“Many times in life, whether a thing

is worth doing or not really

depends on how you look at it.

Take up all courage and do

something your heart tells you to

do, so that you may not regret not

doing it later in your life."

Do What is Right for You

Primavera - Basics

Jay Shukla & Kinjal Trambadia

Purpose of Course

• To familiarize participant with Primavera

Software, a well known project planning and

scheduling and monitoring tool.

• Duration : 2 days

• Methodology : Practicing with given manual

“What is Planning”

• Planning is the determination of a project's

objectives with identification of the activities to

be performed, methods and resources to be

used for accomplishing the tasks, assignment of

responsibility and accountability, and

establishment of an integrated plan to achieve

completion as required

“What is Plan” ?

• Planning a project is an integral part of managing a

project and a " Plan" is the output from this process

• A "Plan" is normally one or more documents which

outline how a project is to be executed

• The most important point is that a plan must be

understood by all those involved in a project and the way

a plan is presented must be understood by the project

team members and possibly more than one presentation

form may be required.

Planning Vs Scheduling

• A plan is not a bar chart , a bar chart is an output of the

planning process.

• A plan has many elements:

– It identifies what has to be delivered to the client, the

deliverables

– The best method of delivering it , the project methodology

– What is needed to complete the project , the resources

– How long it is going to take , the programme

• Once these parameters are evaluated then the project may be

Programmed. This is often termed as a "Schedule"

Purpose of Planning

• The ultimate purpose of planning is to build a model that

allows you to predict which activities and resources are

critical to the timely completion of the project.

• Strategies may then be implemented to ensure that

these activities and resources are managed properly,

thus ensuring that the project will be delivered both On

Time and Within Budget.

Project Planning Metrics

A change in anyone of these components normally results In

a change in one or more of the others.

Planning Cycle

Define a Project

• A project is a set of activities and their associated

information that constitutes a plan for creating a product

or service. A project has a start date and finish date,

WBS, resource assignments and expenses. It can also

include risks, work documents and project-specific codes

and calendars.

Characteristics of a Project

• 5 Aspects of a Project

– Schedule, Resource, Cost, Quality and Risk (HSE)

• For a Project Management Software, It covers

– Schedule: Timeline (core)

– Resource: Man, Material, Plant

– Cost: Money

– Risk: Identify, classify and quantify

• Life Span of a Project

– Planning: establish baseline when project starts

– Controlling: monitoring, updating during project

• execution

– Managing: changes, variations and revision

– Closing Out: Administrative closure, documentation

Planning software allows:

• Record the WBS- the deliverables

• Break the deliverables into activities

• Assign durations, constraints, predecessors and successors to

activities

• Calculate the start and finish dates

• Assign resources and/ or costs to activities

• Optimize the project plan

• Set Baselines to compare progress

• Approve work

• Record the actual progress

• Compare progress against the original plan

• Amend the plan for scope changes etc. and

• Produce management reports.

Define an Activity

In SMART Way

• Specific: scope of work to be clearly defined

• Measurable: able to measure progress (%), resource (MH) and

cost (Rs)

• Achievable: realistic based on current Productivity

• Resource Availability: make ready for man, material and plant

• Time-bound: have start and finish date

Procedures to Set up a Project

• Add a project to EPS and assign one of OBS

• Set up WBS

• Add a list of activities

• Determine activity’s duration based on volume of work, production

rate and past work experience

• Assign a WBS to activity

• Assign a calendar to activity

• Link activities

• Allocate resources to activity from resource pool

• Allocate cost to activity

• Schedule project, review and establish baseline

When a Project is on the way…

• Record progress, man hour and cost and update plan

• Analyze and report project status using earned value method

• Revise baseline when there are substantial changes and the

programme can not reflect the actual situation any more

• Manage changes

• Lean construction (last planner) application

Performance Measurement

with Earned Value Method : 3 Parameters

• Planned Value PV (BCWS, Budgeted Cost of Work

Schedule): Budget x Schedule completion % (% of

original duration, time elapsed)

• Actual Cost AC (ACWP, Actual Cost of Work

Performed): Actual cost up to data date

• Earned Value EV (BCWP, Budgeted Cost of Work

Performed): Budget x Actual completion %

Performance Measurement

with Earned Value Method : Measurement Index

• Schedule Variance (SV): SV=EV-PV > 0, ahead

of schedule

• Cost Variance (CV): CV=EV-AC > 0, spending

less than planned as of measurement date

An Example

• Suppose we plan to finish an activity by June 29 with a

budget of $10,000 (PV or BCWS). It is now June 29

(data date, or measurement date), and we have spend

$9,000 (AC or ACWP), but only 70% of the work is

complete (EV, or BCWP=$10,000 x 70%=$7,000). We

are not only behind schedule (SV=EV-PV=$7,000-

$10,000= -$3,000), but over budget (CV=EV-

AC=$7,000- $9,000= - $2,000.

• Record and control budget changes

• Record and track issues

• Define and monitor thresholds

• Manage risks: identify, categorize and prioritize

• Categorize and track activity-related work

products (deliverables) and documents

Manage Changes

P6/P5 Module Overview

Project Management Module: Features

Centralized database for all project data (data

resides on server)

Layout presentation and grouping based on

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

Hierarchal structure on EPS, OBS, projects,

activities, resources and costs with codes and

values

P6 Module Overview

• Before Add a Project, Establish the Framework

Enterprise Project Structure (EPS)

Organization Breakdown Structure (OBS)

Global Calendars

Resource pool

Budget structure

Coding structure like project code and activity code

(for filtering, grouping and data analysis)

EPS and OBS

• Enterprise Project Structure (EPS)

– Company-wide hierarchical project

breakdown Structure

• Organization Breakdown Structure (OBS)

– Company-wide hierarchical responsible

managers for the projects

P6 Module Overview

• EPS and OBS: Work Side by Side

PM1 PM2 PM3

PJ1

PJ2

PJ3

EPS

OBS

EPS and OBS: Example

Proces

s

Civil Piping Equip

ment

Instru

ments

Electri

cal

Constr

uction

Project

A

Project

B

Project

C

Project

D

EPS

OBS

OBS Example

EPS Example

EPS – Project Example

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

Continuation from EPS, with project the highest

level, next by deliverables and breakdown to the

activity level

Company-wide standard WBS template

Vs.customised project-based WBS

Play an essential role in P6. Can be assigned

resource, budget and earned value

WBS Example

Calendars

Global

Project specific

WBS specific

Resource specific

Coding Structure: Project Code

Coding Structure: Resource Code

Resource and Role

Resource includes

People

Material

Plant

Role

Required personnel skill and proficiency level -> Job

title and function

Resource calendar

Resource limit (MH / day)

Resource cost ($ / MH)

Budget and Cost

Top-down approach: for upper management

Bottom-up approach: for accurate estimate

Budget (total) and spending plan (monthly distribution)

Resource dictionary and cost account

Budgeted cost=Budgeted unit (man-hour) x Price per unit

($/MH) for each activity

Roll up to Project, EPS or WBS level

P3 Vs. P6

P3 P6 Remarks

Scope Project based

project

management

Enterprise-wide

project

a age e management

Project Structure Single Multiple (EPS),

Global (Enterprise)

Hierarchical

Enterprise Project

Structure (EPS)

Work

Responsibility

Project Manger Project Mangers for

Multi-project (OBS)

Hierarchical

Organization

Breakdown

Structure (OBS)

User Single Multi-User

Database PC based 16-bit

database

Server Based, SQL or

Oracle (MS SQL)

For stand alone use

MSDE

File Structure Multiple File Single File (*.xer)

Schedule Calculations

• When a schedule has a Closed Network scheduling the project will

identify the:

• Critical Path(s)

• Total Float

• Free Float

Closed Network

In a Closed Network every activity, except the project

start milestone(s) and finish milestone(s). has one or

more:

• Start Predecessors, and

• Finish Successors.

Critical Path(s)

• The Critical Path is the shortest duration that a

project may be completed in and a delay to any

activity will delay the end date of the project,

shown in red below :

Total Float

• The Total Float is the amount of time an activity may be

delayed without delaying the end of a project .

• An activity with Total Float may delay another activity,

• May be displayed in a column and in the Gantt Chart, as

per the thin black bar below and

• May be negative .

Free Float

The Free Float is the amount of time an activity may be

delayed without delaying another activity.

• Displayed only in a column and

• Is never in the negative.

Constraints

• To correctly model the impact of events outside the

logical sequence, you may use constraints.

• A constraint would be imposed to specific dates such as:

– The availability of a facility to allow work to

commence, or

– The predetermined time a project must be

complete by

• Constraints should be cross-referenced to the supporting

documentation such as contract documentation

Milestone Dates.

Constraints Type

• There are two types of constraints :

• Project Constraints which includes the

Project

– Start Date and Project Finish Date, and

• Activity Constraints; the two most common

are Start On or After (Early Start) and Finish

On or Before (Late Finish )

Primavera File Types

Primavera propriety file formats :

• XER - Exchange one or more projects between

Primavera databases

• PLF - Exchange Layouts between Primavera databases

• ANP- Saves the position of activities in an Activity

Network

• ERP- Exchange Reports between Primavera databases

regardless of the database

• PCF - Exchange Global Changes between Primavera

databases

• XML - A new Primavera PM format introduced with

Primavera Version 6.0 which is used to import data from

the Project Manager module.

Project (* .mpp). This is the default file format that Microsoft Project uses to

create and save files. Microsoft Project 2007 is a different format to the

2000 - 2003 format, which is different to 98 format

• Note: Primavera 6.0 and 6 .1 will not import any .mpp file when Microsoft

Project 2007 is installed as MSP 2007 disables this function

Primavera 6 .0 and 6. 1 will import or export to the following file types:

• Project 2000 - 2003 ( * .mpp)

• Microsoft Project 98 ( *.mpp)

• MPX ( * .mpx). This is a text format data file created by Microsoft Project 98

and earlier versions

• Microsoft Project formats such as Project Database ( .mpd), Microsoft Access

Database ( *.mdb) and ( *.mpt) can be imported, however Microsoft Project

is required to be installed on the computer.

• Primavera Project Planner P3 and SureTrak files saved In (P3)format. A

SureTrak project in SureTrak format should be saved in Concentric ( P3)

format before importing .

• XLS. Primavera Version 5.0 has a new function allowing the Import and

export of data in xls format

Now Lets get our hands dirty!