Exploring: Safran Project
Exploring: Safran Project
Safran Project
Accuracy
Although every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy and completeness of this document, no
warranty, expressed or implied, is made by Safran Software Solutions AS as to the accuracy of this
publication and the features or the applicability of techniques suggested.
Copyright Notice
The information provided in this manual is for informational purposes only. It may be changed without
notice, and does not represent a commitment as to merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose by
Safran Software Solutions AS.
The software described in this manual is provided by Safran Software Solutions AS under a Safran
License Agreement. The software may be used only in accordance with the terms of the license
agreement.
No part of this manual may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying and recording, for any purpose without the express written
permission of Safran Software Solutions AS.
Safran is a registered trademark of Safran Software Solutions AS. Safran Project, Safran Details, Safran
Enterprise Developer, Safran Planner, Safran for the Microsoft Project Platform, Safran for Microsoft
Project, Safran Web Access and Working Smarter are trademarks of Safran Software Solutions AS.
All other brands and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks are property of their
respective holders.
CHAPTER0
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER0
Chapter 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Introduction Audience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
How this book is organized . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
User Interface and Navigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Global / Common Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Defining Projects and Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Working with Network data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Calculating the Schedule - Time Analyzes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Project Baseline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Alternative scheduling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Schedule Risk Analyis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Reporting Actuals and Measuring Completed Work . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Progress Status Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Earned Value Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Forecast and Estimate at Complete Calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Change Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Multi networks, Programs and Portfolios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Frame Agreements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Producing Reports and Graphics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Schedule Health Assessment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Importing and Exporting data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Working with Microsoft. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Appendix A - Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Appendix B - Multi-user access to Project network data . . . . . . . . 4
Appendix C - World Wide Web and E- mail issues . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Appendix D - SQL Queries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Chapter 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
User Interface and Navigation Context sensitive Menus and Tool bars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
The Menu Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Shortcut menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Keyboard shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
The Frame Tool bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Customizing the Frame tool bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
View Icon Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
The Status bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Tabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Wizards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
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Data windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Moving Around . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Sorting Rows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Right Mouse button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Closing the Window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Arranging the Safran Project window layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Getting help in Safran Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Access levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Chapter 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
An Overview to Earned Value - The Objective Metric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Performance Variances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Measurement and Earned
Value Management Indices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Forecast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
EVMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
What can you do with EVMS? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Earned Value Terminology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Chapter 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Calendars Entering calendar set data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Specifying calendar units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Specifying calendar span . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Specifying a new calendar set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Copying calendar sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Checking calendar usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Renaming a calendar set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Deleting a calendar set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Assigning a calendar set to a network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
The Default Calendar set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Entering Calendar data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Adding a new calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Copying a calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Importing and Exporting calendar data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Specifying non-working periods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Adding non-working periods by the click of a mouse . . . . . . . 30
Deleting Time off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Scrolling the calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Renaming a calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Assigning a Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Changing Calendar data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Deleting a Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
User Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Print Calendar information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Chapter 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Resources and Cost Resources and Rates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Defining a Resource Definition Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Adding new Resource Definition Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Copying a Resource Definition Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
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Chapter 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Rate Sets Using Rate Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Rate Calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Resource Rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Importing/Exporting Resource Rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Reporting on Cost with Complex Rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Chapter 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
User defined Data User Defined Fields. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
User Field Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Creating a User Field Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Adding new User field set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Copying a User field set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Check Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Deleting a user field set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Assigning access rights to user field sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Adding User defined fields and editing the Userfield Sets . . . . . 61
Adding new user fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Deleting a user field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Adding new Reference Field codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Importing Reference Fields from file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
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Exporting Reference fields to file. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Assigning Reference fields & codes from foreign tables. . . . . 64
Outline Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Building Outline Codes from Reference Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Formulas for User Defined fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Computed Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Linking User fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Chapter 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Codes & Structures Work Break Down Structure (WBS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Organizational Breakdown Structure (OBS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Other Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Using Outline Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Creating Breakdown Structures using Reference fields . . . . . . . . . 71
Assigning WBS codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Assigning WBS codes in the Network Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Assigning WBS codes in the Barchart Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Assigning WBS codes in the Activity Entry/Review form . . . . . 74
Assigning WBS codes in the Single Activity Review form . . . . 74
Linking the WBS codes to Other References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Corporate Standardization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Chapter 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Symbol Sets Creating and Editing a Symbol Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Adding a Symbol set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
To Add a new Symbol Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Copying a Symbol Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Assigning a Symbol Set to your Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Deleting a Symbol Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Assigning Access Rights to Symbol sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Defining Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
The default symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Adding a new symbol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Deleting a symbol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Configuring Symbol Attributes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
The Activity Bar Record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Conditional Bars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Delay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Choosing symbols and colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Choose line number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Specify Bar Position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Necked Activity Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Showing Data on Bars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
To specify Summary Bar attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Symbol Definitions and Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Chapter 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Rule Sets Defining Rule Sets and Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Specifying Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Extracting characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Concatenating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
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Chapter 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Globals- variables Defining the Global set and the Globals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Using the Global . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Chapter 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Defining Projects & Networks Defining your Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Creating a new project record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Project Scopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Access right to your Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Entering Contract Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Defining and reviewing update and reporting periods . . . . . . . 95
Viewing Project Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Defining your Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Network Defaults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Adding a New Network Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Setting the Network Analyze options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Assigning access rights to your network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Assigning Enterprise Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Adding schedule Impact analysis sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Opening a Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
About sub-networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Adding sub-networks to your new network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Assigning access rights to sub-networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Removing a Sub-Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Changing Network information data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Deleting a network from the database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Assigning a network as the project main network . . . . . . . . . 107
Changing a Projects Main Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Creating a summary Level Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Generating summary level network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Deleting a summary level network from the database . . . . . . 110
Chapter 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Activity Data Activity ID’s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Activity Duration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Adding Activities in the Network Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Adding Activities in the Logic View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
To add an activity in the Logic View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
To add a Hammock in the Logic View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Adding Activities in Multi Activity View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Adding Activities with Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Adding Activities in the Barchart Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Add or Insert Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Adding a Hammock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
To add activity information using the Activity
Information view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Add Activities by Click and drag Scheduling Technique . . . . . . 117
To create an activity using the click and drag technique . . . . 117
Add Annotation Bars - Multiple Bars on a Single Row . . . . . . . 117
To Create an Annotation Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
using the mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
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To add Annotations and Symbols via the Edit menu . . . . . . . 118
Switching between the Barchart and Network Editors . . . . . . . . . 119
Adding Activities using the Activity Entry/Review form . . . . . . . . . 119
Adding Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Adding activity remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Review Activity Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Select activities to review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Specifying Fields to Review and their Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Reviewing Activity Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
The Preset option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Duplicating data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Automatic Data Generation 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Importing and exporting activity data using Activity
Entry/Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Review activity data in the Single Activity Review form . . . . . . . . 125
Deleting Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Canceling activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Global Change - Assign Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Using Date Arithmetic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Deleting Data values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Assigning string Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Assigning Duration fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Assigning Reference fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Assigning Outline Codes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Changing Calendar Assignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
To run the Global Change. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Specify a Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Storing and using Assign Fields expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Chapter 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Working with Logic Link Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Importing Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Adding and updating Links using the Links Entry/Review View . . 133
Adding links. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Deleting links. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Adding and updating Logic using the Barchart Editor . . . . . . . . . . 135
To Automatically link activities in the Barchart Editor . . . . . . . . 135
To Unlink Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Creating One-to-One Connections With the Mouse . . . . . . . . . 136
Linking one-to-many and many-to-one . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Creating links using the Barchart Editor Link information view . 137
Adding Predecessors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Adding Successors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
The Links Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Adding Logic in the Outline View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Global Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Assigning Link Fields from Outline View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Assigning Link Fields from Group View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Adding Logic Using the Network Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
vii
Chapter 15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Specifying Resource Resource Requirements data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
requirements Assigning Resources using the Network Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Adding Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Using the Multi Activity View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Specifying the Resource Graph Layout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Viewing Selected Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Print the Resource Loading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Assigning Resources using the Barchart Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Assigning Resources using the Activity Entry/Review option . . . . 150
Using the Punch Qty/Hrs option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Specifying Resource Lag and Duration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Specifying Resource Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Editing and Deleting Resource requirements and budgets . . . . . 152
Chapter 16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
The Barchart Editor Barchart Editor Work Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Choosing a View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Selecting Information Panes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
The Activity Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Link Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Displaying the user configurable Histogram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
The Schedule Risk Pane. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Working with the Barchart Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Setting the Barchart Editor Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Default Column Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Adding and Editing Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
To add an activity in the Bar chart Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
To Insert a new activity in the Bar Chart View . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
To add activity information using the
Activity Information view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Easy Click and Drag Scheduling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
To create an activity using the click and drag technique . . . . 168
To Change Activity ID’s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Entering Activity Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Enter Activity Durations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Enter Activity Duration in the Activity columns . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Enter Activity Duration in the Activity Information view . . . . . . 169
Enter Activity Duration using the interactive bar . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Deleting Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
To delete activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Copying, Cutting and Pasting Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
To CUT and PASTE Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
To COPY and PASTE Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Including Resource Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
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The PASTE SPECIAL option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Finding and Replacing Data Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Quick Search - Go to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Automatically fill in data based from the above cell . . . . . . . . . . 172
To automatically link a series of activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
To Automatically link activities in the Barchart . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Creating One-to-One Connections With the Mouse . . . . . . . 174
Linking one-to-many and many-to-one . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
To Unlink Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Modifying links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Using the Assign Link Fields function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Stretching and moving activities on screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Modifying activity duration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Moving activities in time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Rearranging - moving an activity to a new row . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Moving activities between summary groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Global Change & Update of Activity data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Adding Annotation Bars - Multiple Bars on a Single Row . . . . . 178
To Create an Annotation Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
using the mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
To Remove Annotation Bars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
To edit the Annotation Bar Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
To add Annotations and Symbols via the Edit menu . . . . . . . 180
Zooming the content of the Bar Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Context Sensitive Menu Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
The Edit Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
The Undo Menu Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
The View Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
The Tools Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
What are layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Working with Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
To Create a New Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
To Save a copy of a Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Opening and using a Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
To Rename a Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
To Delete a Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
To Overwrite the <Default> Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Add Comments to a layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Set Layout Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Layouts and Summaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Layouts and Reports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Customizing the Barchart View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Formatting the columns area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Default Field Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Selecting Information for the Tabular Columns . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Align Column . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Insert Column . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Hide Column . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Date Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
To rearrange columns using the mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
ix
Chapter 17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Customizing and Printing The Histogram View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Barchart Editor Histograms Customizing the Report. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
and S-Curves
Page, Axis and Table Layout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
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The Page tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Formatting the X-Axis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Formatting the Left and Right Axes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Hide and Display Table Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Add Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Add Curtains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Set Font Attributes for Symbol Legends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Page setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Select Resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Report Entries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Scope and Cost Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Specifying Periodic Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Specifying Curves. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Table Entries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Copying Table data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Print & Print Preview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Histogram and Report Packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Chapter 18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
The Network Editor The Network Editor Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
The Logic View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
The Sheet Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
Start Browsing from any Activity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
Viewing Activity Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Defining Column Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
To Create a list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
To select a list. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
Data Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
The Resource View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
Specifying the Resource Graph Layout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Viewing Selected Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
Print the Resource Loading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
The Multi Activity View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Context Sensitive Menu Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
The Edit Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
The View Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
The Tools Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
Browse Selected Activities Only . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Filtering. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
New Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Deleting a Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Browse Using The Activity Search List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Clearing a Search List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Chapter 19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Time Analysis & Calculating the Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Scheduling Steps in Time Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Loop Check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Forward pass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Backward pass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Analysis summary reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Updating the network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
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Chapter 20 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
Project Baseline The Original Baseline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
Storing the Original Baseline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
To set the first baseline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
Lock Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Control Scope Summarization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Revisions to baseline(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
Revisions - setting subsequent baselines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
The Baseline update process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
To View the Baseline Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Baseline Annulment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
Partial Baseline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
The Partial Baseline Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
Running Partial Baseline from The Barchart Editor . . . . . . . . . 274
Running Partial Baseline from the Sub Project Register Module 275
Chapter 21 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Alternative Scheduling Evolving schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Change, Impact, Analysis, and Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
The setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
Alternative schedule fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
Activity Existence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
Shcedule Juggler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
Chapter 22 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Schedule Risk Analysis The Benefits of Schedule Risk Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
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Simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
Distributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
Using SRA in Safran . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Three point estimates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Entering three point estimates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Quick Risk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Risk Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
Schedule Risk Juggler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
Risk Health Check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
To Run the Schedule Risk analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Risk reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Select Chart type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Chart setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Print and Print Preview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
Showing Risk dates in the bar chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
Chapter 23 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Reporting Actuals and Reporting Progress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Measuring Completed Time Progress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Work
Resource Progress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Adding Time Progress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
Entering Time Progress using the Barchart Editor . . . . . . . . . . . 296
Entering Time Progress using the Network Editor . . . . . . . . . . . 297
Entering Time Progress using the Activity Entry Review screen 297
Processing After Time progress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
Entering a new Timenow date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
Using a Current Status date for Timenow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
Adding Resource Progress and Actual Expenditure . . . . . . . . . . . 300
Using the Progress and Expended Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
Selecting activities and resources to update . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
Sorting the Table view for updating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
Entering Progress and Expended at activity level . . . . . . . . . 302
Entering Progress and Expended at resource level . . . . . . . . 304
Exporting to Excel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
Updating Progress using the Barchart Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
Importing Progress and Expenditure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
Importing from tab separated text file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
Importing from XML . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
Running the import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Viewing the Import file content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Saving Import data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Processing after Progress Entry - Status Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Total Update - updating the Current Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Specifying a Cut-Off date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
Specifying a Period Start date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
The Current Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
Status Update processing flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
Measuring Completed Work - Comparing Actual to Planned . . . . 318
To View the results of progress input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
The Revised Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
xiii
Chapter 24 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Using The Progress Status Tool Configuring the window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Using the Progress Status Window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
Show information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
Change and update Progress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
Chapter 25 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
Earned Value Methods Earned Value Methods Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
Assigning Earned Value Methods for Activities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
EV Method Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
A - Planning Package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
F - 0/100. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
G - 20/80 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
H - 50/50 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
I - X/Y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
J - Apportioned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
M - Milestone Equal Weight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
N - Milestone Equal Weight % Complete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
O - Milestone Weighing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
P - Milestone Weighing Percent Complete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
U - Equal Units Complete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
V - Unequal Units Complete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
Z- Finished . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
Chapter 26 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
Forecast and Estimate at Forecast Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
Completion Calculations Forecasting scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
Forecasting Span - Duration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
Viewing and Modifying Forecast Calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
Entering Forecast Detail Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
EAC Calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
Earned Value and EAC Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
Chapter 27 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
Change Control The Change Register . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
Working with Variation Orders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
Adding a Variation Order to a project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
Deleting a Variation Order from a project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
Adding Change Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
Resource Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
Alternative ways to add resource items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
Deleting VO- lines from a project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
Schedule Impact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
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Linked Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
Choosing Variations Orders to modify . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
Printing Variation Order summaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
Controlling Scope of Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355
Scope summarization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355
Quantity summaries and Scope control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356
The Change Control Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
Producing Change Control reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
Chapter 28 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
Multi Network Groups Creating a Multi-Network Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
To Create a new multi network Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
Specify Network Group data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
Include networks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
Define Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
Processing a Multi-Network Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
Set Scheduling Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
Select resource availability method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
Working with the Multi-Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
Opening a multi-network group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
Using the Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
Generating Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
Chapter 29 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
Managing Frame Setting it up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
Agreements The Sub Project Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
Adding Sub Projects and Sub Project Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368
Adding Sub-project Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
Maintaining a list of Project Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
Maintaining the Representatives list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
Maintaining String Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
Sub-Project Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
Linked Documents for Sub Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
Sub-Project Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
Partial Baseline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
Sub Project Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
Archiving Sub Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
Chapter 30 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
Government Reporting Contract Performance Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378
Entering Project Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
Field details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
Periodic Performance Data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382
Contract Reporting Header Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382
Estimate At Complete Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384
Authorized Contractor Representative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384
Total Project Indirects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385
Variance Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386
OMB 300 Report Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386
Plan Adjustments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
xv
Chapter 31 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
Variance and Threshold Variance Analysis and Calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396
Analysis Analysis tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396
Variance Thresholds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397
Assigning Thresholds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398
On-Line Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398
Focus on specific Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
Enter Variance Explanations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
Chapter 32 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403
Organizing Your Reports Report Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403
Report Packages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405
Defining a Report Package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406
Running a Report Package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
Removing Report Packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
Adding Report Packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
Editing Report Packages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
Adding reports to a Report Package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
Removing a report from a Report Package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
Specifying the Output option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
Specify span for reports in packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
Scheduling Report Packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
Specify Filters and iteration value for your report package . . 410
Chapter 33 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
Preparing, Viewing and Reports and Graphics that work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414
Printing Reports and Graphics Common Report Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
Choosing a Report Specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
Saving a Report Specification with a new name . . . . . . . . . . 418
Creating a new Report Specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
Adding Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
Deleting a Report Specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
Exporting report configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420
Importing Report Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420
Specifying Titles, Headers, and Footers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420
Selecting font, color and text attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
Choosing the network to report from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
Including logos on your report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
Adding Filters - Selecting information for reporting . . . . . . . . . . 422
Previewing a Report. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
Printing a Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424
Saving Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424
Mailing a Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
Copy Report Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
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Issuing reports and graphics by E-mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
Transferring customized report specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
Chapter 34 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427
Customizing and Printing The Histogram / S-Curve Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428
Histograms and S-Curves Setting Page Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429
Specify Report Span and X-axis interval . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430
Select Cost or Quantity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430
Grouping of report data/Page On . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
Specifying Page/Filter Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
Table Graph specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
Margins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
Placing the legend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
Page Orientation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
Background Pictures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432
Detailed X-axis specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432
Specify Left and Right Axis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432
Include datelines and shaded areas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433
Graph Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434
Graph Entries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435
To add Entries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
To Remove an Entry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
The Periodic Bars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
Specifying the periodic bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
S-Curves and Cumulative lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
Specifying the Cumulative Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
Spread On . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
Specifying Color, Hatch and Line style for stacked and
phased data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
Burn Down . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440
The Table Graph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441
Specifying the Table graph layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441
Rearranging table entries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442
Resource Availability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442
Including availability line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442
Selecting Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442
Chapter 35 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445
Customizing and Printing The Activity Barchart Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446
Bar Charts Formatting the bar area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446
Specify the date range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446
Timelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447
Showing status date lines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447
Bar level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447
Showing network logic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447
Sectioning the report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447
Page Orientation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447
Specifying bar data and layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447
Adding a bar to the barchart report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447
Deleting bars from the graph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448
Choosing and formatting barchart field data . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448
Sort order for the Barchart report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449
Viewing the report on screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450
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Chapter 36 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451
Customizing Performance The Performance Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452
Charts The Bull’s Eye Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453
Configuring the Bulls’s Eye Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454
Bull’s Eye Report for Network Groups- Portfolio and Programs 455
The Bubble Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456
Chapter 37 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459
Customizing the Combination
Graph
Chapter 38 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461
Customizing the Network The Network Drawing Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461
Drawing Network Drawing Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
Chapter 39 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467
Printing Pie Charts Specifying the Pie Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467
Chapter 40 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469
Configuring the Activity Chapter 41 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473
Report
Preparing Resource Reports The Resource report. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473
Data Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474
Vertical Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474
Horizontal Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475
Chapter 42 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477
Preparing Change Reports The Change Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477
Change Report By Activity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478
Change Report by Change Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479
Detailed Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480
The Extended Change Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480
Change Register Print . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482
Chapter 43 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483
Configuring the Progress The Progress Summary Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484
Summary Report Organizing, sectioning and summarizing the report. . . . . . . . . . 484
Some scope and plan considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485
Defining summary levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485
Controlling page shifts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 486
Selecting Report Columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 486
Chapter 44 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489
The Six Period Summary Configuring the Six Period Summary Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490
Report
Chapter 45 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493
Logic and Critical List Reports The Logic Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493
Critical List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495
Chapter 46 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497
Multi Projects, Programs and Program and Portfolio Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498
Portfolio Reporting
xviii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498
A Practical Approach to the Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499
The Multi Project Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499
The Mega Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499
Many Projects for One Client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500
Many Projects in one geographical area or location . . . . . . . . . 500
Multi Project, Program and Portfolio Capabilities in
Safran Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500
The Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501
Common Resource Definitions - Resource Set . . . . . . . . . . . 502
Common Codes and User fields - User field Set . . . . . . . . . . 502
Select Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502
Working with your Multi Project Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503
Sorting, Grouping and extracting information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504
Example Views and Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504
Chapter 47 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509
Schedule Health Does your schedule pass the test? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510
Assessment Credibility Indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510
Scope of work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510
Missing Logic - Dangling activities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510
Relationship types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511
Delays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511
Number of constraint dates - targets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511
High Float . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512
Negative float . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512
High duration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512
Assigning resources to all activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512
Inaccurate and improperly statused activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512
Major project milestone tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512
Testing your schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513
Schedule health report indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513
Logic indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514
Activity duration and float statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515
Execution phase indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515
Contract Change volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 516
Chapter 48 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517
Float Trend Analysis Configuring the Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517
Report Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518
Chapter 49 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521
Preparing the Progress Configuring the Progress Status Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 522
Status Report Set report span. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 522
Specify Column interval.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 522
Progress from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 522
Plan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 522
Select dates.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 522
Specify Colors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523
xix
Chapter 50 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525
The Schedule Performance Chapter 51 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527
Report
Importing and Exporting Data Import and Export of project data and shared data . . . . . . . . . . . 528
Importing Safran Project Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529
Set Calendar Units Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530
The Overwrite Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530
The Append Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530
The Update Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530
Importing Microsoft Project data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531
Importing Primavera XER data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532
Importing Primavera P3 data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533
Reading Primavera P3 files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534
Importing MPX Project Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534
Importing Primavara data from PRN files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534
To start the Import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536
Exporting data from your Safran Project database . . . . . . . . . . . 536
Exporting data to Safran format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537
Exporting data to Microsoft Project formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538
Exporting network data to Primavera formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539
Exporting data to Primavera Enterprise XER format . . . . . . . 539
Creating a Primavera Batch file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541
Importing activities and activity data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543
Exporting activities and activity Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544
Importing Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544
Exporting Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545
Importing Resources and Man-hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545
Exporting activities, resource and quantity data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 546
Importing Progress and Expended . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547
Exporting Progress and Actuals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547
Importing and Exporting Report Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548
Importing Report Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548
Exporting Report Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549
Importing and Exporting Barchart Editor Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . 550
Importing Barchart Editor Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 550
Exporting Barchart Editor Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551
Importing and exporting Barchart Editor
Histogram configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551
Importing Barchart Editor Histograms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551
Exporting Barchart Editor Histograms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552
Importing and Exporting filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552
Chapter 52 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553
Utilities Log on preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553
Setting the Log-on Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554
Analysis type prompt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555
Startup Network. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555
Progress and Expended . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555
Periodic Aggregation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555
xx
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Specify the Aggregation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 556
Multiple Sum entries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557
To add additional summary lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557
Specifying selection Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557
Specifying a Link table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 558
Specifying Summary target fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 558
Running the periodic aggregation process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559
Saving aggregation results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559
Producing an aggregation report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559
To view the resulting graphic report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 560
Saving the aggregation report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 560
Saving a copy of a Network to another network name. . . . . . . . . 561
Database Queries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 562
Using the Database Queries Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 562
New . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 563
Delete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 563
Open Query . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 563
Execute Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 563
Saving an SQL command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 563
Edit Multi-line SQL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 563
Using the Monthly Calendar Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 563
Using the Choose Date calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 564
Using the Date Calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 564
Exporting table data to Excel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 566
Logging on to a different database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 566
Chapter 53 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567
Working with Microsoft Import/Export Functionality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567
Project Field Mappings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569
Basic Activity Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 570
Target Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 572
Logic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 573
Calendar Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 573
Resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 573
Resource Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 573
Resource Availability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 574
The Network Record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 574
Constraints Appendix A....................................................................... 575
Logic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575
Finish to Start Constraint (FS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575
Start to Start Constraint (SS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575
Finish to Finish Constraint (FF). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 576
Start to Finish Constraint (SF) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 576
Date Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 576
Target Start Early . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 577
Target Start Late . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 577
Target Complete Early . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 577
Target Complete Late . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 578
Fixed Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 578
Fixed Finish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 578
xxi
C HAPTER
INTRODUCTION
Audience
Exploring Safran Project documents features and techniques on how to use Safran
Project in order to organize, plan, status, monitor and control your projects. It is
assumed that the user understand the basics of Project Management. It is also assumed
that the user knows how to perform basic user operations in the Windows environ-
ments.
This guide is intended for the full-time Safran Project user. Exploring Safran Project
may help both beginners as well as those who already have gained experience from
using Safran Project.
projects , or build project specific structures. Global data are common and may be
assigned to any project or network. Read Chapter 4 through 11 to learn more about
these data elements. Chapter 6 explains how you build a breakdowns structure.
Project Baseline
The Project Baseline chapter, chapter 20, explains the baseline process, and discusses
the how to create the original baseline, and how to perform revisions to baseline(s).
Alternative scheduling
Chapter 21 explains how you can run alternative scheduling. This can for example be
used to show and document schedule impact of variation orders.
Change Control
This chapter includes information on how to use the change control features of Safran
Project.
Frame Agreements
This chapter explains how to use the Sub Project feature if you are working with Frame
Agreement contracts
Utilities
This section introduces the user to additional functions and how to use them. Functions
and features discussed here are: periodic aggregation, log on preferences, database
queries, find path, network save as, export to Excel.
Appendix A - Constraints
This part discusses the network logic and date constraints available in Safran Project.
You may want to study this chapter together with the time analyses and scheduling
chapter.
C HAPTER
• Title Bar
• Menu Bar
• Tabs
• Minimize Button
• Command Button
• Pick Lists
• Check Box
• Radio Button
Users should already be familiar with most of these objects through the prior use of
other Windows based applications.
The following example from Safran Project illustrates a number of these items:
User Interface example.
The Bar chart Editor is
one of the more popular
tools within Safran
Project. At the top is the
menu bar followed by the
main toolbar ad the sheet
toolbar. Also shown is a
short-cut menu made
available by right clicking
within the Barchart Editor.
The short-cut menu is
sensible and displays
different options subject to
where you position your
cursor when you click
As you get more familiar with Safran Project, you might choose to access functions by
menu item or by pressing the equivalent icon on the Frame tool bar.
In short, the File menu contains actions for New, Open, Close and Save of networks,
The Edit and Option menus are context sensitive and their contents depend on which
task you are performing. The Tools, Process and Reports menus contain options that
work on your current selected network. The Setup menu contains functions that allow
you to Define, Edit and Delete global information such as projects, calendars, codes,
resources and so forth.
Shortcut menus
When you are working with Safran Project, right-clicking the mouse provides you with
a menu containing the most commonly used options for that object. When working
with the Barchart Editor, click the right mouse button in the bar area to display the
following shortcut menu:
Keyboard shortcuts may be accessed by pressing the Ctrl key together with the
designated letter key. When available, keyboard shortcuts are shown to the right of the
corresponding menu item.
Keyboard shortcuts to other menu or window options are often available by pressing
Alt key + the underlined letter in the menu or window item. Pressing Alt +TO presents
you with the Safran Project Tools menu.
Customizing the Frame tool bar You may choose to create your own specific
workspace. To do this, choose Window > Tool bar to open a dialog box to configure
your preferred set of frame tool bar icons. You can use the apply button to view
changes on your tool bar. The tool bar configuration window provides you with a three
view. Select the Menu option required, and select the option you want to put on your
tool bar.
You can use the Safran System icons, or browse to select icons from your own
computer or network. The Use Defaults button re-applies the Safran standard tool bar
setup. The Clear button removes the selected icon from the tool bar. The Show main
tool bar check box determines whether or not the tool bar is shown in the Safran Project
MDI frame.
View Icon Description To display a helpful description of the action an icon
performs, let the mouse pointer hover over the icon. A short description appears in a
note below the icon.
Tabs
Tabs make it easy to organize and manage larger volumes of information. In addition
to this, tabs also assist and lead you through all the steps in a procedure. For example
tabs lead you through all the steps involved in customizing a report.
Tabs are used to organize
data and configurations.
It’s an effective way that
groups data elements and
organizes large volumes of
data, and can also serve as
a step-by-step guide to
edit, enter and customize
reports or data. The
example show tab divided
activity information from
the Barchart Editor and
the tab divided Report
setup from the Histogram/
S-Curve configuration.
Wizards
in some areas of the application you will be guided from step to step by wizards. Import
/ export functions is one area. Another area is the forecast function.
Data windows
Moving Around Moving around in data windows may be done by using <TAB> or by
simply clicking the mouse while pointing at the desired field.
Sorting Rows Rows may be sorted by clicking the header on the column you want to
sort on. Subsequent clicking will toggle the sort order between ascending and
descending.
Right Mouse button In most data windows, clicking the right mouse button provides
you with a menu of the most commonly used options. This functionality is sensitive to
the location of the mouse pointer when the right mouse button is clicked. The best way
to familiarize oneself with this feature is to check it out in the various windows.
Printing The contents of most data windows may be printed by using the File > Print
option. This prints all the data in the data window approximately as shown on the
screen. Note that all data will be printed, also the data not visible on the screen due to
space restrictions.
Closing the Window. All main data windows may be closed by clicking the Close
button on the sheet tool bar. All windows may be closed by selecting Close from the
window's control menu or by pressing CTRL+F4.
Option Description
This option allows you access the help screen giving details of all Safran Project
functions.
The Safran Project Help Menu contains the following four options:
Option Description
Help Index Safran Project help facility. Displays the hosted web help
file.
Customer Release Displays the customer release note for this version
Note
Access levels
User Access authorization may be specified for seven specific objects in Safran
Project; Projects, Networks, Network groups, Sub-Networks, Calendar sets, Profile
sets, Resource definitions, Userfield sets, Symbol sets, Rule Sets Global sets and rate
sets.
For Networks and Sub-Networks four access levels are available - Read, Test, Update,
and Exclusive. The remaining object types have only two levels - Read or Update.
Read You are allowed to examine or report on this object, but is not
allowed to change its contents.
Update You are allowed to both load and change/update the data
Exclusive "Exclusive" access means that no other users may open the
network for update while a users with exclusive rights is
accessing the network.
Access may be assigned to either groups and/or individual users. A users rights to any
object is always equal to the highest level of access granted, either as an individual or
as a member of a group. If you are a member of the public group, and only has "read"
access to a network, you may be given "test" rights as an individual thereby permitting
you to perform a "what if" analysis.
C HAPTER
AN OVERVIEW TO PERFORMANCE
MEASUREMENT AND EARNED VALUE
MANAGEMENT
The principles of performance measurement and earned value management have been
established as sound business practices and have been used for years by successful
businesses.
There is a difference between earned value and earned value management systems
(EVMS) criteria. Earned value is a specific metric that can be used to manage any
project. The criteria are standards for management and control systems that uses earned
value. The purpose of the earned value criteria is to assure reliability of the earned
value metric. Although the earned value metric does not require the criteria, it does
require a management system and method that foster proper planning and integration
of work on your project.
Earned Value is a reliable performance metric that helps project mangers take control
of their projects by telling them how well or how bad they are doing. Performance
measurement is at the backbone of all successful businesses. Without measurement,
managers do not know how well or how bad they are doing. This makes improvements
and corrective actions difficult - if not impossible - to achieve.
Earned value analysis are used to determine the overall health of your project, if you
are ahead of schedule or falling behind, it is used to predict and forecast your project’s
final cost and when the project is likely to finish, and it shows what’s holding us up.
Earned Value give better project visibility and without earned value, project can easily
fail.
The Earned Value, in cost terms also called the Budgeted Cost of Work Performed
(BCWP), is the planned cost or resource usage (man-hours) for the work that was
actually accomplished within a given time frame. Earned value simply tells you how
much work you have done for the resources or money spent.
By its simplest equation the earned value is your physical percent complete multiplied
with your budget baseline. ( %PC* BBL).
There are two fundamental project management requirements that must be met in order
to implement any form of earned value based project management system. First you
must define what it is you are going to do- the scope of work must be fully defined. The
second requirement is to schedule the defined scope within a fixed time frame. Earned
value requires a scheduling system. If you are to determine the planned cost of the work
performed, you need to know its planned value - hence a scheduling system is required.
By applying earned value to your project management system, you can actually
compare your achievement with actual expenditure and planned expenditure. It gives
you a three dimensional immanent system instead of a two dimensional spend vs.
planned comparison. This is a fundamental difference.
Example
Five drawing where scheduled to be completed in May and each drawing was budgeted
ten hours to complete, making the total budget for drawings 50 hours. At the end of
May, when progress was monitored , only four drawings was completed. Using the
same budgeted values for calculations, ten hours per drawing, earned value for May is
40 hours.
The earned value element differentiates a performance measurement system from the
financial budget and actual cost comparison. A manager would know how much time
had elapsed on the project and how much actual cost was expended. To realize how
much work has been accomplished in that same time period for that actual cost takes
an objective measurement like earned value.
Example:
Your project is schedules to last six months and is budgeted $ 100.000 (units). After
three months you planned to spend $ 60.000 . Collecting the actual expenditure to date
shows that you have spent $ 50.000. From this information, all you know is that half
the time has elapsed and half the money is gone and you have spent $10.000 less than
planned. You do not know what you have accomplished in that time period for that
amount of money. When you add that you have accomplished 20% of the project worth
$ 20.000, you have a valuable additional element for management control and analysis.
Your Budget is $ 60.000
Your Actual Expenditure is $ 50.000
Your Earned Value is $ 20.000
Comparing these figures shows that
$ 40.000 of planned work has not been accomplished.
The work that has been accomplished has cost $ 30.000 more than planned.
The conclusion is that you are behind schedule ($40.000) and above budget ($ 30.000)
even though you have spent $ 10.000 less than planned to date. Relying on comparing
planned and actual expenditure could mislead you into thinking that this project is
doing well. Adding the additional information of earned value reveals that you are
overspending by $30.000 and it is likely that your project is in trouble.
Variances
When you use a performance measurement system to monitor and control your project
performance information about past, present and future is available. It can show what
has happened, what is happening and what is likely to be happening against plan. From
the available information you can view performance data and compute schedule and
Cost variances. Analyzing and monitoring the Cost and Schedule variances allows you
to keep focus on the areas of interest.
• The Schedule Variance is the difference between the earned value and the plan.
• The Cost Variance is the difference between the earned value and the actuals.
• The Budget Variance is the difference between the plan and the actuals.
• Variance at Completion is the difference between the Budget at Complete and the
independent Estimate at Completion. That is what the total project is supposed to cost
less what the total project is expected to cost.
Variances can be calculated and reported for periodic an cumulative to date values.
With Safran Project you can add variance thresholds as part of your variance analysis.
Confusing as it might seem, the schedule variance - SV- does not relate to the “real
schedule and does not measure time. The schedule variance does not identify specific
work performed and if part of this is out of sequence. So in addition to focusing on the
cost variance, schedule variance, and variance at completions, you should also do a
analysis of your real schedule. Even if your project is late the SV will converge and
become zero when the project is completed, no matter how late.
Indices
Once you have the earned value in place you can also compute cost and schedule
efficiencies; that is the cost efficiency of the money you have spent and the schedule
efficiency of the work you have done. Your efficiency is also used to compute and
predict the future outcome of your project. See next paragraph for details.
CPI/SPI Chart with
cumulative lines and table
graph for both cumulative
and periodic performance
values.
The Schedule Performance Index - SPI is the result of dividing earned value by
budgeted or planned value. If the Schedule performance index is above 1 it indicates
that more total work has been completed than planned to date - (favorable). A schedule
performance index below 1 indicates that less total work has been completed than
scheduled to date -(unfavorable).
The Cost Performance index - CPI is the result of dividing the earned value by the
actual expenditure to date. (Earned value/Actual). A cost Performance index above 1
indicates that work was achieved at a lesser cost that planned - (favorable). If the cost
performance is less than one it indicates that work was accomplished at a higher cost
than planned - (unfavorable).
Forecast
Using earned value derived metrics you can compute Estimate at Completion forecast
based on a formula driven approach. Often referred to as Independent Estimates at
Completion - IEAC-these figures do not rely solely on subjective user input. The IEAC
provides a simple, credible method for sanity checking the claimed estimate at
completion.
There are several formulas in use. The generic IEAC formula is:
This represents Actual or expended to date plus Estimate to Complete. The estimate to
complete may be weighted by different performance factors from your earned value
metrics.
EVMS
EVMS is a structured method for project and investment management and is primarily
a business process and project method and not a “software thing”. EVMS is a method-
ology for:
• Breaking down the scope of work into manageable finite pieces for control of
technical, schedule and cost objectives.
• Integrating project or program work scope, schedule and cost into a performance
measurement baseline plan against which achievements and completed work may be
measured.
• Track actual cost and work incurred and recorded
• Analyzing significant variances from the plan, forecast impacts, and preparing
estimate at completion based on performance to date and work to be performed.
• Applying earned value information and analyses as part of your status reporting.
These steps takes you through the process of establishing a earned value based Perfor-
mance measurement system. It helps you build an effective project and program
management planning, execution and control system. Well- managed projects and
effective project and program management requires a systematic, organized process
supported by reliable, and relevant data, such as the earned value metrics.
As previously mentioned the ANSI/EIA standard is based on 32 criteria that are guide-
lines for implementing a EVMS based management system. Governmental agencies
has mandated that you must comply with this standard.
As you know, good management doesn’t happen by itself. it takes qualified managers,
carefully planned work scope, Work Break down structure, milestones , realistic
metrics, and a realistic workable baseline. Accurate updated data about schedule, work
performed and actual expenditure (cost and hours) are needed on at least a monthly
basis. Use the EVMS results to monitor projects and take corrective actions to improve
performance.
The value, either in dollar or hours represents the project final cost or hours when the
project is finished. The EAC represents the sum of Actuals, plus the estimated cost or
hours to complete the project.
Variance At Completion- VAC
VAC is the numeric difference between Budget at Completion (BAC) and the Estimate
at completion (EAC).
Schedule Performance Index - SPI
Ratio of the budgeted cost of work performed to the budgeted cost of works scheduled
( earned/planned)
Cost Performance Index - CPI
Ratio of budgeted cost of work performed (earned ) to actual cost of work performed
(earned /actual).
C HAPTER
CALENDARS
Engineers, contractors, designers, suppliers and other trades employed on the same
project may work different hours and everyone working on the project will have unique
holiday and rest-periods requirements. Different activities may progress at different
rates. For example, one activity may be continuous and proceed without interruption,
while another may stop for week-ends, and yet another occur only on Mondays through
Thursdays. Safran Project stores these details in calendars. Each activity, constraint or
resource is assigned to run according to one of the predefined calendars.
A calendar is used to:
• hold base units allowed for analysis: Hours, Days or Minutes
• hold details of holidays and rest periods that occur during a calendars span
• calculate start and finish dates for activities and resources when the network is
analyzed and resources are scheduled.
The calendar sets windows is a tab separated windows that allows you to browse all
available calendars. The selected calendar will be presented with a open folder in the
calendar sets list. The three different tabs allows you to add details for the calender
definition, define rest periods and assign access rights to the calendar set.
The user defined
calendars are organized
into groups of time units;
day, hours and minutes. By
clicking the Day based,
Hours based and Minutes
based icons in the left
panel you can collapse
and expand the sections
you want to browse. The
right pane displays name,
calendar unit and span. At
the lower part of the right
pane is a section
displaying for which
networks this calendar is
used.
Fields Description
Fields Description
Copying calendar sets When defining a new calendar set you may use information
and calendar definitions from previously defined calendars and work patterns.
By choosing the Copy Calendar icon, Safran Project then copies the entire calendar set
Fields Description
Copying a calendar To copy an existing calendar, choose the Copy calendar option
from either the short cut menu, edit menu, or from the sheet toolbar.
Importing and Exporting calendar data On the Edit menu you will find the Import
and Export options used to export and import non working periods data for a selected
calendar. You can use these options to quickly build a new calendar set with individual
calendars from different calendar sets in your safran database.
If you are working on an hourly or minute based calendar the from/until date may be
specified down to the hour using the additional from/until hour fields.
Adding non-working periods by the click of a mouse If you are editing a calendar
with units of days, you may click a single date in the calendar display area of the
Calender editor window to add non-working periods.
Deleting Time off Select the Delete Time Off option from the shortcut menu, the edit
menu, or by pressing the delete icon on the sheet toolbar. The two latter prompt you
with a option to delete a calendar or rest. Choose Rest and press OK to delete.
If you choose the Delete Time Off option from the shortcut menu, Safran Project
prompts you to confirm the deletion.
Scrolling the calendar for the daily based calendar, you may move between different
months and years in the calendar Editor by pressing the navigation buttons or using the
drop down list box in the editor screen. Optionally you may use the icons on the sheet
toolbar. These scroll functions are also available from the shortcut menu and from the
edit menu on the main menu. Keyboard shortcuts are also available to speed up access
to new months or new years.
Assigning a Calendar
The different calendars are assigned to activities, constraints and resources that make
up your projects network plan. By assigning different calendars, you may create a
network plan that makes it possible for you to plan and control complex project
requirements.
By default Safran Project suggests calendar 0 to all activities, resources and
constraints. If you have defined additional calendars you may assign them to the
network elements by use of the appropriate forms or editors.
Deleting a Calendar
To delete the current calendar, choose Delete calendar from the short cut menu.
NOTE: You are not allowed to delete a calendar if it has been assigned to an
activity, constraint or resource requirement.
User Access
Access to calendars may be assigned at both individual and group level. Use the two
tabs to alter between User or Group access.
C HAPTER
• The availability of each resource over time during the life of the project
• The unit cost of the resource. Does the contract allow for single constant cost rates
throughout the life of the project or are complex rates with escalation tables and
overheads required?
• An estimation of the resource(s) required for each individual activity in the network.
• Are the resources to be planned linearly spread or as profiles over the resource or
activity duration?
This may seem like a lot of options, issues and questions to take into consideration and
it looks like a lot of work. But basically these are the steps to follow.
Please note that Safran allows you to define standard set of resources, rate sets and
profiles. So this may be a once-only set-up. If you are lucky - Someone might have
done it for you already.
NOTE: If you are to use complex rates jump to next chapter for details on rate sets
and the usage of these. The remaining part of this section will discuss the features
of the Resource set pane and the definition of resources using simple rates.
Resource definition sets are associated with your network through the network
definition window. Resource definition sets define a pool of the different types of
resources available to your project.
From this screen you may add, modify, or delete resource definition sets.
Field Description
The new resource definition set will be established with identical resource definitions
compared to the one you copied it from. Change the resource definition set's name and
edit the resource definitions to match your requirement.
Field Description
NOTE: You will not be allowed to delete a resource definition set if the resource
definition set has been associated with a network. Additionally you must also have
update access rights to the object. In both cases above the delete option will be
disabled from the menu or sheet toolbar.
Safran Project prompts you to confirm deletion of your resource set before executing
the delete command.
Field Description
Short Name Enter the resource short code. This code is used by the appli-
cation in the list box.
Unit Cost Rate The Cost rate per unit for the resource. Available only for
QTY type resources. The Unit Cost Rate is used in cost cal-
culations.
Type must be 1 for Quantity and 2 for Cost type resources. Unit Cost Rate are only
allowed for type 1 resources. See example file.
During file import the resource definitions will be copied into the current resource
definition set. Resource definitions will be appended to your existing list of definitions.
Safran Project also allows you to import resource definitions from an XML file.
Choose Edit > Import From File from the main or shortcut menu.
Exporting Resource Definitions Safran Project allows you to export your resource
definitions to text, tab separated files or to XML (Extended Markup Language) files.
Choose Edit>Export to file.
Modifying a Resource Definition You might find it necessary to modify some or all
of the fields for a given resource definition. A number of conditions do however apply.
• You are allowed to modify short name and description at any time
• You may change the unit Cost rate for resources of type QTY. Saving your changes,
Safran Project will prompt you to recalculate cost for that specific resource in your
current network. If you select to have the cost recalculated, using the revised unit rate
you will be asked to configure the cost recalculation.
Cost can also be recalculated by selecting <Recalculating Cost> from the edit or the
short-cut menu.
Cost can also be recalculated by selecting <Recalculating Cost> from the edit or the
short-cut menu.
Live Cost Recalculates cost for Live plan as Cost Unit Rate * quantity
Live Contract Cost Recalculates cost for Live plan as Cost Unit Rate * contract
quantity
Live Expended Cost Recalculates actual cost for Live plan as expended * Cost
Unit rate
Current Cost Recalculates Cost for current plan at last Cut off using Cost
Unit rate * Qty
Current Contract Recalculates Contract Cost for current plan at last Cut off
Cost using Cost Unit rate * Current Qty
Last Baseline Cost Recalculates cost for the period starting with the last baseline
date until project end date using Cost Unit rate * Qty
Last Baseline Con- Recalculate cost for the period starting with the last baseline
tract Cost date until project end date using Cost Unit rate * Contract
Qty
Fields Definition
VO - no Variation Order
At the bottom of the screen resource requirements are summarized to provide you with
updated information at a glance.
Resource Availabilities
Details of the availability for all required resources are entered separately from the
network data. An availability line consist of a resource code, a quantity and a time span.
The Resource code must correspond to the resources defined in the Resource set for
the network.
To specify a resource availability, choose Tools > Resource Availability from the main
menu.
Resource availability can be entered in terms of QTY per day or as manpower. You can
toggle between these two modes by Selecting The preferred mode from the short-cut
menu or from the Edit menu. Alternatively press ALT+M.
Fields Description
Available from Date field. Available from. Optional. If absent Safran Project
assumes available from Project start date
Available Until Date field. Available Until. Optional. If absent Safran Project
assumes available Until Project end date
Fields Description
Qty (per Day) QTY: Decimal field. The maximum quantity available
between from date and until date.
or
Manpower: Decimal field. Enter availability as Manpower.
Manpower
Safran Project uses the man hours pr day from the specified
calendar to compute qty if manpower is entered and vice
versa.
NOTE: You are not allowed to delete the entire availability table in one operation,
as this must be done by deleting row by row.
Resource Profiles
Safran Project has facilities for distributing resource requirements and their associated
cost in two ways; linear or based on user-defined profiles. By default Safran Project
performs a linear distribution. This may be overridden by user input.
Linear Distribution
Safran Project distributes the resource requirements (and Cost) evenly across the
resources duration. In Safran Project resource requirements may have both delays
and/or durations. If you assign your resource a duration, Safran Project will spread the
requirement proportionally over the resource duration, applying the resource delay to
calculate start and end date for the required resource. By applying multiple resource
requirements, including both delays and durations, it is therefore possible to create
complex resource profiles when summarized to the activity level.
Profiled Distribution
As an alternative to the proportional, or flat load distribution, the use of profiles
provides you with a quick way to spread your requirement over time based on user
defined distribution profiles. Again, Safran Project does all the work for you spreading
the resource requirements over time. For example, you might anticipate usage of a
resource to be intensive at the beginning of an activity and taper off towards
completion. A graphical representation of this requirement would describe a front
loaded curve. Safran Project distributes any resource requirement according to the
curve you define. By choosing Setup > Profile Sets Safran Project presents you with a
list of existing sets of profiles in your database. Choose the Edit Profile set option to
view the profiles associated with a specific profile set.
Safran Project allows an unlimited number of profile sets and corresponding distri-
bution profiles. You may use them as defined, modify them or design and add your own
profile sets and distribution profiles. When you define a new profile set, the new
profile set may be based on an existing set.
When utilizing a distribution profile on your resources requirement, it is additionally
possible to combine this with both resource delays and durations. The profile will then
be applied to the specified duration of the resource requirement.
Creating new Profile sets The details tab allows you to add, copy or delete any
profile set. To create a new profile set, select New from the edit menu or press the New
icon on the sheet toolbar and enter the name of your new profile set.
Fields Description
Owner Output field. The system logon Id of the creator of the profile
set
Copying Profile sets You may define new profile sets based on any existing profile
set. Choose Copy Profile set to copy the profile set including all profiles to a new
profile set. This function may speed up the time it takes to add new profile sets to your
system. After copying the profile set you may modify it to suit your specific needs.
Deleting a Profile set To remove (delete ) a profile set from your system, highlight
the profile set and select the Delete option from the Edit menu or from the shortcut
menu. The delete option will only be available for Profile sets that are currently not in
use, that is, not assigned to a network. The delete option is restricted by User Access.
Adding and Editing Distribution Profiles To add new or edit existing profiles in a
profile set, select the Profiles tab.
The "% Time" field represents a point in time relative to the resource duration. The "%
Load" represents the corresponding cumulative percentage of the total resource
requirement to be used. Safran Project requires all percentage values (Time/Load) to
be entered as integers. You may enter a maximum of 100 x,y points to help define the
shape of a distribution profile, although only a minimum of 2 x,y points is required (0,0
and 100,100). The graphic representation of the profile may be viewed either as a curve
(Cumulative) or as a histogram (Periodic). To switch between these views please refer
to the short cut menu.
To add new x,y points to an existing profile, select New Interval from the short cut
menu within the "%Time/%Load" window. If you select New from the sheet toolbar or
from the edit menu, Safran Project will prompt you with "new profile" or "new
interval".
Any new interval will be inserted before the current interval figures.
Field Description
To delete an interval, highlight the required interval and select the delete interval
option.
Adding a new profile Select New Profile from the short-cut menu to add new
profiles to a profile set. Enter your profile name in the profile name field and enter the
necessary reference points in the % time and % load fields. When entering a new
profile, you will be presented with two records, one blank and one containing the
reference point 100,100.
Viewing a profile as curve or as a histogram Use the Modes icon on the sheet
toolbar to alter between profile or histogram to view the profile as a cumulative line or
as a periodic histogram. Alternatively change mode from the short cut menu.
Printing the profile A simple X/Y graph may be printed by selecting print from the
shortcut menu within the graphical screen. The graph prints the actual mode; Periodic
bar or cumulative line.
Deleting a profile Highlight the profile you would like to delete and select delete
profile from the short-cut menu. Safran Project does not ask you to confirm deletion of
curve profiles.
NOTE: A profile that is currently in use, i.e. a profile with a resource requirement
based on it, may not be deleted from the profile set.
Importing & Exporting Profiles Select the Profiles tab, and then select either import
Profiles or Export Profiles from the edit menu. Safran Project support both tab
separated text files and XML files.(Extensible Mark Up Language). On your Safran
Project installation Safran supply two XML files with predefined profiles. SPPRO-
FILES.XML contain three curves. and the STDCURVE.XML containing 8 curves.
Their definition and content can be read by opening these files in your web browser.
In addition to exporting a complete Profile set you can also export single Profiles or
Curves. Mark the profile and select Export Profile from the short-cut menu.
If you want to import a single Profile, create a file containing one Profile, or export a
single Profile from another Profile set to text or XML file format. Then use the import
Profiles option to add this profile to your profile set.
Assigning access rights to a Profile set You may give read and update access to
either individuals or user groups to your profile sets. Use the access tab on the profile
set panel. Select give access to allow additional users or groups access to a profile set.
Select remove access to delete users or groups from the access list. If the Access tab is
dimmed (grayed out), you are only permitted read access and may therefore not assign
any access rights to other users.
C HAPTER
RATE SETS
Rate sets are used by Safran to store multipliers and escalated rates that are used in
generating derived costs. Since rates may change over time, rate sets define the rate that
is applicable at any time and date.
The rates defined in a rate set can be shared across resources. The rates defined repre-
sents the direct labor cost, overheads, general and administrative and cost of money
multipliers whose values can be predicted over time.
Once defined the rates are assigned to resources. Safran provides 7 accounts:
• Direct Rates
2 Select Setup Rate sets to define and create your rate records
3 Go to Setup resources to assign the rate records to each resource for budgets and
actuals.
You can choose on of the following methods for adding rate records and rate escala-
tions:
• Right click in the rate record area to add a new rate record and click New Rate
Record.
• Right click in the rate table area to add a new period rate.
• Click the insert icon on the window toolbar and select either the new rate record or
the new period rate option.
• Use the Edit>Import option to import rate records and their periodic rates.
The import file is a tab separated txt file with 3 columns short name, date and rate.
Rate records including
escalation can be
imported from a tab
separated txt file. The
Import option is accessed
from the Edit menu. Note
that you can also export
your rate definitions to a
txt file. This is useful for
sharing rate definitions
across projects and users
on different databases and
locations.
Notice that you are not restricted to specify rate changes at any particular interval such
as monthly, quarterly or yearly. Also a rate record may have only one rate. Typically
the indirects - Overhead 1-4, G&A, COM - contains a single rate that does not change
over time.
Example showing two
different rate records. One
with escalating direct
rates and the other a
overhead rat with only on
entry.
The rate record is simply a rate associated with an escalation of time. You can set up
different rate records for budgets and actuals or share them. One rate record may be
shared across many resources such as for example department or labour overhead.
You will enter the rates as number so that 45 means $45 /hr and a 15% overhead rate
is entered as 0.15.
Rate Calculations
The standard calculations for each value type are:
Direct Cost = Hrs * Direct Rate
Overhead Costs = Direct Cost * Overhead Rate
G&A Cost= (Direct Cost+Overhead Cost) * G&A Rate
COM (Cost of Money)= (Direct Cost+ Overhead Cost+ G&A Cost) * COM Rate
Resource Rates
You use the Resource Sets window to apply rates tour your resource definitions. Select
Setup> Resource Sets and choose the resources tab. You can assign rates records to
each resource for the budget elements or cost accounts for budgets and actuals.
The upper part of the Resource rates window lists the resources defined for your
project. It contains a short name, and optional description and a type column that
displays type of resource - qty or cost.
The lower part of the window allows you to specify your resource rate assignment.
This is where you create the link between resources required and your rates defined in
the rates table including direct , overheads, escalation etc.
Safran Resource rates.
Use this window to assign
rate records to your
resources. You can assign
both direct rates and the 6
different indirect rates for
both budget and
expenditure rate records.
4 different overhead buckets are available to break out overheads. Note that cost based
resources will not have a direct rate assignment.
Once assigned Safran uses this cost assignment to compute derived cost from your
Mhrs/qty and task cost estimates.
• Include at bottom
Using the Histogram/ S- Curve you can compare direct, indirects and total cost by
selecting an deselecting cost accounts.
You should check the features of the different reports to familiarize yourself with the
cost reporting capabilities.
C HAPTER
Datetime D 20 Dates
String F 20 Text
Integer I 10 Numbers
Decimal N 10 Decimal
Duration U 10 Duration
Reference fields and outline codes holds predefined values and references.
You can use the reference fields, to define a named list of allowable values for the type
and an associated text description. For example, you might define a Reference field
called “DEPARTMENT” that is made up of the following items:
The table shows an
example of high-level
project codes and their
description.
Value / short Description
Code
MNGMT Management
ENG Engineering
PREFAB Prefabrication
When you enter data into the Reference field or as in the above example, the
Department field, Safran Project makes sure the value entered is in the list. As a help
for quick and efficient data entry and validation, Safran Project provides a pick list of
defined values. Importantly, the text description in the list are used by Safran Project
for the summary titles whenever you summarize your schedule.
Examples of reference field usage includes WBS, Discipline, Contractor code, sub-
contractor, Level 4 code, System, Department, Section, Area, Phase and more.
For any of the Reference fields R1-R30 you may enter a unlimited number of codes &
Description.
You can use the Outline Codes to build or create a hierarchical structure for your
project that you can use to sort, select and group activities. When you create an outline
code you define the number of levels in your structure and the coding for each level.
The outline codes allows you to show a hierarchy of activities that is different from the
Reference codes or the dynamic grouping by reference codes. You can create 30 sets
of outline codes. Typically the outline code can be used for WBS, OBS or other fixed
break down structures, such as AA.BBB.C01.DD, AA.BBB.C02.DD,
AB.BBB.C01.DD etc.
NOTE: Importantly, you can use Userfields for data input and as an operand in
filters and sort criteria.
Field Description
Adding new User field set Choose New from the edit menu or press the New button
on the sheet toolbar.
A new line/folder will be added to the list of user field sets. Enter the name of your new
user field Set.
Copying a User field set When defining similar user field sets, you may also copy an
existing set to a new one. This saves time and additionally ensures consistency.
Highlight the set you want to copy and press copy from the sheet toolbar or from the
edit menu.
Definitions and codes Copy all userfield definitions and any codes to a new code
set. This creates a new, editable set of codes
Copy definitions no copies only definitions to the new code set but no codes.
codes
Check Usage By pressing the Usage option from the edit menu, Safran Project gives
you a list of the networks using the specific user field set.
Usage is also displayed at
the lower part of the
details tab of the Userfield
sets window.
Field Description
Deleting a user field set Using the Delete option allows you to delete a user field set
together with all its user field details
NOTE: Only the creator of the user field set is allowed to delete it. User field sets
associated with a network may not be deleted. In both of these cases the delete
option is disabled both from the menu and sheet toolbar.
Safran Project prompts you to confirm deletion of your user field set before executing
the delete command.
• Read access allows you to only read data. No changes may be made.
Reference fields are defined by a label and predefined codes, description and
optionally a sort value. The Text, Date, Flag, Number, Decimal and Duration type of
user fields are defined by a label and you can also define formulas to be applied at
activity level and at the Summary/group level for the Barchart Editor. The Outline
codes are defined by label, maximum number of levels and an detailed outline config-
uration. The Computed fields are defined by label, type and formula. Please note that
these field are only available in the Barchart Editor.
Adding new user fields Select the tab corresponding to the required field or column
type, then select the New option from the short-cut menu, the edit menu or press the
New button on the sheet toolbar menu.
Deleting a user field The delete option deletes the current line containing a user field
definition record.
NOTE: If the User field is in use (added to an activity). You are not allowed to delete
Reference fields or outline codes.
Adding new Reference Field codes Move your cursor to the codes part of the pane
and select New Code from the shortcut menu to add a new short code value description
and sort. This short-cut menu also allows you to delete a single code or all codes for a
Reference field. But again, if the code is in use by an activity, you are not allowed to
delete the code.
Importing Reference Fields from file Valid reference field values may be imported
from a file. The file must be a tab separated text file with the following format:
CODE <tab> DESCRIPTION
Choose Edit>Import from file and browse your system for the desired file.
Exporting Reference fields to file. By selecting the Export to file option, you can
export valid reference codes and description values to a tab separated text file or an
XML file. Choose Edit>Export to file.
Assigning Reference fields & codes from foreign tables. It is quite common for
larger organizations keep such information in a data repository. To save repetitive data
entry and duplicating information, Safran Project allows you to assign your Code
values from tables other than the code sets in the Safran data structures. To make use
of this feature you must have a proper knowledge of the Safran Project data structure
and should also be familiar with SQL. The codes may be assigned from other Safran
Project tables or from foreign tables.
You may also use this feature to set up company standard coding in one userfield set,
and use this as a reference for other user field sets.
Choose the Table Select option from the Edit menu to access the select window where
you may edit or write your own SQL select statement.
In the above screen the default select statement generated by Safran Project is shown.
This statement corresponds to the definitions entered. You may edit or overwrite this
statement to allow for other references.
Outline Codes
Outline Codes allows you to build or create corporate, project specific and user defined
hierarchy of activities and structure for your project. The breakdown structures by
work, cost, organization, physical or other all illustrates the division of your project in
successively greater levels of detail. You can create multi-level codes consisting of
uppercase or lowercase letters, numbers or characters that you specify. As you define
your outline codes you create a lookup table that make entering or assigning outline
codes for each activity easier.
First you have to set the maximum number of levels in your code structure. The size of
the project and the degree of control required will in most cases determine the appro-
priate number of levels defined. The Maximum number of levels allowed in Safran
Project is 10.
The copy and paste functions ease the entry of identical nodes and saves you time from
entering data manually. Mark a node, press the copy button, then select where to add
this node, including all child nodes, and press the paste button.
The configuration tab lets you specify code setup by character type length, separator
and a label for each of your levels.
Building Outline Codes from Reference Fields You may want to build a outline or a
hierarchical structure from data already defined for 2 or more reference field. as an
example you may have a reference fields for project phase, discipline and sub phase.
Now you want to structure this into a outline. First you define the new outline code,
then you open your barchart editor and group your gantt according to the desired
structure, add the new outline code to your columns and select the Tools>Convert to
outline structure.
As the outline code levels can be used just as flexible as individual reference fields for
grouping and sorting data, converting reference fields into outline structures allows
you to add new and other information into reference fields, using the outline codes
where structures are in place.
Functions at Summary level includes, Min., Max., Average, Sum, Count, First, last and
calculate.
The default definition for all user fields is the manual input option. When you choose
the Calculated value option you will be able to specify the update formula and by
applying a filter you may restrict the calculation to a selected range of activities only.
The user field formula dialog box allows you to build multi-line expressions together
with conditional computing using all, where, then where and remaining conditions
together with user defined filters for each of these conditions and their own formula.
Computed Fields
Computed user fields are used to store formulas for computed values. Unlike the other
user fields you can not manually input data to the computed field. Computed fields are
similar to the decimal, date, text, flag and integer and duration user fields when these
are defined to be calculated using formulas and not used as input fields. You can use
the Userfield formula window to add multiline expressions together with conditions,
filter and formula for each line.
The computed field are not stored as fields or columns in your Safran Project database,
only their label and expressions. When used they can be displayed in the Network
editor and the Barchart Editor.
C HAPTER
In general, the major elements will be the project deliverables, and should normally be
defined in terms of how the project will actually be managed. For example: The phase
of the project life cycle may be used as the first level of breakdown, with the project
deliverables as the second level.
The organizing principle within each branch of the WBS may vary. This means that
different elements may have differing levels of breakdown or decomposition.
Other Structures
You may come across some other kinds of breakdown structures used to present project
information. The most widely used breakdown structure is however the WBS. Other
structures used include:
• Cost breakdown structure (CBS), which is used to define the level of reporting
according to a Cost unit/ Cost Center hierarchy.
• Resource breakdown structure (RSB), which is a variation of the OBS and is
typically used when work elements are assigned to individuals.
• Bill of materials (BOM), which presents a hierarchical view of the physical assem-
blies, subassemblies, and components needed to fabricate a manufactured product.
• Project breakdowns Structure (PBS) which is fundamentally the same as a properly
done WBS.
• Product breakdown structure (PBS), which is often used to reflect the BOM.
Once you have defined the reference field, you can begin adding the codes themselves.
Each WBS code should have a title or description that describes what it represents in
the project. Safran Project uses these titles when organizing and collapsing activities
by WBS code.
Assigning WBS codes in the Barchart Editor The WBS code may be assigned both
in the Activity Columns and in the reference fields tab of the Activity Information
pane. Use View Columns to include the WBS field in the Activity columns.
For more details on the Assign Fields feature please study the Barchart Editor Chapter.
It is a quick and powerful feature.
Assigning WBS codes in the Single Activity Review form The single Activity
Review form is a tab separated window. Choose Tool>Single Activity Review from the
main menu. Select the Activity to review from the Activity ID drop down list box, and
then select the References tab.
The WBS code may have intelligence built into the code. The code may be sub-divided
by number of characters for each element. For example; the first 2 letters or characters
of the WBS code could indicate the overall project or client, the next character could
indicate project phase, followed by performing department, system etc.
You can have Safran Project populate the reference fields for phase, performing
department, system etc. As you enter your WBS Code, by using the Rule Set and Rule
assignment. The Rule assignment allows you to extract or and or concatenate
characters from other codes. Lets say that characters 2-4 of your WBS Code holds the
Project Phase, and character 5 holds Performing department and char.6-7 is system,
you could define the following Rules:
Phase=WBS/2-3/
Dept=WBS/5/
System=WBS/6,7/
As you enter values in to the WBS code field Safran Project Automatically enters the
extracted values into the appropriate code fields.
Now, you may use any of these codes for summaries, grouping, sorting and selecting
throughout the entire application.
NOTE:To set up the Rules in Safran Project you need to define them by their actual
Reference field name and not by their description. Please see the “Rule Set”
chapter for details
Corporate Standardization
When you define your userfield set and reference fields you can decide if these fields
should be editable, and if they should be derived from a standard set or another
corporate table for standard codes. By default the reference fields are editable and are
selected from the Safran “codeset” table and are specific for each userfield set. Each
userfield set is given a unique Id, and it is this Id that is reflected in the database
selection. As a end user you do not need to know the details of this selection, as Safran
does this automatically.
However what you should be aware of, is that this selection may be changed to obtain
standardization across projects and networks. Standardization reduces unnecessary
extra work, fosters uniform reporting and summaries of information, reduces the possi-
bility of disparity, codes are shared and understood across projects, and it facilitates
and eases creation of common codes for network groups.
You can create a set of codes that can be shared by several or all your userfield sets. If
you for example creates a userfield set with Id =1, you can use this as reference for all
other userfield sets that should share identical codes.
In the above example the codes for reference field R1 for userfield set 96 (New) are
selected from the defined codes for reference field one of userfield set 84. These codes
can not be edited from userfield set New (id=96) and to change them you need access
to userfield set 84.
If your company has other registers of regions, departments etc., Safran could
reference to these as well, allowing you to create structures according to data
warehouse strategies. the selection could then be something like:
Select region_id, Region_code,Region_name FROM Corporatadata.region WHERE
Region_code=’N’
To restrict access to columns and tables you could also apply Views and use these in
the selection. Please consult with your IT department for details on corporate data. An
introduction to SQL is included in the appendix section of this book.
C HAPTER
SYMBOL SETS
User defined symbol sets provides you with the ability to customize the barchart view
for presentation and analyzes purposes. The symbol sets holds all your defined symbol-
styles and annotation defined for your plan. You can configure the size, appearance,
format, color, position and other elements of the activity bar. Show one or more bars
for each activity. Include conditional symbols for groups of activity or single activity
annotation. You can use the symbol sets to define a standard set of bars for your project,
and then choose the bars, symbols and text annotation you want to show.
Symbol styles are saved as part of your barchart layout.
By default all networks are linked to a default symbol set. This may be changed at any
time. Safran also lets you specify other defaults to be used for new networks. Please
see the projects and networks chapter and the Safran system administration documen-
tation.
NOTE:You may also edit a symbol set for the current selected network from the
barchart editor by selecting the Symbols option. Using the setup > Symbol sets
option from the main menu, however allows you to browse all defined sets of
symbols for your Safran Project Database.
From this Window you can browse all defined Symbol Sets defined in your database
by moving up and down in the left hand part of the window. The current selected
Symbol Set will be shown with an open folder. Three tabs allows you to enter and
modify definition details, configure symbol attributes and set user access to the symbol
set
The lower part of the details tab shows you a list of networks using the selected symbol
set.
Fields Description
To Add a new Symbol Set Choose new from the edit menu or press the new button
from the sheet toolbar. Alternatively select new from the short- cut menu.
A new line will be added to the list of Symbol sets. Enter the name of your new symbol
set.
Copying a Symbol Set You may copy a existing set of symbols to a new one.
Highlight the symbol set you wish to copy including symbol definitions. Change the
name of the Symbol Set and edit the symbols to match your requirements.
Assigning a Symbol Set to your Network Symbol sets are linked to your network
through the network definition, See chapter 7 for details. Use the Setup>Networks
option to add a symbol set. Safran Project lest you specify the symbolset to be used as
default when creating a new network.
Deleting a Symbol Set Select the Delete option to remove a Symbol Set and its
definition. Safran Project prompts you to confirm deletion of the Symbol Set. To delete
a Symbol set you must be listed as its owner.
Assigning Access Rights to Symbol sets You may assign access rights to both
individuals and groups. Select the access tab.
Update allows users to modify the System set and its symbols
Read restricts users to Read only. No changes to the symbols and users with read only
permission cannot delete the symbol set.
Defining Symbols
From the Symbol sets window you may define a list of individual symbols used to
highlight or show different parts of the schedule, For example a baseline bar, a current
bar, a progress bar or symbols with bars spanning a set of user defined dates.
Select the Symbols Tab to view the defined symbols, edit existing symbols, create new
symbols or remove/delete a symbol.
NOTE:Symbols may also be edited from within the Barchart Editor by selecting the
Symbols option.
The symbol definition windows is tab separated with the 4 tabs; General, Symbol, Text
and Groups. The left part of the window list the defined symbols for this symbolset.
The following attributes and information may be defined in the Symbols-general tab.
Field Description
Automatically Drawn All Activities: The bar and symbol will be visible on all
on activities
The default symbols All symbol sets contains a set of standard predefined symbols
for:
Bar Description
Float Drawn against Early Finish/late Finish and visible for all
bars
General Bar Configurable span, select dates from drop down, bar is
hidden by default, but this may be changed.
The different bars are drawn in a “layered” style starting from the bottom of the list and
working its way upwards. That is, the floatbar will be drawn first, followed by the,
scheduled bar, the late bar and the early bar. The order may be rearranged by moving
a bar/symbol up and down the list. Highlight the bar and select up/down from the short-
cut menu or use the Up/Down symbols from the sheet toolbar.
Adding a new symbol Select the New option from the short-cut menu or from the
Edit menu. A new symbol “untitled” will ba added on top of your symbol list. Rename
the symbol and use the panels to configure symbol attributes.
Deleting a symbol To remove a symbol from your symbol set, highlight the symbol
and select the delete option. Safran Project prompts you to confirm deletion of symbol
style.
The start field holds the name of the field providing the start date for the graphical bar
feature, and the finish fields hold the name of the finish date field for the graphical bar
feature.
Conditional Bars The bar can be shown for all activities (default), no activities or for
a group of selected activities by specifying a filter. To do so; first you have to mark the
Filter Defined radio button, and then select Filter from the short-cut menu or from the
edit menu.
This option allows you to define conditional bars and symbols. Condition may, for
example, be based on float or criticality, selected parts of your project or work break
down structure and many more.
NOTE:Filters can only be applied to a symbol from within the Barchart Editor
The start and finish symbol symbol can be selected from a list of 27 graphical shapes.
The main Bar may be configured by selecting from 5 bar styles, 32 colors, 7 different
hatches (patterns), 32 hatch colors and 32 colors for frame.
Adding to this the bar can be specified with pattern color, frame color and frame style.
Choose line number A symbol may be positioned relative to the activity row by
selecting a line number. Valid positions are 2,1, 0 , -1, - 2.
Specify Bar Position You can specify symbol and bar offset by entering values in the
Y-position and height fields. The y position is relative to the activity line counted from
top of line.
Necked Activity Bar Mark the Neck check box to show rest and non-work time as a
neck in the bar. Rest and non- work time includes holidays and weekends. To restrict
necking you may enter a minimum number of nonworking days before Safran draws a
neck
Showing Data on Bars The text attribute allows you to add free text or include data
items to be displayed together with the activity bar for reference or information. The
text label has three parts, a free text, Activity fields and a free text. Enter your text or
select a field from the drop down, then specify the appearance by choosing color,
character size, and font attributes Bold, Italic or Underline for the text field
Free text and activity fields may be positioned to the left or right of the bar, above or
below the bar or inside the bar. Relative to these positions the text can be aligned by
selecting options from the Adjustment drop down list box.
The Sample lets you preview the bar label position as you make changes. Select the
position that suites your requirements by selecting from the available options.
To specify Summary Bar attributes You may define the look and feel of your
summary bars from the Setup > Symbols option. But to make the summary bars visible
you must select the symbols option within the Bar chart Editor. (Either by right clicking
in the graphical area and selecting symbols from the short-cut menu or by selecting
Tools>Symbols from the main menu). For the group tab to be active, your layout must
be organized or grouped. Then choose the Group tab. Now you can mark the visible
check box and specify properties. The Group type bar shows a continuos bar for each
group. Since the summarized activity may contain periods when no work take place,
the continuos bar may not always represent total duration accurately. By selecting the
detailed bar you can show planned work more correctly as this bar indicate inactive
time by a broken bar. Group bars may also be defined as necked bar or as necked bar
including holidays.
NOTE:The Group tab can only be accessed if you are working within the Bar Chart
Editor, and if Group Properties are defined.
C HAPTER
RULE SETS
Using the Rule Set feature of Safran Project allows you to define automatic field
assignment. A rule set consist of a list of predefined assignments that may come helpful
and save keyboard time when entering new data to your network. A rule set, including
all defined rules, is assigned to your network.
In many cases you want to set a code field or a function field identical to one ore more
characters from the Activity field. These fields may be used for selection, organizing
and grouping data. Instead of using advanced selection criteria, you may instead enter
a straight forward criteria like “Where F1=CL”
‘The rule set allows you to define code logic between the Activity Id’s, the F1-F20
fields and the R1-R30 reference fields and codes.
Both the Rule Sets and the individual rules may be named.
Right click in the left most part of the window to select the Short-cut menu to add or
delete a Rule Set. Right Click in the tab separated part of the window to add a new rule
to the open Rule Set.
Specifying Rules
To specify a new rule, first select the result field from the drop down list box. Available
fields are An, F1-F20 and R1-R30. Then specify the alias calculation on the format:
Result field=f’dname/n1,n2,[n3-n4]/+f’dname+f’dname/n1,n2[n3-n4]/
Where result field is
• any of an, f1-f20 or r1-r30 and
Extracting characters To extract a string from any of the available fields an place the
result in another field the rule should be on the format: Resultfield=f’dname/n1,n2 or
Resultfield=f’dname/N1-N2. Where N1, N2 are integer values indicating the position
of the first and last characters of the string.
Concatenating You may concatenate a selection of fields, extracted characters or
combination up to the maximum length of the field. Use the format Result-
field=f’dname1+f’dname2+f’dname3.
Examples
In this example the string field f10 will be set as character 1,2,7,10,11 and 12 of An +
the entire f1 string field + character no.6 from the string field f2 + characters 8 and 9
from the string field f3.
As you enter or modify data in the An, f1 and f2 fields, Safran Project will automati-
cally update the f10- string field according to the formula and definition above. With a
lot of data and several codes to keep track of this is a valuable feature.
NOTE: Please note that userfield formulas and Assign Fields also lets you extract
and concatenate information from one or more fields.
C HAPTER
GLOBALS- VARIABLES
Safran Project allows you to define a set of variables to be used for your project. In
safran terms these variables are called Globals. These variables are a set of rather
special fields, that act as variables you can use throughout the application.
The definition of globals include type and value. For example you can create a text
global with the value “hello”, or set a date global to 12.10.06.
Select New from the edit menu or from the short cut menu. Enter a descriptive name
for your global set. If you want to give other users access to the global set, select the
Access tab. Choose the Global definition tab to define new globals or, if you have
selected a previously defined global set, to modify and delete previously defined
globals for the Global set you have selected.
Once you select the Global definitions tab, you can view the definition or expression
of previously defined globals.
To define new Globals, select global type and select new from the short-cut or from the
Edit menu.
The Text global can be set to any text or selected from network and project text attri-
butes. There is also the option to set the global as part of these text strings by specifying
a start position and length of the text string.
Date globals can be set equal to a specific date , or you can specify the date global
relative to a set of system dates such as <Today>, <Timenow>, <Cut-off> etc.
The Number global is defined by a decimal or integer number.
C HAPTER
• A project Title
• Cut-off day
During project configuration Safran Project sets up the basic information regarding
each of your projects. A project definition contains a number of input fields that you
may use for identification and reporting. You may add or change these values
throughout your project life cycle.
The project record is primarily used to store historical information from a network,
hold scope configurations, and support the structured status update process.
Although a project can contain multiple networks it can only simultaneously store
historic information from on network. This network is designated the main network.
Field Description
Project Text1- 4 Additional fields for entering project text information. Data
entered into these field may be used in report header and
footers
Field Description
Cut Offs Choose reporting Cut Offs for your project. Reporting peri-
ods may vary from normal calendar week. If you run status
updates on Monday, Choose Sunday for the Cut Offs, If sta-
tus updates are to be run on Fridays, choose Thursday for the
Cut Offs. Safran Project also allows you to run status updates
every day.
Project Logo Project logo to be output on reports. Use the short-cut menu
to add a logo. Adding a project logo saves time when prepar-
ing reports with standard logos as part of the report header.
Client Logo Client logo. To be output on reports. Use the short-cut menu
to add a logo.Adding a client logo saves time when preparing
reports with standard logos as part of the report header.
NOTE: If the main network is changed on an existing project, a search for historical
data (baselines/status updates) is performed. If such historical data is found, the
data can be inked to the new main network. Internally this is done by replacing the
network IDs from the old main network with the new. You must control any special
implications this may have on the project.
Project Scopes The ability to control baseline scope and any changes to scope of
work is a valuable feature to Safran Project. using the Scope Configuration tab you
may set how and when quantities are to be included into the three different scopes;
Baseline, Current and Total. You can also control how changes at the various stages are
to be included.
The scope config tab also lets you specify if progress is to be weighted on baseline
scope, Current scope or total scope.
More details about scope and changes to scope are discussed in chapter 10 - Project
Baseline and in chapter 12 Change Control. The Scope setup is configured with
sensible defaults.
The Budget field indicators for management reserve and undistributed budget records
lest you assign a reference field or a outline code to be used for identification, together
with its value. This can be used to track changes to UB and MR using internal changes.
Access right to your Project Select the access tab to give update or read access to
your project. Access rights are assigned at either individual or group level. Select the
user access or group access tab. Click and drag users from the user list to the user
Access list and select access level from the drop down list box.
Access can be assigned to individual users or user groups.
Entering Contract Information Select the Contract data tab to enter project or
contract information relating to program name, contract name, contractor and client
name and address information and details. Information entered in this pane is shared
with the information entered or viewed in the Contract Performance data window. The
information can be entered, reviewed and updated in either of these windows.
For full details on the information and fields associated with the contract data pane,
please study the Government reporting chapter.
Defining and reviewing update and reporting periods After you have entered the
project span and selected the weekday for Cut-Offs, Safran Project generates the Cut-
Off date table.This table, or list of reporting dates and periods, daily, weekly, monthly
and optional bi-weekly mars are listed on the cut-off dates tab.
The Cut-Off date table is used to control the status update process. You may access the
table in order to modify cut-off dates for bi-weekly and monthly reporting periods. The
data content in this table may be modified, although no records may be added or
deleted.
Select the Cut Off dates tab on the projects window to access the week reference data.
Field Description
Period Start Period start date, display only field, according to specified
weekday for cut-offs
Field Description
Period End Period end date, display only field, according to specified
weekday for cut-offs
Bi-week Cut-Off Marks weeks to be used as biweekly cut- off during periodic
reporting. May be modified.
Prog. Started. Output field. Marked "yes" if progress input has been started
for specific week
Status Run Output field. Marked "yes" if status update has been run for
specific week
History Saved Output field. Updated if users mark the save history check-
box during status update.
Revison set Output field, shows when a Set Revision process have been
run.
Viewing Project Networks Selecting the Networks tab on the project window gives
you the possibility to view all networks associated with your Project. Only one main
project can be assigned to a project, however an unlimited number of networks may be
associated with your project. Networks are categorized in three categories:
• The Main Network - The Network containing the detailed plan used to track and
maintain project work. Limited to one.
• Generated Networks - Networks generated from the main network through level
generation. Please see later in this chapter for details on level generation and level
generated networks.
• Other Networks - Any other network associated with your project. For example Save
As copies of your network.
4 Adding a new network record from the Setup Networks windows and selecting the
new network option.
5 Adding a new network record from the Setup Projects window and selecting the new
network option.
6 Creating a summary level network using the level generation features available in
Safran Project.
7 Establishing a multi-network from one or more single networks.
The File>Import and File Save As options will be discussed in Chapter 14 - Utilities.
Network Defaults
Many firms and organizations have developed standard user field codes, working
calendars, symbol definitions, resource definitions and more. With Safran Project you
can set a default network definition to be used every time you define a new network
record. The defaults are set up by using the Safran SA or Sys. Adm. module and applies
to the selected Safran database. Using this feature you can save time and repetitive
work when you create new networks and you can ensure that corporate definitions are
applied for all your networks.
Details on setting up network defaults is also described in the Safran Project Sys. Adm
Guide.
A screen capture from the Sys. Adm module is included for reference and
completeness on this subject.
After applying standard sets, these will be used whenever you create a new network
record or network definition.
button creates a new network named “untitled”. However, We recommend that you
enter a descriptive name or code in the name field. As this will help you search your
database for the correct network at a later stage.
Fields Description
Derived From If the network is a level generated network the name of the
main network will be listed in the Derived From field
Project Select associated project from the drop down list box if
applicable
Calendar Set Associate a calendar from the drop down list box
Profile Set Associate a profile set for resources from the drop down box.
Userfield Set Associate a set of predefined user fields from the drop down
box
Resource Set Associate the resource set, or resource list to be used with
this network from the drop down list box.
Symbol Set Safran Project by default adds the default symbol set for bar-
chart Annotation. The user may select a user defined or
enterprise wide defined symbol set.
Fields Description
Global Set Add Global definitions to your network. Default is none. See
Setup Global Sets for details on Globals.
Rate Set If you specify complex rates, you can select the appropriate
rate set to be applied. see later in this table for details or study
the rate sets chapter in detail.
Auto Sum Scopes A checkbox to switch on /off the facility for automatic aggre-
gation or summary of the current and total scopes from
resource level to respective fields at activities level. If
switched on, fields are automatically updated if a resource
quantity is altered or added. The check box is only available
if network is associated with a project.
Lock Scope Mark this check box to restrict changes to scope of work to
be entered as variation orders. Normally this check is not set
until the initial baseline has been set. But when your baseline
is set mark this check box.
On Schedule against Use this option to set if On Schedule activities are to be pro-
gressed according to the baseline plan or the Live plan.
The Progress Han- If you mark the The Progress Handling Method check box,
dling Method progress is allowed to drop when importing progress by the
File>import>Progress option. Default is not to allow prog-
ress to drop when you automatically update progress from a
progress import file.
Analyzable Use the Analyzable check box to set the network to analyz-
able or not
Rates Choose rate setup for your network. Simple rates uses con-
stant flat rate for your resources. Complex rates allows you
to use rate escalations and indirects (Overhead 1-4, Cost of
Money and General and Admin). Please see the Resources
and Cost and Rate Set chapters for details.
Setting the Network Analyze options The Analysis Options tab lets you configure
the time analysis options for the network. This function is accessible from several
options throughout the application; Setup Network window, under Options on the main
menu if you are using the Barchart or Network editor, and from the Process Network
Analysis option. Time analysis is a core function in project control, hence the flexi-
bility in accessing the time analysis and time analysis option.
Details on the various options on how these options affects the network time analysis
are detailed in chapter 9 - Calculating the Schedule.
Assigning access rights to your network Access rights to the network are assigned
at individual or group level. Press the Access tab on the New Network screen.
Again use a tab separated window to switch between User Access or Group access.
Access rights for networks are; Exclusive, Update, Test and Read. See Appendix B for
details on User Access and access levels.
Assigning Enterprise Values Enterprise values are used to assign project or contract
information to your network definition. This could be values like Region, Project
priority, Status, Decision gates and more. Enterprise values are defined for all networks
and project in your database. The definition is set up once using the Sys. adm appli-
cation. When you define your network you can use this predefined information to
categorize your network.
Please see the sys adm guide or consult your system manager for more details on Enter-
prise values and Enterprise fields and codes.
Adding schedule Impact analysis sets Using the Schedule Impact tab you can
define and activate analysis date sets for impact and scenario CPM network analysis.
Safran Project supports up to 10 sets of parallel analysis sets.
Press the new button to add a new set. Use the Delete button to remove a set and use
the active tick mark to include or exclude a set from network analysis.
Opening a Network
Before you start working with the Network, adding or modifying network data you
have to select the network you wish to edit. Select Open Networks from the File Menu
It is a tab separated window with one pane for Networks and another pane for your
network groups (Multi-projects, Portfolios or programs). The network pane lets you
view information for each of your networks in the database. You can organize your
network into groups by selecting Enterprise field to be used for building a hierarchy of
3 levels.
At the bottom of the open network screen Safran Project displays some key values for
your network. Key values displayed are based upon Baseline scope and actuals up until
last cut-off.
Both the left “organize networks by” pane and the lower “key values” pane kan be
hidden from view.
The main pane lets you scroll horizontally to view network record data and enterprise
field values. Clicking a field header performs an automatic sort by this field.
At the bottom of the panel you can also press the “new” button to create a new network
and project.
You can filter the networks list to contain only networks created by yourself or show
all networks that you have been given access too.You can use the find box to type inn
network name to search for. You can also select access level for the network; Exclusive,
Update, Read or test. Once a network is selected the network name will be displayed
at the top of the Safran Project Window, and the edit tools such as the Barchart Editor,
The network Editor, Activity Entry Review and more options will be available to you.
NOTE: Please note that the Setup>Networks option also contains an open network
item.
About sub-networks
Your project network may be divided in several sub-networks. A sub-network is a part
of a network possibly sharing a common code value. It may be accessed and worked
on as a separate entity. This philosophy supports both individual network responsibility
and multi-user network development and analysis functionality.
When dealing with larger projects consisting of, multiple project phases, single disci-
pline activities etc., it is often recommendable to divide the project network into
smaller parts.
In addition to controlling multiple sub-networks, Safran Project also allows you to add
logic between sub-projects, as well as giving support for activities belonging to
different sub-projects.
Fields Description
Users may be given access to only one sub network, to a selected set of sub networks
or to all. You may also give different access levels to the different subnetworks.
Press the tab to switch between User access and Group Access.
Removing a Sub-Network To remove a sub-network definition simply press the
delete button, and the highlighted line (sub-network) will be deleted.
The list window displays the network name. The tab separated part contains infor-
mation identical to the one described for creating a new network. The details tab gives
you a few more options to consider:
• Lock scope - mark this check box to force changes to scope of work to be entered as
variation orders.
• On Schedule against - use this option to set if On Schedule activities are to be
progressed according to the baseline plan or the Live plan.
• If you mark the The Progress Handling Method check box, progress is allowed to
drop when importing progress by the File>import>Progress option. Default is not to
allow progress to drop when you automatically update progress from a progress
import file.
• Use the Analyzable check box to set the network to analyzable or not.
• If the network is a level generated network the name of the main network will be
listed in the Derived From field.
You may modify any information in the tab separated window. Some restrictions do
however apply.
• To edit Name or Description you are required to have exclusive or update access to
the network.
• You are not permitted to change the project association if historical data exists. You
may, however, enter a new association if the network has not previously been
associated with a project.
• You are not allowed to change Calendar, Profile set, or Resource set if your network
is in progress. Further to this you must have the proper user access level to do so.
• You my change the User field set, however be aware that this might cause serious
inconsistency between the User fields set and activity information. Safran Project
prompts you to confirm this when you save your changes to he database.
If the main network is altered on an existing project, a search for historical data
(baselines/status updates) is performed. If such historical data is found, the data will be
linked to the new main network. This is done simply by replacing the network IDs of
the old main network with the new. You must control any implications this may have
on the project.
Select New from the edit menu to add a new resulting network to the list.
A Filter option is included to allow users to select a subset of activities to be used for
the level generation.
Field Description
Generated System output value. Shows either the value "No!" or the
date when this network was last generated
Result network Enter the name of the resulting level generated network. The
name is validated for prior existence. If it is already in us as
a normal network, it may not be used. Summary level net-
works will be overwritten, and all existing data will be lost
Group field Select grouping fields from drop down list box. You cam
group activities by as many as 4 fields
Summary Dates If checked all dates will be summarized from the source net-
work
Summary Quantities If checked all quantities will be summarized from the source
network
Summary Descrip- Long descriptions are generated for the summarized activi-
tion ties, based on grouping values
Progress On Select the scope to use as quantity weight factor during prog-
ress calculations in the summary network
The specified level network may now be generated by selecting Edit > Generate from
the main menu or by pressing the Generate icon on the sheet toolbar.
When you generate your level network, Safran Project does the following:
1 Checks if the result network already exists, and if so, asks for permission to
overwrite. All prior data will be lost in this case.
2 All data is summarized with the chosen grouping fields as common denominator. I.e.
all unique combinations of the group fields results in a new activity in the level
network. Schedule dates in the level network activity are set as earliest early start
date found for early start, and latest late finish date set for late finish.
3 If the summary network is generated for the first time, a new record is added to the
network table, so that a new network is added and is made accessible.
When Safran Project generates a new summary level network it is, by default, not
analyzable. You may change this later by pressing Setup > Network on the main menu.
Deleting a summary level network from the database You may delete a summary
level network from the level generation window or from the Setup Networks window
by selecting the Delete option. Safran Project prompts you to confirm deletion.
NOTE: You will, however, not be able to delete a summary level network if it is your
current network. Exit the network in order to delete it.
C HAPTER
ACTIVITY DATA
After adding the project and defining a network with supporting structures such as
resource definitions, codes and calendars, you are ready to start entering activity data;
the descriptions, durations, codes and other details describing the work to be
performed.
Safran Project provides several ways to enter activities; use a spreadsheet method in
the Barchart Editor, enter activities bye interactive click and drag techniques in the
Barchart editor, use the Activity Information form in the Barchart Editor, use the
network editor to examine the network by logic, use the Activity Entry/Review form
to enter and modify information for multiple activities in a spreadsheet type window
or use the Single Activity Entry/Review form to add detailed activity information.
Adding to this you may also create a network or list of activities by importing data from
other sources: Safran Planner, Safran Project, Microsoft Project, Microsoft XL,
Primavera and more. To many this will represent the most common way of establishing
and entering activity data. However tools for manual data entry and review are required
in a Project planning and control application.
Activity ID’s
Each Activity ID in a Safran Project network must be unique. Enter your own ID’s or
use the ID’s provided by Safran Project. You may want to structure your ID’s to reflect
type of work, Codes, References, Sub projects or similar Activity information. Activity
ID’s can consist of up to 50 alphanumeric characters
Safran Project automatically generates Activity ID’s in increments of 10 starting with
00010.
You can change the Activity ID by typing over the Original ID. Safran Project automat-
ically changes the ID everywhere it occurs in the network. For example, if the Activity
is assigned as a successor to another activity, Safran Project changes the ID for the
logic.
You may want to build intelligence into your Activity ID’s by assigning letters,
numbers or codes that reflect areas, system, departments or types of activities and
more. Please see the Rule Sets section for details on setting up intelligent ID’s.
The Barchart Editor provides a “Permanent Renumber” feature that allows you to
define activity Id string and sequence count. Select option from Tools>Permanent
renumbering.
To be able to use this feature it is required that you have exclusive access to the
network. If you group your layout according to the same structure, Safran add/inserts
new activities using the next “count” for activity Id.
You can also identify an activity with a description of up to 255 characters.
Activity Duration
With each activity you also enter a duration (timespan). This is the number of days,
hours or weeks that you estimate it will take to complete the activity. The units used to
express the duration depend on calender type definition of the calendar set assigned
when the network was specified. You can express the activity duration in units larger
than or equal to the calendar duration unit.
The default duration unit is equal to the calendar type. If your calendar type is days,
you can express duration in units of days or weeks. If your calendar type is hours, you
can express your activity duration in units of hours, days or weeks.
The Activity duration may be entered as a number together with duration unit.
Internally Safran Project calculate all duration in the units specified by the Calendar
Set. The number of hours/day and days/week used when calculating are defined when
you create your calendar set.
Activities with a duration of zero (0) are called Milestones. Milestone activities
represent the start or completion of an event, phase or other measurable goal within the
project. A milestone is created by entering a duration of zero (0) for an activity.
The Network Editor has three different view: the Logic View, the Resource View and
the multi Activity View.
To add an activity in the Logic View Select New Activity (Alt+A) from the Edit
menu or from the short cut menu.
To enter activity information, click the appropriate cell, then type the information.
You specify the layout and data that appears in the logic View by selecting Activity
Layout under View on the main menu and choose fields to be included in the view. You
may select a pre-defined layout from the layouts drop down list box or configure new
layouts.
To add a Hammock in the Logic View A hammock is a special type of activity,
measuring the time between to points in the network. A hammock activity is related to
its preceding activities by means of a link record. A hammock has two links, a Start-to
Start and a Finish-to-Finish. These types are assigned automatically when the prede-
cessors are entered. To add a hammock to your network; select New Hammock under
Edit on the main menu.
You can not add durations
for Hammocks. Safran
Project computes the
duration automatically.
NOTE:You will not be able to enter successors for a hammock activity as this option
is disabled.
To add an activity in the Multi Activity View Select the Multi Activity Entry from the
View menu. Then select New Activity (Alt+ A) from the edit menu or from the short-
cut menu.
To add a hammock in the Multi activity View. Select New Hammock from the Edit
menu.
NOTE: The data that appears in the Activity Columns can be specified. Choose
View>colums.
To add an activity in the Barchart Editor.Use Edit> Insert Activity, or press the insert
key to insert a new activity to your schedule. Safran Project adds a new activity above
the current selected activity. Enter a description and duration for the activity, together
with any other relevant activity information in the appropriate cells.
Use Edit>Add Activity, or press Alt+A to add a new activity at the end of the activity
list in the barchart Editor.
Adding a Hammock Use the Add Hammock or Insert Hammock options from the edit
menu to add hammocks to the Barchart Editor. The hammock will be inserted with the
default duration of 0 time units. Its duration will be automatically computed when you
add predecessors for the hammock activities.
To add activity information using the Activity Information view You can add and
modify information about an activity in the Activity Information form located at the
bottom of the screen. Choose View>Information>Activity or ‘Activity Information’
from the short-cut menu. The Activity information view is a tab separated windows
that allows you to enter information. Activity ID, duration, calendar, description, target
dates, progress, userfields and references can be entered using the form. In addition you
can view analyzed dates data information.
Choose the Add or insert Activity option. Safran Project enters an activity Id in Id field.
Move between the tabs to enter activity information
When yo add activities graphically they are positioned using the target start date field.
To Create an Annotation Bar using the mouse Position your mouse pointer on a
row of an existing activity and use the click and drag technique to create the desired
start and finish date for the annotation bar. Annotation bars can be added both in front
of and after the Activity itself. You may also add associated text for the annotation bar.
To add Annotations and Symbols via the Edit menu It is easy and quick to add
Annotation Bars by use of click and drag. However it is also likely that you want to add
other bars and symbols as markings in your schedule. Choose Edit>Annotations to
access the Annotations window. This window allows you to add, modify and view
annotations by specifying Activity Id, choosing a symbol from the drop down list box
specify a start and, or end date and adding text to be displayed. Selecting a symbol in
the symbol drop down box allows you view records that matches the selected symbol.
Having added a new activity in the Network Editor, Safran Project places the new
activity at the bottom of the activity portion in the Barchart Editor. However, please
keep in mind that the Barchart Editor may have been configured to organize activities
by a user defined field or date field such as Early Start. To apply this sort order to the
new activity you would have to select the order option.
If logic is added using the Network Editor, your revised logic will be drawn when focus
is switched to the Barchart Editor.
copying and paste of activities and columns, filter selection, a resource window to add
resources and more. Some of these features will be described in the subsequent
paragraphs.
Adding Activities
Select the Activity Entry/Review option from the tools menu. Format the columns so
they contain the information you want (Edit> Configuration). Then select New
Activity from the short cut menus. This may also be achieved by choosing Edit > New
from the main menu or by pressing CTRL+N.
The New option inserts a new line (activity record) in the window and prepares the
window for entering new data.
Adding activity remarks Safran Project allows you to enter a short note type of infor-
mation to each activity. If remarks have been entered for an activity, this is visualized
by a "paper clip" seen at the left most column of the Activity Entry/Review screen.
To add or modify Activity Remarks, select the Edit > Remarks option from the main
menu or from the short-cut menu.
You can select previously named and stored filter organized by User, Project or All. or
you can specify your own statements to restrict the update to a selected set of activities.
Using the and/Or logical operators allows you to build specific and complex selection
statements.
User specified filters can be saved for later use by selecting Edit>Save Filter, or Edit>
Save Filter As.
When you Press the return with selection button on the toolbar, Safran Project give you
the Activity Entry & Review window with the selected subset of activities.
Specifying Fields to Review and their Order To specify columns to be presented,
choose Edit > Configuration from the main menu or press the configuration button on
the sheet toolbar.
You may specify your own header for all selected columns. Some times it is convenient
to add background colors to both highlight information and improve readability. The
columns will appear in the order you add them in the configuration pane. You can use
drag and drop techniques to move your columns across the activity Entry/review screen
to rearrange this order. You can also interactively resize the column width.
Please refer to the reference documentation for details regarding available fields.
having to include the resource view. A quantity Column will be added to your window.
For mass updates or entry it might be quicker and easier to have the quantity added as
a column to the activities instead of adding the resources sub-window.
NOTE:Use the Save Layout, Save Layout As options from the short-cut menu to
build your own library of predefined configurations.
Reviewing Activity Details Select Edit > Details from the main menu to review the
activity in focus in detail. The detail window provides you with access to all network
fields for the current activity in a tab-sectioned window. When you use the Details
window, all options under Activity Entry/Review, apart from Refresh and Save are
deactivated.
NOTE:The Details window is a separate window and any changes made to it must
be saved to the database. After having done this, a refresh must be run to update
the Activity Entry/Review window with these changes.
The activity Details window may also be invoked by double clicking an activity.
The Preset option Quite often, while doing mass input of data, the same field values
are repeated in a series of records. To save you from having to repeatedly type the same
data again and again, Safran Project lets you preset multiple field values. Select
Options > Define Preset from the main menu or press the preset button on the sheet
toolbar.
You may enter preset values for all fields, including resource fields. Please keep in
mind that the preset values may both be overwritten or added to; i.e. by presetting
Activity ID to "AABBC" you may add an incremental numeric postfix "1-nn" to each
new activity entered. The preset values will be set for all new activities and resources
entered to your network as long as the system is in Preset mode. Preset mode may be
switched off by selecting Preset Mode under Options once more.
Duplicating data When you enter a new record into the network, using the Duplicate
option, all values in each new activity will be duplicated using the values for the last
entered activity. You may modify the duplicated activity to allow for new field values.
Automatic Data Generation If your data follows a certain sequence or your column
data is identical for a range of records, use the fill/increase down functionality to enter
data automatically. Safran Project comes with Excel type Fill and Increase functions.
The Increase Down function works with integer, decimal, date and reference fields.
Position the pointer in the first “cell” of the column and press the left mouse button,
then position the pointer to the last “cell” of the column to be input and press Shift
while clicking the left mouse button again. The range to input/filled will now be
highlighted which can be recognized by the right arrows on the left most portion of the
window. Having done this press the appropriate button on the sheet toolbar. The same
options are also accessible from Edit on the main menu.
If you export data to ACT or TXT files you can choose to export displayed columns or
the entire activity table. Both formats produces tab separated text files. At the top of
the file is the column database names of the selected columns.
The XL export options contains all activity columns, including the activity columns
database names as headings
When importing data from TXT or ACT files. you can import displayed columns,
select columns to import, or import data for all activity columns/fields.
The window itself is tab separated where you may switch between main activity infor-
mation, dates and progress information, user fields and evm data. The userfields tab is
again divided by sub tabs.
Deleting Activities
When you delete an Activity from your schedule Safran Project also removes
associated resources and its relationship to other activities. Both predecessors and
successors. It’s a clean Sweep. You should check the Activity’s predecessor and
successor activities to ensure that they are correctly linked to other activities in the
schedule after you delete an activity.
Canceling activities
During a projects execution, work may be deleted from the total scope of work. This
work may be represented by one or more activities in your network. Activities that
have been included in a Baseline process may not be deleted from the network. Instead,
Safran Project allows you to mark such activities as cancelled. This is done by using
the Edit > Cancel/Uncancel option from the main menu. Cancelled activities receive a
cancelled date designating the date which the activity was cancelled.
Pressing the Preview button will show you how you stringed the new description
together by combining the original Description field plus the text you entered on line
2 (ACME ENGINEERING). Assign Fields is a powerful feature. Be careful, you just
might get what you ask for.
So if you don’t feel comfortable with your expression, press the Preview button to
check the result before executing.
Specify a Selection
Safran Project lets you restrict the data change or update to apply to selected rows only
or to apply only to activities matching a specific selection criteria.
The selected rows option is an easy way to update a range of rows or individual records.
Mark the rows in the Barchart Editor, before selecting the Assign Fields option.
Press the Filter button to make a selection for the field assignment. This allows you to
restrict the update to a selected set of activities fulfilling the selection criteria. Quite
specific/complex expressions may be made by using multiple And/Or logical
operators. The filter can be made by modifying a pre-defined filter from the drop down
list or create a new.
Press the Preview button to view result before executing. The Preview option allows
you to examine the result without affecting your data. If you do not need to review the
data before running the change, Press the execute button.
Saved Setting may be selected the formula drop down box.n. By marking the “include
settings from other users” check box you can select valuable expressions saved by
other users.
C HAPTER
Link Data
The most important field for activity relationships is the type. The type specifies the
relationship between the preceding and the succeeding activity. There are four types of
relationships:
FS - Finish to Start
SS - Start to Start
SF - Start to Finish
FF - Finish to Start
Together with the relationship type you can also add delays, calendar and a split target
date.
Fields Description
Importing Links
Links- activity relationships can be imported in three ways:
1 During Network Import
Links or relationships normally form an important part of a project plan. If you import
a network from a file that contains link information, this will be read as part of the
import network function, unless you choose not to import the logic.
To successfully import links from a text file you should prepare a tab separated file with
the a header line at the top and the link data beneath.
To import link data (activity relationships) into the Links Entry/Review screen, data on
the file should be in the same order as the columns of the data window: Predecessor,
Successor, Type, Delay, Split Target and Calendar. Mandatory columns are Prede-
cessor, Successor and Type. The file should be a tab separated file with either TXT or
CST extension. The file should not have a header row.
You can use this window to add new relationships, change or update link data and
information, delete one or a selected group of links, copy links and export link data to
a tab separated file.
By choosing Edit > Select Links to Review from the main menu, you may specify
selection criteria for links. Safran Project allows you to enter quite detailed selection
criteria from the tab-separated window shown below.
Selection criteria may be entered either by selecting or specifying Link Data criteria or
by specifying a filter for activity predecessors or activity successor data.
To initiate the selection process and fill the data window with data, press the "return
with selection" button on the sheet tool bar.
Adding links.
Adding links may be done by choosing Edit > New from the main menu, or by pressing
CTRL+N.
Deleting links.
Deleting links may be done by highlighting the link in question and choosing Edit >
Delete from the main menu, or by pressing CTRL+D. You can also select a section of
Links and delete all in one go.
NOTE:There is an option to turn the use of default calendar on New links on/off.
Please see the Tools>options Window.
The activities are linked in the same sequence as they appear in the Activity Columns
or in the order you select the activities to be linked.
To link noncontinuous activities select the first activity to be linked. Press CTRL, and
select the next activities to be linked. On the toolbar select the Link Activities button.
To Unlink Activities You can unlink activities in the same way as you link them.
Select a range of activities whose logic you want to remove, then choose Edit>unlink
Safran Project removes all dependencies between the selected activities.
Move this cursor onto the activity you consider to be a successor, and release the mouse
button. Once released Safran Project adds the connection and reschedules the entire
schedule on-the-fly, and draws your new link on screen. Make sure that the links option
is set to visible. As you move your chain cursor Safran Project displays a new link
information message.
Type Select type of link from the drop down list box. Available
types are SS, SF, FS, FF. Default link type is FS.
Split Target Date to impose a start date on any succeeding activity. Over-
rides start dates computed by logic.
EFC/LSC Output field - Computed early finish for preceding link and
late start for succeeding link
TFC - Total Float Output Field - Computed Total Float for the link
Link
Adding Successors Select new Successor from the short-cut menu in the Links
information form. As for the predecessors you may add multiple relationships.
Global Change
Using Assign Link fields Safran Project lets you set, change and update link infor-
mation fields in a single operation. The Assign Link Fields window also allows you to
work with logic records in a spread sheet type window. The Assign Link Field feature
is available from the Barchart Editor
Assigning Link Fields from Outline View From the Barchart Editor, choose Assign
Link Fields from the edit menu. Now you can change information manually or use the
Fill Down feature to change or update values in a single operation.
You may want to apply a activity filter, or you may remove certain rows from the
window before applying the change.
NOTE:Please study the Barchart Editor Chapter for details on Outline view and
Group View
Assigning Link Fields from Group View If you use the Group View feature, Safran
Project, for illustration purposes, allows you to draw logic at group levels instead of
activity level. This may be applied to your entire schedule or to individual relation-
ships. Selecting the Assign Link Fields option, when in Group View therefore provides
two more fields.
For details on how to show logic in the Barchart Editor, please study the Barchart
Editor chapter.
Predecessor or new Successor option from the edit menu or from the short-cut menu.
Safran Project gives you the identical windows as described for assigning logic in the
Barchart Editor’s Link Information View.
Tracing Logic
You can examine any path, a sequence of activities, by moving forward or backward
through the schedule. Move from an activity to its successor, then to that activity’s
successor or move from an activity to its predecessor, then to that activity’s prede-
cessor. You can use either the Barchart Editor or Network Editor to scan through the
network logic, or go directly to a specific activity and display all preceding and
succeeding relationships.
You move from one activity to the next simply by double clicking the activity in the
predecessor or successor window of the Network Editor or the Link Information View
of the Barchart Editor.
Network Paths
The ability to view specific network paths is a unique and powerful Safran Project
function that simplifies navigation through large project networks. You can use this
Filter feature to restrict data on screen or in reports to for example those activities
leading logically from a certain milestone, or leading logically in to a certain activity
or milestone.
To use this feature you select the Fields Presiding path or succeeding path of in the
Filters setup window.
• Predecessors
• Successors
• No of predecessors
• Number of Successors
C HAPTER
SPECIFYING RESOURCE
REQUIREMENTS
When you assign a resource to an activity, you identify who, what and how much of
that resource is required to accomplish the activity. The amount can be required
linearly, profiled over the duration of the activity. An activity can require several
resources and the same resource can be assigned to several activities.
Safran Project offers three options for adding, editing and deleting activity resources.
1 Network Editor in either Resources View or Multi Activity View
In addition to the se data entry tools, Safran also lets you import your resource require-
ments or estimates from tab separated files. See the import/export chapter for details
on the File> Import>Resources/hours option.
The Resource and Histogram Views of the Barchart Editor and Network Editor shows
a graphical presentation of the resource requirement. This histogram or Curve may be
printed directly and used as a quick resource report
Unit Rate If the selected resource is defined as type QTY, the unit rate
field is enabled. The rate defaults to the value specified in the
Resource Definition window, but may be modified by the
user. For Qty-based resources, the Cost field will be calcu-
lated: Cost = Qty * Unit Rate, while the Contact Cost field
will be calculated: Contact Cost = Contact Qty * Unit Rate
Pl. Cost For Qty-based resources, this field disabled for manual mod-
ifications, but is calculated as Cost = Qty * Unit Rate.
Adding Resources
First you select the Network Editor from the Tools menu. Then select the Resource
view from the View menu.
To add a new Resource, select New Resource from either the short-cut menu of from
the Edit Menu. Now you specify the required resource or select a resource from the
drop down list Safran Project provides the code and description that you entered in the
resource set assigned to your network. Enter the quantity of the resource required in
total in the planned qty field.
The graphic window is also interactive. By double-clicking a histogram bar you are
presented with which activities make up the resource load and may then jump directly
to one of these activities. The graphical view may also be printed.
Using the Multi Activity View Resource requirements may also be assigned from the
Multi Activity View of the Network Editor. However this view does not provide a
graphical presentation of resource requirements.
Viewing Selected Resources Use the Filter option on the short cut menu or
Histogram Filter under View on the main menu to set a resource selection criteria. Only
resources matching your criteria will be displayed in the resource histogram.
Print the Resource Loading You may print the resource histogram for the current
activity by selecting Print from the short cut menu. Safran Project also supports print
review. Select Print Preview instead of Print. From the Print Preview mode you can
save a picture of your resource loading report by selecting the Save As option.
Available formats are: Adobe PDF,(*.pdf) JPEG file format(*.jpg), TIFF, Windows
Bitmap(*.BMP) Enhanced Metafile (EMF), Windows metafile (WMF),
You may also use the send report option and attach the report as a Safran Project File
to an e-mail.
The functionality and fields displayed in the Histogram View are identical to the
Resource View of the Network Editor. Please refer to this section for details regarding
the use of the Histogram View.
The Histogram View is synchronized with the Barchart. You will notice that as you
move an activity in the bar area, changing its start and end dates or it duration, the
Resource loading histogram changes as well.
Double clicking a periodic bar gives you a list of activities building the resource
requirements for that period. From this view you can go directly to one of the activities
by double clicking the activity or using the go to option.
If resource availability has been defined you will also get a overload/underload value
computed for that period.
You should note that Safran automatically updates the histogram when you add
resources, change activity duration, change calendar on an activity or resource or any
other updates or modification that results in new dates and new resource summary. This
is a strong feature that lets you use the Barchart end network editor to perform semi-
manual resource scheduling. It is always your last update that causes the effect that you
see instantly on your screen.
Unit Rate If the selected resource is defined as type QTY, the Unit Rate
field is enabled. The rate defaults to the value specified in the
Resource Definition window, but may be modified by the
user. For Qty-based resources, the Cost field will be calcu-
lated as Cost = Qty * Unit Rate, while the Contact Cost field
will be calculated as Contact Cost = Contact Qty * Unit Rate
Pl. Cost For Qty-based resources, this field is disabled for manual
modification, but is calculated as
Cost = Qty * Unit Rate.
Contr. Cost For Qty-based resources, this field is disabled for manual
modification, but is calculated as
Contact Cost = Contact Qty * Unit Rate.
The quantity field is added to the list of selected fields, and the resource record is
updated directly.
When you add a default
resource to be used the
quantity field is added to
your column list, and
Safran adds a resource
record for the selected
activity with the default
resource type. This feature
helps speed up data entry
If “lock scope” is set for your project, all additional resource requirements must be
added as changes. This gives you a traceable history over scope development from
baseline through to completion.
If the resource requirement are included in a baseline it can not be deleted or edited. To
make changes to the resource requirements, you will have to adjust budget quantity by
adding a variation order. Please see the “Project Baseline” and “Change Control”
chapters for details.
C HAPTER
layouts this gives you complete control over the Barchart Editor reporting tool. The
Barchart Editor Layouts and the layouts for the customizable Editor Histogram may be
included in the Report Package tool.
The Barchart Editor may also be used to update Actual Progress and Expenditure.
Please see the “Utilities” Chapter - log on preferences and the “Reporting Actuals and
Measuring Completed Work” Chapter for details.
When studying this chapter you should also look to the “Working with Logic” and
“Specifying Resource requirements” chapter for details on adding logic and relations
For details on the histogram view and its features you should also study the “Custom-
izing and Printing Barchart Editor Histograms and S-Curves” chapter.
Alternatively, choose Barchart Editor under Tools from the main menu.
The Barchart Editor Work space contains a menu bar, toolbar, sheet bar, short-cut
menus, layout options, a columns or table area, a gantt area, four different information
panes and two Barchart Editor Views.
The four information panes allows you to view, enter and update detailed activity infor-
mation, link information, resources with a graphical display and define a histogram
display or report. Use the Information options from the View menu, or select any of the
information panes from the short- cut menu.
Depending on your license a fifth pane- Schedule Risk may be available.
The Activity Information, The Link Information, Resources and histogram panes
allows you to review detailed activity and network information in subsidiary windows.
Once a subsidiary window is displayed the information shown is synchronized with the
activity selected in the barchart. The subsidiary windows may be used, not only to
display data, but as a means of updating or adding information. This style of operation
means that a user wishing to query network data need only select the appropriate infor-
mation pane, select the windows containing the required data and 'browse' through the
plan by pointing and clicking on the relevant activities.
The detailed information pane selected with your barchart Editor view is part of your
layout, and layouts may be saved with a unique name and later be used again. Please
see later in this chapter for more details on the Barchart Editor layouts. The detailed
panes are not part of the barchart Editor preview and printout, but both the resource
pane and histogram pane allows you to configure and preview and print histograms on
its own, the Histogram Pane even lets you save its own layouts as reports.
Choosing a View
The two views available for the Barchart editor is the Group View and the Outline
view. The two views share most of the functionality available for the Barchart Editor.
However, they differ in two areas: how the schedule is organized and how logic can be
added and displayed.
Using the Group View In Safran you can organize and group activities by common
code. Grouping enables you to focus on activities that have something in common. The
activities within each group are organized into clusters. Organizing activities is useful
while you are creating the project, as well as later for project analysis and reporting.
By changing the way activities are grouped and sorted, you can focus on different but
equally important aspects of a project.
Using the outline view you can build a non coded hierarchy into your schedule. An
outline subdivides your schedule into increasingly smaller amounts of work. The
groups of work segments can represent phases in a project, rooms within a building, or
specific buildings in a large construction site. When you outline a schedule the barchart
schedule becomes easier to read, and you can locate individual activities quicker.
An outline looks similar to Activity Grouping because its hierarchical. However,
unlike grouping no codes are associated with titles or descriptions. Also, you don’t
specifically assign outline codes to activities in an outline.
Analyzed Time analysis result data- output fields only. can not be
edited or modified
Reference User Field data: displays defined Reference fields for this
network.
Text User Field data: displays defined text fields for this network.
Date User Field data: displays defined date fields for this network.
Flag User Field data: displays defined Flag fields for this network.
Number User Field data: displays defined integer fields for this net-
work.
Decimal User Field data: displays defined Decimal fields for this net-
work.
Duration User Field data: displays defined Duration fields for this net-
work.
Outline Codes User Field data: displays defined Outline codes for this net-
work.
Computed User Field data: displays defined computed fields for this
network.
EVM Use this tab to enter Earned Value method for measuring
completed work.
Alternative sched- If you have defined alternative schedule sets for your net-
ules work you can edit calendar, duration and existence options
for each set and view start, finish and float data for the activ-
ity.
If you do not define alternative schedules this tab is not
shown.
The following is a list of fields available for input from the general, Target and
Progress tabs. To enter data into a field, click on the field (or use <tab> to move
between fields) and type in your data.
Analysis Existence You can specify non existence option for the main analyses
Option set
Activity Duration You can mark the activity to have its duration set to the avail-
Fit able time without delaying its successor
Minimum Duration If you specify a activity Fit, you can also set a minimum
duration to be used.
Actual Start Activity time progress field. Identifies the actual start date
for activity
Actual Finish Activity time progress field. Date identifying actual comple-
tion (100%) of activity.
Target Start Early Time constraint. Date to impose earliest start date for activity
Target Start Late Time constraint. Date to impose earliest (late) start date for
activity
Target Complete Time constraint. Date to impose latest completion date for
Early activity
Target Complete Time constraint. Date to impose latest completion (late) date
Late for activity
Fixed Start Activity must start on date. Overrides all other targets
Fixed Finish Activity must finish on date. Overrides all other targets
As Late As Possible use this check mark to delay the activity by its free float
The fields on the Analysed tab is for viewing only. The fields for the next 7 tabs depend
on your user field definitions. The EVM methods available on the EVM tab is
described in the Performance Measurement and Earned Value chapter. The Alternative
schedule tab lets you update an view analysed data for the schedule sets defined for
your network.
Link Information Safran Project can also present predecessor and successor infor-
mation along with the Gantt view. By double clicking one of the predecessor or
successor links a Go to operation is performed. Keep in mind that the requested activity
must be included in selection criteria if this is used. See the section discussing filters
for details on how to select activities.
Type Select type of link from the drop down list box. Available
types are SS, SF, FS, FF. Default link type is FS.
Split Target Date to impose a start date on any succeeding activity. Over-
rides start dates computed by logic.
EFC/LSC Output field - Computed early finish for preceding link and
late start for succeeding link
TFC - Total Float Output Field - Computed Total Float for the link
Link
NOTE: Select the Bar Chart Editor Options window (Tools>Options) to check if the
“Use default calendar on new links” has been marked.
Resources Displays a two paned window with resource records for the selected
activity in the left part together with a configurable resource histogram in the right part.
The resource histogram dynamically displays the current resource requirements
loading. The histogram may be configured to show the entire schedule span, a shorter
span by adding user defined dates, or for a single activity only. You can apply a filter
and select to display, quantities, cost or manpower
NOTE: A description of the features and functionality of the Resource pane can be
found in the “Specifying Resource Requirements” chapter and in the Network Editor
Chapter
Unit Rate If the selected resource is defined as type QTY - related, the
Unit Rate field is enabled. The rate defaults to the value speci-
fied in the resource definition window, although this may be
modified by the user. For Qty-based resources, the Cost field
will be calculated as: Cost = Qty * Unit Rate, while the Con-
tract Cost field will be calculated as: Contract Cost = Contract
Qty * Unit Rate. For Cost-based resources this field is disabled.
Pl. Cost For Qty-based resources, this field is disabled for manual mod-
ifications, but is calculated as Cost = Qty * Unit Rate. For Cost-
based resources this field may be altered.
Delay Time Delay indicating that the selected resource is not required
from start of activity, but will be delayed by the number of days
entered. The 'Delay' may not exceed the 'Activity Duration'.
Histogram graphs also lets you create curves and bars for other numerical values than
Quantity or Cost. This allows you to create histograms and curves from user defined
data.
Details on how to configure and customize the Barchart Editor Histogram can be found
in the “Customizing and Printing Barchart Editor Histograms and S-Curves” chapter.
The Schedule Risk Pane. The Schedule Risk pane brings Schedule Risk analysis and
Monte Carlo simulation to the planning tool. The pane is divided into to part s; at the
left an input form for three point estimates and output of simulation data, and to the
right safran displays visual graphics such as distribution Histogram and tornado charts.
For details on the full features of the Schedule Risk Analysis, we refer you to the
Schedule Risk Analysis chapter.
NOTE: Depending on your license the Schedule Risk Analysis pane and functions
may not be available. If so check with your system manager.
There are a number of ways to add an activity using the Barchart Editor. You can either
use the Add Activity Option on the Edit menu, the short cut-menu displayed by a click
with the right mouse button, the Insert option or the insert key on your keyboard, or
add activities graphically in the bar area. Alternatively use the Alt+A short cut to add
activities at the end of your list.
You can also change Activity Id’s, description and other activity information within
the Activity Columns. In the Bar area you can graphically move activities along the
time scale axis, or change activity duration. For editing Activity Information you may
also use the Activity Information View.
When you add or Insert Activities within the Activity Columns, Safran Project adds
activities with a default duration of 10 days. However the default values may be
changed by selecting Tools> Options from the main menu.
NOTE: Safran Project supports duration of mixed units within the same network.
Units may be entered as a number together with an abbreviation. For example 12d
meaning 12 days or 12w meaning 12 weeks.
Each Activity ID in a Safran Project schedule must be unique. Enter your own activity
ID’s or use the ID’s created by Safran Project. You may want to structure the activity
ID’s to reflect some intelligent coding, such as type of work, project codes, discipline,
department, cost center or others. Activity ID’s can consist of up to 20 alphanumeric
characters.
NOTE: Please see the Rule Sets chapter for information on how to automatically
link Activity ID with reference data and codes.
Fields Description
Default Target Start You can add a default target start date for all new activities;
either to days date (read from the computer) or Timenow.
Default value is None
Default Calendar Choose the calendar to be automatically added for new activ-
ities.
Default Qty You can specify a default resource type to be added when
Resource you add new resources of type Qty
Default Cost You can specify a default resource type to be added when
Resource you add new resources of type Cost
Default Change You can specify a default Change Order to be used for new
Order resource requirements.
Default Date format Set the default date format to be used in date columns
Default Annotation Select the symbol to be used as your default annotation sym-
symbols bol.
Default Field For- The path to your folder containing the default field format
mats in definitions.
Table and Gantt You can set default background color for both he Data area
Back ground Color (columns) and the Gantt area individually. Only Display.
These color settings are not part of the layout or print Pre-
view.
Fields Description
Use Default Calen- By marking this checkbox Safran Project adds the default
dar on New Links Calendar to all new links. As some users may not want
default calendar on Links, you have the option to set this.
Pointer Date Visible If this checkbox is marked the pointer date note shows in the
lower right corner of the gantt area when you add or modify
activities interactively.
Expanded Row Mark this checkbox if you want your rows to be displayed
height with a expanded row height. This option does not affect the
printed output. To adjust the row height for printed outputs
you will need to adjust the Table row height value on the
page setup pane.
Tell about necessary If you mark this check box Safran will give a warning if edit-
regrouping when ing or modifying a value results in value change of the field
group fields have specified for one of the group levels.
formulas
Warning when If marking this check box Safran will give you a warning if
change on an outline you change a outline value so that the activity “moves” to
code requires re- another node in your group structure.
grouping
Prompt for save lay- When checked Safran sat you to save changes to your net-
out changes work when you change layout, Saves data, or closes the net-
work.
Highlight active Check to highlight the selected row with specified color to be
Row drawn across the column and gantt areas.
Preceding links If you have selected the Highlight active row options, you
color can also display the preceding links by a specific, user
selected color. Note that this only applies to the Bar chart
editor workspace.
Succeeding links If you have selected the Highlight active row options, you
color can also display the succeeding links a specific, user
selected color. Note that this only applies to the Bar chart
editor workspace
Values entered for Default Duration, Default Calendar and Default Target Start will
also be applied to the Network Editor. Changing these defaults from the Network
Editor options window will again apply to the Barchart Editor.
To access the field format pane, choose the Default Field Formats option from the tools
menu. This is a tab separated window organized by field or column type. The values
you enter into this pane will be applied whenever you add or insert the column into
your barchart editor. For special purposes you may want to overwrite these defaults in
your layout.
NOTE: The default values are user preferences. They are not a part of the network
definitions. Different users working on the same plan may therefor set different
default values.
NOTE: The data that appears in the Activity Columns can be specified. Choose
View>Colums.
To Insert a new activity in the Bar Chart View Choose Edit> Insert Activity to insert
a new activity to your schedule. Safran Project adds a new activity with a default
duration above the current selected activity. Safran Project automatically assigns the
Activity ID and places the activity at the Timenow (defaults to today’s date when you
create a new schedule). Enter a description and duration for the activity, together with
any other relevant activity information in the appropriate cells.
The Edit>Add Activity feature adds a new activity at the end of the activity list in the
barchart Editor. You may also use the Alt+A keyboard short cut to add activities.
To add activity information using the Activity Information view You can add and
modify information about an activity in the Activity Information form located at the
bottom of the screen. Choose View>Information>Activity or ‘Activity Information’
from the short-cut menu. The Activity information view is a tab separated windows
that allows you to enter information. Activity ID, duration, calendar, description, target
dates, progress, userfields and references can be entered using the form, as well as view
analyzed dates data information.
When yo add activities graphically they are positioned using the target start date field.
Press the left mouse button and drag the end of the bar to the date you want, then release
the mouse button. The Date Note displays the revised duration, early start and the new
finish date as you stretch or shrink the bar.The early finish and duration fields also
change in the Activity Columns when you finish dragging.
You can drag the start of the activity in the same fashion, and Safran Project recalcu-
lates the duration and early start date.
Deleting Activities
When you delete an Activity from your schedule Safran Project also removes
associated resources and its relationship to other activities. Both predecessors and
successors. It’s a clean Sweep. You should check the Activity’s predecessor and
successor activities to ensure that they are correctly linked to other activities in the
schedule after you delete an activity.
NOTE: In many cases the activity needs to be retained in your schedule due to
requirements for tracking the project history. You may therefor use the cancel
activity feature instead.
Including Resource Requirements The Paste Special option allows you to specify
that the resource requirements should be copied as well. First mark the Activity or a
selection of activities, Then from the Short Cut menu choose Copy. To Paste activities
and their requirements select the Paste Special option and mark the Include Resources
checkbox.
NOTE: The Include Resources option is not available if the Lock Scope checkbox
is marked. See Setup>Networks.
The PASTE SPECIAL option Use the paste special to include activity relationships
when you copy activities. You can include all predecessors, successors and all internal
logic within a group when you copy more than a single activity. Before pasting you
may also modify the relationship data. Press the Links button to view selected links.
Note that Find also searches the group levels in the barchart editor. This means that you
can use the Find function to jump to a certain group in your schedule.
Use the Replace button to replace values one row at the time. Use the Replace All
option to replace all occurrences of the specified value. The Find Next option allows
you to jump to the next occurrence of the specified value and view the data before
replacing it, or moving to next occurrence by pressing the find next button again. The
Direction drop down allows you to specify search direction. Default value is
downwards.
NOTE: The Replace function can only be used for string columns. If you want to
change other field types use Assign Fields.
Quick Search - Go to
You can use the Edit>Go to option dialog box (CTRL+G) as a quick search by activity
ID.
Position your cursor at the cell containing the content to be repeated. Then select the
numbers of rows you want this value to be repeated for, by pressing the Shift key and
pressing the left button on your mouse anywhere on the last row. Now select the
Edit>Fill Down option or press CTRL+D.
The activities are linked in the same sequence as they appear in the Activity Columns
or in the order you select the activities to be linked.
To link noncontinuous activities select the first activity to be linked. Press CTRL, and
select activities in the order they are to be linked. Then press the Link Activities button
on the toolbar
Creating One-to-One Connections With the Mouse In Safran Project you can create
a one-to-one connection or link between two activities, using on-the-fly facilities of the
left mouse button in the graphics area of the Barchart Editor. This facility creates a link
of Finish to Start (FS) relationship.
To draw the link, place your cursor on the predecessor activity and press down the left
mouse button. This will display the small two-headed arrow. Now, drag the cursor
towards the succeeding activity, the cursor now changes its shape into a chain with a
elastic band.
Move this cursor onto the activity you consider to be a successor, and release the mouse
button. Once released Safran Planner reschedules the entire schedule on-the-fly, and
draws your new link on screen. Make sure that the links option is set to visible. As you
move your chain cursor Safran Planner displays a new link information message.
Linking one-to-many and many-to-one If you want to link a singe activity to a group
of successors do as follows:
first select the group of activities in the columns area. If it is an entire group click the
first activity row, then press down Shift and click the last row of the group to select. If
it is several individual activities; hold down the Ctrl key as you select them with your
mouse one by one,
Then put your cursor on the bar of the from activity and drag it across to one of the
activities in the Group. Safran will then ask if you want to make al selected activities
as successor for the activity.
To link many to one activity; drag the cursor from one activity in the selected group to
the succeeding activity. Safran will then ask if you want to make all selected activities
as predecessors to the activity.
To Unlink Activities select a range of activities, then select Edit>Unlink to remove all
dependencies.
Modifying links By double clicking on a link, Safran Project opens a window that
allows you to update logic information. When using this window you may modify or
even add new links or delete existing links by clicking on the appropriate button.
Using the Assign Link Fields function Select the Assign Link fields function to
globally change link fields for all or for a selected set of activities. This feature allows
you to apply changes or modifications through a singe operation.
NOTE: Please see the Working with Logic chapter for details on Assign Link Fields
and also for details on various types of links.
Moving activities in time By placing the pointer over the center of the early bar and
pressing the left mouse button, an activity may be moved forwards or backwards in
time. Depending on the surrounding network logic, Safran Project presents a list of
potential permissible actions to be carried out as a result of moving the activity. You
must then choose the appropriate interpretation of this change.
Rearranging - moving an activity to a new row You can use the mouse to drag an
activity to another row in the barchart editor. Relationships remain intact.
Point to the left of the first Activity Column. Safran Project now highlights the entire
row. Drag the mouse up or down through the Activity Columns until you reach the row
where you want to move the activity, then release the mouse.
You can also move several activities at once by selecting the activities you want to
move then dragging them to the new location.
Moving activities between summary groups If you are working with a summarized
layout, moving activities between summary groups provides an easy way to modify
activity data because Safran Project automatically reassigns the group or summary
field values.
Please see the Activity Data chapter for details on the Assign Fields function.
To Create an Annotation Bar using the mouse Position your mouse pointer on a
row of an existing activity and use the click and drag technique to create the desired
start and finish date for the annotation bar. Annotation bars can be added both in front
of and after the Activity itself. You may also add associated text for the annotation bar.
To Remove Annotation Bars position the mouse pointer over the annotation bar,
then press the right mouse button and select the delete option.
To edit the Annotation Bar Properties Position your mouse pointer on any of the
Annotation bars to edit it, and press the right mouse button and select the Properties
button.This is a tab separated window. selecting the general tab can change the symbol
for the selected annotation, modify the start and end date and add text to be displayed
at the right of the annotation. The Symbol tab lets you detail a specific symbol fort the
selected bar with color, pattern frame, frame style, size etc. The special features of this
symbol can later be reset by using the Reset symbol option.
To add Annotations and Symbols via the Edit menu It is easy and quick to add
Annotation Bars by use of click and drag. However it is also likely that you want to add
other bars and symbols as markings in your schedule. Choose Edit>Annotations to
access the Annotations window. This window allows you to add, modify and view
annotations by specifying Activity Id, choosing a symbol from the drop down list box
specify a start and, or end date and adding text to be displayed. Selecting a symbol in
the symbol drop down box allows you view records that matches the selected symbol.
Field Description
Symbol Select a symbol from the drop down list box to be drawn
for the activity annotation
Symbol Filter To select symbol type to view. This provides you with a
filter to view Activity annotation by Symbol type.
Selecting “blank” shows all activity annotations.
Safran Project supports both Ctrl+ scroll to zoom in and out and zoom steps by pressing
the magnifying glass at the bottom of the pane, or selecting zoom steps from the menu.
Holding down the shift button while clicking on the magnifying glass zooms out.
Another feature that can also help readability when you present using project is the
ability to set display only columns to use standard text color.
You use the short-cut menu in the columns area and select the Show disabled
Rows/columns as Enabled
Option Description
Paste Pastes data from clipboard into selected columns. See further
details below
Paste Special Pastes entire activity record. Links may be included. See fur-
ther details below
Option Description
Fill Down Allows you to populate entire column with identical infor-
mation
Assign Link Fields Allows you to define global update and change to link infor-
mation
Schedule Juggler Allows you to set data from and between alternative analysis
sets and standard activity data.
Insert Page Break Allows you to set a page break for printed output
Fonts Set font, color, font attributes for Activity columns rows and
headings
The Undo Menu Option The Undo option is to reverse the last editing change or
typing action made, with only one level of undo. Therefore only the last action can be
reversed up until the network is saved. Saving the network will clear the Undo. The
following actions can be reversed by selecting Undo:
Option Description
Group View Use this view to organize and structure your schedule
according to common data.
Timenow To include a timenow date line and specify color and line
style
Non Working Peri- To include shading for rest periods and holidays
ods
Links To hide or show relationships and specify color and line style
Best Fit Time line Adjusts the span in report preview to match network
start/finish
Option Description
Availabilities Calls an editor for resource availability. You can for high-
lighting purposes also define values for defined R-fields and
outline codes.
Government Report- Use this option to add Contract Performance data, to View
ing the Threshold an Variance analyses and to produce the gov-
ernment reports such as CPR1-5, OMB 300, NASA 533M.
Database Queries Calls the database queries window. Allows you to write SQL
commands. Be careful, SQL is powerful and you may get
what you ask about.
Permanent Renum- Allows you to set and update activities with a coded activity
bering string
Indent Activity Available only in outline view this features creates summa-
ries and indents selected activity to a lower level activity
Outdent Activity Available only in outline view this features outdent selected
activity to a higher level activity
Group Properties Define Barchart Editor group levels. If you are working in
Outline mode the option reads Summary Properties.
Analysis Options Calls dialog box for network analysis options. See Network
Analysis for details
Network Summary Displays summary information for current network. See Net-
work Analysis for details.
Timer Setup Enables the user to set an interval for automatic save to data-
base, in addition to update of analyze status
Option Description
Options This window allows you to set default values for your Bar-
chart Editor.
Default Field For- The Default Field format window allows you to set default
mats formatting; Color, Background color, alignment, separators
etc. to be used when included as columns in the editor
Convert to Outline Converts the group structure to an outline structure for the
View outline View
User Option Option that allows customer to add user specific code
The most commonly accessed and relevant menu items are also available on the short-
cut menu, or from the sheet toolbar.
As you become more familiar with the Barchart Editor, one increasingly appreciates
the functionality of the various short cut menus that provide easy access to the options,
features and functions of the editor.
Layouts
One of the features of Safran Project that you will learn to appreciate is the level of
customizing and flexibility making it possible to adapt to company wide standards or
even personal style of management and presentation layouts.
Whereas the Basic default view is perfect for many of the Safran Project users - with a
simple and uncluttered Barchart containing the most basic information needed, you
might prefer to have more information displayed and more symbols and attributes
added to your barchart.
Safran Project lets you customize and to store a unlimited number of layouts. Each
layout stores a variety of color, symbol, fields selection, sort, summary and formatting
preferences. Customizable layouts offer you complete control over the appearance of
on screen displays and the printed output.
NOTE: There is always a layout in control of the display. When you change
formatting of any kind, you are changing the current layout.
To Create a New Layout Choose View>Layouts, or press the Layout icon on the
toolbar. The default listing will contain your own layouts. You can choose to view
layouts by all users, Project users, networks users and report groups. You can also use
the Layout selection feature to narrow the selection list by adding a text filter on the
layout name.
.
Select the New option, enter a unique name for your layout, Press Ok, then select this
layout. Now you can start customizing the Layout by selecting activity Columns,
setting colors for symbols, creating new symbols, defining summaries, setting sort
criteria and edit the appearance of the bar area. The New option lets you start with a
layout identical to the initial default layout or from a selected layout.
Any changes to the activity columns or the presentation in the Bar area will be saved
to the then current selected layout. This also applies to the default layout.
To Save a copy of a Layout Use the Save As option to make a copy of an existing
Layout. Select an existing Layout from the menu, then select the Save as option and
enter a name for the new layout.
An unlimited number of layouts may be created and saved so that you can create a
library of layouts and apply them as required.
Opening and using a Layout Use the quick access to layouts on the toolbar menu.
Select a layout from the drop down and Safran Project redraws your screen. Changing
between layouts is a powerful tool when you want to see your project from different
perspectives, pinpointing or highlighting specific areas.
If you want to use a layout specified by another user Choose>View Layouts and select
one of the options available for Choose Layouts from; All Users or project users.
You are not allowed to save changes to other users layouts or delete any of these.
To Rename a Layout Use the rename button to give your layout a new name
To Delete a Layout Choose View>Layout> Select the layout from the drop down list
of available layouts and press the delete button to delete and press OK to confirm
deletion.
To Overwrite the <Default> Layout Using the overwrite <DEFAULT> option
allows you to overwrite the default layout with your current display setting. Initially
the default layout only contains a few setting. However, this may have changed
following later changes and custom-tailoring of your Barchart Editor.
Add Comments to a layout as layouts can be used in reports, report packages and be
executed from the SAfran Web Access (SWA) client you may want to add comments
or a description to the layouts. When using the SWA clients the comments are
displayed as description for the layouts.
Set Layout Attributes You can use the Quick Set features of the layout window to set
attributes from the open layout to al layout selected in the Layot window. If you do not
want the Quick set to update all you layout you should first select the layouts by using
the quick filter, and then pressing the Quick set button to specify attributes to be set.
The default fields format window is a tab separated window organized by field or
column type. The values you enter into this pane will be applied whenever you add or
insert the column into your barchart editor. For special purposes you may want to
overwrite these defaults in your layout.
NOTE: The default values are user preferences. They are not a part of the network
definitions. Different users working on the same plan may therefor set different
default values.
Selecting Information for the Tabular Columns Use the Columns option under
View on the main menu to specify activity fields to be displayed in the tabular columns.
Press the new button to add a new field to the columns area, specify your own columns
header, choose alignment, set column width if other than default values are to be used,
and specify field to be indented if the barchart is organized by summary groups. The
left to right order of columns can be changed by using the move up or move down
buttons Remove columns by first selecting a column and then pressing the delete
button. The order of columns presented, left to right, is the same as their order in the
list, top to bottom. You may also specify color for column text and background color
to highlight columns of special interest.
When arranging the Tabular area of the Barchart Editor, options are available from a
short cut menu. The menu is called by positioning the cursor in the heading area in the
Tabular columns and click the right mouse button. The following options are available:
Align Column To specify the column data placement. Options are Left, Center or
Right. The align column option adjusts both the column heading and column data
content.
Insert Column The Insert Column option inserts a new column to the left of the
column pointed at in the header area. The data field to be inserted is selected from a
drop down list box, and the column properties can be specified such as header, color,
background color, alignment and column width. By choosing the Best Fit option, the
column width will be sized to fit the maximum number of characters entered for the
data field selected.
Hide Column To remove a column from the Tabular area. Select the column by
clicking the columns header and then select the Hide columns option from the short-
cut menu.
Properties To specify column properties for a single column, such as header,
alignment, colors, column width or a Best Fit option.The features available in this
window depend on the type of filed you are setting the properties for.
Date Format If you select a date field and you can set date format to be used. This
could be the default date format that you specified in the options pane (see
Tools>Options) or any of the formats in the drop down list.
To rearrange columns using the mouse You can also use drag and drop in the
tabular area to rearrange field or column order of the selected fields. Position the cursor
in the field header and press the left mouse button to select the column and drag the
column to its new position.
Resizing columns using the mouse Point to the vertical line on the right side of the
column header. When the pointer changes to a double arrow, drag the line to the left or
right to adjust the width. You can hide a column by dragging the vertical line all the
way to the left, which sets the width to zero. To show the column again, choose
Columns and change the width.
To size a column to fit the widest column data entered, point to the vertical line at the
right side of the column and double click with the left mouse button.
Choosing font and color Choose Edit>Fonts to change color and fonts for table rows
and column headers.
Select font names and colors from the drop down list boxes, and press the font attri-
butes buttons to specify bold, italic and underline.
NOTE: Attributes selected for the headings also applies to the time line.
Conditional Coloring and formatting of rows. Using the Table Rows deviation
feature, you can specify special font and coloring to highlight activities by conditions.
Use the Filters button to specify condition for conditional character and color
formatting.
Font properties for Groups If you are using a summarized Layout, i.e. Group
properties are defined, you may also define colors and fonts for the summary rows
/group levels. You may add background color to Summary Rows or Groups to separate
group information from activity rows and enhance the output from the Barchart Editor
When you specify Group properties, Tools>Group Properties, you can also specify a
line style and the line thickness as final line for the summarized group.
This example show the
effect on background color
on selected columns, The
use of back ground color
on header area, and group
rows in addition to
conditional row format
applied by using a filter
and select statement
To adjust the Timeline scale, choose View >Timeline or point at the timeline and press
the right mouse button to access the short-cut menu.
Control the total time span of the barchart view by specifying start and end dates. You
use the entries for line 1 through to three to specify visibility, units and label for the
calendar lines and marks for timeline units.
The overview option sets the timespan for the barchart editor view to fit with your
project. Please keep in mind however that choosing the "Overview" option also
switches off the barchart's interactivity; i.e. you will not be able to modify activity
duration or start/end dates graphically on screen.
The best fit option sets the calendar line for your output to fit with the total span for
your project. It is a useful feature when you want to adjust the output according to the
actual amount of time spanned by your schedule
Showing Timenow Safran Project allows you to add a Timenow dateline to your
barchart view. To specify color and line style etc., use the Timenow option under View
from the main menu, or from short cut menu in bar area.
Formatting Grid Lines Grid lines are vertical and horizontal lines that improves
readability of your Bar Chart. Vertical Grid lines may be displayed for year, month,
week and days. Horizontal grid lines are drawn across the barchart to separate each
row.
To specify grid lines, use the Grid option under View from the main menu, or from
short cut menu in bar area.
Safran Project also lets you add user defined datelines to be drawn as vertical lines
across the barchart. From the Grid window choose the others tab and specify a date, the
text label and choose color, line style and line thickness.
You may even want to draw vertical grid lines from any date field from specific activ-
ities like for example Project or Contract Milestones
Using the Curtain tab you can define shading for specific portion of the layout when
you view or print the layout. Shading appear between the start and end dates specified.
You can also select color and hatch and hatch to be applied to the area.
The Curtain feature may be applied to highlight periods of special interest such as a
shut down period, a tow out period, the commissioning period and more.
Formatting Activity Relationship Lines By default Safran Project draws the logical
link between activities. If you for some reason do not want to show activity logic or
dependencies, you can switch this by selecting the Links option and remove the visible
tic mark.
Safran Project lets you draw the logic from any combination of activity dates, provided
a corresponding bar symbol is defined. That is, if you specify logic using the Baseline
Early Start date as the Start field and the Baseline Early Finish as the Finish field, a
symbol spanning the same two dates must be defined and made visible.
The color used for drawing links may also be modified and chosen to suite your
standards. By marking the Passing Link check box, links to off page activities will be
shown. For printed display annotation (FS, SS, SF, FF) may also be specified by
marking the Annotation check box.
Please note that the Options dialogue window lets you specify different highlight
colors for predecessors and successors for activities. This gives you the effect that
when scrolling down your barchart the color for links may change as you move from
one activity to the next in the columns area.
Displaying Links in Outline View If you are working in Outline View, Safran Project
lets you add logic between a summary bar and an activity outside this summary. Using
this option Safran Project lets you display links from all activities within this summary
group to the activity within another summary level. To do so, you mark the “Summary
Forced” checkbox and select a color for these links.
A finish to start link has been established between summary “sum Outline1” and the
activity “A23”, so that activity A23 can not start until all work associated with the
summary has to been completed before work can commence on activity A23. The link
is displayed from the summary to the activity A23.
Applying the “Summary forced” option displays links from all activities within the
Summary “Sum Outline1” as predecessors to activity “A23”.
NOTE: If you apply a link between a summary and an activity it affects your network
and time analysis.
Displaying Links in Group View Using Group View, Safran allows you to specify at
what level you want to display the logic. Default is activity level. Displaying logic at a
higher level does not affect the network time analysis. It serves as illustration and infor-
mation only.
If you are working on a large project, you may want to collapse the schedule to show
a summarized view of your work. Using the option to show logic at a higher level, then
allows you to show interfaces between higher level summaries.
When you display your logic at activity level you may want to show some of the links
to be displayed at a different level. Double click the link in the Graphical display, and
change the predecessor or successor Draw level.
Highlighting Critical Activities You may choose a color to distinguish critical activ-
ities from non-critical activities. This is done by choosing the Critical option.
Critical activities are
highlighted with a red
border and critical logic
are shown in read.
By default, Safran Project deems an activity critical when its total float is equal to or
less than zero. The level of criticality may be lowered to also include less critical activ-
ities by entering a number of days float in the "Critical at" field.
Show Frontline The frontline option allows you to display a progress frontline. A
Frontline is a visual representation of the actual progress achievement. For the cutoff
date Safran Planner draws a vertical line on the barchart indicating the Activity
Progress date. This vertical line may create peaks pointing to the left for work that is
behind schedule and pointing to the right for work that is ahead of schedule. The length
of the peak indicates how far behind or ahead of the schedule the activity is at that cut-
off. A line may be drawn for either the Current Frontline or for the Baseline frontline.
Select the Frontline option from the short-cut menu, mark the visible checkbox, specify
cut-off date, select line style, thickness and color for line, and finally specify frontline
for current, baseline or Revised plan and press OK.
Add Pictures Safran Project lets you add pictures (bitmaps) to highlight or decorate
activities in the Bar Area. The pictures are positioned according to specified date fields,
and are additional to bar specifications.
Select Edit>Pictures from the main menu. Press the New, select Activity ID from the
Drop Down, specify Bitmap file, or press the button next to the bitmap field to browse
your system, Specify according to which date the picture should be positioned. You
can also specify picture height in percentage of row height and row alignment. The
Visible checkbox allows you to turn visibility on/off without removing the picture
entry from your system.
From the Barchart Editor you can access the symbol set defined for your network by
selecting the symbols option from the short-cut menu, or by selecting the
Tools>Symbols option. Safran Project then provides you with the symbols window.
Now you can add, edit, or delete symbols.
NOTE: You can check the Show visible symbols only checkbox to limit the number
of symbols in the configuration pane while working in the Barchart editor.
You can also mark a specific symbol to be visible for your current layout on the current
network only.
Anoter advanced option is to select symbols from a symbolset different from the set
defined for your current network. if you select another Symbol set name this applies to
the current layout.
NOTE: For details on how to configure symbols please refer to the Symbols sets
Chapter of this book.
Changing single bar properties Safran Project also allows you to edit properties for
a single activity bar. Highlight the bar in the gantt area and press the right mouse
button. Now select the properties option to edit the bar properties for the selected
activity.
Now Safran Project lets you change any of the attributes for this single bar.
Change attributes as desired to highlight this single activity and press Ok. Now Safran
Project redraws the bar for this activity using these attributes. Attributes may be reset
by selecting the Reset option.
Sorting Data
Sorting in the barchart editor involves two steps; define sort and execute the sort.
To define sort criteria select the Define sort option from the Tools Menu.
Select the field that match your sorting criteria and drag this across to the sort by
column and specify ascending or descending ordered. You can add multiple fields as
sorting criteria and their order in the sort by list determine the sort order. Click OK.
Safran Project now rearranges the display matching your sort criteria.
The Always sort groups alphabetically by ID checkbox allows you to order your
grouped data by ascending order.
NOTE: Safran Project allows you to add or insert activities to the bar chart and keep
them at the specific row. If you rearrange activities by dragging them, Safran Project
leaves the activities in the location they are dragged to.
To reorganize displayed activities Choose the Sort option to apply your defined
sort by criteria, or Choose Tools>Define sort to rearrange the display by a new criteria.
Pressing the sort icon on the sheet toolbar automatically sorts the display according to
the criteria defined by Define Sort.
Selecting Data
While working in the Bar Chart Editor, Safran Project provides 2 features for
narrowing down the amount of activities presented.
• Applying a Filter
Specifying Activity Selection Criteria To select a group of data, you must specify
criteria common to all the entries in the group. Your selection criteria can be saved as
named filters for later reusage. By choosing View > Filters from the main menu you
are presented with a window for selecting the activities to appear on the Barchart
Editor. If no selection criteria is entered all activities in network are included.
NOTE: The filter drop down allows you to select previously defined filters and the
filters from drop down allows you to select filters defined by other users
The Save As option allows you to modify an existing filter, and save it under a new
name.
To remove a filter expression from the list of filters, select the filter from the drop down
box and press the Delete button.
Auto filter You can apply a auto filter by selecting auto filter from the column header
short cut menu. Auto filter is a quick way to find information in a field or column.
When auto filter is turned on a down arrow appears on each column heading indicating
the auto filter capabilities. Use these arrows to select values from the column values
drop down. You can apply auto filter to multiple columns.
When an auto filter for a column is turned on, the arrow and header turn blue.
The auto filter is turned
on, and a filter has been
applied for the calendar
column, indicated by blue
header and blue down
arrow.
The Fonts tab allows you to specify summary row attributes for text: font, font size,
color and background color.
To configure summary Appearance. Choose the Appearance tab from the group
properties window and specify the appearance of each summary. Attributes include
how the layout should be opened in terms of showing groups or details, if dates,
numbers, Frontline drawing and visibility of Reference fields are to be summarized and
displayed on the different levels as well as the option to add final horizontal lines.
To configure the summary row Fonts and Colours Choose fonts from the Edit
menu and select the summaries tab to select color, font and other font attributes.
Configuring Summary symbol Attributes After the summary and grouping levels
are defined you can define or customize your summary bars. Select the Symbols
window, select the summary symbol, and choose the Group tab to define the summary
bars attributes.
Normally you would define a summary bar to have a different look than the activity
bar. The summary bar spans a group of activities from the earliest early start to the
latest early finish of the activities within the group.
To define the summary bar, mark it not visible and select span dates from the General
tab, define the layout and attributes from the Symbols tab and finally specify visibility
from the Group tab which enables you to draw summary bars for all or selected
summary levels.
Summary Bars When you specify a summary bar, Safran Project shows a continuos
bar for each summary group.
Detailed Bars Since the summarized activity may contain periods when no work take
place, the continuous summary bar may not always represent total duration accurately.
You can show planned work time more accurately by choosing the detailed summary
bar. Safran Project indicates inactive time by broken bars.
Necked Bars As with activity bars the Summary bars can also be necked. that is it
draws a thinner bar when time of or holidays are observed.
Hide or show details Details of the grouped schedule can be hidden or shown by
using the Group Explode and Group Collapse options or by using the equivalent
symbols next to each summary level. You can collapse or explode any of the summary
levels individually. Click the outlining symbols (+/-) to expand or collapse any section
or rows. The plus sign (+) represents a collapsed level or section and the minus sign (-
) tells you it is an expanded section or group.
This menu option allows you to show or hide entire groups by a single click.
Modifying Group levels If you want to group and order your plan in a different way,
select the Group Properties option again and change the Group by fields to suit your
new requirement. Safran Project redraws the barchart and rearranges your plan in real-
time.
NOTE: As Group definitions are stored as part of Safran Project layouts, shifting
between layouts with different summary structures is a quick, powerful and conve-
nient way to view your project from different perspectives.
Creating an Outline
Creating an outline organizes the project activities into groups of activities. Each group
is preceded by a summary task, which describes the tasks within the group. Each level
provides information of greater detail. Using Safran Project you can build a non-coded
structure into your project by creating a hierarchical structure as you go. The process
of structuring the activity list is called outlining. The groups created in the activity list
can represent phases, areas, construction site, performing company or any other
common feature.
The outline buttons on the toolbar, together with the explode and collapse features of
the Barchart Editor View are used to create and display the outline.
NOTE: The outline buttons on the Sheet Toolbar are used to create and display the
outline. These buttons are only available in the Outline View.
You enter each level of the outline as an activity. An activity changes to a summary
when an activity below it is indented. When an activity becomes a summary, the
duration, start and finish dates change to summarize the information of the sub-activ-
ities. For example the start date of summary becomes the earliest start date of the sub
activities.
You can add activity information, such as duration and description only to activities at
the lowest level.
Creating a Summary Activity An activity changes to a summary when a task below
is indented.
A summary bar can be shown both as a continuous bar or as a broken bar indicating
inactive time. Since the summarized activity may contain periods when no work take
place, the continuous bar may not always represent the total duration accurately.
To indent or outdent an activity, mark the activity or group of activities and press the
Indent or outdent button.
If the only sub activity of a summary is outdented, the summary changes to an activity.
If all activities within a group is deleted, the summary activity changes to an activity.
Hiding and showing the outline By hiding and shoving activities in the outline or
summary structure, you can display only the information needed. This allows you to
focus on a specific area without being distracted by information overflow. When you
need more information, you can show some or all of the outline, or change focus by
showing details for another specific group.
The summary structure can be hidden or shown using the Expand and Collapse
symbols next to each summary activity in the Barchart Editor. The minus sign (-)
symbol indicates that all sub activities of the summary are shown, while a plus sign (+)
symbol indicates that all sub levels and sub activities are hidden.
To hide activities in a summary level, select the summary activity and press the Hide
symbol, a minus sign (-), next to it in the activity columns area.
To show activities in a collapsed level, select the summary activity and press the Show
symbol, a plus sign (+), next to the activity in the activity columns area.
Page Setup
To configure the barchart print layout, choose File > Page Setup. The Page Setup
enables you to specify report titles footer, page orientation and to include left and right
logo on your report. For presentations you may also want to have the bar printed
overlaying a background picture. The Printed report uses the defined barchart editor
layout including symbols, summaries annotation and field selection. The Print
Barchart Page Setup is also accessible by selecting the appropriate button on the sheet
toolbar.
Previewing and printing the barchart To view the barchart prior to printing, press
the preview button on the sheet toolbar.
Print Preview is a quick and convenient way to view the current layout, page breaks,
margins, header and footer. By previewing your report you can make sure the report
prints the way you want, and you can make any necessary adjustments so that you will
only have to print once.
Print Preview displays each page of the report as it will look when printed. The preview
window initially displays he first page of the printout. The current page number and the
total number of pages appear at the lower right end of the report page.To move from
page to page in the print preview click the Next Page, Prior page, First page or Last
Page buttons.You can also zoom in to view details of a page by clicking the Zoom icon.
The Safran Project Print Preview option lets you save your schedule to different
graphical formats.The images looks just like the report on screen. Saving a schedule to
a graphical file allows you to paste the saved file into files created by other Windows
applications such as spreadsheets and word processor documents.
To Print from Preview Print as you would from the Barchart Editor. You can print all
pages, a range of pages or print a single page.
Saving Reports as pictures Choose File>Print Preview. When in Preview, Select
The File>Save Report As option and specify filename, file type and location. Available
formats are: EMF, WMF, BMP,JPG and TIF.
Copying the Preview to Clipboard From Preview, Select the Edit >Copy page to
Clipboard option. Then from other windows applications use the Paste option from the
Edit menu to paste the clipboard picture into the application.
Save Report as PDF Safran Project allows you to save your gantt preview to portable
document format - pdf - provided you have installed the pdf ghostwriter that comes
with the system.
Save Report to Safran Web Access Select the Save to SWA option on the File menu
to Save the report to Safran Web Access. Reports can then be read by users utilizing
the web access tool.
Select Activity Often it is required to locate a specific activity in your preview or print
out. Use the Edit>Go to Activity and specify an activity Id to jump to the page
containing this activity.
Mail the report If you choose the mail report option Safran adds the printout as an
attachment to your mail in pdf format.
C HAPTER
As with Barchart Editor Layouts and Filters you can build a library of Histogram/S-
curves reports and select them from the “Report Name” drop down list from the
Histogram Properties window. The Editor Histogram reports can be selected indepen-
dently from your current Barchart Layout.
To reduce the number of saved Barchart Editor Histogram definitions or reports listed
in the drop down, you can select to show only specifications saved by yourself, project
users, network users, or from a report group.
Safran Project also provides a selection feature that allows you to select specifications
by name or by parts of the report name combinded with and/or statements.You can also
combine it with selection fom Report Owner.This feature may be used to narrow down
the number of reports listed in the name drop down bok by for example showing only
reports that begin with a give character if for example all reports for your hospital
project begins with Hospital. As new report specifications are added to your database
you will find these feature more and more helpful.
The short-cut menu allows you to edit and customize the Histogram set up properties,
to copy the table data, to view or produce the report by the highlighted activity in the
Editor, present the total for your project, applying the filter used for the Barchart Editor,
or show totals using a filter defined for this report - The Total using Report Package
filter option.
The short cut menu also gives you options to preview the report before printing, or you
can use the print option to do a quick print. Lastly you can use the X-axis option to
select auto scaling or fit screen for the Histogram/S-Curve.
A feature you may want to try is that if you group your Barchart, by reference fields
outline code or others, the histogram is updated on-line as you scroll down from level
one summary to the next level and down to the individual activity. Data presented then
represent the level you highlight. This allows you to browse your schedule from a top
level downwards and view periodic and cumulative graphs and chart data as you move
from one activity to the next or from one level to the next.
You can create reports with multiple pages using the page on function of the Histogram
Properties pane. You can use reference codes, outline codes, text field and activity
coded as page on value. If you have a large network, it is not likely that you would have
a page on by activity as it will create one report with just as many pages as you have
activities.
Please note that if you have entered Resource availability for Reference or Outline
codes these can be added as entries for the graph and will be presented as profiles, line
graphs or bars on the page.
To view a Barchart Editor Histogram with multiple pages, you can either present the
graph in the print Preview window and view this page-by-page- or you can scroll the
Histogram view.
Formatting the X-Axis The X-axis interval apply to both curves, histogram and the
table data intervals. The time span (start date to finish date) can be set by the user, and
does not have to be identical to the Gantt time span.
The X-axis can be specified to span the entire network, a single activity or locked to a
specified date range defined by a fixed start and finish date. The X-axis periods may
be specified in intervals of year, quarter, project month, calendar month, week or days.
Formatting the Left and Right Axes The left and right Y-Axes are formatted individ-
ually. The left axis represent the periodic values, while the right axis represents the
cumulative lines (S-curves). You can specify axis description, select font and color, tic
marks, max value, number of decimals displayed, and factor for large numbers
(millions, thousand, (none)). The periodic axis and data can be shown as
quantities/numbers or as manpower and the bars can be displayed as a cluster or a
stack. The cumulative (right axis) can show numbers/quantities or percentage.
Hide and Display Table Data The Table/Values tab allows you to specify the data
appearance in the table. The formatting options include, title, title font, font size and
color, grid, table values font size and a thick mark to rotate table values 90 degrees
counter clock wise. If you remove the default visible check mark, your report will be
displayed without the table.
When you add a new periodic entry or a new cumulative entry, a corresponding table
entry is automatically added. You can of course both remove table entries and include
table data not shown graphically.
The table entries are specified using the Periodic Entries, Cumulative Entries or Table
entries tab. For details please see later in this chapter.
Add Lines You use the Lines tab to add vertical datelines and horizontal value lines
across the graph area. You specify a date or a value a description or annotating, text
position, line style, line color and line thickness. You can add as many lines as needed.
The horizontal lines may be used to indicate limits or spans according to the left or right
axis and comes in addition to the Tics and grid style that you can specify for your left
and right axis.
Add Curtains Use the Curtains tab to define background shading to highlight specific
time periods (for example a shut down period, a test and commissioning period,
holidays, weather windows, lifting campaigns, tow-out and more) or use this feature to
add a background color for your histogram/S-curve report. The horizontal curtains tab
allows you to define and colorize different sections according to selected axis. The
vertical shading is drawn at the back.
The every day tic mark for vertical curtains can be used to show hourly repeating
curtains when the X-axis scale is set to hours.
The example show a
histogram with 2 vertical
curtains limited by start
and end dates together
with 2 horizontal curtains
defined with left axis from
and until values.
Set Font Attributes for Symbol Legends The symbol legends tab allows you to
specify text font, font color, font style and size for the symbol legend display. The
appearance on the report is controlled by the page setup.
Page setup use the Header, Footer, Legend and Margins tabs to format the page set
up or look and feel of the final output for Preview or Printed reports. These four tabs
are basically identical in features to the Page setup of the Barchart Editor Print. You
can select the page orientation, change margins and add or change the title, headers,
legends and footers. Title and headers are displayed at the top of the page. Legend and
footer is text displayed at the bottom of the page.
Select Resources. Use the resources tab to present the report for one or a selected
subset of the resources from your resource set.
Report Entries
Whilst the upper pane of the Histogram Properties allows you to specify the general
formatting of the report, the lower three tab separated pane allows you to add, modify,
remove and specify the individual entries of the report; Periodic graphs, Cumulative
lines and Table entries.
Scope and Cost Accounts The option to include or exclude the different scope
elements and to specify the cost or rate accounts are available if you select scopes and
cost entries as Data field.
Specifying Periodic Values Histogram and profiles show periodic quantities per time
period. Choose profile to display a continuos profile (line) across the time scale.
Choose Bars to display a separate bar for each time period. Bars may be stacked,
layered or clustered and separated by specifying a percentage for separation. You can
define several entries to be included on your chart.
Specify a legend (description) for the entry, specify type of data, that is select data field
from quantity fields or from user defined data (integer and decimal type fields). Data
can be stacked by outline codes, reference fields and user defined text and flag fields.
If you choose to stack your data, you can use the Stack Group option (button) to select
your own color and shading for each element. And finally you will continue setting up
further specifications by selecting color, hatch style and hatch color to separate entries.
Availabilities can be presented for both resource availability and availability added by
reference code or outline code. Resource availability can be used for resource sched-
uling. Availabilities added for codes can be used to show acceptance level of, for
example manpower in an area or on a site, or availability by groups. It can not be used
for automatic resource scheduling. Please see the chapters dealing with resources and
availabilities for details.
Specifying Curves. Cumulative lines or curves show accumulated use and plan for
cost, budget, earned value or other user defined data. Select the Cumulative Entries tab,
then you can give the entries your own description and legend, select data field, select
from and until date fields to spread or summarize data across, and specify graph type
as Line graph. Further you may specify color, line style and line thickness.
Safran Project lets you combine a histogram with a cumulative curve. To draw
percentage curves you may specify a field to be weighted against, that is what values
represents the 100% - if other than the selected data field. You can use this feature to
compute and display expended values in percentage of planned quantities. Or you may
use this to display your earned value curve compared to the planned. You can limit
your curve and table entry by applying a Limit From Date and/or Limit Until Date.
You can also give a cumulative start point for a curve. This can be useful if you create
user defined remaining work field and want to show the forecast as Expended through
cut-off date and user defined estimated remaining work for the current plan. Using the
start at, then allows you to move or displace the cumulative curve parallel to the Y-axis
by the cumulative amount of the start at data.
This example show the
effect of including a “start
at” value for your line
graph or S-curve. The blue
line is adjusted for the
value of expended qty
represented by the short
thin and black line. Values
for both the red and blue
line are aggregated from
the same user field.
You can use the Spread on to create separate S-curves on one sheet. Using this feature
you can present multiple S-curves on one page showing for example the baseline plan
by project phase.
Table Entries
By default Safran Project adds a new table entry for each periodic and cumulative entry
you define. You can also include new user defined table entries or delete entries from
the table.
Copying Table data The table displays periodic time spread and summarized infor-
mation in a tabular format, like a spreadsheet. As the table data are valuable time aggre-
gated data, taking into account calendars and work patterns, you may want to use these
data in other applications. Use the Copy Table option from the short cut menu to copy
the table content into clipboard. You may then paste these data into other windows
applications for further processing or presentation.
Print & Print Preview Although you can use the print button to print the Barchart
Editor Histogram, it is a good idea to preview your report to make sure it prints the way
you anticipate. By previewing the histogram view, you can make any necessary adjust-
ments before you send it to the printer for output. When you are satisfied with the
preview you can print from the print preview window or go back to the editor window
and select print from the short-cut menu within the histogram view.
You can zoom in to view details of the page. From the Print Preview you can issue the
report by mail and save the report to several graphical formats as well as the Adobe
PDF format
You can also save your reports to SWA- Safran Web Access and run these reports from
the SWA Client.
Histogram and Report Packages If you save your Barchart Editor histogram speci-
fications to individual save names, you can later add these as report to your Report
Package for weekly, by-weekly or monthly reporting. The report will be listed as Editor
Histogram Prints.
The Barchart Editor Histogram reports can also be included in report groups.
C HAPTER
The Multi Activity View only allows you to add new activities, resources and links,
whereas the two other views also allow you to navigate your network add data. modify
activity, logic and resource information. The various views may be selected from the
Views options on the main menu.
You may alter between any of the three available views simply by selecting the desired
view from the Views menu option.
To open the Network Editor, select the Network Editor from the Tools menu or press
the Network Editor icon on the tool bar.
The Logic Planning view consists of a central activity window and two multi-prede-
cessor/successor windows. The screen presents an activity and all of its preceding and
succeeding activities. The predecessor/successor schedule data displayed pertains to
the uppermost activity in the window, schedule data for the other links (if any), may be
displayed by simply clicking the arrow on the activity in question.
Click the preceding/succeeding activity arrows on the sheet toolbar to browse forwards
or backwards through network logic from the activity currently displayed in the
activity window. If more than one predecessor/successor exists for an activity, the
preceding/succeeding activity displayed is by default the uppermost in the window.
Navigating to any of the linked activities, either predecessors or successors is done by
double clicking the activity in the appropriate view.
The Sheet Toolbar The most commonly used menu items are available on the short
cut menus, or from the sheet toolbar.
From left to right above: New Activity, Delete Activity, Preceding Activity,
Succeeding Activity, Prior on Search list, Next on Search list, New Predecessor, Delete
Predecessor, New Successor, Delete Successor, New Resource and Delete Resource
Start Browsing from any Activity By using the Goto Activity option, (available
under Edit on the main menu, or the activity short cut menu), you may jump straight to
any activity in your network to view activity or start browsing in any direction from the
activity selected. Enter the Activity ID or select from the drop-down list box.
Viewing Activity Details Use the PopUp option from the short cut menu to view
activity details. This window displays activity status information. Safran Project
displays information related to the focused activity, that is the activity in the center of
the Network editor screen.
.
To Create a list Choose View>Columns Lists for the main menu. You can create a
modified list from any previously defined list including the safran Project Default list,
or you can start from scratch. Use the Clear All button to clear the selected fields list.
You can add or remove fields from the list by drag and drop movements. Use the Save
as to save a column list under a new name, or use the New to create a new list.
Activity ID, Description, Duration and Calendar will always be displayed for the
Activity part of the network Editor.
To select a list. You select a columns list from the Column list drop down for Prede-
cessor, Activity and successor individually.
Data Description
The following is a list of fields available for input. To enter data into a field, click on
the field (or use <tab> to move forward between fields) and type in your data.
Actual Start Activity time progress field. Actual start date for activity
Actual Finish Activity time progress field. Actual finish date for activity
(100%complete)
Target Start Early Time constraint. Date to impose earliest start date for activity
Target Start Late Time constraint. Date to impose earliest (late) start date for
activity
Target Complete Time constraint. Date to impose latest completion date for
Early activity
Target Complete Time constraint. Date to impose latest completion (late) date
Late for activity
Fixed Start Fixed, absolute start date for activity. Overrides all other tar-
gets
Fixed Finish Fixed, absolute finish date for activity. Overrides all other
targets
Type Select the link type from the drop down list box. Available
types are SS, SF, FS and FF. Default type FS.
Split Target Date for imposed start on succeeding activity. Overrides start
dates from logic.
EFC / LSC Output field - Computed early finish for preceding link and
late start for succeeding link.
TFC - Total Float Output Field - Calculated total float for link.
constraint
The graphic window is also interactive. By double-clicking a histogram bar you are
presented with a list the activities that make up the resource load for the period repre-
sented by that specific bar. From this list you may then jump directly to one of these
activities. The graphical view may also be printed.
Unit Rate If the selected resource is defined as type QTY, the unit rate
field is enabled. The rate defaults to the value specified in the
Resource Definition window, but may be modified by the
user. For Qty-based resources, the Cost field will be calcu-
lated: Cost = Qty * Unit Rate, while the Contact Cost field
will be calculated: Contact Cost = Contact Qty * Unit Rate
Pl. Cost For Qty-based resources, this field disabled for manual mod-
ifications, but is calculated as Cost = Qty * Unit Rate.
Specifying the Resource Graph Layout. The parameters for the graphic window
may be modified by positioning the arrow in the graphic window and clicking the right
mouse button and selecting the properties option. You may also modify the graph
layout by selecting Histogram Properties under View on the main menu.
Level Graph may be shown for activity, resource, any of the user-
fields, and as total level.
Viewing Selected Resources Use the Filter option on the short cut menu or
Histogram Filter under View on the main menu to set a activity selection criteria. Only
activities matching your criteria will be displayed in the resource histogram. You can
also choose to show the resource loading per resource type. Choose the layout option
and select resource from the levels drop down.
Print the Resource Loading You may print the resource histogram for the current
activity by selecting Print from the short cut menu. To view the report before printing,
select the print preview option. From Print Preview you can save a picture of your load
report. Select the Save As option, and specify filename and type. Supported formats
are Adobe Pdf, JPEG (JPG), TIFF, Enhanced Metafile (EMF), Windows metafile
(WMF), Bitmap (BMP).
The report may also be saved to SWA or attached directly to an e-mail by clicking the
mail icon on the toolbar.
Option Description
Add Hammock Adds a new hammock to the network. See details below
Prior On Search list If a search list has been defined, this option navigates to pre-
vious activity on search list. See search list details below
Next on Search list If a search list has been defined, this option navigates to next
activity on search list. See search list details below.
Option Description
Option Description
Activity Layout Select activity fields content in the view. Only applicable for
logic and resource views.
Dependencies Lay- Select logic field content in the view. Only applicable for
out logic and resource views.
Activity Search List Allows you to define an activity search list. See details
below.
Option Description
DB where Clause Allows you to specify activity filters when retrieving data
from database.
Option Description
Database Queries Calls the Database Queries window. This can be used to
issue SQL statements on tables in the safran database.
Analysis Options Calls the dialog box for network analysis options. See net-
work analysis for detailed description
Option Description
Network Summary Displays the summary information for the current network.
See network analysis for detailed description.
Manual Analysis/ Switches automatic network time analysis on/off. If the edit
Automatic Analysis menu shows Manual Analysis, the network editor is cur-
rently in automatic mode. When Automatic Analysis is used,
the network will be re-analyzed in real time, whenever a
change that has a schedule impact is made.
Loop Check Checks your network for logic loops only. Only applicable if
manual analysis option is selected. Loop check is performed
in real time if automatic analysis option is switched on
Timer Setup Set time interval for automatic save to database, and update
of analyze status
Options Calls a dialog box to enter pre-set values for entry of new
activities, resources and logic.
User Options Customer specific code or add-on can be called from this
option.
Filtering.
From within the Activity Search List screen, select Filter from the View option on the
main menu, or the Filter icon on the sheet toolbar. A window for selecting the activities
to be included in the search list appears. The new selection can be made by modifying
an existing filter or create a new.
New Filter To define a new filter, select New and enter a filter name. Use the filter
expression screen to define your selection criteria. Alternatively, select a pre-defined
filter, modify it, and use Save As with a new filter name.
Deleting a Filter You may delete a defined and named filter by selecting the Delete
button within the Filter window.
You may use any activity in the search list as your starting point for browsing. Double
click on the activity required, or use Goto Activity under Edit on the main menu to shift
to the network editor.
The Activity Search List window is placed behind the network editor when you move
to the selected activity. You may access the Activity Search List window by selecting
Activity Search List under Windows on the main menu.
C HAPTER
• the latest times at which activities may be performed while still achieving the same
project end date
2 Forward pass
3 Backward pass
Forward pass The forward pass calculates the early start and early finish dates for
each activity and constraint in the network
Backward pass The backward pass calculates the late start and the late finish dates,
total float and free float for each activity and constraint. Calculations regarding
hammocks and resources are also performed during the backward pass.
Analysis summary reports Two summary reports are available after time analysis
has been completed:
• A Network Summary report providing various statistics regarding activities,
constraints and resources as well as logic, targets and progress. The report also
presents information regarding out-of-sequence updates and loops, in addition to
various schedule summaries if resource scheduling has been invoked.
• A Network Analysis Results report listing details of all calculated fields for each
activity.
When you update network data by using the Network Editor or the Barchart Editor, the
time analysis process is run automatically in "real-time" after each input or change.
This ensures that the Safran always presents you with a realistic picture of the project.
However, if data is entered by using the Single Activity Review, Constraint
Entry/Review or Activity Entry/Review tools, you will have to run the Network
Analysis from the Process Option on the main menu.
The time analysis process takes into account information related to activity time
progress and the current Timenow date, entered by yourselves.
In addition to activities being updated "in-sequence", i.e. according to network logic,
Safran Project also supports "out-of-sequence" updating as this is not an unusual
situation in real life projects.
If work is performed on an activity before its preceding activity is completed, you may
still update this activity. The exact time analysis calculations that take place for "out-
of-sequence" activities depends on whether you have chosen Dependencies All or
Dependencies Last on the Network Analysis configuration panel.
The total number of out-of-sequence updated activities is displayed in the Network
Summary report as well as a list of the specific activities in question.
Options Description
Timenow Enter current time now date for the time analysis
Include Split Targets This options allows you to run a CPM network time analysis
either using the Split Target information or disregard the split
target constraint. (See Appendix A - Constraints for details
about Split target)
Save analysis Mark this check box to save analysis results to database.
results... Default is On.
Save resource Mark this check box to save corresponding resource dates to
dates... database. Default is No
Controlling activity stretching The standard time analysis calculation allows the
duration of an activity to be stretched by the constraints leading to and from the
activity. The stretch option allows activities to be stretched on the forward pass by
preceding SF or FF constraints and stretched on the backwards pass by succeeding SF
or SS constraints. If the option “No Stretch” is chosen, the start dates are placed as late
as possible, compatible with network logic, on the forward pass and their finish dates
are placed as early as possible on the backwards pass.
Calculating the network late finish dates By default the time analysis process bases
each activity's late dates on the early finish dates for each finish activity. You may use
the “longest path” option to change the calculation. By doing this, all late dates are
based on the finish activity found at the end of the longest path through the network.
No longest Path
Default path option that uses the individual finish activity’s early finish as start for
backward pass.
Longest Path
If your network has multiple “finish” activities, the analysis will use latest Early Finish
as start for backward pass for all finish activities.
Splitting progressed activities The progress options allows you to specify whether
the incomplete part of an activity in progress may be split from its complete part.
The default “Logic” option uses network logic and targets dates to determine early and
late dates of the activities.
The “Fix” option prohibits splitting of an activity in progress. This implies that, apart
from the case where an activity has negative float (causing late dates to be before early
dates), early and late dates for in-progress activities will be identical. If an activity has
progress, the incomplete part of the activity will always start at Timenow, regardless of
logic and targets.
The “No Fix” option allows the incomplete part of an activity to be split from the
completed part. If an activity has progress and its target date is after Timenow, the
incomplete part of the activity will be moved to the Target Start date.
Calculating Total Float Safran Project calculates Total Float based on either the start
or the finish dates for the activity, or as the minimum of these two values, i.e. the most
critical dates. By default, Safran Project calculates the most critical float (Minimum).
By choosing “Start”, float is calculated as difference between LS and ES of the activity.
By choosing “Late”, float is calculated as the difference between LF and EF of the
activity.
Changing / Entering a Timenow Date To set a reference date for the network
analysis you must enter a reference date in the Timenow field. Timenow is a desig-
nation of the earliest possible start date for the network at any given time. If the
network has been progressed, Timenow represents the earliest possible start date for
any remaining work.
NOTE:Changing or entering a timenow date only affect the Live Plan date fields.
When you change your timenow date, Safran Project allows you to retain progress as
is or make changes to the live data progress fields (Actual Start, PC, Remaining
Duration or Actual Finish).
You may experience 3 different Progress Method options depending on what your new
Timenow is. The general will give you 2 options: retain the progress as is or set all
progress fields to null.
If Timenow is set to the date after a previous Status Update, Safran Project gives you
4 options on how to apply the live progress field to the live network analysis. These
options are shown on the panel below.
You may retain progress as-is, update the progress fields from the corresponding status
update and set the remaining duration to null - that is remove any manually input values
to the remaining duration field. The third option allows you to update progress from
the matching status and keep values for remaining duration. Your live plan will then be
identical to your current plan. The latest option allows you to remove all progress from
the Live data.
If you set your Timenow to a date with a corresponding Status Update and a corre-
sponding Baseline date, Safran Project gives you 5 options.
The new option allows you to update your live plan with progress data from the
baseline.
Please also refer to the Reporting Actuals and Measuring Completed Work chapter for
details and further discussion regarding these options.
Viewing the network analysis summary After calculating the schedule, Safran
Project automatically produces a statistic report summarizing various characteristics of
the network. The Network Summary includes a Loop report and an Out-of-sequence
report. Press the Out of Sequences button to view a list of any out-of-sequence activ-
ities with their Activity Id and Description. If any loop constructs exist, these may be
viewed by pressing the Activities in Loop button. If none of these conditions exist,
these buttons will be suppressed. A simple report may be printed by pressing the Print
button on the sheet toolbar while in any of these two panels.
The Network Summary report is available from both Barchart and Network editors by
selecting Options > Network Summary from the main menu.
If the Network Analysis process is initiated manually by selecting Process > Network
Analysis, the Network Summary is invoked by selecting the Summary button after the
Network Analysis is completed.
Fields Description
Analyzed Last Displays date and time when the network was analyzed
Analyze invalid If changes are made to the network invalidating the network
analysis results a time stamp will set in this field.
The network analysis results report is only available if you have initiated the analysis
from the process menu. It is a report containing an overview of all fields calculated
during the network analysis process.
Resource Scheduling
Resource Scheduling is the process of moving activities in time in an attempt to ensure
that periodic resource requirements do not exceed the corresponding resource avail-
abilities. When you requests a resource schedule, Safran Project calculates a start date
for each activity ensuring all logic constraints imposed by the network are satisfied and
that the resource supply covers demand whenever possible. When this is not the case,
the resource in question is said to be in overload.
The Network Analysis process determines each activity's start and finish dates based
solely on logic and assumes that infinite resources are available. The Resource Sched-
uling process determines:
• When an activity may be scheduled by also taking into consideration its resource
requirement(s) and the availability of such resources.
• If it is possible to achieve the project completion date with the resources available.
Field Description
Resource Choose resource code from drop down list box. Available
codes are those entered in the Resource Definition sets asso-
ciated with your project.
While resource scheduling a project, you may adjust the resource availability limits
and perform scheduling repeatedly, using different sets of limits to examine various
“what-if” scenarios.
To select the activities to be scheduled press the “Schedule Filter” button on the
Analysis Options panel.
If you specify a Scheduling Filter, only the requirements for the selected activities will
be scheduled; all activities with other values are treated as if they had no resource
requiremenst.
2 An activity is not considered for scheduling until all logical predecessors have been
scheduled.
3 The highest priority activity is scheduled and removed from the queue.
4 The order in which the queue is maintained depends on the sort priority that you have
specified.
The Optimize option specifies that the activity is to be placed in the position of least
overload.
Specify the allowed number of overloads You may specify the maximum number
of activities that may be placed in overload during a resource schedule. When this
number is reached, all subsequent activities are treated as "not selected" for scheduling.
Activity Options
The previous section dealt with the standard time analysis and schedule options and
how they affect time and date calculations. In addition to these you can influence the
date sets by:
• Using different calendars with different holidays and time-off periods on activities
and links
• Adding time constraint dates on activities such as target start, complete etc
Safran Project provides a few more options or features that you can assign to your
activities to influence the time and date calculations:
• As late as possible constraint: allows you to use an activities Free float and place the
activities as late as possible by "eating" this free float. Time constraints are discussed
more in detail in Appendix A- Constraints.
• Duration fit. Let the duration of the activity be computed by the available time span
between the finish of its predecessor and the start of the successors. Optionally you
can add a minimum duration to be applied.
• Analysis Existence option. Safran provides two options that allow you to ignore
activity duration during the time analysis. Duration existence and activity existence.
The next chapter will discuss the flexibility of running parallel time analysis to see the
effect of using different calendars and durations and on the activities.
Activity F and F2 are identical activities with an initial duration of 5 days. The are
logical successors of Activity E and are both preceding activity H. However activity
F2 is marked as activity Duration Fit, and the duration is extended to 12 days, the
available time span between its predecessor and its successor. Please also note that the
initial duration is automatically set at the min duration. This can be overwritten.
Activity E is part of a logical chain with the start milestone as its predecessor and
succeeded by activities F, and G. When activity E is set to Activity Non Existence its
duration and logic is ignored, resulting in the succeeding activities to be constrained
only by the timenow date.
C HAPTER
PROJECT BASELINE
Once a viable and approved plan has been established and prior to project initiation, a
permanent record of the plan and scope must be established in order to create a
reference point for future Progress Tracking and Performance Measurement.
Project Baselines are used for archive, historical, as well as analytical purposes such as:
• Comparison reporting
• Contract backup
• Claims support/negotiations
• Change control
In order to determine whether the project objectives of schedule and budget are met,
you must know the details of the original plan so that the degree of variance in the
Current/Live plans may be assessed. The baseline together with systematic progress
tracking, may help answering the following questions:
• Are we ahead or behind schedule?
After the Project Baseline has been stored, work generally begins and progress infor-
mation for completed work and actual expenditure is recorded against the current plan.
As your project progresses changes are most likely to occur. These changes should not
be incorporated into the baseline plan. For accurate comparison Safran Project enables
you to add changes via the Change Register and configure how these changes are to be
taken into consideration during the various update processes.
NOTE:A baseline can only be run for networks that has been assigned to a project.
Fields Description
Baseline rev. No Enter a revision code for the baseline. Safran Project vali-
(BL.Rev) dates this code to avoid duplicates
Run Date The date when the Baseline Process was run
Cut-Off Progress Cut off date used during the Baseline process
User Safran Project log-on id for the user who performed the
Baseline Process.
Network Timenow Safran Project displays network Timenow, as set by the user.
Fields Description
Progress Cut-off Safran Project displays the cut-off date; this will be the day
before the network Timenow
Enter the required information to identify the Baseline, and Press OK. Once the
Baseline has been successfully completed Safran Project displays the Baseline
Complete Window.
• None of the projects networks may be accessed by other users during the Baseline
Update Process.
• Network is analyzed, Timenow set and required status saved to the database.
• The current Timenow date for the network is used as a basis for Cut-off for the
Baseline.
Once the project is underway, changes to scope will have an effect on the plan. Safran
Project enables you to lock the scope so that subsequent changes, modifications, new
activities and additional work must be recorded as Variation Orders. This ensures that
plan and scope is kept intact and unchanged and is still valid for performance
measurement and comparison reporting.
Lock Scope After having set the Baseline, choose Setup > Networks from the main
menu and check the Lock Scope field to freeze the current scope. All succeeding
changes and updates to the resource quantity fields must be input and assigned to a
valid Variation Order. Leaving the Lock Scope field blank allows for unrestricted
updates to the scope.
The Baseline Update field controls whether or not quantities are to be summarized
from resource level to the corresponding activity scope fields, Baseline Scope, Current
Scope and Total Scope, during the Baseline Update Process. The Status Update field
controls the same information during the Status Update process.
The Baseline Scope should only be allowed updates during baseline revisions.
Please refer to the Change Control section for more details about project scopes and
Variation Orders.
Revisions to baseline(s)
During project execution, changes and scope increase having an impact on your
baseline schedule will occur.
In order to provide an effective basis for control, so called baseline revisions should be
carried out.
The Current schedule and plan will at all times represent the latest client approved
estimate. However, Safran Project also provides you with an opportunity to record
another non-approved estimate; the Present Forecast.
It should be noted that a projects status may be measured against different reference
points. So, when referring to project status as Percent Complete or Earned Value, you
are offered multiple points of reference:
• Planned progress vs. Original Baseline
• Actual progress
The measure of how well the project is progressing - Earned Value may be derived
from any of these points of reference.
Scopes are updated according to the configuration chosen on the Quantity Configu-
ration panel when the status and /or baseline update processes are invoked.
The Baseline process will now complete and store the baseline data to the database
.
During the baseline update and computation you may want to adjust values computed
as part of the last Status update: Frontline dates and Planned percentages, and update
the last status update with the new baseline scope.
Since these values are computed as part of the status update, which is a predecessor to
the Baseline process, You new baseline does not “know” of these figures. Marking
these two checks modifies these data so that the actual figures and baseline planned
figures meet. But please be aware of the fact that this might alter values already
reported for your project status.
Safran Project also keeps a baseline update log for traceability. The baseline log may
be used as an internal audit log of the system and lists all revisions to the project.
To View the Baseline Log Choose Reports > Screen reports from the main menu and
then select the Baseline log.
Fields Description
Network Name Shows the network name for network for which baseline(s)
have been run.
Run Date The date when baseline update process was run
Cut-Off Progress Cut Off date used during the baseline update pro-
cess
User Safran Project log- on id for the user who performed the
baseline update.
Baseline Annulment
With Safran Project you are allowed to cancel the latest baseline for your project.
Choose Process>Baseline>Baseline Annulment. Before cancelling the baseline,
Safran Project prompts you to confirm this process
Partial Baseline
During project planning preparation or project execution you may be asked to revise
or include a new baseline for only parts of your project network. And preferably this
should be done without affecting the baseline dates or quantities for the rest of your
schedule. To this end Safran Project support a Partial Baseline process which allows
you to add new work to an existing baseline, or amend or alter baseline data for a
selected group of activities.
NOTE:Partial Baseline can only be run against your last baseline revision.
From the baseline definition screen you can select to update any or all of Baseline
Dates, Baseline Scope and Baseline Resource Profiles. New activities will be added to
the last baseline. Once the setup is completed, press the Next button to continue.
You will no be prompted to select activities to be included in the Partial Baseline
adjustment.
From the Partial Baseline Filter screen you can create user defined selections by
choosing previously defined filter from the filter drop down list, or specify single or
multi line statements by adding or inserting rows to the selection panel
NOTE:The default selection is NONE. You have to make a selection to run the
Partial Baseline.
Click the “Back” button to return to the Partial Baseline - Definition screen, or press
the “Next” button to continue to the Partial Baseline - Check dates screen.
If you have ticked "Baseline Res. Profiles" only in the configuration screen, you will
now be asked for confirmation - and the update will be performed if you confirm. If
you marked any of the dates or qtys' update, you will be taken to the next form where
you may make changes to the dates
You may update any of the date fields listed for each activity. Press “Finish” to save
Partial Baseline data to your baseline tables.
C HAPTER
ALTERNATIVE SCHEDULING
CHAPTER21
As planner and scheduler you will often meet by the requirement to create alternative
schedules to do what -If analyses, to evaluate the effect of sub-contracting parts of the
scope of work, to evaluate alternative at new, execution strategies and plans or to
evaluate the schedule impact of new work or change request.
Safran Project offers several features to support the work of Impact analyses and
management.
Open your network in test mode. This makes it possible for you to make what-if
changes and create reports to visualize the effects without saving these changes back
to your schedule.
Create Save-As copies of your network and make any changes and updates required.
You can make as many Save as copies as required.
Do changes to durations and more in your main networks and save the results to user
defined date fields and visualize the effects by drawing different bars to show how your
schedule is affected.
Use the alternative schedule analyses sets to easily show the effect of changes both in
terms of start/finish, float and impact on your critical path.
This chapter describes the features of Safran Project alternative schedules.
Evolving schedule
One thing is certain about a major project schedule. Until it is finally complete, its
schedule will constantly change and evolve as design and fabrication occur simultane-
ously. A simple case in a piping system where during design, a reducer in a pipeline
may be moved from one block to another may include different design, material
requirement, change in pipe length and more. All changes that will possibly affect your
schedule. You can use Safran Projects alternative schedules to visualize the effect in
schedule, float and in manpower and resource requirements. Re-planning and re-calcu-
lation of new schedules would normally become an arduous task.
The setup
To use alternative schedules you must firstly define and activate your alternative sched-
uling sets. In total you can define 10 sets that will be analyzed in parallel with the
standard schedule in the Bar Chart Editor. In total you will then be able to run 11
parallel time analyzes.
The time analyzes for the alternative schedules uses the same Analyses setup and
options as your main plan.
The setup is done by accessing the Alternative schedules tab on Setup>Networks.
Alternatively you can define alternative schedules already when you define your
network.
The alternative sets are defined by a number, a name, and the active check mark. The
default name is Alternative Set n. If you change the name of the set, its field headings
also change from Alternative Set n to the name you type in. You may un check the
active mark. If you do so, Safran Project will not analyze dates for this set.
Once defined the Activity Information pane of the Barchart Editor gets a new tab -
Alternative Schedules.
Activity Existence
Safrans activity existence feature allows you to model changes faster without
destroying your baseline or contractual schedule.You can add new activities to you
schedule that does not exist or influence your schedule when you view the original
plan, but that clearly expose the schedule impact, the effect on resources and critical
path when evaluation an alternative schedule set.
The Activity Existence feature also allows you to do fast what-if analysis when
assessing a potential change to your project schedule without losing or hampering the
baseline or current schedule data.
Safran Project provides 3 activity existence options; Activity Existence which is the
default, Activity Non Existence and Duration Non Existence.
If you select the Activity Non existence option Safran Project ignores the activity
duration and its predecessor and successor links. The Duration Non existence sets the
activity duration to zero - analyzing the activity as it where a milestone.
You can mark the activity existence differently on any of the alternative schedule sets.
In this example you can
see the effect of
introducing 2 new
activities that are only
present for the Alternative
schedule.
Shcedule Juggler
You may want to update yor current schedule with data from one of the alternative
analyses sets, or set data from one alternative set from another alternative set. To assist
you ion this work the Schedule Juggler can be used. The Schedule juggler lest you set
duration, calendar and Analysis existence Option on all activities, on filtered activities
or on the preselected activities.
The alternative of using the schedule juggler is either a manual update or using the
Assign Fields function to update first the duration,then the calendar and finally the
activity existence option.
The Schedule Juggler is implemented to help you save time and work.
You find the Schedule Juggler on the Edit Menu.
C HAPTER
The critical path method (CPM) is a key tool for project management, offering
estimates of project and milestone completion dates. The overall project duration is
determined by the Critical path- the longest path through the network. The network
represents the project execution strategy to get to Done! Activities are linked with
relationships to model how the work is planned.
Several writers in the area of scheduling and Schedule Risk Analysis (SRA) points to
some key reservations about the standard CPM.The duration computed from a CPM
schedule is only correct if everything goes according to plan. In many cases the
completion dates are unrealistic, optimistic and highly likely to be overrun, even if the
schedule logic and duration estimates are accurately implemented. Also they point to
the key reservation that the CPM completion date is not even the most likely project
completion date in many cases.
CPM is a key building block of a quantified risk assessment. In a schedule Risk
analysis the single point durations estimates are modeled with a range of possible
durations and a profile of how these durations are likely to be distributed. The model
is analyses using Monte Carlo simulation, where you may analyze the network 500,
1000 or 10000 times. When the input is a range then the output is also a range of
possible durations and finish dates.
pattern (distribution). Running a SRA you can discover the effect on the whole network
of the individual variabilities using the normal Network analysis, taking into account
the variability of individual activities.
Simulation
Schedule Risk Analysis involves running a large number of time analysis on your
network using a different set of the durations for the activities each time.
When every activity in a network can vary in the duration, the number of combinations
of durations forming the network can be very large and each will have a different
probability of occurring. Time analysing each combination individually would be an
enormous task. Schedule Risk Analysis uses Monte Carlo simulation. Monte Carlo
simulation is a statistical way of generation durations representing this large number of
combinations.
The durations are generated using input parameters like three-point estimates and
distribution profiles specified for each activity. By performing a large number of time
analysis a model of the project is built up which statistically represents the variation of
the original parameters. This model can then provide information on the likelihood of
finishing the project as a whole or on individual critical and important activities and
milestones.
The calculation process follows 3 steps:
1 Each activity is examined and a duration generated for it
3 These steps form an iteration and are repeated as many times as specified by the user.
At the end of each iteration, the data is stored so that when all iterations are complete
Safran can calculate possible start and finish dates, their likelihood and the criticality
index o each activity.
The results of each individual iteration are not themselves statistically interesting. It is
the sum of a large number of iterations that makes allow us to evaluate the probability
of for example finishing on time.
The confidence that can be placed in the end result depends on the accuracy of the CPM
model, the accuracy of the user-specified distributions.
Distributions
In order to perform SRA time analysis on a network, you must provide some infor-
mation on the expected variability in each activity. Safran provides the ability to 4
different distributions; Square, Triangular, trigen (10/90) and Gauss.
The Schedule Risk pane is divided into two parts; at the right is the output area after
the analysis. The left part is both an input panel to enter three point activity durations
and distribution profile and displays schedule Risk Analysis output.
Both sub-panes have a short-cut menu to access Schedule Risk functions and Chart
selection and setup functions. The Risk functions for the left pane can also be accessed
from the process menu.
At the top of the risk pane you can input the Optimistic (minimum) duration, The Most
likely (deterministic) value and the pessimistic or maximum duration that the activity
can take.
These columns can also be inserted into the column area of the barchart. Note that all
Risk filed start with Risk like for example Risk Optimistic Duration, Risk Critical
Index and so on.
You should also note that you can add three-point estimates for remaing duartions
relating to activities and projects in progress.
the most likely or deteminsitc value can be set equsl to the activity duration, or can be
separated from this value. Se the setup section.
Quick Risk
Safran Project includes Quick Risk, a feature that allows you to set optimistic and
pessimistic dura-tions as percentages of the activity duration and set the probability
distribution. The Quick Risk can be used to set values for a selected range of activities,
all activities, or users can apply a filter. If your most likely duration value is separate
from the activity duration, this can also be set as a percentage of the activity duration.
Quick Risk also contains a filter option and also allows you to apply a selection of
activities by first selecting the activities in the bar chart and then selecting the Quick
Risk function.
Please note that a full Schedule Risk analyses follows directly after pressing the Ok
button.
Risk Setup
Safran Project provides a simple schedule risk analysis setup, through a tab separated
window. The main tab lets you define basic analysis set up, such as:
• Number of iterations
Accessing the User defined P-Fields tab you can specify which percentile data you
want to save for later reference together with your project schedule. This data will be
displayed in the risk pane, and in addition they can also be selected in the activity
columns area and be used for creating user defined symbols
Risk reporting
After running the Risk analysis Safran offers different reports to evaluate the output of
the analysis. Firstly you will find the typical Risk histograms and tornado charts, but
you can also include bars showing risk dates in your bar chart to compare these with
your planned or deterministic plan.
The risk histogram can show the spread of start date, the spread of finish dates, the
durations and float. The Tornado chart can show the criticality index and the schedule
sensitivity index.
The criticality index tells you how often an activity is on the critical line out of all itera-
tions. The schedule sensitivity index is a bit more complex and combines the activity
standard deviation with the Criticality Index and the project standard deviation.
You can use the two indexes to rank order activities.
Select Chart type You select chart type by selecting the Chart option from the short-
cut menu in the graph area.
Chart setup Users can specify the appearance of both the tornado chart and the risk
histogram. For the tornado chart users can select the colour of bars, include % values,
include summaries, activities and or mile-stones, specify minimum and maximum
value to be displayed, and show only a number of top rows.Also you can choose to
show Criticality index or Schedule Sensitivity Index.
The risk histogram properties allow users to specify a range of values, percentile line
markers, curtains spanning selected percentile values and more, adding flexibility to
the display of the results after the schedule risk analysis. You will probably add line
markers that are part of the PX values you defined as part of your setup. But, note that
you can define any line marker for the histogram independent of the Px set-up values.
You can also define a line marker that reads the value from a user defined field. This
allows you to view one percentile value for some activities and another percentile value
for other activities.
Please Note that the histogram shows the editor and values and histogram for the
highlighted activity in the barchart editor. As you move up and down, the histogram
will change acordingly. If you have grouped your schedule to show summaries,
histogram and values for the summary will be displayed. You can also change the
group values and reorganize the schedule, and Safran will recalculate summary values.
NOTE:Note: please note that Safran does not store the details iteration data, and
these are lost when you close the Editor. If you want to view the Risk histogram and
Schedule Sensitivity Index later, you will have to rerun the Schedule Risk analysis.
However, the output data shown at the left part of the Risk pane are stored and can
later be viewed at any time.
Print and Print Preview. The risk histograms and tornado charts can be sent to a
printer, saved as PDF files or e-mailed to project stakeholders and colleagues. Graphics
can also be copied to the clipboard for use in project reports.
You can use the histogram Properties window to tell Safran to use Reort heades,
footers etc from the Barchart Editor page setup.
Showing Risk dates in the bar chart Using the standard layout and symbol defini-
tions, Safran Project users can create powerful custom views that let users compare the
deterministic durations with any duration span from the schedule risk analysis. Note
that the dates you can report on in the bar chart editor are the ones you define using the
user defined P-fields tab on the Risk setup window.
The example below shows the deterministic duration (top bar), a bar spanning Risk P80
start - Risk P80 finish (middle bar) and a bottom bar spanning the earliest analysed start
- latest analysed finish. Milestones are shown for the Risk P90 finish dates. .
C HAPTER
Reporting Progress
Once updated activity and resource information has been entered, you may carry out
further processing to take into consideration the updated status data and finally produce
reports to compare actual progress with the plan.
Progress updates in term of time and resource indicate how much work has actually
been done, how much time it needed and how much resource effort was involved
The monitoring process provides timely, accurate, and up-to-date information on the
following:
• Actual work performed
Storing the initial plan as a Baseline enables you to report on all aspects of the project
performance and highlight any problems.
Time Progress
Safran Project supports the reporting of both Time and Resource progress. Time
progress represents progress relative to Network Timenow, and Resource Progress
represents the volume of completed work.
At the activity level Safran Project offers 4 fields for activity time progress. However,
entering status values in more than one field per activity should be avoided. In the event
that multiple fields have been updated, the network analysis process will utilize the
fields according to he following priority:
1 Actual Finish (ACF) - Actual Finish date indicating when the activity was finished.
NOTE:The two fields PC and RDU are input fields that update the Safran Project
internal remaining duration field (Rdua), which holds the computed remaining
duration for Time analysis.
If PC is used for updating purposes the computed remaining duration will be calculated
assuming that the progress is according to the baseline plan using:
Rdu(a)= Original duration * (100-PC). Time progress updates only have effect on the
live plan, and recalculate your project schedule when Timenow is changed through a
complete Network Time analysis. There is no correlation between Time progress and
your measure of completed work. You may invoke a complete Time analysis by
entering a new Timenow date.
Resource Progress
Once the project is under way, it is important to track the resources used to perform the
work. The project may be on schedule, but may have burnt extra resources to achieve
this, or the project may not have sufficient resources to ensure necessary progress.
Safran Project enables you to report progress related to the volume of completed work
independent of the activity's Time progress. Volume progress may be input at activity
level or at resource level. If You enter Volume progress at activity level, there are two
options for calculating progress at resource level:
• Update all Resources: The % Complete for all resources is set equal to the activity %
complete.
• Use Resource Logic: Safran Project computes the % Complete for the resources
considering resource duration, any resource delay, profile and the reported activity %
Complete.
If you enter progress at resource level, the Status Update process will have to be
invoked to arrive at the calculated matching time progress at activity level. Safran
Project Computes this value, Current PC field for the activity, taking into account any
resource profile. The current PC is the activity's matching time progress based on the
completed volume of work. That is: it represents the % of time elapsed at which you
planned to complete the reported % progress of completed work.
Activities will be profiled if:
• A profile is entered together with any resource requirement
The table below shows an overview of the progress fields in the activities and resource
tables.
Input to any of the four time progress fields will affect the network time analysis and
Safran Project will subsequently recalculate the date fields. In the example above,
activity number 128 "Detailed Engineering" has been updated with PC = 20%. Safran
Project will then recalculate the entire schedule. The information note for the activity
now shows a remaining duration (computed) of 75 days.
The Activity Details form may also be invoked for update by either double clicking any
of the displayed fields for a selected activity, or by selecting Edit > Details from the
main menu.
Using a Current Status date for Timenow If the Timenow date is set to the day after
a previous Status Update date, Safran Project prompts you for the appropriate progress
method to be used in handling the Live time progress fields. The various methods of
handling the situation mentioned above are discussed below.
If progress has been entered the default option is to continue input for that period. You
may change this by initiating cut-of for a new period.
Pressing OK bring up either the Progress and Expended Window or the Barchart Editor
for progress entry.
When you Press the return with selection button on the toolbar, Safran Project give you
the Progress and Expended window with the selected subset of activities.
To choose all resources or activities press the "Return with selection” button on the
sheet toolbar without entering any selection criteria.
A new selection of activities to update can be entered by selecting the “Select
Resources to review” from the Edit menu or from the short-cut menu.
Sorting the Table view for updating When the Progress and Expended table view is
active, sorting the data to be reviewed may be done by choosing Edit > Sort button
from the main menu or pressing the "Sort" icon on the sheet toolbar.
Use the "Add" or "Delete" buttons to modify the fields on the sort criteria list.
The sort order may also be modified by rearranging the selected fields on the sort order
list, Use the Up or Down buttons to move a selected field up or down the order line.
The default sorting order is Ascending, although this may be reversed by removing the
mark in the field order check box in the Sort On list. Using the Sort Window Safran
Project returns with a new retrieval from the database to fulfil the required order-
statement.You are allowed to order on fields not included in the progress and expended
window.
The progress and expended window may also be ordered by clicking the field header
on top of window. Ordering in this way is restricted to the fields displayed in the
window, and for large volumes of data this may work faster.
The Progress and Expended table view allows you to enter Progress and Expended
values at either activity or resource level.
Entering Progress and Expended at activity level Selecting activity mode is done
by choosing Edit >Activity Mode from the main menu or by pressing the "Act/Res"
button on the sheet toolbar. This button toggles between Act and Res.
In Activity Mode, Safran Project allows you to define how progress at resource level
should be distributed. To do this, choose Edit > Activity Progress on the main menu or
on the short cut menu, and select the method required.
Update All Sets % Complete for all resources equal to the parent Activ-
Resources ity's % Complete
Use Resource Logic Computes the % Complete for the individual resources con-
sidering delay, duration, and any profile.
Field Description
EVM Displays the Earned Value Method selected for this activity
Current Actual Start For activity in Progress shows the Current Actual Start Date.
If not entered manually this will be set to the first day after
cut off date when progress is reported for the first time. If not
manually entered it will be set during status update.
Current Actual Fin- Entered manually or set to Cut-of date when activity first
ish reaches 100% completness.If not entered set during status
update.
Field Description
Act Jobs Specified Mark this check box if all jobs have been specified for this
activity (only meaningful when importing scope and prog-
ress from lower level systems).
Alw. On Schedule Mark this check box to allow Safran Project to progress the
activity automatically by setting progress equal to planned
progress.
Expended Qty Enter the Actual expended quantity for the activity. The
value should be total to date.
Entering Progress and Expended at resource level Select Edit > Resource Mode
from the main menu or by pressing the "Act/Res" button on the sheet toolbar.In
Resource Mode, Safran Project automatically summarizes progress and expended at
resource to activity level, taking in to consideration any resource delay, duration or
profile.
Fields Description
Fields Description
Jobs Def Mark this check box if all jobs have been specified for this
activity
Pl. Qty Displays the planned qty field for the resource.
Exp. Qty Enter the Total expended quantity to date at resource level.
Exp. Cost The Actual expended cost for the resource. For Qty-based
resource types, this field is automatically set as a function of
Unit Rate * Expended Qty. The Unit Rate used is the one
specified for the resource type, unless overwritten in the Bar-
chart/Network Editors or Activity Entry Review.
Exporting to Excel. Safran Project allows you to export resource progress and
expended data to preformatted Excel type files.
It is quite commonly used as a basis for collecting progress/expended information from
the project team. As discussed in the next section, an updated export file may be
imported back into Safran Project simplifying the progress and expended update
process.
Keep in mind that exported data will be the same as what is presented on the Progress
and Expended panel, i.e. the export function takes into consideration any selection
criteria that might be currently applied.
Choose Edit > Export to Excel on the main menu to invoke the export function.
Enter the export filename, specify where to store the file by selecting Drive and Folder,
and then press OK to save.
When using the Barchart Editor for progress updates only allows one Layout is
allowed: <Progress>, and the symbols available are restricted to a Actual Start symbol,
a Actual Finish symbol and a bar that spans Early Start - Early Finish and there is no
interactivity in the Gantt Area. When used for Progress updates the Barchart Editor
provides you with one View only.
The Barchart Editor provides features for data selection, ordering, grouping of data,
specifying activity columns and it also allows you to print a report and specify its
Titles, headers, Footers etc. To learn about these features please see the “The Barchart
Editor” Chapter.
NOTE:The Barchart Editor option for updating Actual progress and Expenditure
only allows you to enter data at Activity level. Furthermore it always uses the “Use
Resource logic” mode when computing Actual Expenditure at Resource level.
Act.x <tab> Res.y <tab> Prog <tab> Mhrs : Update Res.y on Act.x with
Progress and Man-hours
Supported format and headers for tab separated txt files are:
a.Activity: "activity id", "an", "activity"
b.Resource: "resource", "res", "resource name"
c.Progress: "actual %", "current progress", "cap"
d.Expended: "actuals", "expended", "actual qty", "expended qty"
e.Expended Cost: "cost", "expended cost", "actual cost"
f.(Current) actual start: "actual start", "start", "as", "acs"
g.(Current) actual finish: "actual finish", "finish", "af", "acf"
After reading the data on file Safran provides a list of on-file statistics, Number of
rows, Number of warnings,. Number of updated activities and Number of updated
resources will be listed after saving the data to the Safran database.
Fields Description
Import From File Displays the file you specified to import data from in the
Select Import File dialog box
Import To Network Specify the Network to import data to. Default is the current
Network. Select other Networks from the drop down list box
if necessary.
Update All Mark this field if progress for all resources is to be set equal
Resources to the parent Activity % Complete
Use Resource Logic Mark this field if progress at resource level should be com-
puted considering the individual resource's delay, duration,
and profile.
Progress going Mark this field if list of warnings should include activities
down where progress is lower for this period compared to last.
Actual Expended Mark this field if list of warnings should include activities
going down where actual expenditure is lower than last periods cumula-
tive figure.
Activity With multi- Mark this field if list of warning should include progress
ple Resource Types import for activities with multiple resource type assign-
ments.
Statistics After you presses the “Read” button, Safran Project will
update this section with import statistics from the data file.
Press the READ button to check the import data on file against data on the system.
Safran Project will read the import data file and allows you to access file information.
Safran Project will validate the imported data and warn you if any invalid data is
detected. You may view any warnings, errors and data from the file by selecting the
appropriate tab on the progress import window.
If a hardcopy of the error report is required, simply press the "Print" button.
The following are considered as non-valid conditions and are not accepted:
• Non existing activities
Non valid conditions of a lower severity level will result in a Warning. Examples of
such conditions are:
• Percent complete is less than that previously reported. Data is saved to database.
Safran Project does not allow you to import dropping progress from file. During
Status update the old progress will be kept for these records. If however the progress,
for some reason, should be allowed to drop the Progress -Import - Warnings report
may be used as basis for entering progress through the Progress and expended
window. Progress entered manually are allowed to go down.
• Actual expended is less than that previously reported.Expended quantity are allowed
to drop. A warning condition is set, so that you can view and validate these records.
• Multiple resources for an activity, when import is at activity level. (no resource name
specified in the import file). Progress are set at each resource record according to
progress method, update all resources or Use Resource logic. All expended quantities
are added to one resource only, found by lowest internal sequence number in the
resource table. You may use the warning report to view and validate these data.
Select the Warnings tab to see an overview the data that causes the warning situation.
Viewing the Import file content The data contained in the import file may be viewed
by selecting the Data on File tab. The report displays Activity Id, Resource,
Cumulative Progress, and Expended and is shown before the import process
commences.
Saving Import data Press the "Save" button to write the imported data from file to the
database. Please keep in mind that Safran Project will only save valid data.
Choose Process > Status Update from the main menu, and then select the appropriate
update process.
Option Description
Total Update Updates all Progress and Man-hour data throughout the plan-
ning structure, including any level generated networks
Current Analysis Invokes Network Analysis only for the current network.
The revised plan will be discussed in detail in the Forecast and revisions chapter of this
book. The revised plan provides the necessary features to set a internal “baseline” plan
to measure progress against.
Select a cut-of Date from the drop down list box. The dates available in the drop down
list box are those defined as cut-offs in the projects week- reference data. You are also
allowed to specify period start date for status update, if data should be saved as history
and you can include a update of level generated networks.
The Status update process uses the progress entered related to the volume of completed
work (at either resource or activity level) and only updates the "Current" plan set.
During a Status update, Safran Project uses progress at resource level to calculate
progress at activity level. Progress at activity level is held in two separate fields; one
field containing the earned progress derived from resource level and another
containing the corresponding progress relative to time. Time progress entered in any of
the time progress fields (AS, AF, PC or RDU) will not have any effect on the Current
plan set until running the Status update process.
Safran Project will take into account any resource duration, delay, or profiles, during a
Status update. When calculating the progress percentage at activity level, Safran
project assumes that the original (baseline) percentage of Time vs. percentage Load is
retained. The Current PC field is then used in the Network analysis performed as part
of the Status update process.
Please refer to the table below for details regarding resource definition, including any
delay, duration, or profile modifiers.
Examples of resource Profiles and their respective Volume progress vs. corresponding
Time progress.
• Progress % Complete25%
The calculated worked duration or Earned duration used for the current analysis is 10
days. The Progress % complete=25% will be used for Current analysis as the activity
progress. The calculated remaining duration will be 30 days.
The calculated worked duration or Earned duration will in this case be 16 days. The
Progress % complete 40% will be used during the current analysis as the Activity
Progress. The calculated worked duration is 16 days; calculated remaining duration is
24 days.
Specifying a Cut-Off date By selecting the Total Update option, Safran Project will
first prompt you to enter a Progress Cut Off date and a Period Start date.
Fields Description
Prog. Input A "yes" in this field indicates that progress has been reported
for this period
Fields Description
Upd. Run A "yes" in this field indicates that a Status Update has been
run for this period
Activity Hist. A "yes" in this field indicates that all activity data has been
saved as history
Cut-Off Date Enter a Cut-off date for the Status update, or select one from
the drop down box.
Period Start Enter the Period Start date for the Status update.
Save all activity data A mark in this check box will save all activity data as history
as history
Update level net- A mark in this check box will include a calculation of status
works update at level generated networks. If left unchecked, status
for level generated networks can be run by selecting the Pro-
cess>Status Update>Level Networks option.
By default, Safran Project suggests a Cut-off date according to the following logic:
• If you, during the input of progress, decided not to close the current period for further
updates, the current period's date is suggested.
• Alternatively, if you decided to close the current Cut-off during input of progress, the
next available Sunday will be suggested.
• In both cases, the default date may be accepted or a later date may be entered. The
date however must be a valid Cut-off date i.e. it must be a Sunday.
NOTE:You are not allowed to move backwards in time, i.e. before the latest Status
Update.
Specifying a Period Start date The day following the previous Cut-off date is
considered by Safran Project as the default Period Start date.
If, however, a shorter period is required, you are allowed to change this date. An
example highlighting this might be after a holiday period where no work has been done
and no updates have been run for several weeks. The progress entered for such an
update would apply to the last week only.
Please note:
• A status update may only be run on the project's Main network
• No networks associated with the project may be accessed by other users during the
Status Update process.
• All Status data must be up to date in the network's resource table. All import of
progress data that is required from any external source must also be complete.
2 The "Status Update" dialog panel is opened presenting a list of any previous status
updates and default Cut-off/Period Start.
3 The following is validated after the "OK" button has been pressed:
• If a Status Update was not run the previous week, this is verified with you.
• If progress and expended have not been entered for the chosen Cut-off date, this is
verified with you
• If a re-run of the Status Update is attempted, this is verified with you.
• If the Status Update is a re-run, all data for the previous run is deleted.
4 Data is copied from the Activities table to the Period_status_a table and from the
Resources table to the Period_status_a table.
5 If Level Networks based on the current network exist and Auto Update is checked,
the required Level Networks are updated.
6 The network is analyzed with the specified Cut-off date + 1 day as Time-now and all
status information is taken into consideration. The results of the analysis are stored
in the fields of the Current Plan set i.e. (CES, CEF, CLS, CLF etc.).
7 Reference data in the Cut off dates table is updated and the Status Update is complete.
measurement. Earned value is the value of completed work towards project completion
in performance measurement terms. When calculated at a certain point in time, it
reveals information that helps determine whether the activity, or certain portion of a
project if multiple activities are aggregated, is over or under budget as well as ahead of
or behind schedule.
Once the project is underway, it is quite common to use the earned value to measure
the value of completed work at each reporting period. Based on both periodic and
cumulative earned values and actual expenditures, Safran Project allows you to:
• Compare the measure of completed work to the baseline budget
• the revised plan allows you to measure performance against a more “realistic” scope
of work in between baselines.
Set Revision
To set the revision, choose the Process>Status Update>Set Revision option from the
Main menu. Then select a Cut-off date from the drop-down list box. The revised plan
is always set according to a previous Cut-off date.
NOTE:To be able to run a revision against a status update, the “save all activity
data as history” checkmark must have been set for the selected status update.
Specify Type Safran Project allows you to use either the current or live plan to set
your revised Schedule. If you choose the current option, Safran Project uses the current
progress reporting when calculating the new revised schedule. The current option
represents a “mini-baseline.” The live option is implemented as an alternative for users
who never moves the Timenow date between baselines. The Revised schedule then
represents a “if we knew then what we know today “this is what the Baseline would
have been.
The revised adjusted amends or adjusts a previous Revised schedule. If revised dates
exist for the activity the revised dates are kept, if not and if baseline dates exists for the
activity the revised dates are set to the baseline dates and alternatively if neither revised
nor baseline dates exists the revised dates are updated using the live dates ( early start,
early finish) for new activities.
Select Scope you may choose baseline, current or total scope as the basis for revised
schedule, using the project Quantity definition.
Press the OK button to start the set revision calculations.
NOTE:for any subsequent revisions, the type and scope options are set. Once
specified you have to run your revisions with identical options. If a change is
required you will have to annul your revisions.
Annul Revision
Safran Project allows you to cancel the set Revision option through a annulment
option. Select Process>Status Update>Anull Revision.
C HAPTER
After setting your configuration preferences you press the Show button to display the
activity Matrix on screen.
Activities are now organized by time periods running across at the top. Highlighted in
darker blue is the selected Cut-Off period (normally the last cut-off). At the top bar
there is also statics showing number of activities for each period and in brackets the
number of activities within each group, not started, below 50%,. above 50% and
completed.
From the picture above you can se that there are still three activities left of the cut-off
that has not started, but was planned to finish 2 and three weeks ago.
Show information
Firstly you can have more information displayed for a selected activity by pointing to
a single activity and pressing down the left button
.
If you want to see even more information about an activity you can double-click to
bring up the activity Details window. This is a tab separated window that allows you
to investigate many data items.
You can not enter progress that ar lower than previously reported. Activities with
progress changed since cut-off/status update are marked with a black line at the upper
right corner.
Fort the new progress to be taken into consideration you must run the Status Update
process again.
C HAPTER
EV Method Description
A Planning Package
F 0/100
G 20/80
H 50/50
EV Method Description
Z Finished
The EV Method you assign to activity is determined by the type of task you are
defining. EV methods are implemented to represent a sound objective way of statusing
the work earned. In addition it reduces the subjective nature of statusing and reporting
on progress.
In addition to the A-Z Earned Value Methods Safran Project also keeps a Always on
Schedule method.To set a activity to be always on schedule you can mark the Always
on schedule check box on the Activity Information pane of the Barchart Editor, In the
Network Editor, on the Plans/Actuals tab of the Single Activity Review. The column
can be selected for the Barchart Editor and for the Activity/Entry Review, and it can
also be updated using the Progress & Expended Window.
Always on schedule activities is automatically credited the planned value as Earned
Value. Example of usage is for project activities that do not produce a tangible outcome
that can be measured objectively like for example Project Management. A on Schedule
activity have no Schedule Variance. The On Schedule condition corresponds to a Level
Of Effort (LOE) technique or method.
EV Method Details
The various EV Methods and calculations are described in this section. This includes
a general description, the earned value calculation, a logic test and what type of activ-
ities the earned value method is suited for.
A - Planning Package
Usage Ideal for activities that are used for planning tasks or
activities out in the future that are not ready to be broken
down into detailed work plans and tasks. A budget may
be assigned to the planning package/task. May also be
used if the user wants to prevent value being earned for
the activity
F - 0/100
Usage IShould only be used for activities that span only 1 cut-
off period. The completness of the task is that either it is
complete or it is not.
G - 20/80
Usage Ideal for activities that span 2 cutoff periods, and the
work is back loaded so more value is earned at the end
of the activity.
H - 50/50
Usage Ideal for activities that span 2 cutoff periods, and the
work is equally loaded so value is earned equally for the
2 periods assuming the activity finishes by the second
cutoff.
Usage Ideal for activities that span 2 cutoff periods, and the
user wants to specify how much value is earned when
the activity starts, that is in the first reporting period and
how much is earned in the second period when the
activity is completed.
Usage Ideal for activities that earn value based on how other
referenced activities are earning their value. An exam-
ple would be setting up a Quality Assurance activity to
earn the performance based off the product being built,
as more of the product is build, the more Quality Assur-
ance can test.
Parameter Input Select Activity or milestone and enter a weight for each.
Usage Ideal for activities that will output a number of units and
each of those units are the same or weighed the same as
the others. An example would be an activity for 10 doc-
uments to be delivered; if 4 documents are finished then
earned work should be 40%. This method allows for
traceability as opposed to using a Physical % Complete
method
Usage Ideal for activities that will output a number of units and
some of those units are weighted differently than others.
An example would be an activity for 10 documents to be
delivered of which 5 of those documents take more
effort to finish. If all 5 of the easy documents are fin-
ished, and the 5 difficult ones are left then the earned
work would be 33.3%. This method allows for trace-
ability as opposed to using a Physical % Complete
method, and takes into account some units may be
worth more to complete
Z- Finished
Usage Ideal for activities that are finished and the user wants
to close them out. This may help in setting up filters or
other analytics.
C HAPTER
• Examine your forecast against your baseline to focus issues and potential areas that
need more attention.
• Calculate a new end date for each activity and a forecasted completion date for the
entire project
• Do what-if analyses by calculating a forecast budget for each activity and the entire
project
• Compare the forecast time-schedule to the project baseline
• Compare the forecast scope and forecast manpower loadings to baseline scope of
work and available resources.
Forecast Options
Safran Project lets you compute both forecasts for span (durations) and scope
(quantities) adjustments. You may select to run a forecast for only one of these
elements or for both.
The forecast may be run for the entire network schedule or parts by applying a filter.
Forecasting on a narrower part of your network requires a previously forecast for your
entire network. If adjustments are required for only a discipline, project phase or other,
then you can first run a forecast for the entire network without any adjustments (use
specific set value=1), followed by a new forecast where you apply the required filter.
To create meaningful forecasts you can group forecast values and calculations by
activity or any of the defined reference fields or outline codes. This provide you with
the possibility to use performance figures per discipline, per project phase or any other
meaningful group summary as well as down to activity level. Actually this is quite an
extensive and flexible feature.
Forecasting scope
To compute a forecast first you have to select scope from either the Current scope or
from the Total scope.
There are 4 ways to compute the (predicted) forecast scope:
• No adjustments to scope.
• If you enter a value in the field for use productivity from x% of project span, Safran
Project computes a forecast scope based on project productivity at the corresponding
status update and performance.
• Mark the Use productivity from last cut-off to use the latest update and performance
figures for the project.
• If you specify a set value, Safran computes a new scope using this specified value. If
you specify a set value to be 1.1, the forecast scope will be 110% of either the Current
or Total scope.
And finally you can set a maximum factor allowed for predicting the total scope.
and as for the scope adjustment, you can specify a maximum factor allowed for span
(duration) calculations.
This window is separated into two parts: The top part displays activity information and
the computed Forecast duration (Fc.dur) may be changed by yourselves manually. As
you scroll down this window and selects an activity the resource records together with
a forecast scope (quantities) are displayed in the lower part of the window. Forecast
duration and Forecast lag is only computed if the resource record holds original values
for resource duration and lag.
Press the back button to specify, or select a different forecast method.
Press the Finish button to complete the forecast calculations and save data.
EAC Calculations
Estimate at Completion calculations are methodologies to statistically forecast final
cost and schedule results. The formulas uses are based on the cumulative Performance
indexes or combination of the two indexes, CPI and SPI.
Comparing the various IEAC forecast gives you a statistical EAC range. Together with
the at completion forecast you often whish to see a variance at completion estimate.
If you are new to the subject of EVMS and Estimate at completion you should study
texts books and articles on these subject to familiarize yourself with both the
systematic approach to project management that can be found in the EVMS standards
and the details of EAC discussions.
Safran Project supports EAC calculations for the Six Period Summary Report, The
Histogram/S-Curve Report, the Progress Summary Report and for The Contract
Performance and Government Reports.
Statistical Forecasts
For the Government or Contract Performance report you will find 6 formulas for last
Revised estimates. Please see the Government reporting and Contract Performance
data chapters for details.
C HAPTER
CHANGE CONTROL
One of the most important aspects of project control is the ability to track and trace
changes to the baseline plan and the baseline scope of work over the life of a project.
The Change Control facilities provided in Safran Project allows you to track the
numerous and varied changes that normally occur as work progresses in a controlled
and effective manner. Changes may reflect both internal and external variations.
Examples of Changes
External Internal
Administrative Technical
Technical Schedule
Schedule Financial
Scope of Work
Financial
Change in a project can seldom be prevented, however the negative effect it has on
project control may be effectively controlled, tracked and documented for future
reference.
Safran Project does this by allowing you to set the baseline scope of work at project
initiation, and establish a master control estimate - the original baseline scope. This
facility provides you with the ability to ensure that all future changes, variations, and
modifications involving resources, quantities and cost can only be added to Safran
Project as Variation Orders. If new scope is added to an existing activity, you will be
able to track and trace both the original budget and the work related to the change.
Safran Project allows changes to be categorized in the four different groups listed
below:
Type Description
Variation Order A Variation Order accepted and approved by the project cli-
ent
Variation Order A request for a Variation Order issued to the project client. If
Request a VOR is accepted, its status may then be changed to VO.
With Safran Project, you may determine how changes are to be summarized and at
what time they are to be included in the various scopes. By doing this you also control
how they are to be considered for reporting and measurement purposes.
The Change Register pane is a three-view pane by variation order type. This window
allows you to browse changes by type, view a summary or view the details of a
variation order, add and delete variation orders and add or delete details to a variation
order.
The details for a variation order includes activities and resources with their estimates,
a schedule impact registration and the ability to link document or url address to a
variation.
You can select the required options from the Edit menu or from the right -click short
cut menu.
The upper half of the Changer Order entry/review screen contains the following fields:
Field Description
Type Choose status from drop down list box. Controls which
scope VO will be included in. If you highlight the VO type
in the three view, and then select new change, the type will
be automatically entered.
Issue Date Date of issue for VO. By default the date the change was ini-
tially entered in the register. May be overwritten, info only
At the lower half of the Changer Register entry/review screen you will find a tab
separated pane that allows you to add change item information. The three tabs are;
• Resource item; used to add activity and resource detail information
• Schedule Impact; allows you to indicate estimated and approved schedule impact
caused by this variation order.
• Linked documents: allow you to add document paths to detailed change documents
or a valid URL to a change system and also open these from within the Change
Register window to view these.
Field Description
Activity ID Activity ID that the VO-line is linked to. A drop down list
box is available for selection. VO-line data is stored as an
activity-resource record
Delay Delay relative to the activity start if the work is to start later
than the activity start date
Field Description
Calendar Select work calendar from drop down list box if the resource
work calendar is different from the activity WPN
Planned Qty The quantity required for the VO-line. Internal Scope
Contract Qty The quantity required for the VO-line. Contract Scope
Planned Cost For Qty-based resources, this field will be disabled for man-
ual modifications, but will be calculated as Qty * Unit Rate.
Contract Cost For Qty-based resources, this field disabled for manual mod-
ifications, but is calculated as Contact Qty * Unit Rate.
Current Progress % The current progress of this line. If there are other resource
rows belonging to the activity of the same resource type, a
new line here will be initiated with the same progress as the
average of these.
Expended Cost The expended, Actual Cost calculated as Unit Rate * Exp.
Qty.
As well as holding positive values reflecting scope increase, Variation Orders may also
hold negative values to support reductions in scope.
NOTE:The cost and rate fields will only be updated for simple rates. You may want
to check your network definition to see if you use simple or complex rates.
Adding a Variation Order to a project Choose Tools > Change Register from the
main menu, and then select New Change form the short cut menu. You can also select
new from the Edit menu or alternatively press CTRL+N.
Deleting a Variation Order from a project Select the Delete, CTRL+D option from
the edit menu or Delete Change from the short-cut menu. Deleting a variation order
also removes all associated items.
NOTE:As with Variation Orders, you will not be allowed to delete a resource line
that has been part of a baseline.
This window is used to select the Variation Orders to be included in the Change register
window. The selection criteria used may be modified any time during an update by
pressing the Selection button on the sheet toolbar.
The icons on the sheet toolbar allows you to clear the current selection, return with no
selection, return with a selection or cancel the select operation. New sheet toolbar.
In order to access specific Variation Orders, detailed selection criteria may be entered
allowing you to:
• Select Variation Orders by VO type/status
Upon entry of a select statement and subsequent "Return With Selection", Safran
Project will display the requested Variation Orders and any corresponding items.
Any Variation Order or VO-Line may be edited as long as it has not been included in
a Baseline Update process.
Scope summarization
Two different functions are available at project level that have an effect on the way
Safran Project handles quantities and scopes. Both may be accessed through Setup >
Network on the main menu.
Control Description
Lock Scope If checked this “Freezes” the network's scope by forcing any
update of resource QTY to be linked to a VO in the Change
Register. By leaving this field unchecked, unrestricted
changes may be done to both resource and QTY. Once Mas-
ter Control Estimate is established and approved, this field
should be checked.
After having run the first Baseline Update process, you are strongly recommended to
switch “Lock Scope” on.
Field Description
Field name The field code for the three separate scopes at activity level
Field Description
Qty Type Option button to select one of the two quantity fields in the
resource table
Include changes Check boxes for including the various change types into the
scope fields
Baseline Update Checkbox to include various changes into scope sets during
Baseline update
Status Update Checkbox to include various changes into scope sets during
Status update
Progress shall be Option buttons to select which scope to use as weighting fac-
weighted on tor when aggregating progress from resource level to activity
level. Only one field may be selected.
The Project Configuration - QTY is controlled by the permissions system, hence you
will only be allowed to modify the scope configuration for projects where you have
been granted update access. Similarly, you may, read (display) the QTY Configuration
panel for all projects where you have read access.
It is quite common to use the three different scope sets as suggested below:
Scope Description
Formula
The formula used by Safran Project when summarizing quantities is defined as
follows:
"Scope" = q {+ v1}{+ v2}{+ v3}{+ v4}
q = qty or qty1
"q" = one of two quantities fields available in the Resource table. The example above
configures Safran Project to include all VO resource records and to use the value in qty
or qty1 for the entire summary.
The other elements in the formula are optional.
v1 = approved_vo_qty= Include Approved Variations in summary
v2 = estimated_vo_qty= Include Estimated Variations in summary
v3 = subcontract_vo_qty= Include Subcontracted Variations in summary
v4 = internal_vo_qty= Include Internal Variations in summary
2 Using the Setup Project panel; freeze scope by marking the "Lock Scope" checkbox,
forcing future resource updates to be entered via Variations Orders.
3 Using the Setup Project panel mark the Auto Sum Scopes checkbox.
4 Using the Project's quantity screen configure required scope update details.
5 Use the Change Register to enter new or additional work to the network. Alterna-
tively, use the Activity Entry/Review screen or the Barchart or Network editor to add
new resource requirements.
6 Select the required reports to highlight changes and scope development.
C HAPTER
• Establish an optimum schedule for all projects based on resources available to the
company rather than the project.
• Produce barchart, S-curve and Histogram reports from more than one project.
The multi-network group uses the following functions available to a single network:
• Time Scheduling
• Resource Scheduling
• Resource Availability
• Barchart Editor
• Network Editor
• Periodic Aggregation
NOTE:The Multi-network group and all its single network members should share
and use common or identical Userfield sets and Resource sets. If you create a
multi-network with different userfield and resource sets, Safran project will give you
an inconsistency warning.
If you are planning to use Safran Projects functionality for Multi Project, program and
portfolio planing and reporting we strongly recommend that you standardize using
corporate user fields (codes) and resource definitions.
Include networks Select the Networks tab to identify the member networks for the
new group.Drag and drop single networks to include or remove from the Multi-
network group.
You can use the Organize Networks by feature to organize your networks by Enterprise
codes, and select an entire group or subgroup and drag it accross to create a portfolio.
The functionality of the organize by feature is identical to the one you find in the Open
Network window of Saran Project.
Define Access Use the Access tab to set Exclusive, Update, Read or Test access for
users and groups to the new Network Group.
NOTE:The access set for the network group includes access to each member
network when accessed as a group. Users may have Exclusive or Update access
to a Multi-network including update rights to networks that they may not have
access to as single network.
Set Scheduling Options Select the Options tab to specify scheduling and resource
availability options for the multi-network group.
The Network Group have inherited various Timenow dates from the single networks
and also uses the Network Time analysis option from the single network definition.
Adding to this Safran Project allows you to specify resource levelling method for the
multi-network group. You can specify a Time limited and a Resource limited sched-
uling or decide to omit the levelling option by selecting none.
The Time limited Scheduling allows you to specify Overload option and overload
limit. The Resource Limited scheduling also allows you to set a Limit Delay.
NOTE:For details on Time limited or Resource limited scheduling please see the
“Resource Scheduling” part of the “Calculating the Schedule” chapter of this book.
Select resource availability method Safran Project allows you to specify a resource
pool for the multi-network group. During Scheduling Safran Project can use the
network group availabilities only, or add this availability together with the resource
availability specified for the single networks.
Alternatively you may open the multi-network group from the Setup>Network Groups
window by selecting the open option.
Generating Reports
After selecting the desired multi-network group you can run cross network reports
using Activity Barchart, Histogram/ S-Curves, Performance Chart, Bulls’ Eye Charts,
Progress Summary report and Bubble Chart. And of course you can create Barchart
Editor layouts and Histograms to you own liking. The steps for requesting report for a
multi-network group are the same as those for a single project. Please refer to the
Reporting chapters for details.
NOTE:The multi-network groups allows you to use single network names for
grouping, sorting and selecting.
Please also see the Multi Project, Programs and Portfolio chapter for details on
reporting in a multi project environment.
C HAPTER
Setting it up
To get the sub project setup to work, you must first define one reference field as your
subproject code and one reference field as your WBS code for sub project. To assist
you in this Safran Project provides you with a Wizard. Alternatively you may define
your Reference fields and set up their SQL query as:
Press yes to continue the process and select Reference field to be used for Sub-project
codes and reference field to be used for wbs codes and press next to continue.
Now Safran Project displays a setup information for your review before finishing the
set up use the Back button if you want to change the set up or press Finish to continue.
The abort button cancels the set up process.
The first level in this window is the WBS level, which may be looked upon as a coded
break down of your sub-projects. The sub projects are connected to the WBS entries,
and may be viewed by expanding a WBS entry.
The Sub Projects window provides options for adding new WBS elements, adding new
Sub Project Codes, deleting both types of entries, archiving Sub Projects and
associated data, listing sub-project summary information and a Sub Project Report.
Options are available either from short-cut menus, from the sheet toolbar or from the
Edit menu.
Now you may input the sub project code and its alias. It is important to be aware of that
both fields are mandatory, and that the alias - not the code - is used as the “name”
throughout the system. The reason for this, is that the code may be some long, and for
you less meaningful value, and you may want to use an identifier meaningful to
yourselves.
Field Comment
NOTE:Several of the fields in this window has drop down-lists that are maintainable
by choosing “Column Properties” from the menu (Edit on Window menu, or Pop-up
menu on right mouse click).
Maintaining a list of Project Types Position your cursor in the Types Field and
select “Column Properties”
Select “NEW” to add a type and its description. Sub-Project Types are common for the
entire Safran Project database. Adding a new type to your Sub-projects makes it
available to all projects and Sub-Projects throughout the system.
Maintaining the Representatives list The Representatives or Project Personnel List
is a system wide feature. This list should include both your employees and the
customers'. This list act as a drop-down for both “Customer Representative” and “Our
Representative”, and may be accessed by selecting “Column Properties” for any of the
two columns.
Press NEW to add new manes and signature to the list. Press DELETE to remove reps.
from the list.
Maintaining String Fields The Sub Project register allows you to associate 10 string
or text fields to the sub-project definition. To define any of The F-fields you must
position your cursor in the field or box and select the “Column Properties” option.
Now you can give the string field a Label. If you clear the label and then click OK, the
F-field is disabled.
The Connect to provides a drop down list box of the networks reference fields. If you
select a Reference field, the F-field will be connected to this reference field, and will
get its label drop-down from that field. The Automatic Update of Activities mark,
allows you to have all activities within the sub-project updated when and if you change
the F-field value.
For example, If you connect F1 to the Reference field Discipline, and tick off
“Automatic update of activities”, then choose discipline “L”, all activities connected to
the Sub-project will have the discipline column set to “L”.
Sub-Project Comments You nay add comments or verbal description to your sub
projects. Choose Comments from the short-cut menu This provided a simple form for
adding long text.
.
Linked Documents for Sub Projects You may also want to link documents to the
Sub Project, such as contractual information, drawing lists etc. The interface is similar
to the one for linking documents to activities, allowing you to browse for the
documents and opening them if so wished..
Sub-Project Summary
An option is provided to give you a short status and summary of key subproject infor-
mation summarizing activities registered on this sub-project.
Partial Baseline
The Partial Baseline Process is available from within the Sub-Project Window. This is
to allow you to set a baseline for the selected sub-project. The Partial baseline will then
be selected for all activities within the sub-project. You mat then add a sub selection to
this prior to running the baseline.
Using the report tab, you can choose choose page orientation, which plan to present (if
showing activity planned values), you may section the report (with or without page
break and sums), and you may choose to include only active Sub Projects, only
archived Sub Projects, or both. Sectioning is only legal on Sub project fields.
The fields tab allows you to specify columns and information to be included on the
report. Selection of fields is similar to these of the Safran Project standard reports
where fields may be chosen, except that the set of fields is different. You may select
from all of the Sub Project fields, and the following activity summary fields:
• Number of activities
• Scope (the one being ticked off in the report configuration form)
• Actual %
• Actual expended
If you select more fields than there is room for on the page, you get a message
informing you of this. To correct this you can either reduce width or decrease the
number of fields.
C HAPTER
GOVERNMENT REPORTING
Using Safran Project you can easily produce the formal Contract Performance Reports
required by US Department of Defence and other government agencies. These formal
reports form the backbone of earned value based project management practice. They
are widely used reports because they offer essential data requirement to evaluate and
understand the status of your project.
Submittal of these reports or the data contained within these reports are often required
for Department of Defence (DoD), Department of Energy (DoE) and NASA contracts.
With Safran you can produce and submit the following government criteria reports:
Contract Performance Report Format 1 - Work break Down Structure
Contract Performance Report Format 2 - Organizational categories
Contract Performance Report Format 3 - Baseline
Contract Performance Report Format 4 - Staffing
Contract Performance Report Format 5 - Explanations and Problem analyses
OMB 300 - OMB (Office of Management and Budget) 300 circular A-11 report
NASA form 533M - Monthly Contractor Financial Management Report
The Contract Performance data window allows you to enter contract, project, client and
contractor information that are used as for the Title and Header information sections
for the formal reporting. The values and details for the reports are summarized or
aggregated from the time phased data.
The Government Reports are only a part of the Project and Contract Business intelli-
gence reporting tools and features you can use to present project status information
from your Safran Project database. Using Safran Project you can also benefit from
adding Progress Summary reports, 6 Period Summary reports, Histogram and S-
curves, Performance Histograms, Bulls’ Eyes Charts and Gantt Reports to your weekly
or monthly reporting.
In order to support the governmental reporting functionality the following steps are
organized on the Safran drop down menu in logical order under the Tools menu item:
“Government Reporting;
1 Contract Performance Data
The body of the CPR Reports format 1-4, OMB 300 and X12 generation are stored and
calculated by Safran for cumulative to date and periodic for all the core Earned Value
metrics such as BCWS, BCWP, ACWP, BAC, EAC for cost and quantity. This is the
basis for all governmental reporting, X12 an UN/CEFACT export. To Support the CPR
reports header information, Safran has a Contract Performance data window where you
can enter in all the required information to support these formal reporting.
2 Contract Performance Report
Select the Contract Performance report option to produce any of the CPR 1-5 reports,
the OMB 300 report or the NASA 533M report. Safran provides a wizard type user
interface to guide you through the few steps required to produce the reports. The
reports can be created in either Microsoft XL or in Safran type reports. Users can print,
share and archive the outputs as needed.
3 Generating ANSI X12 Transfer file or UN/CEFACT XML file
Safran provides you with the option and functionality to produce the ANSI X12 839
transaction set and the UN/CEFACT XNML files for CPR reports 1- 5. This allows you
to export program information to other applications supporting this standard trans-
action set. Safran Project also lets you export schedule data in the UN/CEFACT XML
file format.
Also included in the Contract Performance window are links to the online Variance
Analysis and Threshold definition windows, The OMB 300 Report Configuration
window and the Plan Adjustment window.
For detailed information on Variance analyses and thresholds please see chapter 18,
“Variance Thresholds and Analysis”.
The Project definition data can also be entered using the setup Projects panel. Name
and title are entered on the details tab. Select the contract data tab to enter details for
the program, contract, contractor client and more.
Field details Many of the fields such as the Contractor and Client Name and address
fields are self explanatory. Below is a selected list of fields with its description and use.
Field Description
Contract Classification Select classification from the drop down list box. Avail-
able values are: Unclassified (default), Competition
sensitive, Confidential, Secret and top Secret.
Outline WBS Codes Select which outline code from your schedule that is to
be used as WBS.
Outline OBS Code Select which outline code from your schedule that is to
be used as OBS.
EAC Method Select formula for computing the EAC value, Estimate
at Complete. 6 different formulas are available.
Gate Date If you select the EAC Method “ACWP through Gate-
way + ETC option for your estimate at Complete. You
can select a get date from your cutoffs to be used for
computing your Estimate At complete.
Quantity RD This is the same as Quantity Prod field but for Research
and Development contracts.
Contract Start The planned start date for your project or contract.
Program Number identifies your program number that your project may
be a member of.
NOTE:At the very least to run a CPR Report,X12 or UN/CEFACT export of CPR
data, Contract Name and at least one outline code for either the WBS or OBS must
be selected
Contract Reporting Header Data In the top part of the Periodic pane of the Contract
Performance data window you can enter the information needed to produce the CPR
header information.
Field Description
Share Above Enter the cost sharing applicable to costs above the
negotiated contract cost.
Share Below Enter the cost sharing applicable to costs under the
negotiated contract cost.
Field Description
Target Fee Dollars Enter the target fee of profit that shall apply if the
negotiated cost of the contract is met.
Target Fee percentage Enter the target percentage of profit that shall apply if
the negotiated cost of the contract is met.
Target Price Enter the negotiated contract target price (cost plus
profit/fee).
Estimated Price The estimated final contract cost, based on the most
likely estimate at completion for all authorized con-
tract work and the appropriate profit/fee, incentive,
and cost sharing provisions. This number shall be
based on the most likely EAC.
Total Allocated Budget Enter the sum of all budgets allocated to the perfor-
/(TAB) mance of the contractual effort. The amount shown
shall include MR and UB.
Contract Est. Comple- Enter the latest revised estimated completion date.
tion
OTB/OTS Date Enter the date the last over target baseline or over tar-
get schedule was implemented (if applicable).
Fund Limitations Enter the total funds obligated and latest correspond-
ing contract modification number. Used for the
NASA 533M report.
Field Description
Inv. Amounts Billed Enter the total amount of invoices billed against the
contract and latest invoice number. Used for the
NASA 533M report.
Total Payments Enter the total amount of payments received for the
Received contract. Used for the NASA 533M report.
Estimate At Complete Data Use this section to enter your last management estimates
best case, most likely and worst case estimates at complete, together with the contract
budget base value. Safran automatically calculates the variance between your most
likely management estimate at complete and the contract budget base (CBB)
Field Description
Management Estimate Enter the contractors best case EAC. The best case
at Complete - Best estimate is the one that results in the lowest cost to cli-
Case ent (government). This estimate shall be based on the
outcome of the most favorable set of circumstances
Management Estimate Enter the contractors worst case EAC. The worst case
at Complete - Worst estimate is the one that results in the highest cost to
Case client (government). This estimate shall be based on
the outcome of the least favorable set of circum-
stances.
Management Estimate Enter the contractor’s mots likely EAC. This estimate
at Complete - Most is the contractors official contract EAC. This EAC is
Likely case the value that the contractors management believes is
the most likely outcome based on knowledgeable
estimate of all authorized work, known risks, and
probable future conditions.
Contract Budget Base Enter the total negotiated cost and estimated cost of
(CCB) authorized unpriced work.
Field Description
Total Project Indirects This bottom section of the Contract Performance Data
window lets you enter cumulative and at completion data for the overhead elements.
You add your periodic data for BCWS (Baseline Budget), BCWP (Earned Value),
ACWP (Actuals), BAC (Budget At Complete and EAC (Estimate at Complete)
NOTE:If you are using complex rates for your project, this section will be greyed
out and not available for input. In this situation Safran will calculate the values for
the Project Indirects. However you are supposed to update the UB and MR columns
for At Completion data.
Field Description
Cost Of Money Enter the summary of Cost of Money values for the
contract or project.
Variance Analysis
If you press the Variance Analysis button, Safran will provide functionality to define
your contract thresholds, apply these to your WBS or OBS, view and highlight any
problem areas that exceed the variance limits and input your narratives for the CPR
format 5 report. The Variance Analyses screen also contains a list of predefined filters
that allows you to narrow down the amount of data displayed on your screen. For
example you would apply the VAR NOT Null filter to display only the elements that
have exceeded periodic or cumulative threshold tolerances and then enter the details
on what is causing the problem, any impacts the problems will have on other tasks, and
any corrective actions.
Please see the Variance Thresholds and Analyses chapter for details on Variance
Analysis and Threshold tolerances.
Use the narratives tab to write the narratives or explanations that go into the bottom of
the report. The OMB data and input are stored by Cut-Off date. This allows you to
select status data and explanations and comment from previous reporting periods.
The OMB 300 report is a sectioned Report: On top is the Program and Project Name
and Number. The next section - Section A is the Comparison of the Approved Baseline
and Actual outcome for your selected major milestones. The third section - Section B
is the cumulative project summary information for EVMS and the last section - Section
C-G contains your explanations and proposed corrective actions entered in the narra-
tives tab.
Plan Adjustments
The Plan adjustment window gives the user the option to quickly change a value for
BCWS, ACWP, BAC, or EAC. This will allow you to make a last minute change to the
CPR reports, X12 or UN/CEFACT CPR export prior to its deliverable, without having
to go through fixing it in the Schedule and status update. However this is something
you eventually should do, but to often time is restricted and usually of high importance
as your reports are going to your customer. Changing Current Period values will not
have affect on the X12 export, only for the CPR report
Adjustments can only be entered at the lowest level. The check box for show only
lowest levels filters out these elements.
The official CPR Data Item Description requires the report to be based on EAC.
However, in some contracts it’s agreed upon to submit the report against the BAC in
the beginning of the project and shift towards the EAC later in the project life. The X12
export specs have both formats, so Safran allows you to choose to cover all bases for
customers and their reporting requirements.
Once you have selected report and specified the fields on the first window you follow
the wizards next steps to complete the Report set up and preview your report.
You can go backward and forwards to produce all your governmental reports or to
change values for your setup.
Pictured below is the X12 wizard that walks you through generating the X12 Trans-
action Set.
The first window of the CPR export allows you to select Network (Project) to export,
the cutoff period, File type and EAC or Last Revised Estimate (LRE) method to be
used in the export and a gate date. The available methods to calculate the LRE are
1) ACWP + ETC,
2) ACWP Through Gate Date + ETC,
3) ACWP + (BAC – BCWP),
4) ACWP + (BCWS – BCWP) + ETC,
5) BAC, or
6) Current scope.
Click the Next button to proceed.
Select the Outline Code(s) to be used for the WBS and optionally the OBS. The Outline
codes can be exported at the lowest level, or a specified level. If you select the X12 file
format the outline code format can be set to Short or Full Path. Short is not concate-
nated to the parent and deliminator. Full Path adds the parent outline code plus the
deliminator plus the active element code. So a Full path element might look like
1.1.1.10 where the Short path would be just 10. Using the Short path may cause auto-
renaming if there are multiple elements with the same short name since the element
number must be unique. Using the Full path may cause too many characters in the
element number, and may not be supported by other X12 compatible systems. Click
the Next button to proceed. The outline code Format is not available for UN/CEFACT
file format.
Now you should select the path and file name for the export file by clicking on the
ellipsis button. If you are exporting to UN/CEFACT format file this is the only
available option fort this step. If you are exporting data to the X12 file format you are
presented with additional options.
You can also change the Contract Name, the Unit Scaling for cost to Whole, Hundreds,
Thousands, or Millions and the Classification to Unclassified, Confidential, Secret or
Top Secret. Selecting the CPR radio button will allow you to export CPR Reports 1- 5,
while selecting the C/CSSR will just export the C/SSR report. The CPR Format 1 and
2 hours and future period data is not part of the ANSI 839 standards, but some X12
compatible systems allow for this data as well as exporting a calendar. You are also
allowed to exclude this data on export. Click the Next button to proceed
For the X12 format is optional to export format 3 data. The check mark to exclude
format 3 data will only be displayed if you have selected the X12 file format.
Select the 4 cut-off Dates for the 4 specified periods on the report. Now click next to
continue.
Also on the format 4 window you will find a check mark to exclude format 4 data if
you have selected the X12 file format. If you intend to export the CPR Format 4 data,
you can select the cutoff dates for the 4 specified periods on the report. Now click next
to continue.
For the UN/CEFACT XML file type export this is the last page of the export wizard.
Exporting to X12 file format provides one additional option; to include the format 5
data.
On the Format 5 window, you have the option to exclude the data from being exported.
If you intend to export the CPR Format 5 data, you can specify to export as text or as
HTML.
Finally when you press the Finish button Safran will create the ANSI X12 839 Trans-
action set to the location that you specified which can then be delivered in accordance
with the contract specification.
C HAPTER
Safran includes a set of graphical and tabular reports that help you analyze your work,
cost and schedule variances. Example of such reports are the Histogram/S-curves,
Performance Charts, Bull’s Eye chart, the Progress Summary report, the Six Period
Summary report and various Gantt reports. For details on these reports please see the
appropriate sections concerning Management Graphics, Gantt Reports and tabular
management reports.
Variance analysis is closely linked to the Government Reporting, Contract Perfor-
mance Data and Contract Performance Reporting. It is recommended that you study
these part of the Safran User documentation as well.
You should note that the SV does not relate to the time schedule and does
not measure time. This requires a detailed analyses of your critical path net-
work.
You should also note that even if a project is late the SV will converge and
become zero when the project is complete
Analysis tools
In addition to the Safran reporting capabilities that allows you to analyze your perfor-
mance and variances, Safran provides you with a on-line Variance Analysis tool.
To use this tool you need to status your project with progress and expenditure. Once
the status update has been completed, you can access the Variance Analysis screen
from the Contract Performance Data window by pressing the Variance Analysis button.
Variance Thresholds
Variance thresholds are used to define the periodic and cumulative cost, schedule and
At Completion variance limits for your project based on the selected or defined Work
Break Down Structure (WBS) or Organizational Break Down Structure (OBS).
Applying these limits to your project helps you to quickly identify tasks that do not
meet cost, schedule or at complete targets. This allows you to concentrate on the tasks
that are having problems and analyses for actions required to correct before they
impact other work.
Define your Threshold
values and assign them to
WBS and OBS elements.
Safran flags elements that
have breached thresholds
You can add multiple
thresholds and assign
them to different elements
in the structures.
You use the Thresholds window to define and modify your projects threshold data. You
can set up thresholds for:
• Any level of the WBS or OBS structure
In addition you can specify AND/OR logic to your cost variance threshold. This allows
you to identify those tasks that exceeds both the value and percentage limits (AND) or
tasks that exceeds either the value or the percentage limits (OR).
OR — If you choose OR as exception logic, any items that exceed either the value or
percentage threshold will trigger exception reporting.
AND — If you choose AND as exception logic any items that exceed both the value
and percentage thresholds will trigger exception reporting.
Assigning Thresholds
In the Variance analysis window you can assign different threshold to each element in
your OBS or WBS structure.
Use the Fill down to mass apply if elements should have identical thresholds assigned
to them.
On-Line Analysis
Once your thresholds is defined and assigned to the element in your structure Safran
automatically processes the variance analysis and the variance column are updated
with indicators and color code blocks for variances breaching the threshold limits.
Their meaning is described below.
Filter Description
Cost VAR Cum (C) Displays all elements with a cumulative breach of
Cost Variance limits
Cost VAR Per (c) Displays elements with a breach of this period c
cost variance limits
Narratives >”” Displays all elements that have a narrative for this
cutoff period
Outline Level < Set a max level for Outline elements displayed,
Used to display for example only the 3 highest lev-
els in your OBS or WBS structure.
Filter Description
Outline Level > Display detailed WBS or OBS levels. For example
all levels below level 4 in your structure
Schedule VAR Cum (S) Displays all element with a breach of cumulative
Schedule Variance limits
Schedule VAR Per (c) Displays all element with a breach of this period
Schedule Variance limits
Threshold NOT NULL Displays all elements with a defined threshold vari-
ance
Some filters contain a logical operator(>,<,=). If you apply any of these filters you can
add your expression in the box next to the filter drop down box
A filter is applied to show
only the elements that
have a threshold breach.
This would be the list of
OBS elements that needs
to be explained in the CPR
5 report describing
problem/impact and
corrective actions for Cost
and Schedule variances.
If you are to write your narratives for the CPR 5 report you would select the VAR NOT
NULL filter to display only the task or levels where there is a breach for the variance
limits.
NOTE: You can view data and variance analysis and narratives from previous
reporting periods by selecting a cut off date from the drop down list box in the
Contract Performance Data window.
C HAPTER
Report Groups
To create and maintain report groups you have to be a “super user” or system Admin,
and you must use the Safran Sys adm. application to set up your report groups. If you
do not have access to this application, please contact your Safran Project Sys adm.
The advantage of defining report groups is that it makes it much easier to find the
correct report specifications, as you can select to show only reports from the selected
group. A report group may contain reports from different formats like Histogram/ S-
Curves, Progress summary Reports, 6 period Summary reports, Activity Reports etc.
You can create as many reports group as required and they can include as many reports
as you like. A single report specification may be included in several report groups.
The Report Group option is accessed from the Safran Sys adm Tools menu.
Using the Reports Group window you can add new report groups, delete report groups,
rename groups and add or remove report specifications from the report group.
Please note that the Safran Sys adm also contain features that allows the system admin-
istrator or super user to run report maintenance and change ownership of report speci-
fications from one user to another. To learn more about these and other features of the
Safran Sys adm application please consult with your system administrator or power
user, or read the Safran Sys Adm guide.
Several task can be
carried out from the Sys
adm application; Creating
and maintaining Report
Groups, maintaining
reports and as shown in
this example transfer
ownership of reports from
one user to another.
Report Packages
Safran Project provides a user defined report package system. A Report Package
enables you to run a series of reports in one operation. Any report may be included in
a report package and a report may be included in any number of packages. This facility
is extremely time saving when generating weekly and/or monthly cut-off project
reports.
• A report package may include any combination of tabular reports and graphics.
• A report packaged can be repeated or looped by defined codes for a reference field.
The Report package window is divided into different panels. At the left you will find a
list of al report packages organized in a three view by user (creator) and report package
name.
At the top right there is a tab-divided panel to add name and comments to the package
as well as define output parameters, add common data, set automatically scheduling of
the package and add filters to the package.
The lower right part is again a tab-divided window with tho panes. The include pane is
divided into to panels. At the right is the available reports organized in a three view by
report type. The left panel shows the list of reports included in the package, also this
organized by report type.
The report-type nodes may be exploded or imploded, to simplify selection and increase
readability. Reports may be dragged from one half to the other, to include/exclude them
from the package. You may also drag a report type from one half to the other - this will
result in all report of the chosen type being included in (or excluded from) the package.
There are check-boxes besides the included reports. If you choose to run the package
from this screen, only the reports that are "checked" will be run. You can
check/uncheck a report type node - resulting in all reports of that type being
checked/unchecked, or you can check/uncheck individual reports.
You may also choose to check all reports, by clicking the "All" button above the tree-
view with the included reports. In the same way, clicking "None" will uncheck all of
the reports. Clicking "Invert" will uncheck all the checked reports, and check all the
unchecked ones.
The Order pane allows you to decide the order in which the reports will be run. All
reports in the package are present in this pane, regardless of whether they are "checked"
in the "include"-pane or not. The will be run in the same order as they are on the screen,
from top to bottom. You can move these reports by selecting the name of the report you
wish to move, and choose "Move Report Up" or "Move Report Down" from the "Edit"-
menu, or the corresponding icons from the toolbar.
When you choose "Run package" from the edit-menu (from the toolbar), only the
checked reports will be run, using the order specified in the "Order"-pane. If you run
the package from the Report Spooler, all reports will always be included. The
"Checked" status will not be saved - when you open a report package in this window,
all reports will start of as "Checked". Also, if you drag a report from the "Available
Reports"-tree to the "Include in package"-tree, it will initially be checked
The option of checking/unchecking report allows for temporary modification of the
package and lets you run only a part of a package without having to save the modified
package itself.
Running a Report Package This may be done by highlighting the report package to
be run and then pressing the Run Package button found on the sheet toolbar, by
selection Edit>Run or simply by selecting Run from the short-cut menu.
Removing Report Packages Select the report package to be removed from the list
then choose Delete from the Sheet toolbar, or alternatively from the Short Cut menu.
Safran Project will then delete the current line from the list.
Adding Report Packages Select New from the Sort-cut menu, by selecting the new
icon on the sheet- toolbar or by selecting Edit>New from the menu line.
Editing Report Packages. You may edit any of the information listed in the Report
Package details window. Editable informations are
Field Description
Common data Specify to use dates from the individual reports, to set a fixed
common report start and finish across all reports in the pack-
age, and you can specify a set of rolling dates.
Filter Use the filter tab to specify what filter should be used for the
package: Individual filters from each report, A filter defined
for the package, a combination. You can also specify to apply
iterations by multiple filters and iteration by reference code
Adding reports to a Report Package Select the required report type from the drop
down list box. Expand the selection and select the report to be included and drag it
across to the Include in package panel. You can also drag across an entire report type.
Then all reports of this type will be included in the report package. A
Removing a report from a Report Package This is done by highlighting the report
in the "Include in Package" window and dragging it across to the Available Reports list
window.
Specifying the Output option The output option allows you to direct the reports to
either a printer or a Pdf file. If you select the “to file” option you can specify path
(directory) and a standard file name to be applied to the reports included in the report
package, or mark the Use Save names check box to create Safran Reports using the
names from the Safran Report specifications.
You can also collect all reports into one singe pdf file by checking the “concatenate to
one PDF-file” check box.
NOTE:To create Pdf files the safran postscript and pdf printer add in must be
installed with the system
Specify span for reports in packages The individual reports may be defined with
different start and end dates for every report. Safran Project allows you to specify the
span for all reports included in the package to either use the individual settings, specify
a common start and end date for all report or to set a rolling date for the reports when
you run these report as part of a package. The default is to run the reports based on their
individual definition.
Select the Common Data tab to specify report dates.
If you want all reports to have a common start and end date select the Set dates radio
button, and specify a set of dates.
To set a rolling dates, click the rolling dates radio button, then specify reports start and
finish date relative to today’s date, baseline, last cut-off date, revision and timenow.
NOTE:To run, the report package scheduling feature requires that the Safran
Reports Scheduler is installed.
Specify Filters and iteration value for your report package You can use filters
saved together with the individual report specification, or create a specific filters for
the report package and even combine these two filters.
When running the report package you can use and apply filters in different ways;
• Run the report package using the filters included in the report specifications
• Create a common filter for all reports in the package. This overrides the filters
defined with the report specification.
• Use a combination of a common package filter and the filters included in the
individual reports
A common filter for the report package can be set up as a single filter which is identical
to the traditional filter in Safran , or with multiple filters. This last option lets you select
from available predefined and named filters to create a report package loop, where the
reports first are produced with filter one, then with the second filter, the using the third
filter and so on.
The multiple filter selection pane lets you select from previously defined filters and
drag them across from the available filters list to the selected filters list.
You can also select a reference field for repetitive iterations for every defined value of
that field. This will rerun the entire package for as many reference codes that are
defined for this field.
If you specify to repeat the package for reference field “Project Phase” and this
contains 13 codes the report package will loop 13 times.
C HAPTER
Report Description
Performance Chart Axis based graph allowing you to draw performance index
graphs
Pie Chart Graphical report that allows you to show the proportional
size of items that make up a data series to the sum of items.
Bull’s Eye Chart Plots the cutoff periods on a CPI – SPI matrix to show trend-
ing if element is ahead/behind schedule and over/under bud-
get. You can set a company or user defined threshold band to
highlight if elements are within range.
Report Description
Six Period Summary Shows all the major earned value indicators for current
period, cumulative, at complete and statistical forecasts with
6 or 9 periods.
Float Trend Report Show Number of activities grouped bo float band values.
CAn display data grouped, and also by last Cut-Off or all
Cut-Offs.
Screen Reports On screen listing of the Baseline and Status Update logs.
NOTE: In addition to the standard reports listed above, the Barchart Editor Gantt
view and the Barchart Editor Histogram view are widely used for reporting purposes
due to their extensive formatting and grouping capabilities. Please see ‘The
Barchart Editor’ chapter for details.
Common for all reports is an extensive and flexible set of configuration panels giving
you full control over both layout and content of the report. These panels provide you
with complete control over selection, sorting, fields, graphic elements, content,
headings etc.
The reports may be run be run "as is" based on so-called "sensible defaults” for each
report. This enables you to view a report immediately without having any previous
experience with Safran Project. Custom reports may be made by modifying a standard
report configuration and saving it under a new report name. Using this feature Safran
Project allows you to build a library of reports containing summary, grouping,
selection, data and content specifications.
Reports may be viewed or printed one by one, or report packages containing multiple
reports may be generated making the process of producing monthly reports extremely
efficient
Using the Sys adm module your system manager can create Report Groups and include
different report specifications into groups. This allows you to create different report
sets or groups of reports.
You can select report
specifications saved by
yourself, from all users or
reports included in
different Report Groups.
In this example a few
Report groups have been
defined; Monthly Reports,
Weekly Reports and SWA .
Selecting one of these
reduces the list of
available specifications to
browse through and to
select from to the reports
included in these groups.
NOTE: To prevent unauthorized network access, you will only be allowed to run
reports created by other users on the networks that you have been granted access
to.
Click in the "Save Name" drop down list box to choose any of the saved specifications.
By choosing <New>, a new report specification may be created.
By double clicking the "Save Name" field, or anywhere close to it, Safran Project will
present up a selection panel including the saved by and comment information.
You can also use this screen to rename a report specification and to remove it perma-
nently from your system.
Saving a Report Specification with a new name Safran Project enables you to
create you own report specification and save it under a new name. To do this, use the
File > Save of File Save As on the main menu and specify the name of your choice. To
modify a report specification, re-save it under it's existing name.
NOTE: You are not allowed to overwrite report specifications created by other
users. If this is attempted, Safran Project displays a warning message.
Adding Comments This may be done by choosing Edit > Comments from the main
menu. A Report Configuration - Comments panel is then presented. To save any
comment, press the "Save" icon on the sheet toolbar. Comments may be added to any
report specification including reports created by other users.
Adding comments to your report specification is a good advice and helps you select
from reports with similar report names. If your company also uses Safran Web Access,
available reports are listed with both name and comments.
Deleting a Report Specification To do this, choose Edit > Delete Report from the
main menu. You will not be allowed to delete reports created by other users. You can
also delete your won report specifications from the Choose Configuration window.
Specification Description
Header Header is placed top on every page In the header are you may
define report specific report logos, use the project define or
choose no logo.
Report Body/ Net- By default, the current Network is the source of all reporting
work data. you may however, select another network from a drop
down list box.
By default the following values for header and footer information are:
Analyzed Date for last Time Analysis for the selected network
Network Name The Network Name field of the selected network, as defined
in Setup network
Project text1-4 Information entered in the text 1-text 4 fields in the Setup
Projects window.
Status pr. Date for last Status Update for the selected network
Selecting font, color and text attributes For each element in the report title and
footer you may select individual text attributes such as font, font size, text color, and
style (bold, italic and underline). Position your curser in the element and select text
attributes. Notice, that as you select different header and footer elements, Safran
Project displays its name to the left of the font attributes section.
Choosing the network to report from By default, Safran Project uses the Current
Network as the data source for all reports. You may however select a different network
to report from at any time. This is done by selecting a network, other than current, from
the Network drop down list box found in the Report Body of the Titles tab.This
provides a quick access to report from other networks than the network you are
currently logged on to.
If you save a report specification with a named network, and not the <Current > global
as entry in the network field, that report specification will automatically run against the
selected network.
NOTE: The Network drop down list box will only contain the networks that you have
been granted access to.
Including logos on your report Safran Project supports logos in the report header
area.You can include a logo for both the right and left side of the header area. Your logo
must be saved as a bit map (BMP) or JPG type file. The logo can be report or project
specific. Choose <Change Logo> from the short-cut menu to draw a report specific
logo on your report. Choose <Default Logo> to draw the Project specific logo defined
for the Project (See the Setup Project options) or <No Logo> to draw a report without
logos (Default).
The save logo option allows you to save the selected logo to the Safran database and
not just refer to it from a selected drive or folder. When saved to the database other
users will benefit from being able to see the same report specification including the
logo. This also applies to Safran web Access users. If only referred to from a folder,
this folder may not be accessible for other users.
Field Description
Field Specify the activity related field to include in the select state-
ment
Operator Select a valid expression from the drop down list box
To enter a new selection expression, select New Line from the short cut menu or by
choosing Edit > New Line from the main menu. Selecting Delete Line will remove a
line from your expression. Using the tab key also adds new lines to this pane. The new
line works as “insert above”, whilst using tab adds lines at the end.
You can also select a filter from your list of previously defined and stored filters. These
will be listed in the Filter drop down list box.
As with report names you can reduce the number of filter in the drop down by either
selecting filters from groups, user or all users or by adding a quick filter selecting by
name or owner or combination.
Filters can be stored and
reused to select the same
set of activities also for
other reports. Using the
Filter pane you can create
ad-hoc or permanent
filters by selecting field to
filter on, expression and
logical operator.
Previewing a Report.
As you configure your charts and reports they can be viewed by clicking the Print
Preview Icon on the tool bar, or alternatively by selecting Print Preview from the file
menu. This allows you to see the format and layout of a printed report without actually
printing it.
You can change the configuration to your report continually. To return to the report
configuration press the page set up icon or select Page Setup from the File menu.
The Preview toolbar and the Edit menu contains tools that allows you to navigate, page
by page, jump to another page, Zoom and more.
Normally you will have your preview toolbar as the second toolbar at the top of your
page. However this sheet tollbar can be moved freely around the preview screen.
Printing a Report
After creating and fine tuning your reports, you will want to communicate project
information to others. You can print your report from the print preview window by
selecting the print Icon or by selecting the File>Print option. If you are used to using
key-board short cut keys you can alternatively select CTRL+P.
This will bring up the printer dialogue box that allows you to direct your output to the
right printer.
To save time and to make weekly and monthly reporting easier, Safran includes a
Report package feature that allows you to create report packages and include reports
of different types, and run them all in one go. Please see a later subject for details.
Saving Reports
Using the File>Save Report As option or by pressing the Save Icon you reports can be
saved as:
• PDF files
• Can be copied to clip board by CTRL+C or selecting the Edit>Copy page option
• Can be saved to Safran Web Access (SWA) and made available for others to read
using their browser.
Mailing a Report
Reports can be E-mailed as an attachment if yo select the Edit>Mail Report option or
press the mail icon.
During export and import you can select which reports to include. In similar fashion
Safran Project also lets you export and import Barchart Editor Layouts and Barchart
Histogram specifications.
NOTE: Barchart Editor Layouts and Barchart Editor Histograms can be imported
from the content of a spp file.
C HAPTER
Using Safran Project it is easy to generate S-Curves combined with Histograms and
table graphs. There are software scheduling packages that do not offer these valuable
tool, and third party software applications and extra programming and development is
needed to generate the required S-curves.
For reporting purposes Safran Project provides two Histogram and S-curve generators;
The Histogram/ S-Curve report and the Histogram of the Barchart Editor. A third tool-
the Resource histogram of the Barchart Editor may also be used to show resource or
cost.
This chapter explains the features of the Histogram / S-Curve report, and how to
customize it to show the curves and histograms needed. Please see the Barchart Editor
Chapter for details on the formatting capabilities of the histograms provided with this
tool.
You should also study the ‘Preparing, Viewing and Printing Reports and Graphics’
chapter for details on features common to the Safran Project reports, such as page
setup, filter, page preview and more.
• Should it be a summarized one page report, or do you want a page for each project
phase, discipline or other code? Should the page on value be displayed using the short
code or description?
• What page orientation is best suited?.
Safran Project provides you with a lot of options. To guide you the reports tab is itself
a tab divided pane with a general tab, a Axes tab and a Grid/Curtains tab.
Specify Report Span and X-axis interval Use the General tab to specify your report
span and X-axis interval an unit.
The dates in the Span text box control length of the "time window" that is displayed on
the graphic area. The entire project span may be viewed, or specify a data range to
zoom in and highlight a specific period of the project. When specifying date spans,
Safran Project adjusts the character size of the report accordingly ensuring proper
legibility at all times.
Safran Project requires that a "From" date be entered for the Graph. If the "Until" date
is left blank, Safran Project will by default choose the latest early finish of the activities
selected.
The X- axis interval can be defined by specifying a interval and unit. The intervals may
be specified as day(s), week(s), Bi-weekly, Project-Month(s), Calendar Month(s),
Quarter(s) and Year(s) as you can see in the drop-down text box. If you specify Project
Months or bi-weeks as interval, Safran Project uses the Week reference table to
determine Monthly and bi-weekly Cut-Offs. The X-axis annotation will automatically
be drawn at angular tilt to improve readability if required
NOTE:If you prepare a Histogram/S-curve for a multi network group and specify
either Project months or Biweekly report intervals, Safran Project will prompt you to
select cut-off periods from one of the Networks included in the network Group.
Select Cost or Quantity You can select to present data for cost or quantities by
simply selecting one of the radio buttons for the “report on”. If you select qty the
periodic values can show manpower or quantity. If you select cost the periodic bar
shows periodic cost.
Grouping of report data/Page On By choosing a field from the drop down list box
under "Page On", Safran will group the resource/activity records containing common
values in the specified field and produce one graph/page per occurrence. Page on
values can be selected from Activity ID, Resource and any defined Reference fields.
or Outline code.
Specifying Page/Filter Criteria You may specify selection criteria by forming a filter
statement and a Page Criteria by selecting a Page on Value. These two criteria may be
based on your live network data or your network data as saved by last cut off.
Use the Page/filter on radio buttons to select the data to be used as selection criteria for
your report. Safran Project enables you to specify the criteria to take into account any
modifications and alterations to your plan since last cut off that may impact on your
selection criteria.
Example: you have defined your report to be paged on Work package. Since last cut
off an internal Change order has moved one of your activities from one work package
to a new one. If your report was based on Live Data this change will be reflected in
your report. However you may want to base your report on data as of last Cut off for
comparison reasons, and this would give you a report that would differ from the Live
Data report.
Table Graph specification You can specify a title and font size to be used for table
title and table content. Additional you can choose if the intervals on the table data
should be the same as the graph (along the X-axis) That means that if you have chosen
to show the bars in the histogram every month, the table will be partitioned every
month.
You can also choose the table interval to be as dates. Note that the show dates interval
are specified on the axes tab. Selecting this option allows you to specify an other table
interval than the span interval. If the X-axis is defined every months, but you have
chosen to se the dates only every second month, then the table will be partitioned to
match every second month.
The third option is “Interval related to graph”, which means that even if you have the
X-axis interval to be every month, and you have defined the dates on the X-axis to be
shown every second month, you can for instance define the table to be partitioned in
every sixth months. When you tick the “Intervals related to graph” radio button,
another opportunity pops up where you can decide for instance every sixth months.
The last option being “Cut-off and Total”, gives you a table only displaying values for
last cut-off and the total for your project.
Margins You can specify left, right top and bottom margins in mm.
Placing the legend The legend, which describes the data content of the graph, may
be placed on top or at the bottom of the diagram. If you however want to hide the
legend, mark the hide radio button. You are also allowed to specify a font size for the
legend attribute.
Page Orientation The report may be presented using portrait or landscape orientation.
Select the desired orientation by marking the adjacent radio button on the General tab.
Background Pictures Safran allows you to place a picture or other graphical element
as background to your Histogram /S-curve report. We know that users have included
this in their monthly reports to show a picture of the project site, the module or object
in question, overlaid with the progress curves to indicate the project performance.
The background picture to be uses must be either a BMP or JPG file, and you can select
to show it within the graph area, within frame or across the entire page.
If you plan to use this feature, make sure that the colors scheme of your reports matches
the picture.
Detailed X-axis specification Move to the axes tab to further specify your x-axis for
the histogram/S-curve graphs. Now you can specify date format for intervals, font size
and if dates are to be shown for every x-axis interval or if you prefer another display
as for example every second interval. You can also rotate the axis text by marking the
rotate check box.
Specify Left and Right Axis The Left- and Right Axis may be formatted individually
and Safran Project lets you report on both Quantity and Progress %.
The Left-/Right Axis fields are:
Field Description
Field Description
Tick Interval User defined interval. If left blank, Safran Project calcu-
lates tick interval to fit scale.
Grid On Draws horizontal grid line for each major tick line on
axis
Using the minimum and maximum axis option can help readability of your report. Use
the maxim value when the project is in the startup phase, and the minimum value when
the project gets closer to completion.
Include datelines and shaded areas Grids and curtains can ba added to highlight
specific events or time periods such as for example last cut-off, baseline(s), period/date
for selected milestones or a time period or time event for a project like tow-out, shut
down, or a project phase just to mention a few. Making it easy to use, customize and
navigate, the Grid/Curtains tab is divided into three tabs; Grid, Activity Grids,
Curtains, Horizontal grids and Horizontal Curtains.
You use the Grids tab to enter a date line by specifying a date yourself or by selecting
one of the date globals.
To mark the period of activities or probably more often milestones, use the Activity
Grids tab and select the Milestone/activity and the needed activity date whether it is the
baseline, the current, forecast or any user defined date.
To include a curtain or a shaded area you use the curtains tab. A curtain area is defined
by both a start date and a finish date.
For all grids and curtains you can specify color, text, line style etc.
Graph Data
You can select from 21 data entries and specify their presentation. All entries can be
selected for periodic bars and periodic lines.
Entry Description/Definition
Baseline Plan, Early Baseline plan (scope) using early baseline dates
Baseline Plan, Late Baseline plan (scope) using late baseline dates
Burn Down Current Remaining work left to do according to your Current plan
Burn Down Live Remaining work left to do according to your Live plan
Current Plan, Early Your statused plan using early start/finish dates
Current Plan, Late Your statused plan using late start /finish dates
Live Plan, Early Project live plan early (activities early start/finish). User
selected scope.
Entry Description/Definition
Live Plan, Late Project live plan late (activities late start/finish). User
selected scope.
Original Plan, Early Your initial baseline, using the early dates
Original Plan, Late Your Initial baseline, using the late dates
Revised Plan, Early Revised plan, as set by the Set Revision option, using early
dates
Revised Plan, Late Revised plan, as set by the Set Revision option, using late
dates
Scheduled Plan Using the Resource scheduled star and finish dates. user
defined scope.
Graph Entries
As already mentioned you can add periodic bars, cumulative lines and table data to
your Safran Project Histogram and S-Curve report. You can combine any of these
entries on a single report or create reports that contains only periodic bars or only the
line graphs. By default a table entry is included when you add a periodic bar or a
cumulative line. This can be removed and others may be added with data that are not
shown graphically. This adds a lot of flexibility to customizing and configuring your
reports. However when removing a Periodic Bar or Cumulative line entry, the table
entry is not removed.
For each of the 3 entries Safran Project provides you with a tabbed interface that lets
you further detail and specify each of the individual entries. The Main and Layout tabs
allows you to specify the presentation of the bars, lines and table entries, and will be
discussed in more detail later in this chapter.
The Scope tab allows you to select different scopes for some of the entries selected. For
user defined scopes you can also Quantity type and specify to include original scope
and any of the variation order types.
The Rates tab is only accessible if you specify to report on Cost and your
project/network is set up to use complex rates. If so, you can detail what rate elements
are to be included for each entry individually. The cost elements are: Direct, Over Head
1-4, General & Administration and Cost of Money.
To add Entries Whether it is a periodic bar, Line graph or table entry you can use the
Edit>Add Entry menu option and then select the entry type or right click in the entry
type area to access the short cut menu and then add a new bar, new line or new table
entry.
To Remove an Entry Entries are removed from your report specification by first
selecting the entry and the either selecting Delete Bar, Delete Line or Delete Table
Entry from the short cut-menu, or by selecting Delete Entry from the Edit menu.
Use the Main tab to select the entry data, value axis, specify a date range using the from
and until date fields and if required, edit the description. By specifying a date range for
the entry you can draw bars for a limited time span that may be different from the
overall report span defined for the total report.
Use the Layout tab to specify appearance, Color, hatch, %separation, Stack on and
value for cluster.
Field Description
NOTE: For stacked elements you can specify if table data is to show totals or value
per stack element. Select this option on the Layout tab of the table Entries.
The scope tab allows you to specify bar for manpower or quantity, select qty type and
variation orders.
Some of the data elements are locked to show only specific scopes.
The scope elements in the Bar Properties - Scope tab are the same elements as defined
in the Quantity Configuration Panel (Baseline, Current, and Total).
Additionally you may also choose the 'User defined' scope. The user defined scope
allows you to select any combination from Original scope, Approved VO’s, V.O.
Requests, Internal Changes and subcontracted.
An example of a Safran
Project Histogram/ S-
Curve showing periodic
bars stacked by discipline.
The S-curves show a
single cumulative entry
covering all disciplines
and is based on qty. The
table graph includes table
entries for each stack
value (discipline)
Use The scope tab to specify bar for manpower or quantity, select type of quantity and
scope values to report from.
NOTE:If you skip the original scope when specifying the User defined scope you
can produce Histogram and S-Curves for your variation orders.
Finally, the QTY type may also be chosen. This specifies whether Internal (planned)
or Contract QTY should be used for the report.
• Both Original and Baseline plans always use the Baseline scope (CSH).
• The Revised Plan always uses the Revised Scope.The revised scope is set at the first
Plan Revision.
• Forecast plan uses the 'forecast scope' defined at the time of running the Forecast
process and could be either Baseline, Current, or Total Scope.
Changes are not applicable to any of the above Plan-sets.
• The Live Plan, Scheduled plan and Earned Value may be compared to Baseline,
Current, Total or to a User Defined scope.
Use the Layout tab to specify Color, Line style, and line thickness. You may choose
from 5 different line styles, specify line thickness from 1-24 and select from 32
different colors.
Spread On spread on is an advanced feature that allows you to group data and present
individual curves for these items on a single sheet. This is specially useful to draw s-
curves pr project phase, as it allows you to verify that work and phases are planned
logically.
Specifying Color, Hatch and Line style for stacked and phased data Choose
Edit>Group Properties to specify your own individual color, line and hatch style for
each stacked bar or phased, spread -on curve entry.
Burn Down
In addition to the traditional S-Curve cumulative line, Safran Project also lets you
create Burn Down charts. Burn down chart is a visual representation of the amount of
work that still needs to be completed before the end of a project. A burn down chart
has a Y axis (work) and an X axis (time). Ideally, the chart illustrates a downward trend
as the amount of work still left to do over time “burns down” to zero.
Safran Project lets you draw burn down chart for baseline, current and live plan
Example of a burn down
chart for the baseline plan.
The remaining work, or
the curve, “burns down”
to zero.
The Layout tab lets you specify value appearance (Scale) and number of decimals. You
can also restrict span of table only entries by specifying from and until dates. If any of
the bars are stacked you can also specify if the table is to contain total values or values
per stack element.
Rearranging table entries Safran Project allows you to arrange the table entries in
any order by moving an entry up or down the list in the Table entry panel.
Highlight the entry to be moved, and use the Up/Down arrows on the sheet toolbar.
Alternatively, press Edit - Move Tale Entry Up/Down.
Resource Availability
Using the availability option you can define Resource availability for your project. You
can use the availability to perform resource scheduling or levelling. Please see the
Resources and Cost chapter on how to define availability and the Time Analysis &
Scheduling chapter on scheduling and scheduling options.
Using Safran Project you can show availability as a profile for either manpower or
quantity. When you add the availability profile it is easy to assess the status of over load
or under load.
Including availability line On the histogram / S-curve you can include a availability
or resource limit line. This is specified at the top of the report Entries pane. The avail-
ability may be shown for either quantity or manpower, and further you can specify
color, line style and size. The availability will also be included in the table area, hence
the ability to specify decimal and value
Selecting Resources
All reports lets you specify selection criteria by using activity based filters;. that is
selecting from activity data. In addition the Histogram/S-Curve report lets you produce
specific reports focusing on or only a selected set of your resources. The default is all
resources selected.
You can choose the resources by selecting the Resources tab and then use drag and drop
to include the specific resource(s). Resources may be presented as a list or as a
hierarchy. The hierarchy is only for selection of groups of resources, and do not form
a summary structure. The resource hierarchy can be set up as part of your resource
definitions.
The resource filter works in addition to the filter selection based on activity data fields.
If no resources are entered under selection, all resources will be considered during
processing of the report.
Example of a
Histogram/S-curve with
titles, left and right logos,
periodic bars for planned,
earned and expended. The
S-Curves are presented for
Original scope, baseline
scope, current scope,
earned and expended.
Data are also included in
the table graph. Its a rich
report with a lot of
valuable information
presented on one page!
C HAPTER
• Font, color, size, background color and more formatting capabilities for the fields in
the columns area
• Filter and sort definitions
• Group and summary row definitions and formatting, including conditional row
formatting.
• Extensive formatting capabilities of the bar or graphical area, including activity lines,
global date lines and curtains.
• Background graphics
• The ability to show summary sections and detailed sections on same report.
To many users the Barchart Editor Print has become their favorite schedule reporting
tool.
Specify the date range The From/Until dates in the "Span" panel control the size of
the "time window" that is displayed on the graphic area. The entire project span may
be viewed, or specify a data range to zoom in and highlight a specific part of a project.
When specifying date spans, Safran Project adjusts the character size of the report
accordingly ensuring proper legibility at all times.
Safran Project requires that a "From" date be entered for the Barchart. If the "Until"
date is left blank, Safran Project will by default choose the latest early finish of the
activities selected.
Timelines Safran Project displays the calendar time scale at the top of each page.
Vertical calendar lines and their corresponding period values will be drawn where
appropriate for each calendar line element chosen. Vertical lines for
Year/Month/Week/Day will also continue on to the bar area itself for increased
legibility.
Showing status date lines The "Show" panel allows vertical lines for "Timenow",
"Last Cut Off", and "Baselines" to be drawn on the bar area. Additionally, a Frontline
may be drawn either the Current or Baseline.
Bar level The "Bar Level" panel allows you to configure a barchart report that, instead
of showing each individual activity bar, presents summarized bars for groups of activ-
ities sharing a common code value. This is done by choosing the relevant field from
the drop down list box in the panel.
Safran Project rolls up all data from the activities sharing the common value specified.
Summaries in a Barchart report are based on the same rules as in "Level Generation"
as well as those used during the Progress Summary.
Showing network logic The “Links On” panel allows you to include logic links
between activities in the bar area as well as controlling both layout and appearance of
the links. Links may be drawn from any of the dates specified for the bars. Once a link
type is chosen, the links color may also be specified. If the “Show Text” box is ticked,
Safran Project will annotate the link line with its constraint type and lag next to the line.
By ticking the “Show passing lines” box all links will be shown, even those just
spanning across the page that is viewed.
Sectioning the report The “Sectioning” panel allows the barchart to be structured in
sections increasing legibility. Three levels of sections may be defined, each section
optionally including summaries of numeric fields, line breaks, and page breaks. Grand
totals are also available for the highest level of sectioning appearing at the end of the
report. Grouping fields for sectioning may be chosen from the drop down list box.
Page Orientation. The report may be drawn against portrait or landscape orientation.
Select the desired orientation by marking the adjacent radio button.
Specifying bar data and layout At the bottom area of the Report tab the various bars
to be drawn in the bar area may be chosen and formatted. Safran Project may draw
activity bars based on 41 defined dates including Original dates, Early dates, Late
dates, Forecast dates, Current dates, Baseline dates, Scheduled Dates and Revised
dates. Additionally dates from the User defined fields may also be selected for presen-
tation. By defining multiple bars highly visual variance reports may be produced.
Adding a bar to the barchart report By pressing CTRL+N or selecting Edit > New
Bar from the main menu, a new bar with default characteristics is presented. The bar's
layout may then be modified to suit the needs of bar in question.
Its a tab separated panel. The main tab is where you define the bar, choose dates to draw
the bar against and add a legend for the bar. You use the Layout tab to specify the bar
properties, color, hatch, height and offset.
You may change the order in which the bars are drawn, by moving the bars within the
bar list. Select a bar and press the up or down arrow on the sheet tool bar. Alternatively
you can select the Edit>Move Entry Up or Edit>Move Entry Down menu items.
Deleting bars from the graph Highlight the bar entry to be removed from the graph
and select Delete Bar from the short cut menu or press CTRL+D to remove it from the
specification.
Choosing and formatting barchart field data In addition to the bar area that has
been discussed in the previous sections, an Activity Barchart also contains a tabular
data area where activity fields for the corresponding bars may be listed. Use the “Field”
tab to specify the fields required in the tabular data area. The order in which the fields
are presented on the right side of the panel represents the order in which they will
appear on the report. This order may be changed by rearranging the fields again using
The “up” and “Down” icons on the Sheet Toolbar.Highlight the Activity filed and press
one of the icons to move the field in either direction. Additionally the default field
width (Size) and heading may be modified.
Choose New line form the short cut menu to add a new column to the table area.Select
a field from the drop down list box, edit the Columns Size and Column Header to suite
your needs.
Sort order for the Barchart report The "Sort" tab allows you to specify the order in
which activity records are processed. The sort order for each field may be either
ascending or descending, the default order being ascending. by removing the tick the
sort order is changed to descending. Choose the "Sort" tab and select the fields for
ordering the report. Select fields by choosing New Line from the shot-cut menu. Fields
may be deleted from the sort table by highlighting the line and selecting Delete Line
from the short-cut menu. The Field sort order may be rearranged by altering the field
order in the list. Highlight the field to be “moved“ and press the “Up” or “down” arrows
on the sheet Toolbar.
Viewing the report on screen The report may be viewed on screen at any time by
pressing the Print Preview icon on the sheet toolbar.
C HAPTER
For portfolio and programme reporting the Bull’s eye report support trend lines per
project as well as a surmised line for the entire portfolio.
The third performance chart is the program and portfolio Bubble chart.
There are 5 entries available for both the periodic bars cumulative lines and table data.
In addition to the performance and schedule indexes you will fin a performance factor
and a schedule factor. The factors are available to meet the requirements in the
(geographical) markets where performance is computed as Actual/Earned and Planned
/earned. Using the Factor figures below 1 is considered to be favorable.
Entries Description
Entries Description
To Complete Perfor- The TCPI value indicates the required performance to com-
mance Index (TCPI) plete the project within budget. Value above 1 indicates that
you are falling behind and have to increase performance to
complete within budget. the To Complete Performance index
- TCPI- is calculated as Work remaining/budget remaining
The bull’s eye report can also be drawn using performance factor (the inverse of the
CPI and SPI values). If so the lower left corner becomes the most favorable.
6 Press print Preview to view the report and direct the output to a printer or save the
report to file.
To focus on and zoom in on the center part of the Bull’s eye report you can specify
minimum values on the axes. This can be useful when the performance of the project
centers around the center of the report axis.
to the right of the report configuration window you can configure the individual lines
or select to show a summarized lien for the entire portfolio.
Showing lines for each project in the portfolio, the report can look something like this
example.
The report configuration panel lets you chose the color for each project in your group
and also a checkbox that allows you to include or exclude a project from the report.
As with the Bull's eye reports you can position the projects according to indexes or
factors. IF you select indices the upper right corner is the favorable position, if you
select factors the lower left corner becomes the favorable position.
C HAPTER
The configuration
example shows the
configuration windows for
the Histogram/S-cure and
Activity Barchart together
with the configuration
window for the Combined
graph.
You can specify a time span for the Combination graph. This will replace the reports
span defined for the Activity Barchart and the Histogram S/-Curve reports. The default
span for the combination graph is the span for the Barchart Report.
To set up the report configuration you select a stored Activity Barchart report specifi-
cation and a stored Histogram/S-Curve specification.
To get best possible results when producing a combination graph you should set up
your graphs to be one page only; that is a one page Barchart and a corresponding one
page histogram.
C HAPTER
.
The Minimal layout will output a box containing only the Activity Id, and the
connecting logic. Choosing this option provides a compact view of the network which
logic checks easier. The links are annotated with the constraints delay. The links are
drawn "logically" so that a Start-to-Start constraint is drawn from the start of the prede-
cessor to the start of the successor (left side of activity box).
A compact network
diagram showing only the
activity id’s in the boxes.
The Normal layout allows you to include more activity information in each box. Five
additional data items may be presented on the activity box. The items may be chosen
from the range of fields available from each drop down box. The fields available fields
are both default Safran Project fields as well as User defined. The box layout will be
as shown in the Network Drawing configuration window.
The normal view layout
lets you present more
activity information
together with the
interrelationships and
work flow.
The Extended Layout allows you to include 8 fields in addition to the activity Id. Two
of these fields may be output on up to 4 lines. This allows you to divide long text and
descriptions on more than one line. The extended layout enables you to include more
activity information in each box.
This example shows the
output of the extended
layout option. Text may
flow over more than one
line, and you can include
information for as many as
8 field in addition to the
activity Id.
Option Description
Printer Setup Displays the print setup dialog box, and allows you to select
page orientation and paper size.
Using the Network Drawing page setup you can set scaling ( Reduce/enlarge) fit to
page, add page numbers, set margins, and select color, gray shades or black and white
print output.
You use the Printer Setup to select , printer, page size and print orientation.
Option Description
C HAPTER
To produce a pie you must specify a section on field to produce slices of the total Pie.
The section fields can be activity or any of the reference codes (R) or user defined text
fields (F). By default the Pie Chart report configuration selects the first reference 1
(R1).
The report can print short code, description or short code and description for the section
fields.
The Value field lets you select the data to compare; scopes, duration, quantities for the
different Change Order types, Expended and any user defined integer or number field.
You can select to present percentages (%) or values. and the pie can be rotated and
tilted. To do so, you can either use the vertical and horizontal slide bars, or type in a
elevation and rotation angle.
You can select to print the legend at the top, bottom, right and left, or you can select to
hide the legend. The last option may be applied if you select to show values as this also
include the section description.
Lastly you can specify font, font color and font attributes for the chart area title, the
legends and the values displayed.
C HAPTER
The Activity Report Configuration window is a tab separated window. Titles and
Filters have been discussed in the general reporting capabilities chapter.
You can use the Activity Report to produce a continuos listing or you can group and
section the report. The Activity Report support 3 levels of summaries, and the top level
may include a page break. To enhance the presentation and readability you can add
background color for the sections.
For each sections and for the report total you can include summaries of numerical data
like the scopes/quantities and any of the user defined decimal or integer fields.
However the Activity report does not perform any form of weighting so for example
progress (%) is not summarized.
You can also specify page orientation and select font and font size for the report
columns.
Use the Fields tab to select report data or fields you. Choose <New Line> from the
short-cut menu and select a field from the drop down list. A nice feature of the Activity
Report is that the setup allows you to present fields on 2 rows for each activity. This
feature can be used to create pares of data to compare like for example early start/early
finish pared with Baseline early start/finish. It can also be used to output more activity
related information on a paper 1 page wide than a single row report format allows. It
can actually show you more information.
Column sizes and user defined header information for each field/column may also be
specified. The Activity report will present fields across the report in the same order as
specified in the fields selection. To rearrange order, use the Up and Down arrows on
the Sheet Toolbar.
This example of the
Activity Reports shows
how 2 field are presented
on two rows in one
column. This allows for
more information to be
presented on one report.
Select column background color to highlight any or all columns. Colors may be used
to “group” data of comparable or identical type of information as for example the scope
fields, baseline scope, current scope and total scope.
The report may be sorted in any order from any selected activity field available in the
drop down box on the Sort pane. Order can be Ascending or Descending. Choose the
"Sort" tab and then select the required fields for sorting the report by choosing <New
Line> from the short-cut menu. The default file order is ascending.
C HAPTER
Data Items
When configuring the Resource report you can select data item one, two or three
columns. The third column can also show the difference in values between column 1
and 2.
Available data items are:
Item Description
Live- Intel qty Present the quantity from the internal quantity field (qty)
Live - Contra. Qty. Present the quantity from the contract quantity field (qty1)
Vertical Layout
The vertical layout option list activities and the assigned resource types. Two main
columns are presented ; Qty and Cost. The data items to be presented for these two
columns can be specified by selecting the data items from the Data Layout drop downs.
You can select from one or all three.
For the vertical layout you can also include a summary for each activity.
You can select specific resources to be included on the report. This can be desirable if
you have many different resource types and need to narrow down the report to focus
on a subset or a single resource type.
Example showing the
Resource Report with
“Vertical Layout”. The
resources are listed
downwards. If you look
closely you will see that
the first activity has two
resources.
Horizontal Layout
The horizontal layout option list Resources across the page. The Main columns are now
the resource types and their corresponding Cost and the assigned resource types. Two
main columns are presented; Qty and Cost. The data items to be presented for these
resources can be specified by selecting the data items from the Data Layout drop
downs. You can select from one or all three.
Use drag and drop to select the resources to be presented. You should avoid more than
5 resources with 3 columns, or a total of 15 columns, as this is the max width of a single
page in landscape orientation.
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combine and filter on data from the activities with a panel allowing you to select by
information in the change register like VO type to include in the report, or select a
specific Variation order and more.
The Change by Activity Report list activities with its Change orders, resource
estimates and cost. The report can be sectioned into two levels. To do so select values
for outer and inner sections. Totals for activities and the sections are automatically
applied.
You can select type of Changes to be included in the report and select qty/scope as well
as select dates to be presented from either the Live plan, The Baseline plan or the
Current plan.
Detailed Report
The detailed report lists the Variation order together with detailed activity and resource
information, quantity and cost for estimates and expended and actual % complete. The
report also contains a summary line for each variation. The report can be sectioned and
specified with a page break.
You will see that this report is similar to the listing or print capabilities provided with
the change register with 2 additional features; it provides report title definition and it
can be included i report packages.
See the Change Order chapter for details on this print option.
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The Progress Summary Report is used for evaluating your project's performance which
is measured and compared on a periodic and cumulative basis according to units of
quantity or Cost. Earned value is calculated by multiplying Percent Complete by the
Budget.
The content of the Progress Summary report may be saved to an XL file format using
the Save Report As function when in the report preview.
The configuration pane also lets you select scope and plan sets to be used for the report,
and if you choose to present cost data and you have set up the project to use complex
rates a cost item section is presented that allows you to include any or all of the
overhead, COM or G&A indirects.
The configuration pane also lest you select value formats, column font and size and to
add background color and your own label for the 4 main columns of the report.
7 Specify report page sectioning and page break. Sectioning can be specified for any
custom field or outline code. You are allowed to specify 5 levels of report sectioning.
8 Specify column display formats and column font and size.
9 Specify background color for Sub-section heading. You can also input your own
labels.
Some scope and plan considerations You can select different scopes/plans:
baseline, Live, Revised and Forecast. If you select the Live plan, you have more
options available to select scope; baseline, Current Total and a user defined. The user
defined allows you to select qty type and which items to include; original scope,
approved changes, Estimated changes (i.e. variation order requests, internal changes
and sub contracted work).
The Live plan can be viewed as it is now or as it was last or at the selected cut-off. To
use the Live Last option you must save Activity History during status update.
Controlling page shifts PAge shifts are controlled by the level 1 sectioning field.
Safran Project sorts the report based on the values in the field and do a page throw for
each new value of the field. Summaries will be presented for all numeric values.
Fields are selected by marking the “include” thick box. You can specify user defined
column headers, column size and select column back ground color. A counter at the
bottom of the screen helps you determine remaining cross-page space while config-
uring your report.
The table below explains a few of the columns in the report.
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Using the Report and Field tabs you can customize, report span, report intervals, and
group the report by selecting a code for page breaks. If you report on cost you can
specify cost elements to be included, provided you are using complex rates.
3 Select Page Break to produce a report grouped by common values with one page
each.
4 Specify orientation. Portrait will display up to 6 periods. Landscape will display up
to 9 periods across the page, but will also produce a 2 page report if you include all
available fields. If you select landscape the number of pages can be reduced by de-
selecting some of the fields . Default is landscape (6 periods)
5 Select font style for the body of the report.
6 Select Cost indirects to be included. This feature is only available if you have set up
your project to use Complex Rates.
Example of a 9 period
report. By selecting
landscape orientation, the
report allows for 9 periods
across the page. If you
include all fields the report
will print on two pages,
presenting the Statistical
and independent forecast
on page 2.
Using the Fields pane you can select the columns to be presented for the 4 different
sections or blocks of Information, type in your own labels and select back ground color
for each of the fields.
Using the Fields pane you
can select columns to be
included on your report,
give each column your
own label and specify
individual column
background color to
highlight specific
information. The columns
or fields are grouped into
the 4 output sections;
Current period data,
Cumulative to Date Data,
Completion data and
finally statistical and
independent Forecasts.
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2 Activity Data: include columns for Target Start, Target Complete, Early Start, Early
Finish, Duration, Free Float, Total Float, calendar (work pattern) number, and PC
(%).
3 Link Date; shows delay, type and Total float for link or logic data.
4 Activity Description.
Note: All data in this report relates to the Live Plan dates.
Three tabs are available for report configuration. The standard Titles and Filter tab
discussed previously and the specific Report tab.
The Logic Report configuration window lets you specify a page breaks and select a
Sort for the report. Page breaks can be set for user defined Reference (R) and text (F)
fields.
You can sort the Logic Report by Activity Id (Ascending), Early Start/Early Finish
(Ascending), Total Float (Ascending) or Total Float (Descending).
Critical List
The Critical List is a tabular report displaying critical activities and constraints. Safran
Project enables you to define the level of criticality by adjusting the maximum float
limit to be considered critical. The Critical List report displays Activity Id, Successors,
Delay, Activity Description, Scope, PC %, Current Progress, Target Dates, Early Start
and Finish dates, Total Float and Free Float.
By default any activity with float less than zero days is considered critical. This may
be modified by entering an integer in the "Select if Total Float <=" field. This field may
either positive or negative.
The Critical List report provides fixed set of columns. Using the Fields tab you may
specify your own fields or columns header and select column back ground color.
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To see how activities from one project or a sub-phase of one project fits with the
planned work from other project within the same time period, you can create and group
bar charts that fits your needs.
You may also want to present Progress Summary reports across projects to allow your
program or project manager to evaluate the overall progress and performance.
And it is all done with the tools that you are already familiar with from planning,
updating, monitoring and managing your single project: The Barchart Editor (both the
Gantt and the Histogram), the network Editor, the Activity Barchart, the Histogram/S-
Curve report and the Progress Summary Report.
A Framework
The PMI (Project Management Institute) defines programs and projects as follows in
the Project Management Body of Knowledge.
Program:
Program: A group of related projects managed in a coordinated way to obtain benefits
and control not available from managing them individually. Programs may include
element of related work outside of the scope of the discrete projects in the Program.
Program Management: the centralized coordinated management of a program to
achieve a program's strategic objectives and benefits.
Portfolio: A collection of projects or programs and other work that are grouped
together to facilitate effective management of that work to meet strategic business
objectives. The projects or programs of the portfolio may not necessarily be interde-
pendent or directly related.
tions, drilling, pipelines, production facilities etc. is such a program and the Olympic
Games with all facilities and activities is such a program or mega project. Another
example is the Heathrow Terminal 5 project aiming at increasing the airports capacity
from 67 to 95 million passengers a year.
Unlike Programs in the context of change, these sorts of projects end. There will be a
time when the overall objective is met and the program or mega project and all of its
constituent projects are complete. These projects all deal with a physical delivery. Non
Physical programs may not have that same clear end point or goal. The Olympic
Games have to start at the predefined date and it ends approximately a fortnight later.
It can't go on without an end date.
Safran Project provides you with a view of your projects, programs or portfolios and
the functionality and flexibility that enables you to report, analyze an communicate
relevant information required to make timely and informed decisions. It is a single
solution for managing projects of any size, scaling to managing any group of projects
and initiatives.
The multi project capabilities within Safran Project lets you group one or more active
project (including proposals, bids and what if's) to do multi project planning, reporting
and management. This has, as we already have discussed, by many been defined as
Portfolio or Program Reporting. Status and required work load from on-going active
projects forms the basis for strategy and future capacity planning.
Status, visibility of progress and achievements and other inputs from this area are an
important part of executive management and decisions.
Project management is
traditionally concerned
with active on-going
projects: Project planning,
Project Execution, Project
Reporting and
Management. Keeping
your project under tight
control and the finger at
the pulse of progress is
considered to be the single
most important task to
ensure profitability and
bottom line results for
projects, programs or
portfolios. If all projects
are kept under control, by
definition your programs
and portfolios are also
under control.
Safran gives you extended flexibility to create groups as every network can be included
in unlimited number of groups and you can also have as many groups you like. It is a
many-to-many relationship or set-up.
For example this gives you powerful and unparalleled flexibility in evaluating on-
going projects together with different scenarios of proposals and bids in terms of
capacity, workload, resources etc.
The Setup
To create a portfolio of projects you use the Safran Projects Setup>Network groups
option. This is a tab separated window that allows you to define new groups, modify
existing groups - add/remove networks, change scheduling options and add/remove
access to the group or portfolio.
Select Networks
Under the networks tab you can select any network to be part of your group. You
simple select the network from the list to the left - Non Members Networks list - and
drag them one by one across to the right to the Member Networks list. And it is just as
easy to remove a project from your project group. Just drag it across to the left.
With Safran you can create unlimited numbers of network groups and every network
can be member of any group. This provides you with extensive and powerful capabil-
ities to do cross project analyses. Adding this to the ease of including and removing
networks from your group you probably have the most flexible solution available today
for portfolio evaluation and reporting.
For further details on network group setup and reporting please see the , “Multi
Network Groups.”Chapter.
Your schedule data can be viewed and edited using the Barchart Editor or the Network
Editor.
Barchart Editor
presenting multi-networks
grouped by network and
project-phase and
discipline.
To restrict the data or to focus on specific areas of interest you can apply your filters
across the portfolio of projects. For example you can select to show only planned
engineering or fabrication work across your portfolio of projects. The installation
manager, however probably would like to see the overall workload for installation
work across all projects. He might even ask you to see how engineering, Procurement
and fabrication of critical components interface to his schedule.
Histograms can be created showing workload by project, or any user defined code.
Also for Histograms and S-curves you can apply filters to narrow down your infor-
mation.
The 3 histogram examples below shows total work by project, then all work across the
portfolio by discipline, a selection of data shows offshore installation work by project
You can also stack your histogram on Enterprise codes as shown below.
The Bulls’ eye report allows you to show the performance trend for the entire portfolio
but also show the trend for each project within the portfolio. This can be used to assess
and compare the performances of the individual projects within a program or portfolio.
Below we have included an example of a Progress summary report. This shows infor-
mation grouped by project/network and summarized to a contract or subcontract level.
Safran Project provides you with powerful and flexible features to create multi project
scheduling and reporting. As described in this chapter the terms still mean different
things to different people and organizations. Whatever it means to you or your organi-
zation, Safran fits the bill.
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• May not be capable of providing for Critical Path identification or float for all activ-
ities or milestones
• May provide an incorrect basis for resource planning
Conducting a schedule assessment is important because the schedule may not reflect
an accurate and truthful picture. The plan and/or status may be inaccurate or the sched-
uling process may be flawed.
Credibility Indicators
The key components of your schedule is a critical path method (CPM) tool, sound
network logic, work calendars and resource requirements.
A sound network logic should provide the basis of all project schedule data. It is a
model that reflect the planned project implementation and sequencing through the use
of activities and milestones, interdependencies, durations, and date constraints.
Scope of work
Your schedule should reflect all activities and the total scope of work and all WBS
elements. If not it can indicate that the project, the schedule or both is not well defined.
Later in the project it can also indicate a lag in implementing changes. An inaccurate
model of the planned work provides an incorrect basis for resource planning.
A high number in changes to scope of work, (count and work) may also indicate that
the project is not well defined.
• Activities with no predecessors may incorrectly reflect start dates much to early, or
start dates that are not realistic.
• Hampers accurate critical path identification.
Relationship types
Network logic should be predominantly Finish - to - Start relationships. The Finish -to
- Start (FS) relationship type (“once the predecessor is finished, the successor can
start”) provides a logical path through the project. The Start- to- finish relationship is
non-intuitive (the successor can’t finish until its predecessor is started- huh?) and
should only be used very rarely.
Delays
The size and frequency of delays should be minimized. Delays (positive or negative)
can be used to manipulate float or to constrain the schedule. The critical path, the
project duration, total and free float and any schedule analysis can be affected
negatively by using delays.
High Float
An activity with high float may be the result of wrong or missing logic. If the number
of activities with high float is high, this may indicate that the network is unstable or not
logic-driven.
on the other side, if the logic is sound, a path with high float may indicate that extra
work can be added to it to accelerate work, given that resources to do the work is
available during this period.
Negative float
Activities with negative float should have an explanation and a corrective action plan.
Ideally there should not be any negative float in the schedule.
High duration
The schedule should realistically reflect how long each activity will take to execute.
These durations should be as short as possible, they should be manageable in the
meaning that you should be able to measure progress against it. Activities with long
durations may be broken down into more discrete activities rather than one. This helps
to make activities more manageable which provides better insight into work and
schedule.
Using the configuration panel you can select from a large number of indicators.The
majority of the checks focus on the planning phase of your project. However some
checks (baseline execution Index, CPI,SPI,TCPI, Hits, Invalid dates etc) focus on
performance and status during execution. The following section reviews the different
metrics, indictors or checks.
Logic indicators
The logic checks provides the total number of dangling activities. Activities that have
missing logic. These checks also summarizes the number of activities with targets, the
total number of links and non Finish - Start links, invalid future dates (actual dates in
the future) and the number of links with positive and negative delay.Dealys are used to
delay or accelerate the sequence of activities and can be a risk. They are often used to
adjust the CPM dates to fit a target delivery date, or when used to represent true delay
between to tasks, they may become difficult to manage.
A network with missing logic and usage of targets may not show the effect of delays
in one area throughout your project schedule. This can give you implications like a
overly optimistic schedule.
Project completion dates in a schedule are driven by two factors, activity duration and
logic. The logic checks do not unmask wrong sequencing (“You cant build the walls
before you lay the foundation”), but focuses on the summary of how structured is the
schedule. A network schedule with missing logic may give you incorrect completion
dates driven by the critical path analyses. Negative delays should be minimal.
By adding the Link types check to your assessment Safran also summarizes the
statistics of links by type (Start-Start, Start-Finish, Finish-Start, Finish- Finish). Use
this indicator to validate the sue of different link types. Your network logic should be
predominantly Finish to Start relationships (above 75%).
Constraints or targets are dates applied to an activity that overrides dates computed by
your network logic. Extensive use of target dates may lock your schedule networks as
they go agonist the essence of CPM scheduling. There are instances where the use of
constraints or targets can be used to adress an open end wthin a schedule. Many users
and schedulers uses milestones to represent these start or finish points.
milestones hits and missed activities. A missed activity is an activity that should
already be completed and has a missing actual finish or an actuall finsih date after the
basline finish date. other indicatora are
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You can also specify the report span. This can be used to narrow down the amount of
cut-off displayed and help you focus on a time from of specific interest.
Selecting last Cut-off only and no group value will create a one-line summary report.
Filter You can also apply a Filter to the report to further narrow down your selection
of activities.
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Specify Colors. The report comes with a default color scheme of green (completed),
yellow (progress above 50%), Orange (progress below 50%) and red (not started-
Progress=0). The color scheme for the 4 statuses can be changed by selecting colors
from the dropdowns.
Column Layout. Use the layout options to set column header display format, font size
too be used for activity Id's and the display with of the periods/columns.
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Column Description
Current Baseline Also this is divided into 2 columns. The Current baseline is
the values from the last baseline.
Forecast Divided into two columns the forecast is values from the
current scope and Current Plan
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Adding to this Safran Project has an open database definition, which makes it easy to
interface including 2 way communication.
If you are familiar with SQL you can also use the Database queries window to extract
data from the database or database tables, and then export these data to Microsoft Excel
type files.
Please also note that if you are a system administrator or have access to the Safran
Project Sys. Adm. application you can also export data by selecting tables to back up
to file.
This chapter will introduce you to the options dealing with import export of networks,
activities and associated data as well as report specifications, layouts and filters. In
short the import and export options found on the File menu.
To import data from Artemis (A2) the import file must be processed using the Artemis
Export process supplied with Safran Project.
In addition Safran Project Provides a Primavera P3 import functionality that allows
you to import data from:
• Primavera P3 - *.P3 file
Safran lets you import Microsoft Project data from either Microsoft Project v .4 MPX
file formats, from Microsoft Project database files, MPD formats, from a Microsoft
Project XML file.
If you upgrade for Primavera P3, you can import an entire project from the P3 files that
constitute the Primavera database, or from the *.prn files created from a Primavera
export. (Tools>Project Utilities>Export). Microsoft’s MPX format may also be used
as a common interface media. To be able to read P3 files directly from Safran there
must be a single Primavera P3 installation accessible for your system. To import
Primavera P3 data from prn files you use the File>import>Primavera data option.
Safran Project export data is upward compatible only. This means one can import a
network from a previous version of Safran Project although not from a more recent
version.
Network data imported from file may be saved to a new network or to an existing
network. When saving to an existing network, you may choose either to overwrite any
existing data or to append the imported data to the existing.
Choose File > Import > Network from the main menu. Safran Project prompts for both
the import filename and file type.
network, to append data and to update. Pressing the read button reads data and presents
the number of data elements on the file. When you press the save button, Safran Project
saves your data to the safran Project database.
Set Calendar Units Option Different schedules and different planning packages may
have different calendar units as their base. When importing a schedule you can choose
to convert this to another unit. This can be specially useful if you receive a schedule
with base calendar unit of hour sand would like to convert this to a calendar unit of
days.
The Overwrite Option If you choose the “overwrite” - option, you can choose a
network from the list, or input a new name for the imported network. If you choose a
non-existing name, a new network with that name is created. If you select an existing
network, the network is replaced with the network and the data from the import file,
keeping the network ID as it is. The imported calendar is always created as a new
calendar, and the old calendar is kept in the database if it is an existing network. The
same goes for the profile set, the user field set, the symbol set and if applicable, the rule
set and the global set. The project is updated with data from the import file, along with
the scope configuration and the table for the cut-off dates. If no history is imported, any
existing cut-off information will be reset.
The Append Option If you choose the “Append” option. you will be given an option
to select an existing Change Order (VO), for all appended resources. If the network has
the “lock Scope”- option set, the selection of a Change Order is mandatory, to avoid
changes to the Baseline Scope.
The Update Option The “Update” - option is intended for use in situations where all
activities in the import file exists in the target network, or where the target network is
a copy of the source for the import, meaning that no new activities/resources/changes
is added to the target networks between imports. This is because the import uses the
sequence numbers to identify these. Adding (different) activities both in the import
source and the target, would result in “wrong” activities being updated by the import.
Choosing the”update”- option will enable the “Deleted Flag” drop-down. This let you
select which of the flag user fields should be used for marking activities no longer
present in the import file. This is instead of an automatic deletion (which would disable
updated on part of the network), enabling selection of all flagged activities so that
theses can be manually deleted later, keeping you in control.
The “Update” - option will add new calendars, profiles, resources etc. to the calendar,
resource, profile etc. sets, but not delete any calendars, profiles, resources etc. no
longer in use.
Having selected the correct input file, the wizard asks for a target network to save the
data in. By default the project name embedded in the file will be suggested as the target.
If a corresponding network doesn't already exist, a new network will be created
automatically. Selecting an existing network, the users can choose whether to append
the incoming activities as new activities or to update the existing activities with new
information. If the append option is used, any activity numbers which conflicts with
existing numbers will get a suffix to make it unique. For the update option, any activ-
ities which are not identified as existing activities will be regarded as new and be added
to the project.
Press the raed button to read data on file and prepare for the safran database. Then press
the Next button to start mapping Primavera user codes . The Primavera WBS structure
and any Primavera Project Codes, Activity Codes or User Defined Fields found in the
file will be picked up and presented as possible Userfields in Safran Project. All
Primavera fields with a hierarchical structure will be presented as Outline Fields, all
Primavera fields with a list structure will be presented as Reference Fields and all other
codes will be introduced as Text, Date, Decimal, Number or Flag Fields depending on
their data types. The import wizard automatically suggests positions in the target
Userfield Set for each field. The user can tick off which fields to use or not by checking
in or out the In use check boxes. The wizard will remember the map settings for the
same database and target network.
Finally press next and then Save to submit the data to the Safran Project database. By
default, the user will be taken directly to the target network afterwards (controlled by
the 'Log on to imported network' check box, available for all the wizard steps).
NOTE: Please note that only one project can be imported at the time. If the
Primavera XER file contains more than one project, these must be separated prior
to the Safran Project import.
The target Safran Project network will always use an hourly based calendar, as
Primavera Enterprise uses hours as the duration unit.
Pressing the Back button takes the user to the previous step in the wizard, allowing for
change of target networks or import files.
Reading Primavera P3 files The easiest and by all means fastest way of importing
Primavera data to your Safran Project database is by using the Safran File converter
utility. The Safran File converter reads data from the “native” P3 files and saves the
information in Safran. To use this utility the Primavera P3 software must be installed
and accessible on your system.
Choose the Safran File>Import>Network option and select the P3 file format. Press the
Read button to start reading the P3 files, then enter a Save name and press the Save
button to save the P3 project data to a Safran network.
Importing MPX Project Files Primavera Project Planner allows you to export
schedule data to MPX format. Once you have exported the schedule data to MPX
format you can then import the MPX file into Safran Project using the File>Import
Network option.
Importing Primavara data from PRN files Using the Primavera Project Planner
Tools>Project Utilities>Export option you can specify schedule data to be exported.
The Export utilities allows you to select data to be exported (filter) and define the list
of data elements to be exported. The export file must be of type [.PRN] for the Safran
Primavera import utility to read data correctly
Once your schedule data has been exported, you use the Safran Project
import>Primavera Data option to import data into Safran Project.
Safran Project allows users to import activity and resource data, Activity successor
data (logic). You may also want to import activity codes (known as reference fields in
Safran) and the resource set definition.
Primavera Project Planner export specifications may be saved for later usage.
You should specify 4 different export files containing your Primavera Project Planner
data.
file/item Content
Activity Codes Select only the Data Item “Activity Codes” to create an
export file containing data to be imported into the Saf-
ran Project User field set as references
NOTE:When you create the export specification, make sure to change the output
file name so existing file is not overwritten.
Activity and resource data are selectable from a list of data items provided in the
Primavera Project Planner Export window.
Activity ID
Title
Early Start
Early Finish
Actual Start
Actual Finish
Original Duration
Calendar ID
Percent Complete
Activity Codes
Resource
Budget Quantity
Budget Cost
Actual Quantity
Actual Cost
Once all data is exported it is time to import data into Safran Project. Make sure the
network is defined and that the calendar definitions have been set up.
The Safran Import feature reads file column information (headers) to determine
whether the file contain resource codes, Reference codes, Activity and resource data or
logic. To successfully import activity and resource data, all required codes must be in
place. You do this either by defining resources and reference fields in Safran or by
importing this information from text files exported as described above.
Before importing logic, the activities must have been imported into the Safran Project
network
To start the Import Choose File>Import>Network>Primavera Data. The Import
from Primavera (P3) window allows you to select the appropriate file on your system
and specify the Safran Project network to import data into. Select files in the correct
order: Activity codes and resource definition before Activity and Resource data. Activ-
ities before Logic. Once the file is selected, press OK to start importing.
You will also find that Safran Project allows you to export data to DBF files or to
Primavera P3 batch files to allow users of this older scheduling software to import data
from your Safran Project schedule.
The network Export features provides you with a wizard type interface, with options
and features suitable for the selected format.
Once you have entered your export file name and press the next button, Safran provides
the check panel to determine what data element you are to export. Once this is done
and you press the export button, Safran creates the *sp export file.
Enter the target file name with extension .XER, or choose an existing .XER file to
overwrite. Pick one of the available networks in the database. Use the Filter button to
give in a filter which will limit the selection of activities included in the file (Note that
this can corrupt the logic in the network!)
Select parameters which affect the way data are laid out in the file.
The WBS Field option is used to identify one Safran Project userfield (Reference or
Outline) which will be used as the WBS structure. Having a WBS structure is
compulsory in Primavera. If no Safran Project field is chosen, a dummy structure with
only one node will be introduced in the file. If a Safran Project field is used, any activ-
ities without a value for this field will be assigned to a dummy node at the root level.
The Plan Set values are Current Plan or Live Plan. This determines which schedule
data to use in the XER file. By default, the export will use the Current Plan with
analysis dates from the last Safran Project Status Update, with the latest Cutoff date as
the Primavera Data Date. If the Live plan is used, the Primavera dates will be based on
the Live analysis with the Safran Project Timenow date as the Primavera Data Date.
Correspondingly, for the Current Plan option the progress figures from the last Status
Update are used as progress in Primavera, while for the Live Plan, the last update of
the time percentage (PC) is used as Primavera progress.
The Resources choice allows the user to present the activity budgets in various ways.
By default, the export wizard suggests to aggregate the budgets to make sums for each
combination of activity number and resource definition. This is to avoid a flaw in the
Primavera import method (documented by Primavera as an improvement issue) where
it will only read the last resource assignment for an activity where the activity has more
than one instance of the same resource type. This situation can easily arise if there are
Change Order resource contributions in Safran Project. Another way to avoid this is to
use the As Is option and also use the 'Use VOs as Cost Accounts' check box. This will
also get around the situation as the activity/resource type combinations will now
normally be unique in combination with the Change Order code. However please
check out in advance with the recipient of the file that this method can be used, as there
might be regulations on which Cost Accounts to introduce in the target Primavera
database.
You can also select scope and what type of change orders to include in the export if
you select the user defiend scope from th edropdown.
Use the None option if no budgets should be exported, but only the schedule.
It is also possible to exclude the network logic from the file by choosing the None
option in the Links group. This will set target start dates for all activities in the file,
making them keep the same start dates as without the logic. The original source
network will of course not be affected by this.
The last step is to check out which User Fields to export to Primavera. The various
fields found in the Userfield Set for the source network are presented in separate tabs
for each data type. The user can select which fields to include in the file by ticking off
the In use check boxes. This field map will be remembered by the wizard for each
source network in the database and be used as default values for any succeeding
exports.
The wizard is now ready to write the data to the file, and uses the final step to
summarize a count of statistics for the whole operation.
The Back button can be used at all times to go back to the previous step and make
changes to the export parameters.
Exporting network data to Primavera P3 The Export Primavera Data option allows
you to export activity data, logic (links), resource and progress data. Using this option
you can create 4 update fields in either Dbase III or Lotus123 formats that can be read
by the Primavera P3 Tools>Project Utilities>import. This import option allows you to
update existing Primavera P3 project with new information. All P3 records imported
will update their corresponding activities. Modified records will update or add new
data value, unchanged records will have the same data values overwrite existing data
values.
If you, for some reason, are asked to establish a Safran Project plan in Primavera P3
we recommend that you use the Save network option and select the Microsoft MPX
file format as Primavera P3 reads this format. (See previous section).
When you need to update or change data in the Primavera application you use the files
created by the Export>Primavera data option to do so.
First you select network to export data from (default is current network). Then you
specify Export Type: Activity Export to update or modify Activity information, Link
Export to update or change logic. Resource Export updates resource assignments and
Progress Export updates activity data with current Progress from Safran. For each
option you specify a filename.
You can use Either the Activity ID or the key as Activity Identification. If you plan to
use the Activity ID, you should map one of the Text1-Text10 fields in MPX to hold the
Safran Project Activity ID and then change the Activity ID in Primavera after
importing the data.
You use the Filter option to select parts of your network for update.
Creating a Primavera Batch file The File>Export>Primavera batch option creates a
Primavera batch file containing project, calendar, activity, logic and resource infor-
mation. When run through the Primavera batch utility it creates a Primavera project
with all network information. Thus this is a quick and straight forward way of trans-
ferring your schedule information from Safran to Primavera P3.
A “wizard” will guide you through the steps required to export your Safran data. First
select your network to export, then create a batch file, specifying name and folder.
Then add a P3 name of 4 characters and enter a valid P3 login and press next
Now you can map your Safran Calendars to Primavera calendar ids and press next to
continue.
Before finishing the export, you should check the Userfield to Activity Code
mappings. As Primavera only supports 4 character fields, duplicates may arise.
Pressing the finish button will create a Primavera BTC file. This may look something
like this example if displayed in a text editor.
The succeeding rows (row 2-n) contains your data, and columns must be in same order
as specified in your header row. Reference fields data has to be specified by their short
name and not their ID
Enter your file name, or press the Browse button to search your computer. Once the file
has been specified you may press the import button to read data from file. Data may be
appended or existing data may be updated by selecting either the Append or the
Update/Insert option as your import mode.
If your current network has subnetworks you will be presented with a drop down
selection box, allowing you to specify your sub network destination.
Importing Links
You may import links from a tab separated text file by selecting File>import>Links
from the main menu.
Specify your file name or press Browse to select the file to import. The header row (row
1) in your file specifies the columns. The following table provides an overview of
column names and description that may be specified in your Constraints import file.
The two columns 'pan' and 'san' are mandatory.
The succeeding rows (row 2-n) contain your data, and columns must be in same order
as specified in your header row.
Exporting Links
If you need to export logic data, Links, you can do this by selecting the export options
from the Links Entry/Review pane. Note that this pane also supports import of links
from a text file.
Another option for exporting links and link information is to use the Export Primavera
data (DBF) option and select Export
Your header row should start with an empty column (tab), followed by resource short
names. The quantity can be left empty for one or several columns. The resource - short
name must be defined and 'an' must be a valid activity ID present in your Safran Project
Network. The tab separated text file should form a activity-resource matrix.
Specify your import file name or browse your computer for files. The Add to change
drop-down list box provides you with a selection of variation orders that the resources
and quantities may be added to. If the current network has the "Lock Scope" property
set, selecting a variation order is required.
A filter option is applied to allow you to export a selection of activities with their
resource and quantities information. Activity columns are Activity Id, Description and
all defined User fields. selectable Resource Columns are Resource type, Internal qty,
Contract Qty, Internal Cost, Contract Cost, Duration, Lag and Actual % complete.
Press <Browse> to search your system for exported report configuration files. Press the
Include button to select any or all of the reports contained within the Reports Config-
uration file. You may also change name of the individual report specifications before
saving.
Press the Browse button to browse for existing report configuration files on your
system. Press the Include button to make a selection of report configurations to be
exported.
Field Description
Press <Select All> to export all specifications, or make a selection by ticking the
include mark. Press <OK> to export, and write your export filename in the “report
Configuration” box. You may overwrite previous saved configurations by typing a
existing name. The saved report configuration file will have the extension .SPR.
NOTE: You can also import layouts contained in Safran Planner files (spp). Select
the appropriate planner file and the Safran Barchart Editor Layouts import extracts
the layout information from the planner file.
Specify a file name, Press the Include button to select layouts from a list of all your
layouts.
Select layouts, press the OK button to return to the Layouts Export Window and press
the Export Button to export your Layouts.
Choose File>Import Barchart Editor Histograms, then browse your system and folders
to locate the *.SPH file. Safran allows you to import one, a selection of layouts or all
layouts included in the file. If the file contains layout with identical names to layouts
already in your Safran database, you will be warned and given the possibility to change
the save name.
NOTE: You can also import layouts contained in Safran Planner files (spp). Select
the appropriate planner file and the Safran Barchart Editor Histogram import
extracts the histogram and configuration information from the planner file.
C HAPTER
UTILITIES
This Chapter provides information on how to use additional features available in
Safran Project that were either only briefly introduced or not discussed elsewhere in
this manual. These functions include:
• Log On Preferences
• Periodic Aggregation
• Network Save as
• Database Queries
Log on preferences
As you work with Safran Project, you will probably notice that there are some tasks
you do more often than others, or that you spend more time working on certain
networks than others. Safran Project provides tools allowing you to work more
efficiently and spend your time controlling your project, and less time manipulating
Safran Project.
One way to increase efficiency is to set up Safran Project, so that the tools most
commonly used are at hand when and where you need them. This may be done by
configuring the Safran Project desktop which includes Startup and Display prefer-
ences, menus, and toolbars bars.
Another way to improve productivity when working with very large networks is to
open an editor with a database selection a so called "DB Where Clause". This feature
may be used to set a user defined selection criterion at startup limiting the number of
activities to be loaded.
Option Description
Startup Window - Default startup. Initiates an empty MDI frame as the current
None window
Startup Window - Initiates Safran Project with Barchart Editor as active sheet.
Barchart Editor
Startup Window - Initiates Safran Project with Network Editor as active sheet.
Network Editor
Option Description
Automatic login to This checkbox will only be available if you have installed the
local database Safran Project personal Edition.
Analysis type prompt By choosing the Current Analysis option, the current progress
from the previous status update is loaded with the live network, using the day after Cut-
off date as Timenow. During this session, updates of the current progress fields and
Timenow are disabled. When the session is finished or when a Save is requested, time
analysis results are saved to the Current plan set (CES, CEF, etc.)
If the Live Analysis option is selected, the editors permit updates to the time progress
fields PC, ACS, ACF, and RDU. When the session is finished or when a Save is
requested, time analysis results are saved to the Live plan set ES, EF, etc.
Startup Network If the Last Opened checkbox is marked, Safran Project always
selects the network that was in use at last log out as the default network at the next
logon.
A default startup Network may also chosen from the drop down list box.
Progress and Expended Safran Project allows you set preferences for Progress
updates. You can either use the standard spreadsheet type window (Default) or use the
Barchart Editor to update your actual progress and Expenditure.
Periodic Aggregation
The Periodic Aggregation facility allows numeric values to be summarized over a
single or multiple time span.
The Periodic Aggregation facility allow you to:
• Aggregate from any table, also “Non Safran” tables
• Link tables
The table used to read data from is called the source table.
Field Description
Source Table Name of source table. Choose from drop down list box.
Link Tables Link table to Source table. Select link tables under Options
on the main menu.
Sum: Source Field Specify a numeric field in the source or linked tables to be
spread during the aggregation. Select a field from the drop
down list box
Field Description
Sum: From Date The date field in the source or linked tables to be spread from
Sum: Until Date The date field in the source or linked tables to be spread until
Multiple Sum entries In the Sum panel of the Periodic Aggregation window, various
summaries are specified to be calculated during the aggregation. By default, one
summary line is available in the sum section.
The Source field is the numeric field containing the value to be aggregated. The
From/Until date fields must contain date fields to control the start and end dates for the
aggregation of the numeric field. The Target field is chosen from the available fields.
To add additional summary lines select Edit > New Sum Entry from the main
menu. Similarly, to delete a Summary line, highlight the summary line and select Edit
> Delete Sum Entry from the main menu.
If multiple Summary lines are required, new target fields will also have to be defined
as described in the previous section.
Specifying selection Criteria In order to limit the records to be processed during a
periodic aggregation Safran Project allows a selection criteria to be applied to both the
source and link tables. To apply a selection criteria for the Source table, select Options
> Where Clause > Source Table from the main menu, and specify an appropriate SQL
Where clause.
Specifying a Link table . If all necessary data is not contained in the specified source
table, an additional table may be linked to the source table in order to carry out the
Periodic Aggregation. This is done by choosing Options > Link Tables from the main
menu.
Field Description
Table Name Select table name from drop down list box
Outer Join Mark this field to specify an SQL outer join between tables
Press the "Where" button to specify a selection criterion to limit link-table records to
be included during processing if required.
Specifying Summary target fields By default, only one summary field, Result1, is
available. If multiple summary fields are required, additional fields may be defined.
This is done by choosing View> Target Field Definitions from the main menu. The
Target Fields Definition panel is presented. Press the Add button to add additional
target fields. Each field may have a user-defined description. The target field may be
of type Quantity or Manpower.
Running the periodic aggregation process After all the necessary configuration
options have been specified, the Aggregate icon on the sheet toolbar will be highlighted
and the aggregation can be initiated by pressing the Aggregate icon.
Once this is done Safran Project will carry out the Aggregation process, and having
completed this, Safran Project presents the resulting data in the "Result" panel.
Having done the above you may choose to do one or more of the following:
Saving aggregation results After having executed a Periodic Aggregation, the
results may be saved for later reference. The resulting data may be saved either to an
operating system file or to a database table. The file type may be either a tab separated
text file or an MS Excel file.
If the resulting data is to be saved to the database, the table must exist prior to the save.
As a part of the save process, each resulting field from the aggregation may be mapped
to a field in the destination table.
Field Description
Table Column Name Corresponding destination table columns. Select from drop
down list box
Using the "Report" tab, Titles, Left and Right Axis details, Time Span and Date
Formats may be specified.
On each of the following tabs Periodic, Cumulative, and Table, the Key, Color, Hatch,
Line Style, and Axis Information may be configured for each graph element defined.
To view the resulting graphic report choose Options > Graphic View from the main
menu. Further choose the resulting group field to view.
Once the report is presented on screen, it may be printed or issued by E-mail using the
relevant icon on the sheet toolbar.
Saving the aggregation report From the graphics view option it is possible to save
the report to different graphical file formats as with the Safran Project standard reports.
In this way you may distribute a picture of your summary or aggregation and include
this into other window applications or put it on a web server. Choose File>Save As to
save your graphical view.
As part of the save, you may also specify additional data such as Baselines, Progress
Data, and Forecasts to be included in the save.
Enter a new network name in the dialog box to save a copy of the network, or choose
an existing network from the drop down list box. If an existing network is chosen,
Safran Project will prompt you for confirmation before replacing the network.
Any number of copies of a network may be saved in Safran Project. This will only be
limited by the size of the database.
Database Queries
In addition to the facilities provided in the editors, Safran Project also allows you to
access and manipulate data by entering standard SQL queries. Further, a number of
simple, Artemis A2 like commands may also be used to interrogate the database.
To make the most of this facility, you should have a basic understanding of SQL
queries and syntax.
NOTE:When you work with SQL - remember to be careful what you ask about
because you just might get it!
Command Description
Command Description
The following options are available by choosing Edit on the main menu:
New Use this option to add a new Command line in the Database Queries window.
Delete Use this option to delete the current line in the Database Queries window.
Open Query Use this option to retrieve and open a previously saved SQL command
file. SQL command files have a .SQL extension. MS Notepad is ideal for writing and
maintaining SQL command files in addition to any text editor that is able to save pure
text (no formatting characters).
Execute Command Use this option to execute the current command line.
Saving an SQL command Select the Save option from the file menu to save your
SQL command to a file (*.sql) for future use.
Edit Multi-line SQL Use this option to open a multi-line edit window. This allows you
to write more complex SQL statements.
After having built the SQL query, you may execute the SQL statement or save the sql
statement to a file for later reusage. Pressing the Open SQL button lets you browse your
systems for files of type *.SQL, containing SQL statements
For more information regarding the use of SQL functions, please refer to the relevant
documentation for the underlying database management system. An introduction to
SQL queries can be found in Appendix D of this book.
Choose Tools > Calendar > Monthly Calendar to invoke the monthly calendar, or use
the keyboard short cut key CTRL+F2.
You may switch between the various work patterns, years or months by use of the scroll
buttons. The drop down list box allows you to jump straight to the month of your
choice.
As you can see the choose date calendar is similar to the pop-up calendar.
In Safran Project we have implemented a neat little feature to assist you in finding the
answer to such queries.
By choosing Tools > Calendar > Date Calculator (or CTRL+F3), you will be presented
with the date calculator as shown below:
The calculator takes in to consideration the calendar assigned to your current network,
while you are allowed to switch between the different work patterns by use of the scroll
keys.
Field Description
Start Date Enter the Start Date; Time / calculated by Safran Project
After entering any two of the three available fields, Safran Project calculates the
remaining field. Enter a start and an end date to find the number of days between, enter
a start date and duration to arrive at the end date and so forth.
You may switch between automatic and manual operation of the date calculator.
In addition to this the date calculator has the following two calculation modes:
Mode Description
Calculator: There are 0 days between a start date and an end date of
the same date; i.e. 1.1.99 - 1.1.99=0.
Mode Description
Analyze: The duration between a start date and an end date of the
same date is 1, i.e. 1.1.99 - 1.1.99=1.
Safran Project presets the above Database Login panel. Please consult your System
Administrator for information regarding the various parameters for database login.
C HAPTER
The interface options and some fundamental aspects of the interface are discussed
throughout this section.
Import/Export Functionality
You may find it worthwhile to examine a brief sketch of the Import /Export options and
their functional capabilities. The table below highlights the functions performed by
each option.
Import from MPX Reads an MPX file to create a Safran Project Network.
Creates and replaces calendars, Resources
Uses summary tasks to create Safran Project Reference
fields.
The import allows you to delete existing Network data
prior to loading the MPX data, or append the data to a
existing network
Import from MPD Reads data from a Microsoft Project database file (
Access)
Publish to Safran data- You may use any of the software editions under the Saf-
base ran for Microsoft Project Platform offering to publish
the Microsoft Project directly to your Safran database.
Please note that Safran for the Microsoft Project Plat-
form is another Safran product.
Export to MPX Creates an MPX file for which you specify a file name.
The MPX can be opened by Microsoft Project.
Exports activities, calendars and resource requirements
Group levels defined in your last used layout are
exported as summary tasks.
• Hammock activities are not supported by Microsoft Project. Therefor hammocks are
exported as regular activities.
• The Safran Project activity duration is computed from the Microsoft project Early
start and Early Finish fields.
• Microsoft Project allows you to create projects using an outlining technique. The
activity or task name is indented to reflect the outline level and to intuitively indicate
the summary level. Information for the summary task is determined from the subor-
dinate sub-task information. Safran Project does not support this outlining feature. It
does however support a similar but more flexible functionality in the Bar Chart editor
and during reporting by using reference type user fields to summarize activity infor-
mation.
The technique employed in the interface is to represent the Microsoft Project
summary tasks by Reference field codes. Each summary task in the Microsoft Project
Outline becomes a reference code value.
The Export interface converts the reference code used to create a summary in the last
opened Layout from the Bar Chart editor to Microsoft Project outline summary tasks.
• During Export the Microsoft Activity IDs are generated as numbers starting from one
and increasing by 1 derived from the activity row number of the last opened Barchart
Editor layout in Safran Project. The Safran Project Activity ID is not exported. When
you import activity information from a Microsoft file, the Microsoft Activity ID is
used for updating both the Activity seq field and the Activity Id field.
Field Mappings
In order to interface Safran Project and Microsoft Project, analogues information is
automatically mapped by the import/Export options. The mapping ensures that infor-
mation is placed in the proper fields for the two products. It defines what is put where
during the transfer.
The following types of data are mapped Safran Project and Microsoft Project in a fairly
straight forward manner:
• Basic Activity (task) information, including dates, and duration including target
fields;
• Logic, (activity relationships);
• Calendar information
• Resource definitions;
• Resource requirements;
Text8(11) String8(F8)
Target Fields
Microsoft Project has one target or imposed date. The Microsoft Project target fields
are defined as;
With the exception of “As Late As Possible”, all values of CONSTRAINT TYPE are
compatible with Safran Project. “As Late As Possible” constraint type is ignored. “As
Soon As Possible” constraint type is not converted as this is the default Safran Project
behavior.
During Export Safran Project Target dates are converted to the Microsoft Imposed date
following this Priority; Fixed Start (fsd), Fixed Finish (ffd), Target Complete Early
(tce), Target Start Early (tse), Target Complete Late (tcl), Target Start Late (tsl).
Logic
The PREDECESSORS (70) field and SUCCESSORS (71) field in the 70 record are
lists of preceding and succeeding tasks. For each relationship, the task identification
(Activity Id), relationship type and lag are included.
Calendar Information
The type 20 and type 25 MPX record defines the Microsoft Project Calendars. As part
of the Import interface a Calendar Set is created with a default continuos calendar
together with calendars identified in the MPX file. Calendar Type i set to hours. Rest
entries are deduces from the working and non-working days specified on the type 20
MPX field records and the start and end work times specified on the type 25 MPX
record.
The Standard Calendar is used for all project activities.
Resources
Resource requirement information are stored in the type 75 MPX record. To specify the
requirements both Safran Project and Microsoft Project offer a amount field, a lag or
delay field. Safran also has a resource duration field to specify the portion of the
activity duration which the resource is required. Both systems support multiple
resource records to build a resource profile. Safran Project supports Resource profiles.
During import resource records are created in Safran Project for each resource record
signet to a task in Microsoft Project. The following Microsoft Project field information
is transferred:
• ID, Resource Id
Resource Definitions
When a resource is added from the MPX file, it is added to the Resource set as a list of
resources. The Resource information is extracted from the following fields on the type
50 MPX record.
ID (40) Resource Id
Resource Availability
Resource Pool or resource availability information is not included in the Import/Export
interface between Safran Project and Microsoft Project.
Appendix A : CONSTRAINTS
Safran Project uses Critical Path Method to calculate activity dates. This method is
based on estimated activity durations together with the logical relationships between
the activities.
Network logic may not reflect all conditions and sometimes you need to impose
constraints on specific dates. You can constrain certain activities, which affects the way
Safran Project calculates dates for activities and links.
Logic
One of the key elements when modeling a project work is the ability to logically link
activities using different types of relationships or constraints. The constraint type
specifies the relationship between the preceding and the succeeding activity. There are
four types of constraints:
Date Constraints
In many projects, it may be necessary to impose dates on certain activities that need to
have higher priority the network logic itself.
Examples of such may be specific dates that must be met in order to achieve either
desired or contractual goals in the project.
Date constraints or Target dates may be used to lock the start or finish of a single
activity, a phase of work, a particular work package, a sub network or the entire project.
Target dates have higher priority than logical constraints and will have an effect on the
Network Analysis calculations further influencing float values.
Date constraints may be assigned to both activities and logic constraints. The latter is
called a Split Target. The following Date Constraints or Target dates are available in
Safran Project:
Target Start Early Date to impose an earliest start date for the activity
Target Start Late Date to impose a latest start date for the activity
Target Complete Date to impose an earliest completion date for the activity
Early
Target Complete Date to impose a latest completion date for the activity
Late
Fixed Start Fixed mandatory, Start date for the Activity. Overrides all
other targets
Fixed Finish Fixed mandatory, Finish date for the Activity. Overrides all
other targets
As Late As Possible Uses the activity free float to push the activity to start as late
as possible without delaying any succeeding activities
Fixed Start
A Fixed Start date is the date on which an activity must start. If a Fixed Start date is
present, it takes precedence over all other targets. A Fixed Start date sets both early and
late start dates to the imposed date.
Fixed Finish
A Fixed Finish date is the date on which an activity must finish. If a Fixed Start date is
present, it takes precedence over all other targets. A Fixed Start date sets both early and
late start dates to the imposed date.
As Late As Possible
A As Late as Possible constraint is used to delay the activity as much as possible
without delaying any succeeding activities. The As Late as Possible constraint uses the
activity free float to delay the start and finish dates.
Split Targets
Split targets are used where a natural break occurs in the network. If a split target value
is entered to a logic constraint, it acts as a barrier between the set of preceding activities
and the set of succeeding activities, making the two sets independent of each other. The
preceding activity may not complete later than the split target date, and the succeeding
activity is not allowed to commence before this date.
The split target date may be used as a means of distributing the available float in the
network. Float is an asset common for all activities on the network path. A split target
date may therefore be used to distribute the float between project phase, sub-networks,
or areas of responsibility. Using split targets prevents any single part of a project from
acquiring all available float.
User Access
All Users may be assigned to User groups. You may define restricted access to menu
Options for Users and/or User groups through the System Administration module.
Users that define a new network become the network Owner. The Owner shares his
network with other users or user groups by granting different levels of user access. The
available access levels are described below:
Access levels
Users that define a new network become the network Owner. The Owner shares his
network with other users or user groups by granting different levels of user access. The
available access levels are described below:
Exclusive Allows exclusive update access to the network. If a user has opened the
network in Exclusive mode, Safran Project does not allow additional users to access
that network in Update mode.
Update Allows Update access to the network by an 'unlimited' number of users. If
multiple users enter updates for the same activity, Safran Project stores the update that
was saved last. If more than one user is updating the network simultaneously, the
Network status will be set to 'Not Analyzed'
Test In test mode users are allowed to make changes to network data to see the effect
on screen but are not allowed to save changes to the database. Users may, however,
save changes to a different Network name by use of the 'Save As' Option. Safran
Project supports an unlimited number of simultaneously users in Test Mode.
Read Users are only allowed to view data on-screen. No updates are allowed, either
on screen or to the database. Safran Project supports an unlimited number of simulta-
neous users to access the network in Read Mode.
However, an ideal situation like this is not always realistic in a real life project.
Therefore, Safran Project also supports the less structured situation where the sub-net
activities are scattered throughout the entire project, as may be the case if you base your
plan on single discipline activities. This means that structural Steel activities must be
completed before piping activities, followed by electrical and instrument activities. In
worst case, you may find yourself in a situation where every other activity is owned by
a different Sub-network or user.
In addition to handling such complex cases, Safran project also produces logical, intel-
ligent and correct time analysis results.
The Split Target date acts as a barrier between the set of preceding activities and the set
of succeeding activities, making the two sets independent of each other. Activities in
the preceding Sub Network are not allowed to finish later than the interface constraint
Split target date, and activities in the succeeding Sub Network are subsequently not
allowed to start before this date.
The split target date may be used as a means of sharing the available float in your
network amongst the different sub-nets. Total Float is a asset common to all activities
along the critical path of the network. This path may run through several Sub Networks
and Total Float may therefore be proportionally "owned" by multiple users. The split
target date may be used to distribute Total Float between project phase, sub-networks,
or project responsible. By using this facility one may avoid Total Float being allocated
by a single sub-project, project phase, or discipline.
The Safran Project publishing facilities enable you to produce and share project infor-
mation on the World Wide Web or on a project or company intranet for easy access by
other project members.
From the report preview screen, choose the File>Save to SWA option to save your
report for shared access.
Safran Web Access can be integrated with your corporate or project intranet to provide
information from anywhere allowing users to access your Safran reports through a
browser.
Portable Document Format Safran allows you to save reports to Adobe Pdf format
files as part of the file Save As option. The Safran PS writer must be installed for this
option to work. Alternatively you may have a Adobe or PDF Writer installed on your
system. If this has been done, an additional printer, Acrobat PDF Writer will be
available when choosing the print icon. Instead of directing your report to a printer the
Acrobat Writer produces a PDF file. This file retains the original format as it would be
seen on screen or printed on a local printer.
Safran Project Format Using the save As option you will be allowed to Save your
report in different formats. One of these formats is identical to the format produced
when choosing to issue your report be E-mail, the .psr format. To read this format you
must have the Safran Project report viewer installed. The report viewer may be
distributed on your company Inter- or Intranet, and may also be issued with any report
free of charge.
To save a report to psr format. View the report on screen, choose File>Save As and
specify file type to psr.
To View web reports Web reports are platform independent. The advantage of this is
that the report does not have to be viewed using Safran Project software. Once a report
has been created for use on the World Wide Web, anyone may use an Internet browser
to access and view the document.
To view pdf files the Adobe Acrobat Reader must have been downloaded . The Adobe
Acrobat Reader is available free of charge from Adobe.
To send a report by E-mail press the E-mail icon on the sheet toolbar while in Print
Preview mode. Safran Project will then invoke the E-mail desktop, generate an E-mail
called 'Safran Project Report' and include the report as an attachment either in psr or
pdf format.
Receiving Safran Project reports by E-mail The receiver of the report does not need
to have Safran Project installed. A Safran Report Viewer is available that may be
included in the E-mail allowing the recipient to view any Safran Project report on
screen. As with the Adobe Acrobat Reader discussed above, a "File association" must
be specified for Safran Project reports to the Report Viewer.
Issuing and viewing Portable Document Format reports In addition to the Safran
Project format, the PDF format is also supported, this requires the Safran PS writer to
be installed.
Safran Project reports in PDF format may be attached to an E-mail. The receiver of the
report will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view or print the report.
This application is available free of charge from Adobe, and may be downloaded from
their World Wide Web site.
Select the network to export and specify the content of export file. Safran Project
produces a Safran Project (*.sp) file with a filename specified by the.
Open the E-mail system, create a new E-mail, and click Attach to attach the Safran
Project file.
Sending selected or specified information Instead of sending an entire network
through E-mail, you may also send selected activities from a network. Additionally
Safran Project allows you to export data from any of the editors or table views. Use the
Filter option to specify selection criteria and then choose the Export to file option.
Open the mail system, create a new E-mail, attach the export file, and send the mail.
The receiver of the mail may use the attached file to import data into Safran Project by
use of the ‘Import from File’ facility.
Although each vendor’s implementation will differ slightly from the others, you should
be able to use SQL with very few adjustments.
The term SQL can be confusing. The S, Structured, and the L, for Language are
straightforward enough, but the Q, is a little misleading. Q, of course, stands for
“Query”- which would restrict you to asking the database questions. But SQL does
much more than that. With SQL you can also create tables, add data, delete data, splice
data together, trigger actions based on changes to the database, and store your queries.
Its function is bigger than its name.
In this appendix we will focus on the database queries even though the Safran Project
SQL tool allows you to update the database. Should you require an introduction to data
manipulation, or a more detailed reference to SQL we suggest that you consult your
system administrator or buy yourself a study book on SQL.
NOTE:When you work with SQL - remember to be careful what you ask about
because you just might get it!
Arithmetic Operators
SQL allows you to add, subtract, multiply and divide fields using the standard arith-
metic operators.
Symbol Operator
+ Addition
- Subtraction
/ Division
‘ Multiplication
% Modulo
Use parentheses to change the order of the execution; calculations inside parentheses
are handled first.If parentheses are nested, the deeply nested calculations has prece-
dence. For example, the result and meaning of the preceding can be changed if you use
parentheses to force evaluation of the subtraction before the division:
Comparison Operators
The WHERE clause is composed of the Word WHERE followed by a conditional
expression. Relational expressions perform comparison between expressions that are
evaluated as TRUE, FALSE or UNKNOWN.
To get an understanding of how you can get an unknown, you need to know a little
about the concept of NULL. In database terms NULL is absence of data in a field. It
does not mean a column has a Zero or blank in it. A zero or blank is a value. Null means
nothing is in that field. If you make a comparison like Field = 9 and the only value
for field is NULL, the comparison will be unknown. Because Unknown is an uncom-
fortable condition, most flavors of SQL change unknown to FALSE and provides a
special operator IS NULL to test for this condition.
SQL uses the following comparison operators:
Operator Meaning
= equal to
!= not equal to
In comparing character data, < means earlier in the sort order and > means later in the
sort order. Some sample select statements using comparison operators follow.
Select *
from Activities
where du>50
Select an,des,du es,ef
from activities
Where an<MCS4000
select an des, du,new_rdu=rdua*1,5
from Activities
where du<=30
Symbol Meaning
The column data can be matched to constants, variables or other columns which
contains for example using like on the networks table:
Search for all names ending with the letters “3” plus one more character.
Note the difference, we have included the single character wildcard to our search, and
SQL does exactly as we asked for. Isn’t it nice when your computer does what you
expect it to!.This example also shows the two wild cards can be combined.
Wild cards used as without like are interpreted as literals rather then as a pattern; they
represent exactly their own values. The following query attempt to find any activity
number that consist of the four characters “654%”, it does not find the activity numbers
that start with 654.
Note that we have included the lowest and highest number in the range by using the
operators greater than or equal to (>=) and less than or equal to(<=) to make the two
queries identical.
not between finds all the rows that are not inside the range.
The in keyword allows you to select values that match any one of a list of values.For
example, without in, if you want a list of activities by selected activity numbers you
can type this query:
Aggregate functions
The aggregate functions calculate summary values from the data in a particular
column. Aggregate functions can be applied to all the rows in a table, to a subset of the
table specified by the WHERE clause. The aggregate functions return a single value
based on the values in a column.
this example calculates the sum of the current scope (rsh) from the activities table:
Notice that to use the aggregate functions, you give the function name followed by the
name of the column on whose value it will operate. Put the column name, which is the
function’s argument in parentheses.
The aggregate operators are sum, avg, max, min, count and count(*). The optional
keyword distinct can be used with sum, avg, and count to eliminate duplicate values
before the aggregate function is applied. If you use distinct, the argument cannot
include an arithmetic expression. It must consist of a column name only. When distinct
is used, it appears inside the parentheses and before the column name.
aggregate_function ([all | distinct] expression)
The syntax of the aggregate functions and the result they produce are:
sum([all | distinct] expres- The total of the (distinct) values in the numeric
sion) column
for example you can find what the average duration of all activities would be if the
duration was doubled with this statement.
The aggregate functions can be used in a select list as with the above example, or in the
having clause of a SELECT statement that includes a group by clause. Examples are
given later.
However, a SELECT statement with aggregate functions in its select list often includes
a WHERE clause that restricts the rows to which the aggregate is applied.Whenever an
aggregate function is used in a SELECT statement that does not include a group by
clause, it produces a single value.
Note that you can use more than one aggregate function in the same select list, and
produce more than one aggregate in a single select statement.
Using Count
The function count(*) does not require an expression as an argument because, by
definition, it does not use information about any particular column. It is used to find
the total numbers of rows in a table. If you use count together with a WHERE clause
it returns the number of rows that satisfy the where clause.
Would it make a difference if you tried a column name instead of the asterisk? Try this:
The answer is no. The an column that you selected was not involved in the WHERE
statement.
To find the number of different scope estimates (rsh), type:
If there are any null values in the column on which the aggregate function is operating,
they are ignored for the purpose of the function. If all values in a column are null,
count(column_name) returns Zero. For example if you ask for the count of des (the
description field) in the activities table, your answer is not the same as if you ask for a
count of an (activity number).
select Usercode=r1,current_scope=sum(rsh)
from activities
group by r1
order by r1
The summary value produced by select statements with group by and aggregates
appears new columns in the result. The above example finds the sum for current scope
(rsh) for each userfield code R1. Notice that in the above example you have changed
the column heading. This is wonderful!. not only can you create new columns, but you
can rename them on the fly. You can rename any of the columns using the syntax
column_name=alias.(In some implementations of SQL the “=” sign should be
substituted with a space)
You cannot group by a column heading or alias, although you can still use aliases in
your select list.
You can list more than one column in the group by clause in order to nest groups - that
is, you can group a table by any combination of columns. The group by clause will
produce unique combinations of the columns and remember you have only one row per
group when you use group by.
select Usercode=r1,contract_code=r2,current_scope=sum(rsh),
baseline_scope=sum(csh)
from activities
group by r1, r2
You can use a WHERE clause in a statement with group by. Rows that do not satisfy
the conditions in the where clause are eliminated before any grouping is done. Here is
an example:
select Usercode=r1,current_scope=sum(rsh)
from activities
where rsh>100
group by r1
select Usercode=r1,current_scope=sum(rsh)
from activities where net_id=805
group by r1 having sum (rsh)<120000
You can include more than one condition in your having clause, combined with and,
or, or not. Try this:
select code=r1,avg_scope=avg(rsh),avg_dur=avg(du)
from activities
group by r1
having avg(rsh)>300
and avg(du)<10
select an,du,type,qty
from activities a, resources r
where a.seq=r.an_seq and a.net_id=805
Like the selection statement, a join statement starts with the keyword select. The
columns named after the select keyword are the columns to be included in the query
results, in their desired order.
The from clause of a join statement names the tables involved in the join. This is
actually the clause that indicates to SQL that a join is desired. The order of tables
affects the results display only when you use the select * to specify the select list. More
than two tables can be named in the from clause.
The where clause specifies the connection between tables named in the from clause,
restricting the rows to be included in the result. It gives the names of the columns to be
joined, qualified by table names or aliases. A common technique is to assign a single
character to each table, as we did in the above example.
You can further qualify your query by adding more conditions or selection criteria in
the where clause.
select an,du,type,qty
from activities a, resources r
where r.seq=r.an_seq
AND|OR <condition>
Outer Joins
In the join discussed so far, only the matching rows, that is, rows with values in the
specified columns that satisfy the join condition are included in the result. In a sense,
these join operations eliminate the information contained in the rows that do not match.
Sometimes it is desirable to retain that information by including non-matching rows in
the result of a join. On such an occasion the outer join is the operation of choice.
A “right” outer join tells SQL to include a full set of the right table.
A “left” outer join tells SQL to return a full set of the left table.
Using Views
A View is an alternative way of looking at the data in one or more tables.You can use
views to focus, simplify and customize each user’s perception of the database. Views
also provide a security mechanism by allowing users to access only the data they
require.
A view is derived from one or more real tables whose data is physically stored in the
database.A view can also be derived from another view. The definition of a view, in No
separate copies of data are associated with the stored definition. The data you view is
stored in the underlying tables.
A view looks exactly like another database table and is often referred to as a virtual
table. You can use views to encapsulate complex queries. After a view on a set of data
has been created, you can treat the view as another table. A view enhance a table
unveiling powerful features such as presorted data and predefined queries.
Aggregate functions.
These functions are also referred to as group functions. they return a value based on the
values in a column.
SYSDATE Select distinct (sysdate) Returns the system time and date
Arithmetic Functions
Many of the uses you have for the data you retrieve involve mathematics.
Character Functions
Many implementations of SQL provide functions to manipulate characters and strings
of characters.
Conversion Functions
These two conversion functions provide a handy way of converting one type of data to
another.
Miscellaneous Functions
Here are three functions you may find useful.
NOTE:Check the documentation for your SQL implementation for functions, names
and corrects syntax.
CHAPTER0
INDEX
CHAPTER0
Numerics
0/100 327, 330
20/80 327, 330 New 116, 119, 120
50/50 327, 331 Outdent 215
Paste special 171
A Remove annotations 179
Access 12 Review 125
Exclusive 12, 579 Review activity data 121
Groups 13 Single Activity Review 125
Read 12, 579 Summary 215
Test 12, 579 Activity Bar 82
Update 12, 579 Activity body 82
User 13 Add 447
Access levels 12 Annotations 178
Activity 169, 184, 238 Bar level 447
Activity Columns 116 Bar Position 82
Activity information form 116, 167 Bar records 81
Add 116, 117, 167, 168 Conditional bar 81
Add annotations 117, 118, 179 Delay 82
Add graphically 117 Finish symbol 82
Add hammock 116 Formatting 447
Adding 116, 119, 120 Show data on 83
Adding activity remarks 120 Summary Bar 212
Assign Fields 126 Summary Properties 211
Cancelling 126 Symbols 80
Change activity ID 168 Symbols and Colors 82
Change globally 126 Activity Barchart
Click and drag 117, 168 Add bars 447
Cut,Copy and Paste 170 Bar data 447
Delete 126 Bar level 447
Enter activity description 169 Columns 448
Enter activity duration 169 Date range 446
Hide and Show Details 215 Deleting bars 448
Import 547 Fields 448
Indent 215 Formatting the bar 446
Insert 116, 167 Layout 447
Multiple bars on a single row 117 Network logic 447
578
E F
EAC 22, 342, 344, 487 Fields
EAC Calculatios 342 See userfields
EAC Method 381 Fill Down 172, 183
Earned Value 17 Fill down 124
Earned Value Indicators Filter 121, 184, 238, 244, 422
Six Period Summary Report 489 Activity Searh list 243
Earned Value Management 15 Assign fields 129
Earned Value Methods 323, 327 Barchart Editor 209
E-mail 583 Histogram /resource View 241
Enter activity description 169 Naming 209
Enter activity durations 169 Report - resource filter 443
Entering Progress and Expenditure 300 resorces 238
Equal Units Complete 328, 336 Symbol filter 180
Estimate At Completion 22, 384 Filters
Estimate at Completion 339 Variance Analysis 399
Estimate to complete 344 Find 171, 183
Estimate to Completion 22 Find, Replace 171
583