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

Tips on using this forum..

(1) Explain your problem, don't simply post "This isn't working". What were you doing when you faced the problem? What have you tried to resolve - did you look for a solution using "Search" ? Has it happened just once or several times?

(2) It's also good to get feedback when a solution is found, return to the original post to explain how it was resolved so that more people can also use the results.

Reports on logic

6 replies [Last post]
C S
User offline. Last seen 3 years 17 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 19 Feb 2015
Posts: 8
Groups: None
New to powerproject, have mainly used MS Project previously and am not a very advanced user. I have found myself in a position where I have four tender programmes submitted in powerproject that need a high level review done of their logic. For two of the programmes I was able to use one of the (I assume) proforma templates from the report drop down menu. Unfortunately the other two programmes don’t seem to have this functionality enabled. I have tried creating a new report using the wizard but can’t seem to replicate the info I require. All I am looking for is a list of activities and the details of the logical links. Is it possible to enable these templates in the other two programmes or maybe save them from the two that worked so that I can apply them on other programmes? Would welcome any suggestions on what the best way might be to extract this info from the programmes?

Replies

Ben Taunt
User offline. Last seen 20 weeks 22 hours ago. Offline
Joined: 16 Jan 2012
Posts: 113
Groups: None

Hi Rafael,

If you have two projects open in Powerproject at the same time, you can simily copy-paste library items between the two files.

So if you have one project with all the reports nicely configured, you can open another project that does not have reports, then browse to the "Library Explorer" within both files.  Copy the folder of reports from the "good" project, and paste it into the target project.

All our example project templates and sample projects have some nice items pre-configured within them which users often move into thier own projects for future use.

Thanks,

Ben @ Powerproject

Rafael Davila
User offline. Last seen 17 hours 26 min ago. Offline
Joined: 1 Mar 2004
Posts: 5229

Even though I am not a Powerproject user it would be good to know the details of your solution for other users.  Maybe the reports can be saved to a file and you can share them as well if you post them to a file share server.  I would also like to see a PDF version of the reports, just one page should be enough.

Best Regards, Rafael

C S
User offline. Last seen 3 years 17 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 19 Feb 2015
Posts: 8
Groups: None

It was a very high level quality check looking at missing links, negative float etc. I was new the software so wasnt familiar with how to extract the info I needed. The first tender I looked at had all the standard reports enabled which was great and gave me exactly what I needed. Unfortunatley the other tenderers had disabled/removed these reports. I spoke to the vendor and they told me how to copy the reports between programmes so problem now solved.

C S
User offline. Last seen 3 years 17 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 19 Feb 2015
Posts: 8
Groups: None

It was a very high level quality check looking at missing links, negative float etc. I was new the software so wasnt familiar with how to extract the info I needed. The first tender I looked at had all the standard reports enabled which was great and gave me exactly what I needed. Unfortunatley the other tenderers had disabled/removed these reports. I spoke to the vendor and they told me how to copy the reports between programmes so problem now solved.

Rafael Davila
User offline. Last seen 17 hours 26 min ago. Offline
Joined: 1 Mar 2004
Posts: 5229

I do not know what you mean by a high level review; superficial, thorough, in-between or by persons of high office or rank?  

Anyway any thorough review shall not only look for the obvious such as activity links, this would be the first step.

To name a few:

  • You should check for the activity durations as inflated durations are a way to sequester float. Requiring resource loading of activities can help to detect activity duration bloating. 
  • Calendars shall be checked with the understanding calendars are not only about work week but also about calendar exceptions.  Most software are bad at disclosing calendar exceptions database to the extreme the only way you can find them is to scroll the calendars, schedulers know it and can take advantage of this.
  • Any changes among schedule versions should be reviewed, there are literally thousands of parameter values that can be changed by schedulers when submitting their schedule updates.  Instead of importing the full schedule updates importing only the performance data would prevent hidden unauthorized changes.
Rafael Davila
User offline. Last seen 17 hours 26 min ago. Offline
Joined: 1 Mar 2004
Posts: 5229

If your software provides a Links Table then use it.  The table is very convenient to show and filter all links parameters as there are many of them. If using Monte Carlo then numeric values might not be deterministic and these can be of interest. Transferring the table to Excel is convenient for those who do not have access to the source file, they will be able to sort and filter, better than a static report.

Image-039

https://help.elecosoft.com/powerproject/english/15.0.02/Content/HTML_Topics/Conceptual/Producing_reports/Producing_reports.htm

https://help.elecosoft.com/powerproject/english/15.0.02/Content/HTML_Topics/Conceptual/Producing_reports/Business_Intelligence/Export_to_BI.htm