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Differences between Dates FIELDS

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Abbas Rajabpour
User offline. Last seen 7 weeks 4 days ago. Offline
Joined: 7 Oct 2022
Posts: 22
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Hi All

 

I was just reading the primavera help and came across three different fields:

Start

Planned Start

BL Project Start

I have a question about the following picture, why is there difference between " Planned Start" and " BL Project Start"? Don't they come from the same source which is Project Baseline?

Aren't they the same?

Why is there difference between them? There are some activities that they are exactly the same ( I mean planned start and BL Project Baseline, and there are activiteis where they are different.)

Thanks for your help.

8250
Differences between dates.png

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Peter Holroyd
User offline. Last seen 2 weeks 16 hours ago. Offline
Joined: 6 Jun 2005
Posts: 160

Hi Abbas,

 

P6 has about 50 date fields and 50 ways of displaying those dates (not counting different national calendars) which are all defined by Paul E. This tells you whether it is a calculated or input field.

Difficulty I have is I have never read a paper which tells you which dates are used by which analysis or report!

Keep asking questions

Peter

Santosh Bhat
User offline. Last seen 1 year 3 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 15 Apr 2005
Posts: 381

I second getting Ron Winter's paper about this, explains it all. 

david kelly
User offline. Last seen 15 hours 34 min ago. Offline
Joined: 12 Feb 2016
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Abbas,

I have very little peer group envy, but I wish I had written these books by Paul Harris:

https://www.eastwoodharris.com/primavera-p6/

 

excellent, and on the desk of every Senior Planner I know. That is quite a lot.

The complete guide to dates in Primavera was written by another expert, Ron Winter, you can download it here:

https://www.ronwinterconsulting.com/Understanding_P6_Dates.pdf

 

Rodel Marasigan
User offline. Last seen 3 days 22 hours ago. Offline
Joined: 25 Oct 2006
Posts: 1699

Hi Abbas,

Project Baseline Start Date is the assign Project Baseline and not the Plan date of the current project that is why it is different. If you create a copy of the current project and assigned as Project Baseline and the setting is Budgeted Value with Planned Date on Earned Value calculation then it should be the same. If the current project is updated after the Project Baseline is assigned, some date might already change during the update and running the schedule (F9).

Abbas Rajabpour
User offline. Last seen 7 weeks 4 days ago. Offline
Joined: 7 Oct 2022
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Thanks Rodel for your reply, the thing is as you said for the project baselne start, there are two scenarios:( I don't have access to admin preferences, as it is locked by the company)

1- Budgeted values with planned dates:

BL Project start date = Planned Start 

But as you can see in the photo, this is not happening, so this scenario is wrong.

2- Budgeted values with current dates:

A : If not started ==> Planned start = BL Project dates ( As you can see in the photo, Site Demobilisation is not started and the planned start date is 22-Nov but the PL Project Start is 7-Jul.

B: If started( Completed or in progress) ==> BL Project Start = Actual Start( Again you can see for activity : Temporary Works, which is in progress, BL Project Strt is 15-Nov-21 and planned Start is 10-May -22 and Start is 09-May-2022.

 

So I am missing something?

Rodel Marasigan
User offline. Last seen 3 days 22 hours ago. Offline
Joined: 25 Oct 2006
Posts: 1699

Project Baseline Start - The current start date of the activity in the project baseline.  This setting is control by the Earned Value Calculation setting under Admin Preference. When earned value is using planned dates then the start will be set to the activity's planned start date.  When earned value is using current dates then the start will be set to the planned start date until the activity is started, then set to the actual start date.

Plan Start - The date of activity is scheduled to begin. This date behaviour is control in the settings at Project module under Calculation Tab, Activities-> Link Budget and At Completion for not started activities and Reset Remaining Duration and units to Original. This date is computed by the P6 application but can be updated manually by the P6 user. This date is not changed by the P6 application after the activity has been started.

Start - The current start date of the activity.  Set to the activity remaining early start date while the activity is not started, and the actual start date once the activity is started.