There are many project management and scheduling tools for the construction industry. We are big fans of Primavera P6 for a whole lot of reasons, but there are four that stand out in particular.
Critical Functions for Managing Construction Projects
Here are the four main things we think you should know about Primavera P6:
- Track changes to the schedule with P6 Visualizer
- Analyze out-of-sequence logic using the Schedule Log Feature
- Create schedule comparisons to review and track schedule slippage to understand what activities are falling behind
- Critical Path review and ability to adjust Critical Path Settings, including recognizing near critical path activities
Now, let’s dig a little deeper into each of these.
Track Changes with the P6 Visualizer
Federal government project schedules require all schedule changes to be tracked. The P6 Visualizer tool helps review and compare schedule files, allowing you to see the schedule changes between the two files.
Comparing changes between schedules can be a time-consuming process, especially if there are a lot of changes or very minor ones. The P6 Visualizer tool simplifies this process and provides a robust report of all changes made.
Error Reporting with Schedule Log
The key ingredient to the schedule log is that it gives you an error report. This is another important differentiator from other scheduling software. If you have dangling logic or out-of-sequence logic, the schedule log will let you know quickly what needs to be fixed.
Schedule Comparisons
Schedule comparisons can be used to review last month’s schedule relative to this month’s schedule to help you understand what activities are falling behind.
P6 will calculate how many days each activity has fallen behind by comparing two schedules. This is a big time saver and gives easy visibility into project tasks that need attention.
Critical Path Review
P6 provides two options for defining the critical path:
- Longest path
- Total float value
While the second option is used less often, it can help you realize critical activities in phased construction. For example, if you were trying to turn over a building by floor, you could use this setting to allow you to see how many floors are on the critical path to complete on time, along with milestone completion constraints for each floor.
The Bottom Line
Primavera P6 is a powerful project management and project scheduling tool. While this article highlights four reasons we are big fans of this software, the functionality goes beyond what can be shared here.
Contact our Pre-Construction team for more information about Primavera P6. In addition to our consulting services, we also provide Primavera P6 training.
