An activity in Primavera that does not contribute directly to the production of a deliverable is typically scheduled as a P6 Level of Effort (LOE) task.
Though an LOE activity does not produce any tangible deliverable it still expends resources against the project and requires cost loading and tracking. An LOE activity is also unique in that its duration is dependent on dates from its predecessor and successor tasks.
Usually, a task has a defined length in time, an original duration. The LOE task duration varies as its underlying activities extend and shorten in time. So, the LOE task is not a driving activity; it does not determine the start date of any successor task nor the project conclusion.
Nevertheless, a P6 Level of Effort activity serves a useful purpose to track expenditures of a non-discrete task that has material costs associated with it. Examples of LOE activities and their roles are as follows:
- Project Management – Provides overarching guidance and control of the project.
- Administrative – Clerical, Human resources, Finance, Information Technology, and Insurance.
- Safety Management – Confirm adherence to safety protocols and project specific safety requirements.
- Security – Restrict access and secure the construction site.
- Equipment Maintenance – Ensure continued operation of project related equipment.
- Customer Meetings – Recurring status update and progress meetings.
All these efforts are vital and contribute to the success of the project, but, again, they do not directly generate a deliverable.
This article demonstrates the insertion of an Administrative, Project Management, and Safety Management P6 Level of Effort tasks in a project schedule.
P6 Level of Effort Demonstration
We have in Figure 1, our demonstration P6 Pipe Branch project.
This is a resource loaded Pipe Branch Addition project. It has three level of effort activities: Administration, Project Management, and Safety Management. The administrative effort again includes any of the following: Clerical, Human resources, Finance, Information Technology, and Insurance.
As you can see, these administrative efforts are critical to the success of the project though they do not directly generate a deliverable, i.e., a product or service. The Project Management LOE tracks the expenses of the project manager, who provides overarching guidance and control of the project. Safety management does not have a discrete deliverable but is critical to ensure the well-being and health of project team members.
The administrative effort extends for the project duration. It ties into the Project Start predecessor activity with a Start-to-Start (SS) relationship and the Project Complete successor with a Finish-to-Finish (FF) relationship, Figure 2.
The project management activity likewise extends for the project duration. The project manager is the one that turns the lights on when the project begins and when the project concludes the project manager turns the lights off. The relationships for project management are the same as that for Administration, Figure 3.
Safety Management spans the duration of construction on the project. It ties into the successor First Working Day with a SS relationship. It then connects to predecessor Quality Assurance Inspection with an FF relationship, refer to Figure 4.
When we review the Administration efforts; Human resources, Finance, Information Technology, and Insurance, we find that most of these costs are incurred early in the schedule timeline. We therefore want to frontload the resource efforts for Administration. To review a Front-loaded Resource Curve, choose Enterprise | Resource Curve, Figure 5.
In the Resource Curve dialog select Modify to review the Front-loaded Curve, Figure 6.
As the Figure 6 curve indicates the cost of Administration is greater for the first 50% duration of the project. The Administration resource curve is assigned when a respective resource with Curve definition is assigned to the Administration LOE activity, Figure 7.
When we click on the Resource Usage Profile button in the bottom layout tool group P6 plots a histogram of the Administrative Support resource allocation, Figure 8.
Click on a histogram column to display the Administrative Support allocations, Figure 9.
Inspecting the histogram, we find that early on Administrative Support is overallocated 2.4-hours a day. Later it becomes under allocated at a total daily effort of 5.6-hours a day, Figure 10.
The over/under allocation of the Administration effort is due to its Front-Loading. The Project Management effort is uniform. If no curve is selected for the resource assignment, Figure 11, P6 defaults to a uniform curve, which is what we want for the Project Management effort.
Again, when we click on the Resource Usage Profile button in the bottom layout tool group P6 plots a histogram of the Project Management resource allocation, Figure 12.
This time the histogram is a uniform 8-hours per day, Figure 12. And the Project Management LOE is properly allocated throughout the schedule. The Safety Management effort is Front Loaded, as early on the safety manager must work extra hours to ensure that the project specific safety requirements are fully understood by team members early in the construction phase. The Safety Management histogram plots in Figure 13.
When we progress the schedule the LOE activities do not need to be statused because they are automatically updated. In preparation for progressing the schedule we arrange the activity table as follows:
We assume the budget is approved, which means that all non-milestone activities are assigned the duration type Fixed Duration & Units. To achieve this, we highlight all activities from Administration to Quality Assurance Inspection and right click and choose Fill Down from the popup menu, Figure 15.
The activity table and duration type column appear as in Figure 16.
Before we progress the schedule, we must set a few options for the calculations. Confirm the following settings in the Projects | Calculations, Figure 17.
Then select Tools | Schedule | Options, Figure 18.
Then toggle on ‘recalculate assignment costs after scheduling’, Figure 19.
Now we are ready to progress the schedule. We proceed and enter status for the first week of June, Figure 20.
Then we choose Tools | Schedule and move the data date forward one week, Figure 21.
Then we recalculate the schedule, Figure 22.
The progressed schedule with activity % complete column displays in Figure 23.
The activity table displays in Figure 24.
The activity % complete is tied to the percent complete type assigned to the respective activity. The percent complete type of all schedule activities, including the LOE tasks, is duration % complete. The Activity % Complete of both the Project Management and Administration LOEs computes from the following equation:
Although the Project Management and Administration LOE’s activity % completes are the same as well as the Budgeted 344-hours Labor Units, the actual labor costs differ. But why? Well, first the salaries of the Project Manager and Administrative Support resources are $90/hr and $60/hr, respectively. Second, the Project Management activity has a uniform histogram, and the Administration effort is front-loaded.
Even though the Administration salary is significantly below the Project Manager’s, the actual labor cost of the Administration effort exceeded the Project Management effort in the first week of progress.
This is because the Administration effort is front-loaded while the Project Management effort is uniform. So, the resource curve can have a material effect on each activities reporting period incurred cost.
Summary
LOE tasks do not contribute directly to the production of deliverables. They typically span a project phase, such as construction, or the entire project. They are tied into the first and last activities in a series comprising the respective phase or project duration. They extend and shorten in direct relation to the extension/compression of the underlying tasks.
Primavera P6 Level of Effort activities are also non-driving; they do not affect the start date of successor activities. They therefore are not a schedule duration influencer. But they can have a material impact on the cost of the project. LOE tasks do not require status input from the scheduler unless the actual units differ from the budgeted units.
A proper LOE progress calculation requires attention to a few settings. The percent complete type should be duration. Choose an appropriate resource curve to properly distribute the cost loading.
Set the resource assignments to recalculate actual units and cost when duration % complete changes. Set the duration type to Fixed Duration & Units to define the schedule as time and cost constrained. It is also important to toggle on the schedule option recalculate assignment costs after scheduling.
With these settings, Primavera P6 computes the actual labor cost and remaining labor cost while the at completion labor cost remains fixed. In this way the scheduler models the material cost incurred from P6 Level of Effort tasks, whose effort does not, again, have a one-to-one correlation with a particular deliverable.