Ihab Saad – Tue, Apr 10, 11 30 AM

Good afternoon today, we're going to start talking about Phoenix

Project scheduler, and as you can see on the screen here, we have a

basic schedule, and what we're going to learn about today is how

to add costs and resources to the schedule. We're also going to

learn about how to create filters, how to change calendars and how to

show the BCWS or planned value curve once we add the costs to the

schedule. So the first thing that we're going to do here is, let's

just have a look at the screen. On the left side of the screen, we

have information about the activities, including the activity

ID, activity description, original duration, start and finish.

Remember that when you are entering the information in the

schedule, you do not add anything in the actual data, actual start

and actual finish. This is not done once you initiate the

schedule. It's done later on when you update the schedule on a

regular basis. So what we're going to be doing right now, we're going

to start learning about what's called the resource calendar. So,

as we mentioned in class, resources can be added in

different ways. One way is to do it in the very detailed way,

entering individual resources, like, for example, carpenters or

electricians or rebar or concrete or individual resources. That's

one way of doing it. And each resource, in this case, is going

to have its own unit. But again, the common unit among all of these

resources, in the end, is going to be the cost of these resources, as

we have agreed before resources can be explained or translated

into their money value. So that's one way of adding the resources,

which is the most detailed and accurate way. However, there's

another shortcut, which is a simplified way. It's not

inaccurate, but it saves a lot of time, which is basically going

through the step of translating all the resources into their money

value, which means we're going to represent only one resource, and

in this case, we're going to call it cache. So let's go ahead and

see how we're going to do that. If you go to the drop down menu

called info and you click on Resource Library, this is the tab

that we're looking for. So we're going to look at this resource

library tab. We're going to click on it, and as you can see, it

shows a blank screen, since we haven't added any resources yet.

So what we're going to do next is going to add a new resource. Click

on Add, and here we're going to enter the name of the resource,

the name for of this resource. We're going to call it cache,

and it's asking us whether it's labor, non labor, or material.

It's neither labor nor material. So we're going to select non labor

and the unit label. We're going to call it US Dollars

maximum. What is the maximum amount that you can that's going

to be available to you on a time unit basis? We selected the time

unit to be the day. So basically, we're asking here, what's the

maximum allowable amount for you to spend every day? Let's add

300,000 for example.

And that is asking us about the monetary value of that resource.

The translation between this resource and money is one to one,

because the units are dollars, and the cost is in dollars, so it's

going to be build per day, and the rate is going to be one,

and the cost per use is going to be one.

So now that we have identified the resource that we're going to be

using, we're just going to add it to our resource library, and here

it appears that's the resource that we have. So now we're going

to click, OK, accepting this resource.

That's the very simple way of selecting resources for our

project. The next step is going to be to apply these resources to the

different activities. So I'm going to go to one activity here, for

example. Let's say site mobilization.

And

what we're going to do here, as you can see, these are the

different drop down menus. So now we are going to assign this

resource to the activity. So here

we are going to select

double click on the activity to show the Activity Viewer at the

bottom of the screen, we can

the activity editor here. Remember here we do not enter anything

under budget. We do not enter anything under cost today for the

time being. So this is not where we're going to be adding our

resources. So now we're going to select the

resource assignment window. So we're going to click on this icon

here,

and this shows the resource assignment window for this

activity. So now we're going to go to.

The library to select which resource, assuming that you have

multiple resources. In this case, we have only one resource. So if I

click on Library, it's going to show me the available resource

that we have. So I'm going to select this and click on Add.

We're going to we're just going to select this

and add it to our activity and

see here.

So we're going to add the resource, we're going to select

cache, and how much are we going to spend for this activity? So the

question now is, how are we going to allocate this resource to the

activity? Is it going to be distributed along the duration of

the activity? As we have a greeting class, we have three

different types of allocations. If it's going to be self performed,

if the activity is going to be self performed, we're going to

spend each and every day of performing this activity. So we're

going to have it as prorated. On the other hand, if the activity is

going to be subcontracted, you are going to pay your subcontractor at

the end of doing the activity. So it's going to be at the end. If

it's a long lead item that you have to pay for in advance, then

in this case, we're going to select Start. So what we're going

to do here, we're going to allocate how much money are we

going to stand on site mobilization, for example, let's

say $25,000

now this is going to be a self performed activity, so we're going

to leave it as prorated. And now we're going to click OK.

Notice what happened here. The duration of this activity was five

days. The budgeted amount was 25,020 $5,000 we agreed that it's

going to be prorated. So it's showing us the daily cost for this

activity, which is going to be the 25,000 divided by the duration

five days. So it's 5000

now let's go to the next activity, site clearing. And here again,

we're going to add the resource.

We're going to select this cash. How much money are we going to

allocate for that? Let's say it's going to be $12,000

and let's say that we're going to hire a subcontractor to clear the

site. So in this case, it's going to be paid in the end.

And we're going to say, OK, so now it shows that the $12,000 are

going to be applied to this activity. If it were to be

prorated, it would have been $1,200 per day the next activity,

excavation for foundations, again, let's say it's going to be

subcontracted, so we're going to select our resource, and the

excavation, let's say, is going to be $32,000

and this is also going to be in the end, and OK, and this is

basically the idea you can see how to add the resources to the

different activities, assuming now that we have added the resources

for all of these activities, we want to have a look at, how is the

S curve going to look like? How is the planned cost curve going to

look like? So basically, in this case, we're going to go to this

tab, this icon, toggle time scale graphs,

and we're going to create a new graph. Notice here it opened this

window at the bottom of the screen. We're going to create a

new graph. So the graph that we're going to do is for the resource

that we have, which is cache. We're going to select cache. And

in this case, it doesn't matter whether you're going to do costs

or units, because the translation is one to one.

We do not want current dates because, again, current date means

that, after updating the project that includes the actual start,

the actual finish, etc. But for the time being, we're going to use

the original dates, and we're going to select the early dates.

That's how we're going to

portray this S curve for the original dates. Do you want to

show it as a histogram or as a curve? Let's say for the

beginning, we're going to show it as a curve,

and now we're going to add it,

and we're going to say, okay,

and now we want to show it here at the bottom of the screen. So this

is for the activities that we have added. Of course, if you have

added it for all the activities, it would show you the S curve for

the whole project. Let's say now I want to show this curve in a

different way. I want to show it as a histogram, showing day by day

how much money is going to be allocated or spent. I can create a

new curve, and in this case, it's going to be pretty much the same

thing. The

only difference is going to be, I'm going to select Histogram

instead of selecting curve, and I'm going to add and I'm going to

select, OK,

and now I can select this one. And here it shows the resource

allocation pretty much per day.

Or per time period, showing how much money is going to be spent.

Again, if you do that for all the activities, it's going to show you

the ups and downs of the resource profile, or the resource

allocation curve. So this is the first part of our discussion about

how to add costs and resources to the different activities. Now

let's proceed to the next part, which is talking about calendars.

Let's say you have an Arctic engineer who works only five days

a week, whereas the site is going to work six days a week. The

Arctic engineer has some activities related to the approval

of submittals, the approval of shop drawings, some inspections

and so on. So these are going to be done only on a five day basis,

whereas the site is going to be working on a six workday basis.

Can we allocate more than one calendar for the same project? The

answer is yes. How many calendars can we apply for one project? As

many as you want, or as many as the project needs? So let's go

ahead and see. How are we going to create a calendar or modify an

existing calendar? And how can we allocate different calendars to

different activities? So if you go again to the tab called info,

you're going to find that the second selection here is

calendars. We are going to click on this calendars, and now it

shows here some default calendars that have been built into the

schedule. One of them is a five day calendar, and notice this

check mark here that shows that this is the default calendar,

which means if you do not change it, all the activities are going

to be following that five workday calendar. The second one is a six

day, and the third one is a seven day. We can add other calendars as

we want, as needed for the project. Now notice on the right

side of the screen, here we have

it shows by default, our day today as highlighted. And if I click on

the five day calendar, notice that all the days have the same color

when it comes to work days, none of these boxes is checked. Notice

what's going to happen when I click on the five day calendar.

Now it shows that Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are

checked, whereas Sunday and Saturday are not checked, which

means these are the non work days and the other five are the work

days. Now if I go to the six day calendar, what's going to happen

is that Saturday is going to be considered as a work day. So

notice here that Saturday also is checked, and the only day that

appears in red, which is the non work day, this is Sunday for the

seventh day. Of course, all the days are going to be checked,

which means the site is working seven days a week. So let's go

back to the five day calendar, assuming that, for example, our

project is going to

last for a year. Are we going to work on the Fourth of July?

Probably not. Are we going to work on december 25 Christmas Day?

Probably not. So let us designate these as non work days so that if

work comes through these days, it's going to jump over that day

and count the following work day as a continuation of the previous

work. So let's go to July,

and July 4 this year is going to be on a Wednesday. So I'm going to

click on July 4 and I'm going to select it as set as non work

notice what's going to happen when I do that. It has changed its

color to red, which means now it's a non work day. I can do the same

thing for December, and I can select december 25 currently it's

a work day. So we're going to change that, and we're going to

call it a non work day. And there it is.

Now, let's say I want to assign a six

workday calendar to backfilling and compaction, for example. So

here I'm going to accept these calendars, okay?

And now I'm going to go to the activity backfilling and

compaction, highlight it and look at the activity editor here. At

the bottom, it shows calendar, a tab called calendar. If you click

on this down arrow, it's going to show you what are the available

calendars based on what we have created or what we have edited. So

if I click on this arrow, it's going to show me the five day

calendar, the six day calendar of the seven day calendar. Let's say

we're going to select the six day calendar for this activity. So

here it is six day and enter

now we have assigned this activity to a six workday week. We can do

the same for the other activities as well. So you might, as we

mentioned, we you can have multiple calendars for the same

project, depending on the needs and depending on the different

parties work schedule.

So that's the second part that covers the area of calendars. Of

course, you can change a work day into a non work day and vice versa

by checking the box that has this day or just sell.

One particular day and marking it as a non work day, or as a work

day.

The third step that we want to achieve today is

looking at creating sub schedules from my master schedule. If I have

a project that has 3000 activities, 5000 activities, and I

have multiple subcontractors, let's say I have 30

subcontractors. Some of them have activities that are maybe 150

activities, but some of them have maybe three or four activities. It

doesn't make much sense to give all of them copies of the same

master schedule that has 5000 activities. They're going to be

totally lost. So the solution in this case, is for me to create a

sub schedule from the master schedule. Does that mean that for

each one of these different subcontractors, I'm going to

create a new schedule? Again? That would be a waste of time, but if

you develop your schedule correctly, the first time, we are

going to add tags to certain activities, or we are going to

create filters through which we're going to pull all the activities

and then set criteria for the opening of that filter, which

activities can pass through and which activities are going to be

withheld. So this concept is called filters, and that's one of

the strong features of any scheduling software. Some

softwares do have it. Some softwares do not have it, so that

would be an indication of whether that software is really

professional and practical or not. So let's go ahead. How to create a

filter. Again, look at these icons. You're going to find one

that looks like a funnel, and that's basically what a filter is.

So now we're going to create a filter. Let's say, for example, as

you can see here on the screen, that's first of all, let's make

these parts disappear. We don't need them,

and we don't need the activity editor either. If you look at the

schedule, you're gonna have that, you're gonna find that we have

some critical activities, the ones that are shown in red, and some

non critical activities, which are the ones that that are shown in

green.

And let's say now I want to focus primarily on the critical

activities. That's going to be my main concern, because these are

the ones that really affect the total duration of the project. So

how are we going to do that? I want to tell the software. Look at

all the activities.

If the activity is critical, select it. If it is not critical,

set it aside, what is the main criterion for a critical activity?

A critical activity has a total float equal to zero before

updating the project, or anything like that, before having negative

total float, which may happen if the project is behind schedule. So

for the time being, a critical activity is one that has zero

total float. So we're going to tell the filter. We're going to

create a filter, telling it, please select the activity if its

total float is equal to zero, if it's more than zero, do not select

it, which means, if it's non critical, we're not currently

interested in it. So I'm going to click on Filters, and here it's

going to show that it already has some filters built in. Let's say

I'm going to create a new filter to start from scratch, and I'm

going to call it critical activities only.

So

we're going to add new criteria. So what the criteria? Which field

am I going to be looking at? I'm going to be looking at the total

float. So on this, in this drop down menu, I'm going to scroll

down until I find the total float. Here it is.

Now, do I want to select critical or non critical activities? If I

look at the equality here, it says either is equal to or is greater

than, greater than or equal to less than less than or equal to

and so on and so forth. So the one that I'm looking for is is equal

to zero. That's basically the value that I'm looking for for the

critical activities. So I'm going to select is equal to and we

accept zero, and I'm going to say, OK.

And now I'm going to select this filter critical activities only.

I'm going to add to the active filters, which is at the bottom of

the screen, and I'm going to say, apply.

And OK. And there it is. Now we have only the critical activities.

Let's say I'm done with that, and I want to go back to the whole

schedule, including critical and non critical. So I'm going to go

to the filters again, and I'm going to clear the filter. I don't

want to delete it, I just want to clear it from this box. So it's

going to go back to the top box, so Clear Filters apply. And OK,

and here I have all the activities at that.

Now let's create another very common and popular and

professional filter, which is, I want to focus only on the

activities that are going to be done next month or next.

Six weeks or next eight weeks, which is called a look ahead

schedule. It could be the most common one is a six week look

ahead schedule, or eight week look ahead schedule. So how are we

going to designate that it's going to be based on dates? So

basically, I'm going to tell the software that I want to create a

filter that shows the activities that have a start date or an early

date start or finish. So if this activity is going to start or

finish between today and the next six weeks, select this activity.

If not, do not select it. So I'm going to go here again to filters,

and I'm going to create a new filter, and I'm going to call it

six week.

Look ahead.

Now we're going to add the criteria.

So what am I going am I going to be looking for? I'm looking for,

is it looking at actual start or actual finish or actual dates? No,

is it looking at early start to early finish, not only that, but

both of them. So I'm going to select early dates, select if

early dates is equal to something or is within a certain range. Now

I want it to be between today and six weeks later, so I'm going to

go again to my equality, and I'm going to select within range.

Notice that as soon as I said dates, it recognized that the

values are going to be dates, so it showed me a calendar. So I'm

going to select between, let's say the project here starts on in

February of 2017 so I'm going to go to the calendar of 2017

and and let's say beginning February 1, 2017

and ending on six weeks later. So let's say mid March, 2017

so that's a six week look ahead. I'm going to say, Okay.

And now I'm going to add my filter to the active filters. I'm going

to say, apply.

And okay. And now it shows me the activities that are going to take

place, if their early dates are between February 1 and March 15.

Notice that it shows an activity that ends after March 15 because

its start was within that range. So if the start or the end of the

activity fall within that range, is going to be selected.

Now I have seen this. So what I'm going to do go back to now is I'm

going to go back to remove this filter,

Clear Filters and apply ok, and we're back to the whole scale.

So in our discussion today, we have learned a few things. One is

learning about resources and cost, how to add resources and cost of

the project, and how to apply these costs to the different

activities, and how to draw the graph, the smooth curve, the S

curve, BCWS, or planned value, and how also to show the resource

loading histogram for individual units of time. And then we learned

about the calendars, how to create new calendars, or how to edit

existing calendars by adding work days or non work days, and how to

assign or allocate these calendars to the different activities. And

we agreed that the project can have multiple calendars. And then

finally, we learned about the filters. How can we from one

master schedule? How can we select sub schedules depending on what

are we looking for, whether it's on the critical activities or

activities that are done within a period of time. Later on, we are

going to learn about another kind of tags, which is called activity

codes, that also enables us which are

fields that we create on our own. We can customize the schedule

whichever way we want, and these are going to be tools or tags that

are going to enable us to select and sort different activities and

different filters based on these codes. That is the end of our

discussion for today. So until next time, I'm going to see you in

another lesson about working with Phoenix project schedule, thank

you. Thank.