also please i have a expense loaded program. i use to use earned value cost for performance measurement on other project, but this time around, the pmc what the % cost complete. please how can i make %cost complete = %activity complete. any global change techniques??

hi zahid, i’d like to help, but i’m not familiar with companies that could help based in india. if you’re looking to learn primavera p6, have you checked out our online training? http://www.plannertuts.com/courses

i need some help , i am new to primavera and needs some clarifications , i am intending to work in gcc as planning engineer. my total experience is 16 years out of which 10 yrs as qs (5yrs in gcc as qs). now i want to work as planning. i am good with practical knowledge . need some initial help in softwares. can you suggest if any gcc return planning in mumbai or anywhere in india who can help he in my queries.

thanks

zahid khan

no difference. p6 works the same in either case.
michael

great discussion with your valuable comments with deep insight. i just want to know how and what does make difference if we server or standalone p6 to update multiple constructors schedules , any special condition in case of server or no ?

regards

umar

i look through the tutorial and the web but haven’t seen an answer to this “simple” question.

can you continue to make changes to the original schedule while using reflection? my guess would be, as long as it isn’t obviously activities you are changing in reflection it would be okay.

your thoughts?

thank you.

the creation of reflections and merging it after the subcontractors have updated them is really a very efficient solution on handling a master schedule with many subcontractors. as you were saying in one of your previous comments,one way to satisfy that the subcontractors do not modify/see other activities is to:

1) allow contractor access to your database to update their section of the master schedule (reflection) directly. using p6 permissions you can limit what part of the schedule a contractor can see. the reason i suggest this as best, is that it provides you with the most control over the entire process – eliminates problems importing schedules, problems with multiple data dates, copying and pasting and other conumdrums. i know it’s not always possible – but i think there should be a trend in this direction

since,some of us may not have used the permissions part of p6 before, is it possible that you elaborate the process by either explaining it briefly here or publishing a demo in youtube?

thank you,
ali

i want to merge subcontractor program to master schedule in p6 is possible

1. if subcontractor change activity relationships, these ones will be updated in my master schedule?

2. if subcontractor remove or adds an activity, these changes will be updated in my master schedule?

thanks for your work,
david.

the refelction project can it be added to a different source project, in my case is a schedule with my layout and filtering and reporting formats..

please help me

thanks for the link you provided it was a great help to me.

can you plz give a brief description about the baseline feature in p6

your tutorial on reflections is the same here as it is on youtube.
i want to knw how to use the reflection functionality from the start.
is there any tutorial you can refer me

thanks

i’ve used variants of 2, 3, and 4 above. admittedly i hadn’t really considered 1. but why not – i use p6 permission rights and the obs to control project and wbs access for internal employees. it would seem to make sense for contractors too, especially in this day and age with cloud computing and viable remote access. got to think through some of the logistics, but excellent food for thought.

hi aj,
a good question with no simple answer. if i had to rate best approaches, i would put this first
1) allow contractor access to your database to update their section of the master schedule (reflection) directly. using p6 permissions you can limit what part of the schedule a contractor can see. the reason i suggest this as best, is that it provides you with the most control over the entire process – eliminates problems importing schedules, problems with multiple data dates, copying and pasting and other conumdrums. i know it’s not always possible – but i think there should be a trend in this direction.
2) individual contract schedules (reflections) that combine into a master schedule. in p6, it’s not always necessary to build a master schedule. you can open multiple schedules at once and link them and manage them as though they are all 1 schedule. video tutorial i did on this over at cpm’s site http://www.cpmsolutions.ca/learning/flash/linking-projects-together . still some challenges with data dates and linking, mind you, but this can work.
3) individual contractor schedule that drive a summarized master. the master can be just a summary of the contractor schedules – using level of efforts and milestones, etc. some clients won’t like this, but it does work.
4) individual contractor schedules (reflections) that get cut and pasted into a master. less than ideal because cutting and pasting is soo much fun, but it gets the job done too.
so, i come back to 1) where you get the best control. 2 – 4 offer a lot of work and a lot of challenges too.
hope that helps.
michael

thanks for your insight. i am curious, though, what you think is the best way to integrate multiple contractor schedules into the master when you don’t want the contractors to have the ability to view the entire schedule (which they will have with a reflection as you mentioned above).

i’ve used a couple of methods – individual contractor projects in the eps with interproject links to the master, copy and paste contractor wbs into master – and they all have their own pitfalls.

regards – aj

when you open 2 projects at the same time in p6, the projects will show up in the activity list one after the other – all in the same screen. when you use the bottom layout to show the activity list again (on top and on bottom), then you can scroll to one project in the top and scroll to the other project in the bottom. that should allow you to compare both projects visually.

if you need a detailed project comparison, you could also try using claim digger (from the tools menu). claim digger will provide a very detailed report comparing 2 projects. i won’t say it’s fool-proof though. sometimes it doesn’t work well because it runs outside of p6 using a java applet. but give it try.
hope that helps. happy planning!
michael

can you help me to know how to open two project in one window to compare, as i am using bottom layout option but it is opening the same project.

regards,
faye

hi jim,
answers below:
1) copy the subs activities into the master schedule. the merge will not do this for you. merging only provides “updates” so the activities need to be in the master schedule before the merge part can happen.
2) it may be possible for them to have different data dates, but ideally these should be the same.
3) that depends if you want to maintain any activity coding that the contractor put in place. if so, then global code may be the easiest solution.

just to be clear. i’m suggesting putting all subcontractor activities into a master project. then, creating a reflection of the master project and sending it to the sub for updates. merging the updates and rescheduling. for some, it may not be allowed to send the sub the master project and asking them to update their piece. although it may not be allowed, it is the easiest way to maintain a master project and get updates via export from a sub.

hope that helps jim,
regards,
michael

the reflection tutorial is very helpful. i am trying to use this method on a large project i am currently working on. i have a few questions if you would not mind;
1. do you copy the activities from the subcontractor’s original submitted schedule into your master schedule? or is a merge done to initially capture these activities.
2.does the source project and relfection project have to have the same data date to import and update properly?
3.do both the source project and initial subcontractor xer file have to have the same global, eps or project codes?

thanks,

jim

ziq, thanks again! we’ll add these to our list.

good luck & all the best,
ziq ahmad

ziq, thanks for your comments. if you have any topics you’d like to see, just put them in a comments section and we’ll add them to our growing list.

jose,
many thanks! we plan to forge ahead.
michael