onboarding training guide chapter 4 executing the project plan · 2020-01-21 · • gantt view o...

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Onboarding Training Guide Chapter 4 – Executing the Project Plan

InEight Basis Onboarding


Lesson 1 – Gantt View

Lesson Objectives

• Gantt View

o Customize Gantt View

o Set Baseline

o Open Baseline Dates columns

Customize Gantt View Customize Gantt View allows us to create, save and set a view as a template. The View allows a user to select, show and hide columns of information for the project schedule.

1. In Plan project view, click Customize Gantt View.

2. Click on Create New to create a new view template.



3. Enter a Name for the View as ‘Planning View’ and then click Save.

4. Click on Advanced Settings. This will open a Columns section, as shown below.

5. All Available Columns are listed on the left side. Click on the desired column and select the right arrow → to move the column to the Selected Columns. Open the columns as shown below in Selected Columns section.



6. Click Save to save the view. Click Set View to apply the changes to your current view.

Columns of interest during planning and execution are:

• Start Date and Finish Date – These show current Start and Finish dates. During planning, they show planned dates. During progress execution, they show the actual dates and the forecast dates.

• Baseline Start and Baseline End – These show the baseline dates based on when baseline was created, i.e. ‘Set Baseline’

• Actual Start and Actual Finish – These reflect actual progress dates.

Set Baseline Setting the baseline allows us to compare any future changes that we make to the plan to the current plan. It is important to set the baseline before applying any progress to the schedule. This will allow us to compare the current progress against the baseline plan.



• Before setting the baseline, a user can notice the Baseline Start and Baseline End dates column show no values.

1. To set the baseline, click Set Baseline.

2. Once the baseline is set, a user can now view the Baseline Start and Baseline End dates shown in the column. The baseline dates are now populated in Basis.



3. From the top toolbar, click Select a Metric. Under Annotation, select Baseline.

4. From the lower section, under Basis Benchmark Analysis, select None.

5. This will show Baseline dates and duration next to your baseline bars in the Gantt Chart.



Lesson 2 – Scheduling

Lesson Objectives

• Scheduling

o Critical Path Method

o Scheduling options

Scheduling BASIS uses Critical Path Method (CPM) for scheduling a set of project activities. This method calculates the activity dates based on the durations and logic.

1. To Schedule the project or review schedule options, click Schedule.

2. Under Auto CPM, click Off.

• Turning this option ‘Off’ means that the scheduling will be performed on demand. This is needed to ensure that the project is not automatically scheduled after every activity is updated with progress.



• Scheduling the project is performed while developing the schedule, and then each time the schedule is updated with progress.

• The Data Date is used as the starting point to calculate the dates of all remaining activities.

• The Data Date is represented by the blue vertical line on the Gantt chart.



Lesson 3 – Progressing an Activity

Lesson Objectives

• Progressing an Activity

o Applying progress to a ‘Completed’ Activity

o Applying progress to an ‘In Progress’ Activity

o Applying a constraint, if required

• Project Register

o Record progress notes during execution as register items (i.e. Risk, Opportunity, Issue or Delay Notes)

• Analysing the progress

o Compare Progress with Baseline

o Print Project Schedule

Progressing a ‘Completed’ Activity Once a project has commenced, it is important to record actual progress to date, and review / forecast remaining work at regular intervals. The frequency of update need to be determined as part of the schedule update process. It is important to update the status of the activities before rescheduling the project to the new data date.

1. Click the button Show Iris to see Smart Planning details on the right.

2. Select the activity – Proposal Submissions.

3. From the right iris panel shown, go to Smart Planning details drop-down.



4. Click on the button for the Start date to mark the activity as Started. The button will

turn blue and record an Actual Start date.

5. Click on the Start date field to record the Actual Start date for the activity.



6. Click on the button for the Finish date to mark the activity as Completed. The button will turn blue and record an Actual Finish date.

• Note that the Progress (%) is shown as 100% for the activity. This can also be viewed as a column.



• A user can open Actual Start and Actual Finish columns in the view. These columns are updated as you enter progress against each activity.



Updating a ‘Completed’ Activity that didn’t progress as planned

1. Select the activity – Proposal Reviews & Approvals from Board.

2. Click on the button for the Start date to mark the activity as Started.

3. Change the Start date field to record the Actual Start date for the activity. Enter the Actual Start as 20-Aug-2019.



4. Click on the button for the Finish date to mark the activity as Completed.

5. Change the Finish date field to record the Actual Finish date for the activity. Enter the Actual Finish as 24-Sep-2019.

• Note that the Actual duration shows a variance to the Planned duration. This delay is due to the slippage from the baseline dates.



Updating an ‘In Progress’ Activity

1. Select the activity – Establish Permitting Documents.

2. Click on the button for the Start date to mark the activity as Started. The button will turn blue and record an Actual Start date.



3. To update an activity that is not completed and is ‘In Progress’, a user can record either Remaining Duration or Progress %

4. Enter Remaining duration as 26. This will automatically calculate the Progress %.

Note:

• The Remaining Duration entered is based on the remaining work as of the data date, or

• Progress % entered is based on progress achieved up to the data date

• We need to reschedule the project to the new data date for a schedule forecast



Reschedule the project Once the progress is recorded for all the activities, we need to reschedule the project to the new data date. The data date is the date up to which Actual dates are recorded and the date from which remaining work is scheduled and forecasted.

1. To reschedule the project, click Schedule.

2. Enter the new Data Date as 30-Sep-2019.

3. Click Schedule.



4. Select the activity – Establish Permitting Documents. Note the Progress % and the forecast Finish Date. This can also be viewed from Smart Planning drop-down on the right side.



Project Register The project register is a valuable tool to capture notes related to the progress updates, delays and any other lessons learned. This information captured will prove to be very useful once the project is stored as a template in the Knowledge Library.


2. From the right side, expand the Project Register drop-down section. Then select Add Event.

3. Select the desired register. In this case, we will record Schedule Change Request.



4. Enter a note “The permit documents need an indicative schedule. This has resulted in slight delays.” and click + to add to the register.



Constraint Constraint is a limitation placed on a project schedule that affects the start and/or end date of an activity. Constraints are user imposed dates for an activity. Constraints can be applied to reflect real world aspects of your project schedule, such as:

• Agreed key milestone dates

• Supplier provided delivery date / deliverables

• Resource availability issues, adverse weather conditions or unforeseen issues

1. Select the activity – Create Early Stage Construction Docs.

2. From the right side, click on the Constraint section and select Must Finish On date

constraint.



3. Set the Must Finish On date as 03-Jan-2020.

• We are imposing this constraint for this activity, as its successor ‘Sitework Permit’ (see Logic) must start on 03-Jan-2020.

4. Observe the dates for ‘Create Early Stage Construction Docs’ and ‘Sitework Permit’



5. To reschedule the project, click Schedule.

• We are rescheduling the project to see the impact of applying the constraint date.

6. Click Schedule.



7. Observe the new scheduled dates for ‘Create Early Stage Construction Docs’ and ‘Sitework Permit’.



Analyzing the Progress Before reporting during execution, it is important to review and analyse the progress updates and compare with the baseline. There could be a need to perform variance / delay analysis or optimise the project schedule.

1. From the top toolbar, click Select a Metric. Under Annotation, select Baseline.

2. From the lower section, under Basis Benchmark Analysis, select None.




4. Observe the Gantt Chart on right. Next to the activity bar, you can see the baseline

dates and variance in days is shown as (-6d).

• Baseline Start and Baseline End dates can be displayed as columns in the view to analyze the progress.



Print Project Schedule

1. From the top toolbar, click Print Project.

2. From the left side, under Paper Size, select A3.

3. Select the Orientation and Scale, as desired.



4. From the right side, Zoom the schedule by Week.

5. Click to print the project schedule as a PDF file.

Chapter 4 Recap In this chapter we learned the following:

• Gantt View

o Customizing Gantt View

o Setting a Baseline

o Opening Baseline Dates columns

• Scheduling

o Critical Path Method

o Scheduling options

• Progressing an Activity

o Applying progress to a ‘Completed’ Activity

o Applying progress to an ‘In Progress’ Activity

o Applying a constraint, if required

• Project Register

o Recording progress notes during execution as register items (i.e. Risk, Opportunity, Issue or Delay Notes)

• Analysing the progress

o Comparing Progress with Baseline

o Printing Project Schedule