1. “I understand that the BOQ follows the CSI master format. So I wish the Main Activities spreadsheet also followed that format in both the tabs – Building and External Works”
You could do your own summary in a number of ways. As what Mr. Hany said in the lecture, it is just one of the ways how it could be done.
I believe ever since he started planning, he got used to that kind of sequencing. Whether it is less efficient than following the CSI format, boils down to personal preference.
2. “And one last observation – where do I find the project start date? we do have references to various project milestones and finish milestones but without a clear project start date, we cannot have a clear project duration leading to the project finish date.”
As a Planning Engineer, I would say that you have a valid point in pointing out dates. But in this workshop, I would say it’s irrelevant as we could enter any date we want. The most important thing is that you know how you are going to control and manipulate your activities to suit a certain time frame, which is what this workshop will teach.
I have had projects before that changed dates constantly and dealing with them was quite a pain. I am already on the 4th week of this workshop and I think it has taught me things that made the processes I did before more efficient, like employing macros.
With the nature of your questions and saying that it’s ambitious, I assume you have not had much exposure on Planning as I personally do not find it ambitious. I think it is just a huge project and this workshop will help us employ the most efficient ways in dealing with projects similar or larger in scale.
A word of caution. This course might be a little bit too advanced to those who have no previous experience in Planning. Also, if you have no experience working with Primavera, this workshop might be difficult for you.
With your attitude and interest, I think you might be able to keep up until the end of the course. You know, there is no substitute for hard work.