PRIMAVERA P6 DELAY

ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES
 Abstra
ct
• Many construction contracts specify that a delay must be calculated on
the critical
path of the contract program.
• Often project programs are completed in Oracle Primavera P6 and
therefore to demonstrate a delay the scheduler needs to add delays to
the program to calculate the delay value.
• This paper outlines the various techniques for demonstrating delays
using Oracle
Primavera P6 .
 What is a
Delay?
Delay may be defined in contracts in many ways including:
• An event that impacts the timing of projects activities and may impact on:
• The contract end date,
• Stage end date, or
• The date for Practical Completion,
• It may also be defined as:
• An impact to the Critical Path, or
• An event that consumes Float,
• An event that causes work to start or finish later than planned,

• It is important that you check that what you intend to claim as a delay is
claimable under the
contract,
• Also make sure you know any time bars for submitting claims.
 How to perform a Delay
Analysis
The process of performing a Delay Analysis should be based on evidence
derived from
project records:
• Identify the delays and the time periods that they impacted on the
project,
• Select the appropriate “Delay Analysis” process based on the available
evidence,
• Impact the schedule(s) with the evidence objectively,
• Calculate the impact to the schedule for each delay,
• Assign the responsibility for each delay,
• Calculate the delay impact by each party,
• Apply contract terms and conditions to the impacts,
• Evaluate damages.
Delay Categories

Delays are often assigned categories such as:

• Inexcusable - an extension of time is NOT granted.

• Excusable - an extension of time would be granted.

• Compensable - an Excusable delay and costs would be paid.

• Non-Compensable - an Excusable delay and costs would

NOT be paid.
 Understanding
Delays
Before a delay may be assigned a category it must have a value calculated and
delays may occur in different ways for example:
• They may occur at the start of the activity,
• They may occur during the activity and therefore splitting the work and the activity
is no longer contiguous, and the crew are not gainfully engaged in work,
• There may be a reason for low productivity and resulting in the work taking longer,
• The delay may affect one activity, or it may affect multiple activities, for example:
• A delay affecting one activity could be a delay in delivering some equipment,
• A delay affecting multiple activities might be a delay where there is adverse
weather affecting the whole site.
• It may be on the critical path, or it may be off the critical path,
• Some delays may initially not be on the critical path and have float but then may
result in the activity being moving on to the critical path. In this case the full delay of
the activity is not equal to the critical path delay.
• Finally, how you demonstrate acceleration in a program? I'll cover this issue as well.
 Assigning Delays and Software Functionality

• This process of adding delays to a program is often not obvious and there
are several techniques that I will document in this paper that show you
methods that you can use to demonstrate delays and calculate delay values,

• One issue with P6 is that it does not allow the splitting of activities into
multiple splits like many other software packages, except for the Suspend
and Resume function allowing one split in an activity,

• This option available in other software is often useful in the evaluation of

delays.
 Aim and
Methodology
• The aim of this paper is to demonstrate various techniques of assigning
delays to activities in an Oracle Primavera P6 program, which will in turn
allow you to select the method that is appropriate to your project and
activities,

• I will also outline the advantages and disadvantages of each technique.

 Methodology

• I will use a very simple program with a few activities, a finish milestone
and a baseline to represent the Contract Program demonstrate the
various methods of assigning delays against a single activity,
• In all the pictures the Contract Program is the lower bar in the picture,
• We will look at:

• Adding an activity to represent a delay before the activity starts,

• Adding an activity to modelling a delay after activity starts,
• Breaking the original activity into multiple activities
to model multiple delays,
• Modeling delays using a calendar,
 Adding delays to represent a delay before the
activity starts Extending the Duration of the
Delayed Activity
• The simplest method of adding a delay to an activity is just extending the
duration.
• The pictures below show the before increasing the duration of the
Equipment Delivery:

• And after increasing the duration of the Equipment Delivery activity to

demonstrate a delay to
the delivery of the equipment:
 Adding delays to represent a delay before the
activity starts Extending the Duration of the
Delayed Activity
Advantages
• It is very simple and easy to increase the duration of activity and demonstrate
the delay to
the project end date.
Disadvantages
• It does not show if the delay is at the beginning of the activity or in the middle
of the
activity,
• It does not show you the value of the delay,
• If the activity is a resourced activity, then the cost will be increased which is
undesirable if the resource is were not working during this period,
• It is not possible to simply zero out the duration of the activity in order to
bring the
project schedule back to its original status,
• It is not simple to identify client or contractor delays.
Recommendation
• I suggest you do not use this method.
 Adding delays to represent a delay before the
activity starts Adding a delay activity before the
start of the delayed activity
• This method inserts an activity to represent the delay before the
activity starts.
• Before adding a delay activity:

• After adding a delay

activity:
 Adding delays to represent a delay before the
activity starts Adding a delay activity before the
start of the delayed activity
Advantages
• This is a good method to demonstrate a delay to the start of an activity.
• The cost of the delay could be modeled by assigning resources to the delay
activity.
• It is also simple to change the duration to zero to remove the delay and
create a collapsed schedule.
• Multiple delay activities may be used to identify customer and contractor
delays.
• It is also possible to code up activities and then be able to filter them out by
client or contractor delays and zero out either the contractor or the client
delays to calculate the impact of either the client or the contractor’s delays.
Disadvantages
• I cannot identify any real disadvantages with this method.
Recommendation
• This is the method I recommend for all activities when there are delays
before the work
starts.
 Modelling a delay after an activity
starts Extending the Duration of the
Delayed Activity
• This is exactly the same method as demonstrated earlier and I do not
recommend you use this for the same reasons.
• Before adding a delay activity:

• After adding a delay

activity:
 Modelling a delay after an activity starts
Adding a delay activity before the start of the
delayed activity
• If the delay occurs after the activity starts then it is best not to put the delay
at the start as one would want to set the actual start of the original activity
when the activity started.

• This method does not identify when the delay occurred.

• On the other hand if there is sufficient description in the activity name then
this method could be suitable, but not ideal.
 Modelling a delay after an activity starts
Adding a delay activity after the delayed activity

• The picture below shows a delay activity A1002 Prepare Site Delay has been
added after the original activity duration.

• Again, this has the issue as before and this method does not identify when the
delay occurred.
• On the other hand if there is sufficient description in the activity name then this
method could be suitable, but not ideal.
 Modelling a delay after an activity starts
Using Oracle Primavera P6 Suspend and Resume

• It is unfortunate that
the P6 Suspend and
Resume requires the
activity to have
started but the
picture below
demonstrates how
you can use the
Suspend and
Resume.
• You may also add an
additional activity
added below to
represent the value
of the delay.
 Modelling a delay after an activity starts
Using Oracle Primavera P6 Suspend and
Resume
Advantages
• It keeps the activity at completion duration equal to the working time of the
activity.
• It is simple to demonstrate the delay value by the addition of a second
activity below as indicated in the picture above by the addition of the
Erection Delay activity that has been added with a Start On constraint.
• The cost of the delay could be modeled by assigning resources to the delay
activity.
Disadvantages
• Because the Oracle Primavera P6 Suspend and Resume function requires the
activity to have an actual start then this process may not simply used in a
Collapsed As Built scenario, one has to remove the suspend and resume dates.
• This only allows for one delay to be assigned to an activity.
• The delay activity is not linked in logically.
Recommendation
• This method is suitable if you do not wish to collapse a schedule.
 Modelling a delay after an activity start
Breaking the original activity into multiple activities
• The way this method works is it you shorten the first part of the activity then you
added delay
activity and then you add a new activity for the remaining work.
• You will see in the picture below that I have changed the name of the
Erection activity to Erection First Part and reduced the duration; I have added
an Erection Delay activity an Erection Second Part activity and linked them
together.
 Modelling a delay after an activity start
Breaking the original activity into multiple
activities
Advantages
• It may be used for a collapse as built by changing the delay activity durations to
zero.
• It is possible to assign codes and filter out delays and zero out either the client or
the contractor delay to evaluate the total delay by the contractor all the client on a
project schedule that has not been updated with actuals.
• This method allows multiple delays that the Suspend and Resume function does not
allow.
• The cost of the delay could be modeled by assigning resources to the delay activity.
• It clearly identifies when the work started and finished and when the delay
happened.
Disadvantages
• The disadvantage of this technique is that the baseline for the activity titled
Erection First Part is also relevant for the activity Erection Second Part, but is
not associated with that new activity.
Recommendation
• Again, this is not Ideal for demonstrating a delay in the middle of a task.
 Making the original activity an LOE and adding
detailed activities underneath

• This method is a variation on the method above but in this case the original
activity is made
into an LOE activity and then detailed activities are added below.
 Making the original activity an LOE and adding
detailed activities underneath
Advantages
• It clearly identifies when the work started and finished and when the delay happened.
• The advantages of this method is it that can be used for a collapse as built by
changing the delay activity durations to zero.
• It is possible to assign codes and filter out delays and zero out either the client or the
contractor delay to evaluate the total delay by the contractor all the client on a
project schedule that has not been updated with actuals.
• This method allows multiple delays that the Suspend and Resume function does not
allow.
• And unlike the method above, the baseline for the erection activity is now directly
related to the
level of effort duration.
Disadvantages
• This technique requires significantly more work to demonstrate the delay.
Recommendations
• This is the recommended method in Primavera P6 to demonstrate a delay in the
middle of an activity
if you have the time to do it.
 Acceleration
Reducing the activity duration
• The first method is to reduce the duration of the
activity:

• I do not recommend as the delay is not visible in the program as

an activity.
 Acceleration
Adding an acceleration activity

• The second method is to put an acceleration activity in and as you increase the
acceleration it
reduces the end date of the project as per the picture below.
 Acceleration
Adding an acceleration
activity
Advantages
• The delay activity may be zeroed out to remove the acceleration.
• The delay activity may have codes and be filtered to isolate acceleration
activities.
Disadvantages
• The disadvantage of this method is that if you accelerate the last activity
in a project
then the last activity will be scheduled beyond the end of the project.
• Some people would object to the use of and activity in this unusual
manner.
• This method also does not reduce the costs against the delay activity
when it is a resourced activity. P6 does not allow negative values against
resource but you could assign a negative cost against an expense item to
reflect the reduced cost.
Recommendation
• As long as the delay activity does not finish after the project end date I
would use it.
 Removing
Scope
• If you wish to remove scope is best to maintain a history and as opposed to deleting the
activity you
should reduce the duration to zero and make a comment in the Activity Name or Notes.
• In the example below we're assuming that there is no equipment to be delivered or is
being delivered by the customer and we need to show acceleration due to the
equipment delivery activity being removed.

• Before zeroing out the Equipment Delivery activity:

• After zeroing out the Equipment Delivery and the Finish Date has come in
by 5 days:
 Updating the program after delays have been
assigned
• Delays are normally added to activities at each update and it is normal
to actualize the program by applying actual starts and actual finishes to
activities that are all complete and actual start and remaining durations
to those that are in progress, and then the program rescheduled to
calculate a new project end date.
• Normally at this point in time the client and contractor delays are
transferred to a spreadsheet to calculate the total delay value for each
party at the end of the project.
• Another option some companies adopt is not to actualize their
schedule and keep the schedule as a live as built program, but this is
quite difficult and very rare.
• Then all the delays may be zeroed and a collapsed As Built program is
available.
• This process also the gives provides an As Built Critical Path.