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Evangelos Kourentzis

P6 Limitation to capture project complexity and the importance of Registers and Processes

A Primavera P6 schedule is a powerful tool for sequencing and tracking project activities, but relying solely on the schedule for all project information is a critical limitation. While P6 excels at mapping out tasks, durations, and dependencies, it does not capture the full complexity of project delivery. Here’s why additional registers—such as those for deliverables, assumptions, risks, and dependencies—are essential for robust project control:

Why the P6 Schedule Alone Is Not Enough

  • Limited Scope of Information: P6 is designed to manage activities, relationships, and timelines, but it does not inherently track the status, quality, or acceptance of deliverables, nor does it systematically record key project assumptions, risks, or external dependencies2.

  • Static vs. Dynamic Management: Schedules are often static snapshots, while successful delivery requires dynamic, ongoing management of factors like risks and assumptions that can change throughout the project lifecycle2.

  • Inadequate for Stakeholder Communication: Stakeholders often need more than just a list of activities; they require visibility into what is being delivered, what assumptions underpin the plan, what risks are emerging, and what dependencies exist between teams or external parties56.

The Importance of Key Registers

Deliverables Register

  • Tracks all project outputs, their status, and deadlines, serving as the master list for project management reference7.

  • Provides measurable checkpoints and helps teams maintain focus on actual outcomes, not just scheduled activities37.

Assumptions Register

  • Documents all assumptions made during planning and execution, which are the foundation for decision-making and risk management48.

  • Regular review of assumptions helps identify when a change in circumstances could impact the project, allowing for proactive adjustments48.

Risk Register

  • Enables early identification, tracking, and mitigation of risks, which is crucial for preventing issues from derailing the project5.

  • Assigns ownership and ensures accountability for risk management, supporting informed decisions and transparent communication5.

Dependencies Register

  • Clarifies which tasks or deliverables rely on others, both within the project and from external sources6.

  • Helps plan realistic timelines, allocate resources efficiently, and identify potential bottlenecks or opportunities to accelerate delivery6.

Registers Aligned with the Schedule

Aligning these registers with the schedule ensures that updates are systematic and efficient. For example, if a risk materializes or an assumption is proven false, the impact on the schedule can be quickly assessed and the necessary changes made across all relevant records. This approach is far more efficient than trying to update hundreds of individual activities without a central reference—mirroring the principle that it’s easier to change one thing a thousand times than to change a thousand things one time.

Conclusion

A P6 schedule is a vital project management tool, but it cannot be the sole repository for all project information. Deliverables, assumptions, risks, and dependencies registers provide the comprehensive, dynamic oversight required for successful project control. When these registers are integrated and aligned with the schedule, project teams can adapt quickly, communicate clearly, and deliver reliably—ensuring that the project remains on track even as circumstances evolv

How to create a schedule during bidding stage

A well-structured schedule is not just a delivery tool — it’s a strategic asset, especially during the bidding phase or early project development. The earlier you engage with a realistic, logic-driven programme, the better you can:

  • Validate delivery assumptions

  • Expose risks and dependencies

  • Understand resource needs

  • Align stakeholders on scope and sequencing

The image above illustrates a structured planning lifecycle — from Work Breakdown Structures (WBS-PBS-CBS) through to logic capture, duration mapping, and resourcing. Delaying scheduling until execution risks misalignment and costly surprises.

This is where LogicReader comes in.

LogicReader enables planners to quickly and collaboratively build logic diagrams, right from stakeholder workshops. By capturing logic visually, it:

  • Enhances stakeholder engagement and buy-in

  • Surfaces missing links, external dependencies, and risks

  • Builds a strong foundation for P6/MSP schedule development

  • Streamlines transition from concept to baseline

Having a schedule early means bidding with confidence — and LogicReader makes that achievable.

Explanation of yEd layouts and settings

General layout of yEd for LogicReader.

  1. Menu Bar: Main Menu
  2. “Select Elements“: Use to filter nodes and links
  3. “Palette“: List of LogicReader pallets used for planning , scheduling and process mapping. You can also create your own palete.
  4. “Structure View“: is the equivalent of the WBS structure.
  5. Editing WIndow: Main window you  create and view your Network diagram
  6. “Hierarchic Layout“: Click the Play button to re arrange automatically the nodes . Options for “Hierarchic Swimlane” or “Hierarchic Layout”
  7. “Properties view“: properties of selected feature. 
  8. “Neighborhood“: Showing the immediate successor and predecessor of selected activity. You also have option to select all the “Predecessor” or “Successor” (limited)

Online menu https://yed.yworks.com/support/manual/yedmenu.html

Useful links-General

How Transformers Power Large Language Models

This post breaks down how transformers work in LLMs, highlighting their use of embeddings, positional encoding, and multi-head self-attention to understand language. Unlike older models, transformers process words in parallel and capture complex relationships, making them efficient and powerful for real-world AI tasks.

Logic Driven vs Resources Driven Relationships in Construction Scheduling

This post explains the difference between logic-driven and resources-driven scheduling in construction planning. It highlights how relying solely on activity links can lead to unrealistic labor demands, and advocates for resource-based scheduling to ensure steady labor allocation and practical project timelines.

Enhancing Site Team Understanding with Visual Workflows Behind Planned Dates

This post emphasizes the importance of sharing not just planned dates with the site team, but also the logic and workflow that generated those dates. Since planning engineers are often the only ones with access to scheduling software like Primavera P6, other stakeholders miss out on understanding the dependencies and rationale. A simple visual workflow—created even in Excel—can bridge this gap. It helps the site team better grasp task relationships, durations, manpower needs, and responsibilities, making execution smoother and more informed. A free Excel sheet demonstrating such a workflow is provided in the post.

Visualizing Construction Schedules: Sharing Logic Behind Planned Dates

This post emphasizes the importance of not just sharing planned dates with site teams, but also providing a simple visual workflow that explains the logic and dependencies behind those dates. By using clear diagrams-easily created in Excel-planning engineers can help teams better understand project timelines, manpower allocation, and relationships, making on-site planning and execution more effective

How to run java without installing Java Runtime (JRE).

If you only want to run a JAR file and do not want to fully install Java on your system, you have a couple of lightweight options:

  • Use a Portable Java Runtime:
    Download the “jPortable” Java Runtime Environment from PortableApps.com, along with the “jPortable Launcher.” This setup allows you to run JAR files without installing Java system-wide-just extract and run from a folder1, 4. jPortable64 allows you to easily add a 64-bit Java® runtime environment to your portable device. No Java® runtime environment needs to be installed on the local machine and no admin rights are required. JARs can be run using our jPortable Launcher.

  • Extract and Use Java Without Installing:
    Download the Java Runtime (JRE) or Java Development Kit (JDK) as a ZIP or tar.gz archive (Oracle often provides these). Extract it to a folder, then run your JAR file using the included java.exe without a full installation. For example, from the command line:

    text
    path\to\java\bin\java -jar yourfile.jar

    This method avoids system changes and keeps Java self-contained 1, 4.

Both options let you run your JAR file with minimal system impact and no permanent installation.

How to build basic BPMN Model.

  • Keep it simple
  • Clear Storytelling
  • Use it to instigate further reading and investigation, therefore making the complex engaging and easy to understand by incrementally increase complexity.   

WIP-How to convert an MSP Schedule into an editable Network Diagram.

Note on Microsoft Project (MSP) Usage:
MSP schedules must adhere to high-quality standards and proper planning practices.

Key Considerations:

  1. Date Integrity
    MSP can be manipulated to display illogical dates. Rigorous validation is essential to ensure chronological accuracy.

  2. WBS/Activity Separation
    MSP allows conflating Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) elements with actual activities. Maintain clear differentiation between deliverable-oriented WBS components and task-based activities.

  3. Constraint Management
    Beware of “invisible constraints” driving activity start dates. These often stem from WBS-related dependencies rather than physical workflow links. Explicitly document such constraints rather than relying solely on predecessor relationships.

WIP-How to create an initial WBS structure and plan, using a simple Excel list as input.

The most common way of doing a schedule, is from Excel file with a “to do” list and a Level 1 WBS.

Most of the Engineering specialist will be able to create in no time. The advances of getting this list and making a basic network diagram , in 10 sec during a meeting, can be a very powerful way of engaging them to help you with the logic, by pointing out their logic fallacies and gaps.

Template@work

Video@work

WIP-How to visualise possible redundant links to help you with deleting/keeping relations.

Excessive links undermine the core purpose of scheduling—to build a clear, actionable plan. Minimizing redundancy improves logic clarity, reduces system load, and builds stakeholder confidence. Here’s how redundant links cause problems:

1. Increased Schedule Complexity and Confusion

Redundant links (e.g., A → C when A → B → C exists) clutter the logic and visuals, complicating stakeholder communication.

2. Inefficient Critical Path Analysis

Extra links can distort the critical path, misrepresent float, and shift focus to non-driving activities, wasting time.

3. Unpredictable Schedule Turbulence

In large projects, delays ripple unpredictably through redundant dependencies, leading to unintended changes and loss of control.

4. Computational Inefficiency

More links mean slower recalculations. Tools like P6 and MSP must process every link—even irrelevant ones—reducing performance.

5. Risk of Errors and Miscommunication
  • Hidden Dependencies: Obscure logic leads to misaligned execution.
  • Documentation Gaps: Redundancies are hard to justify in audits.
  • Maintenance Issues: Replanning becomes error-prone.
Best Practices to Mitigate Issues
  • Logic Reviews: Use P6’s Trace Logic or plugins to spot and remove redundant links.
  • Simplify Dependencies: Use milestones or buffers instead of extra links.
  • Avoid Over-Linking: Focus on essential, driving relationships.
  • Document Rationale: Clarify any non-standard logic in activity notes.

Use Network diagram to capture and track progress updates and schedule changes.

The following methods could reduce schedule modification time by up to 80% compared to using live meetings, Excel files, or PDFs:

  1. Adding new activities and their durations
  2. Adding new links, including lag/lead and relationship type, with the ability to identify circular links
  3. Adding WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) elements
  4. Removing activities or relationships
  5. Identifying which activities will lack successors or predecessors after deleting relationships or activities, without needing to transfer and reschedule in P6
  6. Removing WBS elements
  7. Isolating a list of predecessors or successors for a specific activity for later use
  8. “Flying” through the logic and isolating the critical path
  9. Highlighting resource-related links using colours; relationship comments in P6 can be exported and represented by colour
  10. Maintaining control over each individual modification transferred into P6, removing the need for long “focus” sessions to transfer suggested changes; at any time, you can see how many modifications remain to be transferred
  11. Isolating 4-week lookahead activities, including their adjacent logic, to provide justifiable reasons for slippage or to suggest instant mitigation actions by proposing logic changes

How to perform Cross-project dependency validation and Logic analysis.

Scenario: You have a project where your inputs are linked to multiple external schedules. You want to investigate whether each input in your schedule has a justified list of external predecessors, or if they are simply linked to an output milestone without any underlying plan to justify the date. Tools like Primavera P6 allow schedulers to model these dependencies, but manual integrity checks are needed to confirm that they function as intended.

Video@work

Convert a P6 Schedule into an editable Network Diagram.

  1. Open your Schedule(s).
  2. Make sure that the “|” character is not used anywhere in your schedule. 
  3. Make sure the full stop character   “.” is not used in your WBS code as the above characters are used to split your csv files.
  4. Select “Do not show time” and “4-digit year” in the settings.
  5. Run your Batch report “LogicReader” and save the files . Do not change the report names.
  6. Open LogicReader.accde. Select preferable settings and click run. The Converter will then create a *.graphml file.
  7. Open *.graphml file you created.
  8. Open Properties Mapper and apply Mapper A and Mapper B to transfer properties to Nodes (Activities) and Edges (Links).
  9. Play Hierarchical Layout to expand your diagram.
  10.  If you get errors please see the “Common Errors” Video

Ready

Convert a Network Diagram into an MSP or P6 Schedule.

  1. Create your network diagram (see detailed video for all the features).
  2. Open and run LogicReader.accde. This will create two files:
  • An .xls file that can be imported into MSP
  • An updated *.graphml file with estimated start and finish dates for the activities.

Note that the scheduling module has limitations and the results should be checked. It is NOT a replacement for MSP or P6.

How to search and filter for activities and links using “Regular Expressions”.

Use regular expressions to find nodes or edges with specific text in the “Label” or their “Data Property”. Here are some basic regex patterns

  1. Wildcard (.):
    • Matches any single character except newline.
    • Example: “a.c” matches “abc”, “a1c”, “a@c”, etc.
  2. Character classes [ ]:
    • Match any single character within the brackets.
    • Example: “[aeiou]” matches any vowel.
  3. Negated character classes [^]:
    • Match any character NOT in the brackets.
    • Example: “[^0-9]” matches any non-digit character.
  4. Quantifiers:
    • “*”: 0 or more occurrences
    • “+”: 1 or more occurrences
    • “?”: 0 or 1 occurrence
    • Example: “go*gle” matches “ggle”, “gogle”, “google”, “gooogle”, etc.
  5. Anchors:
    • “^”: Start of the string
    • “$”: End of the string
    • Example: “^dog” matches strings starting with “dog”.
  6. Alternation ( | ):
    • Acts as an OR operator.
    • Example, if you want to select all 10 extracted longest paths then: “1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10″ matches either path”1” or “2”….”10″.
  7. Grouping ( ):
    • Groups characters together.
    • Example: “(ab)+” matches “ab”, “abab”, “ababab”, etc.
  8. Escaping special characters:
    • Use “” before special characters to treat them as literals.
    • Example: “*” matches an actual asterisk.

Look Here for more details https://yed.yworks.com/support/manual/yed_edit_find.html

WIP-Troubleshooting

This page provides solutions to common problems encountered when running yEd or LogicReader.

Error Code/MessageDescription of IssueSymptoms/IndicatorsStep-by-Step SolutionNotes/References
you try to open *.graphml file and is not openingYour P6 file has non printable characters you introduce when you created your P6 schedule
Error 101: Network ErrorCannot connect to serverApp fails to load data1. Check internet connection.
2. Restart router.
3. Try again.		See [FAQ #1]
LogicReader fails to run when converting P6 CSV to network diagrammacro fails to completecheck your WBS code do not have “.” in their name.
reseting LogicReaderClick “Click to Reset after ERROR”

  • Q: What should I do if my issue isn’t listed?
    A: Contact support with a detailed description, including error messages and screenshots.

Comparing changes to the critical paths between two schedules

  1. Run Properties Mapper A, B, 4, 5
  2. Go to Tools => Select Elements
  3. Tick “Clear Selection First”
  4. From “Select” pick “Data Property”
  5. From “Data Property” pick “Select Activities to review”
  6. In “Text” add “-Yes”
  7. From “Match Text” pick “infix match”
  8. Click Run

     9a. Select all the parents of the selected activities by

    9.b. Unselect clear selection

  1. From “Select” Pick “parents of selected nodes”

    11a. click play multiple times until ….

    11b. You are at the top level WBS

  1. Type “Select” (or any other memorable word) in URL
  2. Reverse select by tick “Clear Selection First”
  3. And tick “Select Inverse”
  4. Then Data property => URL => type “Select”
  5. Click play
  6. Then delete selected elements
  7. Finally play the Hierarchic layout
  8. and “Save as” so you do not lose the old file
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