xer-schedule-toolkit-manual.pdf

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User Manual //Overview & Function


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Contents

XER Toolkit Overview 6

Manage Workbooks 7

Discard 7

Merge 7

Opening project(s) from an XER le 8

Opening Projects & Baselines 8

Importing project from Primavera database 9

Selecting current project 10

Save current project as baseline 11

Baseline Management 11

Import baseline project from XER le 12

Importing baseline project from Primavera database 13

Deleting 13

Clearing Current Baseline 13

Column Schemes 14

The current column scheme 15

Adding a column to the current scheme 15

Deleting column(s) from the current scheme 16

Changing the position of a column in the current scheme 16

Format column settings 17

Saving the current column scheme 18

Set a saved column scheme as the current scheme 19

Delete a saved column scheme 20

Export column scheme 20

Import column scheme 20

Layout Settings 21

Gantt Viewer 21

Draw Gantt 22

Table Display Options 23

Gantt Options 24

Variance Column Formats 26

Colour schemes 27

Applying a date range flter 28

Advanced Filters 29

User de ned lters 30

Task Grouping 33

WBS Default 34

User de ned group structure 35

Modifying a user de ned group structure 36

Group scheme management 37

Delete / Export / Import grouping scheme 38

Detailed activity report 39

General Reports 39

Activities Export 40

Detailed Relationshi ps Export Report 41


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Schedule Quality 42

Overview 42

Summary Screen Options 43

Viewing detailed check results 44

Adjusting red / amber / green thresholds 44

Resetting all defaults 45

Filter by activity code 45

Filter by WBS 46

Filter by Task Status 46

Summary / Dashboard reports 47

Quality check de nitions & detail windows 48

Missing logic (tasks without predecessors or successors) 48

Open ended tasks 48

Relationships with leads or lags 50

Relationships Ratio 51

Constraints 52

Float 53

Duration 55

Invalid Dates 56

Missing Resources 57

Late Activities 58

Assignment dates 59

Calendar Viewer 60

Overview 60

Detailed View 61

Yearly wall-chart 62

Directly from P6 63

Jump back to the contentsat anytime, by click thecontents icon in the bottomright corner of each page.


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The XER Toolkit is an Excel addin thatprovides intelligent access to primaveraschedule data stored within an XER le orPrimaveras underpinning database.

The objective of the XER Toolkit is to helpdrive successful project delivery by providingtools that assist with improving the quality ofproject schedules. It achieves this by:

Promoting schedule visibility andunderstanding throughout a project team.

Providing the ability to pinpoint de cientaspects of a project schedule which canthen be resolved.

Providing tools that make graphicalanalysis of schedule data both simpleto use and outputs that are easy tounderstand.

The Toolkit operates entirely within the MSExcel environment and does not rely on orrequire any other software installation.

The Toolkit uses Excels built-in databasetechnology and can therefore handle andoperate large multi-project XER les.

The original XER le/ Primavera database isnever altered or affected by the XER Toolkitsoperation.

All outputs are produced in standard Excelworkbooks and can be saved or discardedby the user. The outputs can be manipulatedby the user the same as any other Excelspreadsheet.

XER Toolkit Overview

When using the XER Toolkit, most of the options on Excels standard FILEmenu are greyed out. Therefore in order to open and save Excel workbooks,including XER Toolkit outputs, use the manage workbooks function on themain toolkit menu.

New

Create a new, blank workbook.

Open

Open an existing workbook.

Close

Close all workbooks that are currentlyselected in the workbook list. Changeswill not be saved.

Save

Save all workbooks currently selectedin workbook list. If a single workbookis selected in the list, then the option toSave As will be offered.

Discard

All of the workbooks currently selectedin the workbook list will be closed,changes will be discarded and the leswill be deleted from disc.

Merge

Every visible worksheet within thecurrently selected workbooks will bemerged into a single, new workbook.

Manage WorkbooksXER Toolkit Overview


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The XER Toolkit does not alter source data. Instead, project s are initially imported to the XERToolkits database. The toolkit provides ability to import source data from XER les or directlyfrom the Primavera database.

Opening project(s) from an XER le

Opening Projects & Baselines

1. From main toolkit menu, SelectGet new data from.

2. Select Open XER

3. If project data has previouslybeen imported to the toolkit,then you will be asked if it is okto lose this data.

4. Select the XER le containingthe project(s) to be imported.

NB: The XER Toolkit providesanalysis and viewing tools forsingle projects. However, itcan open XER les containingmultiple projects, from whichthe current project can then beselected.

5. Once the toolkit has opened

and imported the XER le,a Contents form will appeardetailing the contents of theimported data. The items withinthe list relate to the table recordsthat were exported from the P6database to the XER le. E.g.Table TASK contains informationrelating to the project(s) taskse.g. early/ late dates, durations,summary units etc.

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Importing project from Primavera database

1. From main toolkit menu, SelectGet new data from.

2. Select P6 database

3. Enter database connectiondetails and click connect

NB: The XER Toolkit uses thePrimavera database priv useraccount and can connect witheither to an Oracle or MS SQL

Server. Login details for thepriv user account are thereforerequired in order to make directconnection with the database.If unsure, please refer to yourdatabase administrator.

4. Once connected, projects canbe selected from the EPS treewithin the Projects window.

5. Once desired project is selected,click Import project (ClickImport Project as baseline ifdirectly importing to the XERToolkits baseline database).

NB: Use the display options tore ne the project tree contents.

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Selecting current project

1. Once an XER le has been opened, or a project imported from thePrimavera database, the Project drop down list will be populated withthe currently available projects. Simply select the project to be viewed/analysed.

NB: If projects appear in the drop down list that were not exported tothe current XER le, this re ects that inter-project relationship links existbetween the projects exported and these additional projects. If this is thecase, then minimal data is exported in relation to the external projects.

Overview

Save current project as baseline

Baseline projects can be imported into the toolkitsdatabase. They can then be analysed and comparedagainst the current project. There is no limit to thenumber of baseline projects that can be saved withinthe toolkits database.

Once a baseline project has been imported, it willappear in the Baseline dropdown list within the maintoolkit menu. Baseline analysis can then be carriedout between the current project and any availablebaseline project by simply selecting it from the dropdown list.

Baseline Management

1. From the main toolkit menu,select the project to be savedas a baseline from the Projectdrop-down list.

2. Click Manage Baselines

3. Click Save current project asbaseline.

4. Enter reference description andclick ok.

NB: This reference descriptionentered here will appear in themain toolkit menus Baselinedrop-down list.

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Import baseline project from XER le

1. Select Manage Baselines fromthe main toolkit menu.

2. Click Import baseline from XERFile.

3. Select XER le that contains thebaseline project.

4. Select the project from availablelist.


NB: This reference descriptionentered here will appear in themain toolkit menus Baselinedrop-down list.

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Importing baseline project from Primavera database

Importing baseline project from Primavera database

1. Refer to Importing project fromPrimavera database with theexception of the nal step.

2. Once desired project is selected,click Import project as baseline.


NB: This reference descriptionentered here will appear in the

main toolkit menus Baselinedrop-down list.

Deleting

1. Select the baseline project to bedeleted from the list.

2. Click on the Delete baselinebutton.

Clearing Current Baseline

3. To clear the currently selectedbaseline from the main toolkitmenus drop-down list, click theClear Current Baseline project.

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Deleting column(s) from the current scheme

Changing the position of a column in the current scheme

1. Select the columns to be deleted

2. Click the delete column icon

NB: In order to select multiple columns, press and hold the keyboard Ctrlkey and then select by clicking with mouse the columns to be deleted.

1. Select the columns to be moved.

2. Click the Up icon to move the columnleft in the output data table. Conversely,click the Down icon to move the columnright.

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Format column settings

1. Select the columns to beformatted.

2. Click the Settings icon.

3. All column settings refer to thedata table formats for toolkitoutputs.

A. Date Format

B. Activity Code Format

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Saving the current column scheme

1. Click the Save icon

2. Enter a new scheme name orif an existing scheme is to beoverwritten, select it from the list

3. Click Save

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Set a saved column scheme as the current scheme

1. Click the Open icon.

2. Select the scheme to be set asthe current scheme.

3. Click Open

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Delete a saved columnscheme

1. Select column scheme to bedeleted.

2. Click the Delete icon

Export column scheme

1. Select column scheme to beexported.

3. Click the Export icon and thenchoose a lename.

Import column scheme

3. Click the Import icon.

4. Select le containing columnscheme(s)

5. Click open

6. Select column scheme(s) to beimported.

7. Click Import

When opening or saving a column scheme, there are options to delete/ importand export pre-saved column schemes.

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Overview

The toolkit provides an export function for producing gantt charts (or datatables) within Excel worksheets. The outputs can be saved as standardworkbooks that can be shared with and accessed by anyone that has Excel.

As a result, anyone engaged with the schedule in this format can bene t fromthe familiar functionality that Microsoft Excel provides as standard, includingthe ability to search, format, annotate and lter.

Layout Settings

The XER Toolkit provides the ability to format the look and feel of the scheduleoutput.

From the main toolkit menu, selectGantt Viewer.

1. Select layout settings.

2. Update options as required (seebelow for description)

OR

3. Restore all default settings

4. Click Ok to apply settings.

Gantt Viewer

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2a

2b

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2a - Draw Gantt

Data table Gantt chart

Gantt chart can be included or excluded

2b - Table Display Options

2a - Table with grid lines 2b - Table without grid l ines

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1. Display horizontal sight lines : The number of rows between a horizontalline in the Gantt chart area (excluding grouping rows).

2. Display table gridlines : MS Excel borders can automatically be applied tothe table area, or left.

3. Wrap text : Text will wrap in cell when too long to t on a single line.

4. Critical path


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2c - Gantt Options

1 - Grouping band expanded to ALL levels 1 - Grouping band expanded to level 1

1. Expand WBS/ Grouping to level: Tasks can be grouped at any level withinthe work structure as demonstrated below

2. Include empty section headers : By default, WBS elements that do notcontain any activities are excluded from schedule exports. By ticking thissetting, empty WBS elements will be included within the outputs.

NB: This option only applies when the project data is organised by therespective projects WBS.

3. Draw summaries only : When selected, tasks will not be shown on scheduleexports and will instead be summarised to grouping level.

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4. Show oat bars: Task bars representing total oat can be toggled on or off.The toolkit default excludes oat bars from the output.

5. Show summary bars: The summary bars displayed against groupingstructures can be toggled on / off.

6. Include Excel Auto- lter: Excels auto- lter can automatically be installedwithin the schedules data table, enabling simple ltering capability of thetable. Simply untick this setting if it is not required.

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2d - Variance Column Formats

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1. Early date / shorter duration (and more value for unit / cost elds): Cellformatting for numerical variance columns. The format can be changed byclicking on the coloured format box.

2. Late date / longer duration (and more value for unit / cost elds): Cellformatting for numerical variance columns. The format can be changed byclicking on the coloured format box.

3. Show late / longer (and more value for unit/ cost elds): Delays / increasescan either be shown as a negative or positive number.

2e - Colour schemes

1. Click on grouping level.

2. Click desired colour in maincolour map.

3. Fine tune colour.

4. Toggle between font andbackground and repeat steps 2& 3.

5. Select font size.

6. Click the Ok button

7. Use scheme managementto save/ open existingschemes (see column schememanagement for instructions).

8. Click the Ok button.

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Date Range lters

Overview

The date range lters can be used to quickly display a speci c time windowwithin the gantt chart.

Applying a date range lter

1. The project start to nish check box ticked is the toolkits default valueand will include all tasks. In order to de ne a speci c time period, untickthis box.

2. Use the preset look ahead selections to display the gantt chart betweenspeci c time period s. Either choose to look ahead from Today, Data Dateor the Project Start Date by clicking on the respective button, and thenchoose the look ahead period.

3. The gantt chart start & nish can also be manually set to speci c dates byclicking the Date Selection icons and selecting date(s).

4. Choose whether to include or exclude tasks that occur outside of the de-ned period. If included, tasks that do not occur within the time period willnot have any corresponding tasb bar within the gantt chart.

5. Click the Ok button.

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Advanced Filters

Overview

The XER Toolkit supports advanced, hierarchical task ltering based on a rangeof project data elds, including activity codes and user de ned elds. There-fore, providing that a schedule has been appropriately coded, users can pin-point and view tasks based on speci c criteria.

1. Click the Advanced Filters icon. The red text signi es that a lter iscurrently applied.

2. Select which user de ned lters to apply

3. Click to choose whether All of the selected lter conditions should applyin order to select a speci c task or whether a task should be selected if itmeets at least one of the the conditions of any single selected lter, i.e. Anyselected lter. See table below.

4. Click Ok

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User de ned lters


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User de ned lters

1. Select user de ned lter.

a. To delete, click the deletelter icon.

b. To modify an existing lter,click the settings icon and thenfollow steps for adding a lter.

2. To create a new user-de nedlter, click the Add lter icon.

3. Enter a reference name for the

lter.

4. Click the add icon to add a ltercondition.

5. Select eld type.

6. Select eld.

7. Select the required lterconditions the optionsavailable here will change basedon the selected eld data type.

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Click the select eld icon to change

8. Repeat steps 2 to 5 to add multiple lter conditions.

a. In order to delete an existing lter condition, select the lter condition toselect and then click the delete condition icon.

b. To modify the lter condition, select and click the settings icon.

9. When adding a new lter condition, the toolkit automatically adds an All ofthe following statement in the row immediately above the new condition.However, this can be changed to Any of the following by double click onthe All of the following statement and vice versa.

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10. Additional All/ Any statements can be added within to the lter de nitionto enable more complex criteria to be de ned. To add a new statement,select the lter condition immediately above the position the statement isto be added and then click the All or Any button.

11. Filter conditions can be indented behind All/ Any statements to separateblocks of criteria as shown in example.

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Simpli ed, the example lter above in words could read:

Tasks that start during 2014 and have a baseline Variance in total budgeted cost.

Overview

Applying user de ned task grouping enables assessment of project schedulesto be precisely targeted. A simple example to demonstrate the advantagesof task grouping might be an engineering department manager that needs tounderstand the value of work that they will be required to manage throughoutthe various stages of a project. The work structure below shows a schedulegrouped by Department/ Phase. At this point, the engineering manager couldselect any phase (procurement in the example shown) and proceed to use thetoolkits dashboard creator to generate a cost chart.

Similarly, a project manager might want to know which departments will be

involved during each phase of a project. Therefore, we turn the above structureon its head as shown below.

Task Grouping

Department

Phase


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WBS Default

The default organistation (grouping) structure applied within the toolkit is theproject(s) Work Breakdown Structure or WBS.

1. If a user dened grouping structurehas been applied, as indicated byred text, the default can be resetby clicking the Grouping icon.

2. Toggle the WBS/ Manual option toWBS

3. Click Ok

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User de ned group structure

1. If a user de ned groupingstructure has been applied, asindicated by red text, the defaultcan be reset by clicking theGrouping icon.

2. Toggle the WBS/ Manual optionto WBS

3. Click Ok

4. Select the grouping structureelement type

5. Select the grouping structureelement

6. Click Ok

7. In the case that the selectedeld is heirachical (i.e. WBS ID),then multiple levels within theeld heirachy structure can beinserted at once by selecting theLevel from and Level to.

8. Repeat steps 3 to 7 until

grouping structure isconstructed as required.

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Modifying a user de ned group structure

1. Select the element to be modi ed by clicking on the coloured band

a. Click the Delete level icon to delete the structure element

b. Click the Settings icon to change the structure element eld.

c. Click the Up or Down arrows to move the structure element higher orlower in the structure.

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Group scheme management

1. Click the Open icon.

2. Select the scheme to be set asthe current scheme.

3. Click Open

NB: When opening or savinga grouping scheme, thereare options to delete/ importand export pre-saved groupschemes.


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Delete / Export / Import grouping scheme

Delete a saved grouping scheme

1. Select grouping scheme tobe deleted.

2. Click the Delete icon

Export grouping scheme

1. Select grouping scheme tobe exported.

3. Click the Export icon andthen choose a lename.

Import grouping scheme

3. Click the Import icon.

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Detailed activity report

The detailed activity report is designed to provide the vast majority of availabledata held within the XER le in relation to a speci c task. E.g. it can provideaccess to all of the UDF values assigned against a task, which can otherwisebe dif cult to determine. The report is available to use within various Toolkitfunctions e.g.

Project Health detailed screens

Activitie s (as shown in example below),

Logic (Detailed Predecessor/ Successor) report

The example shown below uses the Activities function as the source point forselecting the detailed activities report. The process is exactly the same whenaccessing the report from other functions.

General Reports

1. Select a single activity to beviewed.

2. Click the Activity Reportbutton. This will activate thereport output options form.

3. Select the summary data topicsto be output via the report. Thereport can be re ned to includeonly the data required by theuser. E.g. if the user only wantsto interrogate the UDFs assignedto an activity, select only theUDFs option from the summarydata topic area.

4. If either Resources or Expensesare selected as summarydata topics then additionalworksheets will be producedby the report containing tablesof data speci cally related tothe resources/ expenses. Theuser can re ne the report byselecting which columns to viewwithin the output table.

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Activities Export

The activities export function is effectively a pre- ltered version of theschedule viewer. Users can export selected or all activities from windowswithin the Project Health detail screens or the Activities function.

The example shown below uses the project health function as the sourcepoint for using the export activities function. The process is the same whenexporting from other functions.

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NB: From within the Project Healthdetail windows, using the exportfunction will export ALL activitieswithin the current window. Whenexporting from the Activities function,the user can select activities within thewindow or choose to export selectedactivities only.

2. Select a column scheme from the list.

NB: The user can also choose to selectCurrent Scheme from the list (refer toThe Current Column Scheme). If theselection box is blank, then exportingactivities will default to the currentcolumn scheme

3. Click the Export Button

4. Use Schedule Viewer functions tonalise output report options.

Detailed Relationships Export Report

The activities export function is effectively a pre- ltered version of theschedule viewer. Users can export selected or all activities from windowswithin the Project Health detail screens or the Activities function.

The example shown below uses the project health function as the source pointfor using the export activities function. The process is the same when exportingfrom other functions.

1. If the user only wants to exportparticular relationships ratherthan all relationships, then theymust rst be selected from thecurrent window.

NB: Users can only choose toselect speci c relationshipsis only available within thelogic window. The projecthealth leads/lags screen onlyprovides the option to export allrelationships.

2. Choose to export allrelationships within the list or

just the relationships selectedwithin the list.

3. Select which columns are toappear in the output report andthen click OK.

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Overview

The XER Toolkits schedule quality function is an extremely powerful diagnosistool that can identify technical def ciencies within a schedule and assist withtheir recti cation.

The schedule quality metrics calculated by the XER Toolkit are establishedmeasures by which a schedule can be assessed to help determine whether it isrealistic.

As with all schedule quality indicators, there is no one size ts all result andto that end, the XER Toolkit has some versatile features inlcuding the abilityto lter the general results by WBS and/ or activity code. It can also measureall activities within a schedule or return results only for activities that are notyet complete. The toolkit also offers further options to re ne individual health

checks e.g. Activities with missing successors can be set to include open-endedtasks (activities with only a SS or SF successor).

The ranges by which red, amber & green are triggered can also be manuallyregulated by the user to re ect the nature and requirement of each individualproject.

To aid the user benchmark against pre-de ned and industry recognised results,the XER Toolkit has default red, amber, green trigger point s built in. Theseare based upon the Defence Contract Management Agencys (DCMA) 14 pointschedule metrics.

The checks currently offered by the Toolkit are:

Missing Predecessors

Missing Successors

Relationships with negative lag(Lead)

Relationships with lag

Non-FS Relationship ratio

Activities with hard & softconstraints

High Float

Negative Float

High Duration

Late Activities

Activities With High Cost

Invalid Dates

Activities In Progress

Activitie s Without ResourceAssignements

Assignment Dates Not Alignedto Activity Dates

NB. Adjustments to lters anddial limits within the projecthealth settings are re ected in thedashboard report outputs.

Schedule Quality

Summary Screen Options

There are 3 display options to choose from in order to view and assess the current projectsschedule quality check results.

Large Dials

1. The summary display formatcan be adjusted by toggling theoption buttons as shown below:

2. Summary results can also beidenti ed by the small colouredrectangle positioned to the lefthand side of the quality checktab selector.

3. Click the full screen icon toenlarge the dials window to llthe screen.

Small Dials

Heat map

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Viewing detailed check results

In order to view the detail behind the summary reports, simply click on therelevant quality check tab selector, or click on the corresponding [heat mapsector] or [dial].

Adjusting red / amber /green thresholds

1. From the main window, click onthe thresholds icon.

2. Select the type of quality checkto be adjusted.

3. Either type the new thresholdvalues into the relevant colouredbox or use the +/- buttons toincrement the threshold valueup/ down.

4. You can choose to displayresults as percentages or as anumber. To provide an exampleof when it may be an advantageto use numbers rather thanpercentagesm the followingexample looks at activitieswith missing predecessor logic.Option 1 re ects the DCMAdefault whereas option 2 re ectsthe ideal network scenario.

Display as a percentage- 5% of activities withouta predecessor raises aag

Display as a Number- 1 activities

without a predecessorraises a ag

5. Restore the toolkits presetdefaults by clicking the icon.

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Resetting all defaults

Click the Reset all DCMA thresholds to reset all project quality check defaults.This will reset all Toolkit defaults including non-DCMA-related checks andsettings.

Filter by activity code

NB: The DCMA default values refer to the Red trigger point. The DCMAstandard does not refer to an amber range. The DCMA reference documentstates:

The identi cation of a red metric is not in and of itself synonymous withfailure but rather an indicator or a catalyst to dig deeper in the analysis forunderstanding the reason for the situation. Consequently, correction of that

metric is not necessarily required but it should be understood.

1. From the summary screen, clickthe Show Filters icon. Thiswill reveal the various lteringoptions.

2. Select the activity code typefrom the drop down list.

3. Click the code value selectionicon.

4. Select the code value to be

analysed.

5. Click Ok.

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Filter by WBS

Filter by Task Status

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1. Select the WBS selection icon.

2. Select the WBS to be analysed.

3. Click Ok.

NB: All sub-WBS elements of theselected WBS element will beincluded in the schedule qualitycheck results.

Summary / Dashboard reports

There are a variety of pre-formatted reports that can be exported to standardexcel spreadsheets which can then be saved and shared with other Excel users.Simply select the desired report from the menu.

NB: The report will contain only data for the currently ltered tasks.


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Quality check de nitions & detail windows

Although activity B has a successor(Start to Start with activity C), it isconsidered as Open Ended since itscompletion date could potentiallyslip until the point where all otheractivities within the network arecomplete before impacting upon theschedules critical path.

NB: Relationships to and from Levelof Effort/ WBS Summary activitiescannot affect the start/ nish of otheractivities. Therefore, activities thatonly have predecessors/ successors

that are Level of Effort or WBSSummary activities are effectivelyOpen Ended.

Open ended tasks

Missing logic (tasks without predecessors or successors)

What the DCMA state:

This metric identi es incomplete tasks with missing logic links. It helps identifyhow well or poorly the schedule is linked together. Even if links exist, the logicstill needs to be veri ed by the technical leads to ensure that the links makesense. Any incomplete task that is missing a predecessor and/or a successoris included in this metric. The number of tasks without predecessors and/orsuccessors should not exceed 5%. An excess of 5% should be considered a ag.The formula for calculating this metric is as follows

Missing logic % =# of tasks missing logic# of incomplete tasks100x

1. Select Include open ended tasks

2. Select or deselect activity type options toinclude/ exclude results for [Milestones], [WBSSummary] & [Level of Effort]

Exporting results to Excel:

3. To export the tasks that are identi ed withinthe results window, select the desired columnscheme.

4. Click the Export activities button.

5. Refer to the instructions for schedule viewercontrols.

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Constraints


Hard Constraints

This is a count of incomplete tasks with hard constraints in use. Using hardconstraints [Must-Finish-On (MFO), Must-Start-On (MSO), Start-No-Later-Than (SNLT), & Finish- No-Later-Than (FNLT)] will prevent tasks from beingmoved by their dependencies and, therefore,prevent the schedule from beinglogic-driven. Soft constraints such as As- Soon-As-Possible (ASAP), Start-No-Earlier-Than (SNET), and Finish-No-Earlier-Than (FNET) enable the schedule tobe logic-driven. Divide the total number of hard constraints by the number ofincomplete tasks. The number of tasks with hard constraints should not exceed5%.

Hard Constraint % = Total # of incomplete tasks with hard constraintsTotal # of incomplete tasks

100x

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1. The XER Toolkit does not differentiate between hard and soft constraints in the defaultsettings, i.e. all constraints (hard and soft) will be included in calculation. The user can select

/ deselect any constraint type which will then be included in the calculations.

Float


High Float

Negative Float

An incomplete task with total oat greater than 44 working days (2 months)is counted in this metric. A task with total oat over 44 working days may bea result of missing predecessors and/or successors. If the percentage of taskswith excessive total oat exceeds 5%, the network may be unstable and maynot be logic-driven.

An incomplete task with total oat less than 0 working days is included inthis metric. It helps identify tasks that are delaying completion of one ormore milestones. Tasks with negative oat should have an explanation and acorrective action plan to mitigate the negative oat. Divide the total numberof tasks with negative oat by the number of incomplete tasks. Ideally, thereshould not be any negative oat in the schedule.

High Float % =

Negative Float % =

Total # of incomplete tasks with high oat

Total # of incomplete tasks with negative oat

Total # of incomplete tasks

Total # of incomplete tasks

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1. The values entered within the max days boxes represent the maximumtotal oat duration of activities within the range i.e. Using the examplescreen above:

Float range 1 Includes all activities that have a maximum total oat = 0 days (critical).There are zero activities in this oat range.

Float range 2 Includes all activities that have greater than 0 days total oat and up toa maximum of 10 days total oat (near critical). There are a totalof 15 activities in this oat range.

Float range 6 Includes all activities that have greater than 44 days total oat (DCMAde nition of high- oat). There are a total of 1,060 activities in thisoat range.

2. By toggling the Show selection to a speci c oat range, the activiteswithin that oat range will be listed within the results window. The exampleabove shows that oat range 6 has been selected and to the right of the

screen, the 1,060 activities in oat range 1 are listed. The detail included foreach activity within the list includes ID, description and oat value.

3. Users can select whether to include or exclude speci c activity types fromthe quality check results.

NB: To change the colour of the selected oat range, simply click thecoloured box to the left hand side of the oat range and then choose a newcolour. Any changes made to colours will be re ected within the dashboadreport.

Duration


High Duration

Costs

Not applicable to DCMA checks:

NB: For instruction relating to the project health tab for durations, refer to instructions for Floattab.

NB: For instructions relating to the project health tab for durations, refer to instructions forFloat tab.

An incomplete task with a baseline duration greater than 44 working days(2 months), and has a baseline start date within the detail planning period orrolling wave is included in this metric. It helps to determine whether or not atask can be broken into two or more discrete tasks rather than one. In addition,it helps to make tasks more manageable; which provides better insight intocost and schedule performance. Divide the number of incomplete tasks withhigh duration tasks by the total number of incomplete tasks. The number oftasks with high duration should not exceed 5%.

High Duration % = Total # of incomplete tasks with high durationTotal # of incomplete tasks

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Invalid Dates


NB: In addition to the Invalid Dates tab, the XER Toolkit also provides a tabfor possible errors with activities that are in-progress. The potnetial errorsidenti ed by the In Progress tab are:

Activities that have started but remain at 0% complete.

Activities that are complete but tagged as less than 100% complete.

Activities that are tagged as greater than 0% complete but have not beenmarked as started.

1. Simply toggle the desired checks on/ off

Incomplete tasks that have a forecast start/ nish date prior to the IMS statusdate, or has an actual start/ nish date beyond the IMS status date are includedin this metric. A task should have forecast start and forecast nish dates inthe future relative to the status date of the IMS (i.e. if the IMS status date is8/1/09, the forecast date should be on or after 8/1/09). A task should not havean actual start or actual nish date that is in the future relative to the statusdate of the IMS (i.e. if the IMS status date is 8/1/09, the actual start or nishdate should be on or before 8/1/09, not after 8/1/09). There should not be anyinvalid dates in the schedule.

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Missing Resources


1. The XER Toolkit provides the opportunity to differentiate between tasks without ANYresource and those that are without LABOUR resource types.

This metric provides veri cation that all tasks with durations greater than zerohave dollars or hours assigned. Some contractors may not load their resourcesinto the IMS. The IMS DID (DI-MGMT-81650) does not require the contractor toload resources directly into the schedule. If the contractor does resource loadtheir schedule, calculate the metric by dividing the number of incomplete taskswithout dollars/hours assigned by the total number of incomplete tasks.

Missing resource % = Total # of incomplete tasks with missing resourceTotal # of incomplete tasks

100x

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Late Activities


Missed Tasks

A task is included in this metric if it is supposed to be completed already(baseline nish date on or before the status date) and the actual nish dateor forecast nish date (early nish date) is after the baseline nish date or theFinish Variance (Early Finish minus Baseline Finish) is greater than zero. Thismetric helps identify how well or poorly the schedule is meeting the baselineplan. To calculate this metric, divide the number of missed tasks by the baselinecount which does not include the number of tasks missing baseline start ornish dates. The number of missed tasks should not exceed 5%.

Missed % =# of tasks with actual/forecast nish date past baseline date# of tasks with baseline nish dates on or before status date

100x

Assignment dates

Not applicable to DCMA checks:

Primavera makes allowance for resources to be applied across an activity duration in 2 ways:

Across the whole activity duration

Across part of the activity duration

E.g. An activity scope that consists of laying a concrete base may only include resources forthe initial part of that activity as the remaining duration may account for the time it takes theconcrete to set, during which no work may take place.

Although this can potentially be is a useful feature, it can also lead to situations wherebyresource dates become misaligned with their parent activity without the knowledge of theschedule r. Moreover, it is also possible for resource dates to go beyond the nish date of theirparent activity.

1. The XER Toolkit provides the user with the opportunity to review resources that have startand nish dates which are misaligned with the start and nish of their parent activity. Theuser can choose to include all activities or just those with resource completion dates beyondthe completion of their parent activity by checking / unchecking the tickbox.

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Overview

The XER Toolkits calendar viewer provides users with the opportunity to quickly identify andreport upon the details of a calendars working patterns and holidays, something that is notreadily available within Primavera.

The toolkit can read calendar data directly from any XER le or directly from a Primaveradatabase.

1. The XER toolkit produces adetailed day by day report,along with yearly wallchartsfor each year between the userde ned start and nish daterange selected. There are somedefault settings from which theuser can select by clicking on theappropriate button (E.g. projectstart to nish)

NB: The toolkit can producecalendar information for up to10 years in one go. For longerperiods, simply repear processfor each 10 year period required.

2. Select to see all calendars withincurrent XER le or, for multiproject les, toggle to see onlycalendars for the current project.

NB: All calendars that are in usefor the current selection willappear within the list, i.e. Global,Project and Resource.

3. Select the calendar to view.

4. Click Show calendar.

Calendar Viewer

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Detailed View

1. The top area of the report details the standard working pattern of theselected calendar which will be applied throughout the project duration,excluding calendar exceptions. The left hand table details the weekdaysalong with a summary of working hours for each day. The right hand detailtable provides a display of the working pattern for each day in half-hourlysectors.

2. The table underneath the standard working week provides detailed, day-by-day calendar working patterns and exceptions. An X displayed within thecalendar exception column identi es a day that has been changed from thedefault standard working pattern.

3. Excels auto- lter buttons, which are automatically inserted into the lefthand table can be used to select and identify the X values, and thereforeidentify all calendar exceptions within the user-de ned report period.

4. The detailed output sheet is produced as a separate worksheet from thecalendar wallchart(s) withn the calendar output workbook.

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Yearly wall-chart

The following wall-chart formats can be adjusted via the calendar viewer form:

Colour scheme

Include day counter

Include working hours

NB: The day counter is a running total of working days from the report start

date selected by the user until the nish date.To alter the legend colours, click on the coloured text box within the calendarviewer form.

1. From the main toolkit menu,select to Get new data from P6database.

2. Once connected to the database,select calendars from the menu.

3. Choose which calendar types todisplay within the list.

4. Select the calendar to view.

5. Click View calendar

6. Once the calendar viewing formhas opened, follow steps forviewing XER le calendars.

Directly from P6

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Documents

xer-schedule-toolkit-manual.pdf