(1) Explain your problem, don't simply post "This isn't working". What were you doing when you faced the problem? What have you tried to resolve - did you look for a solution using "Search" ? Has it happened just once or several times?
(2) It's also good to get feedback when a solution is found, return to the original post to explain how it was resolved so that more people can also use the results.
Excel Schedules have their uses. (I am a 33 year P3/P6 user also) What is the best one we can get a copy of that you have seen? - price not being an issue either. For example from the MS template database etc. CATEGORY 1 - EASY FOR CONSTRUCTION SUPERINTENDANTS COULD USE. CATEGORY 2 - SLICK/COOLEST, DIFFICULTY NOT AN ISSUE. (can even include smartsheets etc, but i would think excel could beat it, maybe not?)
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"thanks the name is Hungarian"
Paris, Vienna and Prague get most of the adulation--but for my taste, I don't think I've ever seen a more beautiful city than Budapest!
(I hope any Bajans reading this will forgive my not giving primacy to beautiful Bridgetown!)
Fraternally in project management,
Steve the Bajan
thanks the name is Hungarian
I sent you the excel spreadsheet
"...that is kind of what I deal with in the scheduling world, its all about production, I also do quite a bit of schedule reviewing I can only get the contractors to improve so far before hire ups say "good enough, we have bigger issues..."
I hear you, John! To me, this is one of the tragedies of project management. It starts with "higher ups" thinking: "It'll only be a few tens of thousands of dollars extra" and then, because their approach is fundamentally wrong, it winds up being, in some cases, tens of MILLIONS of dollars extra!
This is the sort of thing I just tried to cover, re net value-added, in my response to Zoltan's post in this thread. It's not the principles of project management that are at fault--it's the haphazard way they are applied.
All projects are investments. And one of THE most costly aspects on a project investment is almost always time. And that's critical path drag. Yet PM practice, and most s/w, does not even ALLOW input of the cost of time. It's no accident that those industries--nukes, refineries--that have a good handle on the huge cost of time do the BEST job of managing their projects!
I truly believe that if those "higher ups" simply took the time to compute that, by the time LDs are calculated, each day of delay will cost $X tens or hundreds of thousands, and that info was computed in reports as drag cost on activities, their attitudes would change in a hurry.
But you are probably right that it won't happen.
Fraternally in project management,
Steve the Bajan
Hi, Zoltan.
Thank you! Received it and looked through it. A nice spreadsheet that clearly would have a lot of value. I of course would wish that it included drag for critical path items and even more important, drag cost. But then it would probably need to be an add-on to Spider or Asta Powerproject, which do full-function CPM.
One other item which I could wish for is "Net Value-Added". Work is being performed in projects that has negative NVA all the time. It may have started as an optional task OFF the CP with $100K value-added for just $30K of resources. Then delays happen, and the task migrates to the CP with 10D drag at a drag cost of $15K/day. Suddenly it has NVA of $100K - ($30K + $150K) = - $80K. This sort of thing happens, usually invisibly, on project after project because the s/w does not:
A software package should not only track NVA of activities, but give a warning if it becomes negative on any activity.
Nevertheless, I think your spreadsheet is a VERY useful tool--please forgive me for saying I'd like to see its data expanded!
Fraternally in project management,
Steve the Bajan
Zoltan, first of all you have a cool name. I enjoy your comments here and I also see them quite a bit on Linkedin. I would love to see your barchart spreadsheet. johnreev44@comcast.net In return I will share what I have learned on the subject after looking around on the internet. I did find a couple decent ones, depending on need. As for the issues such as schedule drag, I think of the TV show M.A.S.H where Hawkeye sais he does meatball surgery - that is kind of what I deal with in the scheduling world, its all about production, I also do quite a bit of schedule reviewing I can only get the contractors to improve so far before hire ups say "good enough, we have bigger issues..."
Stephen
I sent you an email here asking your email address please respond.
I am right behind you I am 63 and I stil have a few more years to work before I semi - retire
Zoltan, as usual you are very kind. I'd be happy to see your Excel spreadsheet and, knowing you, I'm sure it's thorough in design and helpful for what practitioners ARE doing. I'd be happy--and interested--to see it.
But I'm mostly interested in seeing things that practitioners AREN'T doing: like DIPP and DPI metrics and analysis; value breakdown structure (VBS); cost of leveling w/ unresolved bottlenecks (CLUB); critical path drag and drag cost; and most of all, techniques and tools that OTHERS may be using that I don't know about for approaching projects, and planning and tracking them as the investments they are.
As you know, my major concern is with improving project management as an important and rigorous discipline: the theory, science, metrics and implementation of such. Although so many bright people are doing a great job in many industries, the bulk of project management is driven by organizations that have other, conflicting goals: costly organizational membership, certifications, and software sales. As we've clearly seen in the past year, the ignorance and inefficiencies they promulgate cost not just dollars but human lives: in emergency response, vaccine & pharma development and distribution, in shelter construction, in software systems intended to facilitate distribution of life-saving tools... How many people in the organizations that "run" PM, even now, understand that project management ignoranc e is at the root of manufacturing and supply chain bottlenecks that have cost, and continue to cost, so many lives?
At age 71, I'm semi-retired--I'll present or teach or consult on projects and in situations where I think there may be people or an organization ready to start doing things properly. But in almost 40 years, not only have I seen almost no progress, but I've observed the BACKWARDS march caused by the "agilistas" who (1) can't take the trouble to understand critical path and thus don't recognize that EVERY project is as long as its critical path, whether they try to plan and optimize it or not; (2) won't make the effort (or take the risk of being wrong) to plan a project using the REMARKABLY supple and "agile" techniques of what they call "waterfall"; and (3) have brought about an insurrection against the project management "discipline" and created an environment that truly illustrates "the death of expertise".
So though I am assuming that your spreadsheet does not include drag and drag cost (I mean, where wouldthe spreadsheet get those data from?), I'd be happy to see it, and give feedback if you want it. (Sorry if I sound cynical.)
Fraternally in project management,
Steve the Bajan
I have an excel spreadsheet that has 7 differnt bar chart format all in one excel file let me know if you want it. I wll send it to John and Stephen if you want it but I am not sending it to the world so everyone else dont ask me please because I know how this goes.
"Lets leave P6 out of it"
Hi, John.
I'm not disputing your knowledge, as it is based on 30+ years in one of the most scheduling-mature industries.
However, neither Excel, P6, nor P3 compute THE "critical" metrics for schedule compression/optimization: critical path drag and drag cost. And as these can both change on a daily basis as further planning is done, work is performed or slippage/acceleration occurs, they need to be in a software package that can compute and provide updates instantaneously.
And no metric encourages and facilitates schedule acceleration/recovery more than these two! In 30+ years of consulting in many industries, I have often used these to realize the ability to compress a schedule by 15% to 40% (the lower number in more mature industries like nuke & oil/gas refinery projects).
As far as I know, only Spider Project and Asta Powerproject compute critical path drag. It is a travesty that in 2021 a product like Primavera (which markets itself as kinda the Cadillac of PM) does not perform what should be basic CPM computations.
Fraternally in project management,
Steve the Bajan
Lets leave P6 out of it - that is overkill in different scenarios. In a basic excel gantt schedule, the below formula draws a black bar from the date.
=IF(AND((OR($Q2340=AG$2,$Q2340<AG$2)),(OR($S2340=AG$2,$S2340>AG$2)))=TRUE,$AC2340,0)
I want to draw a format bar that uses format, fill, fill effect, from center. - it looks better, but I cannot figure out how to do it.
Lets leave primavera out of it. We all have seen PM and Superintendent 3 - 5 week excel schedules. I am looking at simply drawing the bars using the dates. I am able to do it using the following formula, but it draws a black bar which does not look good. I want to draw a blue bar that use "Format, Fill, effect, shade center" which is the only way I can figure out how to seperate the lines and make it look better other than go every other line which I do not want to do because a hassle and waste of space etc.
=IF(AND((OR($Q2340=AG$2,$Q2340<AG$2)),(OR($S2340=AG$2,$S2340>AG$2)))=TRUE,$AC2340,0)
Lets leave primavera out of it. We all have seen PM and Superintendent 3 - 5 week excel schedules. I am looking at simply drawing the bars using the dates. I am able to do it using the following formula, but it draws a black bar which does not look good. I want to draw a blue bar that use "Format, Fill, effect, shade center" which is the only way I can figure out how to seperate the lines and make it look better other than go every other line which I do not want to do because a hassle and waste of space etc.
=IF(AND((OR($Q2340=AG$2,$Q2340<AG$2)),(OR($S2340=AG$2,$S2340>AG$2)))=TRUE,$AC2340,0)
Lets leave primavera out of it. We all have seen PM and Superintendent 3 - 5 week excel schedules. I am looking at simply drawing the bars using the dates. I am able to do it using the following formula, but it draws a black bar which does not look good. I want to draw a blue bar that use "Format, Fill, effect, shade center" which is the only way I can figure out how to seperate the lines and make it look better other than go every other line which I do not want to do because a hassle and waste of space etc.
=IF(AND((OR($Q2340=AG$2,$Q2340<AG$2)),(OR($S2340=AG$2,$S2340>AG$2)))=TRUE,$AC2340,0)
not sure we have our own custom report writer and tracking tools
yes, the SDK and RA and whatever else are OK - and then they abandon it. P3P6 became worse for AEC when they chased the IT and MRP worlds which largely ignores P6. It is crazy how every contractor re-invents the basic 5 week look-ahead schedule instead of the industry using some shared basic templates that work better than starting from 0 everytime. Does anyone know of a current system that can pull information out of 20 different dailies and summarize them into reports etc. There use to Monarch and Pipeline etc but then they turn from a utility to a system and become to pricy and specific. It is crazy that P3 is still better than P6 in many regards and the turle pace P6 has evolved.
sdk was the best had everythng including thr capablility to add dictionaries went to the waysde since it is only on 32 bit version.
The one I use a lot is the ability to import
activity id
activity status
wbs
original duration
remaining duration
activity name
predcessor id #
relationship TYPE
lag
AACE library - if you search it nothing comes up for IMP - Integrated Mgt Plan, lets start with the schedule. Excel is where all our systems meet (sorry E-Builders of the word) If AACE wants to become more a component of people's careers we should work on some best of basic templates, for example a simple spreadsheet that can be stand alone for superintendants but then also be easily importable into P6. I think an essential element of a spreadsheet would be one that can be used graphically with X's or shading OR typing in dates. I will post some info I have on some, it will just taking some digging through old projects - tends to change job to job.
Email: PPadmin@planningplanet.com
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