Project managers can use a built-in tool in Primavera P6 EPPM Web Access to analyze the project schedule. Industry guidelines provide 14 metrics to make qualitative and quantitative evaluations to monitor the health of projects. These assessments help identify areas that can potentially create problems and issues that delay the schedule.
To run the Check Schedule report please review How to Run the Check Schedule Tool in Primavera P6 EPPM Web Access
Is the Check Schedule Tool Available in P6 Professional?
Unfortunately, the Check Schedule tool is not available in Primavera P6 Professional/Windows version of the project management software. It can only be run in the P6 EPPM Web Access version of Primavera.
What are the 14 Point Assessments?
1) Logic option
Identifies activities that do not have either a predecessor or successor relationship. Is there missing logic or an incomplete network? If there are too many open-ended activities, then an accurate critical path may not be calculated and identified. This assessment helps determine how well the schedule is linked together. The default target is for no more than 5% of the activities in the project should be missing either a predecessor or successor relationship.
2) Negative Lags option
Identifies activities with a negative relationship lag or lead time with another activity. Negative lag or lead time indicates the amount of time activities overlap. For example, in Figure 1, Activity A has a Finish-to-Start relationship with Activity B with negative 2 days of Lag. This indicates that Activity B will start 2 days before Activity A completes.
Figure 1: Negative Lag
This assessment helps to avoid critical path and total float distortion in the schedule. Should these tasks be broken down into separate activities with 0 days of lag instead? The default target is less than 1% of activities in the schedule have relationships with less than 0 or negative lag days.
3) Lag option
This assessment is the opposite of the Negative Lags option. This metric evaluates the percentage of the project activities that have positive relationship lag between one another. Positive lag is the amount of time (hours/day) a successor activity starts after the finish date of its predecessor. An excessive use of lags or delays can interfere with critical path analysis. A recommended practice is to use an activity to represent the lag instead. The default target is less than 5% of activities in the schedule have positive relationship lag.
4) Long Lags option
This assessment identifies activities with long relationship lag. The default value is a lag duration greater than 352 hours or 44 days at 8 hours per day (this value can be changed). The default target is less than 5% of activities in the schedule have long lag.
5) Relationship Types option
It is recommended that the majority of the relationships in the project are Finish-to-Start. The default target is greater than 90% of the activity relationships in the schedule are Finish-to-Start.
6) Hard Constraints option
Constraints are User imposed restrictions on either the start or finish of individual activities. There are many types of soft constraints that can affect the schedule but still allow flexibility, such as the ‘Start on or After’ or ‘Finish on or Before’ constraints. The hard constraints of Mandatory Start or Mandatory Finish are inflexible and may override the logic in the schedule by fixing the activity at a certain point in the project regardless if its predecessors have been completed.
This assessment identifies the constraints that prevent activities from moving because of schedule logic. The default target is less than 1% of activities have hard constraints.
7) Soft Constraints option
This assessment identifies the constraints that do not prevent an activity from being moved because of schedule logic. The default target is less than 5% of activities in the project have a constraint. Figure 2 shows all of the constraints available in Primavera.
Figure 2: Constraints
8) Large Float option
This assessment identifies activities with a total float larger than the value specified. Activities with large float could indicate an opened ended activity that is missing either a predecessor or successor relationship. A high number of large floats might also indicate the network is not logic driven. The default target is less than 1% of activities have a float over 352 hours or 44 days at 8 hours per day.
9) Negative Float option
This checks for activities with a total float less than 0 days. Activities with negative total float need to be identified and justified. Negative float activities should be reviewed and corrected. The default target is less than 1% of activities have negative float.
10) Large Duration option
This identifies activities that have a remaining duration greater than the specified target value. It would be better for incomplete activities with a large duration to be broken down into smaller activities for better control, accuracy and cost of the schedule. The default target is less than 5% of activities have a remaining duration of 352 hours or 44 days at 8 hours per day.
11) Invalid Progress Dates option
This check identifies activities that are statused with actual start and finished dates that are after the Data Date. The Data Date is the blue vertical line on the Gantt Chart of the Activity Window which divides the schedule’s past and future remaining work. Activities should not be progressed or updated as started or finished in the future. The default target is less than 1% of activities with invalid dates. The example in Figure 3 shows Activity E is completed in the future.
Figure 3: Invalid Progress Dates
12) Resource / Cost option
This assessment checks for activities that do not have either an expense or resource assigned to it. The purpose is to ensure at least one resource (labor, equipment or cost) is assigned to every activity. The default target is less than 1% of activities that are not resource or cost loaded.
13) Late Activities option
This assessment identifies activities that are planned to finish later than their baseline finish date. This metric assists in measuring the performance of the schedule in comparison to the baseline plan. Poor performance may be an indication of poor planning, insufficient resources or other circumstances. The default target is less than 5% of activities are late.
14) BEI option
This calculates the Baseline Execution Index (BEI) ratio. This measures the number of activities that have been completed as a ratio to the activities that should have been completed according to the baseline plan. If the BEI is greater than 1, then the schedule is performing better than what was planned in the baseline. If the BEI is less than 1, then the schedule is falling behind the baseline. The default target is a BEI of 0.95 or greater.
Figure 4 is the Check Schedule dialog box which shows each assessment with their default targets.
Figure 4: Check Schedule Dialog Box
The Check Schedule tool in Primavera P6 EPPM Web Access provides a comprehensive 14 point assessment report to help project managers focus on potential problem areas in the schedule. Each target metric can be adjusted from the default industry standard target percentages to customize the analysis.
To run the Check Schedule report please review How to Run the Check Schedule Tool in Primavera P6 EPPM Web Access
For a full overview of our classes for project management via the P6 software, visit our Training Courses page.
The post Primavera P6 EPPM Web Access ‘Check Schedule’ Tool appeared first on P6 Consulting.