Why "Fragnet"

Hi Mike,

I know "fragnet" as a Primavera Project Planner (P3) library of activities that I can insert in a project to make the process of building the project plan easier.

The same process does exist in SpiderProject under the name "Typical Fragment" and in PowerProject or Tilos as "Tasks Groups"

Best regards,

Alexandre

Hi Alexandre

Thanks for the explanation - It is as I suspected - a primavera addition to planning language.

More proof - if it is needed - that they are taking over the world of planning.

Best regards

Mike Testro

Mike,

It's (originally) a US term, meaning fragment of a network. I believe it was first used in the 1960s or thereabouts, in the context of using hand-drawn networks to present extension of time claims (this was after CPM had been invented but before PCs). It is cumbersome to reproduce a network fully by hand, so only the relevant fragment of it would be reproduced in presenting EOT claims. Change could be mapped by hand by superimposing a fragnet on a network using tracing paper, or using a red pen, or something like that. The term 'fragnet' I believe entered the public domain when an analysis technique employing fragnets was cited with approval in a US Federal Board of Contract Appeals case (don't ask me which one) in the late 1960s or early 1970s. With that judicial approval the term became more widely adopted.

I wouldn't read too much into Primavera's use of the term, from the 1980s onwards. The Primavera developers, I imagine, decided to add a new feature so that users could save only a part or section of a project. They would have used the term "fragnet", I guess, because it was a sexier sounding buzzword than "part" or "section".