Professional Planning Engineer (PPE)

All course resources are downloadable inside each lesson, under the video: the input files you start with and the output files with the finished result.

Manhours and equipment hours come from two inputs: quantities and productivity rates. Make sure you and your subcontractor build the schedules on the same BOQ, then agree on the productivity rates – the hours will then match.

Refresh the lesson page, or download it directly: BOQ Bank (ZIP).

Use this prepared version of the BOQ file and the macro will work for all sheets: B.O.Q Future City – to be combined (Excel).

Use our Productivity Rates PC Software. It covers construction activities across divisions. Once purchased it is fully functional, and future updates and rate changes are provided free of charge. Check the prerequisites on the product page before installing.

Both work – it depends on the output you need. If you rate each labourer, you get hours per trade directly. If you rate the crew, split the crew hours between its members by an assumed share of the workload.

Example: crew hours for an activity = 100 hrs; crew = A, B, C with A 50%, B 25%, C 25% ⇒ A = 50 hrs, B = 25 hrs, C = 25 hrs. If the activity lasts 1 day of 10 working hours, you need 5 workers of type A.

For 1 technician + 2 helpers you could use 50% technician and 50% helpers (split equally). For 2 crews, double the productivity rate. P6 then calculates hours per resource per month, which you can turn into a manpower histogram.

More: Smart way of doing resource loading and How to Create Manhour Histogram from Primavera P6 [Template].

Yes, you can. There is no fixed rule for the WBS – it changes from project to project and with the construction method. Agree the structure with your stakeholders so it lets you monitor the schedule easily and reflects how you build. As long as the hierarchy meets the client's needs, both approaches are correct.

No. Importing relationships from Excel has no relation to the WBS. It only depends on the activity IDs of the predecessors and successors.

The WBS path in the import sheet does not match the WBS path in P6. Double-check that each activity's WBS path in Excel is exactly the same as the WBS structure in your P6 project, then import again.

Newer P6 versions add a column to the WBS table, so the copied data shifts out of place. Check that:

1. Your Excel columns match the P6 WBS table exactly, including the est_wt column (fill it with 1).
2. seq_num is a unique sequence and guid is a unique identifier for every row.
3. The data types and column alignment are correct.
4. The Project ID is updated to your project before importing.

If the import still fails, send your Excel file and XER to the course WhatsApp support group.

1. Procurement is planned per material, not per location. For example, if the same tiles go on every floor, add one procurement activity for that item. Long-lead materials are often kept apart from the others in the WBS.

The same way as above: one procurement activity per material, not one per floor or area.

The procurement in the main schedule is kept at a high level. The detail goes in a separate document: the procurement tracking schedule. More reading:

• Materials Procurement Scheduling in a Baseline Programme
• Typical Activities Under the Procurement WBS

Hard milestones use mandatory constraints (Mandatory Start / Mandatory Finish). They lock the milestone to a date regardless of logic, which can hide delays, misrepresent the critical path and make the schedule rigid.

Soft milestones use constraints such as Start On or After, Finish On or Before, Start On or Before and Finish On or After. They set a target without overriding the logic, so a slip in predecessors still shows as a delay.

Recommended practice:

• Drive milestones by logical relationships first.
• Use soft constraints for target dates.
• Keep mandatory constraints for exceptional, contractually fixed dates only – and document why in the schedule narrative.

The course case study uses them for demonstration; always follow your project's planning requirements.

Baseline columns only show correct dates after you assign a baseline to the project. If no baseline is assigned (or the current, updated schedule is used), the dates will not match the planned dates.

To create a clean baseline copy of an updated schedule (without actuals), see: Remove Primavera P6 Actuals using Global Change.

Follow this step-by-step guide: How To Prepare Recovery Or Revised Schedule – 30 pages PDF guide. Then rewatch the Week 8 recovery schedule lesson and apply the steps on the course project.

The certificate uses your profile name on the website:

1. Click your name in the top-right corner of the website.
2. Click Profile.
3. Change your name in the Name box and press Enter.
4. Open the certificate again – it shows the new name.