Project controls guides

Plain explanations of the methods planners, estimators and project controls teams use every day: critical path scheduling, earned value with CPI and SPI, schedule and cost risk analysis, AACE estimate classes and the PMBOK guide, and how to work with Primavera P6 and Microsoft Project files.

Scheduling

• Project scheduling software and the critical path method: how a CPM schedule is calculated, what float means, and what to look for in scheduling software.
• A Primavera P6 alternative for owners: when an enterprise scheduler is more than you need, and how to keep exchanging schedules with those who use one.
• Open an XER file online: read a P6 export in the browser, with its logic, calendars, resources and codes, without a P6 licence.
• A Microsoft Project alternative: moving from a desktop schedule to project controls, and the Project XML format.
• The Last Planner® System and PPC: should, can, will, did; the lookahead and make-ready; weekly commitments and percent plan complete.

Performance measurement

• Earned value management: planned value, earned value, actual cost, the variances, the indexes and the forecasts, with a worked example.
• CPI and SPI: how to calculate the cost and schedule performance indexes, how to read them, and where they mislead.

Risk

Every schedule date and every estimate is a forecast with a range around it. Quantifying that range, and what drives it, is how a project commits to dates and budgets it can keep.

• Schedule risk analysis: Monte Carlo simulation, merge bias, P50 and P80 dates, criticality and the drivers.
• Three-point estimates: minimum, most likely and maximum; distribution shapes; setting ranges people can defend.
• The risk register: threats and opportunities, the probability-impact matrix, and responses valued in days and dollars.
• Cost risk and contingency: time-dependent cost, correlation, joint confidence, and setting and drawing down contingency.

Estimating

• AACE estimate classes: Class 5 to Class 1, what defines each, and how an estimate's class should match its use.

Standards

• PMBOK 7 and project controls: the performance domains, and how measurement and uncertainty turn into day-to-day controls work.

For how DeltaSys itself works, see the documentation and the glossary.

Primavera and P6 are trademarks of Oracle Corporation; Microsoft Project is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation; PMBOK is a trademark of the Project Management Institute; AACE is a trademark of AACE International; Last Planner is a registered trademark of the Lean Construction Institute. DeltaSys is not affiliated with or endorsed by them. Standards are described in our own words; see the publications themselves for their text.