Management Training

How to do a Schedule Audit – 1 Day Course Outline

This course is targeted at senior management who have project oversight or audit responsibilities for large projects and to their staff, or delegates, who have to carry out that function. It is also appropriate for persons whose scheduling work product is subject to an audit committee review. The course teaches how to identify weaknesses and what to do about them.

1. Introduction

1.1 Why do we need to audit a schedule?

2. The Execution Plan

2.1 The role of the Planner and the Company's needs.
2.2 The essential contents of an effective Plan.

3. The Nature of the Schedule

3.1. Appropriateness of various scheduling tools.
3.2. Are the right skill sets being used?
3.3. Does the Schedule reflect those needs? This will be examined as follows, with tips and tricks to recognize the problems and tackle them;

3.3.1. Is it a true reflection or the Plan? Often different parts are created by different groups with different interests and then patched together.
3.3.2. How does it fit into the overall control system? For example, what categories of data is it meant to carry; resources, costs, budgets, changes, actual versus planned resources and costs. Must it send and/or receive data from outside systems? For example, time sheets & ERP systems.
3.3.3. Is it fit for purpose? The use of the schedule usually changes over its life cycle from a planning tool to a control tool. How it is set up initially is critical for this transition. Furthermore, a schedule where time is of first importance (shutdowns) will look quite different from one where cost is of overwhelming importance. Getting the balance right is the trick.
3.3.4. Is the granularity of the schedule appropriate? Often a schedule is developed to a level of detail that is not supported by the Plan in the mistaken belief that this is giving more control. Questions to be asked are;

3.3.4.1. Is the level of detail required by risk or safety considerations
3.3.4.2. Are they overly long 'catch all activities'?
3.3.4.3. Are the logic links hard (essential) or soft (one of many possible). The impacts of soft logic are evaluated
3.3.4.4. Can the level of reporting required match the granularity and is it worth the effort?

4. The Integrity of the Input / Output data

4.1. The data comes in several categories, each with its own problems but all follow the golden rule of, ‘garbage in; garbage out’. It will be examined under the following headings with mitigation strategies;

4.1.1. Initial (baseline) data. Every activity has multiple (±10), subjective inputs and when there are thousands of activities this data can be skewed. When a schedule has been created by different interest groups and patched together the data has often been manipulated to ‘steal the float’
4.1.2. Updating or reporting data. The big problems here are:

4.1.2.1. Synchronising the update. Often the data is from different dates because the systems are not in place to support the synchronisation.
4.1.2.2. Changing scope or additional work has not been reflected in the schedule in a timely manner. The outcome is that resources and costs are reported against the wrong activities, either because there is ‘room in the budget’ or, because there is ‘nowhere else to put them’.

4.1.3 Allowances are another source of inaccuracy;

4.1.3.1. Overall contingency should be managed to make sure that it is commensurate with the exposure for the stage of the project. Normally it is greatest at the initial stage and decreases as the project progresses.
4.1.3.2. Unknown work or resource allowances. These reflect uncertainty around scope, duration and resources in the early stages. They should be reduced as the uncertainty decreases.
4.1.3.3. Burdens to allow for indirect items such as supervision, testing, management, etc. These burdens are usually established by corporate history that may not be appropriate to the actual conditions.
4.1.3.4. ‘Double dipping’ by overlap of the first two items often occurs.

5. Technical Integrity of the Schedule

5.1. A schedule is a complex mathematical structure with all sorts of room for errors that are not readily apparent. This complexity unfortunately also gives opportunity to manipulate the results. This part of the course explores all these aspects.

5.1.1. Logic errors and bad practice issues around logic.
5.1.2. Simple mistakes such as calendar errors, data errors, coding errors, WBS errors, etc.
5.1.3. Over use of restraints and lags to force a required result.
5.1.4. Excessive bundling of tasks into overly long activities often used to force a result.
5.1.5. Skewing to ‘steal the float’ from one section to benefit another.

6. Constructability of the Schedule

6.1. A properly created Execution Plan should have taken care of the means and methods of execution (or design, procurement and construction) but this is usually planned with only a general recognition of time, resource and cash flow restraints. When that plan is modelled in a schedule and specific restraints applied it can become unworkable for the following reasons. These factors must be identified and mitigated.

6.1.1. Impractical peaking of resources forces.
6.1.2. Weather dependent activities get pushed into impractical windows.
6.1.3. Physical space restrictions cause crowding and limit resources that can be applied.
6.1.4. Required material delivery dates cannot be met.
6.1.5. Unscheduled temporary works restrain start dates.
6.1.6. Cash flow requirements restrain the schedule.

P6 Training with Emerald Associates

Why Choose Emerald's Training?

1. Oracle Primavera certified trainers who are industry-experienced and work across North America.

2. Emerald Associates has trainers who are fluent in French, German, and Spanish.

3. Breakfast and lunch catering are provided at all of Emerald's open training courses.

4. After each training course, attendees are able to practice for an additional day on an Emerald laptop.

5. Emerald Associates has not only trained in Canada and the United States but also in Trinidad, Algeria, the Dominican Republic, Zimbabwe, and Germany.

6. Attendees are able to call and/or e-mail instructor after the course for help with items covered in the class.

7. Students receive coupons after courses to use towards an upcoming course.

8. Emerald Associates will create customized internal training courses for organizations.

9. Emerald Associates can provide one-on-one training.

10. The popular T100 Managing Turnaround Projects in Primavera course was developed by Emerald Associates.

Training - Maintenance Turnarounds

Turnarounds can be difficult at the best of times. The challenges that come from a massive temporary workforce and an enormous amount of work completed in a short time period can cause a company to bleed cash. People in this industry need not look far to see the impacts of a Turnaround gone wrong and often have been victims of one.

Turnaround Planning Techniques

Primavera is the leading planning and scheduling tool for this type of work, but users require accurate knowledge on how to use it. Emerald Associates has developed its own hands-on training course to teach best practices in Primavera for your Turnaround. Learn techniques for monitoring critical work and methods for compressing schedules. Learn how to structure your work in schedules for easy comprehension, load-level work to minimize your peak resource requirements, and report earned value performance to evaluate contractor efficiency.

Turnaround Training Course

Emerald’s T100 course is an intensive 2-day course for professionals who have taken the Primavera 102 course. It is suitable for users with Primavera versions 5 and newer. Visit Emerald Associates' training calendar for dates and the course outline for more information.

Primavera Training Overview

Since 1995 Emerald Associates offers Certified Primavera Training across North America.

Emerald Associates provides both open and on-site Primavera software and project management training courses to our customers.

We believe that an excellent trainer not only teaches, but also has to use the tools in practice. Therefore, all our trainers also work as Implementation Specialists helping clients with wide variety of tasks related to the software tools and methodologies. This allows our trainers to constantly learn about new clients and industries and draw on their professional background. We are proud of our highly skilled trainers who can support their instruction with real life examples.

Unlike our competitors, Emerald Associates takes pride in Primavera training delivered to our customers. Emerald posesses a long list of positive reviews done at the end of every class that is availabe on request.

Please click below for more information on Emerald's Training options.

Scheduled Primavera Training Courses

Primavera Training in Canada

Primavera Training in USA

On-site / Internal Primavera Training

Custom Training

You can review below upcoming scheduled Certified Primavera Training classes by City by following the links on the left. If you require any certified Primavera training course at your location please complete the request form on the right.