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Why connect the Primavera P6 XER file with Power BI

The era of dynamic reports based on Business Intelligence and the massive crossing of different databases has opened a new path for us in the world of project planning and project control reports. Generating reports thanks to the data obtained from the Primavera P6 planning and project controls tool has never been an easier task. In the post we released about how to connect Primavera P6 with Power BI, we already taught you how to create reports in Power BI thanks to the connection with Excel sheets.

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The use of excel spreadsheets is a process that, today, is certainly friendly for most users. However, it can become a process that generates errors more easily or is not 100% automatic. That’s why we think that working directly with XER files as data sources will save us a lot of manual work in the long run and greatly reduce the risks that come with working with manually created spreadsheets.

Before showing you how to connect the Primavera P6 XER file to Power BI, let’s see what’s behind the native XER file of this powerful project planning and control tool that is Primavera P6.

What to find in a Primavera P6 XER file

How is data stored in the Primavera P6 database

The Primavera P6 project planning tool database stores all data in more than 170 tables. Each of these tables contains different fields which in turn contain records. These tables are referenced to each other through relationships between a Primary Key and a Foreign Key. Despite the large number of tables that the Primavera P6 database contains, we should be more familiar with only 20 of them.

It should be noted that calculated fields are not stored in the Primavera database, since they are calculated based on other fields in the database.

Example of where data is written to the Primavera database

Next, we are going to see an example that shows how the data that we enter in P6 is stored within its database. To do this, we will base ourselves on the Activity Code called Project 2080.

The data is stored in the tables, fields, and records of the database, as we mentioned before. In this example, the Activity Code that we have called “Project 2080” is stored in the table (%T) “ACTVTYPE“, inside the field (%F) “actv_code_type_id“, with a unique code as a record (%R) of value “1986“. With the help of Excel, this is what it would look like:

As for the different values within the Activity Code “Projet 2080“, these are stored within the table (%T) “ACTVCODE“, as shown in the following screenshot:

Note that the Primary Key in the ACTVTYPE table (1986) becomes the Foreign Key in the ACTVCODE table. This will make both tables related to each other, something that will help us when relating tables in Power BI.

What is Primavera P6 XER file

Primavera P6 is capable of working with different types of formats, such as XML, XLSX (Spread Sheet), or MPX (Microsoft Project) to exchange data related to project scheduling. However, the file that characterizes Primavera P6 is the XER file. The XER file is a CVS-type file, with tab delimiters (TAB). In other words, the XER file is a text file with tabulated data that you can open and modify in any text editor or other software that reads CVS files. Before moving on to work with the Primavera XER file in Power BI, let’s show you how you can open and view this file in Excel.

How to open and view an XER file in Excel

As it is a text file, the XER file can be opened using a note editor and even using the Excel tool, as we will see below, through the “From Text / CSV” option:

Once we have clicked on this option, we select the XER file that we want to import and a new window called “Power Query Editor” will open. Our file will appear in it, but still without format. To do this, we will select the file and press the right button of our mouse so that a drop-down appears where we will select the “CSV” option:

At this time, only two columns will appear. In order to see all the columns, we will use the property of the XER files, which we know are tabulated text files. We will go to the option to “split columns“, by delimiter:

In the window that appears, we will select the “Tab” option as the delimiter, as shown below:

In the following image we can already see how all the columns that are part of the XER file that we export from Primavera P6 are shown:

We can now click the Close and Load the file button in the upper left corner to be able to see the XER file as a single table in our Excel tool:

Before going on to see how to connect the Primavera P6 XER file to Power BI, we want to mention that this file always has the same structure, regardless of whether it is a file with data from one, two, or more projects. The structure is always the same and there are certain attributes of the table that are important to know before moving on to the next point.

If we look at the first column of the table that we have obtained when opening the XER file in Excel, we see that there are four attributes:

1. %T: to refer to tables
2. %F: to refer to fields
3. %R: when referring to registers
4. %E: refers to the last row of the XER file of P6

Therefore, if we want to know the list of tables that our native Primavera P6 file contains, we just have to filter the first column by “%T“:

How to connect Primavera P6 XER file to Power BI in 4 steps

If you’ve reached this point, we’re sure you already have a much deeper understanding of Primavera P6 XER files than you did before coming to this post. It’s time to put these insights into practice and start connecting your Primavera P6 XER files with Power BI. The objective is none other than to fully automate your reporting system and save as much time as possible month after month.

Step 1: Open Power BI

First, we will open Power BI and save the file with the appropriate name. In our case, we have called this file “connect Primavera P6 XER file with Power BI”.

Step 2: Export your Primavera P6 projects to XER format

Next, already in Primavera P6, we will select and open those projects that interest us to generate our reports in Power BI. Once opened, we will export them in XER format. It is worth mentioning that there are up to three types of data to export: projects, only resources, or only roles. Selecting one or the other data set will only influence the number of tables that make up the XER file. For this article, we have chosen the option to export project data.

Step 3: Get the data from the XER file in Power BI

Back in Power BI, let’s start working with the XER file. We will import the data from the XER file into Power BI and work with it in the query editor. To do this, the first step is to import the XER text file. Click on “Get Data” and select the “Text or CVS” option. As they are files with a .XER extension, we must select the option to see “all files” and we will select the XER file that we have previously created.

The “Power Query Editor” will have opened, just as it happened before when we imported the file into Excel. We will follow exactly the same steps that we saw above when we talked about how to open and view an XER file in Excel (let’s refresh our memory: we must select the icon inside the “Power Query Editor” window, and with the right mouse button select the “CSV” option. At this time it will be transformed into a table with two columns. Next, we will select the first column (“Column 1”), and select HOME-Split Column-By Delimiter. We will select the “Tab” delimiter since the XER files are CSV-type files with TAB, and split at “each occurrence of the delimiter”). However, in this case we won’t hit the “Close and apply” button yet.

The second step consists of making a series of adjustments in this query. First, we will add a conditional column. The condition will be that if a %T appears in column 1.1, then it returns the name of the table that comes in Column 1.2:

Once this new column is created, we will select it and go to Transform – Fill Down:

Next, we’ll move the column between Column 1.1 and Column 1.2 and name it “Table”:

Lastly, we will filter Column 1.1, selecting everything except ERMHDR, %E, and %T:

Step 4: extract the tables from the XER file

In this step, we are going to start extracting tables, along with their particular fields and records. Since we don’t want this post to take longer than necessary, we are only going to extract the ACTVCODE table as an example. Once we know how to extract a table, the rest of the tables would be extracted in the same way, always using the same table from the XER file that we have exported from Primavera P6 as the data source.

We’ll start by creating a reference to the XER file query we just created in the previous steps. To do this, we will select the original query and with the right mouse button we will select “Reference“. We will create as many references as tables of the XER files that we want to have at our disposal.

Once we rename this new query by the name of the table that we are going to create (in this case it would be ACTVCODE), we will filter the column that we call “Table” by the name of our table and we will select Transform – Use the first row as a header:

In order to have a table as clean as possible, we will eliminate those columns that we do not need, as well as those that are empty or have null values in them.

Finally, we will change the format of the columns as appropriate, paying more attention to date formats and decimal numbers for those fields that refer to quantities.

TIP OF THE DAY: in certain formats, the commas and periods may vary when we fetch information from the XER files. Our recommendation is that you select all the columns where there is a decimal delimiter that refers to amounts and in Transform – Replace values you change the points by commas. In this way, when changing the data type to a decimal number you will not lose the decimals.

And that’s all. Now you can Close and apply to be able to see all the changes in both the Report view, Data view, and Model view.

IN PROJECT 2080 WE WOULD LIKE YOU TO REMEMBER

You have just taken a big step as a project planner and project manager. Perhaps you are not yet aware of the great change that is coming in your professional life, but from now on the reports you were preparing will take on a new dimension. The universe of dynamic reports welcomes you. And all this without the need to link the Primavera P6 database with Power BI. Now it’s just a matter of knowing which XER file tables you’ll need to generate those reports that your peers will envy. And you know what? That we will help you with it.

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The post Connect the Primavera P6 XER file to Power BI was first published on Project 2080.

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Primavera P6 Database architecture types

First of all, we are going to see the two types of architectures under which the Oracle Primavera P6 tool works:

1. Client-Server Architecture: this is an architecture that covers a larger user size, as well as large volumes of information. In this type of architecture, the Primavera P6 software depends on a process started on a server. The six features that the client-server architecture offers us are:
   • higher scalability
   • greater performance
   • higher availability
   • greater security
   • greater integration
   • higher operability
2. “Standalone” Architecture: it is an architecture designed to work with an “express” database, since it works locally and without the need for a network connection. The great advantage of this architecture is that they are free versions and that you can download them from the Oracle website. In contrast, the size of the database does not exceed 10 Gb. In this case, Primavera P6 works as a separate and independent process, and not as part of an existing process.

Once you know the two types of architecture with which the Oracle tool works, you must assess what size, type and version of primavera p6 database your organization needs, as a previous and necessary point before installing the Primavera P6 software. You should also know that the Oracle Primavera P6 tool is capable of working with the following databases:

1. Oracle Database
2. Microsoft SQL Server / SQL Express
3. P6 Pro Cloud Connect
4. P6 Pro Standalone (SQLite)

Due to the educational and informative nature of this post, we will focus on the database installed as “P6 Pro Standalone (SQLite)“. This is the Primavera P6 Database type that any user who wants to learn how to use the Primavera P6 software from Oracle can install on their home computer, completely free of charge.

How to connect Primavera P6 Database to Power BI

First of all, what do you need to connect the Primavera P6 Database?

Step 1: Primavera P6 Database configuration

First of all, having configured the P6 Pro Standalone (SQLite) DB when installing the Primavera P6 scheduling tool on your computer.

Step 2: SQLite ODBC Driver (64 bit) installation

Second, you must have the SQLite ODBC Driver (64 bit) on your computer. This is necessary since the connection of the Primavera P6 Database to Power BI will be done through the “ODBC” option, as shown below:

Within the driver download website you will have to download the highlighted file shown below and install, selecting all features:

Once the drivers are installed, you will have to download the following installer for the Windows version “w64” and install all the components:

Step 3: ODBC Data Source configuration

To do this, go to the start menu, search for “ODBC Data Source (64-bit)” and open it.

Once open, in the “User DSN” tab, highlight the option “dBASE Files” and click on the “Add …” button:

In the window that opens, we select the option “SQLite3 ODBC Driver” and we finish:

Then the last window will open where we must enter the name of the data source with which we want our Primavera P6 DB to be displayed, in addition to selecting the corresponding Primavera P6 Database file on our laptop:

Once this is done, we click OK, and OK again. We already have our Primavera P6 SQL Database configured as ODBC. Let’s move on to Power BI to connect our Primavera P6 database and view all the tables included in it.

Step 4: get and transform data in Power BI through ODBC

We have already done the most complicated thing, which is to configure our Primavera P6 Database so that it can be read by Power BI as an ODBC data source. Now we have to open Power BI Desktop and go to the “Transform Data” query option:

Once inside the Power Query Editor, we will select ODBC as the new origin and we will connect:

A new window will open where you can select your Primavera P6 Database as configured above. In our case, the Primavera P6 SQL Database is called “Project 2080”:

Once we accept, the work is done: we will have access to all the tables in our Primavera P6 Database. From here on, we can select those tables that most interest us, depending on the type of reports or dashboards that we want to develop:

IN PROJECT 2080 WE WOULD LIKE YOU TO REMEMBER

Remember that the Oracle Primavera P6 software tables are normalized and there are more than 170 different ones. Each of these tables contains different fields and it is where the data is stored. Since both the name of the tables and the fields within each table can be confusing, we want to give you access to the Oracle mapping website where you will find the meaning of each of the elements of these tables that make up the base of data from Primavera P6. Also, note that the calculated fields are not stored in the Primavera P6 Database.

The post Connect Primavera P6 ❰❰SQL DATABASE❱❱ to Power BI was first published on Project 2080.

What is Power BI?

Power BI, according to Microsoft’s official website, “is a cloud-based business analytics service that provides you with a single view of the most crucial data in your business“. Power Bi helps us create dynamic and interactive dashboards. Powered through data sources such as Excel spreadsheets, cloud services, streaming data, and local databases. All this, located in the cloud and capable of keeping us informed in real-time, through a holistic view of the key metrics of your project or portfolio. With that said, and before we show you how to connect Primavera P6 to Power Bi, let’s see why Power BI is so important for planning and project controls.

Why is Power BI so important for Planning and Project Controls?

Power BI is important for the planning and project controls industry as it helps us provide a better service when it comes to preparing reports and dashboards for our clients. Dashboards based on the data analysis that feed our activity schedules, such as durations, dates, milestones, resources, costs, etc. In this way, we can even prepare reports about how to do the project schedule quality assessment in our portfolio.

Planning and Project Controls have never experienced this evolution and improvement before. Our analysis function, based on the data that feeds us every day, and our help and support in making decisions within our projects, we are now able to do it in real-time, with reports in the cloud, on our mobiles.

And what about the artificial intelligence of Power BI. We can ask you questions like “what are the activities with a Soft Constraint?” and get an impressive, interactive visualization in return. Natural language has reached the planning and project controls industry.

In addition, we will now be able, on a single platform, to create and publish content packages for specific teams, clients, or entire organizations. Content personalization is no longer just a Netflix thing. Project 2080 has joined the bandwagon of content personalization related to planning and project controls. In this post, we are showing you the first steps, and the necessary tools to connect Primavera P6 to Power BI.

Chaos is over. Project 2080 puts the future of project management in the palm of your hand. We will make the most complex reports and topics of your projects attractive and accessible, and help you in your decision making.

Different ways to access Power BI

Currently, Power Bi has different products at our disposal:

• Power BI Desktop: the desktop version of Power BI. In it you will have access to all the necessary functionalities to develop your reports, such as connecting data sources, preparing, adapting, and modeling the data with ease. All this with the sole purpose of being able to analyze data, find patterns, and prepare interactive and personalized reports for your project team.
• Power BI Pro: through this option, you will be able to carry out more efficient data-driven collaboration. Share visualizations, distribute findings, access visualizations on the go, improve collaboration through team feedback, and even subscribe to content to stay up-to-date.
• Power BI Premium: offering an advanced self-service data preparation solution that enables all users and organizations to accelerate knowledge delivery and collaborate with ease.
• Power BI Mobile: take the knowledge with you anywhere. Always be connected to the data, wherever your projects take you. Mobile business intelligence is just a touch away.
• Power BI Embedded: utility to add your analytics and interactive reports to your own tools or websites.
• Power BI Report Server: this is the on-premises solution that enables you to create reports today, with the flexibility to move to the cloud tomorrow.

Learn to connect Primavera P6 to Power BI

Once we have shown you what Power BI is, including the different alternatives to access it, and we have seen the importance of Power BI in the field of planning and project controls, let’s move on to know how to connect Primavera P6 to Power BI.

A person who works in the planning and project control department of a company with the Primavera P6 tool, or another similar one, will know the importance of filters and the multiple ways to group and sort the data of our project. In other words, the planner is used to segmenting the project by different codes, by dates, by durations, by criticality, etc. A static model, at the same time complicated, to show the data in a view that we could even save it as a template or layout in P6.

It is there where Power BI opens a new path in the field of planning and project controls through its dynamic and intelligent visualizations. Do you want to show your activities within a range of dates? Would you like to know which are the 5 most critical activities within the foundations´WBS? Would you like to know what is the progress of the engineering phase of your project? All of this is within your reach, but it needs some prior preparation. Let’s start with the beginning.

Before we start with the step-by-step guide to connect Primavera P6 to Power Bi, we want you to know that there are 3 methods to get data from Oracle Primavera P6 planning tool to Microsoft Power BI:

1. Copy the data from Primavera P6 and paste it into an Excel spreadsheet
2. Use the Primavera P6 reporting tool and export it to a “.csv” file
3. Connect Primavera P6 Database to Power BI

In this post, we will talk about the first method: “copy the data from Primavera P6 and paste it into an Excel spreadsheet”. However, we will cover the other two methods in depth in coming posts on our planning and project controls blog so that you can choose between any of them. Let´s go with the step-by-step guide to connect Primavera P6 to Power Bi.

Step 1: export data from Primavera P6 to Excel

First, we will copy the data from P6 and paste it into an Excel spreadsheet, both for the data in the “Projects” window:

and data in the “Activities” window in P6:

Note that we have configured the columns to display. The columns of the “Projects” window that we have copied are the following:

Regarding the “Activities” window, we have selected the following columns:

It is important to remember that when copying the data, within the preferences of the Primavera P6 user, we do not show either unit label or duration label:

In the same way, within “User Preferences”, on the “Dates” tab, set the format aligned with the date settings in Excel and Power BI. In our case, the settings and configuration are as follows:

Once the data has been copied into Excel, it is time to create pivot tables of this data, since we are interested in taking the table already created. As you know, Primavera P6 identifies certain “events” on their dates (Start and Finish) with different characters. For example, it uses the character “A” to tell us that this activity´s date is declared as complete. P6 also uses the “*” character to identify which activity has some kind of constraint such as “Finish On”, “As Late As Possible”, etc. In order to not having issues with these special characters when transforming the data in Power BI, we must remove them from our pivot table.

In our case, we use three tabs within our Excel files: “Instructions”, to explain how to copy and paste data; “Paste from P6”, to copy the data as text; and “PBI Schedule Quality”, where we place the formulated pivot table. In the tab where the pivot table is located, the cells that correspond to the columns relative to dates, on top of giving them a date format, we formulate them as follows to eliminate the characters that represent the constraints or status mentioned in the previous paragraph:

Step 2: get data in Power BI

Once we add the Primavera P6 data in an Excel spreadsheet, it’s time to bring it to Power BI. To do this, within Power BI Desktop, we will go Start / Transform Data, since we will have to do certain transformations of our original pivot table in Excel:

Next, we will create a new query and select, as a new data source, the “Excel” option:

Once you select the file where you have your pivot table, a browser will open where the sheets of your file will appear, as well as the tables that you have created. In our case, we will select the table:

Thus, we have just linked our Excel file with Power BI.

Step 3: transform data with Power Query Editor

They would now be connected and ready to work in the Power Query Editor. From now on, our ability to transform data within Power BI would come into play: managing columns, reducing rows, sorting fields, dividing columns, grouping, combining queries, and other functions related to artificial intelligence. Once we have configured our new query we can “Close and apply”:

Step 4: model data

A step prior to starting the development of our dashboard in Power BI consists of modeling the data sources and managing the relationships between them. This is where some of the magic of Power BI lies. A feature that opens a new world for planning and project controls specialists. To be able to model, we will go to the “Model” tab that is located on the left-hand side of our screen and we will begin to link the different tables.

We must distinguish three different types of tables. There will be tables called “Lookup Tables”, which will help us to segment our visualizations; “Data Table” or “Fact Table”, where all the data to be analyzed stay (dates, number of activities, relationships, etc.); and the “Measure Table”, which represent the measurements that we have created to be represented in our visualization or dashboard. In our example, the tables and relationships we have created are:

Step 5: create new measures

This step is where the data calculation is. The creation of measures will dynamically perform calculations based on the data in our “Data Table” or “Fact Table”. Measures are a key and powerful Power BI point since they will allow us to display almost any type of data within our dashboard. For the example in this post, the measures we have created refer to each of the 14 points that the DCMA takes into account for assessing the quality of project schedules. If you want to know more about this topic, you can take a look at our post about how to do the project schedule quality assessment.

Step 6: Power BI visualizations to create your dashboard

We are now in a position to unleash our creativity and start assembling our dashboard in Power BI. To do this, we must make use of the visualizations that Microsoft Power BI offers us, in addition to other elements such as text boxes, geometric figures, etc.

Step 7: once you connect Primavera P6 to Power BI, it´s time to publish

Last but not least, we get to the point where we will display our new dashboard. A scorecard made in Power BI with data that comes from the Primavera P6 planning tool to our project team. This will serve to analyze in a more dynamic way and in real-time, the status of our projects. To do this, you simply have to go to the “Publish” option. Voilá, our new report will go from Power BI Desktop to be visible on our organization’s Power BI website.

IN PROJECT 2080 WE WOULD LIKE YOU TO REMEMBER

The era of Power BI has arrived. The planning and project controls have taken a quality leap never seen before. Now it is within everyone’s reach to be able to link and crosscheck databases and visualize any type of relevant KPI. Knowing how to connect Primavera P6 to Power BI is only the first step. The creation of models and visualizations in a job that takes some practice and knowing how to unleash our creativity. Once you get it, you will forget all those hours you spent in front of an Excel sheet.

The post Connect Primavera P6 to Power BI ❰❰EXCEL❱❱ was first published on Project 2080.

Sort the error “XER file cannot be imported”

There are many ways to solve this small issue that we can find, such as requesting an XER file in a version that suits the version of Primavera P6 of our client or contractor or updating Primavera P6 to a more current version, among others.

However, in Project 2080 we will give you some advice that will save you time, as well as a few phone calls. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Open the XER file with the windows notebook or any other compatible text editor.
2. In the upper left corner, you can see the version in which the file export was recorded, in our example, it is version 19.1.
3. Change the “19.1” to the version that is compatible with the Primavera P6 version your client or your contractor has installed.
4. Save the file and send it.
5. Import this new file

IN PROJECT 2080 WE WOULD LIKE YOU TO REMEMBER

So far, with all the versions of Primavera P6 we have worked with, this method of modifying the version through the notebook has worked very reliably. However, we always advise that the data in the file be reviewed. In this way we ensure that there has been no anomaly or loss of information during the process. Now you are ready to stop seeing the message “XER file cannot be imported”, simply by applying this simple trick.

The post XER file cannot be imported was first published on Project 2080.

Characteristics of the Completion Date Milestone within a time schedule

The most common characteristics of this type of contractual milestones would be:

• It is shown as a Finish Milestone. These are activities without duration that reflect the completion of a work package, a project phase or interference with other projects.
• The Completion Date is part of the critical path of the project, since they represent agreements made with the client, and is the one analyzed in case of future claims or extensions of time.

How to identify a Completion Date Milestone in Primavera P6

When working on Primavera P6, we like to clearly identify these milestones in the time schedule within the WBS called “Milestones”. We will identify it both in the activity window, where all project tasks are listed, and in the Gantt Chart, as we comment below:

• Activity ID: depending on the coding or characters system established in each project, we will take the “CD” characters to refer to these milestones. A simple example of Activity ID would be as follows: “KM-CD-10”:
  • Phase: KM (Key Milestone)
  • Milestone type: CD (Completion Date)
  • Activity order: 10
• Activity Name: “COMPLETION DATE + milestone definition”. By using capital letters, we can identify at a glance that this is a milestone of great importance for the project.
• Gantt chart: we can represent these contractual milestones in a different way as the other milestones of the project. Primavera P6 gives us the option of changing the shape, color and pattern of the bars, as well as adding specific labels. For example, if the common milestone is normally represented with a black diamond, a Completion Date milestone could be represented with an orange triangle and add a label to the right with its “Activity ID”.

The partner: Planned Completion Milestone

But in the case of the contractor, it is also important to reflect which is the best estimation for the completion of the work. We call this estimate “Planned Completion” milestone. This milestone will be very useful to calculate the total float we have before reaching the Completion Date.

IN PROJECT 2080 WE WOULD LIKE YOU TO REMEMBER

When preparing a schedule of activities, we need to take into account which milestones are contractual and which are not. These contractual milestones are normally linked to a penalty by our client if we are not able to reach them on time. The Completion Date milestone will be our target at contractual wise. Depending on the nature of the project, there may be more than one Completion Date milestone. The existence of these milestones demands the mandatory existence of another milestone that will reflect the date planned by us for the achievement of the works. this is known as “Planned Completion Date”. The key is to control that the “Planned Completion Date” never ends later than the “Completion Date”, always trying to ensure that there is some slack that could cover event and risks that could affect the normal pace of work.

The post Completion Date Milestone was first published on Project 2080.

6 Delay Analysis techniques in projects

1. “Impacted As-planned” Delay Analysis technique

This method is based on adding a Delay Event within the Project Baseline schedule, logically linked. Once it has been correctly linked to the corresponding Baseline activities, the calculation of the schedule will be carried out again thanks to the planning tool being used. In our case, this tool is Primavera P6 by Oracle. In this way, the prospective or future-time impact that the Delay Event has on the contractual completion milestone of the project will be determined. This contractual milestone is often referred to as “Contract Completion Date”.

It is important to have a solid Baseline of the project, where it has been confirmed that the sequence and duration of the work to be done are reasonable, realistic and achievable. In the same way, it is necessary to ensure that all activities have been linked correctly.

Normally, this is the simplest and least expensive of all the analyses described in this article about the techniques for project delay analysis. However, it has some limitations such as not considering the actual progress of the project or the changes to what was originally planned. In certain contracts, and depending on the terms that have been agreed with our client, this Delay Analysis technique would be sufficient to assess the extension of time we are entitled to request.

2. “Time Impact” Delay Analysis technique

In the same way as in the Delayed Analysis method called “Impacted As-planned Analysis”, we must introduce and link the Delay Events within the Project Baseline and calculate this updated program with the planning tool which we are working with. As in the previous case, the future impact of the Delay Event on the project completion date will be determined.

The schedule used as the Baseline for each analysis can be a contemporary schedule or the updated Baseline that reflects changes in logic, the actual progress of the work, or new work packages or activities. In other words, the Baseline to be analyzed should reflect the actual progress of the work and a realistic, achievable and reasonable sequence of the remaining work. Any mitigation and/or acceleration plan will be incorporated and taken into account in the updated Baseline.

The number of Delay Events that are modeled has a considerable impact on the complexity and cost in the use of this method.

3. “Time Slice” Delay Analysis technique

This is the first of the two Delay Analysis methods by windows that exist. This method requires that the person who analyzes the delays verify or develop a series of updated schedules to be considered as Baselines, as snapshots during the course of work. Through this process, the progress of the work is split into time intervals, typically monthly intervals, that reflect the actual critical path of each period. This allows the person to analyze the delays to determine the extension of time of each critical delay within each “window.”

The analyst investigates the project reports to determine what events could have caused the critical delay identified in each time interval. For the schedule referring to each “window”, the analyst needs to verify that the history of events occurred reflects the actual work performed and that the sequence and duration of the remaining work are reasonable, realistic and achievable, apart of showing a logical sequence. This method depends largely on the planning software.

4. “As-planned versus As-built Windows” technique

This is the second Delay Analysis technique based on “windows”. This method depends less on the planning software we use and is usually applied when there is some concern about the validity of the Project Baseline. The duration of the work is divided into “windows”, which are framed by revised schedules, updated schedules, milestones and important events that have happened. The analyst determines the real critical path for each “window” through a common-sense analysis and a practical analysis of the available facts.

Since this task does not depend so much on the planning tool that is used, it is important that the analyst sets out the reasons why the criticality has been determined.

The incidence and extent of the critical delay in each “window” are determined by comparing key dates along the contemporary or actual critical path with the corresponding planned dates in the baseline schedule. Subsequently, the analyst investigates the project records to determine what delay events could have caused the identified critical delay. The critical delay incurred and the mitigation or acceleration achieved in each window are accumulated to identify the critical delay during the duration of the work.

5. “Retrospective Longest Path” technique

The retrospective analysis method of the longest path involves the determination of a retrospective mode of the critical path as per as-built. This should not be confused with the contemporary or actual critical path identified in the previous window-based methods. In this method, the analyst must first verify or develop a detailed as-built schedule, just as the work has been executed. Once completed, the analyst traces the longest path backward from the actual completion date to determine the critical path of the executed project.

The incidence and scope of the critical delay is determined by comparing the key dates along the critical path of the executed works (as-built) with the corresponding planned dates in the Baseline program. Subsequently, the analyst investigates the project records to determine which events could have caused the identified critical delay.

A limitation of this method is its more limited ability to recognize and allow switches in the critical path during the course of work.

6. “Collapsed As-built” Delay Analysis technique

The collapsed as-built delay analysis technique involves the extraction of delay events from the “as-built” schedule. This provides a hypothesis of what could have happened if the delay events had not occurred. This method does not require a baseline any. However, a detailed as-built program with a well-defined logic in the execution of activities is required. It is rare that this schedule of activities exists in the project. It is generally required that the analyst introduce the logic to a verified as-built schedule. This can take a long time and is a rather complex effort. Once completed, the Delay Events are identified within the as-built schedule and “collapsed” or extracted to determine their net impact.

This method is sometimes done in “windows”, using the appropriate software tools that contain detailed and complete data of the work actually done. A limitation of this method is that it only measures the incremental delay to the critical path. The completion date will not collapse more than the closest critical path.

IN PROJECT 2080 WE WOULD LIKE YOU TO REMEMBER

There are different methods of Project Delay Analysis. The use of one or the other will depend on the particular circumstances and on the terms established in the contract with our client. In order to minimize future disputes, it is good that the most appropriate technique to be used for the Delay Analysis in projects is agreed before it is launched. This article has shown the 6 most common Delay Analysis techniques to find out the project delays. But there are other methods such as the earned value analysis, the balance line analysis or the analysis of the resource curve. What is the method you use in your projects?

The post Delay Analysis Techniques in Projects was first published on Project 2080.

What is a Collaborative Planning Meeting?

Broadly speaking, a Collaborative Planning Meeting is a formal process to develop a project schedule of tasks to be carried out until the completion of a project where inputs from all the parties involved are needed during any of the project phases. The idea is that all project teams have the opportunity to give their own inputs, introduce them into the new plan and consider both internal and external interfaces between disciplines.

The process that takes place during a Collaborative Planning Meeting serves both if we consider the project as a single element and if we consider one of the work packages within it. Sometimes, this process is also called simply Collaborative Planning.

When must we hold a Collaborative Planning Meeting?

The Collaborative Planning Meetings can be carried out at the very beginning of a project to define a first baseline of the project. However, this type of integrative project planning is also carried out in a cyclical manner. In this way, we can talk about annual or semi-annual Collaborative Planning Meetings, depending on the nature of the project. In the same way, the nature of the project will mark the duration of these meetings, being advisable a minimum of 1 day and a maximum of 3 days.

Who leads the Collaborative Planning?

When it comes to marking the roles in this type of sessions, it is important to highlight that the project planner takes a secondary role. These are moments in which the rest of the team must take ownership of the project, after a preliminary study of the scope of the project. These meetings are led by the Project Manager, together with the engineering, procurement, logistics and execution teams. Due to the multidisciplinary nature of this type of Collaborative Planning, the outputs that arise from it will be used to assess and check the total scope of the project and to better define the objectives to be achieved. The results of these meetings will help us to monitor and monitor the scope, duration, and cost of the project.

List of achieved goals with a Collaborative Planning Meeting

Some of the results we obtain after conducting a Collaborative Planning Meeting are:

• A large picture showing the new project execution plan
• Relations between the different project participants
• List of identified problems, actions to take, and estimated time to resolve them
• List of assumptions on which the new schedule is based
• Logical sequence between groups of activities
• Milestones and gates agreed for the project
• Main characteristics of the activities

Depending on the type of session and the type of project, we could also obtain resource profiles derived from the table containing the new plan.

Once the Collaborative Planning Meeting concludes, the planner will arrange to pass all the information obtained to a planning tool and project controls. In our case, as you know, the tool we use is Primavera P6 due to its great potential and versatility. Once the new activity schedule has been created, it will be distributed among all participants in the Collaborative Planning session. Ideally, this process of data dump to Primavera P6 and distribution does not last more than 1 week.

Before starting the Collaborative Planning Session

For the Collaborative Planning Meeting to be a success, we must have a well-structured plan in advance. A well-defined planning strategy that covers the work to be done prior to the planning session. This preliminary process can last around 2 months and includes:

• Sending an invitation to the Launch Meeting to the work team
• Development of a presentation of the strategy to be followed
• Registration of all the most relevant Stakeholders
• Kick off meeting of each work team
• Collection of the scope of the project by the planner
• Internal meeting led by the one planned with your work team
• Finalization of a first draft of the program of activities, prior to the Collaborative Planning Meeting
• Development and sending of the agenda for the Planning Session
• Preparation of the necessary package during the meeting: markers, post-it, rules, magnets, calendars in A0 format, etc.

The idea is to arrive at the Collaborative Planning Session with the clear ideas of the work that must be undertaken in the project.

IN PROJECT 2080 WE WOULD LIKE YOU TO REMEMBER

The Collaborative Planning Meeting is one of the tools that add more value to the project planning and control function within a project. It puts all the parties involved and interconnected in one project in front of each other. After this type of meetings, something very important is achieved for the good development of the project: that each party feels responsible for their plot within the project and knows what their relationship with the rest of the stakeholders will be.

If we had to define how many sessions need to be carried out throughout the life of the project, this would depend on the type, nature, and duration of the project. However, a session at the beginning of each project is necessary, and at least one other session per year. This type of activities, within Project Management, creates a committed and solid team to face a project. In addition, the Collaborative Planning Meetings will serve to identify possible risks and propose mitigation actions, agreed by all stakeholders.

The post Collaborative Planning Meeting was first published on Project 2080.

Locate the critical path and subcritical paths with Primavera P6

As we saw in our post about the Critical Path Method, the Critical Path of a project is called to the longest path to the achievement of that project. Imagine now how radar works, and find out its analogy within Project Management. The image of a radar and a functioning sonar inside a submarine is familiar to us all. These devices are able to locate and represent on a screen elements close to the location of the submarine itself.

Imagine for a moment that our timeline is that radar. Thanks to the inputs that we are adding, we obtain an image of the current status and the forecast of work to be done until the project scope is completed. The analogy of radar and sonar with the management of the schedule of a project would be the following.

First, our project would be the submarine itself. The central point shown on the radar would no longer be the representation of our submarine, but all those activities part of the Critical Route of the project, the most critical route of all possible where the Total Float of the activities was the least possible. Instead of ships, the work packages of our project would be represented on the radar. These work packages (boats) would be more or less close to the central point depending on the total float they have. Therefore, we are interested in having the “boats” as far away from our “submarine” in order to reduce to the maximum the risk of being “reached”, that is, reducing the risk of our project being delayed.

Regular reports on the critical paths and subcritical paths with Primavera P6

From Project 2080 we are going to give you a hand as far as periodic reports are concerned. We have created 2 types of reports that will help you in your planning and project controls tasks and more specifically in the analysis of the critical path and subcritical paths of your project through the use of the Primavera P6 project controls tool. These are:

• RE20 Overall Critical Path: with this report, your team will have an overview of the critical path of the project. It will reflect all those activities that meet the condition of critical activity. This will be previously defined in the calculation options of the planning and project controls tool called Primavera P6. To better understand these calculation options, we advise you to take a look at our post about the Critical Path Method. Critical activities will be represented by the WBS to which they belong. Download an example report RE20 Overall Critical Path.
• RE21 Multiple Paths: this report is very useful when analyzing intermediate milestones of our project and the different subcritical paths until reaching them. With this report, we will be able to analyze in isolation a particular milestone of our project. We will base the decision making according to the order of priority of each one of the activities. We will base this priority on the criticality level of said activities. The critical activities, in this case, will be represented in Primavera P6 through the so-called ‘Float Path’. Download an example report RE21 Multiple Paths.

IN PROJECT 2080 WE WOULD LIKE YOU TO REMEMBER

One of the most important issues in any project is to correctly identify the critical path. This helps us identify those work packages and the most critical activities for the achievement of a project. The critical path analysis also includes the analysis of subcritical paths. These are part of our radar within project planning and controls. There are many ways to get the critical path and subcritical paths with Primavera P6. However, for us, there are two key reports that should be part of your library of layouts in Primavera P6. These are RE20 Overall Critical Path and RE21 Multiple Paths.

The post Critical Path and Subricritical Paths with Primavera P6 was first published on Project 2080.

Do you know what a Gantt Chart is?

The Gantt Chart is a graphical tool used to show the planned time of dedication for the execution of different tasks or activities of a project within a given period of time. In other words, it is the graphic representation that is used when we create a schedule of activities for a project.

Originally, the Gantt Chart does not indicate the relationships between activities. However, we will see how today project planning tools such as Primavera P6 gives us the possibility to show the relationships between activities in the Gantt Chart.

The Gantt Chart shows on the vertical axis the list of all the activities that represent the scope of the project. On the horizontal axis, the scale of time is shown. The time scale will be used to graphically represent the activity duration, the start and finish date of each of the project’s activity.

Note the use of the Gantt Chart to represent the progress of our project. Also, we can graphically represent the comparison with the Project Baseline.

You can already get an idea of the potential that this tool has within the field of Project Planning.

Who created the Gantt Chart

Although today is a very common technique in project planning and scheduling, the Gantt Diagrams were considered as something revolutionary in its beginnings. In 1912, Hermann Schürch published what was considered a kind of Gantt Diagram while discussing a construction project. These diagrams did not show inter-dependencies and were static representations of the planned schedule.

The Gantt Chart is named after Henry Gantt (1861-1919), who designed his diagram around the years 1910 and 1915. One of the main applications of the Gantt Chart was carried out by the United States during the First World War.

The first Gantt Charts were drawn on paper. They had to be drawn completely in order to adjust the changes that occurred in the schedule. For many years, Project Managers used pieces of paper to create the Gantt Chart bars so they could be adjusted according to need.

In the 80s, the arrival of personal computers allowed the creation of more complex and elaborated Gantt Diagrams. The first desktop applications will be made for Project Managers and Project Planners. Thanks to the Internet and collaborative networking systems, at the end of the 1990s Gantt Diagrams were already a feature within web applications. In 1999, Gantt Diagrams were identified as one of the most used management tools in project planning and controls.

In 2012, almost all Gantt Charts were made by software that could easily adjust to the changes in the schedule. One of this software was Primavera P6 from Oracle.

Best Tools for Gantt Chart development

The 3 most used tools to create a Gantt Schedule, or a schedule of activities that incorporate the Gantt Chart:

1. Primavera P6: within the world of project planning, the most widely used tool is Primavera P6 from Oracle. Thanks to it, creating a Gantt Chart is to sew and sing as we will see in the next point. In addition, each of the activities can be loaded with resources, costs, and budget. This will help to better control and manage our project.
2. Microsoft Project: this is one of the most used tools by Project Managers due to its intuitive operation. However, to carry out full control of the planning of a project may not be the most appropriate tool.
3. Excel (Microsoft Office): this tool is of mandatory use in Project Management. We have become so accustomed to the use of Excel in our day to day that we have come to adapt it to many other fields within Project Management. In our opinion, Excel is a very simple way to graphically represent the activities of a schedule through the introduction of data in a table. Data such as the name of the activity, the start and finish date of each task. As a negative point, the changes in the activities´relationships would not be automatically updated and we should enter the data again.

There are other Gantt Chart tools out there. However, if what you are looking for are an opensource free project scheduling and management apps, you have to have a look at the Gantt Project.

Creating a Gantt Chart in Primavera P6

The first thing that we must do is to create a list of activities that encompass the project scope. In the same way, we will also have previously created the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). Once this is done, the way to create a Gantt Chart with Oracle’s Primavera P6 planning tool is very simple. For this, it will be enough to select the Gantt Chart option.

As usually happens in Primavera P6, there are several ways to get to this option:

1. First, the simplest way is to click on the Gantt Chart icon  from the Primavera P6 toolbar.
2. A second way would be through the route View / Show on top / Gantt Chart .

IN PROJECT 2080 WE WOULD LIKE YOU TO REMEMBER

The Gantt Diagram in a project is one of the most used tools within Project Management. Much more used in Project Planning and Scheduling. Whatever the magnitude of our project is, the schedule of activities should include a Gantt Chart. Why? to graphically represent the status of project activities. Through the Gantt Chart, we can be able to visually identify the status of each activity through the color of the bars that represent them. For example blue for performed activity, green for0 remaining activity, and red for critical activity.

The post First steps… what is a Gantt Chart? was first published on Project 2080.

“I’m sure there must be a faster way to match the Remaining Units to the Budgeted Labor Units of a certain section of my project,” “It’s taking me hours to copy the original Activity IDs of my schedule into a new text column”, “I wish there was a way to make the Remaining Cost of the construction activities double”, “I’ll be home late, I have to update my program manually, activity by activity”.

For sure the scenarios of the previous paragraph are familiar. You have even come to ask if there could be another faster way to carry out your schedule update work or simply make changes in activities, expenses or allocation of resources. Well, yes, there is! The solution to your problems is in the Global Change Tool that Primavera P6 Professional provides, giving you the opportunity to create and parameterize almost any change that goes through your mind, and thus reduce to seconds what up to now has supposed hours of work.

Global Change Tool by Primavera P6

Let’s start by launching the Global Change tool window. It’s simple and you just have to follow this path in your toolbar: Tools / Global Change, or select the icon .

You are in now! Let´s create our first Global Change as follows:

1. In the window that has been opened, the different Global Change that you have created are shown. They can be enabled so that all the users, another user or the current user have access to.
2. To add a new one, select “+New”.
3. We will quickly see the meaning of the different fields in the window called “Modify Global Change”:
   • Select Subject Area. You may select the following options:
     • Activity
     • Activity Resource Assignments
     • Project Expenses
   • Global Change Name
   • Start to create the command to make the change. To do this, you must first know what each of the fields that are shown mean: “If”, “Then”, “Else”.
     • “If”: “if” the condition is met.
     • “Then”: “then” adjust the main parameters.
     • “Else”: “else” adjust other parameters

Applying Global Change

Let´s apply what we have seen so far in the following example: we have seen that both the performance of Mechanical Engineers and Finishing Engineers is greater than initially planned, they are capable of doing twice as much work in the same period of time, respectively. This is the same as multiplying your Remaining Units / Time by 2. Let’s start.

How to modify the Global Change

• Select “Activity Resource Assignments” withing the field “Select Subject Area”.
• Name it as “Incremento productividad 50% Ingenieros” within the field “Global Change Name”
• Let´s click inside the field called “If”:
  • Select the parameter “Any of the following” (this indicates that we want the condition to apply to either of the two cases we are going to formulate)
  • next to “Where”, select the resource you want to modify:
    1. select “+ Add” to add additional rows
    2. “parameter”: Resource ID Name
    3. “is”: equals
    4. “value”: MEC.Mechanics
    5.  Steps 1 to 4 again and for a new value: FIN.Finishings
• Now, click inside the “Then” field:
  • “parameter”: Remaining Units/Time
  • “is”: =
  • “Parameter/Value”: Remaining Units/Time
  • “Operator”: “*” (multiplier)
  • “Parameter/Value”: select the option “{ Custom }” and when shown 0h/h, type “2”.

Global Change application

Finally, we are ready to execute the change command. We have two ways to do this:

• from the “Modify Global Change” window, clicking the button 
• from the “Global Change” main window, clicking the button 

By executing the change, a report will be sent with the changes that have been made (“Global Change Report”). Once it is reviewed and we check the changes are correct, press the button  for changes to take effect within our schedule. On the contrary, if there is an error or we simply want to cancel the operation we will click on the button . This Primavera tool gives us the possibility to save the text file for future queries by pressing the button .

Finally, we want you to know that you can copy and paste your Global Change if some of them are repeated constantly throughout your project. In addition, you can Import or Export the Global Change according to your convenience. In this way, you can use external files or share your changes with other colleagues.

That’s it! You have just saved hours of work that you can spend in other Project Management Areas from now onwards.

IN PROJECT 2080 WE WOULD LIKE YOU TO REMEMBER

The Global Change is a powerful Primavera P6 Professional tool that will allow you to make quick and orderly massive changes within your schedule. You will save time and improve efficiency in your planning tasks.

The logic used is “If-Then-Else” used in a multitude of programming languages.

Start practicing Global Change and experience a new world of possibilities within Primavera P6 Professional scheduling tool.

The post Global Change was first published on Project 2080.