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A quick response needed!

11 replies [Last post]
Wed, 2007-07-25 07:12
Oliver Melling
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All,

Assuming I have used two different calendars for activities in a programme.
i.e
1. an installation team working 40 hrs/ 4 day week.
2 site mangement team working off-site 37.5 hrs/ 5 day week.

the duration shown in the ’original duration’ column changes depending on the number of hours stated for a standard day in admin preferences.

(5 days in the 37.5hr/week calendar appears as 3.75 days when the admin preference is set as 10 hours/day)

Is it possible to show the duration in relation to the activities calendar?

Cheers
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Replies

Tue, 2007-07-31 07:44
#1
Oliver Melling
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Dieter,

Even if the customer specifies the need for tender including a level 3 gantt, with resource profiles and cost s-curves?

I agree Dieter, using one calendar is suitable most project, especially when there is resource loading involved.

I also think that the method of just supplying dates without durations is acceptable, in some circumstances.

I just think life would be easier if P5 provided a method that didn’t involve using a global frig...... i mean change.

Cheers,

Ol
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Tue, 2007-07-31 07:37
#2
Dieter Wambach
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Oliver

but in this phase you can use the same calendar for all activities (best the default calendar). Then no problem to show durations.
Regards
Dieter
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Tue, 2007-07-31 07:23
#3
Oliver Melling
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Dieter,

We’ll have to agree to disagree then.

I know that start & finish dates are the most important, but if you have submitted a tender programme to win a contract, then a quick reference tr the duration you have estimated for certain activities can verify the quality of your bid more quickly.

Regards,

Ol
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Tue, 2007-07-31 07:18
#4
Dieter Wambach
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Hi
For my opinion "Duration" is a misleading term. For a scheduling software it is in working days. But those depend on an activity’s calendar. So if you have two activities with e.g. 6- and 5-working-days a week just one below the other, then 12 days would be the same as 10 days, as 2 weeks. If you want to confuse someone - ok. Even more confusing would be if longest duration within a group is 35 days, in the headline 25 days due to different calendars (7 days, vs. 5 days as default).
What is the important information for the customer: It will take from, e.g. September 1 to October 5.
In general he doesnt care the exact number of working days.

Regards

Dieter
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Tue, 2007-07-31 06:29
#5
Paul Harris
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I do not think it is a case of being right or wrong to show durations in hours, it is just a work around.

I am unable to answer your questions.

Paul E Harris
Eastwood Harris Pty Ltd, Melbourne, Australia
Planning and Scheduling Training Manual & Book Publishers & Consulting
www.eh.com.au
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Tue, 2007-07-31 03:25
#6
Oliver Melling
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Do you think it is right to show duration in hours though?

Estimates can be done in hours, but most people looking at the programme would want durations to be in days.

Why is this function not supported? surely it is simple for the software companies to do, is this not a major oversight on their behalf? or is there a simple, yet sensible approach to avoid this?
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Fri, 2007-07-27 02:15
#7
Paul Harris
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This is a big issue for many of my clients that are looking at going over to Primavera Version 5.0 and it is not only confined to P5.0, Microsoft Project and Sure Trak also have this problem.

Other options are:
1. You invest in software that handles this issue like Asta PowerProject,
2. Have a database for each project that has different calendars (but this does not help if there are more than calendar per project) or
3. Display the durations in hours and show the calendar name in a column as well.

In Microsoft Project one can use a calculatable field with a logical formulae, but using a user definer field in P5 also means one has to remember to run the Global change.

The other issues are off course that Float durations and Finish Variances are also wrong, so does one have a whole suite of user fields for Total Float, Free Float, Actual Duration, Remaining Duration, Baseline 1 Finish Variance …..!

Paul E Harris
Eastwood Harris Pty Ltd, Melbourne, Australia
Planning and Scheduling Training Manual & Book Publishers & Consulting
www.eh.com.au
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Thu, 2007-07-26 03:46
#8
Khuong Do
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Hi Oliver

I think currently Primavera does not support the function : Show duration base on activity calendar.

But if you only have a few type of calendar in your project (e.g: 2 calendar, 8h/day and 10h/day), you could use User Define Field and Global Change function to create the duration you want.

Duration 10h/day = Original Duration / 10
(UDF)

THanks
Khuong
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Thu, 2007-07-26 02:35
#9
Oliver Melling
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Thanks for the quick response.

After talking to a few peers it seems they all have this problem!

Spoke to techUK for Primavera, the guy said it was putting durations in days that caused it to happen.

He mentioned if you enter durations in hours instead of days, then the program will bypass the hours per period in the admin settings and should give the right answer in the duration column. Haven’t tried it yet though.

Cheers,

Ol
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Wed, 2007-07-25 13:50
#10
Patricia Le Clainche
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Hello Oliver,

In last June, I posted one subject "Calendar by défault and specific calendar". I often parameter on days. And I have also such troubles.

And, to avoid confusion, I work as mentionned by Dieter ; I avoid showing the "Duration" column. I better show "Start" and "Finish" fields.

Kindest regards.
Patricia
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Wed, 2007-07-25 08:02
#11
Dieter Wambach
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Hi Oliver

P3e internally works with hours. If you put your preferences to "day" for units, your admin pref’s set to 10h/day and then enter 2 days of workload, Primavera will keep 20 hours, means 2 days for the first, 2,67 days for the second type of calendar.
The resource-assignment will take the default rate per day for the specific resource, e.g. 7,5 h/day.

As a quick response: Change your user prefs to hours and enter the duration in hours or keepin mind that a day has ten hours and your internal resources have a part-time job. In the report maybe that you just show Start and Finish that readers won’t get confused.

Hope this will help

Dieter
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