Question-1: What is a Base Project Schedule?
Answer: A baseline is an approved program by both parties which is used as a benchmark to measure the
progress of a project.
Question-2: What is the Main Driver of a Project and how you will get it?
Answer: The main driver consists of the significant activities that are driving the project at the critical path.
To get it just go to last activity and check its driving activity, then go to that driving activity and mark its
driving also, same goes until you reach the first activity. This is typically done through scheduling software
like Primavera P6, Microsoft Project, etc.
Question-3: How many baselines are allowed in any project and which baseline decides the success
or failure of the project?
Answer: A project must have a minimum one project baseline & that number can go to unlimited. But if
you find a number of baselines that means the planning team is quite inefficient – Avoid it! The latest
baseline defines the success or failure of any project.
Question-4: What are the Key Performance Indicators – KPI’s?
Answer: A KPI is type performance measurement on a particular activity where engaged. KPI’s are defined
by keeping a factor “What matters the most”. A careful study and analysis are required to define because it
differs from organization to organization like a critical KPI for you may not be of any interest of other same
type organization. It is really a diverse area. Examples Rubber lining, Concrete Work, Machine Failures in a
Specific Duration, Plantation, Number of hiring/firings, Training, etc. etc.
Question-5: What you normally need to develop a plan?
Answer: I need the Contract documents to understand the scope, the schedule drawings to know about
areas, Bill of Quantity-BOQ including cost, scheduling software access. Yes, I need to meet my project team
to know about a little productivity rate if I don’t know in case of any specific activity.
Question-6: How do you define a critical path?
Answer: The longest path & the minimum time required to complete a project. A combination of activities
with the total float as zero are included all.
Question-7: How much duration a milestone activity normally has?
Answer: Well, there are different types of milestones are there like start milestone, finish milestone, etc. but
all have ZERO duration.
Question-8: What is the difference between Free Float & Total Float?
Answer: Free Float – the amount of time we can delay an activity without affecting the early start date of its
successor activity.
Total Float – the amount of time we can delay an activity from its early start date without delaying the
whole project finish.
The free float may affect the start of any activity but total float may affect the duration of the overall
project.
Question-9: What is the difference between Change order & Variation order Request?
Answer: Technically there is no such difference. Change order or Variation request is a change in scope
from the contract but as per contract. If you are much curious which term should be used the better refer
your contract documents. Personally, I have heard the term Variation Order but never seen any
documentation for. Everywhere they write a Change Order Request.
Question-10: How to measure the progress of a project?
Answer: Normally there are three ways to measure the progress
1. Man-hours
2. Cost
3. Quantity
My preferred method is through Man-hours as It is more logical but I have to comply as per contractual
obligations as most of the companies prefer through Cost. By the way, sometimes we have to use all three
methods on a single project to get more intensive project updated status.
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Question-11: Have you heard about the Kick of Meeting?
Answer: Yes, I have handled a number of Kick of Meetings on different projects & companies. the kick-off
meeting is normally the first meeting of all major Stakeholders including the Project Manager with his team
and Owner’s representatives. Here, we discuss high-level overall plans, things like how we are going to
execute and once things get clearer as project go forward then we do rolling wave planning. These
meetings can be conducted at the new phase starts during the execution of the project also. You can read
more about the Project Kick-Off Meeting
Question-12: What certification & qualification you have?
Answer: I am a Project Management Professional- PMP certified from Project Management Institute – PMI.
I am a Graduate Engineer & perusing Master in Project Management.
Question-13: Do you know about CPI?
Answer: Yes, it’s a Cost Performance Indicator and it evaluates the performance in the sense if the project is
under-budget, over-budgeted or on track. The formula is for CPI is the ratio of earned value – EV over
actual costs – AC that is CPI =EV/AC
Question-14: What do you know about SPI?
Answer: It is the Schedule Performance Indicator and indicates the performance of project work is
completed to the baseline schedule. It is calculated by dividing the earned value by the planned value that
is SPI = EV/PV
Question-15: What you know about Triple Constraints?
Answer: Cost, Time and Scope with quality as the fundamental theme.
Question-16: What are undesirable in any plan?
Answer: Constraints, SF (Start to Finish) relationship, Log lags or leads, Negative Float, etc.
Question-17: How to avoid Negative Float in a Baseline Schedule?
Answer: Negative float indicates that the activity is already delayed. Normally, a constraint is the culprit of
it. Remove all the constraints or use proper logic -relationships to deal with it. Also, check dangling or out
of sequence activities. During updating a schedule, a negative float for some activities is very common. You
cannot avoid unless is going as planned.
Question-18: If you are reported 5 SPI, what it means? – Real Question was Asked to me!
Answer: They planner has made a blunder during calculations.
Question-19: What is an S Curve?
Answer: Graphical representation of ‘anything’ like Manhours, Cost, etc. plotted against time.
Question-20: What do you know about Reflection Schedule?
Answer: Reflection function is always underestimated but it is a really great feature in Primavera P6
Professional. A Reflection program is just a copy of the program to have a look at different scenarios after
making desirable changes. Once satisfied just merge in the native program.
Question-21: What is ACWP, BCWP & BCWS?
Answer: ACWP is Actual Cost of Work Performed, BCWP is Budgeted Cost of Work Performed & BCWS is
Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled.
Question-22: How you will make a comparison of different updates for the same schedule?
Answer: I will use Claim Digger function that is available in Primavera P6.
Question-24: Do you know any about Retained & Over-Ride Logic in Scheduling?
Answer: This only matters if the schedule is not going at it was planned, means a difference is activities
progress. The Progress Over-ride will not respect the logic anymore if there is any variance and hence will
shorten the critical path but with mostly illogical out of sequence activities. In other sense, the activities will
do as it is an open-end activity. The Retained logic is completely otherwise.
Question-25: What do you know about DCMA Scoring?
Answer: DCMA is 14-Point Assessment Metrics to evaluate any baseline schedule. It includes;
1. Logic
2. Leads
3. Lags
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4. Relationship Types
5. Hard Constraints
6. High Float
7. Negative Float
8. High Duration
9. Invalid Dates
10. Resources
11. Missed Tasks
12. Critical Path Test
13. Critical Path Length Index (CPLI)
14. Baseline Execution Index (BEI)
Question-26: What do you about Delay Analysis Techniques?
Answer: Normally it is defined in the Contract documents that how we are going to calculate extension of
time but if not, then there must be a consensus for using any available technique from both of the parties
like
1. Impacted as planned
2. Windows Analysis
3. Time Impact
4. As-Built But-For.
Question-27: What is the difference between Float & Slack?
Answer: Nothing, just synonyms.
Question-28: What is the difference between Planner & a Scheduler?
Answer: Both are quite different but linked to each other tightly. Somewhere these are just synonym to
each other. Planner or Planning Engineer reads the IFC drawings, define the activities, duration & resources
according to site construction conditions. He knows better all the phases of work to be done even during
the tender stage and also at the construction stage. It should be from an engineering background
necessarily. On the other hands, Scheduler takes-over the work done already by the planner to make a
more detailed one. This job does not require to have an engineering background. I read somewhere on
LinkedIn (by Mustafa Ozgoren) that “Planning is What & How? & Scheduling is When & Who?”. Both
should be well versed in Planning software in any case.
Question-29: What is different % complete type in Primavera P6?
Answer: Physical, Units & Duration.
Question-30: What is different duration type in Primavera P6?
Answer: Fixed Units, Fixed Units/time, Fixed Duration & Units, Fixed Duration & Units/Time.
Question-31: What is Productivity?
Answer: Productivity is the efficiency of any working entity. It is measured as the amount of output for work
per hour. Productivity rates define how efficient a team you have.
Formula is Productivity = Output / Input
Example: Let say you have two masons (call A&B) and let’s review their work for last week, A worked for 50
hours and B for 30 hours. A fixed 5000 blocks & B did 3500 blocks. As a planner, you may like A as it is
putting more on but let’s have a check on productivity for both Mason A= 5000/50hrs = 100/hour Mason
B= 3500/30hrs =116/hour, Here, B is much more productive than A and hence you need to raise the skill
level of A type Mason by proper training, etc.
Question-32: What are the different levels of a Schedule?
Answer: There is a different school of thought to define levels of a program one says its six levels, others
say it’s five and even one thinks only four levels of a program are there when scheduling. Here, I will explain
the six levels as most of the old school people still think as more logical, there are
• LEVEL-1: Overview Schedule
• LEVEL-2: Area Wise Schedule
• LEVEL-3: Discipline Wise Schedule
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• LEVEL-4: Major Activities Schedule
• LEVEL-5: Detailed Activities Schedule
• LEVEL-6: Micro-detail Activities Schedule
Question-33: What is the difference between Project Planner & Project Controller?
Answer: Project planner does the planning phase for the project from WBS identification, identification of
project deliverables, milestones, create the baseline, plan the budget, cash flow and KPI’s and trackers. The
planner is to prepare the program and prepare an acceptable budget for all parties. Project control provides
assistance and ensures that the plan is controlled by providing risk register, analysing critical path, placing
mitigation plans, track project KPI, and ensures that the project is running on time and budget. Its focus is
only productivity & reports according to organizational norms.
Question-34: What you normally present in a Weekly Report?
Answer: It depends on the demands of stakeholders on a particular project. Normally, I update the
Schedule with a proper backup, do required baseline comparisons, Critical Path that displays activities are
important to consider on, three weeks lookahead – 3WLHS, EVM reports are also included in my report. I
draw S curves for Man-hours, Cost, Manpower Histogram, Equipment Histogram. Furthermore, I always
update the Procurement Schedule separately in MS Excel to track other materials. Long lead items are
already being tracked and updated accordingly in my baseline schedule.
Question-35: What are the different types of Primavera P6 activities?
Answer: These include
• Task-Dependent: In this type assigned resources are scheduled based on the activity’s calendar
itself.
• Resource Dependent: In this type, the assigned resources are scheduled based on assigned
calendars.
• Level of Effort: This type of activity goes with dependent activities like administrative issues.
• Start Milestone: This is designated for the start of a major phase or stage of a project. A milestone
that has zero duration. It is just like a flag.
• Finish Milestone: This is designated for the finish of the major phase or stage of a project. A
milestone that has zero duration. It is just like a flag.
Question-35: Differentiate between budgeted Cost and Budgeted Units?
Answer: Budgeted Cost for an activity is the total budgeted costs of all resources on that particular activity
whereas Budgeted units are budgeted units of work for the resource assignment on any particular activity.
Question-36: When the Planning Phase /Stage is started for a Project?
Answer: Well, they say planning phase should be started before ending the initiation phase but as per my
thinking Planning should be started as soon as the project life cycle starts.
Question-37: What is the difference between different Primavera Scheduling Programmes?
Answer: There are few other programs but we will discuss below three as these are mainly used for
scheduling
1. Primavera P6 Professional
2. Primavera P6 EPPM (Web Client)
3. Primavera Contractor
Now, Primavera Contractor is the least costly and hence not have much features
like Enterprise and Admin menus are not available. It is limited to 2000 activities only. No Microsoft Project
XML file support, No Resource Roles, No Enterprise Project Structure (EPS) and it is installed only as
standalone. Still, it is a great and powerful application. The interface is as of Primavera P6 Professional. A
person that uses Primavera P6 Professional can handle it with ease.
Now let’s compare the other two major giants Primavera P6 Professional & Primavera P6 EPPM have some
edge over Professional as it has more visual aids, can handle more projects at once, installation is faster,
need to be installed at only one machine whereas Professional should be installed on each machine.
Professional is a small-scaled as compare to EPPM as it only can handle 100,000 activities. EPPM has more
graphs, different dashboards, and pivot tables to help the management to review the status quickly
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whereas you need to use third-party software like MS Excel to get better visualization when using P6
Professional. Professional has more speed than EPPM, it needs no internet connection to be operated
whereas EPPM needs a good internet connection.
Question-38: What is normally you see on a Change Order Form?
Answer: There are five major & must mentions on any Change Order (CO) Form;
1. Change in the Scope – Either additions or reductions. A change is just colour can be referred into a
change order even no monitory value involves. Better to document this for reference to give credit.
2. Change in Cost – Either plus, negative or even zero.
3. Change in time – Never forget if you are on contractor side & must plan as per resources or add
optimum to avoid Liquidated Damages (L.D.). It should have a start & finish date even though not
necessary as per Change Order form.
4. Signatures – It should be signed by authorized parties two or more.
5. Date of Change Order – The signature date must be included on the Change Order Form.
Question-39: Difference between MS Project and Primavera P6?
Answer: I have used both of these but in my opinion, Primavera P6 is way more powerful than MS Project.
MS project only allows 11 baselines for any particular project but Primavera P6 offers unlimited baselines.
That shows that with Primavera P6 we can handle complex projects. In Primavera P6 multi-user can work at
the same time, but in MS Project one must close so the other user can open that project. Web Support is
also available in Primavera P6 EPPM that means a user can operate through the internet without installing
Primavera P6 software on a machine. That makes it a portable type of product. MS Project is a user-friendly
as most of the people are familiar with Microsoft products like MS Excel buy Primavera P6 needs some basic
skills/training to operate. You can read more about these here MS Project and Primavera P6
Question-40: How you track Progress of a Project?
Answer: There are three ways to track the progress of a project
1. Man-hours
2. Cost
3. Quantities
Every client has his/her preferences to use any of the above methods but I use Manhours. The reason is it
gives me proper control of resources that make tracking quite easy and effective. One can get realistic
manpower requirements for a particular project. Many clients prefer cost but if a Project Manager filters
activities with higher cost and get it done first then it will show some kind of fake overall progress. But it is
good to have a proper cash flow forecast. Quantiles are preferred where material management is required
mainly and it also helps to track KPI’s of a constructions site. But being a planner, I must say tracking is
really tough with this method as you need to track most of the materials
Question-41: What is Reflection in Primavera P6?
Answer: It is one of the exclusive features in Primavera P6. Possible changes in a project are done via
reflection. Reflection is just like a what-if scenario. Once changes are reviewed and approved then it can be
merged into sources project. Different possible scenarios are reviewed and the best one is merged after
approval. Scenarios Like: If your actual plan is lagging behind and Project Manager asks if I provide you
some extra resources (shift) then how long it will take to catch-up?
Question-42: What is the use of Claim Digger in Primavera P6?
Answer: The handiest function to compare two schedules for any change. Claim Digger is one more
exclusive kind of function in Primavera P6. Although it is a separate product nowadays it is built-in in
Primavera P6. Claim Digger helps to track any change between two projects in terms of Activity deleted,
added, change in relationships, change is duration, change in cost, change in units, change is % age
complete mainly. Reports can be exported in HTML and CSV files or even Text.
Question-43: What you know about Rolling Wave Planning?
Answer: First is very high-level planning is done at project level when you only have a concept because at
that time you don’t have much resources or team members to coordinate and so you make an expert
judgment for estimations. Then you do it on phase level. Phases are as per your organization norms. You
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may have four phases or less/more. Rolling wave planning is done at the deliverable level. It can be like
lookahead weekly base or even is done daily on foreman levels. It could be monthly as per stakeholders’
requirements. See the below for pictorial view.
Question-44: Differentiate among WBS, Work Package and Activity?
Answer: WBS: Work Breakdown Structure- WBS is simply a decomposition of all the works to complete any
project. A WBS is arranged in a hierarchy having a clear and logical group. A WBS is a deliverable-oriented.
Work Package: WP is the lowest level of any work breakdown structure from we can manage the cost and
duration estimation.
Activity: A discrete, planned portion of work to be performed in a project.
Still confusing? Let’s understand by an example Say that we are building a house and flooring is one of the
WBS (it depends on the team how they define WBS in a plan). Now, these different floors are different work
packages. A team has to perform a series of activities like soil compaction, waterproofing, concrete
blending, rebars, etc. to complete the floor. To understand, activities will complete work packages and that
will ultimately complete the WBS. It’s like a bottom-up scenario.
Question-45: What is the difference between Open-End activity and a Dangling Activity?
Answer: An activity without predecessor or successor relationship is called Open-End activity. A Dangling
Activity may have both predecessor and successor but is still dangling from one end that leads to fake
results for critical path and completion dates. It behaves the same as of open-end activity but is the more
difficult and complex scenario to find it. It is undesirable in any program and needs to fix always.
Question-46: Is there any difference between a flag and a milestone in Primavera P6?
Answer: A Milestone & A flag are event activities. You cannot update Flags manually and it will be updated
automatically whereas a milestone needs to be updated manually. By the way, I have never used the flag as
it is an obsolete type term in Primavera P6 nowadays. You can read more about How to Review and Submit
a Baseline Plan.
Question-47: What are the major different types of drawings you see on a Construction Project?
Answer: There are four types we normally came across
1. Tender Drawings
2. AFC/IFC,
3. Shop Drawings and 4. As-built Drawings
Tender Drawings: Drawings included in the tender documents are released by the Clients for pre-qualified
Contractors.
Approved for Construction Drawing: AFC – Approved for Construction or IFC – Issued for Construction
both terms are being used for drawings and documents that are approved by authorities after review.
IFC/AFC is a stamped or marked document or you can say one of the controlled documents. Even some
people are using a term IFC as Information for Construction or Instructions for Construction. Another name
is IFR – Issued for Information. These drawings are issued by Client/Consultant/PMT to EPC, Contractors,
Supplier, Vendors, Sub-Contractor, or Manufacture. Shop Drawings: IFC is What to do & Shop Drawing is
How to do? It is a drawing produced by the contractor, supplier, vendor, sub-contractor, or manufacture in
a simplified way to be understandable to the hand executers at site or staff. These are the most detailed
drawings on any project. But before going for construction approval is must from the Clients. Any change
major/minor should be addressed. As-Built Drawings: It shows that how actually the final project has turned
out. It contains all suggested modifications required later on site. These are mainly used for maintenance
teams later on.
Question-48: Have do you apply for Extension of Time or conduct a Delay Analysis?
Answer: First, I will gather delay events as per the contract. Like letters we have sent/received for potential
delays before 14 or 28 days of the event to occur (as per contract), e-mails, minutes of meetings or any
legal document supporting is collected. Second, I will use these events with facts and figures to perform
delay analysis in Primavera P6 as per terms and conditions mentioned in the contract. Like, there are many
Delay Analysis Techniques namely Impact as Planned, Time Impact Analysis, As Planned vs As Built, As-Built
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For, Windows Analysis, etc. Once the second step is completed then I will evaluate overhead costs, Recheck
Equipment Warrantees, Material Shelf Life, etc. and finally present it to the concerned.
Question-49: What is the difference between Resource Levelling and Resource
Smoothing?
Answer: Both Resource Levelling and Resource Smoothing are Resource Optimization Techniques. We use
these techniques to get optimum result from our resources. Every schedule is a resource constraint and
during the development, we may find peaks like in one month/week we need 250 men-counts but in
others, we only need around 150-200 men-counts only. Hence, we will use resource optimization
techniques to be averaged and get a possible smooth graph. The same is applicable to deal with other
resources line Material, Equipment, etc. Resource levelling is a “Parent” technique and may be followed by
Resource smoothing, you may call it a “Child” technique. During Resource Levelling the Project overall
duration may be changed as it is Resource Constraint but in Resource Smoothing, we use slack/float for
distribution and hence no change in Project Duration.
Question-50: What you know about the Stakeholders on any Project?
Answer: The Stakeholder is any entity that is being or will be affected either positively or negatively by that
project. For example, if a refinery is being installed at a Sea, then the Sea-life will be negatively affected but
the locals may get a huge rise in the quality of daily life. Both Sea-life and locals are included in stakeholder.
We normally classify it as primary & secondary stakeholders. Primary stakeholders are also called Key
stakeholders. Though, there are a number of classifications in textbooks. On a construction project, we
normally use the following terms for these key stakeholders
Client – Normally the Sponsor, who provides finance to run a project.
PMC – Project Management Consultant, is hired by Client.
PMT – Project Management Team
EPC – A contractor responsible to carry out Engineering, Procurement & Construction on a project
Contractor – Whoever wins a bid and awarded the contract. Usually, a part of a big
project
Sub-Contractor – Contractor hires more resources to complete project on-time.
Further, there are Suppliers, Vendors, Project Team that you have to deal on any construction Project.
Question-51: What do you know about Global Change in Primavera P6?
Answer: Global change is a function in Primavera P6 Professional that is used to do tedious tasks in
minutes. Like you can increase, decrease or remove the cost of all activities in one shot. You can do the
same with durations. You can apply this on Activities, Resource Assignment, and Project Expenses for
making changes globally. A very handy feature but should be used carefully.
Question-52: Why we call Primavera “P6”?
Answer: Since 1983 to 2004, Primavera used P3 suffix for all kind of releases like P3 version 1.0, P3 version
3.0, etc. but this suffix changed to P6 to avoid confusion among P3, SureTrak, and the Primavera. Later on,
P6 is kept as suffix permanently. You can read more about different versions of history here Primavera
Question-53: What is the job of a Planning Engineer?
Answer: On any project, daily tasks depend where he/she works like onsite or off-site. But major jobs of any
planning engineers are to Prepare Execution Plans, Monitoring & Controlling, coordinating, Integrating the
stakeholders on one page. Planning Engineer is a bridge between the client and contractors for smooth
communication.
Question-54: How to become a Planning Engineer?
Answer: You must have a relevant degree in Engineering then you better start your career from analysing
site work so you can learn the sequence of actual work. After that get some training for software like
Primavera P6, MS Project, Asta PowerProjects, Tilos, etc. Prepare plans, practice and grab the opportunity as
you find without considering salary or other perks at the start. Get some project management training like
PMP, Prinace2, etc. You can enter in this field without engineering degree but employers always prefer to
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have a project planner with a relevant degree and hence you may not fit in most of the big organizations
easily – Better avoid if you are not an engineer.
Question 55: How does p6 calculate total float?
Answer: It’s the difference between the Late and Early Dates. Primavera P6 uses the below formula to
calculate total float
Total Float = Late Start – Early Start 0r you can say Total Float = Late Finish – Early Finish
Question 56: What is a CPM schedule?
Answer: Critical Path Methodology – CPM or you can name it as a Critical Path Method is one of the most
popular techniques in the construction industry as it uses a mathematical algorithm which helps to find out
major critical jobs on any project schedule. Forward pass calculates the Early dates and backward pass
calculates the late dates to all the activities. Early dates represent the most optimistic start and end dates of
any project schedule. On the other hand, late dates give the idea that latest your activities can be started
and finish without impacting the project finish date.
Question 57: Is Critical Path the longest or shortest?
Answer: Critical path is the longest continuous chain of activities. It is the longest in terms of path and
shortest in terms of duration to complete a project from start to finish than any other complete path on a
schedule. The Longest Path is for a project in its network from start to finish and the Total Duration is
longer than any other path on that particular network. The Critical Path is a path where you have critical
activities defined on a project schedule. The Critical path establishes minimum project duration and longest
path controls project early completion.
Question 58: If you had to rate your Primavera P6 skills, from 1-10 how would you rate it? (Real
Question)
Answer: Well, as you know Primavera P6 is very powerful and versatile software. But I would rate myself
only 6 or 7 as compared to my working colleagues.
Question 59: How do you spend the most time doing each day?
Answer: I use Facebook a lot – Kidding! On a normal day, I use to review reports of contractors, site
engineers, clients comments and implementations. Daily construction meeting and prepare Minutes of
Meeting – MON and send a summary to the stakeholders.
Question 60: What is the Revised Plan & how it differs from the Recovery Plan?
Answer: If we get any change in scope (Change Order) or claim that may lead to a change in finish date
(either positive or negative). In Recovery Plan that finish date is fixed.
Question 61: What is Lead and Lag in Primavera P6?
Answer: Both are time duration that we can put to wait or accelerate the successor activity. A lag is a lazy
start and lead is an acceleration for the successor activity. A lead is just a negative lag.
Question 62: What is Fast Tracking & Crashing?
Answer: Both are schedule compression techniques. Once a project plan is lagging behind then we are
asked to make a recovery plan. In the recovery plan, we use these technique/techniques. In fast-tracking, we
put activities in parallel. These increases risk. But in crashing, we add more resources to cover up the lag.
This is not risky but you need more budget in this scenario. Make sure, if you need to accelerate because of
the other party like client-side then being a contractor always make sure to claim acceleration cost. That
may have a higher unit rate than in the actual contract.
Question 63: Differentiate between Gantt chart & Network Diagram?
Answer: Both are project management tools that help the teams to see the project in a glance. Gantt Chart
displays activities, task, events plotted against time. It gives information like activities start & finish, overlaps
among activities. Start and end at the WBS level and the whole project as summary bars. Length of the bars
represents the duration of any particular activity or task. Network Diagram explains the linkage of activities
that helps to understand the flow of work.
Question 64: How much float is allowed in any plan?
Answer: There is no hard and fast rule for this but as a thumb rule they say 10% of the total project
duration is allowed. For example, if the total duration is 300 days, then 30 days float is OK to go. If it is
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higher than you need to adjust your P6 logic to decrease it to the optimum required level. By the way, it
depends on project to project.
Question 65: How much Lag is allowed in any plan?
Answer: Lag is undesirable in a plan so does the lead. But sometimes lag is allowed but they say for any
activity is should be less than half of the total duration of that activity. For example, if the duration of any
activity is 14 days then lag should be less than 7 days. Long legs are highly undesirable. You can adjust by
proper logic during sequencing activities.
Question 66: New Project Manager did not like you defined WBS in the approved plan, what you will
do now?
Answer: No problem, I will use Activity Codes function in Primavera P6 to get the desired one for any
division he/she likes
Question 67: What information is of your concern in a Project Charter?
Answer: Project Charter contains a high level of concise information about the project like Project scope,
governance, timeline, budget, constraints, and risk. It should be a maximum of 6 pages document and is
important for the team to read and grab all the information included in there. You read more and see a
Project Charter Example
Question 68: What is the difference between Earned Manhours and Actual Manhours?
Answer: The Earned Man-hour is the original estimate and the actuals is the final cost of that project. For
Example: Let say we have to build a wall through masonry blockwork. We estimated that it needs 100 man-
hours only. If we hire 4 masons and they finish the first shift of 10 hours and report that 25% of work is
done overall. In this case, they spent 40 manhours – the actual hours and 25 hours (25% of 100) is the
earned man-hours.
Question 69: How you compress (make recovery) a schedule in Primavera P6?
Answer: First of all, I insert the column to see the Total Float then try to find the logics so that I can reduce
the float. I have options like to make activities in parallel (Fast Tracking). Otherwise; I filter the critical path
Reduce the duration of activities on the critical path Again filter the critical path and reduce the duration
again – As path may change, now Apply the same steps until the required compression is got. This is called
Crashing as here we need to add resources to get the job done. This can be used for Recovery Plan,
Mitigation Plan, Acceleration, etc whatever is the name. In Recovery Plan the project end date is fixed. Make
sure to align your team before performing any procedure.
Question 70: Why Planning is important in any project?
Answer: Planning or the initiation phases are very prone to risk. If not done in a proper way then the
outcome on that particular project may be a drastic one. Below the graph is a clear example.