Economics is the social science that studies making choices subject to constraints. Project, program, and portfolio managers make economic decisions daily. We try to maximize value delivery subject to the constraints of time, cost, quality, risk, and resource availability.
If your Primavera P6 schedule is set to use the Retained Logic for out of sequence activities and you notice that despite all the predecessors of an activity being 100% complete, the activity’s Start Date is not on the Data Date as one would expect
Let’s be honest, most project schedules disappoint. They are unrealistic, complicated, and do not help guide execution. For decades, Gantt charts, network diagrams, and the critical path method have been the standard practices. Even with these powerful tools, only about half of all projects are completed on time, as reported in the PMI Pulse of the Profession.
Project managers rarely face ethical dilemmas. We generally do not make life-or-death decisions or need to choose between “right” and “wrong.” However, we need to be prepared and have a framework for confronting these circumstances when they arise.
My career is probably more colorful than most:
The date formats available in Primavera P6 are very limited and to best of my knowledge, you cannot get the mmm-yy (month-year) format straight out of the box. You might want to display dates in mmm-yy if you don't want to show exact dates in issued schedules.
This P6 video outlines a workaround using UDF that can be used to achieve mmm-yy date format.
Assumptions and risks are embedded in our daily lives. We expect the day will unfold as planned, and risks will not materialize. Most of these assumptions are benign, like thinking the weather report will be accurate; or no major calamities will occur.
Large enterprises struggle to manage their project portfolios effectively. They fall prey to the fallacy of optimizing resource allocation. Or simply stated, they focus on making sure everyone is busy rather than getting things done.
While one can update Actual Start and/or Actual Finish dates in Microsoft Project by displaying these columns, my preferred method is using the Task Details Form which is very similar to the Activity Details Form in Primavera P6.
In this short video, I show how to enable and use the Task Details Form to update actual dates for project tasks.
Selecting a project management approach and framework is complicated. Not that long ago, it was like buying a Model-T Ford; you could have any color you wanted, as long as it was black—our only option was Waterfall.
Today Waterfall is still a choice. There are also multiple Agile frameworks, or you can mix-and-match and go Hybrid. So many choices. How do we choose?
Project management theory established the Triple Constraint (aka, the Iron Triangle) as the key to project success. If the scope is known and fixed, then the schedule and cost must adjust to accommodate scope changes.