News ·
16 Oct 2026 Planning Planet News
Dear Planning Planet Members,Smarter Planning, Better Data, Stronger DecisionsWe have very big news coming, but more on that later. This week's newsletter is packed with practical insights,…
Dear Planning Planet Members,
Smarter Planning, Better Data, Stronger Decisions
We have very big news coming, but more on that later. This week's newsletter is packed with practical insights, challenging questions, and innovative solutions designed to help project controls professionals stay ahead in an increasingly data-driven world.
From the debate over Multiple WBS Structures vs Grouping, to the role of forensic analysis in contract disputes and claims, to navigating the realities of a difficult client PMO, this edition encourages us to think beyond processes and focus on better decision-making. It also explores emerging technologies, including AI-powered planning tools, advanced Primavera reporting solutions, and new approaches to schedule analysis and visualization.
You'll also find industry events, webinars, training opportunities, software innovations, book announcements, and thought leadership from across the global project controls community. Whether you're a planner, scheduler, cost engineer, risk specialist, claims consultant, or project leader, there's something here to challenge your thinking and enhance your practice.
Which topic caught your attention most this week? Is it the future of AI in planning, improving schedule structures, managing stakeholder relationships, handling claims, or extracting more value from project data?
Dive into the full newsletter and join the conversation shaping the future of project controls.
Multiple WBS vs Grouping
How do you structure a schedule when one view is never enough?
One of the challenges every planner faces is balancing the need for a clear Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) with the reality that different stakeholders want to see the project in different ways. Operations teams may think in terms of work packages, management may prefer phase-based reporting, while contractors and clients often need completely different perspectives.
So, what's the better approach? Build multiple WBS structures, or maintain a single WBS and rely on grouping and coding to create alternative views?
This thought-provoking article explores the strengths, limitations, and practical implications of both approaches. More importantly, it challenges us to think about what a WBS is really for: structuring the work, reporting the work, or communicating the work.
I'm curious how others tackle this challenge. Do you prefer a single, robust WBS supplemented by codes and grouping, or have you found value in maintaining multiple breakdown structures? What has worked best on your projects, and what pitfalls have you encountered?
The answer may not be as straightforward as it first appears.
Source: Alex Lyaschenko
The activities that matter, every update, one page - the variance heatmap
The variance heatmap in SMACT® takes the activities you decide are worth watching and lays them against every schedule update you have issued. Each cell carries the date and the variance since the update before it, shaded by how far it slipped, so the pattern lands before anyone reads a single number.
Select what matters. Pick the activities worth watching, define and group them however you want, and pull them in from Excel if that is where they already live.
Let the colour do the work. Pull ins sit plain, slips shade amber through red as they grow, and actuals are flagged so finished scope stops competing for attention.
Put it straight in the report. Print or export the heatmap and drop it into your monthly pack as it is.
One slip is an excuse. Six in a row is a trend.
Build a variance heatmap free for 7 days. Bring your updates in as XER, MPP or XML, no credit card, no commitment, cancel any time.
Build a heatmap from your own updates...
SMACT® is a registered trademark of FSH Tech Solutions Pty Ltd, Perth, Western Australia. smact.com.au
Announcement: Republishing of “CPM Scheduling for Construction: Best Practices and Guidelines” book
Excited to share that CPM Scheduling for Construction: Best Practices and Guidelines is available again on Amazon.
Originally published by PMI in 2014, the book has been unavailable for the past few years. Following a rights reversion, the original editors—Chris Carson, Craig Relyea, and Peter Oakander—have republished it under Critical Path Press.
The guide is organized around the full lifecycle of a construction schedule (pre-project planning, schedule design, development, maintenance, and usage). Each topic is structured with clear definitions, purpose, default conditions, best practices, recommended practices, and advisories—making it a practical reference for schedulers, project controls professionals, and project managers. It’s back in print and ready for the project controls community.
Use this link: Amazon.com : Relyea Carson Oakander cpm scheduling for construction; best practices and guidelines
Looking forward to seeing it back on desks and in training sessions.
How often do project changes become disputes not because of the change itself, but because of differing interpretations of its impact?
On major projects, contract changes, delay claims, and requests for compensation are almost inevitable. Yet the real challenge is often not proving that a change occurred, but objectively determining who was affected, to what extent, and what the evidence actually supports.
I came across this thought-provoking article shared by Kareem Khattab, which explores the journey from change to claim and the role of forensic performance assessment in separating fact from assumption. It raises some important questions for project controls professionals:
Are our assessments truly evidence-based, or are they influenced by the position we're trying to defend?
How effectively do we distinguish between contractual change, delay responsibility, and compensability?
Could better forensic analysis prevent disputes from escalating into costly claims?
And as AI enters this space, can it help us challenge our assumptions rather than simply support our arguments?
For planners, schedulers, claims specialists, project managers, and contractors alike, this is a topic that sits at the heart of project controls.
What's your experience? Have you been involved in a dispute where better records, stronger schedule analysis, or more objective forensic assessment could have changed the outcome?
I'd be interested to hear the community's views.
Source: Kareem Khattab
P6ETL for BI Reporting – a utility to extract P6/OPC data from any hosted environment
Accessing Primavera P6 and Oracle Primavera Cloud (OPC) data for Business Intelligence reporting can be challenging, especially when your databases are hosted by Oracle, Loadspring, or another cloud provider. P6ETL® eliminates these obstacles by automatically extracting and organizing your data into a reporting database optimized for Microsoft Power BI and other BI tools.
In this webcast, we'll demonstrate how P6ETL simplifies data access and explore the key features and benefits that make it the fastest way to build powerful Primavera dashboards and reports.
When: Tuesday October 20th at 10am US Central Time Duration: 1 hour Register...
Are Impact Damages on Construction Projects Recoverable?
A project that finishes on time can still generate a significant claim. Impact damages are the extra costs a contractor incurs when owner-caused events disrupt its planned means and methods and erode productivity. Typical causes include design errors, late RFI or submittal responses, and restricted site access. Unlike the direct costs of a change order, impact damages are the ripple effect of those disruptions. They often appear well after the triggering event and may never show up as critical path delay.
That gap is where project controls teams matter most. The courts have long recognized that many changes, individually minor, can together reduce productivity on unchanged work, sometimes by more than the changes themselves. Contractors don’t need to prove critical path delay to recover these costs. They do need contemporaneous records that tie each disruptive event to its effect on cost and productivity. The same records are the owner’s best defense.
Schedulers and project controls staff are well placed to spot impact risk early. Watch for:
Activities pushed into winter weather or into higher labor-rate periods
Acceleration, overtime, or second shifts ordered to recover lost time
Clusters of late RFI or submittal responses on the same work packages
When these appear, record the cause and the likely effect in meeting minutes and progress reports. Flag owner-caused issues for prompt resolution, and make sure contractors give timely written notice as the contract requires.
Takeaway: A schedule that holds its dates is not proof that a project is claim-free. Track productivity and disruption alongside time, because impact damages hide in the work that stays on schedule.
Read the full article here:
PARTNER SPOTLIGHT: IAMTECH KNOWLEDGE: TWO PLANNERS. SAME JOB. TWO ESTIMATES
IAMTech Knowledge: Two planners. Same job. Two different estimates.
It happens on every shutdown planning team, in every industry. Not because planners don’t know their craft — but because every experienced planner carries their own norms, their own assumptions, their own bias.
AI doesn’t replace the planner’s judgement. It standardises the baseline.
When every work order is estimated against the same decades of industrial maintenance norms, the inconsistency disappears — and the schedule becomes something leadership can actually plan around READ MORE.
Wish your planning team all planned consistently? First look at iPlanSTO AI-Enhanced Planning: WATCH VIDEO — or VIEW BROCHURE. How would this transform planning in your world?
To arrange your demonstration, contact jonswift@iamtech.com.
VALUE-ADD and FREE WEBINARS
20 Oct - P6ETL for BI Reporting – a utility to extract P6/OPC data from any hosted environment - Accessing Primavera P6 and Oracle Primavera Cloud (OPC) data for Business Intelligence reporting can be challenging, especially when your databases are hosted by Oracle, Loadspring, or another cloud provider. P6ETL® eliminates these obstacles by automatically extracting and organizing your data into a reporting database optimized for Microsoft Power BI and other BI tools. In this webcast, we'll demonstrate how P6ETL simplifies data access and explore the key features and benefits that make it the fastest way to build powerful Primavera dashboards and reports. Register...
22 Oct - CAPPS v15 - Updating Primavera P6 Using CAPPS (emerald Associates) - Updating the P6 schedule in a timely manner is one of the biggest challenges project teams face. Particularly since many of the key players with the update information are not P6 EPPM experts. To simplify the updating process for non-P6 users, Emerald built CAPPS (Capital Projects Progressing System), a secure Primavera P6-EPPM add-on. With CAPPS, your team has a simple way to provide timely schedule updates that are reviewed and approved and flow into P6. Register now...
27 Oct - OPC-Integrator - Creating Projects Fast in OPC with Automated Templates (Emerald Associates) - Oracle Primavera Cloud (OPC) is a collaborative, fully SaaS, cloud-based project management tool that provides a single platform for managing the prioritization, planning, and execution of projects. To make the setup of OPC and the project data entry process less time-consuming, Emerald has created the OPC-Integrator. This flexible and secure tool simplifies OPC data extraction, loading, updating, and integration with third party tools like SAP or Oracle Fusion. Users can import and export many of the key data elements available in OPC, allowing for the movement of data back and forth between OPC and Microsoft Excel in a smooth and controlled manner. Register now...
2 to 4 Nov - Project Controls Expo UK - (PC Expo) - Join the 15th edition of Project Controls Expo UK, bringing together project controls professionals, industry leaders and experts for three days of insights, innovation and knowledge sharing. Register now
02-05 Nov - Turnaround Management Using Primavera P6 (Emerald Associates) - a custom course we created for those who use Primavera P6 for shutdowns, Turnarounds, and Outages. Register now...
10 to 12 Nov - Spider Project Introduction Online Masterclass (Salute Enterprises) - For effective waterfall and agile integrated project, program, and portfolio management it is critical to have the right tool. Spider Project enables Innovative Scheduling by: Activity Modelling; Resource Modelling; Network Modelling and Analysis; Cost Management Options (Corporate Reference Books, Typical Fragment Library, Risk Simulation); Performance Management; Portfolio Management; Reporting & Effective Usability. If you’d like to learn Spider Project and be able to apply all of the advantages it brings to enable powerful planning and delivery, then this class is for you! Read more...
23 Nov - Primavera advanced topics of dashboarding and reporting including templates, filters, views, formatting (Emerald Associates) - Join us for a focused, high‑value webinar on Dashboarding and Reporting in Oracle Primavera Cloud (OPC), where you’ll learn how to turn complex project data into clear, actionable insights using OPC’s powerful templates, filters, configured fields, views, and formatting tools. Whether you’re a program manager, project manager, planner, scheduler, or simply moving to OPC, this session will give you practical techniques for comparing baselines vs actuals, standardizing workspaces, managing cost breakdown structures, and building dashboards that elevate decision‑making across your projects. It’s an ideal opportunity to sharpen your skills and get ahead with OPC’s latest capabilities. Register now...
08 to 11 Dec - Spider Project Introduction Online Masterclass (Salute Enterprises) - For effective waterfall and agile integrated project, program, and portfolio management it is critical to have the right tool. Spider Project enables Innovative Scheduling by: Activity Modelling; Resource Modelling; Network Modelling and Analysis; Cost Management Options (Corporate Reference Books, Typical Fragment Library, Risk Simulation); Performance Management; Portfolio Management; Reporting & Effective Usability. If you’d like to learn Spider Project and be able to apply all of the advantages it brings to enable powerful planning and delivery, then this class is for you! Read more...
14 Dec - Primavera advanced features of baselines and comparing them to the current file (Emerald Associates) - Unlock the full power of Oracle Primavera Cloud (OPC) by joining this focused webinar on Baselines and Baseline Comparison, where you’ll learn how to create, categorize, display, and compare baselines with confidence, turning raw project data into meaningful insights that drive better decisions. We’ll walk through essential OPC capabilities—from project and cost breakdown structures to schedule scenarios, progress updates, and portfolio KPIs—giving program managers, project managers, planners, schedulers, and anyone moving to OPC the practical skills they need to manage multiple projects with clarity and precision. If you want to sharpen your OPC expertise and elevate your reporting, this session is the perfect opportunity. Register now...
Contact us to get your event here - PPAdmin@planningplanet.com
Panel Discussion and Demo: Transforming Drawings to Short-term Field Schedules
At ALICE Technologies, we're constantly innovating to build technology that better serves construction teams. We've been working hard on something new, built specifically for jobsite teams.
Join us on Monday, November 9th, for a live panel discussion and an exclusive product preview and demo. See how computer vision understands drawings and extracts key information, including activities, sequencing, dates, and logic, to make field planning faster, smarter, and more adaptable.
Our panel of speakers brings years of boots-on-the-ground experience as superintendents and project engineers and is now putting that expertise to work implementing ALICE on customer projects. They'll share their firsthand perspectives on the challenges of field planning and how technology can help solve them.
Come see what we've been building. Save your seat here...
How Project Planners Should Deal with a Difficult Client PMO
Project planners are often expected to be the calm, objective voice of reason. But what happens when the very organisation responsible for governance, assurance, and project control becomes a source of frustration, delay, or conflict?
A difficult client PMO can create challenges that go far beyond reporting requirements. Micromanagement, shifting priorities, excessive scrutiny, and unrealistic expectations can consume valuable time and distract teams from delivering real project value.
The question is not whether you'll encounter a challenging PMO during your career. The question is how you respond when you do.
Should planners push back? Adapt? Escalate? Or find a way to turn a difficult relationship into a productive partnership?
This insightful article explores practical strategies for maintaining professionalism, protecting schedule integrity, and building credibility, even in the most demanding client environments.
Source: Sunchana Johnston NED FAPM CHPP ERP P6 Master Planner
6 Weeks To Go Until Project Controls Expo Uk 2026!
The countdown is on!
Join the 15th edition of Project Controls Expo UK, bringing together project controls professionals, industry leaders and experts for three days of insights, innovation and knowledge sharing.
2–4 November 2026 - Wembley Stadium, London
Agenda Highlights:
Development Resource Integration & Value Enhancement (DRIVE)- Petronas
The power of an enterprise project performance mindset: Transforming Performance Management Across 24,000 Projects- AtkinsRéalis
Computer, Enhance: AI, Judgement and the Project Controls Dividend- Laminar Projects
From Reporting to Insight: The Thames Water SRO Digital Controls Journey- Octave and Turner & Townsend
Lessons Learned from procuring and mobilising major capital works- Arcadis
Aligning Construction Management Education with Industry Priorities- University of Portsmouth
…and much more!
Explore the full agenda and discover the sessions, speakers and programme highlights waiting for you at PCE UK 2026.- Online Brochure
Places are filling up fast!
If you haven’t registered yet, now is the time to secure your place and be part of the conversation shaping the future of project controls.
Register today and join us at PCE UK 2026!
CONSTRUCTION CPM CONFERENCE 2027
We’re finalizing plans to bring the Construction CPM Conference back in 2027 at the Hilton Palacio del Rio on San Antonio’s River Walk.
Mark your calendar for February 23–25 and get ready to register your team, as we continue building a conference for Constructors, by Constructors.
Our focus will be strengthening Planning to drive Performance—so every attendee leaves with practical takeaways they can use right away. We will be continuing the legacy that Fred has built since 2011.
Template Loading and Updating in Primavera P6 with the P6-Loader
P6-Loader is not only for cleaning up and maintaining your P6 database. It has some amazing automations for fast building, maintaining and updating. Our Template loader or fragnet generator is one time saving and easy to use automation. Read more...
User’s WBS Summary Activities are not calculating remaining units and percent complete correctly.
WBS Summary Activities look simple, but beneath the surface they follow a unique set of rules that can significantly impact dates, durations, progress calculations, and schedule reporting.
Do you know:
Which activities are included in the roll-up?
How start and finish dates are calculated?
Why relationships may be ignored?
What limitations apply to constraints and actual durations?
Whether you're a planning engineer, scheduler, or project controls professional, understanding these nuances can help you avoid mistakes and get more value from your schedules.
Read the full article and master WBS Summary Activities in P6.
LET'S OPEN UP OPPORTUNITIES TOGETHER
To support every practitioner, employer, consultant, and recruiter in our network, we’re opening up free job postings for everyone. Whether you’re:
An employer with a vacancy
A regular practitioner looking to strengthen your team
A consultant searching for standout talent
A recruiter with a role to fill
…you’re invited to share your opportunities with the entire Planning Planet community.
No charge. Simply contact PPAdmin@PlanningPlanet.com and we’ll help you get your role in front of thousands of committed project controls professionals.
Let’s make this a space where opportunities flow freely, careers grow, and our community continues to lift one another. View Jobs... Post Jobs...
PARTNER SPOTLIGHT: SUPERIOR ALTERNATIVE TO "MOST POPULAR" SOFTWARE FOR US PLANNERS?
A superior alternative to the "most popular" software for us as planners?
Spider Project Team is a group of project management consulting and training companies. With headquarters in Moscow, Russia, we have branches, partners and representatives in other Russian cities, Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Kazakhstan, Romania, USA. We develop professional PM software Spider Project that is the most powerful and functional tool for project, program, and portfolio management.
We develop advanced approaches and methods of project management that are widely used by our customers in 37 countries. We provide training on project management and Spider Project software for our customers around the world.
We manage projects for our customers and implement corporate project management systems in companies of different industries. We believe that good project management can improve our world and are happy to provide the best services and tools to our customers.
We are proud of our achievements. The current version is used in 37 countries. Spider Project offers numerous unique functional features and is the only PM software that optimizes resource, cost, and material constrained schedules and budgets for projects and portfolios.
Spider Project offers numerous unique functional features and is the only PM software that optimizes resource, cost, and material constrained schedules and budgets for projects and portfolios.
Check it out here... Ask questions here...
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THANK YOU FOR READING OUR MESSAGES
If you’d like to lend a hand to the small but enthusiastic team behind this newsletter, feel free to reach out to us at ppadmin@planningplanet.com. We know there’s still a lot of work ahead to make this an informative and eagerly anticipated bi-weekly read, so get in touch and be part of the journey.
Regards...
The Planning Planet Team
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