how much time you work on excel !

Hi Mimoune

Zero time on excell - I use Lotus 123.

I was once asked "How many people work in your firm?" I said "On average about 40%"

Best regards

Mike T.

eh what still using lotus, i wonder how it was your experience "upgrading" from p3 to p6 !

i asked about excel usage, because as planner we are supposed to work on p3, but i found myself ( with my colleagues)spending nearly all our time on excel.

one guy from construction department interested in changing the job asked me, what’s the tool he need to learn, P3 or Ms project. my reply was, excel & access.

best regards

hi mimoune, ouash rak?
I guess you are working most of your time on Excel and much less on P3 because P3 is a (excellent and efficient but) old looking piece of software; when you want to enter a large quantity of activities or any other data in a P3 schedule, it is much easier to enter the data in a Excel file and then import them into P3.
I am sure you would work less in Excel if you were using P6 or Sciforma PSN (not to mention MSP), because entering data with these software is much easier and quicker.
Also, using a spreadsheet or maybe a small database app like MS Access (difficult to find another one today, when Lotus Approach is long dead and Apple FileMaker such a niche app) is 100% mandatory today; 25 years ago you would have used a huge Olivetti calculating machine!
You have to be able to work with a spreadsheet app and possibly with a database (and why not a report generating software like Crystal Reports) when you are a planner; but none of these apps will ever replace a scheduling software when analysis work is over and you have to schedule!
By the way, how is life in Bethioua?
Mike, congratulations for being still working with Lotus 123; it was my spreadsheet of choice for years, until I switched to Excel both because I was working on Excel with my customers and because the new interface is so ugly.
Alexandre

saha escander, happy to hear from you again.

of course it will not replace a scheduling package for sure, but i was (on purpose) a little ironic in my original post,starting from a middle size project, the volume of data manipulated is very huge (and frustrating),
a planner should have enough skills in database theory and tools in order to survive, updating the schedule now is the easy part, of course once you aggregated all those information in a useful format ( man hour burned by activity, actual start,finish forecast, physical progress, status of drawing, equipments arrived on site ....)

i am not including financial data here, which is a challenge apart.

best regards.

Hi Mimoune

I have moved this from the Trivia section.

A serious answer to your question - In delay analysis the time breakdown is something likee this:

Spreadsheets 60%
Programming 30%
PowerPoint 10%
Word 10%

Best regards

Mike Testro

Meetings / Team Interaction - 40 %
Word - 20 %
Excel - 10 %
Planning Software - 5 %
Other System - 5 %
Coffee Shop - 15 % (Could be part of team interaction)

And the missing 5 % I Don’t Know

Excel is one of the best medium to illustrate and let your superiors understand the flow/progress of your project.

Excel = 40%
Planning Software = 30%
Site Inspection = 10%
Other Application = 10%
Research = 5%
RESERVE = 5%