S-Curve Monitoring in Primavera P6

What is an S-Curve?

S Curve is a simple graph that plots project costs, hours, units, or any other values of the sorts depending on the need and the requirement. S-curves can be plotted for each of these quantities. Then, we can compare the different S-curves plotted during the lifetime of a construction project to provide valuable insights into the current status of the project. Construction managers commonly use the S-curve because they provide insights into the cumulative budget and actual and remaining values during the entire lifecycle of a construction project.

Primavera P6 Professional has a designated function that can display and publish S-Curves. These S-curves can be generated using the bottom layout’s resource usage profile, which can be accessed using the activities view. Another way to access the S-curves is by using the resource profile area in the tracking view. We will discuss the tracking view method to access the S-curves in some detail as well.

An Aggregated S-Curve

If we select individual resources on Primavera P6, we can see that the resource usage profile shows insights about that particular resource on our project. But there is a limit to this information and has very less impact on the overall project as a whole. For this purpose, we have to create an aggregate S-Curve for the whole project. This is done by holding down the Ctrl key, and then we can select multiple resources assigned to the project. With each resource chosen this way, we can see that the S-curve generated becomes the aggregation of each resource’s performance. We can compare the actual aggregated resource S-curve with that of the initially planned one. We can see if there is underuse or overuse of the resources as compared to the initial planning.

Use of Tracking view to visualize the S-curves

We can obtain an aggregate S-curve of various resources by utilizing the tracking view option. Using this option, we can visualize an S-curve by grouping different resources without going through the hassle of selecting each resource individually. The grouping can be done, for example by the type of resource being used and then selecting each resource type group in the list area of the tracking view.

Using this technique, the S-curve obtained will represent all the types of resources selected for the current project. We can select the List filters to set on the “Current Project’s Resources” to avoid any problems.

How can we utilize the S-Curve?

The S-curve provides us valuable information into the overall completion status of any construction project. You can compare the S-curves obtained by using different values like cumulative budget or the units of work completed etc. S-curves can help us in identifying if the status of the project is above or below expectations. Information like this can help us plan out our project accordingly by using adequate resources on the project etc. Construction project managers in construction sites all over the world extensively use S-curves.

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