Decipher

The
Disaster





*


12 Tactics to Analyze
A Primavera P6
Schedule Youve
J ust Inherited
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Table of Contents
Is this Guide right for me? 2
A Cruel Inheritance 4
A Long, Long Time Ago 5
The Plan 7
Scope: Schedule Mechanics 8
Preparation 9
Download and Import Layouts 10
Tactic 1: Review ALL Documentation 11
Tactic 2: See the Big Picture 12
Dates, Durations and Deadlines 12
Tactic 3: Do a Walk Through 14
Tactic 4: Assess Your Projects Size 15
Tactic 5: Unravel Your Schedules Work Breakdown Structure 16
Tactic 6: Tallying Activity Types 19
Tactic 7: Check Project Calendars 20
Tactic 8: Measure Your Milestones 21
Tactic 9: Fix Open-Ended Relationships 22
Tactic 10: Learn about Leads & Lags 23
Tactic 11: Check Constraints 24
Tactic 13: Out of Sequence Activities 25
Next Steps 26

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Is this Guide right for me?
Not quite sure if this Guide is right for you? Check the Primavera user levels below to see if
your level matches the level of book you are about to read:

Beginner
Beginners are new to using Primavera P6 and are still learning the basics.
They may have completed some formal Primavera P6 training but have limited
experience using the tool to plan and manage real world projects.

Intermediate
Intermediate users have been using Primavera P6 for some time and may have
completed a classroom course or formal training. They have experience
planning and updating projects in Primavera P6 and are comfortable with some
advanced features as well.

Advanced
Advanced users are competent and experienced with most aspects of
Primavera P6. They have likely completed some formal training on Primavera
P6 and have much experience using the tool on real-world projects. They are
also familiar with many advanced features of Primavera P6.
This Guide is appropriate for the following project management roles:


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Decipher the Disaster
Curated by Michael Lepage
Michael Lepage is a Primavera trainer
and consultant. He is also an editor and
author at the Planner Tutorials Hub. He
has lead implementations of Primavera
for companies large and small. He really
enjoys writing and teaching and flying
remote control helicopters.
Follow me on Twitter
@PlannerTuts
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A Cruel Inheritance
It happens. You become the new owner of a project schedule that is monstrous, complex and
undecipherable. WHO put it together and WHAT were they thinking?
Acti vi ties: 8,200 by last count .and growing
WBS: 10 levels deep
Resources: no naming convention to speak of
Costs: $Millions$ on the Cost Curve
Relationships: serious gaps
and we havent even looked at any dates yet.
The boss wants to discuss key milestones with you this afternoon! Go!

This situation happens every day in our project-driven economy. Planners come and go for
many reasons and what is left behind is the fruit of their labours a schedule. Whether that
schedule is good or bad is up to its new owner (YOU) to decide.
In some situations, you may be able to discuss the schedule with whoever developed it. Then
hopefully youll have a proper transition and get up to speed fast with their help. In other
situations, the person who created the schedule is gone and not coming back.

This guide is for the situation where there is no project plan handoff.

Truly understanding someone elses work and rationale for planning and developing it a certain
way is a big task. There is no silver bullet solution to this inheritance dilemma. But there are
some proven Tactics you can use. Read on.
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A Long, Long Time Ago
A long, long time ago:
Project schedules were simpler. I dont mean that projects were easier or simpler to
accomplish. But we didnt have the sophisticated tools that store terabytes of project data in a
project schedule. Schedules used to incorporate less data, were easier to create, manage,
update and understand.

Today:
There are no limits on data. A 5,000-line project schedule has become the norm. Schedules
are required to accommodate large scope, hundreds of resources, multiple estimates, store
key scenarios and schedule work packages by 15-minute intervals. Today, projects often track
to numerous baselines and get updates coming from a dozen contractors. Clients require that
every detail is estimated, documented, reviewed, approved, updated, tracked and
statused.weekly.

Planners and Schedulers need to know their project schedules intimately. A planner must
master all of that data. Their teams rely on them to set the pace and track performance,
forecast problems, highlight risks and manage the mountain of project data.
We all know.
if you dont have a handle on your schedule, youre in trouble.

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In the popular book and movie The DaVinci Code, Robert Langdon is faced
with solving a murder in the Louvre. The victim is found in the Grand Gallery,
naked and posed like DaVinci famous drawing, the Vitruvian Man, with a
cryptic message written beside his body and a pentacle drawn on his chest in
his own blood.
When asked by an official why the body was laid out so cryptically, Langdon
replies
Captain Fache, obviously I cant tell you why.

When we open up a project we havent ever set our eyes on and try to grasp the meaning
behind the data, it can feel like were trying to crack DaVincis code.

Ironically, what we need to get our bearings is a PLAN.

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The Plan
If youve recently inherited or become the owner of an Oracle Primavera P6 schedule that
need deciphering, then this guide is for you.
Primavera P6 is a great tool for building complex project schedules. Its also a great tool for
anal yzing complex project schedules. Many features in Primavera can be used to help
decipher your project schedule. Then you can determine if your schedule is a disaster or not.
This guide will walk you through a process to help you reveal how your plan was built. During
this process well also answer the key question:
Was this project schedule built well?

Big Picture FIRST
To get a handle on your new schedule, you need to focus on the big
picture first. Understanding the context for the project is as important as
understanding the details. Start with our Big Picture Tactics.

Scrutinize the Details
Once we have a firm footing, then we can use Primaveras features to
help us focus on specific scheduling details. Well show you specific
Tactics to use and steps to take to decipher your schedule.


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Scope: Schedule Mechanics
This guide is geared to helping you get your head around
your project with a focus on the schedule mechanics of
your project. We will not cover any topics on resourcing,
resource assignments, leveling, costs or cost-loading.
Well focus rather on the true foundation of your schedule
which addresses how it was built and organized, how it
was linked together, and how it was scheduled.
The Resource management and Cost management aspects of a schedule are also important
and we may address them in a future publication.
So if youre ready, lets begin!


Schedule
Resources $$
Don' t be af r ai d t o
gi ve up t he good t o
go f or t he gr eat .
J ohn D. Rockef el l er
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Preparation
Create a Working Copy of Your Schedule
Before you begin deciphering your schedule, youll want to preserve the original in case you
ever have to go back.

Step 1: Make a Copy
We recommend you create a copy of your schedule and re-name the copy
something appropriate, perhaps appending todays date to the name. This
will preserve the original you were handed. With a working copy and the
original still in the database, youll be prepared for anything.


Step 2: Just Schedule It!
Open the working copy of your project plan and reschedule it. This will
make sure its been updated and scheduled in case it hadnt been done in
a while. Rescheduling will also update many calculated fields and the
Schedule Log file which well use later on. Dont worry, its only a copy.
You can always restore it to the original schedule.



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Download and Import Layouts
In order to make deciphering your schedule an easier process, weve created some very useful
Primavera P6 Acti vity Layouts for you to use alongside this guide. Well reference a layout
for each Tactic we present. Weve even got a tutorial on how to import / install them.
We recommend you download and install the layouts into your Primavera P6 user account
before you get deep into analyzing your project. Heres how:

Installing the Activity Layouts
1) Goto http://www.plannertuts.com/decipher-activity-layouts to download the Primavera
Activity layouts.

2) Read this tutorial to for instructions on how to import / install Activity layouts in P6:
http://www.plannertuts.com/tutorials/importing-exporting-emailing-layouts-in-oracle-
primavera-p5-p6-134/


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Tactic 1: Review ALL Documentation
Do you get everything you need? Ask for ALL supporting documentation before you try to
unravel this schedule. Heres a checklist:
Request the Project Charter
Ask for the approved Work Estimate
Ask for any Scoping docs
Ask for any relevant Drawings
Request all Specification documents
Get and read any relevant Contractual documents
Is there a Document Repository on a file share somewhere these and other
documents might be located? Find out and start getting up to speed.

Speed Reading 101
Once you are armed with as much documentation as is
relevant to your task and the project, its time to speed read.
Do this:
1. Get a stack of Post-it-Notes.
2. Scan & Tag : Go through each document, briefly
scanning each section. Put a Post-it-Note on any
page that may be an input to the project schedule.
3. Get rid of documents that were not relevant this should leave you with a short list of
10-15 important pages.
4. Spend some time reviewing the 10-15 important pages in detail.
The steps outlined above are an easy way to remove that feeling of overwhelm that shows up
when faced with..well, reviewing a monster stack of documents. The goal is to find whats
important and get out. You could easily spend many days reviewing and trying to understand
project documentation. J ust get whats important and move on.
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Tactic 2: See the Big Picture
Dates, Durations and Deadlines
To see the big picture youll need to gather some high-
level information about your project. That means
understanding where the project sits in terms of execution
and progress. Heres how:

4 Key Dates
To begin, there are 4 key project dates you should be
concerned with:
Planned Finish Date
Planned Start Date
Data Date
Must Finish By Date the projects Deadline
Find them and jot them down on a piece of paper. Now go through the following analysis of
these dates.

What to look for
Essentially, you want to ensure these dates line up properly with each other. For example:
ensure the Date Date is within the bounds of the Planned Start and Finish Dates. Here are
some specific items to check in.
Project Start Date
Do a quick check to make sure the schedule reflects the proper Start Date from the
project specification. Check this on the Projects screen, using the Dates tab.
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Must Finish By date / Planned Finish
If there is a Must Finish By Date set, then someone has a project deadline in mind. If
theres no deadline set, then you may need to ask why or why not? Is this an error or
is it intentional? Better find out.
Is the project set to finish before the Deadline? This is the first gauge to see how much
hot water you are in. If the Planned Finish Date falls after the Must Finish By Date, then
one of your first tasks in owning this schedule should be to help plan the work to finish
before the deadline.
If the Planned Finish Date falls before the Must Finish By Date, then its a better
situation, but by how much? Its important to know how much time there is until a
project becomes late.

The Data Date
Notice the projects Data Date. It should be an indicator of when the project was last
updated with status information or actuals.
If the Data Date matches the Planned Start Date - this is an indicator that your project is
still in the planning or acceptance stage. No actuals have been should have been set in
the schedule.
If the Data Date exceeds the Planned Start Date, then you schedule should have been
progressed as well.
The Data Date should usually not exceed todays date.




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Tactic 3: Do a Walk Through
The best way to understand your current schedule is to do a
walkthrough. Request some time with your projects project
manager or someone who understands the schedule to do this.
Walk through the schedule line by line to understand the
schedule mechanics. This is not the time to fix things, but
rather to make notes and to help you get a good feel for the
project, its goals, key dates, impacts, progress, etc. Bring a
notebook.
Here are some potential questions or areas to focus on:

What to ask and what to look for:
- What was working well with the previous scheduler? What was not working well?
- What reporting or statusing processes should you know about? Other processes?
- Does the schedule have known gaps? Is it missing scope?
- What areas of the schedule should you focus on addressing first?
- Does the schedule represent accurate progress in the field? Is it up to date?
- What impacts do you foresee that will affect the schedule?
Were sure you will come up with more questions, but those listed above should give you some
ideas to be prepared for a Walkthrough of your new schedule.


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Tactic 4: Assess Your Projects Size
Understanding how big a project plan is can be helpful in understanding a projects scope and
structure. Primavera has some built-in fields to show you exactly how many activities are in
your project plan.
Well focus on 2 components relating to the size of a project:
1) What is the overall duration of the project?
2) How many activities make up the schedule?

In Primavera
1. Open the Project Sizing
Layout.
2. Note the projects duration.
3. Note the total number of
activities for the project and
for each phase or WBS.
What to look for
a) How long is the schedule in days?
b) Could it be better divided into multiple schedules?
c) How many activities make up the schedule?
d) Are there enough activities to represent the duration of the project? (i.e.: is there
enough detail?)
e) Are there too many activities? (i.e.: is there too much detail?) Overly large schedules
are hard to update, change and manage. Can you combine or merge activities or use
steps to remove unnecessary activities?

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Tactic 5: Unravel Your Schedules
Work Breakdown Structure
A Work Breakdown Structure is the fundamental organizing structure of a project schedule. If
your project doesn`t have one, then it might be flawed from the start.
A WBS provides a common framework for the natural development of the
overall planning and control of a project and is the basis for dividing work into
definable increments from which the statement of work can be developed
and technical, schedule, cost, and labor hour reporting can be established.
Wikipedia
Essentially, you want the answer to: Is this project well organized?
A well-organized project is the product of a well-organized planner / scheduler. If its well
organized, its going to be much easier to decipher and easy to understand.

In Primavera
1. Open the WBS Summarized Layout.


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What to look for
Many companies enforce a specific WBS structure that ensures consistency across projects.
Often this standard WBS will map to a CBS (Cost Breakdown Structure) to ensure the projects
costs are accumulating in the right buckets. In some cases, the WBS in your project is the one
youre stuck with check with your project cost engineers to see if thats the case.
In the case where your projects WBS has been set by the planner, then its a good idea to
check the following:
WBS Levels
Common Structure: Many WBSs follow a structure that incrementally elaborate a project.
The idea is to organize the work in a meaningful and incremental fashion. A common structure
is shown here:
Level 0: Project Summary
Level 1: Phase / System
Level 2: Sub-System or Discipline
Level 3: Work Package



Depth: We want to include enough depth in the WBS to capture all our project activities at a
manageable level. However, going too deep will create a system thats hard to follow.
0 Aircraft
System
1 Air Vehicle
1.1 Airframe
1.1.1
Airframe
Integration
1.1.2
Fuselage
1.1.3 Wing
1.2
Propulsion
1.3 Vehicle
Subsystems
1.4 Avionics
2 System
Engineering
3 Program
Management
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Three(3) to six(6) levels of depth is usually sufficient. Ten(10) levels is too deep.

Completeness
The WBS should capture 100% of the projects scope at every level. In decomposing the work
from one level to the next, the sum of the work at the child level must equal 100% of the work
represented by the parent. Essentially, this really means :
a) Do not add extra work that is NOT in-scope at any level
b) Do not leave out any work that IS in-scope at any level
Check your projects WBS for the items above.




The chal l enge i s not
t o manage t i me, but
t o manage our sel ves.
St ephen Covey
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Tactic 6: Tallying Activity Types
Checking to see what Activity Types are used on your project is another check to ensure good
scheduling practices were implemented. Depending on the size and type of your project,
expect Start and Finish Milestones and mostly Task Dependent activities. A few WBS
Summary activities are ok, as well as Level of Effort activities. Resource Dependent activities
tend to be rarely used unless there is a specific or particular circumstance.
In Primavera
1) Open the Activity Types layout
2) Analyze your activities.
What to look for
1) Is the majority of the project using the Task Dependent type?
2) Are there start and finish milestones in the project?
3) How are Level Of Effort activities used? Are they used appropriately?
4) How are WBS Summary activities used?
5) How are Resource Dependent activities used?




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Tactic 7: Check Project Calendars
The Activity Calendars your project uses will affect how activities are scheduled and what
dates work will land on (or not land on). Youll want to make sure that each activity has been
assigned an appropriate Calendar, and that each Calendar is configured properly.

In Primavera
1) Open the Project Calendars layout.
2) Note what Calendars your project is using.
3) Open each Calendar to ensure each is setup properly
What to look for
1) Is each Calendar setup properly? Does each
Calendar reflect accurate working / non-work times?
2) Does each Calendar include corporate or stat holidays as non-work time? Is that a
requirement of your project?
3) Are the Time Periods set accurately for your Calendars? (Edit your Calendar, click the
Time Periods button)
4) Are your projects activities assigned an appropriate Calendar?







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Tactic 8: Measure Your Milestones
According to PMIs Practice Standard for Scheduling, a milestone will represent the start or
completion of a portion or deliverable of the project and may also be associated with external
constraints, such as the delivery of specific required permissions or equipment. Each project
should have a start milestone and a finish milestone.
Heres how to check your projects milestones.
In Primavera
1) Open the Project Milestones layout.
2) From the Activities screen, goto View ->Filters
3) Place a checkbox next to the Milestone filter, ensuring no other filters are checked on.
4) Analyze the projects milestones and dates.
What to look for
1) Are there both start and finish milestones?
2) Is there both a project start & finish milestone?
3) Are the milestones to mark the beginning and
completion of each phase of the project?
4) Are there too many milestones? Not enough?
5) Are the milestones properly linked with
relationships?


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Tactic 9: Fix Open-Ended Relationships
Good relationship linking is an essential part of a good schedule. A poorly-linked project
schedule can steal away endless amounts of time fixing activity order and dependencies.
With regard to your projects activity network, one main concern is open-ended activities.
Open-ended Activities dont land in the projects Activity Network and can impact your projects
Critical Path. Ideally, you have only 2 open-ended activities the projects Start and Finish
Milestones. Of course, thats really ideal.
In Primavera
1) Open the Open Ends layout
The Open Ends layout filters out any WBS Summary activities and keeps only
activities that have no Successors or Predecessors (or both) listed.
2) Examine the list of Open-ended Activities in your project
What to Look For
1) Open-Ended activities other than the projects Start or Finish milestone that should have
successors and predecessors assigned.
2) An Open-Ended activity cannot be on your Critical Path. Analyze open-ends and
determine proper linkages for those activities
3) Aim to eliminate open-ends on your schedule. (WBS Summaries should not be counted
as open-ends)
4) Aim to use primarily Finish-to-Start relationships in the project. Simplicity is key to a
good activity network.

9
" Ther e cannot be a st r essf ul
cr i si s next week. My schedul e
i s al r eady f ul l . "
Henr y Ki ssi nger

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Tactic 10: Lookout for Leads & Lags
In keeping with Tactic 8s theme of good relationship and network logic, you need to
understand if your project plan has any Relationship Leads or Lags. Relationship Lag or Lead
delays should be minimized or not used at all. Lag or Lead delays have poor visibility on
project schedules, are hard to find and hard to document. Its highly recommended to remove
any lag or lead delays in your schedule. Lags can easily be replaced with an activity
describing and documenting the delay, offering good visibility.
Helpful Resources
1) Read our tutorial on building a P6 report to find lead or lag delays in your Primavera
schedule. Build a quick reusable report in P6 to ferret out lag or lead entries.
In Primavera
1) Build the lag report as outlined in the tutorial above.
2) Open your project and run the report.
What to Look For
1) If there are leads or lags, check activity Notebooks to see if there is any documentation
as to why they are being used.
2) Aim to remove lag entries and to replace them with real activities that represent and
describe the delay.
3) Aim to remove lead entries by revisiting each activitys relationships and relationship
types.


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Tactic 11: Check Constraints
Activity Constraints can get you into a lot of hot water! How? Well, essentially Constraints
override network logic and delay activities to start or finish on a user-specified date. Granted,
sometimes using a Start on or After constraint to delay an activity is necessary. But many
inexperienced schedulers use Constraints much too often or sometimes instead of using
Relationshipsand without adding any documentation to the Activity. This becomes a major
mess for someone like you who has to figure out why an Activitys dates were changed with a
Constraint.
Thus, youll need to check your projects constraints and decipher them quick!
In Primavera
1) Open the Activity Constraints layout
2) Examine the list of Activities that have constraints in your project.
What to Look For
1) Look for any documentation in each constrained activitys Notebook. If youre lucky
youll soon know why a Constraint was added to a specific activity.
2) Check project documentation for reasons constraints are used on key activities.
3) Check for Mandatory Constraints. Mandatory Constraints are NOT recommended and
should be avoided as they override relationships and destroy a projects fluidity.
Remove any Mandatory Constraints or replace them with a soft Constraint.
4) Remove any Constraints that you think are not necessary. The fewer Constraints in
your schedule, the easier it will be to update, change and manage. Keep the list of
constrained activities down to a dozen or less.



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Tactic 13: Out of Sequence Activities
If your project has already been progressed, you may have
some Out of Sequence activities as a result. This situation
arises when activities are progressed, but not in the order that
they were planned. For example, work begins on an activity
prior to the completion of its predecessor activities. Although it
may be legitimate to execute activities out of order (as
determined by workers in the field), doing so can cause
problems in your schedule, affect the critical path and
downstream activities. A scheduler will need to be aware of when activities are executed out
of sequence and should adjust their schedule accordingly.

In Primavera
1) Schedule your project (unless you have already done so). Open the schedule log.
2) Check the Errors & Warnings listing for Out-of-Sequence Activities.
What to Look For
1) Find and analyze out of sequence activities using the schedule log and Gantt.
2) Understand the contractual details around execution of activities. Are there contractual
stipulations that limit or allow out of sequence execution on your project?
3) Adjust Advanced Scheduling options (F9 ->Options button). Set Primavera to
schedule progressed activities as Retained Logic (if activities must be progressed in
sequence) or as Progress Override (if activities can be progressed out of order).
4) Adjust activity relationships to re-sequence activities if appropriate. Update any
baselines to accommodate these changes as well.
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Next Steps
Project planning and scheduling is like painting a picture. I believe its truly 80% science and
20% art. The tactics in this guide will help you with the science part. But its up to you to fill in
the gaps and use your design expertise to create (or re-create) a highly-organized and intuitive
project schedule.
Since the focus of this guide was schedule mechanics, you may also need to dig into the
following aspects of your schedule (if appropriate).
Critical Path and Total Float
Resource assignments
Find Resource over-allocations
Cost loading
Earned Value Management

If you havent done so, ensure you download the Activity Layouts that accompany this guide,
as outlined on page 10.

Helpful Tutorials
Use A Level Of Effort To Add Work Stoppage Info To A Project and Still Track To Your
Primavera Baseline
Use Reflections in Primavera P6 to merge scenarios back into your project
[Video] Building a Stacked Histogram in Primavera P6
Quick Tip: Zoom! P6 Activities to Excel in 8 clicks!
Schedule % Complete in Oracle Primavera The Missing Guide (Part 1)
Units Percent Complete in Primavera P6 the Missing Guide
Using Primaveras .Xer File Parser Import WBS From Excel Without The SDK

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