Global change to show column with future schedule % complete

first of all, I must know the test method of next month's schedule % complete.

Thx for your reply.

The following month's schedule % complete can be obtained from 'update progress as of a certain date' of baseline schedule. I just need to know how to transfer that information into current schedule.

Raphael,

Make use of UDF.. Store all future data to UDF.. Month 1, Month 2, Month 3..... so on

Raymund,

Thanks for your reply, I tried that but not successful, perhaps I didn't do it right, as I am still new to P6.

Is it possible to guide me step-by-step?

If using Spider Project I would do the following.

1. Create an updated as planned schedule with DD set at last day of next month and save it under different name. This will be my compared schedule.
2. Use file comparison functionality to display on the current schedule a column with the % complete for the compared schedule.
3. Use formulas to execute Global Change, to make the displayed % complete for compared schedule equal to a user defined field. In this way if I change file comparisons the values for the % complete projected for next month will still be available.

I believe your software can mimic this.

Raphael,

1. Make a copy of the Baseline.
2. Open the newly created Baseline.
3. Create UDF with data type as text (Month 1, Month 2......)
4. Use update Progress Month for the First Month then store % Complete using Global Change.
        Month 1 = Schedule % Complete
        Repeat this for all remaining Months.....

5. OPen current schedule and add the UDF columns accordingly.

Hope this will help.

You can project monthly cumulative progress for all activities as well as per monthly period, monthly is just the difference.

But every month, if the job does not goes exactly as happened you will have to update all your monthly projections.

Think of a 12 months job, your initial projections will be all activities will be 100% by the end of month 12, but if after 12 months you have done 50% there is still work to do and months to be projected.

Raphael, by the way you presented the idea it seems to me you are very clear about that. My experience is that schedule are so dynamic and that it is common for activities with float to be delayed that trying to make something more than next month projection for every activity is too much, for longer term the summarized S curve(s) projections are enough.

Projections and trends are not static but dynamic.

Within Spider you can opt to use Project truncation to get the projection data isolated for a future month without need to create updated jobs but truncated jobs, even easier but the idea is to provide a strategy you can use with your software.

Project truncation is one of the report forms executed for a certain period and presented in a separate project form. In project truncation, project data and representations are all displayed, also data under charges of cost components and materials, duration, volume, and also cost and materials calculation for the set time period are automatically executed. In the Activity Gantt activities which have been only planned or executed during this period will be presented.

 All calculations are available in the truncated project. To truncate a project, choose items Report –> Project Truncation in the Activity Gantt or Resource Gantt main menu. Thus Truncate project by period dialog box will be invoked to enter the period to receive the truncation. After pressing OK button another project will be created, with an additional "trunc" postfix with its code (for example, purchase _trunc [version number])

What I understand that Raphael wants to see is the future Schedule % Complete, It is the % complete at a future periodic interval that resulted from "What If" the Schedule had gone according to Schedule.

Thanks guys!

Raymund got the idea and has explained ideally should be how it is done. Unfortunately P6 doesn't display the outcomes as expected. Upon applying the steps, the UDF displays correctly in the schedule with 'update progress'. However, in the current schedule, the same column is blank.

May I have your feedback, Raymund? Thanks.

Rafael,

As they say.. They are so many ways to skin a cat....

Thank you..

Raphael,

I am sorry to say I don't use Facebook.....

keep in touch at rpl5000@hotmail.com

Raymund,

I believe you are looking for it the correct way, my call is to remind that schedules are dynamic and that as it progress the monthly projection changes. Yes you can project next month using an as planned progress but doing this for many months ahead does not make much sense, too granular for ever changing projections.

I suggest repeating the procedure every month to get updated individual activities projections but only for the month that follows the update.

I believe what Raphael is missing is how to transfer the values and here your help as a P6 user can be of much value. In this way if he transfer the schedule using XER files the value will be transferred on a single project file. It does not matter if upon every update he projects a single month or many as he wants, he can use as many UDF fields as he needs, but many months complicate things. Suggest also creating a conditional formula on your Global Change for values equal to 0 to be displayed as empty cells.

Although I like the idea of being able to show the value on a column on the activity table you can consider creating a non-leveling dummy resource and name it %Progress, load all activities or only those of interest with a value of 100 and then you will be able to create the monthly projections on a separate report. Perhaps I would use this to double check on the other procedure that can easily transfer the values to UDFs on the activity table.

You will have to figure out how to set the 100 value using P6 as in Spider I would use volume of work. I would avoid similar procedure using a cost account for the 100 value but it is up to the end user to decide.

Good luck,

Rafael

Rafael,

Appreciate your kind feedback and suggestions. Indeed they will be helpful to further tidy up the whole presentation later. Thank you.

Raymund,

Although the idea and method is correct, but I am still unable to see the column displaying properly when the UDF is used in another project. Any ideas why? thx.

Raphael,

You may need to do workaround by using the Excel through SDK.
Steps:

1. Open the Baseline Schedule.
2. Export UDF to excel through the SDK.
3. Save.
4. Open the current Schedule.
2. Insert the UDF Columns.
3. Input any Value in all activities by using the Fill Down.
4. Export UDF to excel through the SDK.
5. Replace UDF Values with the value resulted from Baseline UDF.
6. Import the values to P6.

Take note during import that the value will be in decimal, do again workaround using Global Change to multiply by 100 and affix % sign.

Because P6 does not provides for Volume of Work I tried using the work hours of the Dummy resource to compute the percentages and it worked very easilly in Spider and you shall be able to figure it out using P6.

Follow the concept not the software details.

I did the following.

1. Create the non leveling Dummy resource
2. Assign the resource to all Activities at 100% workload
3. Use a formula to determine %workload that will yield 100 resource hours on each activity, apply formula only once, is shall be enough, save your finger ...
4. Get the distribution report.

Good luck,

Rafael

Hello guys,

Thanks again for the help prior to this, I managed to find out the 'trick' to show the future planned percentage, so see below:

1) Create a UDF for this purpose, say "Schedule % Complete in 1 Month". It can be text or numbers, doesn't matter. I would prefer text as the "%" sign still appears and I can tweak it to appear as a number.

2) Schedule (F9) to the date you require this Schedule % Complete figures.

3) In Global Change, the "Schedule % Complete in 1 Month" should equal to "Schedule % Complete" and apply change.

4) Schedule (F9) back to the current date.

5) Display the column of "Schedule % Complete in 1 Month" and you will have the future month's Schedule % Complete.

p/s - To tweak a text (left-aligned in the column) to appear like a number (right-aligned), go to Columns > Edit Column > Change alignment.

Hope this will help someone out there. Best of luck!

Make sure you backup your original file under different name just in case you need to recover it.

I am not sure as for long time have not used Primavera software but believe that you might not be getting back to your initial activities status, that is the Remaining Duration, among others.

Say an activity had a RD of 20d at DD, that after you press F9 with DD+15 it shows a RD of 5d, if you press F9 back to DD do the activity displays back a RD of 20d?

In P6, 1-just go to the Project window, change the data date of the project to the desired future date (say next month), 2-back to the activity window, you can see the "Scheduled %" column with values of next month, 3-copy it to a UDF using global change, 4-then change again the data date manually to the current date.

and now you have both current schedule % and next month schedule % in one layout.

Regards