18 August 2017 Newsletter

Dear Members,

This newsletter again comes to you courtesy of some of our new Newsletter Team and is part of our initiative to do a better job of collating and presenting useful Project Controls data from around the internet.

If you want to join the team to locate and provide useful content or if you want to organise the editors and format and publish the content please get in touch via PPAdmin@planningplanet.com [2] and tell us about yourself.

Being a Project Manager doesn’t require creating the schedules, therefore they usually don’t have full Primavera P6 license and I receive the schedules in PDF format.

Check the full article - read more... [3]

To keep baseline variance can be a monumental task in complex schedules. Is it worth it?
Blog post provided by Rafael Davila [4]

An S-curve is a result of schedule logic. On the level of activities, projects tend to have many paths, some of them critical, other not.

A tiny (if compared to total project duration) schedule variance of an activity can become a cause for substantial rearrangements in the project network, it can change critical path or order of activities, enforce a total reorganization of works.

This cannot be captured by either Earned Value or Earned Schedule calculations - potential problems might be masked by compensating positive and negative schedule deviations.

Do not miss out on the opportunity attend the 1st AACE International [6] Workshops & Conferences in Lagos, Nigeria and Sandton, South Africa. They are just around the corner!  

More information about the upcoming events can be found below:

• August 25, 2017 - AACE Region 9 and AACE South Africa Present the First Southern African Regional AACE Conference. Please go to www.aaceregion9.org [7] for details and Eventbrite registration, or contact dirregion9@aacei.org [8]
• September 01, 2017 – AACE Region 9 and AACE Nigerian Section Present the First Nigerian Regional AACE Conference. Please go to www.aaceregion9.org [7] for details and Eventbrite registration. or contact dirregion9@aacei.org [8]

As-Built schedules are very important project records as they can be used in Delay Claims disputes, generating Norms or Production Rates and benchmarking future project activities hence why a lot of emphasis is placed on activities having accurate actual dates and actual duration.

But Primavera P6 users need to pay attention to their User Preferences, else they will be recording wrong actual duration for activities.

New White Paper: Analyzing S-Curves

This white paper outlines the AACE Recommended Practice 55R-09 and describes the various S-curves that can be used in the management of projects. The white paper also shows the creation of S-curves in ARES PRISM and the benefits it provides.  

Read more... [11]

Ever had a situation where all predecessors of an activity are 100% complete but the activity’s Start date isn’t pushed to the Data Date as expected? Similarly, you might also see the activity’s Finish date is much later than the it’s remaining duration from Data Date? 

If you answered yes then this quick tip might help you trace the offending activity cause these problems.
Read the complete article - read more... [12]

We already have a number of global companies waiting for your applications.

The SOTERIA METHOD enables all parties in the recruitment process to benefit and it's straightforward read the link for more information and apply now! - read more here and stand out from the crowd [13].

We'd also like to be a supplier of people to employers. We have got a huge PP database to send adverts out to so do get in touch via ppadmin@planningplanet.com [14] and we will respond as quickly as possible.

Why DOES a project schedule REALLY matter? Is it Money? Time? Productivity?
Provided by Michael Lepage [15]

Plan Academy has just published a new self-paced video course - Construction Planning & Scheduling.

In the video below, project controls expert & instructor Dr. Saleh Mubarak answers that question, from both the Owner's and the Contractor's perspective.

After this lesson you’ll be able to explain what the benefits of a schedule are to both an Owner and a Contractor, from a time and cost perspective.

Go and check out this free lesson about Construction Planning & Scheduling now! [16]

We may wonder How does P6 calculates and displays summary information for costs, quantities, user defined fields, dates, durations, float, progress.

These calculations and display summaries are based on the currently visible activities. Activities removed from the layout by filters are not included in the calculations and summaries.

I will explain it in this article.

Lessons from experience have taught this author that every opportunity to hear Chris Carson – Vice President Finance at AACE International and Guild of Project Controls Fellow – speak or present is well worth the investment of time, and this occasion was absolutely no different.

In fact, the flawless planning and execution of Shohreh Ghorbani’s vision of greater online, global and immensely valuable training and education made this particular opportunity more convenient, fun and insightful than many other experiences this author can recall.

In this article, we will explore the inspiration that lead to a social media din and some of the most insightful takeaways from this great experience.

A couple of weeks ago, on a Friday morning “day-off” awakening to the smell of freshly brewed coffee and baking muffins, a webinar interview with Chris on the topic of “How to Become a World-Class Authority in Project Controls” was in this author’s very immediate future...

Read the complete article - read more... [20]