LEOPARD PROJECT CONTROLS
Melanie Calverley
Melanie Calverley is an experienced professional with several years of knowledge and practice in Project Management as a Program Cost and Schedule Control Analyst on multi-million/multi-billion dollar projects, Project Controls, Strategic Planning, Engineering Planning, Earned Value Management (EVM), and Earned Value Management System (EVMS) implementation, Configuration Management, and writing/editing. She commands full utilization of Primavera P6 software, MS Project, and MS Project Server. Her career background includes industry experience in oil and gas, energy, aerospace/defense, IT, litigation, and media.
Calverley has extensive experience in the planning and scheduling arena since 1999, as well as extensive experience in the aerospace and oil and gas industries combined. Calverley has worked for the large and high-visibility players in the aerospace industry - Boeing and Lockheed Martin, as well as the large companies in the O&G industry, such as Schlumberger, GE Energy, and Chevron. She supported NASA directly and a host of smaller sub-contractors over the years before exploring the O&G and IT industries. Calverley understands the strict, organized flow of the aerospace industry's horizontal and vertical logic integration, the criticality of resource loading, and the reporting functions that support Earned Value Management (EVM). She has also participated in various audits such as DCMA audits, JSRs, ISRs, and CAM reviews. In 2013, Calverley was responsible for implementing a full EVMS in Primavera for Cameron International's (now Schlumberger) Process Systems Division across the globe. The system was fully tested and successfully implemented and run in the United States, Brazil, the UK, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Middle East.
Calverley owns her own business, Calverley Consulting, LLC, which has been operational since 2017. Calverley is also a solid writer, editor, and process flow documentation expert. She possesses a full command of the proper English language, and she is also a published book author. Calverley developed and championed multiple process flows and written documentation via policies and procedures for various well-known companies.
Focus on Schedule Lag in Primavera P6
Introduction to Primavera P6 Schedule Lag When scheduling and planning to utilize scheduling best practices, one of the subjects that the project team will try to avoid is the subject regarding schedule lag. Positive schedule lag should be used sparingly, and although the Defense Contract Management Association (DCMA) allows limited positive lags in the project schedule, no more than five percent of these positive lags should exist. DCMA provides contract administration services for the Department of Defense (DoD) and other federal organizations and international partners. The organization is a key part of the acquisition process from pre-award contracts throughout [...]
Everything You Want to Know About the New Primavera P6 Version 20.12
Primavera P6 Version 20.12 Has Much to Offer Oracle released its Primavera P6 version 20.12 in December 2020, and it has not disappointed its users. The newest version is rich with product enhancements and elements of interest that users had previously requested. This article will address the updates in a picturesque and easily explainable format. Primavera P6 Version 20.12: The Login Screen and Database Configuration At the very beginning of configuring and logging into the new Primavera P6 version 20.12, you will notice that the database configuration wizard is absent. The database configuration wizard conveniently walked the user through [...]
Primavera P6 Rate Types and How to Use Them
Introduction to Primavera P6 Rate Types Primavera P6 allows the user flexibility when it comes to rate types and types of project costs. Project teams may run into situations where different rate types are necessary depending on the type of project that is being set up. For example, one project schedule may require internal costs only, while a proposal project schedule may require an external rate that includes fees and other associated costs in the project. Primavera P6 allows the project team to assign up to five different rate types to assignments in the project schedule. In addition, any [...]
Primavera P6 Top-Down Estimation Process
Introduction to Primavera P6 Top-Down Estimation Primavera P6 contains a unique feature that allows the user to break down budgets into dispersed components by WBS and tasks throughout the project schedule. Projects will be allocated for a specific budget, and with this assigned cost, the Primavera P6 user will need to distribute the costs throughout the project schedule to specific tasks. Primavera P6’s top-down estimation feature helps the user quickly assign the budget for labor and non-labor based on weights per WBS and task. This article addresses how to use the Primavera P6 top-down estimation feature, which can be [...]
Using Primavera P6 Steps
Introduction to Primavera P6 Steps Primavera P6 offers a unique feature that allows the user to break down activities into smaller components to track the completion of tasks in the project schedule. The smaller components are known as steps, and several steps can make up the total completion of a single task. There is no requirement for the number of steps to be defined for each task, as each scheduled task may contain varying numbers of individual steps. Each Primavera P6 step is predefined and weighted by a percentage of the total of the task. Weighted steps track the [...]
Primavera P6 Visual Appeal and Formatting
Primavera P6 offers an array of visual features and formatting for its project schedules. Users can benefit from changing bar labels to highlight areas in the Gantt to enhance the analysis of the project data and timeline. This article addresses several of the useful and popular visual features that you can utilize in your Primavera P6 schedules. How to Show Text Bar Labels in the Gantt Sometimes a client wants to see the taskbar labels or text descriptions in the Gantt chart portion of the schedule. The snapshot below shows a Primavera P6 schedule without bar labels: To show [...]
