21/9/2018 Using Physical and Duration Percent Complete Types In Primavera P6

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USING PHYSICAL AND

DURATION PERCENT
COMPLETE TYPES IN
PRIMAVERA P6
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March 2, 2015 By TheP6Pro

If you are looking for a quick way to update

the progress of work on your Primavera P6 SUBMIT
schedule or you want to describe the
progress of work that has a non-uniform
production rate, then you should become

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21/9/2018 Using Physical and Duration Percent Complete Types In Primavera P6

familiar with the different Percent

Complete Types offered in Oracle
Primavera P6.

Here we’ll start with the situation where

CATEGO
you already have a schedule and
associated baseline. There’s demand for
RIES
accurate, weekly updates on your project
Deltek Acumen
and you need an ef cient and accurate
way of modeling activity progress. This is
Deltek Cobra
where the different Percent Complete
Types in Primavera P6 come in rather Earned Value Mgmt
handy.
Microsoft Project
The simplest and fastest way to update
activity progress is to use the duration % PMO
complete type. The remaining duration is
Primavera P6
automatically computed based on the
duration % complete input.
Project Management

If you have an activity that has a non- Risk Management

uniform production rate then physical %
complete is the Percent Complete Type of
choice. In this Percent Complete Type both
the % complete and remaining duration
ARCHIVE
must be input.
S
If you are manufacturing parts then the
Select Mo
units % complete type may be used to
describe manufactured units completed.
Using the correct duration type is important
to ef ciently and realistically track the
progress of activities in Primavera P6.

This article explains how to use both the

physical % complete and duration %
complete types in Primavera P6 to describe
the work being performed on a project. It
does not go into detail on the units %
complete type as this will be the subject for
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a future blog.  Therefore, please note that

different techniques for updating progress
should be employed if you have a resource
or cost loaded schedule and when status is
not consistent for each resource assigned. 
For best practice purposes, the following
methods generally apply to non-resource
loaded schedules.

Primavera P6 Scenario
Your task is to update the schedule for the
structural phase of a building construction
project, Figure 1.

Figure 1

All your tasks are sequential and have the

classic Finish-to-Start relationship. The
schedule is fairly standard except for the
Steps feature that was used to further
describe the Lay Foundation activity, and
the 120-hour (5-day) elapsed time cure
time lag between the Lay Foundation and
Strike Forms activities. Note that two
activities are assigned the Physical Percent
Complete Type and the rest are assigned
the Duration Percent Complete Type.

Physical Percent Complete Updates

The physical % complete type is required
for activities that have Steps assigned to
them. Additionally, it is the preferred
method of updating activities when the
production work rate is non-inform. For
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21/9/2018 Using Physical and Duration Percent Complete Types In Primavera P6

example, the crew may have a learning

curve that will cause the rst few days’
progress to be slower than the remaining
days. The activity may also require
unspeci ed mobilization of material and
equipment that causes the rst days
progress to be slower. The physical %
complete type is able to account for both
mobilization and learning curves.

Duration Percent Complete Updates

Again the distinguishing feature of the
duration % complete type update is that
Primavera P6 will automatically compute
the remaining duration when you enter the
duration % complete. This calculation is
also instantaneous. To get Primavera P6 to
compute the remaining duration, after
entering the expected nish date for the
physical % complete type, you still have to
recalculate the schedule rst. In other
words, the computation is not
instantaneous the way it is for the duration
% complete type update.

Week One Steps Physical Update

In Figure 2, the structural phase
construction project has begun.

Figure 2

Note that Notice to Proceed and Structural

Phase Start activities are complete. Also,

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21/9/2018 Using Physical and Duration Percent Complete Types In Primavera P6

the project management activity is in

progress. Select the Lay Foundation activity
and select the Steps tab in the bottom
details, again, Figure 2. There are three
steps associated with the Lay Foundation
activity. Check the completed box in the Set
Forms row to declare the Set Forms step
complete.

For the Lay Rebar step set the Step %

Complete to 50%. Now select the Status
tab, Figure 3, in the bottom details and note
that the 10-day activity is 50% complete.

Figure 3

Also, note that the remaining duration is

still listed as 10-days. What happened?
Well, nothing, which is precisely the point.
When you use the physical % complete
type you have to enter the estimated
remaining duration yourself, Primavera P6
does not compute this value for you.

To describe the time remaining on a

physical type activity you have two options:
1) to enter the expected nish date and
Primavera P6 will compute the remaining
duration (only after you ask Primavera P6
to recalculate the schedule) or 2) to directly
enter the remaining duration. In Figure 4,
the remaining duration is entered directly
as 5-days.

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21/9/2018 Using Physical and Duration Percent Complete Types In Primavera P6

Figure 4
After entering the remaining duration, and,
therefore, the project status for the rst
week, move the data date and recalculate
the schedule. Your project should look
similar to Figure 5.

Figure 5
Week Two Steps Physical Update
Continue to highlight the Lay Foundation
activity in the activities view. Go back to the
Steps tab in the bottom view and check off
the Lay Rebar and Pour Concrete steps as
being complete, Figure 6.

Figure 6
Then go to the Status tab and check off the
Lay Foundation activity as being complete,
Figure 7.

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21/9/2018 Using Physical and Duration Percent Complete Types In Primavera P6

Figure 7
After entering the status for week two,
move the Data Date, and recalculate the
schedule, Figure 8.

Figure 8
Week Three Status Duration Update
The status for week three is quite simple.
First select the Strike Forms activity in the
activities view then simply select the Status
tab and mark the Strike Forms activity as
Started and Finished, Figure 9.

Figure 9
This is the rst non-milestone and non-
level of effort duration % complete type in
the project schedule. Again, move the Data
Date and recalculate the schedule, Figure
10.

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Figure 10
Week Four Status Physical Update
We again want to use the Physical %
Complete Type to describe the progress of
our schedule. The activity is to construct
the exterior walls. This project has a non-
uniform productivity distribution. This is
because of the required mobilization of
material and equipment on day-1 of this
activity. The crew was also new to
constructing this type of wall, so they had a
learning curve. In other words the crew
took 5-days to construct 41.67% of the
wall and only 5-days to construct the
remaining 58.3% of the wall.

To update the project for week 4, rst select

exterior walls in the activities view. Then
select the Status tab in the bottom details
and enter 41.67% (5-days/12-days
duration) for the Physical % complete,
Figure 11.

Figure 11
As usual, the remaining duration is still
listed as the entire length of the project.
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21/9/2018 Using Physical and Duration Percent Complete Types In Primavera P6

Enter an Expected Finish data of February

6th. In order to update the remaining
duration based on the expected nish date
move the Data Date and recalculate the
schedule. Primavera P6 will compute the
remaining duration, Figure 12.

Figure 12
Week Five Status Physical Update
Make certain the exterior walls activity is
highlighted in the activities view. Check the
Finished toggle to enter status, move the
Data Date, and recalculate the schedule.
The schedule will now appear similar to
Figure 13.

Figure 13

Note the February sixth nish date, original

12-day duration, and the actual 10-day
duration.

Week Six Status Duration Update

The interior walls were constructed by a
very experienced crew, so there was no
learning curve. Also, the mobilization
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delays were immaterial. For the rst weeks

work on the interior walls activity set the
duration % complete to 50%, Figure 14.

Figure 14

Primavera P6 will automatically compute

the remaining duration of the 10-day
activity as 5-days. Advance the Data Date
one week and recalculate the schedule.
The Gantt chart will look similar to Figure
15.

Figure 15
Week Seven Status Duration Update
Continue to highlight the interior walls
activity. Now set the duration % complete
to 100% and Primavera P6 will calculate
the remaining duration as 0-days, Figure
16.

Figure 16

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21/9/2018 Using Physical and Duration Percent Complete Types In Primavera P6

Move the Data Date. Recalculate the

schedule, and the nal Gantt chart for this
demonstration will be as displayed in
Figure 17.

Figure 17
Summary
Primavera P6 has different percent
complete types to suit the needs of the
status update.

The duration percent complete type is the

simplest to use as the remaining duration is
automatically computed by Primavera P6
when the duration percent complete is
entered.

The physical percent complete type

requires the additional step of entering
either the remaining duration or expected
nish date. The physical percent complete
type is more accurate for modeling a non-
uniform production rate. It is also required
when steps are used to provide more
de nition to an activity Gantt chart bar.

Becoming skilled at applying the differing

Primavera P6 percent complete types is
essential to providing regular and realistic
progress updates of the project. A useful
exercise would be to take the example
schedule used in this article and provide
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21/9/2018 Using Physical and Duration Percent Complete Types In Primavera P6

weekly updates to it, comparing your

results to those in this article.

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