05 Jul 2024 Project Controls News

Dear Planning Planet Member,

Join the Global Community [1] - welcome to the newsletter; did you know that this newsletter goes to the largest community of project controllers on planet Earth? 

Earlier this year, ALICE Technologies unveiled ALICE Core, their latest groundbreaking generative scheduling engine that enables you to find the most efficient construction path for your project—all starting from your baseline schedule built in P6 or MS Project.

Now, the team is excited to share some of the popular use cases that their customers use ALICE Core on in a webinar along with a live demo of the platform. You can register for the live webinar here [2]... 

In mining organizations, one common challenge is the overreliance on spreadsheets. When Draslovka found themselves buried in scattered data across numerous spreadsheets, making tracking KPIs a daunting task, they realized it was time for a comprehensive solution.

Draslovka aimed for a solution that would tick all the right boxes:

• Consolidate data in one place for the entire project lifecycle
• Enable portfolio multi-year planning
• Ease of use for stakeholders
• Intuitive dashboards

We know looking for a solution can feel like diving into a deep, dark mine. Contruent's got you covered.

Explore Draslovka's must-haves and their implementation journey [3]...

For collaboration to be effective, a supportive environment, where team members can efficiently cooperate to accomplish common goals must be established. To help teams overcome challenges and finish work more successfully, it is also critical to nurture communication.

Seavus Project Viewer can enhance team’s collaboration in a project environment managed by the Microsoft Project software.

Learn more [8]...

These dates can be very confusing if one is not aware that they have been created or how they operate. The negative float in the picture below is created by these dates after an activity’s duration was increased by 34 days:

When you import a project from another database ensure you ALWAYS check for External Dates and understand how they operate.

If you export and then import a project back into the same database, then External Dates are not normally created but the relationships are re-established with the original schedule they were linked with.

Primavera Version 20 introduced a new command titles Maintain Relationships with External Projects which also affects how External Dates are treated, ensure you understand how this option works when importing a project that was exported and had External Relationships before exporting.

On the other hand, if the original schedules have been deleted then these External Dates may be created.

Eastwood Harris Learning Resources

Accelerate your understanding of scheduling software to advance your scheduling career and be able to prepare better schedules with Eastwood Harris books [10], training courses and online videos on the following software packages:

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

• Microsoft Project, [11]
• Oracle Primavera P6 [12] and 
• Elecosoft (Asta) Powerproject  [13]

Please follow these links:

• Eastwood Harris books and training materials are available here [14] 
• Eastwood Harris inhouse, one-to-one and public training courses are offered through Primaskills Pty Ltd, more details here>>>> [15].
• Resources for Oracle Primavera P6 users such as third party software that works with P6 and technical papers on Primavera P6 at our Primavera Portal [16].

Paul E Harris
Director Eastwood Harris Pty Ltd

5 July 2024

Not being in constant communication with the involved parties may have severe consequences for your project’s end result. Safeguarding the target and guiding the process to your specific needs are necessary facets to consider. Cleopatra's CESK data team knows your struggles, and therefore, have a unique client approach

Join Cleopatra Enterprise’s webinar to hear more about: 

• Incorporating Client business rules and reporting structures
• Processes of aligning with clients based on a roadmap
• Real-life examples from Cleopatra’s case studies 

Save your spot now [19]...

Are you striving to optimize your turnaround decision-making for enhanced reliability? The latest on-demand webinar offered by Cleopatra Enterprise, in collaboration with Reuters Events, provides invaluable insights.

This comprehensive session explores effective ways to leverage today's TAR planning software by incorporating historical data to establish an accurate initial scope. Learn from the approaches of global industry leaders, based on outcomes from the STO Survey 2023, and discover strategies for achieving zero incidents, zero delays, and zero overruns.

Watch the webinar now [21]...

Understanding the nuances of cost and management accounting can be a game-changer for any business. Cleopatra Enterprise’s blog "What is Cost and Management Accounting?" dives deep into these essential accounting practices and their pivotal roles in shaping organizational strategies.

Learn how these two accounting functions work together to streamline operations and drive business success.

Read the full article here [22]...

Become part of our expanding network of partners to shape the future of collaborative project management.

Why become a PPM Core partner?

• Effortless approval process
• 100% Onboarding support
• Benefits

Learn more [24]...

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

Spider Project

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 [25]...   Ask questions here [26]...

Construction CPM Conference will be next be held in Philadelphia PA next January 19-22 2025.

ENIAC was created by Mauchly. CPM was then created as an exercise by Kelley and Walker to demonstrate a practical use of the newly invented electronic digital computer. It took James O’Brien to suggest and then spread to the world the impact to our construction and other time centric industries. It is OUR job to continue spreading of the discipline of Critical Path Method Planning as modified to utilize the more powerful computers of 2025 (rather than those of 1956) to further the goal of calculating the best schedules for our projects. Kelley, Walker, and others knew that the 1956 solutions were only approximations limited by the mathematics and computer power of the day.

Do YOU know that despite the many magnitudes of increased power of today’s computers, such are still only approximations and often off by weeks or even months as to earliest achievable completion? This is not rocket science - it is much more complex. So much more that even today’s computers can provide only an approximation.

The development of new computer software of, by and for software companies has not been used to address the issues of the leaders of 1956, and in many cases yield a solution inferior to those of yore. But we as Engineers already knew OUR job is to understand and make these tools still serve US.

Come to Construction CPM Conference to learn proper PLANNING, and to compare and contrast the solutions provided by these software developers. Go Home Trained in Three or More! Consider new features and Add-Ons to help YOU understand how to use these tools to best manage OUR projects.

The latest from SCOTUS ending “Chevron” tells us we can no longer say “the computer says” and demands we be able to explain and duplicate (by hand if necessary) the calculation to a Court. Beyond courtroom shouting, please remember that OUR job is to create best projects for our stakeholders.

Come join us in Philadelphia [27] to help further this goal [28]....