Why activity bars are splitted after schedule

From http://eastwoodharris.com/DL/TP/100602_P6V_%20Bars_Tricks_and_Traps.pdf

Seems like early am hours are non working so if DD is at midnight remaining duration will start a few hours after midnight, there is a gap not filled no matter if necking or not.

Not all software are equal. 

2 solutions

1. change the data date TIME to 8:00 am

2. go to bars and select the actual work bar and change the timescale to current Current bar

Hi there,

I wrote an article named How to remove the gap between actual bar and remaining bar in schedule update in Primavera P6.

I believe that it can solve your issue. Kindly refer to this link : https://doduykhuong.com/2020/01/29/how-to-remove-the-gap-between-actual-bar-and-remaining-bar-in-schedule-update-in-primavera-p6/

Regards,

Khuong.

Yep that fixed it! Lesson learnt - from now on always display the time as well as the date! Must say its about right with how non user friendly P6 is.

Another note on my issue, it only necks for half a day after the data date? So when the data date moves the gap follows!?

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Hi Gary,

1) What is the relationship type & lag of the predeccesor? - FINISH TO START, NO LAG

2) Are both predecessor & successor using the same calendar? - YES

3) Are there any other predecesors? - NO

4) Are any of the predecessors marked as "driving" in the successor's relationship tab of the activity detail? - NO (not sure why not?)

5) Does the sucessor have any resources loaded, and if so whar calendar are the resources linked to? - NO

6) If you switch to progress overide & schedule, does the gap disapear? - NO

Regards

Adam

Adam,

Some other probably obvious questions:

1) What is the relationship type & lag of the predeccesor?

2) Are both predecessor & successor using the same calendar?

3) Are there any other predecesors?

4) Are any of the predecessors marked as "driving" in the successor's relationship tab of the activity detail?

5) Does the sucessor have any resources loaded, and if so whar calendar are the resources linked to?

6) If you switch to progress overide & schedule, does the gap disapear?

I'm still struggling with this one, this is not a necking issue this is a matter of a splitting bar. 

Predecessor AS = 27-06-16 and AF = 03-07-13

Successor AS = 05-07-13 and EF = 15-07-13 (this bar has a big gap in the middle)

Data Date = 09-07-13

To answer the obvious questions: I prefer not to use progress override, the gap does not occur over a weekend or any calender non-working time, and yes it becomes a neck if I switch activity nonwork necking on - but why is this activity nonwork time? There is no reason the activity cant work where the gap is? The gap seems completely random!

Any further advice welcome here guys :-)

I don't know if you are still searching for an answer on this, but I see the same problem.  I solved it by switching from Retained Logic to Progress Override.

It is caused by an out-of-sequence update, i.e. a predecessor was not complete, but a successor had a start date.  The gap is the same duration as the remaining duration of the predecessor.

AS Ron Winter said Go to View / Bars. Find the Remaining Work line. Click on the Bar Settings tab. Clear checkmark  [instead of "put a checkmark"] on the two Bar Necking Settings, perhaps this is how it is toggled off, remember I do not use P3e nor P6 anymore. The baseline bars are showing no necking at all so they shall be already set as you want. Because the bar lines sometimes are composed of several bars make sure all bars assigned line 1 have the same setting with regard to bar necking, if this is how P6 works, in  my software a single click for necking synchronizes all bars.

Clear checkmark if you want to see a continuous bar, but this is the opposite of what you shall be doing, it hides non-working time schedule. You should be interested on non-working time distribution, it reminds you about holidays and vacation days on your calendars. In case you are in a hurry you can make these available as work time by working on resource as well as activity calendars or by assigning resources available to work those days.

Necking is particularly useful when you have several crews [teams] working on the same activity but on different shifts, can be different hours, different days or a combination.

I think it is because you are using Physical % complete. The % complete that you are entering is an estimate of where you think the work is and it is not related to the time left on the activity. I tend only to use physical % complete when a client requests that when a bar extends the % complete does not reduce, which happens when you are using units % complete

Pierfrancesco,

Would you please display the link bars, the start of activities on lines 5 and 6 seems like occurring at the same time but the yellow bars, I assume the baseline bars, are displayed as if start of activity on line 6 depends on the finish of activity on line 5. If actual start of both happened on the same day then we have here an out of sequence progress. And if so, seems you are using progress override because I do not see the splits you mentioned just the non-working time necking.

Anyway it would not do any harm to find out about your selection of progress override or retained logic. I consider good practice to fix any out of sequence as well as to display necking. Necking can warn you of interruptions due to exceptions like vacations for a given resource that is delaying the activity. Even when it seems retained logic matches real logic at times some links are overlooked in the review, especially if resource dependencies, the best way to make sure all dependencies are taken care is by correcting logic and erasing the flag for out of sequence logic.

One possible solution might be to split the activity as follows, but it can be 4 days and 1 day or just 0 day remaining for 6a and 5 for 6b [the retained logic solution shown above]. The software will not do magic, will be limited to simple assumptions, assumptions not always true.

Best regards,

Rafael

Necking can warn you of interruptions due to exceptions like vacations for a given resource that is delaying the activity.

Still seems to me there is a possibility of an existing out of sequence event in the schedule as shown, perhaps there is still more than just the necking of bars.

Pierfrancesco,

To clarify why this is happening, it seems the little gaps you speak of are occuring at weekends?

Ronald's answer should fix the problem, but to clarify why it is happening: because the actual work was completed before the weekend, and the remaining work is scheduled to start after the weekend.

Cheers,

G

Pierfrancesco,

Go to View / Bars.  Find the Remaining Work line.  Click on the Bar Settings tab.  Put a checkmark on the two Bar Necking Settings.  That should make you happy.  Good luck!

Try changing from retained logic to progress override and no longer you will see the split bars if this is the cause, but keep in mind this is not a true solution, perhaps 99% +1% of the time worst than retained logic option.

There are so many ways to solve each out of sequence logic that the only sure way is to manually fix logic that created the out of sequence occurrence. It is not only about relationships or about manually splitting the activity but also about the need at times to change activity duration in combination with the links and their lags.

Best regards,

Rafael

Look for out of sequence progress it can happen with FS relantionshps as well as with any other type of relationship.