Resource driving dates with zero remaing effort
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David,
Some answers below;
1) Nature of resources in your plan. Are they "pools of trade" e.g. I have 10 riggers, 12 scaffolders etc, OR named individuals, e.g. Fred Smith, Mechanical engineer. A = (Both), were using pools/parent resources for forward planning and named resources for timesheets (when we get told who is actually on the job)
2) Is timesheet data used to update actual hours. A = unfortunatley yes
3) If you asked an engineer "how big is that job" would they say:
Its a 3 day job A = Engineer 1
Its a 4 man job A = Engineer 2
Its a 50 manhour job A = Engineer 3
- and then PM/PD says Bu!!Sh!t and tells us what they want
4) Are you "client" or "contractor" A = Middle man
5) Is measuring growth important A = In scope YES!!!!
6) do you use just the P5/6 Windows client only, or some of the web stuff A = Client only at this time (Version 5 SP4)
So there you have it, and I had further confirmation today from a Primavera Rep that if I wish to avoid my original issue with the resource that is on holidays with no remaining effort - still driving the end date of the activity out, I will need to manage at the individual assignments level.
Ya! for me ;-)
Andrew,
Some questions. They help me setup the parameters.
1) Nature of resources in your plan. Are they "pools of trade" e.g. I have 10 riggers, 12 scaffolders etc, OR named individuals, e.g. Fred Smith, Mechanical engineer.
2) Is timesheet data used to update actual hours.
3) If you asked an engineer "how big is that job" would they say:
Its a 3 day job
Its a 4 man job
Its a 50 manhour job
4) Are you "client" or "contractor"
5) Is measuring growth important
6) do you use just the P5/6 Windows client only, or some of the web stuff
In addition,
I have seen too often that activity marked with Zero remaining duration and without a actual finish date or 100% completed without actual finish date.
When you schedule project that contain these condition it (the system) gives you a warning and ask to rectify the problem, but again once too often, planner just ignore these warnings.
As a planner, our value is to base on current progress and information and predict the outcome of the project... in terms of time, and maybe cost as well. So accurate information is need to have a right prediction or simulation. Shxx in Shxx out
Alex
Hi Andrew
I can only guess why Primavera design it in such a way that you can have individual resource can allocate different period of time within the activity period.
In the past, both MSP and P3 do not allow this so that the resource is always spread across the duration, as a result, if you have a resource only required during the begining or end of the activity will require an additional activity seperate due to the constraint. And within a complex network, more activity means more daily maintainence. As a result, in P5, each resource assignment is independent with its own Start and Finish date. In addition, you can still setup the activity without assign individual start and finish date, the system will generate base on the activity dates.
Because of that it gives the flexibility for planner to either update @ activity level or resource level.
The planner have to decide which level he/she require to be updated. All these is pave the way to use timesheet in the system so that individual resource can still assign their completion date for part of the works required for the activity without update the activity as completed.
HTH,
Alex
Alex,
I agree with the first scentence of your second paragraph, as far as setting the activity type to task dependant, this would defeat the initial purpose of identifying schedule delays attributed to resources being on leave (using their own calendars to plan that).
The issue is the fact that Primavera requires you to manage each resource assignment on an individual basis and track the finish date of each assignment and subsequently update the assignment if the work has been completed.
This to me seems over cumbersome, and quite silly that you must manage down to such a low level within your programs just to get the software to tell you when an activity will potentially finish.
I also agree that there are a great number of settings (bells & whistles) that are availible to the user as a whole, and this proves to be the bain of my existance in trying to figure out which ones are the best to use when even Primavera themselves cant seem to tell me.
Andy
Hi Andrew,
Just reading the original question, It seem that the activity you setup is contradict with the progress data.
If you set up the activity as Resource Dependent then when the resource is finished (no remaining unit) then it should be finished as well. And since the activity is not yet finish and you should change the activity type as task dependent.
As of course there are number of different setting combination in Primavera. However, as a planner, we should setup the appropriate setting for a specific type of activity.
Good Luck.
Alex
David,
Thanks for your comments, however Im very surprised that someone has worked out the best settings for anything, given the number of combinations you can have.
The reason for my selections are purely based on Primavera suggestions to my predecessors when the company purchased the tool.
I have been on a quest for the holy grail, so to speak, when it comes to the desired settings.
So if you can knock that book up in the next day or so Im sure there would be just more than me who would buy a copy.
Anyway, I did try the resource dependant activities as you suggest and soon turned those back to task dependant. Id love to have enough hard eveidence tobuild a case to turn of the "drive activity dates by default" . So I would be appreciative of any direction you may provide me there.
Thanks
Andy
Andrew,
VERY surprised that someone with "construction" in their job title/industry is using "drive activity dates by default" as a project level setting. Ive always found that to be a ticket to the madhouse.
Next you will tell me you are using "resource dependant" activities! (I reckon on 50mg Valium for each resource dependant activity in a construction schedule)
I guess 50% of my time as Primavera Consultant/Trainer/Representative is talking to clients about these settings.
Maybe I should write the book, I certainly talk it nearly every day.
But just to be serious for a minute... The settings I see described in the text of the emails between yourself and Primavera seem ideal for a software development project - so "Railway Construction" seems to fit quite badly with that.
Fair enough,
I think that oneday someone will finally work out which combination of the bells and whistle selections works best.
For now Primavera have told me that to overcome this issue, you need to do on of 2 things;
Apply an actual finish date to each resource assignment on each activity as soon as they are finished the work they need to do on the activity.
And, deselect the Resource Dirve Activity Dates.
It seems that the scheduler will still take into account the resource availability in predicting the end date of the activity even if there are no hours left in their remaining.
Andy
Andrew,
Sorry I cannot, im also lost in this matter and wondering why there are too many options. It is that I just prefer to use Fixed Units as it will be derived from your given quantities (i.e. from BOQ). When making schedules, I prefer that Durations and Resources are flexible as these are the variables which means changeable and impossible to be fixed unless you forced it. While the Units can only be changed upon approval of something (i.e. Change Order or Variations).
??? have I got a point? really I dont know!
Anoon,
Thanks for that, but could you explain a bit more?
Andy
Unsolicited Comment:
Regarding Settings:
Scheduling settings
Progress override selected
No other tick boxes selected
Activity settings
Type = Resource Dependant
Duration type = Fixed units time
% Complete = Duration
I just thought that the above settings are conflicting, i.e. Fixed units time and Resource Dependent; % Complete Calculation which was set on Duration against Resource Dependency...