Anning Sofi wrote:
"This is not a simple computer exercise to tweak the programme so there will be no delay. You have to identify the cause of the delay, and have your organization work out ways to recover from slippage"
Right on, Anning. Negative float is how the software tells the user that something is projected to delay your project. Any time you have negative float, you have to identify what's causing it (work slippage, NET constraints, resource insufficiencies...) and what you're going to do about it (extend the project duration or recover the schedule and change the work plan).
If you had Spider Project or MS Project instead of Primavera, the way to go about recovering the schedule would be quite starightforward: determine which activities (or constraints) have how much Critical Path Drag, reduce the amount of their Drag and thus the length of their path, see if the CP goes elsewhere and where the Drag is on the new CP, reduce those Drags, etc. It's not always the easiest thing to DO, but the data regarding the possible options is very straightforward to generate.
The failure of Primavera to compute Critical Path Drag is a huge shortcoming. With projects of fewer than 200 activities, it is simple enough to compute Drag "manually" -- but on larger projects, it can be extremely time consuming, requiring a lot of work for each iteration.
Fraternally in project management,
Steve the Bajan