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.

Longest Path in P3e

6 replies [Last post]
Khalid Abdelaal
User offline. Last seen 6 years 4 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 10 Jan 2001
Posts: 15
Groups: None
Is there any method to filter the longest path in P3e in P3 we have this filter Longest Path = Yes but how we can doit in P3e any Idea

Khalid

Replies

Forum Guest
User offline. Last seen 2 years 28 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 28 Jan 2009
Posts: 1
Groups: None
Did you know that there is new software available to add a Longest Path Value to every activity in your P3 schedule? Then you can sort, select, and group all of your activities by Longest Path, instead of just the most-longest path. Look at http://www.ronwinterconsulting.com/lpath1.htm for more on this.
Ed van der Tak
User offline. Last seen 12 weeks 3 days ago. Offline
Joined: 5 Mar 2002
Posts: 86
Gents,

Don’t forget that P3e is much more a resource scheduling tool than P3 has ever been. This together with the enterprise approach gives a whole new view on preparing and managing a schedule.

Most of the projects we work on will not benefit of this approach and using P3e as you are using P3 right know is like driving a formula 1 car in the centre of town.

Regards,

Ed van der Tak [Aram Planning Consultants - The Netherlands]
Mohamed Gebriel
User offline. Last seen 10 years 11 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 10 Jan 2001
Posts: 43
Groups: None
Dave,

Your analysis is absolutely correct. The one main difference is that P3e does deal with projects from a company or enterprise point of view. This means one global set of resources, cost accounts, etc.

In addition P3e surpasses its little sister P3 in many aspects including performance, interface, multi user environment, budgeting , reporting and a lot more.

Of course implementation of planning & control systems using P3e requires high corporate level involvement, but if you get them to approve, you will be working with a whole DB of projects which although is exhausting is challenging and exciting.
Tomas Rivera
User offline. Last seen 5 years 4 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 2 May 2001
Posts: 139
Groups: None
I am sorry clement1000, but total float equal to zero does not necesarily mean longest path.

There are two examples I can think of right now.

If you have constrained a milestone your predecessors might have total float equal to zero and this chain of predecessor will not take you through the longest path; that is, this zero total float path will not take you to the end of the project.

Another instance will be when your project end date is constrained and the project is behind schedule. Then you will have negative total floats.

You will then need to determine the least total float. But then again this will not take you through the longest path.

The problem gets a little more complex if you are using SS or FF relationships plus activity constraints coupled with the alternative of calculating total float as the start or finish float. That is why P3 has the parameter "longest path" which makes life a lot easier.

Tomas Rivera
Dave Rodwell
User offline. Last seen 19 years 40 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 27 Jun 2002
Posts: 5
Groups: None
I believe that P3e is pretty much the same tool as far as the planning aspects go. The difference is that in being an enterprise version it is designed to allow a company to take a holistic aproach.

Therefore, am I correct in stating that it should be approached from the corporate view rather than just the planners view.

In summary I am sticking with P3 - the change up would involve much more than an individual approach.

Dave
Tomas Rivera
User offline. Last seen 5 years 4 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 2 May 2001
Posts: 139
Groups: None
I do not have an answer to your question because I do not use P3e but P3.

I am replying to your post because I would like to ask you if you would recommend to me to change from P3 to P3e?

What has been your experience in changing from P3 to P3e?

Aside from the difficulties I have heard about using P3e, has it been worthwile to you?

What kind of use do you give P3e?

To what extent do you use it and in what industry?