We’ve had some great feedback from our recent blog Creating LOE Tasks in Microsoft Project. Of particular value were some comments from Steve Devaux, Instructor in Project Management at Suffolk University. Steve made the following points:
Note: We’ve added some supporting screen shots to illustrate how these suggestions are put into action in Microsoft Project.
“A couple more points, though. It is crucial when doing schedule analysis, either up front or during the project when you are looking for ways to recover from slippage, to filter out all LOE activities. This can be done by putting the letter “L” in a text field for each LOE activity and then having the software filter on it. (I also recommend giving LOE activities a name that starts with the letters “LOE” so you can easily see any LOEs that do not have an L in the text field and thus slip by!)”
Above: a Text field has been renamed Task Type and the letter ‘L’ placed against the LOE task. The letters ‘LOE’ have also been entered as a prefix for the task.
Above: Simple Microsoft Project filter example.
Steve goes on to say: “The reason it’s important to filter out LOEs for critical path analysis is that both the LOEs and their “driving” activities will have identical total slack (0 or negative if on the CP). This will make them seem like parallel activities, and their slacks or lack thereof will “sabotage” the key calculation for scheduling compression, critical path drag.”
Our thanks to Steve for sharing these valuable insights regarding good critical path analysis.