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Importing all Project Logs to Primavera Programme

Innovated Method for creating As-Built Programmes in Complex Projects

Written by Basem M. Mahmood ©

Published on 12th June 2022

Revision 1

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Introduction:

Preparing As-Built Programmes in big and complex projects based on the project registered
logs is relatively difficult and could be impossible to be achieved manually when the number
of logs is huge due to the required effort and time.

In this article I will explain how to achieve this task easily step by step, whatever the project
size is, and this method is applicable to all kind of projects.

The major idea of this method is to convert the project submittals/logs to activities with
Activity ID’s matching the submittal references, and with “Finish” dates matching the
submission dates by applying “Finish on or After” constraint, accordingly the start dates for
these activities will be calculated automatically backwards based on its assumed or actual
durations.

Since the submission dates reflect completion dates, for example the “Work Inspection
Request (WIR's)” reflects the completion of the works, the submission dates will be
considered the Activities Finish Dates, and since there are constraints on these Finish Dates,
the Start Dates for these activities will be calculated automatically backwards (by
Primavera) based on the assumed durations assigned to these activities.

Other advanced approach can be done by identifying the Start Dates of the activities form
the daily reports.

The determination of Start and Finish dates for documents submittals, such as shop
drawings, material submittals, method statements … etc., is more accurate when compared to
the Works Inspection logs, because the durations for these activities can be calculated as the
differences between the submission dates and the reply/response dates.

When there is more than one revision for a submittal, we must create separate Activity ID’s
for these revisions by adding the Revision Number to the submittal reference, so that every
submittal has a unique reference.

Other information/parameters in the logs such as the Location, Type of work, Floor Level,
Subcontractor.…. etc (assigned to the submittals) will be imported to the activities User
Defined (user_text) fields, which will be a strong tool for organizing the As-Built
Programme and applying filters.

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The advantage of using (user_text) fields is that the As-Built Programme can be organized
by the (user_text) fields, and we have the option to select which fields to be used and in
which order.

The importing process will be done one time only for each project log, which makes this
method very easy and fast regardless of the number of the submittals in the log.

After importing all excel sheets, schedule the As-Built Programme so that the activities will
be shifted to its constraint finish dates, and the start dates will be calculated based on the
assumed or the actual durations as applicable.

After that, the WBS structure of the Baseline Programme will be copied to the As-Built
Programme, and the As-Built Activities will be distributed to its locations in the WBS
manually by using filters and cutting/pasting these activities to its location in the WBS.

At the end, the result will be a detailed As-Built Programme matching the project records
exactly, with reference for each activity, and it can be used for comparison with the Baseline
programme and the updated programmes.

The As-Built Programme can be further developed by removing the constraints and linking
the activities logically maintaining its completion dates as possible, which will allow the
application of Collapsed As-Build delay analysis methods.

Another approach can be applied by using activity codes instead of (user_text) fields, but
the logs should be properly prepared to allow building the activity codes structure/values.

This method is explained in the following sections step by step, with an exercise applied to a
Work Inspection Request Log (WIR’s) comprising of more than 5000 submittals, and it
took about ten minutes only from step number 1 to step number 6.

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Stage No.1: Importing the Logs to the As- Built Programme:

1 – Create new Project in Primavera P6 with start date matching the project start date. This
Programme will be the As-Built Programme.

2 – Add one test activity in the As-Built Programme, and assign “Finish on or After”
constraint to this activity with a random constraint date and assign the used calendar.

3 – Export the As-Built Programme to excel sheet as follow:

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Select the following fields to be exported (Activity ID, Activity Status, WBS Code, Activity
Name, Original Duration, Calendar Name, Primary Constraint, Primary Constraint Date,
user_text1, user_text2, …. , user_text8).

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The following is snapshot of the exported excel sheet, and all what we need to do is to fill
these columns by the project logs:

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4 – Fill the columns of the exported excel sheet with the project logs as follow:

 Fill the “Activity ID” column with the submittals/Inspection references (copy and
paste from the project inspection log), and make sure there are no spaces in the
references.
 Fill down the “Activity Status” column with “Not Started” for all logs.
 Fill down the “WBS Code” column with same value for all logs.
 Fill the “Activity Name” column with the submittals/Inspection descriptions (copy
and paste from the project inspection log).
 Fill the “Original Duration(h)” column with the assumed durations of the activities,
or with the actual durations if it is known. For example, assume that the activities
started 2 to 3 weeks before the inspections.
 Fill down the “Calendar Name” for all logs (it can be changes later in the
programme).
 Fill down the “Primary Constraint” with “Finish on or After” constraint for all
logs.
 Fill the “Primary Constraint Date” column with the submittals/Inspection dates
(copy and paste from the project inspection log).
 Fill the “user_text1” column with the related values from the project inspection log
(copy and paste from the from the project inspection log), for example the area.
 Fill the “user_text2” column with the related values from the project inspection log
(copy and paste from the from the project inspection log), for example the type of
work.
 Continue in filling the other “user_text” fields as applicable.

Make sure that the Activity Names are not very long and compatible with Primavera criteria,
because this could cause errors in the importing process; you may use the function
“=LEFT(text, [num_chars])” to reduce the descriptions/activities name length.

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When filling the Activity Names, “user_text” fields and constraint dates it is recommended to
remove any hidden hyperlinks or formulas; use the same format of the first test activity for all
activities in the excel sheet.

Step No.4 can be assigned to the Documents Controllers.

The following is snapshot of the excel sheet before importing back to the Primavera As-Built
Programme.

5 – Import the excel sheet again to the As-Built Programme; (the importing process could
take few minutes depending on the activities number).

After completion the importing process, all inspections/logs will be added as new activities in
the As-Built Programme with Activity ID’s matching the Inspections submittal references,
activity descriptions matching the submittals descriptions, and with “Finish on or After”
constraint dates matching the actual submittal dates.

6 - Schedule the As-Built Programme; so that the activities will be shifted to its actual finish
dates, and the start dates will be calculated backwards based on the assigned activities
durations.

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The following is snapshot of the project Work Inspection Request Log (WIR’s) log excel
sheet.

The following snapshot of the As-Built Programme after importing the activities, showing
that the Inspections/logs were converted to activities. (Note, there is only one day difference
between the finish date and constraint date which is relatively accepted).

It is possible at this stage to organize the As-Built Programme by the (user_text) fields, and
to start using filters for comparing the activities with the project Baseline Programme and the
Updated Programmes.

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Stage No.2: Copy the Baseline Programme WBS to the As- Built Programme:

1 – Open both the As-Built Programme and the Baseline Programme.

2 – Open the WBS layout.

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3 – Copy and paste the Baseline Programme WBS to the As-Built Programme without
activities.

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4 – Re-open the As-Built Programme Programme alone, organize via WBS, and make sure
that the “Hide if empty” option is not selected.

5 – Shift the activities to its location in the WBS (for example use filters to cut and paste any
group of activities to its location in the WBS).

Instead of using WBS, we can assign the Baseline Programme Activity Codes directly.

By end of this stage the As-Built Programme is organized as per the Baseline Programme
WBS with activities matching the logs in terms of Activity ID’s and Finish Dates.

We can use this As-Built programme for comparisons with the Baseline Programme and the
updated Programmes, and we can use it as a base to start building full As-Built Programme
with logical relations for further use in “Collapsed As-Built” Delay Analysis.

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Recommendations:

Since the number of the projects submittals and inspections is relatively high, we can present
the As-Built programme at the WBS levels only; and in advanced approach the WBS levels
can be converted to activities so that the As-Built Programme size (number of activities) will
be reduced and linking the activities will be easier.

It is recommended to import each log to a separate As-Built Programme, and to keep backup
copies of the same to avoid losing time in case of any software errors.

The quality of the resulted As-Built Programme is dependant on the quality of the project
logs, and it is recommended to organize the projects logs with an agreed and fixed criteria at
beginning of the project. For example, instead of making the inspection of paint of two areas
in one inspection request, the results will be more accurate if the inspection have been made
for each area via separate inspection. Accordingly, determine the allowed length of the
submittal’s description, and the other fields (user_text fields) of the submittals such as Type
of Work, Area, Floor Level.…etc. at beginning of the project.

The required time for applying this method can be further shortened by distributing the
project logs to different planning engineers, so that full project logs can be transferred to a
detailed As-Built Programme in one or few days.

At the end, this method is very easy and fast to apply, and in case of the absence of Baseline
Programme or updated Programmes for the project it can provide strong and accurate
document in hand.

Kind Regards,

Basem M. Mahmood ©

https://www.linkedin.com/in/basemm/

12th June 2022

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