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.
Creating Internal and External Relationships in Primavera P6
Creating logic and relationships within Primavera P6 schedules is the glue of a project schedule’s operation and reporting capabilities. Situations occur where stakeholders require large schedules to be broken into smaller organizational entities to better manage them. In several cases, there are multiple project planners/schedulers and project managers maintaining different projects. Not only must projects contain logic networks among activities, but often compartmental schedules require delivery between two entities to be successful. Creating Internal Logical Relationships within Primavera P6 In this first example, we are going to use a sample project labeled “Part 1”. After you have opened up [...]
Export of a Primavera P6 Schedule without Costs
Primavera P6 users often run into situations where a customer or a third-party subcontractor requests a copy of the Primavera P6 schedule in the usable format of an XER file. In so many situations, this action requires the removal of the proprietary cost data. Often stakeholders will need to review the schedule; however, they do not need to see the cost data, including the pay rates and other cost expenditures within the project schedule. The process to export a Primavera P6 schedule without the cost data is relatively simple and straightforward, although it is imperative to take note that [...]
Primavera P6 Global Changes
Primavera P6’s global change feature allows the user to make bulk changes to project tasks, resource assignments, or project expenses. When a schedule modification requires numerous changes, this feature can be a time saver. It is imperative to take note that for a Primavera P6 user to implement global change features, he or she must have the access required to make such changes. Global change updates can only be successfully implemented if the Primavera P6 user has the appropriate security permissions enabled. In addition, the current schedule must be opened. Due to the nature of global changes, the Primavera [...]
Financial Periods and Storing Period Performance in Primavera P6
If you use Primavera P6’s Store Period Performance feature, you can track actual units and costs to date. Storing period performance records and storing the actuals for the selected financial period, along with the earned value and planned value, so that you can track the previous periods. Also, you can compare the current and future trends. Such a schedule maintains the assumption that the project is already resource loaded and baselined. It is imperative to take note that each task that you will store period performance on will require an actual start date, and you want to ensure that [...]
Creating WBS and Activity Codes in a Schedule Organization in Primavera P6
The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) in any schedule is the framework on which the schedule is built, and it is the hierarchy of work that will be accomplished to complete the project. Creating a WBS structure in Primavera P6 is essential to the success of the project schedule’s makeup and organization. In industry, this is often one of the earliest steps in the creation of an effective project schedule, whether it is created for tendering or execution purposes. Primavera P6 requires the development of at least a basic WBS structure to build tasks in the project schedule. In addition [...]
Importing & Exporting XER & XML Files in Primavera P6
Although several file types can be exported from and imported to Primavera P6, two file types are the most commonly used formats. The Oracle XER format is a proprietary file format that supports all Primavera P6 project, resource, and role information. The XER format allows the user to export and import between different versions of Primavera P6. An XER file can also be generated as a backup to a Primavera P6 project. The other format commonly used, XML, stands for “eXtensible Markup Language”. This popular format allows users to share project information between Primavera P6 databases. The XML file [...]
