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Searching for Open Ended Logic in P6 ...

One type of error recorded in the P6 Schedule Log is the Open Ended Logic error but most times, the process of opening the Schedule Log in a text editor and cross referencing each identified Open Ended Logic error against the schedule is tedious.

Luckily, User Defined Fields (UDF) and Global Change can come to the rescue.

Read the full blog.

It may come as no surprise that the construction industry is one of last to embrace technology to improve productivity. According to McKinsey’s Digitation Report, the construction industry is one of the least digitized in the world. Many contractors, about 40% of them according to the 2018 construction technology report, are still using a paper-based solution for documents, cost tracking, reports and other field-related items.

This apparent lack of willingness to adopt newer, cloud-based solutions introduces productivity bottlenecks due to information delays, errors from rekeying data, missing data, lack of collaboration and wasted effort on the jobsite and in the office. It’s critical to understand that these productivity issues have real costs associated with them – the magnitude of which are significantly worse than most in the construction industry realize.

CLICK HERE to keep reading this feature blog, where you will learn how these poor productivity issues impacts system and team performance, project visibility, data integrity and profitability and how the right solution can lead to substantial project performance and returns.

For product updates, news, announcements and informative blogs to guide your every day, we welcome you to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube We also welcome you to visit 4castplus.com to learn more about our innovative software solution. 

We are REFRESHING our Top 100 list of Senior Project Controls Managers who have asked if we can help them find good planners and project controls practitioners.  

We know these men and women personally and each have said they will gladly have a face-to-face with anyone WE RECOMMEND to them.  Exciting times.  If you want to learn more get in touch.  PPAdmin@planningplanet.com

Graphics Custodians WANTED - if you have an interest in graphics, reports, dashboards and would like to join the team of practitioners who are helping to shape (and improve) the 700 figures and reference graphics contains in the Compendium & Reference of Project Controls Tools & Techniques please get in touch as we need a few more keen practitioners to help and be rewarded.  Admin@GuildofProjectControls.com

HELP WANTED.... 

If you wish to help and be part of a small team of leading practitioners to help document some GENERIC standard operating procedures (SOP) for SCOPE, PLANNING, COST, RISK, PROGRESS, CHANGE, CLAIMS (etc.) we'd love to hear from you.  We are building a great team so get in touch.

PPAdmin@planningplanet.com

Tuesday 3rd November 2020 – Black tie event 1800-2300

London location, to be announced soon.

On the 3rd edition of Project Controls Expo Awards we are delighted to be introducing 2 brand new categories to the catalogue, bringing it to a total of 8 awards to be given on the night.

Sponsorship opportunities for the Award categories are also available – if of interest please contact us at Awards@projectcontrolexpo.com.

Call for judges: We are currently looking for experienced project controls professionals who would be interested in becoming a judge for this year’s PCE Awards. Please send us your confirmation of interest before Tuesday 18th February to Awards@projectcontrolexpo.com.

INTRODUCTION - The original purpose of this research was to:

• 1. To provide the basis to compare the relative “value” or “worth” of the various credentials based on a true ratio scale.
• 2. To provide the basis to compare “equivalency” and “value for money” (benefit: cost analysis)
• 3. To serve as a challenge to those organizations offering these certifications to “raise the bar” to meet legitimate standards of professional assessment.

High Speed 2 (HS2) is a planned high-speed railway in the United Kingdom. Parliament approved plans for the first section in 2017, with clearance work being undertaken for the line and stations. Earlier this week, it was announced that the HS2 project cost could soar as high as £106bn - from the £88 billion expected last year. Which comes as no surprise to close observers of the project. This figure was calculated correlates with Prime Minister, Boris Johnson’s prediction last year that the project will come in “north of £100bn”.

HS2 will be a new railway between London and the west Midlands, carrying between 14 and 18 trains an hour. This will cut journey times from 1 hour 21 minutes to just 52 minutes. This reduction in travel time opens opportunities for millions of people about where they live, work and play. The proposed HS2 trains will serve over 25 stations connecting around 30 million people. That’s almost half the population. 

If the project gets the green light, then the second phase will likely split into two different lines. One will travel from Birmingham to Manchester, while the other will go from Birmingham to Leeds. The government claims that HS2 will move millions of air and road trips on to rail. It will open space on the existing rail network for freight, taking hundreds of HGVs per hour off the roads.

This enormous infrastructure project will connect 8 of the 10 largest cities in the UK. It will generate 22,000 construction jobs in the next five years and 100,000 once the entire line is running.

Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, is due to decide on the project within weeks. The PM's official spokesman said he is looking at "how or whether" HS2 will go ahead.

Do you want to be able to say you helped build HS2 or other major infrastructure projects? I can help secure you your job, call me on 0203 887 1893 | bill@constructionfuturesuk.com

Can I suggest that you follow our LinkedIn company page here where we post news, views, jobs, career advice, our quarterly newsletter and more.

Our most recent newsletter “The Planner” can be downloaded here. 

I am always available for a chat. I'm normally in the office between 7.30am and 6-7pm weekdays.

BLOG: What is cost estimation? We explain it to you in 4 steps

A good estimate includes not only the cost but also all data related to the way the project was envisioned to be carried out. Read the latest blog and find out more about the principles of cost estimation.

Read the cost estimation in 4 steps...

QUICK READ: Project Controls Software Systems: A need or a Choice?

As a project controller, what is your most annoying and difficult task while executing a project? Is project data collection & formatting one of them?

Read this article to find out the benefits of having an industry developed and approved project controls software that can do the leg work on data collection and formatting for you. 

Focus on the message you want to give out by analyzing and trending the project data.  Read the article project controls software...

99 Tricks and Traps for Oracle Primavera P6 PPM Professional

- new book by Paul E Harris

This new book is a casual users survival guide aimed at casual users who understand the software basics but require a short and snappy guide to demonstrate the less intuitive and problematic functions.

This book is available paperback, will be coming available over the next few weeks in Kobo, Kindle and iTunes format.

Click here for more information>>>

Other books, training manuals and instructor PowerPoint slide shows by Paul Harris are available on:

• Microsoft Project,
• Oracle Primavera P6 and
• Elecosoft (Asta) Powerproject

More information and links to sellers at our website>>>

Paul E Harris 
Director 

Eastwood Harris Pty Ltd

Earned Value Management (EVM)

EVM works by assessing work progress against a project baseline and covers technical, time and cost performance. 

It provides data which accurately defines where a project is going so that proactive managers can act, giving them greater scope for decision making. 

Read the blog...

Feedback and criticism are not always easy to take. They can be seen as attacks on our way of working or a public revelation of how incompetent we always secretly felt we were.

Whether we like it or not, though, we’re always going to face feedback from somewhere as we progress professionally, as any time we master one area, the goalposts move and we have to reach new heights.  Read the Blog...

The Chinese Government have translated the Guild of Project Controls' Compendium of Best Tested & Proven Practices to enable their national desire to deliver COMPETENCY certifications in Project Controls in and throughout China.  

Now live...

The official first eddition has been distributed and practitioners are now being Competency Certified.  

Generally, if someone is coming to your organization for a service it’s because they can’t do it themselves.

This automatically puts you in the position of “subject-matter expert” and paints a clear picture of the disparity in knowledge between the two of you.

Read more...

Major project plans consist of several thousand activities and numerous resources with different roles. If you need to delete the progress parameters in order for your colleagues to receive clean project plan, you may end up wasting a lot of time in order to clean the XER file.

However, there is a powerful software solution that enables project schedulers, planners, contractors, and other project participants to take control of the project data within XER files by tailoring it to the specific needs of the different project stakeholders.

With it, one can reset progress parameters such as Activity % Complete, Actual Start and Finish Date from a project plan with a click of a button. Read more.

Women in Construction Summit 2020 is set to be the largest and most progressive conference for women in Construction in the UK, and we'd love you to join us! Whether it’s keynotes from industry heavyweights, interactive workshops, or practical career-development advice, achieve long-term business success with some of the world's leading organisations and supercharge your career to new heights!  Read more.

Planning Planet Forum posts - Join the Conversation... 1,072,120 unique views this year and counting :)

Someone recently asked me if it was possible to display two duration columns in a Primavera P6 layout, one column in hours and the other in days.

This tutorial outlines the steps required to display two different units of durations.

Tutorial Complexity: Beginner

P6 Version: Release 18.8.0 

Do you seek PROMOTION or do you want to better UNDERSTAND YOUR Stengths and SKILLS (in private) or do you seek that NEW ROLE?

Proven Practitioner provides

ALL THE TOOLS YOU NEED

Go to Premium and sign up!  

Decentralized leadership offers a lot of benefits, such as increased decision velocity, faster reaction times and more targeted actions and projects.

Empowering teams to take greater control of their direction and decision making requires greater critical thinking in the workplace. Unfortunately, however, according to a major survey of over 60,000 managers.

Read the blog...

Contact PPAdmin@planningplanet.com if you would like to learn about getting our Project Controls Toolbox for...

• YOUrself,
• your TEAM,
• your PROJECT, or
• your COMPANY   (read more...)

What is needed to come up with a production rate?

A duration of time, the manhours involved, and an amount of work produced this section of Planning Planet is here to document this. 

What information do you have that you can share?

A superior alternative to the "most popular" software for us as planners?

Spider Project offers numerous unique functional features and is the only PM software that optimizes resource, cost, and material constrained schedules and budgets for projects and portfolios. 

Check it out here...

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The Compendium and Reference (CaR) is a document which forms The Guild Standards.

The CaR is a living document being continually improved, supplemented and updated by the Guild community to reflect improvements to practices, opinions and methods in our chosen profession. The Guild is ready to receive suggestions at any time for updates to the CaR Standards.  

Take a look here.

MEMBERS

See who you know from within our 150,000+ membership pool!

GUILD

Take a look at the worlds first and only competence based credentials supported by a career path, role descriptors, self-assessment tools and online compendium desk reference of best tested and proven tools and techniques for project controls practitioners.

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Join other members who share their thoughts and ideas in the form of blog posts.

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100,000+ questions and answers to the topics we struggle with (mostly software!) on a day to day basis.

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A knowledge-base that can be contributed to or utilized by anyone with skills and/or interest in planning, scheduling or project controls. No Wiki page or article is owned by its creator or any other editor, and its content relies upon collaboration and teamwork. How can you contribute?

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What is needed to come up with a production rate? A duration of time, the manhours involved, and an amount of work produced? Take a look and get involved.

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