Primavera P6 Level of Effort Activities

hi there Neil Smith here with 10-6 consulting today I'm going to show you how to use the level of effort activity type in Primavera p6 now our level of effort can be used for things like project management site management support those kind of things that don't necessarily create a deliverable but need to be represented in the schedule Primavera p6 has a special activity type to represent this and most importantly it keeps those activities off the critical path so let's take a look now at the software and I'll show you how it works so here we are in Primavera p6 and we're looking at a simple substation construction project and what we're doing is we're placing a site management level of effort activity at the top here so we're placing that between Notice to Proceed and the project complete and at the moment you can see there's the there's the activity there it's been created with its default of 5 days in duration now first thing we need to do is tell p6 that we intend this to be a level of effort activity so to do that we use the general tab in the lower portion of the screen under activity type there we're going to change it from its default which is task dependent to level of effort and when we do that you'll notice in the Gantt chart there that the bar has gone to a thinner green line and it's just sitting there with a five-day duration now the next step in defining this is we need to link this to elements in the project so that it's duration can be calculated and how we do that is we're going to link it to the Notice to Proceed the first activity as soon as they get Notice to Proceed they're going to be doing site management so let's click on and I'm using the graphical method here I'm hovering over the very front of this milestone here and so I get that little bent arrow icon appear and then I'm gonna click and I'm gonna drag it and you can see there a little message to start notice to proceed and as I bring this across them over and place it on the front of that level of effort activity there we see it now says start now just to proceed before starting site management ok now the other connection we need to make is to link the the project finish milestone right here to the back of this level of effort activity so we're saying when the project finishes the level of effort in this case site management can finish so again I'm going to do this using the graphical method and I'm going to place the cursor at the back of this milestone activity like this and then I'm going to click and I'm going to drag and I'm gonna link that to the back end of the level of effort activity right there now if we use the relationships tab at the bottom of the screen here we can see the relationship that I've just created if I click on the site management activity there we can see that we have a start to start link with the Notice to Proceed activity and we have a finish to finish link with the project complete and these can be seen on screen the last step here is to time analyze this using the schedule mechanism and I can press the f9 key or I can use this icon here to open the schedule dialog let's click there and then I'm going to click on the schedule button we're still sitting at the beginning date of this project we're still in the planning stage here and very quickly you see it's calculated the new duration for the site management activity it's 58 days as it turns out it's a fairly short project but we now have a representation of the site management elements of this project and of course we can assign a resource to that in the resources tab down here if I say add resource we're interested in putting let's say we're gonna put a foreman on this so I can search for foremen up here there's my foreman click a sign and that assigns the foremen full-time this is actually a 10-hour calendar to the project so 580 hours of Foreman's time now accounted for in this schedule okay one last key point that I should make about this LOA activity or level of effort is the fact that having just scheduled it we can see here in the critical column that it has not been checked as critical even though it's basically the longest activity in the project and is linked to the very start and very finish of the project and is therefore spanning the critical path it is in and of itself not critical and that's very important with level of effort activities it keeps off the critical path if any of the durations change in these activities let's just just to demonstrate that let me pull out the the duration of this activity by a few extra days and and what you'll see when I recalculate again so let's hit the schedule there you see it increased in duration as the critical path expands it follows it but still does not become a critical activity and that's a key point with a low e so there you have it folks level of effort activities in Primavera p6 hope this was helpful see you next time until then happy scheduling hi there a quick message for those of you who enjoy learning by watching videos online 10-6 consulting offers a fully comprehensive Primavera p6 professional online video training course written by industry experts this course teaches you all the skills you need to get up and running as a p6 scheduler each of the lessons includes a video instruction section practical exercises and a quiz at the end to test your understanding and that this course is certified by the project management institute so you'll earn PDUs at the completion of the course this online course delivers the same curriculum as our standard classroom courses but at a fraction of the cost and you can work at your own pace and at times that suit your schedule so visit our website 10-6 comm for full details about the curriculum cost and how to get started now of course is the quickest easiest and most affordable way to start your career as a p6 scheduler so visit 10-6 comm today and get started right away we'll see you online

Channel: Ten Six

Views: 18,760

Rating: 4.9565215 out of 5

Keywords: Primavera P6, Training, Level Of Effort, Software (Industry)

Id: FOfZkBDrbxU

Length: 6min 29sec (389 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 01 2015