062613 Rufran's Primavera Scheduling Tips & Tricks 01-13

Primavera Scheduling
Tips and Tricks 01-13
Managing “Users Preference Setting” (UPS)
Here is a situation no planner/scheduler would like to happen.
One critical project review day, the construction scheduler imported an
XER file from the project contractor for review. The Project Team would
like to go through the schedule before finalizing the same to be the
baseline. The main contractor announced to the Project Manager that
they’ve already aligned their dates to the client’s expectation, that all
agreed key milestones are correct as agreed to.
During the review process, everyone noticed that the dates were wrong
and way off, totally different from what were deliberated. The overall
project was longer by about three months.
Logics and other schedule attributes were checked but they were
unchanged. There was no problem the day before the review. So, what was
the problem?
This is an important review exercise with several team members flying in
from other locations and now, the team cannot proceed with the review.
“Another day was wasted! I cannot believe this is happening!”-the Project
Manager complained while glancing at his scheduler.
2013
Rufran C. Frago, P. Eng., PMP®, CCEC, PMI-RMP®
Revision 3: June 26, 2013

062613-Primavera Scheduling Tips & Tricks 01-13 Page 2 of 11 6/28/2013
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.0 SITUATION/PROBLEM........................................................................................... 3
2.0 RELATED TOOLS .................................................................................................... 3
3.0 DEFINITION ........................................................................................................... 3
4.0 PROBLEM ANALYSIS (PA)....................................................................................... 4
5.0 SOLUTIONS............................................................................................................ 4
6.0 REFERENCES.......................................................................................................... 5
7.0 ADDITIONAL READING MATERIALS ....................................................................... 5
8.0 FOOD FOR THOUGHTS.......................................................................................... 6
9.0 ILLUSTRATIONS ..................................................................................................... 7
10.0 INDEX.................................................................................................................. 11

1.0 SITUATION/PROBLEM
The Lead Planner met with the construction scheduler and looked at the
schedule. Together with their Boss, they’ve decided it looked fine.
The next day, they flew to the site to facilitate another schedule review meeting.
Another scheduler loaded the XER of the same schedule a few minutes before
the participants arrived. Much to the consternation of everyone, the schedule
looked different. Several schedule attributes, including durations have changed.
In spite of the issue at hand, the manager and the team decided to proceed with
the review process by correcting and changing logics, durations and dates. In the
end, it made matter worse. The whole exercise became frustrating and time
consuming.
Does this sound familiar? What really happened? What should the planner, the
scheduler, the manager and the review team do?
2.0 RELATED TOOLS
2.1 Project Management (Primavera 6.1 SP1).
Note that Primavera 6.7 SP2 had already addressed the USP issue.
3.0 DEFINITION
3.1 The term “User” in this document is the person using the Primavera
scheduling tool. He can be the planner, the scheduler, the Project
Manager or anyone.
3.2 User Preference-specifies the settings the User wishes to make in
Primavera which includes how to display time, date, and currency
information. You can also set options to send e-mail, specify startup
options, and change your password. It is a selection under the EDIT
pull down menu.

4.0 PROBLEM ANALYSIS (PA)
4.1 This problem associated with the UPS a recurring concern while using
Primavera Software from Release 4 to Release 6 where the type of
access is concurrent (shared database).
4.2 To fully understand, let us look at Figure 1. In this simple schedule
segment, the planner set the Time Unit Preference as 8/40/176/2080.
For this example, note that the Current Schedule was assigned as its
own baseline to keep track of any change.
4.3 The planner went to Roger, the PC Manager and showed the schedule
from his workstation. Roger was updating the schedule at that time
as can be seen on Figure 2. Take note that the schedule he was
working on has his own Time User’s Preference Setting of
10/50/21/2600, completely different from his planner.
4.4 Roger closed his schedule and quickly opened the planner’s Primavera
workstation using his log in credentials. He opened the same schedule
that his planner was working on. The planner was surprised to see that
the durations had changed. See Figure 3.
4.5 Relying on his first impulse, the planner changed the duration back to
100 days, only to make matter worse. He now has delayed his project.
It is showing different key dates (see Figure 4). Using the baseline as
benchmark, the current schedule had actually slipped.
4.6 The cycle of confusion has begun.
5.0 SOLUTIONS
5.1 Solution 1
5.1.1 Deactivate the Time User’s Preference option provided to all
“Users” and default everything to the Admin Preference set
to 8/40/176/2080 setting (or whatever might be agreed
upon) while relying on Calendar assignment in detailing the
work hours per day information. This can be done by
unchecking the Time Period Admin Preferences as illustrated
in Figure 5.

5.2 Solution 2
5.2.1 Be aware that the User’s Preferences Setting is tied to the
User’s Log in Profile.
5.2.2 If someone else created one schedule and another opens that
same schedule, the other person might not see the same
information because of the User’s Preference setting. If the
two UPS are different, the schedule will be viewed
differently.
5.2.3 The same is true with the same person who is developing a
new schedule and has set a new User’s Preference
information. If he comes back to an older schedule with a
different UPS, he/she will see some of his/her information
change.
5.2.4 The only workaround is to make sure that the User set the
User’s Preference to the intended setting of the schedule
owner.
6.0 REFERENCES
6.1 Help, About Primavera, Project Management (Primavera), Release:
6.1 SP1
7.0 ADDITIONAL READING MATERIALS
7.1 Part 1: Updating and Managing the Schedule; Managing Baselines
(page 49-51)- Primavera® P6™ Project Management Reference
Manual, Version 6.2

8.0 FOOD FOR THOUGHTS
8.1 Primavera calculates and stores time unit values in hourly increments.
When you display or enter data in time unit fields in increments other
than hours, the Project Management module converts the data based
on the Hours per Time Period settings.
8.2 Conversely, if the User enters time units in increments other than
hours, the Hours per Time Period settings are used to convert these
input values to hours for the scheduling database calculation and
storage.
8.3 In order to display time unit data accurately, the User should set the
Hours per Time Period values according to the activity calendar used
by the organization. For example, if you are an engineer and engineers
use an 8-hour activity calendar, enter 8 as the Hours/Day value. If you
do not enter a value that corresponds to your role's activity calendar,
activity durations may be displayed incorrectly when you view your
activities in spreadsheets, reports, etc.
8.4 The setting of the User’s Preference dialogue box also affects how
OPRA (previously called PertMaster) converts the time units during its
import or export process.

9.0 ILLUSTRATIONS
9.1 Figure 1

9.2 Figure 2

9.3 Figure 3
9.4 Figure 4
The Duration has automatically changed
from 100 days to 80 days!
Warning: This can be confusing to the
disciplines.
The planner decided to correct his duration
back to 100 days but the discrepancy got even
worse as the dates (Key milestone dates) has
shifted back and is now showing delays.
***Note that the current bars moved with
reference to the baselines.

9.5 Figure 5

10.0 INDEX
“User” 3
ADDITIONAL READING MATERIALS 5
cycle of confusion 4
DEFINITION 3
FOODS FOR THOUGHTS 6
ILLUSTATIONS 7
INDEX 11
PROBLEM ANALYSIS 4
Project Risk application 6
REFERENCES 5
RELATED TOOLS 3
SITUATION/PROBLEM 3
SOLUTION 4
Solution 1 4
Solution 2 5
time unit values 6
to display time unit data accurately 6

062613 Rufran's Primavera Scheduling Tips & Tricks 01-13

062613 Rufran's Primavera Scheduling Tips & Tricks 01-13

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062613 Rufran's Primavera Scheduling Tips & Tricks 01-13