We were providing P6 training for Government Contracts at AGC San Diego, a first-class contractor and apprenticeship training facility, when we were surprised by a P6 undocumented feature. Here’s what we discovered:
- checking ‘Use Steps to Calculate Percent Complete’ , a required setting for D.O.D. schedules, disables updating status when not using steps. (Which is the majority of the time.)
- therefore we strongly recommend UN-checking the ‘use steps’ checkbox.
The sequence for correctly updating all Activities started but not finished (using Physical Percent Complete) follows:
- Check the box for Started and enter current the % Complete
- Manually enter Remaining Duration (this prefills the calculated Labor Resource Units and therefore cost to date)
- check and modify the Labor Units or % Complete if required. (this will not affect the Remaining Duration just entered).
This simple workflow restores full autonomy to updating all 3 values exactly as desired, with the added advantage of automatically calculating the costs by entering Remaining Duration.
