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Rebaselining in the Middle of the Project

5 replies [Last post]
Sun, 2009-07-26 13:19
Chris Saidon
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There seems to be a weakness in P6 in regards to cost and schedule rebaselining in the middle of the project. Planned value for in progress/ongoing activities are being calculated by P6 using the assigned distribution curve throughout the duration of the activity (which defeat the purpose of rebaselining, which is establishing a "fresh" plan for the remaining work or in PC terms remaining work curve becomes the BQWS/BCWS). The result is that even after you assigned your recently updated schedule as your "Rebaseline" schedule, P6 is not resetting the planned value. There is a way around this by terminating in progress/ongoing activities and re-open new activities for remaining work in the network but if you have thousands of in progress/ongoing actiVities in the network, this is going to be a bit of work. Is there anyone out there that can share an easier approach other than doing the S-Curves outside of P6? Thanks a lot. More power to Planning Planet!!
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Replies

Fri, 2009-08-14 09:48
#1
Shahzad Sikandar
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if i am understanding your question right, what you want to do is getting your Planned Value similar to Earned Value, as it should be the case when you re-baseline your project.


I-e PV=EV
if this is what you after then do this

run a global changes so that all your planned Start/finish date becomes equal to Early Start/finish date.

hope this will solve the problem.

and if i didnt understand your question right, please elaborate further.

thanks
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Wed, 2009-07-29 15:54
#2
Chris Saidon
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Thanks for the replies gentlemen.

My issue is with P6 planned value for "in progress" activities on a rebaseline schedule. I could not find any setting in P6 that I could reset BQWP/BCWP equal to BQWS/BCWS. The program I am workin in is not a typical construction implementation; it is a huge program that starts with conceptual planning, feasibility studies followed by environmental, detailed design, bid and construction. It is a "rolling wave" planning and rebaselining is typical as exact work scope/deliverables are difficult to identify at the beginning phases.

Thanks again.. if I stumble into something I’ll post it.

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Mon, 2009-07-27 16:37
#3
Rafael Davila
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Chris

At the beginning of your job before re-baseline you use a Baseline Schedule with a data date equal to the project start, this you never update, and compare against your update schedules.

When you re-baseline you revise your schedule at a cut-off data date. You will use an updated schedule as of this date with the revisions reflecting your “actual” and all changes and new projections. You will set up your new/current schedule equal to the re-baseline, same as you do at the start of the job and continue with your updates in the usual manner. As you just said it is a “fresh” start. P6 has a re-baseline utility that should make it easier, look for it in the manual.

Make sure you are not still using your “old schedule” as your current schedule or that you did not forgot to update your period performance when re-baseline.

From P3 help - P3 Store Period Performance command (Tools menu)
Normally P3 spreads actual data evenly from the recorded actual start date to the data date. However, you can use this dialog box to have P3 store actual cost, use, and earned value for each update period. As the project moves forward, you can analyze historical data using the Resource Table or Resource Loading report. P3 displays the previous closeout date, and sets the new closeout date equal to the data date in the dialog box. Using a consistent time period to store performance data makes it easier to analyze historical data later.

These would be my first checkups if under P3, maybe under P6 will work.

Also, from a similar issue on another forum; look under admin prefrences - earned value tab. at the bottom change the dropw down menu to "budgeted values with current dates". It defaults to showing BL dates as planned dates.

Best regards,
Rafael
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Mon, 2009-07-27 03:50
#4
Ferdinand Fincale...
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Groups: Civil Engineering, Pinoy Planning Planet Community
Original baseline has to be kept throughout the duration of the project as the primary reference of progress measurement. Should there be approved variations and changes to the project (which usually happen in the ongoing work execution) that will cause the remaining activities to be set as a new baseline to complete the project, then the re-baselined remaining works including the actual update to the schedule will then be kept as a secondary baseline. In my opinion, it is always a good practice to insert new WBS, activities and milestones in the program relating to the approved variation and changes in the project. You need not to terminate in-progress activities unnecessarily as it will somehow ruin the integrity of your schedule when it comes to further scheduling of the remaining works, rather link those in-progress activities to its related activity inserts or additional activities as I previously mentioned. In reality, actual execution of activities is never terminated incomplete but is simply increased nor decreased in area or volume until its completion, isn’t it?

As to the P6 calculation of re-baseline planned values as described by Chris, I will try to explore on that for my knowledge.

Simply sharing. Thanks.
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Sun, 2009-07-26 17:35
#5
Samer Zawaydeh
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Dear Chris,

The problem is that you should not use the rebaseline during the project duration. You update the progress percentages without rebaselining.

The baseline is kept after the approval of the Engineer for reference.

With kind regards,

Samer
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