Guild of Project Controls: Compendium | Roles | Assessment | Certifications | Membership

The Conundrum of Three Point Estimation and PERT

1 year 35 weeks ago

Is an estimate based on multiple points more accurate than a single estimate?

If we go with conventional wisdom then it certainly would seem so. A mean of more than one estimate is likely to give us better result.

In project management, there is a three-point estimation technique. It calculates the expected duration based on three different estimates. It calculates the mean of

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Pick Your Battles Wisely

1 year 38 weeks ago

Conflict exists.  It is a natural part of being human.  It occurs at home and at work.

We disagree.  We have different perspectives and opinions.  We get upset by things that were said, or not said.  These events arouse our emotions.  We become angry or afraid.  

When there is conflict, we cannot control the other

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Gantt 101: Building a Better Project Schedule

1 year 42 weeks ago

The Gantt Chart is the most widely used project scheduling tool.  It visually depicts the project’s activities, when they will occur, and their interdependencies.  When used correctly, it is powerful.  Unfortunately, most Gantts are poorly constructed,

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How to remove suffixes from dates and display both dates for milestones in Primavera P6

1 year 48 weeks ago

If you came into Primavera P6 from a Microsoft Project background, you would have noticed that actual dates have the suffix “A” appended to them, and constrained dates also have an asterisk appended. And milestones have a blank date field depending on the type of milestone.

In this YouTube video, I will show you a trick you can use to

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How to create a Lookahead Filter in Microsoft Project

1 year 50 weeks ago

How would you like to create a rolling date lookahead in Microsoft Project instead of using the default Date Range filter? Users of Primavera P6 are used to defining the criteria for lookahead filters using Data Date or Current Date and we can also do same in Microsoft Project using Status Date or Current Date rather than pick

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Economics 101 for Project Managers

1 year 51 weeks ago

Economics is the social science that studies making choices subject to constraints.  Project, program, and portfolio managers make economic decisions daily.  We try to maximize value delivery subject to the constraints of time, cost, quality, risk, and resource availability.  

Economics can help project managers make more informed decisions.  It

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Quick Tip: How to trace out of sequence activities in Primavera P6

2 years 5 weeks ago

If your Primavera P6 schedule is set to use the Retained Logic for out of sequence activities and you notice that despite all the predecessors of an activity being 100% complete, the activity’s Start Date is not on the Data Date as one would expect or the Finish Date is much later than the

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Improve Your Project Schedule

2 years 7 weeks ago

Let’s be honest, most project schedules disappoint.  They are unrealistic, complicated, and do not help guide execution.  For decades, Gantt charts, network diagrams, and the critical path method have been the standard practices.  Even with these powerful tools, only about half of all projects are completed on time, as reported in the 

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Making Ethical Project Decisions

2 years 12 weeks ago

Project managers rarely face ethical dilemmas.  We generally do not make life-or-death decisions or need to choose between “right” and “wrong.”  However, we need to be prepared and have a framework for confronting these circumstances when they arise.

My career is probably more colorful than most:

I managed the United States Treasury securities’ auctions when the

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How to show Primavera P6 dates in month-year (mmm-yy) format

2 years 15 weeks ago

The date formats available in Primavera P6 are very limited and to best of my knowledge, you cannot get the mmm-yy (month-year) format straight out of the box. You might want to display dates in mmm-yy if you don't want to show exact dates in issued schedules.

This P6 video outlines a workaround using UDF that can be used to achieve mmm-yy date format.

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