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Delete or Not to Delete Activities in P6

4 replies [Last post]
Tom Rosenbaugh
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Have a question on deleting activities from P6 after those activities have been baselined, or multiple baselines.

Once an activity is baselined, or is baselined multiple times for variance analysis, on a bi-weekly basis, and this activity is no longer needed should it just be deleted, and possibly noted outside of the schedule. Or should it be left in the schedule and taken to complete, with zero duration, links broken and noted as to when and why it was deleted, so the Activity ID cannot be re-used again?

Replies

Rafael Davila
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Agree with David, another reaso why, as stated before, if a portion of the activity was realized you must keep on record that portion, you delete only the un-realized portion if the un-realized portion is no longer valid.

David Barnett
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One issue to consider is percentage progress. If there is any cost information attached to the activities they disappear with the activity and would skew you % progress position.

Rafael Davila
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Keeping in current schedule activities no longer in use can cause some problems, merely changing duration to zero does not means logic after deletion is correct, is not always that simple, the blind application of "dissolve" function shall be avoided unless you know the reassigned links are correct, and this means among other things taking care of inherited lag values. I do not trust "dissolve" functionality at all.

Keep in mind activities are not always auto-updated and they must be actualized to actual dates if they happened or partially happened otherwise non fixed out-of-sequence logic might create issues, particularly with the retained logic option. Resource usage, resource leveling and cost issues can be another source of problems if you keep them.

If a portion of the activity was realized you must keep on record that portion, you delete only the un-realized portion if the un-realized portion is no longer valid.

After a Re-Baseline or an Update I would:

  • Always add a suffix to new activities codes /ID to prevent use of old activity codes/ID. This will make it clear and transparent they were added after initial Baseline. The suffix should tell me on what update it was added and will help with filtering.

Baselines are meant to be kept frozen, you never add/delete activities from the record/contractual baselines, you create new baselines that can contain new activities and shall not include deleted activities.

Mike Testro
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Joined: 14 Dec 2005
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Hi Tom

Welcome to Plannung Plant.

Change unwanted tasks into a zero duration milestone but keep the logic.

Make a note of why you have changed it.

And in future please only hit the Save button once.

Best regards

Mike Testro