Tips for schedule devlopment in P3

Hello Anil, You will not get everything in one document, but you can refer the following summary of links(as taken from this site) will give you some idea of schedule development. 1. Tips and Tricks by Eric Chou 2. Articles by Ron Winter 3. Technical Papers by Eastwood Haris. 4. Construction Management Resources by Dan Fauchier Read information from the above links that will give you fair idea of how to do programme schedule in P3. Of course you have to go through all the listings under this planning planet forums to gain some more benefits. Regards Daya

Hi Dayanidhi,

Thanks for a quick reply. Well, I am aware of the links you mentioned. Actually, I am in the process of preparing a consolidated procedure on schedules development in P3 for new planners. This will also act as a reference guide for planners. I have poured in all my thoughts in that document based upon my past experience. However there is always a possibility to miss something. Hence thought of checking with my fellow planners if they have any such document.

So please let me know if anyone has prepared such doc., and is willing to share.

Regards,

To explain further, i need some quick tips which needs to be kept in mind while developing the schedule in P3. The examples related to them i mentioned in my 1st message.

Hope i am clear in my question.

regards,

Dear Anil,

I understand your concern, but i don’t have any such single document to cover all of your thoughts. Most of the things are learned by experience and kept them in mind. Its really difficult but certainly would be helpful to have it in a single document. What i mean to say is the scope of schedule development is entirely depend on the client, The procedure for standard schedule development will vary from client to client, am i correct?.

Regards

Daya

Hi Anil

In reply to your e-mail, I think some of the example you made IMHO it is not quit true.
1) All acitivites should have atleast one successor and predecessor except project milestones - Not necessary it all depend on the project critical path.
2)Resource variance should always be zero. Quantity at completion and budgeted qty should always match.- A plan is a plan, once the plan budget is fixed the QAC should be re-estimate during each update period
3) All acitivities should have activity codes, if activity codes are being used in schedule. - Activity code is helpful when you do grouping, filtering however it is not complusory to have activity code. You can use WBS to breakdown your work.

I guess there is no short cut to Project management and planning. P3 is only a tool, a scheduler should improve their project planning , control and scheduling concepts and skill first. Critical Path, Earn Value, Cause and Effect,... Once that achieved, the use of the tool (P3) will become more powerful.

All of the above is only my personal opinion.

Regards

Alex

Alex is right, but instead of "You can use WBS to breakdown your work" I prefer to say You must use WBS to breakdown your work, as through the control account you can link the schedule to the cost and perform EVA analysis.
Isn’t it?

But, IMHO you dont necessarily need a WBS to do that.

As i have mentioned in my previous reply, the schedule development depends on contract/client requirements. If the contract says to use WBS, we have to use WBS. so you are right.

All the Clients I worked with, until now, they always asked for Wbs, Cbs, Obs, etc… and all integrated between them

But the point is, that it isnt a necessity to have a WBS in order to perform EVA, or any other analysis.

Well, i think the discussion is going real great. Only thing is bit out of track. I agree there cant be any "hard and fast" rules for developing the schedule in P3, however i would like to list down the very GENERAL points or you can say the basic points which should be kept in mind while prepairing the schedule in P3. I agree as per the contract terms they will differ and also it will vary from project to project. Also the exp. of planner is the biggest factor for preparing the schedule however my intention is how best we can use the tool (P3) by following certain best practices. I am around 50-60% done in this and hopes to complete soon. If possible, will post it on this website once done.