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The journey to becoming a planner has began- UK based

19 replies [Last post]
Wed, 2007-06-13 06:49
Jeff Morris
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Dear all,

After a working life stretching back over 20 years in which I have trained and worked as an archaeologist,land and engineering surveyor, site engineer, site agent and most recently a quality related role, I now find myself training to ultimately become within my organisation one of the senior planners.

The management are looking at this as being a fast track process, and I wondered if anyone could advise on any basic books and other sorts of knowledge that would enable me to most readily transfer my previously aquired experience into my new role.

I would be particularly interested to hear of any distance learning courses that people feel I should push for my employer to enroll me on.

Regards,
Jeff
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Replies

Sat, 2007-10-20 06:55
#1
REEJA RAJ
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Anybody .....Please send me a P3 program on Railway construction to

reejabraj@yahoo.com
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Thu, 2007-08-02 02:00
#2
Clive Randall
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Seems to me that the owner of the thread has pretty much all the skills to be a planner.
As for books etc, you probably dont need them but an understanding of your companies chosen software would be helpful, a course will point you in the correct direction.

Charlie, read your comment glad to see you did not include Hong Kong in what can only be described as a racist diatribe, which I am sure everybody enjoyed.
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Wed, 2007-08-01 05:49
#3
Brad Lord
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probably, am off for two weeks middle of next week with two new projects having just kicked off, cant wait to get back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Wed, 2007-08-01 05:43
#4
Stephen Magill
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is that why nothing ever gets done while we are on holiday or off sick?
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Wed, 2007-08-01 05:41
#5
Brad Lord
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so what your saying is all PM’S are thickos and us planners are their brains???????????


ha ha ha ha
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Wed, 2007-08-01 05:18
#6
A D
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Hi,

This is from one of my previous threads

"Everybody knows that, P3/MSP is a great tool to help PLANNING ENGINEER to save significant amount of time. But, like every other software, applications like p3, MSP are just tools; they do not execute the entire job for the PMs. It is unacceptable to expect a computer to manage the project, it just manages the vast amount of data that large projects require to store. Project management software is incapable of “establishing project objectives, define project tasks or dependencies, determine and manage project constraints”.

As the significance of having a proper Statement of Requirement becomes more and more apparent, project management software should consciously take a secondary role in a project system since their power can only be exploited when the project is defined correctly.

Computers can only help producing wrong plans faster, instead of understanding the critical path.

A Planning Engineer is not only a BUTTON PUSHER; but he is the brain of PM on the basis of which the entire project team works (say 1000’s of workforce)."
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Wed, 2007-08-01 05:01
#7
Stephen Magill
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’Our courses assume no planning experience and at the end of 5 days we are comfotable that you will be able to sit at a PC and prepare a properly constructed plan in Primavera.’

I think (hope) peter was meaning that after 5 days the person would be able to sit down at a computer and understand how the bar chart works, how the computer links tasks, the difference between various links, and generally the understanding required to ’properly construct’ a plan on primavera. this could be a programme with 10 simple tasks in it. even with little planning experience, i think the underlying principles could be understood in 5 days. things like the difference bewteen hammocks and summarys, milestones and buffer tasks, critical paths and float...

i dont think peter is actually meaning that after 5 days the person could sit down and plan a £250milllion stadium. indeed. This has really snowballed into a peter lynching after one misunderstood comment from Annon. Yet again we are off the point and veering towards complete nonsense.

’What you guys are saying is that, once completing a short 5 day course on, lets say, PrimaVera for that matter, you are then entitled to call yourself a planner / scheduler’

?????? who said that?

Come on lads... lets not get carried away.
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Wed, 2007-08-01 04:32
#8
Ronald Fisher
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A short 5 day course, even if offered by the best consultants in the world, does not make one a planner / scheduler / manager, call the position what you want. It only will put the person in a position to be able to utilise the software at hand.

Rather, a good planner /scheduler, is a person with a lot of background knowledge and many years of experience in the chosen industry. Even better if that same person has worked the tools for a number of years prior.

What you guys are saying is that, once completing a short 5 day course on, lets say, PrimaVera for that matter, you are then entitled to call yourself a planner / scheduler, No way man! get real.

People with this thought in mind, only serve to drag down the profession, and introduce cheap labor into the planning market.
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Wed, 2007-08-01 03:18
#9
Paul Smith
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Mike,

You could consider yourself to be a planner, or any of the other titles.

I worked for some guys from the states a couple of years ago and they called me a scheduler.

You will also be interested to know they were very suprised by how high the rates for "schedulers" were in the UK.

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Tue, 2007-07-31 16:11
#10
Mike Morrison
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So I’m from US. Is a "planner" in the UK and elsewhere the same as a "scheduler" or project controls engineer in the US.

My title is project controls engineer, I create and manage construction schedules in P5, and use Prolog Manager to manage budgets.

Been wanting to move away from Bush-land for a long time. Maybe that’s my ticket.
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Tue, 2007-07-31 10:28
#11
Paul Smith
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Nothing quite like the aroma of freshly squeezed (sour) grapes and a little bullsh*t
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Tue, 2007-07-31 01:12
#12
Charleston-Joseph...
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Jeff,

Go for it.

Specially that course offered by consultant.

My suggestion is after 5 days go for a job in Commonwealth Countries(fomerly colonize by the Englishmen or as they say: the sun never fade in the British Empire) as planning manager.

Not Australia or India, they will catch you that you are beginner preferably maybe Bahamas, Aruba, Trinidad and Tobago or Papua New Guinea, Kenya, Ivory Coast, etc. Third or Fourth World Countries formerly under English influence.

Believe, A lot of those guys out there will be happy to share there more than twenty years of planning experience that will enrich your understanding of planning.

After maybe two to three years, you can go back to England under London Bridge and tell the world that you are now a planning manager. You can also demand the biggest salary for planner.

This is the best approach because I saw it done by your countrymen.

Cheers,

Joseph
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Mon, 2007-07-30 05:27
#13
Anoon Iimos
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"At least something is better than nothing "

"i’d rather be right than popular"
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Sun, 2007-07-29 13:25
#14
Shahzad Munawar
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Anoon

At least something is better than nothing
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Sat, 2007-07-14 04:57
#15
Peter Gable
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Jeff

We have plenty of happy and succesful delegates to prove it too.

Anyway, enjoy Plaaning Planet and maybe give us a try one day,

Cheers

Pete
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Fri, 2007-07-13 18:35
#16
Anoon Iimos
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"Our courses assume no planning experience and at the end of 5 days we are comfotable that you will be able to sit at a PC and prepare a properly constructed plan in Primavera."

sorry, but I don’t believe it!

there’s only one thing i believe for now, Planning Planet beats hang-over!

cheers

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Thu, 2007-07-12 07:24
#17
Peter Gable
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Jeff

Give me a call or look on our web site Richard Palmer Consultancy
We provide high quality Primavera training and have special deals for individuals - even weekend courses.

Our courses assume no planning experience and at the end of 5 days we are comfotable that you will be able to sit at a PC and prepare a properly constructed plan in Primavera.

Regards

Peter
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Tue, 2007-06-19 06:20
#18
A D
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Hi jeff,

u can install LIMEWIRE

www.limewire.com.

Just search planning and scheduling books. But, again go through their copyright stuff. I know that lot of books can be downloaded through limewire, but never tried.

Cheers,

Raviraj A Bhedase
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Tue, 2007-06-19 05:52
#19
Stephen Magill
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Hi jeff,

i find the planning Engineers Organisation to be a good source of information for all levels of planning queries.

www.planningengineers.org

Especially the ’papers’ section in the publications area.
They also have a list of books for you to glance at. Look out for papers by Gary France, chairman of the PEO. they are usually very helpful and quite easy to read.

If you are using Asta Powerproject, i would recommend attending one of their user groups / forums, which usually happen in london and have various speakers talking about all aspects of the planning background. when you join the asta site they will send you updates and course information, allowing you to book into the seminar you think would be most appropriate. i have found all of these extremely helpful. However im sure the other software providers also have this service.

Hope this is kind of what you were looking for..

Best of luck
Stephen
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