How to read and understand Primavera Scheduling

The Time Schedule or Project Programme is a very important document because it contains the contractual dates (baseline), actual dates (history) and forecast dates (future). The most common software for creating time schedule is oracle primavera However this document is produced in coordination with all departments (Tender, Contract Administration, Technical, Construction and Procurement Departments) but some individuals find the time schedule hard to read and understand when it is produced in primavera format, Therefore i prepared this topic to make it easy for non planning engineer to read and fully understand what is inside the Primavera Time Schedule.

How to Use Construction Scheduling with Primavera:

A-READ THE COLORS FIRST:

Each color in the Primavera Scheduling Software has different indication in the activity list area and bar chart area as per the following :

A-1 The Activity List Area: The colors in the activity list area represent the Work Break Down Structure (WBS) of the project, it is a hierarchy color coding identify different levels, each primavera time schedule has its own WBS and i will explain the above time schedule color coding to give you an idea how it work as per the following:

Items from 1 to 7 in Activity List Area Represent the Work Break down Structure (WBS) of The Schedule, Each Schedule has its own WBS but they are using the same concept and this is the first thing to read to understand primavera time schedule.

Item no. 1 represent the root level which summarize the whole primavera time schedule and cannot be repeated, i.e. if you want to know the primavera time schedule overall duration, completion date, percentage completed you should go to level 1.

Item no. 2 represent a secondary level of the time schedule and can be repeated and it summarize whatever underneath until you reach another level 2, in our sample above level 2 represent Project milestones, Shop drawings submittals Testing and Commissioning. Therefore if you want to know when all the shop drawings submittals will be finished go to level 2 of shop drawings submittals.

Items no. 3,4,5 and 6 are representing further levels and each level (color) summarize down direction until you reach the same level (color) again, i.e. between two red colors or two blue colors as shown above.

Item No. 7 represents the lowest level in the WBS which is the activity level.

A-2 The Bar Chart Area:

A: Actual work done (History)

B: Remaining works (Future)

C: Baseline Schedule (Contract, Revised Schedule)

D: Critical Path (Delays in any activity delay the project completion)

See Next Page:

B-READ THE DATA:

Primavera Scheduling Tool  is providing plenty of data and to know How to understand primavera you need to know what each column tells you.

1-     Activity ID: is a numbering system identifying each activity.

2-     Activity Name: the description of the activity.

3-     Original Duration: the period of time required to execute the activity or a summary of the duration required to execute a group of activities under certain level.

4-     Duration % Completed: Activity Percentage completed from the time point of view, i.e. activity no. DUB4001001 “HVAC Ducts” is  40% completed as of the schedule data date which is 20-Oct-2012 and this % completed indicate the forecast completion date which is item no. 8.

5-     BL Project start: BL is a shortcut to Base Line which represent the planned start as per the Baseline schedule and these values are fixed.

6-     Actual / Forecast Start: This is recording of the project history , When each activity actually started or Forecasting when this activity will start, to know whether the date in this column is actual or forecast look for the letter A after the date, it mean this date is a history and ACTUAL see activities no. A1080, New 16, A1083, FFB4001001 …etc.

7-     BL Project finish: BL is a shortcut to Base Line which represent the planned finish as per the Baseline schedule and these values are fixed.

8-     Actual / Forecast Finish: This is recording of the project history, when each activity actually finished or forecasting when this activity will Finish.

9-     Variance BL Project Finish: This indicates the variance between BL Project finish (Item no. 7) and Actual / Forecast Finish (Item no. 8), and this highlight whether the schedule is ahead or behind the Base Line and how many days the variance.

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