Primavera P6 – Scheduling and Tracking A Level of Effort (LOE) Activity

Here’s is to the Engineers, brave and bold,

Here’s to the Planners, wise and old.

Here’s to the Architects, strong and proud,

Here’s to the Developers, good and loud.

Here’s to the Entrepreneurs, taking the risks,

Here’s to the Managers, making it tick.

The above one is a paraphrased poem, initially written by Todd Rundgren, as per the web (internet). I really liked the poem and used it in the context of real engineers, entrepreneurs, managers and others, who use a wide array of tools, frameworks, and concepts such as Level of Effort (LOE) activity. 

I wrote about the LOE activity earlier and informed how it’s planned. This raised some questions related to scheduling and tracking LOE activities, which some engineers and managers find difficult to use. In this post, we will check the scheduling and tracking aspect of LOE activities.

It’s a good time to remind you that the LOE activity is not like Task or Resource Dependent Activities. 

Planned LOE Activity

Below is the plan for the LOE activity. It’s a simple plan with few activities so that your understanding is easier. (Click on the image to enlarge)

As shown above, we have the following:

• Two milestones – Start and Finish Milestones
• Activity A – Duration of 5 days
• LOE Activity – Duration of 5 days
• The LOE Activity is hanging between the Start and Finish milestones. 

However, note that for the LOE Activity, the predecessor setting should include the Activity A, not just the Finish milestone. 

This also has been scheduled by going to Tools > Schedule … command in the menu. 

Enter the Data and Track

Next, we enter the data. Let’s say our status date is 2 days into the plan, i.e., 06-Oct-27. When I do that, we will have the following view.  

The Progress Spotlight can be seen by setting the Data Date using the Update Progress… command from the Tools toolbar. 

On this Data Date (06-Oct-27), we have the following updates:

• Start milestone is 100% complete.
• Activity A is 50% complete, with 3 days remaining.
• LOE Activity is 50% complete, with 3 days remaining.
• Finish milestone is yet to start.

This is shown below. 

As you can see the LOE Activity is 50% Complete, but the Schedule % Complete is 0%. This is because we have not scheduled. 

Schedule to Check the Progress

Next, we are going to schedule by going to Schedule … command from the Tools toolbar. 

As we schedule, we will get the update on the already entered data. The Schedule % Complete will be different from the Activity % Complete. The latter is dependent on the Duration % Complete, which has been set for all the activities. 

Below is the view for our schedule plan.  

As shown above, for the LOE Activity:

• The Schedule % Complete is 40%, which is correct because 2 days have gone as on the Data Date.
• The Activity % Complete is 50%, which is also correct as it maps to the Duration % Complete.

In addition, there are two important parts in the graphical side of the Gantt Chart. On the Tracked LOE Activity:

• Left part of the activity is blue color coded.
• Right part of the Activity bar is green color coded.

You can visualize this by double-clicking and enlarging the above image.

Video Demonstration

The below video [Duration: 4m, 32s] explains the above steps briefly and demonstrate the usage of a LOE activity. You can go full screen HD and plug-in your earphones for better experience. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wZwwsPShIo

Conclusion

It’s not that complicated to understand LOE activities. As noted earlier, these activities are quite useful when you go for the project management plan. Specifically, for management related work, you can have the LOE activity.  

Not all project-portfolio management software tools provide this capability, but Primavera P6 does. So, make good use of it.

References

[1] Article: Level of Effort Activity in Primavera P6, by Satya Narayan Dash

[2] Article: Primavera P6 – Understanding Various Activity Types, by Satya Narayan Dash

[3] Course: Practical RMP with Oracle Primavera Risk Analysis, by Satya Narayan Dash

[4] Course: Practical PMP with Oracle Primavera P6, by Satya Narayan Dash