Schedule Updating and Project Control - Construction Project Scheduling and Control - page 180

The Expected Finish date is a nice option in Oracle Primavera P6. The scheduler
tells the program when the activity is expected to be finished. This input helps to then
determine both the remaining duration and percent complete. Let's assume that, in
the previous Install Doors activity, the scheduler was informed that the activity was
expected to be completed on 28 OCT 2014:
Remaining Duration = Expected Finish date − Data Date
= 28 OCT 2014 − 17 OCT 2014 = 7 days 5
Percent Complete = Actual Duration/At Completion Duration = 3/10 = 30%
The scheduler has to be careful if the computer program calculates percent com-
plete using At Completion Duration, not the Original Duration (a discussion on this
issue will follow later in this chapter). If so, percent complete will be incorrect or at
least will not reflect what the user thinks it reflects.
Updating the remaining duration is an important, but often overlooked, issue.
Some schedulers and other software users focus more on the actual performance por-
tion and ignore updating future expectations. For example, assume that the Install
Doors activity, 3 days after starting, was not progressing as planned and needed 9,
rather than 5, extra days. Also, assume that this activity is on a critical path. If the
remaining duration was not updated correctly, the calculated finish date will be 4
workdays earlier than what it should be. This mistake can lead to inaccurate per-
cent complete (mainly for the activity but with a small impact on the project percent
complete). This may lead to an inaccurate calculated finish date for the project, over-
payment to the contractor, and an inaccurate planned start date for successors (adverse
consequences on successors' crews' schedules and materials delivery).
More Recommendations
Schedulers may receive verbal instructions from their superiors or from project man-
agement team members to make changes to the schedule, such as in activities' dates,
durations, logic, or cost. Such changes must be formal and made in writing. It may be
embarrassing for a junior scheduler to ask the project manager to put any requested
changes formally inwriting, but hemust do so. Evenwith the assumption of good inten-
tions, which unfortunatelymay not always be true, people tend to forget or misinterpret
verbal communications. People also leave their jobs, so any verbal agreement will disap-
pear with their departure. An alternative way is for the scheduler to send an e-mail to the
person who requested the change: “This e-mail is to confirm your request/instruction
tomakethechangeof....”Thisputstheballintheotherperson'scourt.
Who Has Authority to Update the Schedule?
Sometimes project managers do their schedule updates themselves without having
dedicated and specialized schedulers. This may be fine for small projects in small
companies where the project manager has to wear several hats. However, in large
organizations with many project managers and project management team members,
5 Count only workdays.