I recommend using Deltek Acumen for schedule analytics, it’s simply the best tool I’ve ever seen for the job! I don’t usually do opinion pieces like this, because opinions are just that – opinions – and I’m not sure in what way mine might serve you, unless in this case, you were perhaps looking for […]
How Your PMO Can Add Value To Your Organization
We hear a lot of executives talk about how their PMO can add value add value but people aren’t always clear what they mean by that. And even if they do know what they are striving for, the PMO team sometimes struggle to work out what it really looks like in practice. In this article […]
Exporting/Importing Multiple Projects in a Group in Primavera P6
If you have to transfer multiple projects between Primavera P6 databases, exporting/importing multiple projects is easy. Transferring one at a time quickly becomes laborious though when you have numerous files to transfer. Here we explore a more efficient way to transfer multiple projects. The Primavera P6 Professional export/import features work well to transfer single project […]
Schedule Reliability and Buffers
Project schedules tend toward tardiness, but what can be done to make schedules more reliably on time? Schedule buffer similar to a cost contingency helps projects become more reliable. Project plans are generally more optimistic than reality. Reasons for this disconnect are that project plans do not consider: inefficiencies in the handover of tasks between […]
Critical Path Barriers
Critical path barriers obscure and invalidate the true critical path through the schedule. Does your schedule accurately represent the longest path or critical path through the schedule network? Critical path is an important concept in scheduling. It determines the duration of the project. It also highlights where to investigate for schedule optimization efforts; shortening the […]
How to Group and Sort Activities In Primavera P6
Quick Tip: Using the Group and Sort feature in Primavera P6. A student recently asked me to troubleshoot a schedule she received from a co-worker. The activity table in this schedule appeared as a pure list of activities and had no Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) elements. Well, what happened to the WBS elements? I responded […]
Top Down Planning in Deltek Cobra 8
A Deltek Cobra feature I haven’t talked about before is Top Down Planning. This little gem allows you to make very precise adjustments to the overall cost of a control account or work package and then push that value down into the target object to change the BAC value. Let’s look at an example of […]
Video – Installing Primavera P6 Professional on Windows 10
In the following video you will learn how to install Primavera P6 Professional on a Windows 10 environment. Over the years Primavera have improved the installation process for P6 Professional, and these days it’s easier than ever. The big improvement has been in the database area. For standalone users Primavera has been offering an SQLite […]
The 3 Questions Every Project Health Check Should Include
The end of the year and the beginning of the year are times when Project Management Office teams often focus on project reviews and performing a project health check. Yes, a project health check should be built into the regular calendar of events, but we often see that executive teams demand a different level of […]
Ensuring Quality Schedule Updates
A quality Integrated Project Schedule (IPS) is great, but quality updates to that IPS schedule are also very important for measuring progress accurately. An IPS is like a map, and is only part of the reason for accurate progress measurement. Accurate updates are absolutely essential for properly locating where on the IPS map your project […]