Automate formatting for progress reports and presentations
Formatting is one of the most time-consuming low-impact activities for planning engineers. Although formatting is necessary, it is not considered a key value activity compared to delay analysis, schedule update, etc. In other words, if you have limited time during the day, you would better spend that time on high-impact activities such as claim submission, progress analysis, highlighting delays to the site […]
How to deal with workload and deadlines in project control?
Many planning engineers complain about the workload and deadlines. They really wish to deliver more value to their projects but they fail to do so. They have the required expertise, knowledge and ambition but there are challenges that prevent them from reaching their potential. In this article, I will explain some of these challenges and how to overcome them. The […]
Variance Analysis in Project Control
The determination of Early & Late Planned %, Actual % and Variance % is one of the key components in project control. Many planning engineers spend the time and effort to determine these percentages in every progress update cycle. They calculate and report these percentages for the overall project and the key project areas. However, variance analysis should […]
The Power of ONE
Planning Engineers are overwhelmed with so many tools and files. They use different tools such as Primavera P6 for progress review, excel for progress analysis and PowerPoint for progress presentation. Moreover, they use many excel sheets for different purposes which may include: Variance Analysis, Breakdown Analysis, Trends, Dashboards, Progress Curves, a Progress Matrix, Gantt Charts, etc. You can apply […]
Static Progress Reports Are Dead
While projects are getting only more complex, many planning engineers still prepare static progress reports. They spend most of their time performing calculations and working with many excel sheets. The outcome is an ineffective static report, whereas the value is not proportionate to the amount of time and effort that is spent to deliver this outcome. The […]
Why is progress reporting so challenging?
Have you tried so hard to prepare a comprehensive valuable report but you wish you could have done better? If yes, you are not alone. Progress reporting is one of the most challenging tasks that planning engineers struggle with but first, let us go over some of the planning engineer’s duties. Collect progress data. Update […]
Breakdown Analysis with Power BI
Breakdown analysis is essential to help projects move forward. If your project is falling behind by $1M that you should have collected by now, the next logical questions would be: “Where is the shortfall coming from?” “Which activities should I have completed by now that caused the payment deficit, and by how much?” A planning […]
Track activity performance with Power BI
Planning Engineers are so busy looking at the variance and the associated metrics such as the difference between the planned and actual %’s or SPI. We are so obsessed with analyzing where we are and where we need to go. Nothing is wrong with that but it limits our ability to identify the root cause of delay […]
Why do many planning engineers struggle with Project Control?
It is very interesting. It has a very rewarding career. It adds great value to any project. It doesn’t have a universal framework. It is more like an art than a science. It requires an excellent knowledge of different software tools. Yet, many engineers struggle to master it. This is Project Control. After I earned my […]
4 ways to improve your planning skills.
A project control career can be very rewarding. You can be assigned on a new project or relocate to a new country and still use your skills to add value. Someone can take your job away from you but nobody can take your skills and knowledge away from you. When you repeat the same tasks […]