11d • Primavera P6
When your progress update changes your schedule.
From a serious project planning book… to a Primavera P6 meme.
After years of working with project schedules, you learn one important lesson:
F9 doesn't change your schedule.
Your progress update changes your schedule.
F9 simply shows you the consequences.
As planners, we know what happens during a progress update.
Actual Start dates are entered.
Actual Finish dates are entered.
Remaining durations are adjusted.
Expected Finish dates are updated.
Activities are marked as complete or still in progress.
And then…
You press F9 – Schedule.
And suddenly the schedule doesn't look quite like it did before.
Activities move.
The critical path changes.
Float changes.
Milestones move.
The forecast finish date changes.
Here's the reality behind the joke:
F9 is not the problem.
If your schedule is properly linked and the progress has been accurately updated, F9 is simply doing its job — recalculating the schedule based on the current project information.
The important part is understanding why things moved.
- Was the Actual Start entered correctly?
- Was the Remaining Duration updated realistically?
- Was the Expected Finish changed?
- Did the activity actually progress as reported?
- Did the logic reflect the way the work is now being executed?
- Did a change in progress expose an issue that was already there?
And here's one simple rule that every planner should follow:
SAVE A COPY BEFORE YOU UPDATE.
Keep a copy of the previous schedule before making your progress update.
Because when the dates move after F9, you may need to go back and compare:
What changed?
When did it change?
Why did it change?
Sometimes the difference between a good planner and a great planner isn't just knowing how to schedule.
It's knowing how to explain the movement in the schedule.
Because…
F9 didn't break your schedule.
It just told you the truth.
@planners: have you ever experienced F9 Schedule changing completely your schedule dates?
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When your progress update changes your schedule.
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