Longest Path in P3e

Did you know that there is new software available to add a Longest Path Value to every activity in your P3 schedule? Then you can sort, select, and group all of your activities by Longest Path, instead of just the most-longest path. Look at http://www.ronwinterconsulting.com/lpath1.htm for more on this.

Gents,



Don’t forget that P3e is much more a resource scheduling tool than P3 has ever been. This together with the enterprise approach gives a whole new view on preparing and managing a schedule.



Most of the projects we work on will not benefit of this approach and using P3e as you are using P3 right know is like driving a formula 1 car in the centre of town.



Regards,



Ed van der Tak [Aram Planning Consultants - The Netherlands]

I believe that P3e is pretty much the same tool as far as the planning aspects go. The difference is that in being an enterprise version it is designed to allow a company to take a holistic aproach.



Therefore, am I correct in stating that it should be approached from the corporate view rather than just the planners view.



In summary I am sticking with P3 - the change up would involve much more than an individual approach.



Dave

Dave,



Your analysis is absolutely correct. The one main difference is that P3e does deal with projects from a company or enterprise point of view. This means one global set of resources, cost accounts, etc.



In addition P3e surpasses its little sister P3 in many aspects including performance, interface, multi user environment, budgeting , reporting and a lot more.



Of course implementation of planning & control systems using P3e requires high corporate level involvement, but if you get them to approve, you will be working with a whole DB of projects which although is exhausting is challenging and exciting.

I am sorry clement1000, but total float equal to zero does not necesarily mean longest path.



There are two examples I can think of right now.



If you have constrained a milestone your predecessors might have total float equal to zero and this chain of predecessor will not take you through the longest path; that is, this zero total float path will not take you to the end of the project.



Another instance will be when your project end date is constrained and the project is behind schedule. Then you will have negative total floats.



You will then need to determine the least total float. But then again this will not take you through the longest path.



The problem gets a little more complex if you are using SS or FF relationships plus activity constraints coupled with the alternative of calculating total float as the start or finish float. That is why P3 has the parameter "longest path" which makes life a lot easier.



Tomas Rivera

I do not have an answer to your question because I do not use P3e but P3.



I am replying to your post because I would like to ask you if you would recommend to me to change from P3 to P3e?



What has been your experience in changing from P3 to P3e?



Aside from the difficulties I have heard about using P3e, has it been worthwile to you?



What kind of use do you give P3e?



To what extent do you use it and in what industry?