Plan Academy

7 Tips To Help You Create An Effective Project Status Report

Michael Lepage — Wed, 11 Jan 2023 15:45:00 +0000

Put plainly, project status reports are difficult to write. It is a fact that project managers in different industries can come together and agree upon. But while it can be difficult to put together a document that has the right tone for the audience, has the pertinent information discussed at the appropriate depth, and can be functional rather than just informational, project managers are tasked with doing exactly that throughout the life-cycle of a project. That is why mastering this technique is so crucial. But it’s the one that no one ever teaches you how to do. If you feel like you

5 Ways To Completely Revamp Your Project Productivity Style

Michael Lepage — Wed, 30 Nov 2022 16:06:02 +0000

We all want to be and feel productive everyday. Somedays you feel like Thor, knocking off the tasks like he swings Mjilnor to bash bad guys. And other days, it's more like you're stuck in "Ground Hog Day" - endlessly repeating the same tasks over and over to no end, seeming to get nowhere. Maybe it's time to check your productivity system. What tools are you using to stay on top of that endless todo list? How are you avoiding distractions? Do you schedule time for the things that matter most? Or are just stuck in trying to please everyone while getting nothing

P6 Schedule Comparison Tools: Which One Should You Use?

Michael Lepage — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 16:12:25 +0000

Comparing two Primavera P6 schedules is one of the most fundamental things that we should be able to as a savvy scheduler. If you've ever wanted to know what happened between Month 3 update schedule and Month 4, then this article is for you. Which are the best tools for comparing Primavera P6 schedules?

I'm going to go review and test out 4 P6 schedule comparison tools, in depth, to help you make the right decision.

How important is it to be able to compare 2 P6 schedules? Well, let's discuss. Perhaps you work for an Owner and the Contractor is

4 Common Construction Bidding Errors And How To Avoid Them

Michael Lepage — Wed, 19 Oct 2022 16:00:33 +0000

Independent contractors are constantly seeking out and proposing bids in hopes of landing a construction job. Whether it is a small or large project the landscape is very competitive and requires a lot more than just presenting a proposal and knowing that you’re remarkable at what you do. To help get you in the right lane when pursuing a private or public construction project, here are 4 common construction bidding errors and tips on how you can avoid them. 1. Unsuitably priced The final bid price is what determines

Physical Percent Complete in Primavera P6 – the Missing Guide

Nader Khorrami Rad — Wed, 05 Oct 2022 15:06:09 +0000

There are three different methods of calculating the actual progress of activities: Duration Percent Complete, Units Percent Complete, and Physical Percent Complete. The

Units Percent Complete in Primavera P6 – the Missing Guide

Nader Khorrami Rad — Wed, 28 Sep 2022 15:04:04 +0000

This article belongs to a series of articles about units percent complete fields of Primavera P6. As explained in the previous article on the Duration % Complete, there are three percent complete fields for each activity: Duration % Complete Units % Complete Physical % Complete. We've already covered Duration % Complete and Units % Complete Physical % Complete Activity % Complete Performance % Complete Percent Complete Type Earned Value settings of the WBS Elements I will

Critical Path Analysis in P6 – 5 Things I Wish I Knew Earlier

Michael Lepage — Wed, 14 Sep 2022 15:00:34 +0000

When I first started learning planning and Primavera P6, I thought I had it all figured out. But it wasn't until I sat with a client and tried to explain what I was showing him that I realized I still had a long way to go. This video tutorial walks you through 5 Things about Critical Path Analysis in P6 that I wish someone would have told me earlier on as a planner.

But fret not!

You can learn these Primavera P6 Critical Path Analysis tips now and forego the pain and suffering I've had to endure. ;)

70 Project Scheduling Terms That Every Planner Needs To Know

Michael Lepage — Thu, 01 Sep 2022 16:15:52 +0000

The number of project scheduling and planning terms out there can be overwhelming. Interpreting and communicating a plan can become a task in itself if you are not up-to-date with the planning jargon. So here is a list of 70 Project Scheduling terms every planner should know for smooth sailing – check out the glossary below to brush up on your terms. If you have any terms that are essential and not listed - feel free to leave a comment below with the term and

What is a Level of Effort Activity in Primavera P6? [FAQs]

Michael Lepage — Wed, 17 Aug 2022 15:36:10 +0000

A “Level of Effort” Activity in Primavera P6 is a special activity type with unique qualities for duration. Primavera P6 will calculate the duration of a Level of Effort Activity based on dates from its predecessor(s) and successor(s). Let’s dive into some specifics about Level of Effort activities in general because they are not specific to Oracle Primavera P6 but are common tasks in project management. What are Level of Effort Activities for? You might already know that Level of Effort activities are designed to represent support work on a project. This is work that does

What is High-Level Resourcing?

Michael Lepage — Wed, 03 Aug 2022 15:03:55 +0000

We all know how versatile Primavera P6 is as a planning, scheduling and project resource management tool. P6 can handle incredibly detailed project schedules where you can plan and track thousands of work tasks by the hour. But Primavera P6 is also an ideal tool for creating high-level project plans and schedules. High-level resourcing is the process of planning your resource needs across a high-level project plan. What is a high-level project plan? You’ve probably heard the term Level 4 schedule or Level 5 schedule. According to

10 Primavera P6 Layouts You Must Implement

Michael Lepage — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 18:00:08 +0000

It can get difficult to analyze the mountain of schedules you’re responsible for and our good friend Jerome Ijachi Odeh pulled together a list of 10 Must-Have Primavera P6 Layouts....ones you probably should be using everyday. So to help you take advantage of P6's powerful layout features (like these ones we've already told you about), here is a little sneak peek of 10 must-have Primavera P6 layouts you should be using in Primavera P6 with the

How Primavera Calendars Change Durations – and what to do about it

Michael Lepage — Wed, 20 Jul 2022 15:30:35 +0000

If you do a quick google on keywords <Primavera calendars change>, you'll end up with quite a few results that show you how to use Primavera's Fill-Down feature to change the activity calendar of all the activities in a project. But I think the fill-down piece is only the first step in changing activity calendars.

What about durations?

Changing an activity's calendar in Primavera can actually alter the activity's duration. It's

Here’s A Quick Way To Keep Your Primavera P6 Milestones in Focus

Michael Lepage — Wed, 06 Jul 2022 15:08:36 +0000

Primavera P6 Milestone Activities in any schedule usually represent the most important deadlines, deliveries, start ups or drop-dead dates for a project. These are undeniably dates that you’ll want to stay on top of and keep close at hand in case you’re asked for a report or to check on the health of the project. But it can be difficult to search for milestones in a large construction schedule, and at the least it may take a few clicks to

How To Write Better P6 Activity Names – These 5 Easy Ways

Roshan Vani — Fri, 24 Jun 2022 20:03:30 +0000

Every planner knows that WBS and Code Structure are essential elements needed to successfully maintain a Primavera P6 schedule network.

But what about your Primavera P6 Activity Names?

A sometimes overlooked schedule quality issue is the use of well articulated activity descriptions. Planners who began their career in P3 or earlier versions were limited to 48 characters in the activity description. This has created an industry habit of abbreviations and acronyms that at times may only be understood by a small group of individuals

One Trick to Export P6 Resource Assignment Data to Excel

Kazem Salehiyan — Wed, 15 Jun 2022 17:15:12 +0000

As you know Primavera P6 has a lack of graphical features so often we schedulers need to export everything to other software packages (mostly Excel) to produce an understandable schedule and graphs. I always had a problem when I export P6 resource assignment data to Excel with the standard exporting feature on P6 until I found a way to leverage the Reports feature. Here you can use the current screen to develop a report and instead of making it a text report, we can have it

4 Tactics To Understand A Schedule You Didn’t Build

Michael Lepage — Fri, 10 Jun 2022 14:20:08 +0000

You stepped into work today and were suddenly whisked away to a meeting, only to hear that you will be taking over full responsibility for someone else’s project plan and schedule. Whether you like it or not you will have to tackle understanding this new schedule. So what now!? Before you freak out in a quiet little corner, breathe and take the first steps of trying to understand as much as you can of the Primavera P6 schedule you've just been handed. Here are 4 tactics that you can utilize to avoid getting overwhelmed when taking over someone else’s schedule, whether

How to Onboard New P6 Schedulers to Your Company

Michael Lepage — Wed, 01 Jun 2022 15:00:02 +0000

When it comes to onboarding P6 schedulers, most companies are in a rush. The demands of working in a projectized world lead to feeling like we're always 3 steps behind where we want to be; effectively productive. And when we're onboarding our newly hired P6 scheduler, sometimes we have tunnel vision and miss the bigger picture. Here are some recommendations you can use during your onboarding process to help your newly hired P6 scheduler land in their role and get productive, while not forgetting the long-game. Let's break it down into 30-day phases where each phase has its own

Top 6 Reasons How PMP Certification Will Advance Your Career

Michael Lepage — Wed, 25 May 2022 16:30:38 +0000

Working in project management requires careful attention to detail, inexplicable hands-on training, and credibility. However, planners and schedulers in project management roles often find themselves unable to provide proof of their accomplishments beyond previous roles as project managers. To meet the growing demand for a streamlined, predictable means of ensuring a project manager’s credibility, Project Management Professional (PMP) certification was created. Ultimately, PMP certification is an examination of your past and current abilities as project manager, which gives reliability

Update Baseline Feature in Primavera P6 Use or Not

Michael Lepage — Thu, 19 May 2022 17:00:17 +0000

In today’s post, I want to talk about the Primavera P6 Update Baseline feature. Are you using it right? Should you be using it at all? I want to dive into that and talk about Project Change Management while we talk about the P6 Update Baseline feature. What is the Problem with Update Baseline? Okay. So number one Update Baseline; If you've done any digging, you know it's fraught with errors and

Top New Features in Primavera P6 v21

Michael Lepage — Mon, 02 May 2022 17:14:55 +0000

A new version of Primavera P6 Professional has recently dropped: Primavera P6 v21, and I'm here to tell about what's new, what's great and what's not. I feel it's my heartfelt duty to schedulers everywhere to unpack these yearly updates and highlight all of the features that are changing or improving, or are still broken. I love to do it, and I've been doing it for years. Here is the yearly schedule of releases for on-premise users of

Primavera P6: Download a Free Trial

Michael Lepage — Wed, 27 Apr 2022 15:00:40 +0000

Primavera P6 Professional is likely the most-used construction project management software package around today. Now at version 21.12, project controls planners & schedulers use Primavera P6 Professional to manage construction projects big and small around the globe. The Primavera P6 download process will let you download a free trial of Primavera P6 Project Management. And we'll take you through the Primavera P6 download and install process step-by-step. Here's what you'll need to get started with

4 Ways To Benefit From Online Primavera P6 Training

Michael Lepage — Wed, 20 Apr 2022 16:30:43 +0000

Here in Primavera-land it seems like eLearning is the new norm! We've seen many traditional Primavera P6 training providers launch online Primavera P6 training courses or some sort of Primavera P6 eLearning this year.

Quick brag....Plan Academy has some of the best, most comprehensive courses you'll find!

From a learner's perspective, this is a great opportunity as there are now many more options for learners who want

9 Common Project Controls Mistakes Companies Make That Cost Them Millions In Lost Wrench Time

Michael Lepage — Wed, 06 Apr 2022 15:50:18 +0000

WRENCH-TIME [average hours/shift that a craftsperson spends directly working to execute construction, maintenance or shutdown activities]. It’s estimated that a worker spends on average only 3.5 hours actually working during a ten-hour shift; this is a startling figure. With industry already lacking in skilled labor, wouldn’t it make sense to try and increase worker performance? The savings of indirect support (travel, tools, safety, living allowance, etc.) in themselves would save millions in

The Power Of Oil On the Construction Industry [INFOGRAPHIC]

Michael Lepage — Wed, 30 Mar 2022 16:15:32 +0000

Worried that your project might be the next one affected by the recent crude oil price increase? Closing 2014 oil prices were 49% in decline, back then we feared it could reach the all time low we saw in 2008 where oil dropped 67%. Now in 2022, crude oil prices saw a 40% increase reaching an all time high and getting very close to the 2008 recession highest oil

Schedule % Complete in Oracle Primavera – The Missing Guide (Part 2)

Nader Khorrami Rad — Wed, 23 Mar 2022 15:00:24 +0000

If you missed Part 1 of Schedule % Complete in Oracle Primavera, go back now and have a read through. Then come back here. The Proper Setup : Baselined and Cost-loaded Now let’s see how Schedule % Complete works in action on a sample Primavera P6 plan. Since Schedule % Complete is based on both Project Baseline fields and Earned Value Cost fields, to calculate it properly, your schedule should: be cost-loaded at the Activity-level have a project baseline

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

Nader Khorrami Rad — Wed, 16 Mar 2022 18:00:04 +0000

Schedule % Complete is one of the many percent completes you have in Primavera P6 and we’re going to have a complete look at what it is and how it is calculated. Two important products of maintaining schedules are planned progress and actual progress of a given time; you want to know how much you’ve done so far and compare it with how much you were supposed to do so far, in order to reach project targets. The first thing to mention is that Schedule % Complete deals with planned progress. As a result, it is calculated based on the Project Baseline and the Data Date; it has nothing to

Fix Out of Sequence Progress in Primavera P6 Schedule

Sean Cain — Thu, 24 Feb 2022 16:00:56 +0000

What is Out-of-Sequence Progress in Primavera P6? Out-of-sequence progress in Primavera P6 occurs from a deviation in the original planned logic that was set up in the baseline schedule. It can occur when work is executed in the field in a different order than was planned in the schedule. The result can affect your project's logic, which dictates the order of execution of activities. Checking for Out-of-sequence progress To check for out-of-sequence progress in an updated

Out of Sequence Progressing in Primavera P6: Why Do We Care?

Michael Lepage — Thu, 17 Feb 2022 17:26:56 +0000

In this post, we’re talking about as-built progress schedules, out of sequence and how that affects everything. But why do we care? What is as-built about and why do we have to fix out of sequence progress in Primavera P6? First, let me start by letting you know that I have a brand-new course that's coming out; it is the Advanced P6 Progressing course. In this course, we cover out of sequence in depth but I'm going to give you some key information today. https://planacademy.wistia.com/medias/o5bef9c6hk Why do

Measuring Project Progress : 6 Methods You Should Know

Michael Lepage — Wed, 09 Feb 2022 16:00:18 +0000

Accurately measuring the progress of a project is always a challenge. There are many factors to account for in a progress update - type of measurement, accuracy of the data, and the system of record are all important factor in accurate progress measurements. Software packages like Primavera P6 don't always help us out. Sure there a 3 choices for Percent Complete

Financial Periods in P6: Are You Using This Feature?

Michael Lepage — Wed, 02 Feb 2022 16:17:45 +0000

You are probably not using this amazing feature in P6, Stored Period Performance (Financial Periods), right? In this post, I will tell you why you should be using it and what it's gonna do for you. I'm about to launch my new Advanced P6 Progressing course. And in it, I go deep on Earned Value Management, Financial Periods, and more. But here I'm just gonna give you some important key points to take away. Stored Period Performance, what is it, what does it do for us? This has to do with how we capture actuals in

Bad P6 Progressing: Analysis With Deltek Acumen Fuse

Michael Lepage — Thu, 27 Jan 2022 15:46:47 +0000

In this post, we're talking about bad P6 progressing. That's right. Bad P6 progressing. I'm about to launch a brand-new course called "Advanced P6 Progressing". In this new course, I show you how to progress all sorts of different ways, earn value, financial periods, and much more. But one of the things that we really dive deep into is bad P6 progressing - what you should not do when you progress schedules. In this video, I talk about bad progressing and I do it with one of my favorite new tools:

CPM Scheduling 101: How Primavera Scheduling Works

Michael Lepage — Wed, 19 Jan 2022 16:00:24 +0000

You've probably heard of CPM Scheduling at some point. While you may feel like you don't need to concern yourself with it, there's decent likelihood that you'll be up to your armpits in the Critical Path Method once that big project gets rolling. Yes, Primavera P6 does run all sorts of fancy algorithms when you hit F9 - but having at least a fundamental knowledge of how CPM Scheduling works is going to help you go far as a

Convert an EPS Activity Code to a Project Activity Code in Primavera P6

Michael Lepage — Wed, 12 Jan 2022 17:30:14 +0000

The Primavera P6 EPS Activity Code is great when we want to have a set of Activity Codes available to certain projects based on where they sit in your EPS structure. An example might be having a set of Activity Codes for each Department in your database. Typically, EPS nodes would be set up for each Department, allowing an organization to specific a set of EPS Activity Codes for each Department that are only available to their projects. Many organizations setup and use Primavera's EPS Activity

5 New Year’s Resolutions Every Project Controller Should Consider

Michael Lepage — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 14:30:34 +0000

We know it takes a lot of hard work to become a Project Controller. Most Project Controllers have a Bachelor's Degree in engineering or a field related to technology. There are just a few industry specific Project Controller’s curriculum in colleges and universities, so most learn by joining a project management team in a company in the industry they want to make a career. The general duty of a

Create A Festive Gantt Chart Xmas Tree In Primavera P6

Michael Lepage — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 16:35:26 +0000

For all you creative types out there who love to create something awesome in a manner which is rather non-traditional....this tutorial is for you. We've already shown you have to colorize the P6 Gantt chart, but in the spirit of the holidays, here are the steps to create a festive Gantt chart Xmas tree (Holiday Wreath) in Primavera P6, complete with decorations. Getting Started with the Gantt Xmas

Plan a Festive Holiday Wreath in Primavera P6

Michael Lepage — Wed, 15 Dec 2021 15:55:51 +0000

Back by popular demand is another festorial in Primavera P6. Who says the lowly Gantt Charts can't be fun & festive? In the spirits of the holidays (and of using Project Management software in ways never intended), I'd like to present you with an Advanced-level Festorial on creating a holiday wreath (Xmas tree). Show off your skills, impress your

4 Simple Tips To Have A Productive Team During The Holidays

Michael Lepage — Wed, 08 Dec 2021 15:57:08 +0000

It’s that time of the year and the holiday craze is unavoidable – it’s everywhere you turn. Are you feeling the crunch as yet? As we get ready for the holidays socially and professionally, don’t forget to pencil it in when scheduling all of those projects. It’s well known that lack of time, pressure to reach end of year expectations and fear of having work tiptoe its way into holiday time can reduce the time spent enjoying the festivities. With everyone in the festive spirit encouraging your team to ramp up

Can Mastering Oracle Primavera P6 Enhance Your Career?

Michael Lepage — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 16:38:41 +0000

Yes mastering Oracle Primavera P6 can enhance your career... Here’s how and why you should work your way up to a Project Controller or Manager position. In Numbers: The Construction Project Controller/Manager job ranked #1 in the top construction jobs in the United States in 2021. It also ranked #52

Use Expected Finish in Primavera P6 to Speed Updates

Michael Lepage — Wed, 17 Nov 2021 16:15:47 +0000

I'd love to see some stats on the average size of a Primavera P6 schedule. I've never come across any stats, but based on experience and lots of consulting and web-research, it's pretty clear that today's project schedules are the chunky big brother to their slim and compact sibling of 10 or 15 years ago. Schedules are becoming bloated with data. Why? We have computers & software that can handle it easily large, detailed project schedules Our clients and sponsors ask for it / demand it - they want to see detail More data = more control (to a

7 Earned Value Management Formulas To Know For Project Controls

Michael Lepage — Tue, 09 Nov 2021 14:17:47 +0000

As a project controls professional, one of the most important things to understand is that there are a huge number of different formulas that can make your life significantly easier on a daily basis -- provided that you know when, where and how to utilize them properly. Have you ever spent countless hours of your precious time trying to figure out if the value of the project you're working on is equal to the amount of money you're actually spending to complete it? With earned value management and the following terms and formulas, you'll never have to wonder again -- you'll know beyond the

How to clean a Primavera P6 XER file using the XER File Parser

Mimoune Djouallah — Wed, 03 Nov 2021 17:00:39 +0000

In the third part of our Primavera P6 databases and data cleansing series, we will show how to use the parser to clean an xer file In the third part of our Primavera P6 databases and data cleansing series, we will show how to use the parser to clean an xer file. But if you haven't read them go back and read: XER File Parser Excel utility Part 1: 6 Ways to Clean Up Your Primavera Database Nightmare Part 2:

Understanding Primavera XER Files

Mimoune Djouallah — Thu, 28 Oct 2021 15:00:14 +0000

In this second part of Primavera P6 databases and data cleansing series, we will discuss the data structure of an XER file, and how the XER File Parser & Builder works. As the XER File Parser is a manual process (it does not honour P6 business rules), it is handy for the user to have a working knowledge of the P6 database. That’s why in this P6 tutorial we will show a general overview of P6's data structure, and basic concepts in P6's database management (

6 Ways To Clean Up Your Primavera P6 Database Nightmare

Michael Lepage — Wed, 27 Oct 2021 15:00:12 +0000

This is the first part in our series on Primavera P6 databases and data cleansing. Many of you work in Primavera P6 databases that are a complete nightmare - hundreds of global calendars, duplicate resources all over the place, redundant codes and more copies of projects than anyone should ever need in their lifetime. You may act like these don't bother you, but somehow logging in to P6 in the morning feels sort of like using the restroom at a crowded arena. You do your work, but you want to get out of there as quickly as you can. Thankfully, I've got a few ways you can use immediately

Construction Mental Health… Why Bother Talking About It?

Michael Lepage — Thu, 21 Oct 2021 17:35:11 +0000

Why talk Construction Mental Health in the first place? The construction industry has been painted with masculine tones for decades. We often assume that in this predominantly masculine work culture, issues such as mental health are just not that prevalent. Well… that is wrong! “The real mental epidemic today is that we are all struggling to put on a show and pretend that everything's OK all the time”: Bryan Baeumler

20 Quotes To Supercharge A Project Controller’s Daily Habits

Michael Lepage — Fri, 15 Oct 2021 16:02:44 +0000

Project controls are vital to any construction contracting business. Providing practical estimates of appropriate time, cost, and results of the project is an essential foundation leading up to effective decisions made by management. For project controls planners, finding

Analyzing Relationships With Deltek Acumen Fuse

Michael Lepage — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 18:16:12 +0000

I am on a mission to learn and master Deltek Acumen Fuse software and I am bringing you along for the ride. Deltek Acumen Fuse is a powerhouse app that becomes an incredible tool in your arsenal if you’re doing P6 scheduling all the time and getting hammered by people who are analyzing it on the other end. So, I’m going to teach you how to get the best use out of Acumen Fuse. In this post, we are talking about how to use Acumen Fuse for analyzing relationships. How do we analyze the

P6 Export to Excel: Number Formatting Secret

Michael Lepage — Wed, 22 Sep 2021 22:03:37 +0000

We all struggle with the same issue when exporting data from Primavera P6 to Microsoft Excel for analysis, progress updating and graphing. Excel does not seem to recognize numbers as numbers! That is because

How To Run a Schedule Check Using Deltek Acumen Fuse

Michael Lepage — Fri, 02 Jul 2021 18:03:07 +0000

In this post I’m going to do talk about a tool that’s new to me: Deltek Acumen Fuse. Although the tool itself has been around for a long time, many people (myself included) haven’t integrated it into their toolkits, and it’s time to change that. If your department is serious about project scheduling and you're not using Deltek Acumen Fuse, then you're missing out on some serious power-house schedule analysis. But let's start with some basic schedule analysis. Let me show you how to run a DCMA 14-point

What is the DCMA 14-point schedule assessment?

Michael Lepage — Thu, 01 Jul 2021 00:14:19 +0000

In 2005, US Defense Contract Management Agency implemented a 14-point schedule assessment to help the Department of Defense evaluate the enormous volume of contracts and schedules they were tasked with managing. Years later, the DCMA's 14-point Schedule Assessment has become a guideline that is widely used and has been incorporated into many software tools such as Deltek Acumen Fuse and

How to Show the Critical Path in P6

Michael Lepage — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 20:53:18 +0000

Not sure how to show the Critical Path in Primavera P6? Not sure if your project's critical activities might be hiding? Don't worry. Here are 4 easy ways you can laser-in on your project's Critical Path in P6 (including 3 reasons you might not have one). 4 Easy Ways to Show the Critical Path in Primavera P6 1. Check the Gantt Chart By default, the P6 Gantt chart will show your project's Critical activities in bright red. This makes it easy to have a quick glance at the Gantt Chart et voila!, your Critical Path stands-out like a construction safety vest.

How To Import P6 Assignment Codes from Excel

Michael Lepage — Wed, 12 May 2021 20:55:34 +0000

Perhaps you’ve noticed that as of December 2020, there are some new features in Primavera P6 EPPM (Enterprise Project Portfolio Management), which we are going to take a look at today. Specifically, we’ll talk about Assignment Codes, one of the new Primavera P6 features here to make our jobs easier.

But only, of course, if you know how to use everything right.

Note: If you didn’t read

Primavera P6: How To Use Assignment Codes as Cost Accounts

Michael Lepage — Thu, 29 Apr 2021 01:14:05 +0000

Cost accounts: love ‘em, hate ‘em? I’ll tell you what, though: If you're cost-loading a Primavera P6 schedule, you should be using cost accounts. Now, chances are good you haven’t yet because they’re hard to use. I get it; they’re really inflexible. They were designed so that you set them up once for a whole database, and you can't have different versions of them for different projects. Ergo, mega inflexibility. That’s changed in recent times, though. We have a new construct in Primavera P6 20.12 called

Primavera P6 Version 20.12 Is Out. Here’s What’s New.

Michael Lepage — Fri, 15 Jan 2021 21:45:04 +0000

Just before the Christmas break, Oracle quietly released Primavera P6 Professional version 20.12. I've had a few days to explore this latest version of P6. Here's what's new in Primavera P6 Professional version 20.12. In case you forgot, Oracle publishes updates to the on-premise version of Primavera P6 annually in December. So we've all had a full year to adjust to Primavera P6 version 19.12 - and there were a few nice improvements in that

Primavera P6 Settings Video Series – NEW

Michael Lepage — Fri, 18 Dec 2020 19:58:36 +0000

Primavera P6 sure has a lot of settings. Endless options, preferences, customizations and tools means a lot of confusion for almost any regular P6 user. Luckily, to try and help ease your climb up the mountain that mastering P6 can feel like, Plan Academy has been releasing a series of helpful videos covering the many settings and options inside the sometimes-perplexing software.

If you follow our YouTube channel, or our own Video

Types of Schedule Delays in Construction Projects

Michael Lepage — Fri, 21 Aug 2020 13:31:56 +0000

A 2020 report on worldwide Construction Claims states the global average value of a construction delay dispute to be a staggering US$30.7 million, a trend that has climbed upward from 2010. The report also indicates that the average dispute took 15 months to reconcile. You can read the full report from Arcadis here. Although claims and disputes are the inevitable result of delays to a project, for those new to project controls a good

Track Construction Delays with this Free Delay Log Tracker

Michael Lepage — Mon, 17 Aug 2020 20:40:45 +0000

Construction delays costs both Owners and Contractors millions of dollars each and every year. According to a Arcadis' 2020 Global Construction Disputes Report, the global average value of disputes was $30.7 million USD in 2019. That's a lot costs tied up in claims, legal battles and disputes. With so much importance put on managing costly construction delays, why don't we have a better system to document and track delays? I've

Remote Construction Teams: Tips to Help You Conquer Common Challenges

Michael Lepage — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 15:07:41 +0000

During the past few months, we have been facing many challenges with the Covid-19 outbreak that has put a halt on everyone’s lives. Restrictions on social contact has made it much more challenging in the construction industry with site closures and sick workers. Our new normal is working at our home office, distanced, but together. The challenge now becomes adjusting to a remote work-life balance, which is putting pressure on companies to quickly adapt and invest in communication tools, real-time project management solutions and

Benefits of Cost-Loading Your Construction Schedule

Michael Lepage — Fri, 19 Jun 2020 19:01:38 +0000

Should you cost-load your construction project schedule? What are the benefits of cost-loading your schedule? Whenever either construction Owners or Contractors are looking at a new project, that's when these important questions come up. I'm going to look at the benefits and tradeoffs of cost-loading a construction schedule from the perspectives of both the Owner and the Contractor. Let's dive in. Let me start by saying that for many of us in the construction project management arena, scheduling

How To Help Your Project Controls Team Love Online Learning

Michael Lepage — Wed, 18 Mar 2020 19:23:58 +0000

Offering online learning for a construction project controls team, to me, seems like a no-brainer. Project controls is tough work. If I had a team of project controllers, I would want them to feel valued and supported in their jobs as much as possible. Because I'm in the business of educating project teams, I do my best to stay on top of workplace trends related to learning, productivity and employee retention. The

The Best Project Manager Resume Templates & Examples

Michael Lepage — Thu, 06 Feb 2020 22:09:34 +0000

The job market is flooded with applicants who are looking for a Project Manager position, but how do you differentiate yourself? Making a good first impression is the most important thing when applying for a job in person or online. Your Project Manager resume speaks for you and is a piece of information that is used to communicate who you are and what you have to offer that particular organization. With that said, creating a resume from scratch that’s professional, compelling and stands out from the rest will take some time. This process can be overwhelming to think about. For

30 Top Project Controls Conferences To Attend In 2020

Michael Lepage — Tue, 14 Jan 2020 14:09:51 +0000

Where do you look to learn new ideas, get inspiration, and discover new tools? We’ve entered a new decade and opportunities are always there to become better in your industry. In project management there is constant change that can be proven by the new technologies and digital transformations that have been occurring globally. Attending annual project controls conferences can increase your Exporting Primavera P6 data to Excel could not be faster & easier with this quick tip. Getting Primavera P6 Activity data into Excel is essential. Excel's data crunching, grouping, pivoting and filtering is just so much easier to use than Primavera P6's. Even

Construction Project WBS – Examples to Get You Started

Michael Lepage — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 08:00:49 +0000

When it comes to planning a construction project, many of us prefer to re-use elements from previous plans and schedules.

But what if you're starting from scratch with no construction project examples to draw from?

And are your past projects adhering to construction WBS best practices?

Most project planners start building their construction schedule by establishing a Work Breakdown Structure. Just like when constructing a tower or a bridge, it's important to start with a solid foundation. Your work breakdown structure

12 Best BIM Books You Should Have On Your Bookshelf

Michael Lepage — Wed, 23 Oct 2019 20:38:06 +0000

The best resources are books, in digital format or hard-copy. With the number of BIM (Building Information Modelling) software’s to choose from, the design process for professionals has become more automated but also, efficient when designing buildings, tunnels, and bridges. If you’re just starting out you may be wondering, “what is BIM anyway?”. According to Autodesk, “Building

13 of The Best 3D Modelling Software You Need To Know About

Juan Rodriguez — Thu, 12 Sep 2019 15:11:11 +0000

Our construction industry is moving towards the visualization of sites to improve the coordination and reduce labour costs. 3D modelling software is now used during the pre-planning and design stages making sure there are efficiencies and coordination identified early on reducing rework and costly change orders during the

6 Unusual Construction Builds That Push The Limits

Michael Lepage — Tue, 03 Sep 2019 15:11:25 +0000

Pushing the limits has become the norm, especially when it comes to the new construction builts that are cropping up all over the world. No matter the state of the earth, engineers, architects, and contractors always accepts the challenge and seems to make it work. Founded by Fred Mill’s, TheB1M.com website was created as a place to view the best construction videos from all over the globe. B1M exposes new technologies, complex

These As-Built Drawing Software Tools Make Marking-up Changes Easy

Juan Rodriguez — Tue, 27 Aug 2019 16:01:32 +0000

As-built drawings are a critical component of every project and a valuable piece of information for future expansions or projects. Usually, as-built drawings are a project requirement and tied to contractual requirements demanding to have as-built completed prior to final acceptance or payment. The as-built drawings are recorded and prepared after the project gets completed and sometimes could also be prepared as the project progresses on a per phase basis. This article explains the traditional way and a more modern way of managing and preparing as-built drawings including some ideas

Top 10 Construction Magazines You Should Be Reading

Juan Rodriguez — Wed, 26 Jun 2019 17:22:39 +0000

Construction professionals are always looking for the newest technology and news to keep them up with the latest in their field. Magazines are one of the top worthy tools that construction professionals use along with participating in trade shows and conferences. However, since magazines are sometimes free or low-cost tools, they are still a preferred method of learning and skill development for many construction professionals. Construction professionals are now

Project Controller – What You Need to Know to Succeed

Michael Lepage — Wed, 22 May 2019 08:44:13 +0000

Are you interested in starting a career as a Project Controller but not sure where to start or what it's all about? Project Controllers are an important part of any project team, they assume a lot of the risk and responsibilities when it comes to making sure a project has a successful outcome. They oversee the project's revenues and expenses to make sure the project meets its budget and completion time. If you want to start your career as a Project Controller, below is what you need to know to

Plan Academy Named Spring 2019 “High Performer” by G2Crowd

Michael Lepage — Mon, 13 May 2019 21:14:21 +0000

Bill Gates once said "We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve.” And as a budding online training enterprise, we at Plan Academy truly value the feedback of our clients. We love hearing from our students. And we always take their feedback into consideration when we plan a new course or training event. That's why we're excited to announce today that Plan Academy has been named a "High Performer" for Spring 2019 at

7 Top Construction Management Template Tools To Check Out

Juan Rodriguez — Wed, 24 Apr 2019 12:28:46 +0000

We all like freebies, right? Construction management is all about reporting, managing projects and capturing data that is used to depict the project status. Developing or perhaps finding the right construction management template can take time and therefore you will be less productive. Don’t reinvent the wheel, someone already did it for you and we have facilitated even more

How To Import & Export Activity Layouts in Primavera P6

Michael Lepage — Mon, 15 Apr 2019 05:15:33 +0000

Primavera P6's Activity Layouts can be a super-feature for helping you to plan, analyze, and progress a schedule. But what about exporting Activity Layouts to other copies of Primavera P6? In this post I'll show you how to import and export those precious Primavera P6 Activity Layouts. The Activity screen is where we spend 95% of our time as Primavera P6 users. Having a facility to configure an Activity layout just the way we like it and to save layouts for reuse is truly an invaluable feature. Activity Layouts that are created in Primavera P6 as "Global" can be

3 Top Timesheet & Time Tracking Software

Juan Rodriguez — Wed, 10 Apr 2019 19:15:33 +0000

Looking for the best timesheet and time tracking software? There are many and multiple options in the market that can be integrated with project management products. Tracking time makes you not even more efficient but also can help on maximizing the resources available for your construction projects. We have looked at a many different timesheet and time tracking software and I have compiled a list of some of the best options and what is in my opinion the best products out there so far. Below you’ll see a list of some of these products plus some of the benefits these software

3 Construction Cost Estimating Mistakes You May Have Overlooked

Michael Lepage — Thu, 28 Mar 2019 15:11:18 +0000

Construction cost estimating is an important and major part of any construction project. To improve your estimating skills, you must first understand that each project is different and no two are identical. Dr. Saleh Mubarak, expert on Construction planning and scheduling discussed the most common construction cost estimating mistakes that are being made and how you can avoid them during a broadcast with Plan Academy. There are various types of estimating methods that are used, but there are 3 methods that are used the most: Approximate Estimating

6 Wearable Construction Innovations To Watch Out For In 2019

Juan Rodriguez — Tue, 19 Mar 2019 09:17:04 +0000

Technology is moving at a very fast pace and we should be aware of the latest wearable construction innovation. Wearable innovation can save companies and contractors thousands of dollars due to enhanced safety and training to your workers. Every year the construction industry spends more than $1 billion in fines and loss of productivity that could be avoided by using wearable construction innovation and technology. So, the big question is, is wearable construction innovation worth it? Let’s see what options you have and let’s discuss the pros and cons of each technology. 1.

Top 6 Free Construction Estimating and Project Planning Tools

Michael Lepage — Thu, 14 Mar 2019 15:11:47 +0000

Managing a construction project is a multifaceted endeavour. With the number of resources out there that can confuse anyone, accurately cost estimating and planning your construction project shouldn’t be one to suffer. With a wide range of open-source and free management tools available to help connect a team, implementing one of these tools can assist in making sure that the project plan remains in sight

Use Primavera P6 Reflections To Merge Scenario Projects

Michael Lepage — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 08:00:48 +0000

Reflection projects are a little-known but very handy feature in Primavera P6 Professional. A Primavera P6 Reflection project is essentially a copy of a project but with one snazzy built-in trick - the ability to merge the copied project back into the original at any time. If the genius of this trick hasn't struck you yet, it will. This merging ability was designed to help planners work with scenario projects. Let's say you're the planner for a large capital project that is a falling behind

5 Highest Paying PMP Jobs You Should Know About

Juan Rodriguez — Sat, 09 Mar 2019 15:01:02 +0000

Once you’re done with the PMP certification, you might be asking what the next step in your professional career is. Well, it’s time to land a high paying PMP job now that you have the knowledge and requirements to get a very nice position. First, you'll need to understand that a high paying job search takes time and experience but being PMP certified is a great step in your future and professional career. Project Management Professionals can easily earn in average 20% more than a project manager with the same credentials but without the PMI

Global Construction Disputes: Trends You Should Watch Out For in 2019

Michael Lepage — Thu, 28 Feb 2019 10:45:15 +0000

Arcadis Contract Solutions released their Global Construction Disputes 2018 Report – Does the Construction Industry Learn from Its Mistakes? The 30-page report highlights key themes and patterns that has been occurring within the global dispute market that can be used to reflect the market trends. According to Arcadis, in 2016- 2017, the most common cause of disputes was a failure to properly administer

10 Game Changing Productivity Books You Should Read

Michael Lepage — Thu, 21 Feb 2019 16:11:13 +0000

In this digital age we are always on call, always connected and always on the go. Whether it’s in your professional or personal life, staying productive can be difficult. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by your daily work load, doing busy work isn’t going to get important things done, you’ll only be stuck in this never-ending cycle. To help give you a push to get organized and started, I’ve put together a list of top productivity books that can help you regain your focus and energy. Toss the

Open Zipped XER files in Primavera P6 v18 – New Feature

Michael Lepage — Mon, 18 Feb 2019 03:31:22 +0000

As of Primavera P6 version 18, you can now import zipped XER files directly into Primavera P6. There's no need to uncompress them first. Primavera P6 will read the zip archive directly. Check out our zipped xer files video tutorial to see firsthand how it all works....and also what doesn't work. https://planacademy.wistia.com/medias/71f767v6t2?embedType=async&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=640 How To Import Zipped XER Files in Primavera P6 Hey, folks. Thanks for visiting Plan Academy. I'm Michael, and I'm going to show you now how you can import zipped

Color Coding Your Primavera P6 Gantt Chart: 2 Ways To Do It

Michael Lepage — Thu, 07 Feb 2019 09:32:38 +0000

A picture says a thousand words. And a good color-coding system can do the same on the Primavera P6 Gantt Chart. Did you know you don't need to stick with Primavera P6's default Gantt Chart color scheme? The options are many and in this video tutorial, you'll learn how to color-code bars based on criteria YOU set. You'll learn about 2 ways to set the criteria using Activity Codes or by User Defined Fields. If you want your Primavera P6

How To Build A Winning Report Even When You’re Off Track

Juan Rodriguez — Sun, 03 Feb 2019 09:45:07 +0000

Tracking a project effectively is one of the most challenging requirements a project manager will face. Every customer has its own set of requirements and data that they want to consider; but in general, it’s all about costs, schedule and investing in yourself should be on your priority list and if you’re ready to kick off 2019 by being around like-minded people and industry professionals; attending conferences is a great way to do this. It doesn’t always have to be just about business, it can also be a great excuse to visit and experience different places around the world and meet people from all over the globe. Start scheduling your conferences today - the sooner the better. After all, planning ahead will earn

8 Traits Of Successful Project Controls Professionals

Roshan Vani — Thu, 20 Dec 2018 09:45:53 +0000

Unlike engineers who typically study engineering or banking professionals who study finance, project control professionals are a group of individuals who come from a diverse background. In my career I have worked with engineering, business, finance, economics and political science college graduates. I have also worked with individuals who had no college degree having worked their way up through the trades such as pipe fitters or

5 Things ScheduleReader Does That Primavera P6 Can’t

Michael Lepage — Sun, 09 Dec 2018 18:09:12 +0000

I've been a fan of PrimaveraReader (or now ScheduleReader) for a quite a while. SchedulerReader is a truly great XER file viewer that fills many gaps for organizations using Primavera P6 Professional planning & scheduling software. More on that in a second. Last month, PrimaveraReader underwent a complete rebrand that had it move away

5 Reasons Why A Project Management Plan Fails

Juan Rodriguez — Tue, 04 Dec 2018 09:13:15 +0000

A project can fail, and project management can fail too. What are the steps to avoid these issues? Do you know enough and trust your skills to prevent a project management plan to fail? There are skills that every PM must have and should follow to execute a project management plan flawlessly. A project management plan indicates with the maximum amount of details the how of the project, defines the execution of a project and develops the strategy to complete the project

10 Top Project Management Podcasts You Should Listen To

Michael Lepage — Fri, 30 Nov 2018 09:13:53 +0000

Podcasts are great way to learn while you're multitasking. You can use your commute time wisely and keep learning. And we’ve put together a list of the top Project Management Podcasts that can help you grow within your industry. Check out the top 10 Project Management Podcasts you should start listening to, and have bookmarked. Projectified with PMI

Use Excel Power Query To Graph P6 Data

Mannix Carney — Mon, 26 Nov 2018 21:56:38 +0000

Excel Power Query & P6 go hand-in-hand. Around two years ago, I realized that although my role as a project planner was based on my skills in Primavera P6, I was spending a significant amount of my day doing repetitive work in Excel. I would update my project schedules in P6 and then spend hours getting all the reports ready. All this changed when I came across Excel’s new data transformation tool

Oracle Launches A Construction and Engineering Innovation Test Lab

Michael Lepage — Sun, 11 Nov 2018 10:45:34 +0000

Construction productivity has been declining since the 1990’s (Mckinsey&Company). With the rapid growth of digital technology and IoT, Oracle is developing a 15,000-sq-ft facility that provides a space for industry professionals to test new products – the Construction and Engineering Innovation Lab, in Deerfield, Ill. According to research from

How To Manage Unknowns In Your Construction Projects

Juan Rodriguez — Mon, 22 Oct 2018 20:43:27 +0000

Learning how to manage unknowns in your project sounds very tricky and complicated but it isn’t. Every construction project, from design to physical installation will go through numerous processes and challenging situations that can derail the actual purpose of the project. Every project has known unknowns and unknown unknowns; learning how to managing those risks are crucial for a project life cycle. Below you will find the definition of Know Unknowns and 4 steps to consider that can help you understanding how to act and react upon these circumstances. What is a Known

24 Project Controls Books That Every Project Controller Should Have In Their Library

Michael Lepage — Tue, 18 Sep 2018 10:35:36 +0000

Every industry has its publications that are held to that lofty status of go-to guides, and project controls is no exception. Rather than spend valuable time weeding through the volumes that are available out there, we bring you the top 24 can't-miss project controls books that every good project controller has on their shelf. And now I've kept the promise I made on a

Install 2 Versions of Primavera P6 On the Same PC – NEW In Version 18

Michael Lepage — Wed, 12 Sep 2018 15:26:15 +0000

I used to think installing 2 different versions of Primavera P6 Professional on the same PC was impossible. Well, impossible OR really, really difficult. I used to have a complicated VirtualBox setup with a huge virtual machine that would crawl along with delayed mouse movements just so I could run an older version of Primavera P6 on my PC. Of course, I would install the latest version directly on my local machine. But now with the release of Primavera P6 Professional v18.5, you are able to install the latest

17 Construction Scheduling Blogs You Should Know About

Michael Lepage — Thu, 06 Sep 2018 09:45:32 +0000

The internet is a great place when looking to broaden your horizons, but the amount of content that is being put out there daily is ridiculous. It's necessary to narrow your search down to get the most accurate content - where you don’t become overwhelmed with reading material or spending hours searching, just to end up being distracted by cat videos. As construction planners and schedulers, your days are already busy trying to plan and schedule large and complex (not to mention expensive)

4 Ways To Correctly Document Your Construction Project Decisions

Juan Rodriguez — Thu, 23 Aug 2018 09:36:04 +0000

“Please proceed with the changes.” That familiar phrase used by many but not written or documented properly can cause major issues. Documenting decisions in your construction projects are not only save you time and money, but it should be a best practice on every construction project. There are many tools and resources for you to use and capture decisions or important commitments, but what is consider as such? How can you prepare for a potential claim or situation that needs documentation? Check out some tips below on how to properly document decisions in

How to Audit Your Primavera P6 Global Activity Codes

Michael Lepage — Sun, 19 Aug 2018 09:15:25 +0000

I had a very simple question posed to me in the Plan Academy Member's Community area recently about auditing P6's Activity Codes. It was this: How can I prepare a report to see which projects use my Global Activity Codes? ie: Can I prepare a report where I can see all the “Global Activity Codes” used in each project in my Primavera P6 database? Posted by one our P6 trainees, it was a question I'd been asked before and so I was ready with my standard answer....

"It sucks, but you can't really do

25 Tips You Should Know About Red-line & As-built Drawings

Juan Rodriguez — Thu, 16 Aug 2018 12:30:47 +0000

As-built drawings are required in almost every project and it is a common practice for future reference. Recording as-built and taking care of red-line drawings during construction can be a hurdle to clear before getting the final payment or releasing the retainage. This article presents some of the best practices recommended by general contractors and builders that will facilitate the as-built process for your company and crews in the field. Who’s Responsible for As-Built Drawings? Recording as-built drawings is a responsibility of the general contractor during the

A Solution for Great Managers: Integrated Project Delivery

Juan Rodriguez — Sat, 28 Jul 2018 12:39:20 +0000

Integrated Project Delivery is a thoughtful process designed to enhance productivity, reduce costs and increase collaboration through all design and construction phases. The IPD approach is used by many construction professionals offering it to project owners as an additional benefit during the contracting process. The Integrate Project Delivery system optimizes collaboration and communication early on to capture savings and changes before it’s too late. Ideal Situation for Integrated Project Delivery The IPD process requires participation from the project owner,

A Guide To Understanding Construction Contracts from A to Z

Juan Rodriguez — Thu, 19 Jul 2018 11:45:43 +0000

Contractors use many different types of contracts but predominantly lump sum and unit price type of contracts. However, I have seen contracts that are lacking or missing essential elements required for your protection and the customer’s as well. This article is written to inform you about the very basics plus a few more items that must form part of every construction contract. Basic Elements of a Construction Contract There are some items that must be present on every contract regardless of the type and composition. Although there are standards like AIA and ConsensusDocs that

Do You Have What It Takes To Be A Construction Manager? [Quiz]

Michael Lepage — Wed, 11 Jul 2018 11:45:16 +0000

As you move forward in your career, there usually comes a time when the question's “am I happy or am I manager material?” arise. It’s normal to have these thoughts, but to soar in what you’re interested in and is currently doing takes personal awareness and always identifying and improving on the skill sets and knowledge required for that position. Managers hold a valuable role and it can either make or break important projects based on how well the

How To Control Cost: Earned Value Management Basics

Juan Rodriguez — Thu, 05 Jul 2018 06:36:38 +0000

Cost is one of the triple constraints in project management and one of the most important of every project. While challenging to manage and control, not impossible and there are many tools and methods out there to help you. One of the most accepted tools is the Earned Value Management (EVM) process that can capture project health and performance easily. The process incorporates project progress, schedule and costs, so you can project and analyze how the overall project is performing. The following paragraphs provide basic and general knowledge about EVM and how costs are controlled

Rent vs Buy Construction Equipment: How To Decide

Juan Rodriguez — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 16:02:41 +0000

How many times have you looked into buying or renting a tool or equipment? Still figuring out if there is ever a right or wrong decision? Well, there isn’t. Today’s construction industry is so competitive that even the slightest additional cost can knock you off from that top bidder spot. Construction tools and equipment are buy and/or rent in certain instances, but the final decision depends on how frequent and how you can prorate some of these costs. Renting or buying construction tools, what should you

6 Tips To Minimize Bidding Mistakes

Juan Rodriguez — Sat, 12 May 2018 11:25:03 +0000

Bidding mistakes and critical errors are the most common issues when reviewing proposals and bids. Estimators and project managers spend countless hours behind the desk, completing their assessment to fail in the simplest things during the bidding process. This article presents the most common bidding mistakes and how to avoid them from happening. I can’t bid for you but once you have read these tips, you will be better positioned to get the right numbers in

7 Inspiring Construction Videos You Should Watch

Michael Lepage — Thu, 26 Apr 2018 17:08:44 +0000

There is so much to go through and learn about construction, but it doesn’t always have to be concepts and schemes. There are many construction wonders around the world and equipment’s to know about. We’ve put together a list of 7 construction videos that you must see. You can either enhance your construction knowledge, get inspired or at least be entertained. Take some time out, unwind and look at the top 7 entertaining and

6 Construction Insurance Policies You Should Know About

Juan Rodriguez — Mon, 23 Apr 2018 20:17:57 +0000

Construction insurances are one of the most important topics every construction professional needs to understand. There are many alternatives and insurance policies out there and missing one or two can be detrimental to your bidding opportunity. Construction firms or construction professionals acting as individuals are required to present evidence of their coverage's as it creates a better image of you and your firm. The following 6 are the most important construction insurances on the

What Is Greenfield And Brownfield Engineering?

Michael Lepage — Mon, 16 Apr 2018 20:11:36 +0000

Greenfield engineering or greenfield construction is the process of developing a new building or structure over a piece of land that has never been developed. There are many advantages of developing over greenfield but not so much when you are talking about Brownfields. Brownfield engineering is related to developing or building over a property that was previously developed and requires additional steps and planning. Greenfield Engineering Greenfield areas are normally undeveloped areas highly recommended for new construction. The benefits of greenfield construction relate to

5 Tactics To Get Your P6 Project Taken Seriously

Michael Lepage — Wed, 11 Apr 2018 13:44:01 +0000

The other day I spoke with a scheduler friend of mine by phone to see how his construction project was coming along. From the moment I asked question “So how is the project going?” I could hear that something was up. “Good…. It’s fine. Things are moving.” “Still making progress?” “Yeah, sure.” He answered. But I could hear the frustration in his voice. I dug a bit deeper to see just how “fine” things were. My friend, a 30-something engineer, is filling the role of project scheduler for a large

Pull Planning or Traditional CPM – Here’s Why You Should Start Using Pull Planning

Juan Rodriguez — Sat, 24 Mar 2018 11:44:21 +0000

One common question that is always present in every project conversation: how do you engage the stakeholders to provide their input and convert it into a collaborative approach? Pull planning is a collaborative process that can help to get buy-in from all project participants using a backward pass, pulling activities into the process. Pull planning is a lean process and is starting to substitute many scheduling techniques and works

New Stats: Global Construction Dispute Trends

Michael Lepage — Sat, 17 Mar 2018 12:45:22 +0000

Update: [Arcadis Contract Solutions 2018 Report] Arcadis Contract Solutions released their Global Construction Disputes 2017 Report – Avoiding the same pitfalls. The 30-page report offers insight into the global construction contract

5 Reasons Construction Needs Real-Time Site Updates

Shaneel Nasir Akbar — Thu, 15 Mar 2018 10:27:24 +0000

The construction industry is a huge bundle of complex processes. There is no straight forward structure that allows people to identify problems quickly and solve them. A simple method doesn’t exist. Any given project requires a lot of people to interact and a huge amount of information is generated. How can we make this situation better? Collaboration is the answer. I think, almost everyone understands the importance of collaboration. The need to involve and update all relevant

Boring Project Reports? 11 Project Timeline Tools To Help You Create Visual Reports

Michael Lepage — Mon, 12 Mar 2018 08:25:29 +0000

Let's face it, our attention spans are short. And they are getting shorter. All the content we digest from the internet is developed to capture our attention and hold it for as long a possible, but we all know that something shinier or sexier will show up any second now. When it comes to conveying important project information to stakeholders, clients or colleagues, we have to take the same approach. Communicating information effectively has become a must-have skill that every project professional needs to know. And it's all in the visuals. Nancy Duarte, in her excellent book

How To Do Rolling Wave Planning in Primavera P6

Michael Lepage — Wed, 07 Mar 2018 21:42:53 +0000

One of the biggest challenges with building project schedules is that often you don't know the details of a piece of work but you need it on your schedule regardless. Yes, you know you need to say remediate an area once you've installed the watermain underground. But early in the project, the finer details of what that remediation might look like are scarce. Enter Rolling Wave Planning. If you work in IT or software development, everyone knows about Rolling Wave Planning. It's the foundation of iterative methodologies like SCRUM or Lean. But maybe you didn't know we can also apply

These Top 3 Drivers Ensure Project Success According To PMI

Michael Lepage — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 19:49:02 +0000

The latest Pulse of the Profession® report from PMI reveals that too much money is being wasted on poor project performance. In today's world when an average of 9.9% of every project dollar is lost to lousy performance, it's time for project professionals to achieve higher results by learning to adapt, adjust and innovate. However, before you become a champion performer, you've got to understand

How Construction Companies Manage Communications Effectively

Michael Lepage — Sun, 25 Feb 2018 11:15:14 +0000

93 out of 100 construction professionals agree that communication is the key to a successful project. Companies are looking to closing gaps in communication that are hindering their productivity, so they can minimize costly errors related to poor communication. The remaining 7% believes that communication is not a key factor in a project and oh boy they are so wrong. How Construction
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<p>Juan Rodriguez — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 11:10:25 +0000</p>
How do you manage budget, scope and time? Which one should you prioritize? Many times, we have encountered this situation and it seems like no one has the right answer.

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<h1>How To Manage Changes in Your Construction Project</h1>
<p>Juan Rodriguez — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 11:10:25 +0000</p>
How do you manage budget, scope and time? Which one should you prioritize? Many times, we have encountered this situation and it seems like no one has the right answer.

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construction projects can be cumbersome and potentially derail the project success. Managing changes requires skills and knowledge to find the sweet spot balancing the triple constraint in project management. Let’s see what techniques and approach you can use to

17 Construction Mobile Apps Every Contractor Should Know About

Michael Lepage — Sun, 18 Feb 2018 10:00:42 +0000

We’ve all become accustomed to using our smartphones for vital things like banking and email, but did you ever think you would be using it to track where you last left your tools? Mobile apps are helping to speed up business processes and make it easier to access and record information. And new innovative apps are helping construction professionals get results too. In 2014, 36% of construction firms use more than 5 different mobile apps according to a recent

The Surprising Benefits of Project Risk Analysis

Michael Trumper — Sat, 10 Feb 2018 23:31:13 +0000

“How do I convince my team that this is worth the effort?” This is one of the frequently asked questions that we run across during our discussions with project teams and it is a good question that deserves an answer. Project risk analysis is not without cost. It takes time and effort to develop the culture, processes and tools to perform them effectively and often, in the same way it takes time to become good at a scheduling. While the time and cost required is self-evident, the benefits can often be difficult to discern and the ones that I think are most important are often not

How To Find Relationship Lag in Primavera P6

Michael Lepage — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 15:01:44 +0000

It's not very easy to find Relationship Lag in Primavera P6 project schedules. There aren't really any features to highlight which relationships have lag or lead time. But understanding how leads or lags are used on your Primavera P6 project is a vital part of analyzing a project schedule. We need a process to find relationship lag in Primavera P6 schedule. And I'm going to show you two. What is a Lag or Lead in Primavera P6 Lag time is a duration that is added to a relationship link

8 Project Management Infographics That Everyone Must See

Michael Lepage — Wed, 17 Jan 2018 14:00:51 +0000

Casting your net in the realm of project management may be a bit overwhelming for some– especially when you’re not exactly sure where to start if you’re a newbie. Regardless, always learning more will put you ahead of the crowd and make the logistics of it all less difficult. Sometimes a great project management infographic is exactly what's needed. I’ve compiled 8 project management infographics from various sources on the net that can be helpful in your efforts to boosting your project

These 4 Project Controls Software Trends Will Make Waves in 2018

Michael Lepage — Sat, 13 Jan 2018 17:02:10 +0000

In 2018, schedulers, planners & cost controllers will continue to deal with the pressures of managing complex projects amidst scarce resources, limited budgets and tight deadlines. And while most project controllers will spend their time in front of a piece of software, our project controls software is changing and evolving in our connected world. Project controls software tools play a large, and ever-expanding role in getting projects done on-time. And we rely on them more and more everyday. Users are seeing more offerings and features in 2018 than ever before,

How To Perform As-Planned Delay Analysis On A Construction Schedule

Michael Lepage — Thu, 04 Jan 2018 20:14:24 +0000

When there are delays on a construction project and a delay claim has been issued, it's vital to determine who caused the delays and what happens next. Forensic Delay Schedule Analysis is broad area of expertise in project controls whereby a set of techniques are used to analyze a schedule and figure out who is at fault, whether a Time Extension should be granted and if there's monetary compensation owing because of the delay. Between a Contractor and the project's Owner, there must be an agreement as to who caused the schedule delay and whether it can be

23 Top Project Controls Conferences To Attend In 2018

Michael Lepage — Thu, 07 Dec 2017 19:16:58 +0000

Update: Check out the list of Top 24 Project Controls Conferences to attend in 2019! 2018 hasn’t even started yet and I’m already trying to get you fill your calendar. Now isn’t that something! But hey, the sooner the better and this will be one thing off of your to do list for next year. As you may know, accurate planning and scheduling is important. Not only for your work projects, but also for your personal goals and individual projects. The new year is around the corner and to give

Construction Projects: What I Saw On My Visit To London

Michael Lepage — Sat, 18 Nov 2017 21:13:27 +0000

London is a big and inspiring city. I had the chance to spend a week there for a bit of work and a bit of play. I managed to attend 2 excellent conferences, although they are quite underelated. I attended Chris Ducker's first Youpreneur event, and then later the 7th Project Controls Expo. As I walked around the city during the course of the week, I saw lots of construction activity going on in London-town. I personally find construction work fascinating to watch; the perilous heights, the incredible displays of power in moving heavy materials around, the planning, process &

4 Things Construction Owners Don’t Know About Scheduling

Saleh Mubarak — Tue, 17 Oct 2017 12:39:17 +0000

Construction owners include a wide range of individuals, corporations, and governments. Their knowledge in construction project management also differs vastly. Owners hire contractors to build projects for them obviously because the contractor possesses the knowledge and capability to do so. The question remains: what is the Owner’s role in monitoring the project, and how can he/she/they do it effectively? It is like taking your car to the mechanic for repair: it is the mechanic’s duty to do the job and get the car in a good running shape, but the owner needs to be aware of the process

Optimum Scheduling: Thinking Outside Of the Construction Schedule

Saleh Mubarak — Sun, 01 Oct 2017 10:00:47 +0000

In the summer of 2008, I took a job as a project controls manager for a mega project in the Arabian/Persian Gulf. When looking at the CPM (Critical Path Method) schedule for the project, I saw huge excavation activities scheduled during that summer. Immediately, I thought of productivities under burning heat with temperature reaching and exceeding 50? Celsius (122 Fahrenheit). My first reaction was: Who prepared that schedule (and estimated activities’ durations)? Did he take in consideration all the

Primavera P6 Release 17.7 Is Out But It’s A Light Update

Michael Lepage — Sun, 13 Aug 2017 08:09:29 +0000

Quietly in July, Oracle released this year's 2nd iteration of it's Primavera P6 EPPM & Primavera P6 Professional Project Management application, release 17.7. Why am I saying this is the 2nd iteration? In 2015, Oracle committed to delivering 2 releases per year x.1 and x.2. At that time they shifted their version from version 8.x to version 15.x, seemingly jumping 7 versions in numbers. The reason was to match the release version to the year - so version 15.x was released in 2015, 16.x in 2016, etc. Now, they have shifted their versioning scheme again so that the

How to Find Out-of-Sequence Activities in Primavera P6 Professional

Jerome Ijachi Odeh — Thu, 03 Aug 2017 11:22:23 +0000

Have you ever had a Primavera P6 situation where all predecessors of an activity are 100% complete but the activity’s Start date isn't pushed to the Data Date as expected? Similarly, you might also see the activity's Finish date is much later than the it's remaining duration from Data Date? If you answered yes then this quick tip might help you find the offending

Thou Shalt Not Group by WBS Alone – Try Grouping By P6 Activity Codes

Jerome Ijachi Odeh — Wed, 05 Jul 2017 09:41:30 +0000

On most projects, the structure of Schedule and Cost performance reporting is based on the Project WBS and the reason for this is not farfetched since WBS is a deliverables-driven hierarchical structure. Planning tools such as Primavera P6 have a feature that enables Schedulers and Planners to replicate the Project WBS and this is why activities in a schedule are predominantly grouped by Work Breakdown Structure. One drawback of

My Favourite Quotes About Learning On The Job

Michael Lepage — Wed, 28 Jun 2017 15:32:02 +0000

Learning often comes with a curve that can pull you up quickly and leave you wondering if you are cut out for what you are trying to accomplish. It can be comforting, motivating and inspiring to know that people from all walks of life have felt exactly like you do. To do just that for you, I've gathered together some of my favourite quotes that are designed to encourage and support you when you're learning on the job and running into the inevitable challenges. 1. "Do not be embarrassed by

Review of ScheduleReader – the P6 XER File Viewer You Didn’t Know You Needed

Michael Lepage — Mon, 08 May 2017 15:07:24 +0000

In this post, I'm doing a complete review of ScheduleReader. When it first launched, ScheduleReader was formerly known as PrimaveraReader an XER viewer that was an intriguing alternative to importing .xer files in your database to view the contents. But the tool was a bit too new to do a deep dive. Now, having a few releases under its belt (currently version 6.1), I'm convinced ScheduleReader is a tool that will become essential to any company using Primavera P6 or working with other companies that

How To Preview A Primavera P6 XER File’s Global Data

Michael Lepage — Sat, 29 Apr 2017 12:57:34 +0000

This post is part 2 of our Scheduler's Guide to Primavera P6 Global Data and Project Data. If you have't read part 1 yet, go have a read. In this post, I'll show you how to preview Global Data coming from a Primavera P6 xer file. The concept of Global and Project Data in Primavera P6 is important to understand; not so much from a planning & CPM scheduling perspective, but from

A Guide to Primavera P6 Global & Project Data

Michael Lepage — Thu, 20 Apr 2017 14:12:31 +0000

I've always had difficulty explaining the concept of global and project data to new users of Primavera P6 in my training courses. It's a bit too much for some, and why should you even care? You seem to be able to use Primavera P6 just fine without any knowledge of Global or Project Data. You can, but you can also get into trouble once you start moving data around, especially back and forth between databases. If you've ever sent or received a Primavera P6 .xer

Concrete: 4 Innovations You’ve Never Heard Of

Michael Lepage — Mon, 20 Mar 2017 18:34:42 +0000

Concrete -- a material that can trace its interactions with humans back to the Roman era more than 2,000 years ago -- is the most popular material used today. When tonnage is compared, the use of concrete outweighs plastic, wood, aluminum and steel

5 Ways A Project Viewer Will Fix Your Project’s Communications

Joel Roberts — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 20:51:58 +0000

Project-oriented organizations are often spending valuable time and resources to find ways to share the project activities and schedule to team members in the hopes of saving bucks on the total number of deployed software licenses. This contingency plan is usually applied for the team members that are only executing the project tasks and need not change anything in the overall project plan. It is not because these team members are considered as less crucial to the project’s success, but mainly to save expenditures on costly Project Management software licenses. Project-oriented companies

As Late As Possible Constraint: How To Use It In Primavera P6 [VIDEO]

Michael Lepage — Wed, 08 Feb 2017 18:37:38 +0000

Ever been confused by Primavera P6's As Late As Possible constraint? If you're a still familiarizing yourself with P6's many features, you might not be sure what the As Late As Possible (ALAP) constraint does or when to use it. I had a Plan Academy member ask me that question recently and decided to put this informative video together. I had a chance to practice my whiteboard skills and hopefully you'll understand how the As Late As Possible

7 Productivity Killers You Should Avoid [INFOGRAPHIC]

Michael Lepage — Sun, 22 Jan 2017 17:54:28 +0000

The internet is rife with tips about productivity tools, techniques and hacks. So many of us are searching for ways to improve our productivity, get the most out of our time and find great tools to help us. Implementing techniques and tools is great, but we can't ignore the "silent productivity killers." A study from the

Primavera P6 Certification Explained [Video]

Michael Lepage — Sat, 17 Dec 2016 15:09:34 +0000

After so many questions about how to get certified on Primavera P6 and the confusion around Oracle certification exams, Michael has decided to clear things up with an explanation of Primavera P6 certification for users of the tool. Michael answers the following questions in this Ask Plan Academy video: How do I get certified on Primavera P6? What's the difference between a certification and earning a certificate? What is the Oracle exam 1Z0-567 all

Is Modular Construction The Future? [INFOGRAPHIC]

Michael Lepage — Thu, 08 Dec 2016 21:01:38 +0000

Globally, the construction industry is adopting modular construction over site-built construction more and more. Modular Construction can have up to 50% time-savings overs traditional construction and an average construction time of 180 days. What Is Modular Construction? Modular construction is when independent sections of a

5 Ways to Prevent Your Primavera P6 Install From Getting Hacked

Michael Lepage — Mon, 05 Dec 2016 21:37:31 +0000

Just over a week ago, the city of San Francisco lost millions in revenue as a hacker's attack left the city's MUNI municipal transportation kiosk system completely inoperable. The trains and buses were running, but everyone was rode for free for 2 days as IT experts struggled with a ransomware demand. All MUNI computer terminals displayed the “hacked” message: “Contact for key (cryptom27@yandex.com),” the message read. The hacker's ransomware program had comprised

10 Reasons Why Construction Schedules Fail

Michael Lepage — Tue, 29 Nov 2016 19:15:17 +0000

This post was originally published on the RepOne blog. CPM Schedules invariably become erroneous, despite best practices, when the rest of the team isn’t pulling their own weight. The integrity of the schedule may have nothing to do with why it became useless or meaningless, or as I like to say, a recorder more than a predictor of the critical path and progress. If the project is large and has multiple prime contractors, its schedule is all the more susceptible to

My Favourite Quotes on Construction & Building

Michael Lepage — Wed, 23 Nov 2016 21:48:43 +0000

Throughout history, builders have always been revered for their ability to mold the natural elements into something new, perhaps something never seen before. Building is therefore a creative act on a momentous scale. For those lucky enough to be involved in Construction & Building, it's an incredible joy to be involved in bringing forth from mere drawings and ideas a structure that will stand for many lifetimes. With this in mind, here are some of my favourite quotes on Construction & Building. I hope they inspire you to see the role of builder as much more than just

5 Free BIM Tools That Can Help You Get Started

Michael Lepage — Wed, 16 Nov 2016 20:56:12 +0000

Why aren't you using BIM yet? The impact of BIM (Building Information Modelling) on construction projects has increased over time and now there are more BIM software tools than ever before. The use of BIM virtual reality, 3D modelling software and 4D imaging is starting to revolutionize the builder's lifecycle. It allows contractors to make better design decisions, reduce waste, and perhaps even reach that elusive goal of finishing on-time and on-budget. Why

Does Your Project Schedule Have Too Much Detail? [Video]

Michael Lepage — Sat, 05 Nov 2016 11:00:28 +0000

"These submittal activities are screwing everything up," I told my boss. "The project's Critical Path is completely messed up." There were 576 submittals to log. Each one took 2 lines in my P6 schedule. That was an extra 1,152 activities to manage and update, a lot of extra work from my perspective. I didn't like this notion. "The Owner's guy want to see those details or he won't approve the project schedule," my boss told me. Like me, he disagreed with the whole approach of putting every

7 Key Project Management Skills of Relentless Leaders

Michael Lepage — Tue, 01 Nov 2016 19:51:22 +0000

When you are in charge of planning and coordinating small or large scale projects, you must exude the key characteristics of a great leader to ensure the success of your endeavors. To be an excellent leader, you must never say fail in the face of adversity and always dream up creative ways to work around tough problems. You must micromanage as needed, delegate equally often, and keep your eye on the prize for the duration of the job. Channeling the many characteristics of the world’s most bullheaded, inspirational leaders will give you an edge as you approach your project management

What’s the difference between Primavera P6 Professional and EPPM?

Michael Lepage — Sun, 23 Oct 2016 01:08:45 +0000

Which Primavera P6 program should you purchase? Primavera P6 EPPM or Primavera P6 Professional? If you need to purchase the software, you had better understand which Primavera P6 is best for you. Primavera P6 software is costly, and you don't want to make the wrong choice. Navigating the Primavera suite of applications isn't exactly straightforward. So I thought I should clear up what Primavera P6 EPPM does that Primavera P6 PPM doesn't and vice versa. [UPDATED Oct 2016] - I originally wrote this article in 2012 and it was long due for a major update. Lots has changed since the

How To Create a Predecessors Report in Primavera P6

Jerome Ijachi Odeh — Sat, 08 Oct 2016 12:06:14 +0000

On most construction projects Primavera P6 schedules are presented to stakeholders in PDF file format due to the obvious formatting advantage that PDF offers. Unfortunately, when reviewing a P6 Gantt Chart printed to PDF, there is very little information available about the logic relationships between activities in the schedule. In this tutorial I'll shod you the steps to follow to create an Activity Predecessors Report in Primavera P6

Oracle Releases Primavera P6 16.2 – Java Moving Out, Performance Moving Up

Michael Lepage — Wed, 05 Oct 2016 16:16:21 +0000

Oracle is doing their round of webinars after the latest release of Primavera P6, version 16.2. I logged in to get the skinny on what we can expect in terms of new features and functions in Primavera P6 16.2. Starting from release 15 of Primavera P6, the Oracle Primavera business unit has committed to 2 releases every year. A new major version is released in the spring (xx.1) with the major versions matching the year. A minor release (xx.2) is expected each fall. As always, when there's a release to Primavera P6, we can expect updates to both Primavera P6 EPPM and Primavera P6

Primavera P6 Activity Calendars Don’t Match WBS Calendar

Michael Lepage — Fri, 23 Sep 2016 18:27:23 +0000

Ask Plan Academy. Primavera P6 is a great scheduling tool, but I hear from people who struggle with P6's Calendars alot. Here's another Ask Plan Academy question about WBS bars and Calendars from Tom, a project scheduler: "In Primavera P6, the Calendar on the WBS lines is different than the calendars that I'm on seeing on each activity. What gives? How do I fix this

Ask Plan Academy: How To Fix P6 Partial Durations

Michael Lepage — Thu, 08 Sep 2016 20:47:24 +0000

Today we're starting a new series on Plan Academy where will be answering your Primavera P6 and project controls questions in video rather than in text. Video is such a great medium to explore and it's one that I want to continue to hone my skills with. So welcome to Ask Plan Academy. Here's a great question from Raj that we'll be answering in the video below. "In Construction, is it acceptable to have partial durations on my project? What do I do if I have fractional or partial durations on my project's

7 Negotiation Tactics To Save Your Deal From Collapsing

Michael Lepage — Mon, 29 Aug 2016 20:44:42 +0000

Negotiating for a Construction project? Whether you're an owner negotiating with a contractor or a contractor negotiating with a sub-contractor, you should get your game plan in order. Negotiation tactics can help you reach the best agreement and allow you he opportunity to discuss your successes and how your better than the competition. To get you started, here are 7 negotiation tactics to boost your bargaining power. 1. Practice Being an Active Listener At the bargaining table, a head nod every once in a while is not enough for

Ghost Schedules: An Overview for Project Controllers

Michael Lepage — Mon, 22 Aug 2016 14:21:12 +0000

Any project controls professional knows that during the course of a project multiple versions of a project schedule will be created. Schedules are often created at different levels. It usually takes a few iterations to get to an agree-upon baseline. Then there are progress schedules, scenario schedules, mitigation schedules, and perhaps even a recovery schedule. But what about ghost schedules? There might even be a ghost schedule. What Is A Ghost Schedule? Ghost schedules are essentially

Top 4 Tech Trends In Construction And Engineering

Michael Lepage — Thu, 18 Aug 2016 18:22:16 +0000

Technology is taking over the world. Technology that we never thought would dominate has become a staple when it comes to planning and executing a project in construction and engineering. According to a 2016 survey by PwC, 74% of respondents stated that technological advances are the top global trends that will transform stakeholders' expectations over the next 5 years. Coming in second place are

Translate A Primavera P6 Project To A Different Language

Michael Lepage — Sun, 07 Aug 2016 08:00:15 +0000

It's surprising to me how many people across so many countries have been helped by Plan Academy's Primavera P6 tutorials & training. I mean I know I'm tooting my own horn here, but it's not to be an egotist. When I first started blogging about Primavera P6 in 2011, and I would gaze daily at my little Google Analytics screen that would inform of what sort of visitors were visiting our site. I was always amazed (and still am) at how big the world is and

4 Tips To Sharpen Your Focus and Prevent Distractions At Work [INFOGRAPHIC + VIDEO]

Michael Lepage — Thu, 04 Aug 2016 19:37:05 +0000

How many times a day are you interrupted by distractions at work? According to a University of California Study on digital distractions at work, it takes approximately 25 minutes to get back to the task at hand after a distraction. We are left to our own devices and It’s up to us to stay on track, especially with the large amounts of information we’re processing on a daily basis. The 20 seconds you expect to take to check Facebook or Instagram turned into 25 minutes of unproductive time. Distractions at work are

Big Data For Construction: How It Can Help You Deliver Your Project On Time

Michael Lepage — Wed, 20 Jul 2016 18:42:01 +0000

Big Data for construction is here - the question is are you ready? But first, what is Big Data? At the AACE Conference last month in Toronto, the keynote speaker was Paul Zikopoulos, a trends expert and VP of Big Data Analytics at IBM. Big Data is a ubiquitous term that refers to the immense amount of data we capturing about all of our interactions online or with devices. Every click online is captured somewhere in a database, not to

5 Things I Learned At The AACE Project Controls Conference

Michael Lepage — Sat, 16 Jul 2016 19:30:51 +0000

Admittedly, it took us weeks to prepare for. I really wasn't sure we would make it. There was so much to do. Brochures were designed & drawn up, backdrops architected and printed, boxes of business cards were ordered arrived by courier and a myriad of other essentials were procured.

We were running our very first tradeshow booth.

Being primarily an online company, I didn't realize until this year's AACE Annual General meeting in Toronto (June 26-29, 2016) how little I had in print about Plan

12 Reasons Why Your Brain Craves Vacation Time [INFOGRAPHIC]

Michael Lepage — Tue, 12 Jul 2016 17:31:48 +0000

It’s that time of the year. The beaches are opened, the sun is out and vacation is on the mind, but when was the last time you actually took a vacation? A vacation where all you did was relax and not have to be connected? Yes, for some it has been a while. In an article written by the Wall Street Journal, US workers on average left five vacation days unused each year. You may be saying to yourself “but

Construction Scheduling Software – How To Get The Most Out Of Your Solution

Michael Lepage — Sat, 09 Jul 2016 17:50:18 +0000

As a leader in your organization, one of the biggest mistakes that you can make in terms of construction scheduling software is focusing on a tool as JUST a time management solution. While having the right solution at your side can certainly help you make sure that a project finishes on time and on budget, the overall functionality of today's construction scheduling software runs a great deal deeper than that. Construction scheduling software can aid with everything from cost estimating, project management planning, quality management,

21 Unbelievable Construction Fails That Will Leave You Stymied

Michael Lepage — Sat, 11 Jun 2016 13:00:27 +0000

In all professions people are prone to make some mistakes once in a while and construction is no different. I came across some, let's say interesting images of construction fails and thought I'd share. With all of the advanced planning in construction you would think everything would go smoothly, but sometimes the plan can go wrong in ways that make no sense. Regardless if you're using construction apps to stay on target,

7 Strategies To Stay Focused At Work

Michael Lepage — Sat, 28 May 2016 13:27:35 +0000

Staying focused at work can become a difficult task when you workplace is hectic and chaotic. Yes, it does come with the territory - loud equipment, people walking by, loud discussions, deadlines, busy schedules, and clutter, but all of that can be cultivated so that it doesn’t have to stress you out. Even the slightest changes can become leveraged strategies to stay focused when your workplace isn't zen. According to a 2015 study conducted by

Construction Project Management Certification – Is It For You?

Michael Lepage — Tue, 24 May 2016 20:17:16 +0000

According to Payscale.com, over 4,900 construction project managers report making between $48,400 and $105,698 per year. Pay depends on experience and skill set, but construction project managers are often able to find work in most cities across the country and around the world once they obtain the appropriate work history and education, and often a construction project management certification. What is Construction Project Management?

POBS Data Bug Fixed in Oracle Primavera P6 16.1

Michael Lepage — Fri, 06 May 2016 17:43:24 +0000

By now, if you're an Oracle Primavera P6 user you've probably heard about the problems with large XER files, slow XER import processes and the problems with POBS data in the Primavera P6 database. We showed you how to circumvent those POBS issues either by cleaning up your XER file before import or by cleaning Primavera P6's POBS

Addicted To Meetings? Here Are 9 Ways to Make Sure They Are Effective [INFOGRAPHIC]

Michael Lepage — Sat, 30 Apr 2016 11:48:48 +0000

Let’s face it, some meetings are just unnecessary. Research conducted by Harvard Business School and the London School of Economics found that 25-50% of meeting time was considered wasted. With so much to do everyday, productivity is paramount and time is money. So why can't we organize effective meetings that are worth attending? According to software company Altassian, the estimated cost of unnecessary meetings to US businesses in terms of wasted salary hours at $37 billion. Don’t get me wrong, meetings are a essential to

Primavera P6 16.1 Is Released! Everything You Need To Know

Michael Lepage — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 20:49:26 +0000

This month marked Oracle's latest release of Primavera P6 16.1, their flagship project management software. There are some new features to discuss and some changes. If you're on an a single-digit version (version 6, 7 or 8) don't forget about Oracle's new versioning approach - version 16.1 isn't truly 8 releases ahead of v8. You can get the low-down on all versions from our version history page. Since

6 Tips To Manage Decision Fatigue: It’s Not as Difficult as You Think

Michael Lepage — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 12:22:55 +0000

Are you overwhelmed with all of the decisions you have to make as soon as you walk into work? You might have decision fatigue. In one day have you ever felt like you’ve made so many decisions that it would suffice for a whole month? Each decision we make adds to decision fatigue. According to Wikipedia, in decision making and psychology, decision fatigue is when the quality of decisions deteriorate after a long period of decision making. Thus, causing less favorable decisions for example

How to Show the Baseline Critical Path In P6

Jerome Ijachi Odeh — Sat, 09 Apr 2016 11:00:43 +0000

All project controls professionals know how critical is it to monitor our project's critical path. And we all know that comparing our project performance to a baseline is also essential. Most of us are doing this critical path and baseline monitoring in Primavera P6 every day. But what about monitoring our project's critical path vs our baseline critical path in P6? Of course, as we execute a P6 schedule, over time, the schedule will diverge from

Drive Results As A Project Manager – Build Team Alignment [PODCAST]

Michael Lepage — Thu, 31 Mar 2016 20:19:34 +0000

In any professional setting there most likely is a leader who is steering the operation. It's essential that leaders and managers remain transparent rather than mysterious about the vision and plans of the project. On a recent P6 Genius Bar webinar I discovered how frustrating it can be when you're trying to complete a project but the guidance of your manager is not transparent or clearly indicated. A Plan Academy customer was

International Communication Styles: How To Better Communicate with People Around The Globe [SlideShare]

Michael Lepage — Sat, 26 Mar 2016 12:38:52 +0000

Is your business culture monochronic or polychronic? Traditional culture experts have divided people into these 2 types: monochronic are people who do one thing at a time and polychronic are people that do many things at a time. That was until Richard D. Lewis came along and found that there was a whole culture missing. Richard Lewis, one of Britain's foremost linguists and founder of CrossCulture, says that when doing business people should consider the type of

11 Inspiring TED Talks On Productivity For Planners and Schedulers

Michael Lepage — Fri, 18 Mar 2016 15:15:51 +0000

Conquer your projects like a pro. We all need a little boost some days when we just aren’t as productive as we would like to be. For the days we feel like we’ve reached the ultimate ‘Blah’ and would just love to spend the day at the beach instead, take a little break and watch some very inspiring Ted Talks on productivity. TED Talks offer

Primavera P6 64-Bit or 32-Bit: Which Should You Install?

Michael Lepage — Tue, 15 Mar 2016 20:00:22 +0000

Update: Since Primavera P6 16, the 64-bit version is default. There was a decision to be made. It was just a simple check box. But looking back now, I'm as surprised as Robert Frost to the difference it made. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. --Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken. Not that installing software is like poetry

36 Productivity AutoCAD Hacks for Engineers [SlideShare]

Michael Lepage — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 18:31:00 +0000

Technology is the future, the now. No kidding around, it makes our job much easier in all fields. When it comes to engineering and designing of architecture, technology assists in providing the highest standards of 2D or 3D models. AutoCAD is an essential part of this development. It is used to create these models, blueprints, professional sketches and much more in the planning stages of building and/or reviving architecture. If you’re using AutoCAD to draft 3D graphics on a daily basis you know that it can take time to produce great drafts. For all you Architects, Project Managers,

Hack A Primavera P6 Change Log from Activity Steps

Michael Lepage — Sat, 20 Feb 2016 14:24:15 +0000

One of the most often requested features for Primavera P6 is an Activity Change Log. Although a log of changes to your project's activities is not yet native to the software, you can hack yourself a Primavera P6 Change Log using a few simple steps. I want to first give full credit for this solution to Ronald Weaver, a master

How To Remove Actuals From A Primavera P6 Schedule

Jerome Ijachi Odeh — Tue, 09 Feb 2016 17:55:51 +0000

Though not a widely recommended practice, there are times when one might want to de-progress or remove actuals from a Primavera P6 schedule. Some reasons for wanting to return a schedule after weeks or months of progress updates to its state at Project Start are: Baseline not being set before applying actuals Wrong or no resource assignments applied when baseline was set Wrong logic relationships in schedule when baseline was set? A downside to removing

3 Engineering Career Skills That’ll Make A Big Difference In Landing That Contract

Michael Lepage — Fri, 05 Feb 2016 12:55:40 +0000

Job security is fading. No matter your industry, employers are always looking for candidates who are qualified with the required engineering skills, flexible with change, and who have the ability to communicate with the team. And employers are looking for candidates who show the potential to move up in the organization - showing initiative and competencies in many areas. A jack-of-all-trades if you like the term. Nowadays the trend in hiring fits what is known as

Location Based Management System: Better Than CPM?

Michael Lepage — Fri, 29 Jan 2016 19:52:50 +0000

A location based management system (LBMS) might not be something that is on your radar as a project planner or scheduler -- but it likely will be soon. The concept has deep roots in the United States. The Empire State Building is one of the most well-known examples of using a LBMS, and its use is considered a key factor in the building's rapid completion. While this method of tracking construction projects has been used since then -- most notably by the US Navy -- it has generally been overlooked by most commercial entities in favor of the activity-heavy method critical path method (CPM).

Project Controls Internships: 4 Go-To Resources To Find One

Michael Lepage — Tue, 19 Jan 2016 21:16:42 +0000

You're trained on Primavera P6 and you're totally qualified for a project controller position. But wait... you need to come up with practical experience after all of those months and years of studying and training!? If you’re not sure how to get Project Controls experience I want to help you out. Let me tell you about Project Controls internships. I've found internships to be the best bet to bridge this gap

Primavera P6 Cloud Offers P6 EPPM As A Service

Michael Lepage — Sat, 16 Jan 2016 11:00:25 +0000

The Primavera P6 Cloud is here. Are you ready for it? A while back, I explained that the Primavera Cloud offers most of Oracle's Primavera applications in the Software-as-a-Service model. That means companies can pay Oracle to spin-up a hosted implementation of say Primavera Unifer and be up and running in hours. It also means no fiddling with servers or the tear-inducing WebLogic backend software, and no installations. It's a one-click install with the all the work being done behind the scenes by Oracle. Today, I

5 Project Management Tips From Santa [INFOGRAPHIC]

Michael Lepage — Thu, 17 Dec 2015 21:02:40 +0000

It’s that time of the year where project managers are working on wrapping up their final project reports before holiday vacation, but of course ‘tis the season to be sidetracked. The holiday season brings a lot of distractions and as a project manager a good way to keep your team motivated to the end would be to make a list and check it twice like the North Poles finest, Santa Claus. When you think about

5 Project Management Lessons From Classic Holiday Movies

Michael Lepage — Tue, 15 Dec 2015 21:07:32 +0000

With the holiday season at full roar, you may find your attention distracted by the season's best holiday movies. Between scenes of holiday cheer, you can actually find lessons you can apply to your established project management repertoire. Holiday movies from 'Rudolph' to 'Home Alone' are filled with successes and failures of their own project management jobs. Either way, you can pick up the five following takeaways, and more, from these fun

52 Tips To Help You Break Into Project Management [SlideShare]

Michael Lepage — Tue, 17 Nov 2015 12:39:49 +0000

Are you fresh on the scene of project management or is thinking about investing in a career in this industry - but not sure how to go about starting out or getting your first break? Project Management has become more and more in demand globally and is very popular and necessary in many organizations to run smoothly. Like all other career paths, diving in head first might not be a great idea, but to have a better chance of succeeding and getting your first break, try to get familiar with the various roles and responsibilities that a career in project management has to offer. Chances are

Accelerating a Construction Project & Direct Costs

Michael Lepage — Wed, 11 Nov 2015 21:29:55 +0000

Accelerating a construction project seems pretty straightforward right? Work more, pay more, save time, right? Well that's pretty close, but not quite. In fact, without digging into this a bit more, you could easily work more, save time, pay A LOT more. Let me explain. When accelerating a construction project, it's pretty self-explanatory that the job's costs will be impacted by our decision to cut time from the schedule. But the question is, how are those costs impacted & by how much? For most, our assumption is that more work will result in higher costs. However, as in the case of

How To Jump Start Your Career in Project Controls

Michael Lepage — Sat, 07 Nov 2015 13:06:05 +0000

With competition and the need for innovation consistently increasing in construction, transportation, energy, architecture and related areas, project controllers are in demand more than ever. If you’re interested in a strategic leadership role that allows you to wear many hats, you can choose among a number of possible career paths to get into project controls. From there, you may even find a future in senior management. What Does A Project Controller Do? The field of project controls offers a variety of opportunities, but you’ll need some experience to begin moving up. The

6 Must Have Books for Primavera P6 Users or Administrators

Michael Lepage — Wed, 04 Nov 2015 10:00:06 +0000

Dear Primavera P6 Professional user, P6 EPPM user, and Administrator, I have something special for you that will hopefully rock your week. Let me start by saying that Oracle Primavera software is becoming more and more complex with every release. Primavera P6 Professional has a few modules that come packaged with it now. I'm thinking P6 Visualizer and some backend java jobs to run Update Baselines and such. The software used to be simply one executable, but it has grown. Primavera P6 EPPM especially follows that rule. Over the past 6 years we've seen it go from a

15 LinkedIn Groups Every Project Controller Should Join

Michael Lepage — Fri, 30 Oct 2015 20:28:13 +0000

The demands and how busy it can get being a Project Controller can make it difficult to keep up with the constant shifts in industry trends. Working in various environments and with numerous project types you might be wondering where you can find the latest news about a specific sector or who’s looking to hire a Project Controller. This is understandable and Social communities like LinkedIn can help with that. Join in on interesting discussions through LinkedIn groups. To get a glimpse of 15 popular Project Controls LinkedIn groups and communities on LinkedIn check out the

Primavera Cloud: What Is It & What Will It Do For Me?

Michael Lepage — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 20:17:28 +0000

It wasn't that long ago that Oracle released the Oracle Primavera Cloud, a cloud-based offering for Oracle's popular project management software packages. If you've been following the news, you might know that Oracle was a bit late to the cloud-party. Nonetheless, if you work in an enterprise with large Primavera installations, you'll be happy they finally showed up - fashionably late albeit. What is the Primavera Cloud Service? Nowadays, software is moving to the cloud and

How the Planning Community is Hacking Primavera P6

Michael Lepage — Tue, 06 Oct 2015 20:45:25 +0000

The best thing about being part of a community is that members help each other out. And the planning and scheduling community is one of those that really likes to help each other out. You only need to poke around the many Project Controls and Primavera P6 Groups on LinkedIn to find a myriad of helpful advice on topics ranging from how to name your milestones to

P6 EPPM Is Not A Replacement For Primavera P6 Professional

Michael Lepage — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 21:51:58 +0000

Everyone assumes P6 EPPM is a web-based replacement for P6 Professional. And perhaps that's what they were told by marketing, but since P6 EPPM's release, it's been pretty clear to some that P6 EPPM cannot do what Primavera P6 Professional can do.

And vice versa - P6 EPPM excels at some processes that P6 Professional can't dream of doing.

P6 Professional users who have experimented with replacing their beloved windows-based planning tool with P6 EPPM have been sadly

How To Print To PDF in Primavera P6 Professional

Michael Lepage — Mon, 21 Sep 2015 19:13:57 +0000

Primavera P6 Professional is no doubt a great tool for managing large-scale construction and engineering projects. One of P6's crowning glories is that it can handle huge schedules ( up to 100,000 Activities) with ease. Yes, working with loads of project data works great, but many find that getting the data in and out is not always a piece of cake. Printing to a printer is mostly easy enough (although make sure you set up your print preview settings before you click Print as we'll discuss) in the

[INFOGRAPHIC] 30 Stats About Project Management Offices You Should Know

Michael Lepage — Sat, 19 Sep 2015 10:03:50 +0000

Its no secret that Project Management Offices (PMOs) have changed how organizations are being managed over the past years and we've touched on this topic before. Still, according to recent data, there are many organizations who are in the process of implementing a Project Management Office or are still thinking about it as a near-term goal. In fact, 30% of companies currently without a PMO plan to start one this year (from PM Solutions' The State of the

How to Clean Your P6 POBS Table On MSSQL & Oracle DB

Michael Lepage — Fri, 14 Aug 2015 02:46:02 +0000

In my last post I went deep on how to quickly clean POBS data from a Primavera P6 XER file using a simple text editor. And we discovered that removing POBS data from an XER file greatly improved the import time for large XER files. A big thanks to readers who left comments on that post letting me and you know that there are some 3rd party tools (free and paid) that handle this in a more automated fashion which is good to know. So the next question is...

XER File Slow To Import to P6? Try Cleaning POBS Data

Michael Lepage — Wed, 05 Aug 2015 19:35:05 +0000

The other day one of our Plan Academy members called our support line with an unusual P6 problem. I'm always happy to help out our members solve P6 problems, even when it's 4:30pm on the Friday afternoon before I'm off on a full week of vacation....

OK. Full disclosure here.

I had already powered down my laptop for the weekend and was just about to grab something ice-cold and carbonated when the phone rang. I was hoping it was something we could solve quick or that I had already

How To Convince Your Boss To Pay For Your Project Management Training

Michael Lepage — Mon, 29 Jun 2015 14:41:34 +0000

With advanced technology, ever-evolving market and competition, it’s critical for project controllers, schedulers and planners in the construction industry to stay on top of their game. Continuing education and project management training are the keys to advancing skills for controllers, schedulers and planners in the construction field. But how do you convince your boss to pay for your training? The simple answer is to roll up your

Delay Claim: Lessons From A Primavera P6 Planner

Mannix Carney — Sat, 20 Jun 2015 06:00:48 +0000

A few years ago, I worked on a project where I was asked to document a delay claim. I was working as a Primavera P6 planning for an electrical supplier who had subcontracted out the construction of a number of electrical buildings to a fabrication yard. The main design engineer made a number of fundamental design changes in the first year of the project. Communication and contract issues between my employer and the fabrication yard resulted in a delay of over a year from the original contract date to the final delivery. To make matters worse, there were no schedule updates over the period

6 MEGA Construction TV Shows You May Not Have Known About

Michael Lepage — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 20:19:35 +0000

We all need a break sometime, and what better way to unwind than watching and learning about some of the most top-notch modern day builds in the world! Curious about the inner workings of the Panama Canal, or how deep sea drilling is really done, or how engineers constructed the Dubai Race Course among many other superhuman builds? If you're in construction here are some interesting TV shows highlighting extreme engineering and construction builds in the world. (These are not listed in any special

Compress A Schedule Using Duration Types in Primavera P6

Michael Lepage — Sat, 06 Jun 2015 18:40:34 +0000

Since we've been discussing schedule compression and project acceleration techniques of late in preparation for next week's webinar on Construction Project Acceleration, I wanted to share a quick Primavera P6 technique that is often applied when compressing a schedule. When I run classroom training courses on Primavera P6, one thing I like to do is a group brainstorm on ways to get a project back on track if you're far behind.

I'll ask "What are some actions project controllers can take to get a project that is

Construction Project Acceleration Won Them Millions: How They Did It

Michael Lepage — Tue, 02 Jun 2015 01:14:37 +0000

341,000 vehicles a day traveled that section of the Santa Monica Freeway, making it amongst the busiest stretches of freeway in the Unites States of 1994. When the Northridge earthquake struck in January, 2 bridges fell from the I-10 causing death and devastation and leaving the Calfornia Department of Transportation (CalTrans) in a major pickle. The closure of the highway was estimated to have cost the economy of Los Angeles and surrounding area $1 million a day. CalTrans' engineers figured the 2 bridges would take 140 days to rebuild and bidding started on January 31st, just 14 days after

What is a .PLF File And How Do I Open It in Primavera P6?

Michael Lepage — Sat, 30 May 2015 12:14:48 +0000

A .plf file is a Primavera Layout File that stores information about screen layouts. If you're having trouble opening a .plf file, let me show you how it's done using Primavera P6. Opening A PLF File In Primavera P6 A .plf file can't be double-clicked in your file browser in order to open it in P6. Double-clicking it doesn't work, and typically Windows will try to open it in some unrelated application like Adobe Reader where it comes up as undecipherable code. Rather, you have to import a .plf file into your Primavera P6 database to use it. Here are the steps to import a .plf

What You Need To Know About PMI’s Upcoming Changes For Collecting PDUs

Michael Lepage — Tue, 26 May 2015 20:47:26 +0000

If you hold a PMP or other PMI project management certification you are already familiar with the process of maintaining your certification and collecting PDUs. But in case you haven’t heard yet, PMI's CCR program is getting a makeover and there are changes to the requirements for certificate holders. These changes are expected to be effective December 1, 2015 - and here's a heads-up so you can organize your own

What’s Fixed In Primavera P6 Professional & EPPM 15.1.1

Michael Lepage — Sun, 17 May 2015 13:05:53 +0000

Are you experiencing issues with Primavera P6 version 15.1 already? Recently Primavera P6 version 15.1 was released and although it brought some new features to the table there seemed to be some glitches hanging around also. Are you wondering why the jump from 8.3 to 15.1? Find out why all Primavera P6 products made the jump to 15.1 and check out what's new in Primavera P6 15.1. Listed below are some issues that were resolved using

Primavera P6 Software Bugs: How To Find The Latest Patches

Michael Lepage — Wed, 13 May 2015 18:29:50 +0000

Are you sure your copy of Primavera P6 isn't buggy? With new releases to any software some features tend to stop working properly or not at all. To fix these glitches you need to find the appropriate upgrade, service packs and/or patches that were developed to remove these problems. So how do you get your Primavera P6 software running smoothly again? This can be done by downloading the patches, service packs or upgrades provided for the software by Oracle. Where can you get your hands on these updates being released for

How To Install Primavera P6 Professional 15.1 Video Guide

Michael Lepage — Thu, 07 May 2015 19:10:04 +0000

Primavera P6 Professional 15.1 was released a few weeks ago and many are eager to move to the latest version. We've already told you what's new in Primavera P6 Professional release 15.1 and all about the new version numbering Oracle has implemented - jumping from version 8.4 to 15.1. Some of you know, the installation of Primavera P6 standalone can be a bit dubious, so I've put together a complete video installation guide for

Project Management Training Boosts Success Rate By 26% [INFOGRAPHIC]

Michael Lepage — Wed, 29 Apr 2015 15:55:18 +0000

How do you know if you or your team needs Project Management Training? 67% of PMs believe that Project Management training contributes to better project performance. So why should you care? The world of project management and technology is ever-evolving and those who are responsible for the success of the project on-site and off should be equipped to face any obstacles that may come their way. Some of these changes for example are the requirement to utilize

How To Prepare For Your Next Project Controls Job Interview

Michael Lepage — Sat, 25 Apr 2015 11:40:36 +0000

You have made it past the initial grouping of applicants into the interview pool. However, preparing for a project management or project controls job interview does not have to be a nightmare. To help you organize your thoughts and get ready for the interview, follow these seven steps for preparing yourself and your work history. Organizing each of the following areas will help you be ready for

Poll: 30% Of Readers Prefer Learning Complex Software With Video

Michael Lepage — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 14:45:31 +0000

It's our experience that complex enterprise software systems like Oracle Primavera P6 or SAP are not as intuitive to learn to use as say Microsoft Word. To make matters more difficult, user's manuals and documentation doesn't seem to give you practical advice on how best to use the software. That's the reason we publish professional step-by-step tutorials by some of the best planners around. We've taken a poll of what the preferred method of learning complex software like Primavera P6 is and without a doubt, many readers

Who Changed My Primavera P6 Schedule?

Jerome Ijachi Odeh — Tue, 21 Apr 2015 19:58:36 +0000

Do you work in an enterprise environment where so many people have access to the same Primavera P6 database? Have you ever wanted to find out who made changes to your Primavera P6 schedule without leaving any comments in a Primavera P6 Notebook? Here is quick tip to help you track users who made changes to your Primavera P6 schedule. Add the 4 new fields (columns) to your layout by

An In-Depth Look at What’s New in Primavera P6 15.1

Michael Lepage — Fri, 17 Apr 2015 01:35:43 +0000

Oracle announced new updates to the Primavera P6 suite at March's Oracle Industry Connect event. I wasn't there, but I did recently attend a webinar about the recent release and I've been playing with the new versions of Primavera P6 Professional and Primavera P6 EPPM. I've put together an overview of what new with Primavera P6 15.1 to share with you all. This release has updates for both

All Primavera Products Jump To Version 15.1 – Here’s Why

Michael Lepage — Mon, 13 Apr 2015 16:41:47 +0000

Oracle Primavera has just released version 15.1 of it's flagship project management & scheduling software Primavera P6. But for the many who are users of Oracle Primavera software products, this release might come as a big surprise - especially since the last release (2014) was give your resume a facelift specific to the industry and position. By targeting the job and formatting your resume appropriately, this will help your resume pass the 6 second skim and toss scenario. The best visual cues

Primavera P6’s Longest Path Conundrum (and How To Fix It)

Michael Lepage — Thu, 09 Apr 2015 01:01:53 +0000

It's become generally accepted across many industries using Primavera P6 that identifying and tracking a project's Longest Path is THE best method to keep your project's deadline in sight. And we've discussed that here on the blog before - that a project's Critical Path identified as the Longest Path, rather than the path where Total Float equals 0, provides the clearest Critical Path.

Compare XER Files With Change Inspector

Michael Lepage — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 07:08:45 +0000

What's the easy way to compare XER files? Are you an owner or client who uses Primavera P6 but has to review a schedule that is constantly being updated from a 3rd party? When receiving an updated schedule, a few common questions might include: What actuals data was changed since the last update? Were any activities added or deleted and how do I find them? Were there any other important changes like

CSI MasterFormat: What Does It Mean For Construction

Michael Lepage — Tue, 31 Mar 2015 14:38:07 +0000

The Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) is the organization that publishes the MasterFormat. This publication is the specifications-writing standard for most of today’s construction and commercial building design projects in North America. Basically, the MasterFormat is an indexing system for the organization of construction data. The information is organized in title divisions, such as electrical,

10 Ways eLearning Can Maximize Your ROI [INFOGRAPHIC]

Michael Lepage — Thu, 26 Mar 2015 18:12:30 +0000

Are you looking to invest in eLearning for your team but don't want to deal with the lost in revenue and added expenses? Can investing in eLearning positively impact your ROI and your team anyways? - That's the question people tend to ask. Back in the day, investing in training for your team was like a field trip. Time had to be taken off of work resulting in loss of revenue, resources to host these training sessions or to get to the training center had to be organized,

How To Create A Pivot Chart in Excel

Trevor Watt — Sat, 21 Mar 2015 14:48:50 +0000

Are you faced with a mountain of excel data, and need to consolidate it into a usable format so that it can be easily filtered grouped and sorted? Welcome to the world of pivot tables! Pivot Tables are part of most spreadsheet or business intelligence software packages. They can be used with any kind of data that is stored in columns, but are extremely useful when the data is so large that it goes beyond what normal spreadsheet filters can handle. The pivot table, once setup can be used to group, sort, and

BIM – What Does It Mean For Construction Professionals?

Michael Lepage — Tue, 10 Mar 2015 15:34:51 +0000

The acronym BIM stands for building information modeling. It’s a 3D digital representation of physical and functional characteristics of a building. BIM is also a coordinated set of processes that allow for the creation, management and sharing of the properties throughout the entire lifecycle – before, during and after construction. Its models incorporate operational, graphic, environmental, commercial and physical data. All around, it’s a knowledge resource of

When should I use Free Float? [in under 100 words]

Michael Lepage — Sat, 07 Mar 2015 14:32:35 +0000

In layman's terms, Free Float tells you if an activity is "bumped up" to its successor activity (FF=0) or if there is a delay between the activity and its successor (FF>0). Use Free Float to help you understand if you have flexibility to delay / extend an activity without delaying its successor. You can bump right up to it. This is valuable in manual resource leveling where you may have to delay work if your resources are already busy at that time. You can check Free Float to see how far you can delay the work.

It was too much data to process, so I paired my report down to a 1-page project dashboard that highlighted KPIs for all of my projects. He loved it. And it soon became a template that was adopted throughout the office.

That was 12 years ago. But today, we're all still facing the same battles with project data overload and trying to cut to the core of our

Monte Carlo 101: How Monte Carlo Schedule Simulations Work

Michael Lepage — Tue, 03 Feb 2015 21:42:32 +0000

The term Monte Carlo Simulation just has that aura and feel about it...... it sounds complex. But in reality it's not as complex as we think. Let's see if we lay it out for you in straightforward terms. What is a Monte Carlo Simulation? A Monte Carlo simulation is simply a way to understand how inputs into a system might affect the outputs. Let's say you have a box of coins that you pour out onto a table. Once they all drop, you count tails and heads and come up with a ratio that you plot on a graph. Then you do this same experiment 1000 times to see what the results and the graph

A Basic Overview Of Construction Submittals

Michael Lepage — Wed, 28 Jan 2015 20:48:35 +0000

Strolled into your office today to a desk buried under a stack of reports? Chances are they’re Construction submittals – samples of designs, shop drawings, diagrams, schedules, and material data that are delivered to an Architect, an Engineer or your client in general. Submittals are used as a tool to track the progress and materials being used, as well as making sure that everything is in agreement with the contract. It may seem like

3 Up-and-Coming Project Scheduling Tools You May Not Know About

Michael Lepage — Sun, 25 Jan 2015 02:29:25 +0000

Last week's Construction CPM Conference in San Diego was a big success! It was my first time attending (and presenting at, for that matter) the Construction CPM Conference, and boy am I glad I did. This is a unique conference that attracts CPM Scheduling pioneers, veterans and academic experts. It's a bit overwhelming if you're new to the field of schedule, but the level of the presentations is of the some of the highest I've seen outside of academia. But I think my

The Origins Of Hammocks In Project Scheduling

Michael Lepage — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 21:25:16 +0000

When I think of a hammock, the first thing that comes to mind is a hammock hanging in the nice cool breeze between two tall palm trees in the Caribbean. In an article written by Patrick Weaver “The Origins of Hammocks and Ladders”, published in the PM World Journal, we get a glimpse of the origins of hammocks and why they were created in the first place. A

Top Reasons Why eLearning Fits A Busy Lifestyle

Michael Lepage — Fri, 09 Jan 2015 17:32:11 +0000

The adoption of eLearning in industrial fields has not been as fast as it could have been, but it is accelerating. This is due in large part to the advantages offered by eLearning over traditional classroom training. The difference in delivery, cost and effectiveness is considerable, enough to make even the most old-school project management professionals take a closer look at what eLearning has to offer. The need for project management training is ongoing, and eLearning options meet this need in a way that classroom training can not. Online Learning Becomes Mainstream Online

12 Worldwide MEGA Builds – BILLIONS Over Budget [INFOGRAPHIC]

Michael Lepage — Tue, 06 Jan 2015 18:44:49 +0000

What if you were given a construction project budget of $15 billion and your project ended up costing 3 times that amount once everything was said and done? It might seem outrageous, but it's quite common for major construction builds to double or even be 5 times over budget. So what happens next? Some serious payment plans of course! Was it due to poor cost estimations, unforeseen market conditions or did the builders just get carried away with an amazing design? No one is quite sure. So how much did it really cost to build some of the most monolithic structures in the

Where will your Project Management Software be in the next 5 years?

Michael Lepage — Sat, 06 Dec 2014 15:21:00 +0000

The Project Portfolio Management Software Market will be worth approximately $3.9 Billion by 2019!

So who says Project Management isn't still trendy? According to a new report, sales of PPM software is set to grow from $2.3 billion in 2014 to just shy of $4 billion in 2019. It is anticipated that North America will be the biggest market implementing PPM software (

5 Risks Companies Face In The Oil & Gas Industry

Michael Lepage — Sat, 29 Nov 2014 06:15:53 +0000
The Oil & Gas industry takes major risks to gain valuable global opportunities. Some risks involve adopting new regulations and laws, climate change, and dealing with the force of the government and stakeholders among many other things. To handle these risks effectively, you need to know what you're up against when proposing a mega project, especially in Oil & Gas. So here are 5 risks that the Oil & Gas industry faces regularly. 1. Government

8 Steps Project Controls Professionals Must Take for a Killer LinkedIn Profile

Michael Lepage — Tue, 18 Nov 2014 21:33:20 +0000
For years, LinkedIn was the ugly stepchild of Facebook … a little more professional, a little harder to use, a little less fun. In the last several years, however, LinkedIn has earned widespread recognition for its ability to bring professionals, such as project planners or project management experts, together in an environment unsullied by embarrassing photos or notes on what you ate for breakfast. Because of this, it is now crucial that you develop a polished profile that clearly states what you do, who you do it for and how you can help others. This is not only one of the best ways to

How To Recognize Chaotic Project Management Practices [INFOGRAPHIC]

Michael Lepage — Fri, 14 Nov 2014 17:01:40 +0000
15.7 MILLION New Project Management Roles will be created between 2010 and 2020. Project management is making a big impact in several industries like Construction, business services and Oil & Gas among many others.
68% of projects fail due to poor project management according to IBM.
With the increasing demands of

Primavera P6 Professional 8.4 is Out: Should You Upgrade?

Michael Lepage — Fri, 07 Nov 2014 21:20:07 +0000
A few days ago, Oracle released the latest updates to the Primavera P6 suite under version 8.4. At first, this seemed just like another version update with a few enhancements and bug fixes. But after I took a closer look, Primavera P6 Professional 8.4 ushers in some major architecture and feature changes for P6 Professional standalone users. Let's see what's new to understand what I mean. What's new in Primavera P6 Professional 8.4 Here's what's new in P6 8.4. SQLite Supported in New Standalone Mode In 8.4, Oracle is announcing support for a new database -

What is a KPI [in under 100 words]

Michael Lepage — Tue, 04 Nov 2014 21:22:57 +0000
How do you know if your car is performing well? I’m assuming one would monitor the dashboard - tracking gas level, oil and engine lights, speed etc. Just like that, a KPI is a metric that helps you track whether you're going to reach your targeted goal. KPI stands for Key Performance Indicator. It helps you determine if a project is succeeding or failing, and if the goal will be met. KPIs are a road map to determine if the right decisions and direction is being pursued and if a detour is needed.

[Quiz] World’s Biggest Construction Projects – Did They Come In On-Time or On-Budget?

Michael Lepage — Fri, 31 Oct 2014 20:28:07 +0000
Project nightmare or dream development? The CN Tower, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Big Dig....did these construction projects hit their targets? Take a break and complete the quiz to see if you know how these iconic construction projects performed - did they come in on-time or on-budget? Enjoy & Have fun! <article> <h1>The Hidden Reality Of Corporate Culture [INFOGRAPHIC]</h1> <p>Michael Lepage — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 14:22:44 +0000</p> <p>Since we are all so caught up with <a href="https://www.planacademy.com/tech-trends-in-construction-and-engineering/">technology</a> and the digital realm in today's society, <strong>what do you think organizations will be like in 100 years?</strong></p> <p>Do you think there will be more <a href="https://www.planacademy.com/how-to-recognize-chaotic-project-management-practices/">internal chaos</a> or will everyone just get along and 'rivals' will be a long lost term?</p> <p>The infographic clearly displays</p> </article> <article> <h1>5 Things You May Not Have Known About PMOs</h1> <p>Michael Lepage — Mon, 20 Oct 2014 20:47:02 +0000</p> Corporations are crushing on PMOs. PM Solutions just released their yearly report - <strong><em>The State of the Project Management Office </em></strong>and according to their report, PMOs are delivering a 27% decrease in project failures to their organizations. <strong>80%</strong> of companies in the report have a Project Management Office - that's up from a 2000 study that revealed only <strong>47%</strong> of companies had a PMO at that time. For the 432 companies that participated in the report, there was a <strong>45% increase in aligning the organization's</strong> </article> <article> <h1>How to Motivate and Inspire Others with Your Project Story</h1> <p>Michael Lepage — Fri, 17 Oct 2014 14:07:02 +0000</p> I want to hear your story. I want to hear about how your schedule was a nightmare from the start - but you pulled through in the end; about how this one trick saved your butt in a crunch or even about how things went completely wrong and you would never DO THAT again. These are stories we ALL want to hear. We want to hear YOUR story about project controls, <a href="https://www.planacademy.com/course/primavera-p6-foundations/">Primavera P6</a>, your team's unique project and what you accomplished. Last year I played a part in organizing <strong>Collaborate14</strong>, where I and </article> <article> <h1>The One Indicator That Can Foil Your Excel Import into Primavera P6</h1> <p>Jerome Ijachi Odeh — Sun, 12 Oct 2014 08:00:44 +0000</p> There is the temptation to think that because you can <a href="https://www.planacademy.com/cleanup-exported-primavera-p6-data-for-excel/">export a data field from Primavera P6</a> to Excel that you can import the same data field back to Primavera P6 after manipulating the field’s data in Excel. If you have ever imported data into Primavera P6 using Excel, you would have experienced instances where despite getting the familiar message of a successful import, some of the changes you made in Excel were not reflected in Primavera P6. The reason for this is that Primavera P6 uses a </article> <article> <h1>Looking To Build Your Professional Network?</h1> <p>Michael Lepage — Wed, 08 Oct 2014 19:00:32 +0000</p> Building connections with similar businesses and professionals with equal aspirations and drive will help generate your visibility and reputation in the project management domain. According to the infographic below, <em>"<strong>90% of project professionals have a main goal of building their network"</strong></em>. So how are you building your professional network and connecting with the right people? Follow us on <strong><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/planner-tutorials-hub">LinkedIn</a></strong>,<strong><a href="https://twitter.com/PlannerTuts">Twitter</a></strong> or </article> <article> <h1>What is XML [in under 100 words]</h1> <p>Michael Lepage — Sun, 05 Oct 2014 07:18:07 +0000</p> XML is a computer language originally developed for the web to be a companion to HTML. Because XML is so versatile, you'll find it in lots of software packages, including <a href="https://www.planacademy.com/p6-professional/">Primavera</a>. XML is perfect for storing and exchanging database data between incompatible systems but has<a href="http://www.xmlfiles.com/xml/xml_usedfor.asp"> other uses too</a>. XML stands for Extensible Markup Language - I know.....<snore>. What IS interesting is that anyone can read XML - it's human-readable and </article> <article> <h1>A Go-To Guide to Building a Cringe-Worthy Primavera P6 Schedule</h1> <p>Michael Lepage — Mon, 08 Sep 2014 21:02:17 +0000</p> The meeting had gone well. I was going to win some business and they were going to get complete <a href="https://www.planacademy.com/course/primavera-p6-foundations/">Primavera P6 training</a> for 10 schedulers. The day was looking up, until he asked me, as I was just about to head out the door, "Would you mind looking a schedule over for me? It should only take you a few minutes. We just hired a new scheduler and he put it together. I'd like your opinion on it." "Um....Ok." I said. "Send it over." I knew I was in trouble at "Um." Once I'd opened up P6, imported the xer and clicked </article> <article> <h1>6 Interview Must-Dos To Nail That Project Controls Job</h1> <p>Michael Lepage — Tue, 29 Jul 2014 00:55:40 +0000</p> So you’ve spent a few weeks filling out applications and making phone calls, and finally, the moment you’ve been waiting for - you’ve just received a call for the job opportunity that you’ve had your eyes on. To increase your odds of landing the job, here are 6 must-dos that should be on the top of your priority list. 1. Do Your Research Make sure you know who you will be working with. Make sure to Google your potential employer or reach out to your network for contacts who have worked with them. This will work in your favour by connecting what the company </article> <article> <h1>How to Print a Calendar from Primavera P6, with some help</h1> <p>Mimoune Djouallah — Mon, 21 Jul 2014 14:02:01 +0000</p> In this quick tutorial we show how to create a 12-month formatted calendar in Excel based on the data extracted from an xer file using the <a href="https://www.planacademy.com/xer-reader-free-tool-run-dcma-14-point-checks/">handy Xer-Reader utility</a>. Hopefully I will soon provide a more technical explanation on how the code works in the xer reader <a href="https://code.google.com/p/xer-reader/">wiki</a>. Michael has written excellent <a href="https://www.planacademy.com/5-things-know-primavera-p6-calendars/">article</a> </article> <article> <h1>Project Management according to Google Autocomplete</h1> <p>Michael Lepage — Sat, 05 Jul 2014 14:00:34 +0000</p> Ever wonder how <a href="https://www.planacademy.com/10-top-project-management-podcasts-you-should-start-listening-to/">project management</a> is portrayed according to the globally charged search engine Google? At times you don’t quite know how to say what you want to search for in Google, but nevertheless you continue to type something into the search engine anyway, hoping that it will tell you what you were thinking. This is nothing new; the suggestions tend to be <a href="https://www.planacademy.com/10-top-project-management-podcasts-you-should-start-listening-to/">entertaining</a>, </article> <article> <h1>What in the World is an S-Curve? [In under 100 words]</h1> <p>Michael Lepage — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 15:47:59 +0000</p> An <a href="https://www.planacademy.com/p6-resource-s-curve-excel/">S-curve</a> is a graph of the expenditure of project resources over time. Typical S-curves graph either costs or resource hours over time. The S-curve graphs the cummulative value of expenditures on the y-axis, giving the graph it's S shape. S-curves will often graph planned values, with the actual curve overlayed for comparison. The real benefit of the S-curve is that it shows the total value at any point in time. The shape of the S-curve can reveal important information </article> <article> <h1>Setting Up LOEs and Resource Loading Them</h1> <p>Mannix Carney — Sat, 24 May 2014 11:02:57 +0000</p> Introduction I would like to introduce the use of Level of Effort (LOE) activities to <a href="https://www.planacademy.com/high-level-resourcing/">resource load a schedule</a>. This technique is particularly applicable to an engineering design environment. I often have to create schedules with input from five or more engineering disciplines. The cost estimates vary in accuracy and the scope can change depending on the engineering design developments and the client’s requirements. In this environment I have found resource loading at the activity level to be cumbersome and </article> <article> <h1>Understand Hard Constraints vs Soft Constraints [in under 100 words]</h1> <p>Michael Lepage — Wed, 07 May 2014 15:52:45 +0000</p> Primavera P6 supports 2 types of constraints; hard constraints and soft constraints. In Primavera P6, <strong>“Mandatory” constraints</strong> are hard constraints. Hard constraints stand out because they can break relationships. An activity that has a Mandatory Start or Finish date becomes fixed to that date. Relationships to that activity are ignored – the activity will not move even if its predecessors push it out. All of P6’s other constraints are considered soft constraints. A <strong>soft constraint</strong> is one that P6 will try to adhere to, but relationships take </article> <article> <h1>4 Reasons Users Might Refuse to Use Your Integrated Primavera P6 System</h1> <p>Michael Lepage — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 18:32:21 +0000</p> I remember a gift I bought my parents once - a motorized corkscrew that promised to make opening a bottle of Chardonnay a cinch. When visiting once, I noticed it was tucked away at the back of a cupboard. I found out later it was used only twice. To my dismay, the pricey device had some fatal flaws - the button was too hard to press and hold. But the clincher was that it took about 65 seconds to open a bottle, as compared to 5 seconds with regular corkscrew. Gadgets are often throwaway, but in my experience this phenomenon of poor design happens in the schedule software world just as </article> <article> <h1>Oracle Releases Primavera Prime – New Cloud-Based PPM Solution</h1> <p>Michael Lepage — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 18:52:28 +0000</p> This past week, <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20140325-905903.html">Oracle announced</a> a new product offering under the Primavera banner - <strong>Oracle Primavera Prime</strong>. Although details are few and limited to press releases and <a href="http://www.oracle.com/us/products/applications/primavera/primavera-prime-capital-plan-management/overview/index.html">one-pagers</a>, Oracle Primavera Prime appears to fit into the Project Portolio Management (PPM) </article> <article> <h1>Import an XER File From a Newer Version of Primavera P6</h1> <p>Michael Lepage — Mon, 24 Mar 2014 16:58:06 +0000</p> To import a newer version <a href="https://www.planacademy.com/primavera-p6-tutorials/understanding-primavera-xer-files-1730/">XER file</a> to an older version of Oracle Primavera P6 installed on your computer, follow this quick fix. 1) Open the XER file in any text editor like Windows Notepad. 2) On the very first line, you should see the <a href="https://www.planacademy.com/latest-version-primavera-p6/">version of Oracle Primavera P6</a> that this XER file was saved in. Edit the version in the file to </article> <article> <h1>The Big Problem with Primavera P6 Calendars And How To Fix It</h1> <p>Michael Lepage — Mon, 03 Mar 2014 18:20:19 +0000</p> Primavera P6 Calendars have a big problem and it becomes a major pain in the butt as your list of calendars grows and grows. As planners and schedulers, we are tasked with managing mountains of project data everyday; progress updates, scenario projects, reports, reports and more reports. Data can quickly take over your life if you're not careful. And you don't have time for that. That's why a good system for <a title="6 Ways To Clean Up Your Primavera P6 Database Nightmare" </article> <article> <h1>5 Things You Should Know About Primavera P6 Calendars</h1> <p>Michael Lepage — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 23:36:11 +0000</p> Primavera P6 has a pretty smart <a href="https://www.planacademy.com/primavera-p6-tutorials/cpm-scheduling-101-primavera-scheduling-works-2059/">scheduling engine</a> built-in, but it's not quite smart enough to know what time to tell the electricians to start in the morning and when to have lunch. That's where Primavera P6 Calendars come in. You can't <a href="https://www.planacademy.com/article/show-critical-path-in-p6/">build a schedule</a> in Primavera P6 without at least one </article> <article> <h1>Critical Path vs Longest Path</h1> <p>Michael Lepage — Thu, 05 Dec 2013 19:06:52 +0000</p> When it comes to your project's Critical Path, there are few topics more important to your client. The expectation is that YOU, dear scheduler, are the expert. So YOU had better know your project's Critical Path inside and out. But wait! ......Is it the <strong>Critical Path</strong> you should be reporting on, or the <strong>Longest Path</strong>? The terms Critical Path and Longest Path are often used interchangeably when discussing your project's super-high-priority sequence of work to deliver on time. It's confusing to many. And there are some <a </article> <article> <h1>How can I force an activity onto my project’s Critical Path?</h1> <p>Michael Lepage — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 16:13:34 +0000</p> Last week, I taught a <a href="https://www.planacademy.com/course/primavera-p6-foundations/">Primavera P6 training</a> course to some great folks in frosty <a href="http://t.co/evcI3X8AwC">Fort McMurray</a>. As often happens, an interesting question came up about <a href="https://www.planacademy.com/primavera-p6-tutorials/cpm-scheduling-101-primavera-scheduling-works-2059/">Critical Path</a>. And this is not the first time this question has been put to me. </article> <article> <h1>7 Ways to Grow Your Project Management Smarts</h1> <p>Michael Lepage — Wed, 06 Nov 2013 03:40:51 +0000</p>   Nov 7th is the 9th annual <strong>International Project Management Day</strong>. <a href="http://internationalpmday.org/">International Project Management Day</a> is a day to be proud of working in project management and to recognize what project managers contribute to the world, one in which so much innovation and progress is due to projects. I just listened to an <a href="http://internationalpmday.org/frank-saladis-interviewed-about-ipm-day/">interview</a> with </article> <article> <h1>Level of Effort and Percent Complete</h1> <p>Michael Lepage — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 03:19:47 +0000</p> A Level of Effort activity is used primarily to resource-load an ongoing support activity in Primavera P6 schedule. It's a handy activity type. We've <a href="https://www.planacademy.com/primavera-p6-tutorials/level-of-effort-faq-2011/">previously sighted some example activities</a> you might use a Level of Effort activity type for, such as: <a href="https://www.planacademy.com/reasons-project-management-plan-fails/">project management activities</a> </article> <article> <h1>Graphing a P6 Resource S-Curve in Excel</h1> <p>Kazem Salehiyan — Fri, 24 May 2013 19:36:35 +0000</p> In my <a href="https://www.planacademy.com/primavera-p6-tutorials/how-to-export-resource-assignment-dasta-to-excel-1812/">previous tutorial in this series</a>, I described the procedure to <a href="https://www.planacademy.com/export-p6-resource-assignment-data-excel/">export resource assignment data from P6 to Excel</a>. Most of us have </article> <article> <h1>What is Primavera P6 Visualizer?</h1> <p>Nader Khorrami Rad — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 10:00:20 +0000</p> The new version of Primavera P6, r8.3, has been released recently, and one of the new features is a stand-alone software, called the Primavera P6 Visualizer. This software provides you with a visual, read-only version of the plans you’ve stored in the P6 database. The Primavera P6 Visualizer is a good choice for those team members who are not supposed to change anything in plans, but need to review them. You won’t need to worry about software capabilities of those team members, because working with Primavera P6 Visualizer is rather easy, and you can also customize it for them, so that </article> <article> <h1>Are We Ready For Mobile Updates Or Not, Primavera Users?</h1> <p>Michael Lepage — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 13:53:24 +0000</p> This week we're starting a new Discussion feature on PlannerTuts. Each week we'll be kicking off a discussion that is insightful or particularly helpful in the day-to-day world of project controls. Share your opinion, add your thoughts to these debates. <strong>We all have smartphones and there are hundreds of thousands of apps out there. But are we ready to update our project schedules through an app or not?</strong> Primavera released an iPhone app about a year ago with little or no fanfare. <a title="P6 Team Member iPhone app" </article> <article> <h1>20 Must-See TED talks for Planning Professionals</h1> <p>Joy Feddes — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 17:01:03 +0000</p> <a href="http://www.ted.com">TED.com</a> is one of our favourite sources for inspiration and awe. If you've never visited <a href="http://www.ted.com">TED.com</a> or watched some of the amazing speakers showcased there, then you are missing out. I wanted to share with you 20 Ted talks that fit right in with the skills, experience and challenges of planning and scheduling. Enjoy! 1. Neil Harbisson: <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/neil_harbisson_i_listen_to_color.html"><em>I listen to</em></a> </article> <article> <h1>Create a P6 Project Dashboard in Excel</h1> <p>Mimoune Djouallah — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 01:00:46 +0000</p> Tutorial Files <strong>Excel Spreadsheet (Excel 2007+): <a href="https://www.planacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/PTuts_Project_Dashboard.xlsm">PTuts_Project_Dashboard.xlsm</a> - 1.5Mb</strong> One of our previous site manager told us (the project control team), that if we bring to him another report that have more than 1 page, he will just throw it away (sic), actually managers care only about the big picture, and don’t bother reviewing every small details. The purpose of this </article> <article> <h1>[Book Review] Oracle Primavera Contract Management 14, BI Publisher Edition v14</h1> <p>Michael Lepage — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 19:17:46 +0000</p> 2012 is proving to have set a notch for <a href="https://www.planacademy.com/6-must-have-books-for-primavera-p6-users-or-administrators/">Primavera books from Packt Publishing</a>. They have released 2 books on Oracle Primavera software in 2012. We have already let you know about the <a href="https://www.planacademy.com/article/oracle-primavera-p6-version-8-project-and-portfolio-management-book-review/">first one</a> - now let's have a look the second; the first </article> <article> <h1>How To Link A P6 Schedule To The BOQ With Different Levels Of Detail</h1> <p>Mimoune Djouallah — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 02:52:24 +0000</p> Tutorial Files <strong>Excel Spreadsheet (Excel 2007+): <a href="https://www.planacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/PlannerTuts_BOQ_Pay_Item.xlsx">PlannerTuts_BOQ_Pay_Item.xlsx</a></strong> P6 Schedule and BOQ challenges A contract's Bill of Quantities is always meant to be more details than the schedule, at least in theory. In many cases, the planner and the estimator are not working in perfect coordination and you may end with two different level of details for the same project. In case you need some </article> <article> <h1>How To Remove Resource Costs from XERs in Primavera P6</h1> <p>Michael Lepage — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 15:51:32 +0000</p> This tutorial will walk you through a process to remove resource costs from <a href="https://www.planacademy.com/primavera-p6-excel-export/">XERs exported from Primavera P6</a>. This comes in very handy if you are sending project schedules to general contractors but want to hide cost information from them (or anyone else for that matter). In case you want to completely remove resources from your schedule prior to sending over the XER file, <a href="https://www.planacademy.com/remove-resources-from-a-primavera-p6-project/">here are the steps to do</a> </article> <article> <h1>[Ask Plan Academy] How To Remove Resources From A Primavera P6 Schedule For My Client?</h1> <p>Michael Lepage — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 02:00:53 +0000</p> Plan Academy, I have to send my client a copy of my schedule every month. But the client would like me to exclude any resourcing information in the copy that I send them. How can I easily remove resources in the copy of the project I send to my client?Signed, Geoff. Geoff, it turns out that this is easily accomplished in Primavera P6 with the features included in the software's smart project copy and paste. <p>Let me expand.</p> When you make a copy of a project schedule inside </article> <article> <h1>Quick Tip: Mixing AND and OR Options in Primavera P6 Filters</h1> <p>Neil Smith — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 15:06:36 +0000</p> Building a filter where all the conditions are either 'And' or ‘Or’ between each row is pretty straightforward. However, if you want to mix them up a little its not so obvious how you should do that in Oracle Primavera P6 Professional. This quick tip will show you how. Example: I want to find all the milestones in the project that have a date variance that is not equal to zero. In other words, I want to see any milestone that is now sitting on a date other than its baseline date. Because there are two types of milestone in Primavera P6 Professional, Start and Finish milestones, </article> <article> <h1>The Essential Guide to Printing Layouts in Primavera P6</h1> <p>Mary Williams — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 00:37:07 +0000</p> Primavera P6 provides the ability to display project schedule information using “Layouts”. Layouts are customizable views of project information and are the primary method for printing Gantt Charts, Profiles, Spreadsheets, and Trace Logic views. Schedules are tough to read and all members of the project team can benefit from an easier way to interpret their schedules. Did you know that you can customize the display of schedule information by using the Layout Options Bar? The Layout Options Bar is used to create customized layouts that fulfill your project reporting requirements. The </article> <article> <h1>The Ultimate Playlist for Primavera P6 Planning and Scheduling</h1> <p>Joy Feddes — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 16:05:48 +0000</p> We all know that some days feel longer than others. And on those long long long days, we might not be feeling our most productive. It's well known that if you inject a bit of music into your day, things start to look brighter. So we recently sat down and came up with the ultimate list of song to plan by- songs to get you motivated, to get you through that tough bit of planning, and best of all, to celebrate a completed successful plan. <p </article> <article> <h1>Solve Primavera P6 Import from Excel Problems with ASAP Utilities</h1> <p>Michael Lepage — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 17:58:59 +0000</p>   <p>Many P6 users have trouble importing data from Excel. Many of the problems are focused on importing costs or other numeric data fields that have been manually typed into Excel.</p> Why can't I import Primavera P6 cost data from Excel? Primavera P6 only imports data that is formatted as "Text" in Excel. If you have manually typed in a value like "$32000" into an Excel cell, Excel will auto-format that field as "Currency". Then on re-import, P6 will not accept the data, as it needs to be "Text". Setting Excel's Format Type Doesn't </article> <article> <h1>Quick Tip: Use Fill Down To Copy Data Across a P6 Schedule</h1> <p>Michael Lepage — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 15:57:37 +0000</p> As all of you know, when you want to develop a time schedule there are many attributes that should be assigned to activities and for this purpose we use Activity Detail bottom on the Activity Toolbar. By pressing this bottom, a form will be appear below your time schedule and in this for you can assign different attributes to your activities, such as type, duration, start and finish dates, resources, calendars, codes and etc. Sometimes when you should assign very similar attributes in a schedule with heaps of activities in it, there is a function that helps you to assign some of the attributes </article> <article> <h1>[Book] Oracle Primavera P6 v8: Project and Portfolio Management</h1> <p>Michael Lepage — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 15:02:29 +0000</p> It's a reason to celebrate....a new book on Oracle Primavera P6 has just been released! The <a href="https://www.planacademy.com/6-must-have-books-for-primavera-p6-users-or-administrators/">selection of reference books</a> (and authors) for Primavera P6 users are very few. So I'm delighted when new books are published, especially this one - <a title="Oracle Primavera P6 Version 8 : Project and Portfolio Management" href="http://www.packtpub.com/oracle-primavera-p6-version-8-project-and-portfolio-management/book" target="_blank" rel="noopener </article> <article> <h1>Excel VLOOKUP Tutorial – Step by Step for Primavera P6 Users</h1> <p>Michael Lepage — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 12:25:31 +0000</p> Primavera users are also Excel users. As many of you know, <a href="https://www.planacademy.com/primavera-p6-excel-export/">Microsoft Excel</a> has many useful functions in different areas such as Financial, Date & Time, Math & Trig and so on. One of these areas is Look up & Reference. The functions in this area are dealt with lists, indexes and arrays and help us to find some special information in these listed data or other. This required information could be address of a desired cell which contains some special value, a value or action </article> <article> <h1>Video: Import Primavera P6 Updates from Excel</h1> <p>Michael Lepage — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 15:05:10 +0000</p> <strong>Occasionally we revisit some of our reader's favourite posts from the annals of the Plan Academy tutorial library, and today we're revisiting a topic that is always hot - importing updates from excel. Let's take a look!</strong> Often large projects demand many sub-teams or subcontractors update a portion of the master project plan on an on-going basis. If your subcontractors are not up to speed on their Primavera skills, you may need a solution that simplifies gathering updates and getting them into Primavera P6. <p>Enter</p> </article> <article> <h1>Quick Tip: Descrunch the P6 Gantt Timescale For Better Printing</h1> <p>Michael Lepage — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 19:24:44 +0000</p> Have you ever printed your P6 Gantt Chart only to find that you can't quite see the first or last milestone because they fall off the page or are cutoff? I have. Here's how to avoid printing a scrunched gantt chart by easily expanding your P6 gantt timescale before you print.   <span id="hs-cta-573f45b4-b1fc-4953-837b-7410d10e59a0" class="hs-cta-node </article> <article> <h1>Primavera Inspire for SAP version 8.0 released</h1> <p>Michael Lepage — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 18:13:11 +0000</p> There's definitely a trend that is growing steam amongst companies that use Enterprise Project Management systems like <a href="https://www.planacademy.com/category/tutorials/">Primavera P6</a>. It's integrating cost and schedule data into a single system. We're finally realizing that there a just too many cost management spreadsheets that get produced every time a project manager asks for a progress report. Oracle Primavera's Inspire solution allows cost and schedule data to move back and forth between P6 and SAP. Oracle has just released Primavera Inspire version 8 with some </article> <article> <h1>[Video] Building a Stacked Histogram in Primavera P6</h1> <p>Michael Lepage — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 03:18:09 +0000</p> A great way to see all your resource assignment levels comparatively over time is to use a Stacked Histogram in Primavera P6. It's a feature that is available in the Resource Usage Profile charting facility. The process to get this all working is a bit convoluted, so we're going to show you step-by-step the process.   <p> </article> <article> <h1>Primavera P6 Planning – the Truth in Pictures (fun)</h1> <p>Michael Lepage — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 11:40:41 +0000</p> I'm a huge fan of the <a href="https://www.planacademy.com/rolling-wave-planning-in-primavera-p6/">art of planning</a> and scheduling. <a href="https://www.planacademy.com/critical-path-vs-longest-path/">Critical Path</a>, Total Float, submittals, Earned Value...it's all great stuff to me! <p>But man can't it be downright BORING somedays?.... usually Mondays. Am I right?</p> I think we should find a reason for us <a href="https://www.planacademy.com/project-controller-what-you-need-to-know-to-succeed/">planners and</a> </article> <article> <h1>Do You Make These Project Scheduling Mistakes?</h1> <p>Michael Lepage — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 19:31:43 +0000</p> Do you always document your scheduling methodology BEFORE building a project schedule? Is your schedule <em>littered</em> with <a href="https://www.planacademy.com/find-relationship-lag-primavera-p6/">relationship lag</a>? Do all of your Activities have a verb in their name? Are you cautious when using <a href="https://www.planacademy.com/level-of-effort-faq/">Level of Effort activities</a>? Do you know what a </article> <article> <h1>Approve Updates from Subcontractors using Reflection Projects in Oracle Primavera [Video]</h1> <p>Michael Lepage — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 00:54:02 +0000</p> <p>Featured this week is a great way to use Primavera P6 Reflection projects. If you've perused our other <a href="https://www.planacademy.com/category/tutorials/">Primavera P6 tutorials</a>, you may already know reflection projects are great for <a href="https://www.planacademy.com/tutorials/use-reflections-primavera-p6-to-merge-scenarios-32/">working with and managing scenarios</a>. But they can also provide a way to preview and selectively approve activity updates from sub-contractors or other groups.</p> <p>The key to getting</p> </article> <article> <h1>Primavera P6 Relationship Lines Point to Baseline Bars. Why? [Video]</h1> <p>Michael Lepage — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 19:48:33 +0000</p> Primavera P6 relationships lines sometimes do some strange things. By now you've probably figured out how to turn on and off the relationships lines on the <a href="https://www.planacademy.com/quick-tip-how-to-shade-non-work-time-on-the-gantt-chart-in-oracle-primavera/">Primavera P6 Gantt Chart</a> using the toggle button on the toolbar. But do you do if Primavera P6's relationship lines are pointing to the baseline bars? <p>Well, in P6 order is important!</p> Last post, we showed you the nuances of <a title="Quick Tip: How To Shade Non-Work Time on the </article> <article> <h1>How To Shade Non-Workable Time on the P6 Gantt Chart</h1> <p>Michael Lepage — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 15:24:42 +0000</p> It turns out that people like pictures. Yes, that's right, we love pictures....and we love the Gantt Chart. What makes the Gantt Chart so essential is that it simplifies something that is complex. It gives us a snapshot and a trend that our brain can digest rather than just text and numbers. <p>Getting the Gantt Chart to look the way you need it is a <strong>really key skill</strong> for Primavera users.</p> Recently someone asked me how to shade non-work time on the Activity Gantt Chart in Primavera P6. They wanted to show clearly what days are workable </article> <article> <h1>P6 Professional R8’s New User Interface : A Game Changer</h1> <p>Michael Lepage — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 04:48:45 +0000</p> Oracle Primavera 8.2 was recently released in late 2011. The release for didn't make a huge splash as there wasn't much new announced for P6 Professional, the windows-based version of Primavera most users are still clinging to (although Oracle would love to see them on Web Access). I suspect adoption of Primavera 8.x among most companies has been slow. With very few pm enticements in recent versions, the thrill to upgrade for P6 Professional addicts is just not there. For background on the different versions of Primavera P6 Professional check out our <a </article> <article> <h1>How to Build a Lookahead Filter in Primavera P6</h1> <p>Michael Lepage — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:49:11 +0000</p> A lookahead filter in Primavera P6 provides us with the ability to create lookahead reports. Lookahead reports are one of the centerpieces of consistent project reporting and controlling. Lookahead reports filter and highlight upcoming activities in the project. Most common lookahead reports focus on activities scheduled for the upcoming week, next 2 weeks, next 3 weeks, next month and next 3 months. Of course there are other variations and the determining factor will be the type of project being worked. The nice thing about Primavera P6 is that you can build a custom filter that will </article> <article> <h1>Can A P6 Level Of Effort Help Define Work Stoppage?</h1> <p>Michael Lepage — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:15:30 +0000</p> Typically when we develop a schedule we assume that an activity can be finished uninterrupted once it has commenced. But, sometime events occur which force the work on the activity to stop. This could range from wet weather to a change in design. Additionally, there might be times when you want to add additional network logic. In most cases, it is desirable to maintain the original Activity ID so that it can be compared to the original baseline. If we just add additional logic to the schedule, there is no quick and easy way of comparing the new activities with the old original activity for </article> <article> <h1>Using Primavera’s .Xer File Parser – Import WBS From Excel Without The SDK</h1> <p>Mimoune Djouallah — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 03:29:27 +0000</p> In this tutorial we explain how to import a WBS dictionary in Primavera P6 without the SDK. NOTE: The steps needed to transform a classical WBS presentation (which is WBS Path and Description) to a format understood by the database (which is parent / child) is covered in Steps 1 to 6 of this <a href="https://www.planacademy.com/tutorials/how-to-import-wbs-from-excel-to-primavera-p6-using-the-sdk-722/">tutorial</a>. To load the WBS data into Primavera P6, instead of using the SDK we will use the XER File Parser utility provided by Oracle. </article> <article> <h1>How To Import WBS From Excel To Primavera P6 Using The SDK</h1> <p>Mimoune Djouallah — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 16:44:28 +0000</p> In this tutorial we explain how to use the Oracle Primavera P6 SDK to import a WBS from <a href="https://www.planacademy.com/primavera-p6-excel-export/">Excel to Primavera P6</a>. We are using the WBS.xls P6 SDK spreadsheet made available by Oracle Support. The SDK is a very handy tool, but the data must exactly respect the required format, we used a sample WBSand a step-by-step guide to prepare the data to be imported. We assume you already have the Primavera SDK installed. Tutorial Assets The following assets were </article> <article> <h1>Convert WBS to Activity Codes in Oracle Primavera P6</h1> <p>Mimoune Djouallah — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 01:43:44 +0000</p> The idea of this tutorial was inspired by a question in LinkedIn forum. A planner had received a Primavera P6 schedule using WBS. It's often useful to have different layouts to present the schedule to a different audience, so Activity Codes were needed. More importantly the Work Breakdown Structure was based on geographic area in the construction phase, and then based on systems in the commissioning phase. This tutorial will use the APEX sample schedule to convert a WBS to activities codes, it is assumed you have already worked with the Primavera P6 </article> <article> <h1>Video Tutorial: Activity Splitting in P6 Using User Defined Fields</h1> <p>Michael Lepage — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 14:54:10 +0000</p> Primavera doesn't have a feature to split a planned activity. It does have "Suspend" and "Resume" fields for statusing an activity with a break in the middle. But as for splitting planned activities in Oracle Primavera, we have to get creative to make it happen. One way to split an activity is using User Defined Fields to display the split on the Gantt Chart. I'm using a special Gantt bar - the User Dates bar which can display a bar from 2 user defined dates fields. There are pros and cons to this approach. The pros are obvious - you get a planned activity on the Gantt with split </article> <article> <h1>Using Primavera P6 Filters On Export To Excel</h1> <p>Michael Lepage — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 20:42:28 +0000</p> Primavera's custom <a href="https://www.planacademy.com/mixing-and-and-or-options-in-primavera-p6-filters/">Activity filters</a> are great for focusing in on a subcontractor's work list or even to hide Activities that are already completed. But when it comes to filtering down a 5000 line project plan to Activities in a specific timeframe, P6's filters fall flat. Here's the <strong>Gotcha</strong>: any filter that uses a <a href="https://www.planacademy.com/rolling-wave-planning-in-primavera-p6/">rolling date</a> or P6's built-in date variables will not work when <a </article> </main></body></html>