Purpose of Project Management

 

In any field, primavera project management training is the one important component in an organization which is all about the process of leading the work of a team to achieve their project goals within given parameters (deadlines, materials, scope, budget, logistics, etc.).

 

The main objective of project management is to produce a complete project which complies with the client's objectives. In many cases, these objectives of project management are also to shape or reform the client's brief to feasibly address the client's objectives.

 

Once the client's objectives are clearly established, they are expected to influence all decisions made by other people involved in the project. The secondary hurdle is to optimize the allocation of the needed inputs and apply them to meet the pre-defined objectives.

 

Management

 

One of the most important business processes is management. It is quite a tough work to managing just about every department. However, management have to be done right in order to avoid the loss of the business itself.

 

Generally, primavera project management training is used for the purpose of planning, budgeting, connecting inter-related practices, checking the advancement, resource setting up and manpower setup.

 

Resource planning / manpower planning

 

As a whole, planning generally includes knowing resource planning, planning for manpower,

materials, time, and costs. This tasks needs to be done before virtually any work starts. Successful planning helps the project to finish on time and the proper costs.

 

Manpower needs to be done because without having sufficient manpower, nothing can be started, processed and be completed.

 

Time planning

 

Time planning is a necessity because the project needs to be done on a particular time otherwise the price of the project increases. This is the usual cause of over spending because not planning the time to finish the project can be costly.

 

Using the setting up technique, the cost, manpower, machine, stuff, and resource can be allocated to every individual task. All the resources are then wisely spent among materials, manpower and logistics. There is no under or overspending.

 

Benefits

 

primavera project management training is the leading Project Management software globally. It was specifically designed to handle major projects in the construction industry. The current difficulty is that that they have to contend with the help of people manually.

 

The application helps the planning engineer in scheduling the project activities in an effective way. This is so in order that the execution team understands it and be able to execute the project according to schedule and be completed in time.

 

Budget

 

The software also helps the cost engineer to calculate the working budget of the project.    

Primavera helps the cost engineer in calculating the working budget of the Project. With the help of earned value management, he monitors and controls the flow of cash in the project.

 

It helps the project manager to track the project on time, resource and cost so he can provide the effective guidance of the project team.

 

The report generation in Primavera is very accurate because of the built-in database management system in the tool. This handles the project data as well as provides the accurate report.

Construction Management

 

Oracle Aconex is a sophisticated software platform to communicate and store documents securely for any scale of a project. One of the major advantages of the software is that large number of users can be added and be able to use it at the same time.

 

As construction management software, Aconex is used for services that include construction project information and process management. This comprises a variety of items: managing processes, documents, drawings and building information models. The others are communications, workflow, audit trails and other project information online both mobile and web access.

 

BIM (building information modeling)

 

The oracle aconex cloud solution brings in the capacity of seamless collaboration between project members to speed up the project delivery and eliminate complexity. The Oracle Aconex Model Coordination cloud service eliminates the difficulties faced for Building Information Modeling (BIM) which is a significant component of construction project delivery. As a mobile application, it improves the way project teams conduct building inspections. It replaces inefficient and error prone paper and manual processes with slick technology to capture distribute and track issues.

 

The following are some of the product features in relation to its being construction management software.

 

Advanced communications

 

The software avoids the limitations of manual correspondence with a standardized digital process that provides project-wide access and visibility. You can configure Aconex to your processes and capture the right data in the right format. The mail routing automates the business processes, while ensuring that the best practices minimizes the chance of human error. It can also easily track process communications, keeping up to date on progress, and avoiding bottlenecks.

 

The application automatically logs all communications and cannot be deleted, providing a complete project record and unalterable audit trail.

 

Integrated cost management

 

There is visibility in budgets, forecasts, and projective outcomes. This enables early corrective actions. It also tracks and reports on any project level with unlimited work breakdown structure elements, control accounts, and work packages. The application uses earned-value methods like cost-performance-index (CPI) and schedule-performance-index (SPI) to forecast your costs. It keeps budget and schedule synchronized with one-click integration with Oracle’s Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management.

 

Common data environment

 

With Aconex, BIM model coordination, connecting teams, models and project data are simplified. It also seamlessly shares, reviews, and contributes to models without specialized software. It saves time by importing and opening Revit files directly within Aconex. It utilizes a single platform to raise, communicate, and manage the coordination process with a dashboard to control and monitor progress.

 

Quality and safety processes

 

With the application, there is improved visibility and performance tracking via rapidly deployable reports and dashboards. It also increases organization-wide visibility of performance by creating and sharing organization-specific KPIs to drive decision making.

 

The software also refines the reports with the needed information and configures report and dashboards to suit specific organizational needs. It maps dashboards to your business to better track, control, and optimize critical process.

 

Likewise, it improves data accuracy with project-wide access to secure one source of reporting truth. Finally, it provides a complete set of linked handover information and full audit trail of all decisions at project completion.

 

 

The Astonishing Features of the Oracle Primavera Cloud

These days, storing critical information is not just done on onsite servers, but in the – cloud! Well, I'm not referring literally to the clouds that you see on the sky, but  to the term “cloud computing” which was originally linked to the concept of distributed computing in the 1990s. Today, cloud services have become so popular, because they're more secure than onsite servers. Here's a look at a few of the many astonishing features of one cloud-based  project planning application, the oracle primavera cloud.

 

What's With the Oracle Primavera Cloud?

The oracle primavera cloud is defined as a complete cloud-based (or online) planning application that's accessible through a browser. Basically it's an online version of Primavera as compared with applications like Primavera Professional that one installs on his or her laptop or desktop computer.

 

Just try to imagine a browser-based version or cousin of Primavera Professional, but with extra features and more integration with other project management software or applications. One of the major differences here is that Oracle handles the storage, maintenance and configuration of your environment, so that you need not build or maintain servers, or fret about database housekeeping.

 

Easily Build Schedules and Allocate Resources

The oracle primavera cloud also shares the same scheduling capabilities and features as the online version of Primavera EPPM. Basically it's a browser-based window wherein you can build a schedule, add relationships and resources (as well as collaborate on updates with your project team).  

 

Perform Risk Simulation and Schedule Risk Analysis

Anyone who is familiar with using Primavera Risk Analysis will probably notice that the standalone application hasn't had an official update since version 8.7.5. Well, it's because Oracle has moved the Schedule Risk Analysis and risk simulation tool to the oracle primavera cloud! Thus, cloud users can assign risks to tasks, run a schedule analysis, build schedules and even populate a risk register within a single application!

 

Lean Scheduling

As the construction sector continues to embrace and adhere to Lean Scheduling, Oracle now has a Lean Scheduling module that is available on both the Primavera Cloud and EPPM. Thus, those who use EPPM may have probably noticed that the “Tasks” tab within the Activities window and what's it for. Well, it actually lists the tasks from the Lean Scheduling module that are related with a particular activity.

 

Portfolio Management

The cloud has added more control and reporting capability to portfolio management, with the advent of the oracle primavera cloud. While this comes in many forms, the most useful are found on the ability to evaluate financial performance, prioritize projects, complete a what-if analysis and plan long-term.

 

Best of all, the Primavera Cloud comes with the ability to use two smart phone apps,  Oracle Primavera Portfolios’ (IOS Only) and ‘Oracle Primavera Progress’ (IOS & Android). The first app provides portfolio owners with the ability to view portfolio performance, while the second app allows remote and onsite workers to view and update schedule activities!

 

 

The Basics of Earned Value Management

 

Managing projects, whether it's related to construction, energy, retail, manufacturing and information technology, can be a quite tedious process, especially when delays and cost overruns  are a common complaint among project managers and stakeholder. For example, constructing the International Space Station was initially pegged at $36.75 billion, although final project costs ballooned to a whopping $105 billion once it was completed! This explains why monitoring performance and timelines is crucial, because no project manager or stakeholder wants to disastrously stray off course. Here's a look at why a process called earned value management is a must for small, medium and large projects.

 

What EVM is All About

And, since no project manager, engineer, scheduler or even laborer wants to be at the helm of projects that disastrously stray off course and balloon to a budget that is way off the mark, this is when they turn to the project management discipline to find an intelligent way out. Here's where the concept earned value management (EVM) can be of great help.

 

For starters, EVM is defined as a project management methodology which helps integrate schedule, cost and scope to effectively measure project performance. It predicts the future and enables project managers to adjust accordingly, based on planned and actual values.

 

EVM systems also refer to software, processes, tools and templates that are utilized for earned value management. Oh by the way, let's look at the colorful history of EVM first. In the 1960s, a set of guidelines or criteria were drafted for the US government's contractor management systems to follow.

 

In the 1990s, an agency called the American National Standard Institute and the Electronics Industries Association developed the original 35 criteria for earned value management systems, which resulted in the ANSI/EIA 748 standard.

 

For systems and technologies used in government agencies like the Department of Defense and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration or NASA, the ANSI/EIA 748 standard is now considered the gold standard in project or contractor management systems.

 

What's nice is that (according to the ones who use the system) the ANSI/EIA 748 standard metrics  are actually so straightforward, and the EVM processes can be implemented or rolled out with as much or as little rigor and stress as your particular projects require.   

 

What Are the Perks of EVM?

Now, let's discuss the major benefits of earned value management. First, EVM is a very powerful tool that helps you map work with costs, and reduce the unknowns into more quantifiable factors. Second, you can also compare and benchmark the current status against the project baseline, and identify critical paths along the way.

 

Next, earned value management helps create a data-based framework for taking actions and making decisions for the future. It enables project managers and planners to intervene quickly and ahead of time.  

 

For instance, you can easily tweak the project scope and budget, or rollbacks a couple of functionalities, procure additional resources, set customer expectations and invest in new technologies.

 

Finally, earned value management helps provide insight into the big picture at both project and portfolio levels.