Are you transferring a Primavera P6 schedule file from one counterpart P6 database to another, most likely from subcontractor to customer? If so, then you will want to establish agreed upon file transfer requirements to control project schedules produced or updated by counterparts.
Quite often schedules are transferred between primary and subcontractors from one Primavera P6 database to another. You want to make sure the file transfer process works smoothly to insure, among other things, that the original duration of a schedule activity in one database equates to the same original duration of the same schedule in another database. So, to guarantee the smooth transfer of schedule data, counterparts should come to an agreement on basic settings in Primavera P6 Professional.
Here we look at the general schedule data requirements for the file transfer of Primavera P6 schedule files between counterparts and databases.
Schedulers should consider the following settings when transferring files between counterparts:
- Duration type of each activity “fixed duration and units” – Set the duration type of the approved baseline to fixed duration & units. When planning the schedule and assigning multiple resources it is best to use fixed duration & units/time. Fixed duration because you do not want your activity durations to change. Fixed units/time because you want each additional assigned resource units/time (houre per day) to be fixed and the overall budget computed. However, once the budget is approved the project becomes cost constrained; it is very difficult to successfully request and obtain more funding for a schedule that has an approved budget. Subcontractors should therefore set the duration type of such baselines to “fixed duration and units” when submitting baselines to the customer. Again, fixed duration to maintain duration estimates and fixed units for cost constraints after budget approval.
- Percent complete type set to “physical” – There are three percent complete types in Primavera P6 Professional: duration, physical, and units. The duration percent complete type requires the least input; remaining duration automatically computes from the activity percent complete. The units percent complete is most often employed with a P6 time module. It provides more accuracy when you have multiple resources working at differing burn rates. The physical percent complete type is considered the most accurate as the remaining work relates directly to the physical work achieved. Physical complete type therefore accounts for non-uniform burn rates, such as learning curves, where the first half of the effort requires more time to accomplish than the second half of the effort.
- Critical activities defined as longest path – There are two differing ways to define critical activities in Primavera P6 Professional. The first is by the total float value. Activities with total float equal to or less than a specified value (typically zero) are considered critical. The second is to say all activities along the longest path are critical. Longest path is the preferred definition as it avoids the confusion of multiple critical paths that often results from insertion of activity constraints.
- Admin preferences time periods use assigned calendars – In Admin Preferences | Time Periods set the Hours per Time Period toggle to “use assigned calendar to specify the number of work hours for each time period”. This way P6 uses the time periods specifically defined with the respective calendar.
- Activity codes defined at the project level – If activity codes are global then when other schedulers make changes to the respective global activity code this will cause changes to the activity codes in your schedule as well.
- Calendars defined at the project level – This is the same issue as with the activity codes, but the negative impact possibly greater. If calendars are global then other schedulers with access to the database can change the global calendar and in the process cause collateral changes to your schedule’s calendar, and, therefore, to your schedule.
Summary
So it is important for schedulers to be aware of a few key settings when transferring files between counterparts. Make sure all counterparts agree on file transfer requirements to control project schedules produced or updated by counterparts.
At the least make sure schedule calendars are defined at the project level as any change someone makes to the global calendar causes changes that propagate through any schedule assigned to that calendar: and these project schedule changes may be significant.
For more details refer to Jongpil Nam’s book “Construction Scheduling with Primavera P6”.