CIOB Time Management Research

Hi Toby



I look forward to receiving my copy for peer review.



Best regards



Mike Testro

Toby,



I believe more emphasis should be given to resource planning. Ups and downs in resource demand create inefficiencies at the jobsite; it can even influence the perception of urgency as demand goes up and down.



Many of today’s planners do not consider resources loading into their schedules and to make it worse, those who do are using the wrong software. All Primavera Products, Microsoft Project and almost all do provide substandard resource leveling using outdated algorithms to handle the issue. They still use 40 years old and outdated reasoning.



To my surprise a few weeks ago I realized most software resource leveling is not looking for optimization but for a less than optimal solution. Naively I assumed they were looking for the optimal or near optimal solution. These produce resource leveling plans that misguide the Project Manager.



The good thing is that you can test the resource leveling algorithms with real life sample jobs without the need to understand operations research science.



Try resource leveling with the following job to see how your software can handle it and let me know. All relationships FS and 0 lag, two resources AA and BB one each assigned per activity as per table, one of each are available, for all activitiees use a 5 work days per week calendar, very simple.







Answer: Before resource leveling 70 work days total job duration, after resource leveling 72 work days days total job duration.



If your software cannot solve it then try to use “soft dependencies" to solve it manually by your own, got to be easy, only ten activities. of which two are milestones.



Best regards,

Rafael

Trevor,

you suggested me to pay for the decision I don’t need.

You asked for the real project, not me.



Spider Project finds the shortest resource constrained schedule for this project in 8 seconds. And my notebook is two years old and is not the fastest machine available.

You suggested to pay for the long time you will spend finding similar solution and honestly I don’t believe that you will ever do it.

This way you answered the question why the software that creates good schedules is profitable to have. It will save a lot of time, a lot of efforts, and a lot of money.



And having good and experienced field managers does not mean that the scheduling is not necessary as one can decide reading your post.



Best Regards,

Vladimir

Just a comment on the bars discussed above.



I think what happens is that summary type bars are used during tendering (due to time and information constrainsts) and then when the project starts being progressed, the immense pressures forces planners to be unable to detail the programme adequately.



In South Africa, you often find on the larger projects only one planner really involved. Its also to do with inadequate understanding given to the planning profession by the contracts managers (who often think its an innesccessary evil).



Just a thought.......(though my boss likes to detail more so he has tought me better discipline)

Hi Toby



Thank you for that head up.



I will contact Gary at PEO with a view to getting involved.



The last I heard of Keith he was in Hong Kong but it will be good to meet him again.



Best regards



Mike Testro

Hi Toby.



Who is going to do the training?



It is hardly touched upon in colleges and universities so no one knows the basic principles when they start work.



How do you stop contractor’s planners putting together multi task multi location bars and then using mid bar links to the next bar.



In the analysis I am now working on the planner has one bar for "1st Fix All Trades" over a three storey building linked to "Plastering" and then on to "2nd Fix All Trades" each with a start-start link with a 5 day lag.



This proctice is not unusual - in fact it is alarmingly common.



I welcome your suggestions as to how to get the next generation of planners to do it properly - the current lot are beyond redemption.



Best regards



Mike Testro.

Hi Ken



All programming software allows you to over ride logic links and force a task to either:



1 Start on a set date

and/or

2 Finish on a set date



These are what I call artificial restraints - they distort the logic and the critical path and therefore should not be used.



If there is a reason why a task cannot start before a particualr date then put in a predecessor bar and give it a name.



Best regards



Mike Testro

What exactly are you refering to when you say "artificial constraints"?

excellento



will check it out :-)

Hi Danya



There is a PP thread on PowerProject Teamplan where there was a lively debate on the merits of PowerProject against P3 - that would be worth a visit.



Or you can go to Astadev.co.uk and get a 15 day demo version.



Best regards



Mike Testro

thanks Mike,



very informative. Guess we arent doing too much wrong (we do love those lag links ha ha). I totally hate any artifical constrainst. As far as I am concerned, people using those shouldnt be called planners!!!!



Tell me, what is the joy of using powerproject compared to other software? It is not used down here in sunny south africa.......

Hi Danya



I have a few rules - not in any particular order.



The programme should be structured to fit a workspace where 1 trade can work on its own.

The programme tasks form a FS cascade within the workspace - sometimes known as bottom up prgramming.

Logic links are placed between workspaces to control resource levels.



Nevr use:

Artifial constraints.

Lead Lags on links.

Tasks more than 10 days long.



Always:

Have at least one outgoing link from every activity - even if it is to contract completion.

Put 24/7 calendars on curing or drying out bars.



Other factors:

Use a calendar to represent anticipated weather down time.

Deploy a single resource called "hours" for all resource modelling and extract the hours from the cost plan.



And finally - switch to PowerProject software.



I hope that helps



Best regards



Mike Testro

Hi Mike (again)



Please can you explain the requirements that make a contractors programme fit for purpose (so to speak). I am always wondering about the balance between too much and too little information.



Thanks



Danya

Hi Toby



I have not yet read the CIOB report but I really do not need to.



In my role as a forensic delay analyst over the last 10 years I have rarely encountered a contractors programme that was fit for delay analysis purposes.



My conclusion is that construction programming in the UK industry is unfit for purpose.



I raised this point at a recent seminar on NEC3 and as the only "planner" my views were endorsed by all Project Managers in the room.



How do we get them to do it right first time?



Why bother we would be out of business if they did.



Best regards



Mike Testro

Dear Toby,



Since you are talking about complex projects, then the data required to plan and schedule these projects are always available. You will have to depend on the project team and their experience.



Training is always good and it will enhance your skills only if you are using what you trained for. With complex projects comes, complex requirements as well.



The key to success in these projects would be planning, execution and control and monitoring the activities on a daily basis. If you have a good team and enough technical support and resources, you will be able to complete your complex project.



If you have something specific, please let us know.



Best Regards,



Samer

Vladimir, I am sure you are right and I wish you all the best and I hope you sell a million licenses of Spider. And I will advise clients that MSP is not the only software tool, and direct them to the alternatives and they can make their own choices. Meanwhile, I still have to make a living in the world that is, not the one that might have been or the one that it might one day become.

Anoon,



By taking a look at the Forum Discussion Category Primavera Version PM5 / PM6 you will see how many questions are there regarding the many bugs within the software.



Is even hard to get simple graphic reports with functionality similar to old P3, is more like you are limited to screen or layout printouts. This was an issue about 10 years ago when P3e was introduced, a software different to P3 and developed by another enterprise who sold the software to Primavera.



Primavera P6 has so many date definitions it even creates confusion, and some data fields seems like temporary calculation values.



Primavera P6 does not gives you a single automatic algorithm that look for optimum resource leveling, it cannot even provide you with true float values under resource leveling. Of course the various definition of optimal solution might require various algorithms. My main concern is job duration, for others might be resource smoothing, not as defined by Primavera but to minimize incremental changes in resource loading, for others might be Time-Cost trade off to minimize total project cost as a function of project duration.



The software is pricey and you can get better value from other software that is more efficient and less demanding on the hardware. At home we consider it too expensive and we have serious issues with the Government agencies, mainly uncle Sam, the US Government, because even against the federal procurement rules (FAR) many US Government Agencies brand specify Primavera, you have no option, is a matter of force, bullies take advantage of it.



What can you do when your own institutions evade the law, as the procurement regulations are supposed to have the full force of the law? I guess is complain, and make your voice heard. If not because of this I would not be comparing other products with Primavera, there would be no need. I am for allowing the end user to select the tool. If you are working on a lump sum job then the Contractor should be free to select the tool of his choosing, if you are under a PM type of agreement then the PM is the one who shall select the tool. We are in need of government agencies to stop evading the law. We need to get our government agencies, State and Federal, to issue performance specifications that do not favor a particular software.



GSA serves as the acquisition and procurement arm of the federal government, the following was extracted from one of their job specs.







Obviously, under free choice, I would expect MS Project to be the most widely used in Government Contracts, and why not?



Best regards,

Rafael

Hey all,



Allow me to add one more thing.

Its something that is pretty obvious but I didn’t really pay attention to it until yesterday when I was trying to run Rafael’s example.

All MS products are made in such a modular way that you can write add-ins for those Products. Add-ins that would do anything you’d like in a much different way then the original product does.

Maybe ,sometimes, thats one reason MS doesn’t care about the basic features that come with its product that much. They count on 3rd parties to be improving these products through add-ins. Kind of the lazy’s man solution to making a lot of money.

Surprisingly there are many add-ins for MS Project. I used a demo of one of them yesterday and was really surprised it leveled Rafael’s example perfectly without having to trick it into doing it like Trevor already did with MS Project..



@Vladimir,

A more intuitive spider user interface would be nice. It already hurts my eyes . :)



Regards

Roland

Roland,

those who use Spider Project consider MS Project interface as not logical and hard to use.

It is natural.

Besides, Spider Project has much more functions and thus options. It makes its interface more complicated.

We will work to create an option to hide the functions that are not necessary now.



I know about some of MS Project scheduling add-ins. Some of them produce better schedules for small projects but work poor with the large schedules. But I don’t know all of them. So please give us the reference.



Best Regards,

Vladimir

Hi Mike,



Yes, you are right it is supposed to be + and - (plus and minus), but you are looking for the absolute value, which is supposed to be the bottom line, so whether it is plus or minus doesn’t matter, but again, it matters in scheduling to know whether you are ahead or behind.



So I guess, you will need a dynamic formula for your manual leveling to become faster. Maybe Vladimir has it already, why don’t you try Spider?



cheers

A question for Mr. Rafael Davila (if I maybe allowed):



What really made you think and said that P6 is the worst?



Is it in general? If not, in terms of what?



Thanks