Do you need to link multiple activities with Finish to Start (FS) relationships? Primavera P6 Professional provides a quick way to insert FS relationships between activities.
Many scheduling guidelines prefer the FS relationship to connect activities. This tends to make FS relationships the most common fixture in project schedules. What schedulers want is an efficient way to insert this widely used relationship in their schedules. Primavera P6 supports the easy and quick insertion of FS relationships. But schedulers beware. How you select the respective activities effects the connection of the FS relationships.
This article demonstrates a Primavera P6 Professional quick tip on how to use the Link Activities feature to link multiple activities with FS relationships.
We have in Figure 1 our demonstration project.
Figure 1
This schedule consists of five activities A thru E. We highlight activity A, hold the shift key down, then highlight activity E to select activities A thru E, in that order. Continuing, we right click and choose Link Activities from the popup menu, Figure 2.
Figure 2
This inserts FS relationships between activities A thru E. We then calculate the schedule, Figure 3.
Figure 3
The resulting schedule is displayed in Figure 4.
Figure 4
Primavera P6 inserted FS relationships between activities A thru E in sequential order.
We have a similar project in Figure 5.
Figure 5
We begin by highlighting activity A, Figure 5. We continue and highlight activities C and E, Figure 6.
Figure 6
So we have selected A, C, and E in that order. We continue and add B and D to our selection, Figure 7.
Figure 7
Our non-sequential selections are A, C, and E, and then B and D, in that order. Again, we right click and select Link Activities from the popup menu. We then calculate the schedule, and the final schedule is displayed in Figure 8.
Figure 8
The activities were linked with FS relationships in the order they were selected, which was A, C, E, B, and D.
Summary
Using the Link Activities feature, Primavera P6 inserts FS relationships in the order the respective activities were selected. If you use the shift key to select the activities the order is sequential. Using the Control Key to select activities requires a little more attention, because the activities are linked in the order they were chosen.