How to assign weights for phases of a Project

Hi Everyone Here is my trouble. Now I need assign weights for the Phases of a Project as below. Phase 1 - Engineering - 15% Phase 2 - Procurement - 25% Phase 3 - Construction - 40%. Then these weights of each phases have to splited into the activities weight of their respective phases. Kindly get me out from the above.

Rams

Quote Sorry typo error. Take 60% for Construction Phase

11 September 2012 12:21 AM #2

Zoltan Palffy Moderator

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based on what dollar or manhours ?

what is your basis ?

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11 September 2012 12:22 AM #3

Zoltan Palffy Moderator

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same question what is your basis

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11 September 2012 12:24 AM #4

Rams Sr. Member

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My schedule in neither resource loaded nor cost loaded. It was based on Original duration , Remaining duration and Physical % Completion

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11 September 2012 12:31 AM #5

Zoltan Palffy Moderator

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let me ask you who came up with the durations ?

there must be an estimate somewhere to get the duration there has to be some basis for that number.

How do you know that it is 5 days ? usually it is based on quantity, how much of something that you have to do, install, write code, etc

If I was going to install light fixtures in a room 1st I have to know how many (quantity) of light fixtures that I have to install in that room.

Then I have to know how many of each type of fixutre , i.e recessed, down etc. Then I have to know my rate of installation meaning of a certain type of light fixture it will take me 2 hours per fixture to install.

So if I have 104 fixtures (2hr * 104 fixtures) = 200 total manhours.

So if I have 1 man installing light fixtures 208/8 hrs per day = 26 working days But if I want to use 2 men 208/16= 13 working days You have to know

HOW MUCH before you can say HOW LONG

So what is the total cost of your project I bet the accounts know that number lets assume that it is 1 million dollars so here is your answer

total costs $1,000,000 Phase 1 - Engineering - 15% = $150,000 Phase 2 - Procurement - 25% = $250,000 Phase 3 - Construction - 60% = $600,000

there you have it you have to have a measuring stick

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11 September 2012 12:43 AM #6

Rams Sr. Member

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sorry , I had frozen my schedule by assigning resources to each activities.

My query is

Suppose Engineering phase - Completion duration 25days (rolled up by each activities of Engineering Phase) , Procurement Phase - Completion duration 60 days (rolled up by each activities of Procurement Phase) , Construction Phase - Completion duration 90days ((rolled up by each activities of Construction Phase).

How shall i assign for 15% for Engineering phase equivalent ot 25days , so that weightage %

shall be break down for each activities in the particular phase.

Similarly we shall arrive the same for other two phases

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11 September 2012 12:46 AM #7

Zoltan Palffy Moderator

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ok I guess you just dont get it

You cant use duration

this is my last reply

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14 September 2012 12:31 AM #8

Rams Sr. Member

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Hi Tibi

Can u help me out from the above issue since for particular projects we will track and control our project progress with respect to the original duration assigned to them initially , by assuming we are having enough money and sufficient resources.

For this case , we will monitor our activities only based on the durations. Hence in need to use this for arriving weightage of individual activities of the three phases of the project.

Hope u shall understand my query and needs.

Thanks in advance Rams

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14 September 2012 12:59 AM #9

Rams Sr. Member

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As per advice of Mr.Zoltan

I have tried by using manhours for Engineering , Budgeted Cost for Procurement and Construction. It works fine.

But by using original duration , how we shall arrive the weightage against their phase , is my worry

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14 September 2012 02:19 AM #10

Zoltan Palffy Moderator

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once again you can not use duration becasue activities overlap which means that durations overlap you can use costs or manhours I have attached an example of how to use costs as a weighted factor

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14 September 2012 02:40 AM #11

Rams Sr. Member

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Very Clear, Thank you Dr

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14 September 2012 04:56 PM #12

Rams Sr. Member

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Dr.Zoltan

Here is my doubts

In the above attached pdf , where we are using 15% for Engineering phase , 25% for Procurement phase and 60% for Construction Phase.

Even updated percentage completion is very low but the earned value % is nearer to the weighted percentage of the respective phase.

Also whether the attached sheet is directly generated by reports in Primavera. If so pls share.

Sorry if am wrong and pls correct/clarify me

Thanks Rams

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17 September 2012 02:54 AM #13

Tibi Master

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Posted By Zoltan Palffy on 14 Sep 2012 06:19

once again you can not use duration becasue activities overlap which means that durations overlap you can use costs or manhours I have attached an example of how to use costs as a weighted factor

Hi both Zoltan & Rams,

@ Zoltan remember your method of assigning a point value for each activity so that they all get an equal weight? and then using the activity count feature (number of not-started, in-progress and completed) to get a VERY crude estimate of % complete for WBS levels & Project, ASSUMING activities are short enough (duration quota) AND light enough (effort & cost budget quota) to consider them ALL EQUAL. so 1 activity out of a WBS/ Project of 100 is 1% of that WBS/ Project, a WBS of 5 activities is 5% of the Project and so on.

it was for assessing progress and not budgeting but still.. this is horribly dirty if you ask me and still you suggested this somewhere.

now, @ Rams

proper resource and/or expense assignments onto activities are always preferable for bottom-up budgeting (effort/ costs) BUT

activities CAN be weighed on duration. (not saying you SHOULD, but you CAN). using the activitys duration (OD and/or RD) as activity weight, takes Zoltans point-value method (above) one step further, so that EACH day of an activitys duration is assigned a point value.

if using the SUM of activity durations for WBS/ Project as the whole, it does NOT matter that activities overlap. if you use the rolled up WBS/ Project duration, it does.

to get a Weight % you need a two-step process (2 global change operations): - calculate a numeric weight for each activity out of the project or in your case E, P and C WBS levels - calculate a weight percent for each activity based on the calculated numeric weight

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KR,

Tibi

17 September 2012 03:27 AM #14

Tarek Amer Newbie

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Dear Mr. Zoltan Palffy

Im following the great help and assistance you do to help solving pm related problems through many forums and sites.

Please your advice is highly appreciated.

The problem is Exception EStringListError in module PM.exe at 00028F1D. List index out of bounds (0) when try to open P6 . I ran many program, to scan my system and the programes reported that all errors has been corrected, however I still have the same problem when I try to open Primavera Please advice

I also posted the same problem to , http://www.pmsite.com/Forum/tabid/159/aft/628/afpg/2/Default.aspx

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17 September 2012 08:03 PM #15

Rams Sr. Member

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Mr.Tibi

Very much Thank you. Now am very clear on the weightage for an activity. Based on your advice , i have worked the calculations for various cases in Excel sheet, just for verification. All calculations hold fine. I have used the below calculations.

Numeric Wt (UDF) = Original Duration of particular activity / Sum of all the activities of Duration of WBS/phase

Weight % (UDF) = Numeric wt x % weight for each WBS/phase

% Progress w.r.to Project (UDF)= Numeric wt x Physical % Completion

% Planned for Completion w. r.to Project (UDF) = Numeric wt x Schedule % Completion.

I have verified for the following cases. Just I have attached the excel sheet for your reference

Case 1 : Total Project duration and sum of all the activities of Project is same

Case 2 : Total Project duration and sum of all the activities of Project is different due to overlapping.

Also it was true as per the statement of Mr.Tibi , overlapping of activities does not affect the weightage if we take the sum of all the activities duration. Finally , I hope that i got my needs. /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/grey/emoticons/sick.gif Once again thank you very much Mt.Tibi for your efforts.

Rams