Project managers must determine the sequence of when work should be done during the project planning phase. The network logic is developed by first determining the work or activities that must be performed in the project. For example, excavating the site, building concrete forms, and pouring concrete. The next step is figuring out the order the activities need to be worked on by determining their predecessor and successor dependency relationships. For example, you must build the concrete forms before you can pour the concrete. One of the main functions of the Primavera P6 Professional Project Management software is to help P6 Users design their project’s network logic.
A Network Logic Diagram is the logical representation of all the activities in a project showing their dependency relationships or connections to other activities. There are two commonly used columns that project managers use to develop the network logic in Primavera P6. The Predecessors and Successors columns in Primavera P6 Professional are used to list any activities that have connections to the highlighted activity in the table.
Figure 1 shows the Predecessors and Successors columns in the Activity Table. For the highlighted Activity A1020, it lists the activities that either precedes it (Activity A1010) or succeeds it (Activity A1030). If you need to see the specific details about the relationship connections like the Relationship Type or if there is any Lag, then you would need to view it in the Relationships tab. The four possible Relationship Types available are: Finish-to-Start (FS), Start-to-Start (SS), Finish-to-Finish (FF) and Start-to-Finish (SF).
Figure 1: Primavera P6 – Predecessors and Successors Columns
Some relatively newly added items in the Columns dialog box are the Predecessor Details and Successor Details columns. These are very helpful columns because they show the additional information of the Relationship Type and if there is any Lag.
The additional columns are shown in Figure 2. Notice for Activity A1020 it shows the Relationship Type of SS with 2 days of Lag in the Successor Details column.
Figure 2: Primavera P6 – Predecessor Details and Successor Details Columns
The convenience of having the relationship details as columns in the Activity Table will make it much easier for project managers to develop their projects in Primavera P6 Professional. The ability to quickly see all of the relationship connection details all at once instead of one by one will save a lot of time. The new columns will not only be used in the planning stages but they will be used to analyze the project for its entire duration.
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