Essential Project Controls Tools to Master

have you ever wondered what project control tools are essential for your Terrier success have you mastered any project control tools do you know which project control tools are available in the market and I remember Fisher ago by me I'm the founder and director of project control Academy the leading provider of comprehensive and online practical training programs in project controls in this training I'd like to introduce you to several essential project control tools that you need to master you know there are plenty of tools available today for project controllers to help them better manage and control products here is just some small list of current project control tools and software that are available in the market as technology evolves you know more tools become available for use and this can become overwhelming as to what tool to choose from for controlling projects sometimes finding and selecting the right to is a project of its own that you know needs a dedicated team of product experts to do the commercial and technical evaluation perform beta testing assess organizational and project needs and much more that's why you see different organizations use different project control tools some even have their own in-house project control tools while other utilize available project control tools in the market so I think all from one organization to another you're expected to learn and utilize new - now the question is which tool you need to master and learn in project control but project control tools are essential for your carrier success regardless of your organization or industry there's social project control tools that you need to vary according to your role and you know there are four different roles of project controls or project control function it is project planner scheduler cost controller concert schedule risk analyst and Cost Estimator so according to your role you need to master some tools before I show you some essential project control tools I have to remind you that the tools that I'm about to introduce in this training are the selection of many available project control tools in the market so this suggested or recommended tools are not the only tools of it now are you ready to know which project control tools are essential for your chair success great so let's start with the essential tools for a planner scheduler one of the primary tools that each planner scheduler must master is yes scheduling software such as Oracle Primavera or MS Project although having competency in the fundamentals of planning scheduling concepts is critical to your success your competency in the scheduling tools also play a crucial role in your ability to plan and schedule your projects you must be proficient in either Primavera or MS Project Primavera has a higher capability as compared to MS Project but some organizations smaller one or smaller projects still use MS Project as their primary scheduling tool so make sure that you take the training that you need to master your skills and utilizing either of these scheduling tools make sure that you are familiar with all the features of the software and what it can do for you and don't forget whenever you face any problem you can always use the help section of the software so the more that you learn about the tool the better you can utilize it another tool that is essential for planner scheduler is Microsoft Office program specially Excel you need to have high competency in Excel you know Excel is an interface with Primavera and MS Project that allows you to import in export data source from Excel and also Excel allows you to analyze the data generated from the scheduling software run formulas develop graphs and much much more so you need to be competent in using Excel in addition to the tools that I have discussed so far there are several schedule assessment tools such as acumen or schedule analyzer that you also need to consider you know these tools allow you to analyze the health of your schedule evaluate scheduled performance and gauge the impact of changes you know it is an asset if you know these scheduling assessment tools as well especially if your master scheduler who integrates several schedules from different parties such as schedules submitted by subcontractors contractors vendors and so on you need to make sure that the schedules that are submitted matches the quality that you are looking for before you integrate them into your master schedule for the entire project so these scheduling assessment tools will allow you to go beyond the basic checklist checklists to pinpoint and resolve the project shortcomings in just few minutes so they can help you evaluate multiple scenarios in the schedule generate you know opportunities to accelerate the project schedule and assess different options that you can have with your schedule so although it's not required is an essential if you can learn some of those schedule assessment tools and utilize it in your pod now let's move on to class control tools one of the primary tools that you need to master as a cost controller is yes mark or self off especially Excel you know other cost controller you are dealing with a large amount of cost data that you need to analyze and develop graphical and analytical reports so Excel is a great tool that helps you not only generate cost information and cost reports but also analyze the cost information some companies you know don't have any cost control software so the only tool that is available to you is Excel in those companies so you need to be able to use this tool to its maximum potential possible you need to be a competent in Excel know how formulas work how to populate graphical reports how to run pivottables and pivotcharts is much much more so you should be quite comfortable working with Excel as a cost controller having said that excel has its shortcomings too because processing large number of data in Excel is not efficient it so you know may freeze quickly so that's why Excel won't be your only means of controlling and managing cost it's great if you also know access and can utilize the database management capabilities of Microsoft Access Access will help you store information for reference reporting and also analysis so Microsoft Access and allows you to a large large amount of information and manage related data more efficiently than Excel or other spreadsheet applications so you can also create a simple cost management system using access therefore although it's not required it's an asset if you know access and know how to utilize this tool in cost reporting and analysis many organizations have invested in other automated cost management tools such as ecosystem prism that facilitate data integration data analysis report population and much more so it's an aspect if you could make yourself familiar with cost measurement tools available in the market nowadays some companies also develop their own in-house cost management software so you are required to learn the in-house system that your organization uses in in that case the bottom line is you need to be able to utilize the cost management tools or software that your organization is using so make sure that you are familiar with the features of the software and what you can do with it and also don't forget to evaluate how the software calculates cost metrics and forecasts behind the scenes sometimes we need to go really behind the software and analyze how the software is calculating the data so don't accept whatever software is giving you blindly make sure that you check the default settings of the software and make any changes that is required another important tool that you need to master as a cost controller is financial systems and tools in your organization and the cost controller you need to know what the actual cost of the project has been this information needs to be extracted from the financial and timesheet systems that your organization is using it can be oracle SAT or anything else talking about SAT I highly recommend that you make yourself familiar with this tool did you know that SAT was ranked the third largest sovereign programming company behind Microsoft and Oracle so there's no wonder why more organization now are using FTE SATs enterprise resource planning or ERP system you know enables companies to run their business processes accounting sales production human resources or payment in an integrated environment and the integration ensures their information flows from one as a key component to another without the need to have the data entered twice so if SAT is something new to you and you'd like to learn more or get trained on make sure that you check FAPE website training dot FTE comm another set of tools that you need to master if you are performing costs or schedule risk analysis are again Microsoft Office there is no brainer that you need to master your skills in and I office including Word PowerPoint and especially Excel regardless of your role in project controls that you know MS Office is an essential tool that you need to be competent at the project controllers you are generating lots of reports presentation and communication you are communicating your ideas analyzing the data so your competency in Word PowerPoint and Excel is a must next is Oracle primavera you know to conduct scheduled risk analysis you need to be quite familiar with the scheduling tools such as MS Project or Primavera you need to run scheduled health check analysis on the schedule and have the schedule ready before running the risk simulation on the schedule so you need to be competent in the scheduling tools to perform a risk analysis on the schedule you need to utilize tools such as prima various analysis or at human risk that run Monte Carlo simulation to model assess and analyze the scheduling risks you know promoter risk analysis integrates directly with project schedules and cost estimates to provide quick and easy techniques to model risks and analyze the cost and schedule impacts of medicating them actually break the acumen risk allows you to analyze thousands of activities in seconds while accounting for scope uncertainty war complexity risk events and opportunities so these tools are user-friendly allowing you to eliminate the statistical and logical complexities of building risk models against large project schedules on the cost side there are other available tools such as at risk and crystal ball at risk performs risk analysis using Monte Carlo simulation to show you many possible outcomes of your cost estimate in your spreadsheet model and tells you how likely they are going to happen Oracle crystal ball is another spreadsheet based Africa for predictive modeling forecasting simulation and optimization it gives you insight into the critical factors affecting risk so that was about the tools for cause and schedule is analysis when it comes to the cost estimators tools in addition to excel and are plenty of tools and software available for a cost estimators in fact there are more than 50 construction estimating and take-off software packages available in the market they range from Excel add-on to enterprise class multi-user systems and you know the first thing that a conf estimator does is measuring quantities so the concepts mater should be proficient with digital takeoff tools and takeoff systems health measure plans and blueprints to estimate the amount of material and labor needed to complete a project and there are many digital takeoff tools in the market such as on screen plans with Blue Beam and so on so some of these take-off software programs also have features for inputting pricing information talking about pricing there are construction cost estimating software and pricing tools also known as construction bidding software these tools help estimators calculate material and labor costs as well as produce detailed professional proposals or beads from these estimate examples of causes million tools are Pro s estimating sage and many many more in addition to takeoff and carcass training software can add additional access as well although that requires it will assist in storing cost information for reference reporting and analysis in summary here are all the essential project control tools that you need to master although knowing these tools is essential for your project success for your success in projects I have to say that it's not enough what is more critical to your success in project controls is having competency in the fundamentals knowledge and concepts of project controls prior to using and mastering these tools that introduced you and for example if you are an expert in Primavera p6 scheduling tool for for a project but don't know what it total flows in all three float is how critical tie is calculated what the difference between critical path and critical activities is you won't be a successful project planner scheduler and this applies to all other functions of project controls you need to build a strong foundation of project controls knowledge first before applying the tool but unfortunately many people in the industry believe that project control is all about mastering the tools they think that project control is all about pushing a button to generate reports however knowing these tools alone is similar to giving the calculator to a fourth grader asking them to solve the math problems the calculator does its job right why bother teaching up a fourth grade or math so there is a no-brainer that you need to master the foundation of project controls and if you are interested in investing in your professional growth and looking for comprehensive online training programs to boost your confidence in project controls make sure that you check project control academy.com for the courses that help you reinforce your knowledge and understanding of project control with that if you have any question or comment about this training please feel free to post them down below so I can assist you and if you like this training as always don't forget to hit the like button and share it with the group of your colleagues or friends with us until the next episode of project control mastery do your best in whatever you do like read master their project control tools master the project control knowledge learn every single day so that you can succeed in project control talk to you next time [Music] Oh

Channel: Project Control Academy

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Keywords: project control, project control training, project control academy, project control tools, project control software, sap, MS office, Ms Access, Primavera, ProEst, Sage, Prism, Schedule Analyzer, Schedule Risk Analysis, @ risk, Crystal Ball, Cost Risk Analysis, Cost Control Tools, Cost Management Tools, Cost Estimating Tools, Scheduling Tools, Cost & Schedule Risk Analysis Tools, shohreh ghorbani, project controls software, cost management software

Id: v1KkWTuZZ-8

Length: 18min 9sec (1089 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 03 2017