activities

    If your project has already been progressed, you may have

    some Out of Sequence activities as a result. This situationarises when activities are progressed, but not in the order that

    they were planned. For example, work begins on an activity

    prior to the completion of its predecessor activities. Although it

    may be legitimate to execute activities out of order (as

    determined by workers in the field), doing so can cause

    problems in your schedule, affect the critical path and

    downstream activities. A scheduler will need to be aware of when activities are executed out

    of sequence and should adjust their schedule accordingly.

    In Primavera

    1) Schedule your project (unless you have already done so). Open the schedule log.

    2) Check the Errors & Warnings listing for Out-of-Sequence Activities.

    What to Look For

    1) Find and analyze out of sequence activities using the schedule log and Gantt.

    2) Understand the contractual details around execution of activities. Are there contractual

    stipulations that limit or allow out of sequence execution on your project?

    3) Adjust Advanced Scheduling options (F9 -> Options button). Set Primavera to

    schedule progressed activities as Retained Logic (if activities must be progressed in

    sequence) or as Progress Override (if activities can be progressed out of order).

    4) Adjust activity relationships to re-sequence activities if appropriate. Update any

    baselines to accommodate these changes as well.

    12

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    Next Steps

    Project planning and scheduling is like painting a picture. I believe its truly 80% science and

    20% art. The tactics in this guide will help you with the science part. But its up to you to fill inthe gaps and use your design expertise to create (or re-create) a highly-organized and intuitive

    project schedule.

    Since the focus of this guide was schedule mechanics, you may also need to dig into the

    following aspects of your schedule (if appropriate).

    Critical Path and Total Float

    Resource assignments

    Find Resource over-allocations

    Cost loading

    Earned Value Management

    If you havent done so, ensure you download theActivity Layoutsthat accompany this guide,

    as outlined on page 10.

    Helpful Tutorials

    Use A Level Of Effort To Add Work Stoppage Info To A Project and Still Track To Your

    Primavera Baseline

    Use Reflections in Primavera P6 to merge scenarios back into your project

    [Video] Building a Stacked Histogram in Primavera P6

    Quick Tip: Zoom! P6 Activities to Excel in 8 clicks!

    Schedule % Complete in Oracle Primavera The Missing Guide (Part 1)

    Units Percent Complete in Primavera P6 the Missing Guide

    Using Primaveras .Xer File Parser Import WBS From Excel Without The SDK

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