So, just a quick overview of what's really out there. A lot of times we get questions about what software is out there for use for scheduling applications. There are very standard ones. I mean, every construction project that I've been on utilizes Primavera P6. Most of the time, it's a contractual requirement from the owners. And really, why would an owner put a contractual requirement like that? It's really because they have a major database. So they would have a database of all the schedules of their projects, and they want every project that's performed under their umbrella to be rolled up into that database. So that way, they can do any type of analysis on it. So some owners require P6, and some owners would say P6 or similar. Something that provides you with that capability. And that means that if I have proper interoperability between technology, so if you developed a schedule in P6, I can transfer it over to Microsoft Project or vice versa, or if you've used any other system. Now, of course, there are many other systems out there. These are not the only ones. These are the ones that we are currently using. We mostly use these systems on projects. I know that there's many other scheduling-only systems, BIM related to scheduling systems, schedule analysis systems, custom tools out there, but like I said, these are the ones that we mostly use today. I categorized them into the categories that we talked about at the very beginning, which is really schedule development, what do I use to create a schedule. P6, I use Microsoft Project, I may be able to use other tools. Of course, Excel you can use for smaller schedules. Or you can use Synchro maybe for creating schedules. You can use e-Builder for creating schedules. But it's not really standard practice. It's not highly recommended. P6, typically, with my experience, provides you with much more capability than you do in any other new tool that's out there today. Schedule analysis is really, okay, I have a schedule and I need to analyze it. I need to look at it. I need to know what is included in it, what it means. What's it saying about the project, what's it saying about the project progress. So it's typically P6, and Microsoft Project will still give you that same capability. Any other BIM tool allows you to do that schedule analysis, but through visualization. So I kind of left it in a separate category by itself, called BIM-based scheduling, because it's really reliant on the BIM model. Without the BIM model, you're really not getting much out of that platform that's an addition to any other platform that you could use. There's that idea of schedule view and collaboration, which is not really typical, but what I found on multiple projects is that people want to have access to that project, to have access to that project schedule. And how would they do that? Today, what I see is most people go look at a pdf. That's really most of what I'm seeing. PDF, and if we're on a BIM-based project we'll find animations and schedule visualizations showing the sequencing of work. But is that really enough? Are you really getting that collaborative aspect from people by looking at these systems? Now, there are some more advanced projects that implemented some kind of collaborative tool. So you have the schedule, and you can see it on the dashboard. You can see it on your iPhone. You can see it on your iPad. You can see it in real time. But of course, not a 10,000 activity schedule. But you can see it at a very high level. So you can tell what is, you can make comments. You can say, okay, this task is not completed yet, or attach a picture to a specific task. That more collaborative aspect of viewing the schedule, not really developing, not really analyzing, but really, for the masses that are working on the project that need access to that schedule and just need to see it in more than just a PDF. They need to be able to filter it. So let's say I'm on one of the projects that belong to one large program. So I want to filter that large program schedule by that project or by that specific location. So there are tools that allow you to do that. P6 definitely has modules that allow you to have cloud-based collaboration. E-Builder has that, which is a project management system tool, and there are custom tools that would also allow you to do that. Let me give you a quick overview about Primavera P6 before we start the hands-on exercise. So, just a few items that you would benefit from knowing is that P6 could be working into one database or multiple databases. Within one company, you can have multiple databases. So, for example, I mentioned that STV has four divisions. We could have each one of these divisions be its own separate database, its separate administrator. Different permissions and different security levels given to each database. The other thing about P6 is that it allows for multiple projects to be managed at the same time, in one environment. And it allows you to roll up these projects into larger programs. So let's say I'm working on an airport, there could be a garage, substation, roadways, underground utilities, air side work, runway work, all that would be rolled up into one program, that is the airport. And it allows that to be managed in one environment. Let's say I'm a company, I'm working on multiple projects for one client. Let's say, I'm building multiple buildings for Columbia University. Then I would have all these projects rolled up into one portfolio. That is, under that Columbia name, so that I can really filter out all the projects that relate to one client. Another thing about P6, very important to understand, is that there has to be an enterprise project structure that is set up. We're going to see that in a couple of minutes, but that really means that how is it that my database is broken down in that one database? Is it by program, is it by client, is it by person? Is it by a manager who is responsible, is it by type of projects? So that has to be done at the P6 administrator level. So if your company has P6 licenses available, you'll probably find that there is one person who is acting as that Primavera P6 administrator, and they really give access to each person according to that enterprise project structure. One very important aspect about it is that that database that has all of the information about your schedule is included in the system, and Oracle provides that access through an API. So when you have that access through an application programming interface, that means that if you have any programmer on board, they can access the system, access all the data, extract that data, and do whatever type of analysis you need to do with it. Produce visualizations, produce reports, analyze the data in conjunction with other data. For example, you can extract the data from P6, and overlay it on weather data to figure out if your delays match up with the weather-related conditions or not. You can extract through that API in order to link with BIM models, to link the data that's coming from the schedules to the data that's within the BIM models. So there's a lot that you can do with that, so that's typically a feature that not just STV, but I believe any company looks for. It provides some level of standardized reporting. Not everyone just creates their own schedule and reports on it in a different manner, but everyone could really look at it holistically in one environment. And I can say, okay, I need to report on all the projects that relate to Columbia University. Or I need the specific report that is for six-week lookaheads. That can bring up that standardized report, that if I have someone working in California that produced the same report as someone working in New York, that produced the same report as someone working overseas, even. So that standardized reporting aspect, I think, has been a challenge on many projects. And having database systems like P6 and like any other database systems for other functions is definitely beneficial in that sense. It's been, like I mentioned, it's a contractual requirement on many projects. Of course you always get the or similar option. But typically using P6 is preferred. The contractual requirements really dictate how you create your schedule. Your schedule could include activity codes, which we're going to talk about in a minute. What types of activity codes, how you name them. What layouts do you submit to your client at each monthly update, all these items have to be laid out in the contract. So, just take a look at your contractual requirements if you're considering using software, and specifically P6. The file formats could be .xer or .xml, so that when you export it from the system, you can export either or. I'm not going to talk about the differences between these file formats, but typically you get that submission. In order to get that live P6 file, it's not enough to get a PDF, you need to then get that live file in order to import it into your database. So that could be In an xer format or an xml format. So now we're going to move into the hands-on portion of P6.
