Primavera P6 Project Management Training Course

Duration 10 days 20 modules · 65 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Project Managers, Project Planners and Schedulers and others
Fee from USD 2,200 KSh 190,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 9 Nov 2026 Course code SD-PM-064

Before you join: Participants should understand basic project-management terms such as scope, milestones, work breakdown structures, activities, dependencies and project risks.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Large projects fail to provide reliable forecasts when schedules are built as activity lists rather than controlled planning models. Project managers, planners and controls teams need a schedule that shows scope, logic, resources, cost, constraints, progress and risk in one connected structure. Primavera P6 supports this work, but sound project-control decisions depend on the quality of the work breakdown structure, activity logic, calendars, coding, baselines and update discipline behind the software.

This course teaches participants to develop and control project schedules using Oracle Primavera P6 Professional. Participants create enterprise and project structures, define calendars, build work breakdown structures, enter activities and relationships, calculate critical paths, assign resources and costs, establish baselines, update progress and produce management reports. The course also covers schedule-quality checks, earned value fundamentals, delay analysis concepts, recovery planning and multi-project reporting. Attention is given to practical controls used on capital projects, construction programmes, infrastructure works, shutdowns, IT deployments and public-sector delivery programmes.

Training combines instructor demonstrations, short technical briefings, guided case work, group schedule reviews, planning simulations and individual application planning. Participants work with Primavera P6 from the first week, progressively building a project-control model rather than studying isolated software functions. They leave with a completed Primavera P6 project file structure, an integrated baseline schedule, a resource and cost-loaded plan, update procedures, reporting layouts and a schedule-quality review checklist that can be adapted for their own projects.

The course suits professionals who already participate in projects and need to produce, maintain, review or use controlled schedules. It is particularly relevant where management decisions depend on credible completion dates, resource forecasts, cost performance and early warning of schedule slippage.

What you will be able to do

  • Build a Primavera P6 project structure using EPS, OBS, calendars and coding standards
  • Develop a logic-driven WBS schedule with activities, dependencies, constraints and milestones
  • Calculate and interpret critical paths, total float, free float and driving relationships
  • Assign labour, equipment, materials and costs using Primavera P6 resource dictionaries
  • Create approved schedule baselines and control changes through formal update procedures
  • Measure schedule and cost performance using earned value metrics and progress data
  • Analyse schedule quality using DCMA-style checks, logic reviews and exception reports
  • Present a complete Primavera P6 baseline and update report for management review

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Build credible Primavera P6 schedules rather than relying on manually maintained activity lists
  • Explain critical-path movement, float erosion and forecast variance to project stakeholders
  • Produce resource-loaded schedules that reveal workforce, equipment and material demand
  • Review contractor schedules using defined logic, baseline and quality-control criteria
  • Create reusable reporting layouts for progress meetings, steering committees and recovery planning

For your organisation

  • Improves confidence in forecast completion dates and milestone commitments
  • Creates consistent coding, calendars, baselines and update routines across projects
  • Identifies logic gaps, unrealistic constraints and resource conflicts before work is affected
  • Strengthens contractor schedule review and evidence for change-control decisions
  • Provides clearer schedule, cost and earned-value reporting for management governance

Course modules

20 modules over 10 days

Participants can configure the core Primavera P6 structures required for controlled project planning.

  • Primavera P6 architecture: EPS, OBS, projects, users and security profiles
  • Enterprise Project Structure design for programmes, portfolios and reporting ownership
  • Organisational Breakdown Structure links managerial responsibility to project access
  • Project calendars, units, currencies and default settings before schedule creation
  • Project codes and user-defined fields for consistent portfolio classification
  • Applying responsible manager assignments and access controls to new projects

Participants can translate approved scope into a structured WBS ready for schedule development.

  • Work Breakdown Structure principles for deliverable-based project scope definition
  • Developing WBS levels from programme outcomes through control-account work packages
  • WBS codes, names and hierarchy conventions supporting disciplined reporting
  • Linking WBS ownership to control accounts and accountable managers
  • Defining planning packages where detailed work remains insufficiently defined
  • Testing WBS completeness against scope statements, contracts and deliverable registers

Participants can create schedule activities with appropriate calendars, durations and milestone definitions.

  • Global, resource and project calendars for working-time assumptions
  • Creating task-dependent, resource-dependent and level-of-effort activities correctly
  • Duration types and their effect on units, rates and remaining work
  • Milestone design for approvals, handovers, interfaces and contractual commitments
  • Activity codes supporting disciplines, locations, phases and responsible parties
  • Writing measurable activity names using verb-object conventions and completion criteria

Participants can build a logic-driven network and interpret Primavera P6 critical-path results.

  • Precedence Diagram Method relationships: finish-to-start, start-to-start, finish-to-finish, start-to-finish
  • Lead and lag use without concealing physical work dependencies
  • Creating logical ties from mobilisation through commissioning and closeout
  • Critical Path Method calculations for early dates, late dates and float
  • Driving relationships, longest path and critical activities within Primavera P6
  • Identifying open ends, redundant logic and circular relationship errors

Participants can apply constraints and scheduling options without distorting forecast dates.

  • Mandatory and discretionary constraints under CPM scheduling principles
  • Start-on, finish-on and as-late-as-possible constraint consequences
  • Data date purpose in forecasting completed and remaining project work
  • Schedule options for retained logic, progress override and lag calculations
  • Out-of-sequence progress treatment and its effect on critical-path integrity
  • Diagnosing negative float caused by imposed milestones and constraints

Participants can assemble a complete initial schedule and calculate a defensible completion forecast.

  • Importing activity data from approved planning sheets and scope registers
  • Sequencing work packages through defined interfaces, approvals and handovers
  • Running schedule calculations and reviewing the initial completion date
  • Grouping activities by WBS, phase, contractor, location and discipline
  • Using filters to isolate milestones, critical work and near-critical paths
  • Applying activity steps where detailed completion evidence requires tracking

Participants can create resource data and assign planned effort to schedule activities.

  • Resource Breakdown Structure design for labour, equipment and material categories
  • Labour, non-labour and material resource types within Primavera P6
  • Resource calendars, availability limits, standard rates and overtime assumptions
  • Assigning resources using planned units, units-time and quantity requirements
  • Resource curves for front-loaded, back-loaded and uniform work profiles
  • Role assignments during early planning before named resources are confirmed

Participants can identify resource conflicts and evaluate Primavera P6 levelling results.

  • Resource usage profiles showing planned demand by period and activity
  • Histograms comparing resource requirements against available capacity limits
  • Resource overallocation causes: concurrent work, calendars and assignment quantities
  • Primavera P6 resource levelling priorities, limits and scheduling effects
  • Evaluating levelling delays against milestone commitments and critical-path movement
  • Developing practical alternatives through resequencing, split work and additional capacity

Participants can build cost-loaded schedules and produce time-phased cost forecasts.

  • Cost accounts, expense categories and control-account reporting structures
  • Assigning direct costs through resource rates, expenses and material quantities
  • Fixed, variable and overtime cost assumptions in planned activity budgets
  • Time-phased cost curves from planned units and scheduled activity dates
  • Budget-at-completion calculations within resource and expense assignment records
  • Comparing planned cost profiles against approved funding and payment milestones

Participants can create, approve and protect a baseline schedule for performance control.

  • Baseline purpose under project-control plans and contractual schedule requirements
  • Pre-baseline checks for scope, logic, calendars, resources and constraints
  • Creating original, supplementary and updated baselines in Primavera P6
  • Assigning primary, secondary and tertiary baselines for comparative analysis
  • Baseline approval records covering assumptions, exclusions, risks and acceptance authority
  • Protecting approved dates through formal change control and version management

Participants can assess schedule credibility using measurable quality checks and review criteria.

  • DCMA 14-point assessment concepts for schedule-quality review
  • Checking missing logic, excessive lags and non-driving relationship patterns
  • Analysing hard constraints, high-float activities and negative-float conditions
  • Duration thresholds and excessively detailed activity structures in schedule reviews
  • Critical-path continuity from current data date through contractual completion
  • Documenting findings, corrective actions, owners and due dates in review logs

Participants can status schedules against a data date and generate revised completion forecasts.

  • Status-date discipline and reporting cut-off procedures for project updates
  • Physical percent complete, duration percent complete and units percent complete
  • Recording actual starts, actual finishes, remaining durations and remaining units
  • Updating activity steps and milestone evidence against agreed completion rules
  • Rescheduling remaining work after status entry and logic verification
  • Reviewing variance between baseline dates, current dates and actual performance

Participants can interpret earned value indicators alongside Primavera P6 schedule and cost data.

  • Planned value, earned value and actual cost measurement foundations
  • Budgeted cost of work scheduled and budgeted cost of work performed
  • Schedule Performance Index and Cost Performance Index calculations
  • Estimate at completion methods using CPI, SPI and management assumptions
  • Earned-value reporting limits when progress measurement rules remain weak
  • Reconciling Primavera P6 progress data with cost-system actual expenditure

Participants can analyse schedule slippage and develop practical recovery schedule options.

  • Delay classification: excusable, compensable, concurrent and non-excusable delay concepts
  • Time impact analysis using inserted fragnet logic and revised completion forecasts
  • Windows analysis principles for comparing planned and actual progress periods
  • Identifying delay causes through critical-path movement and contemporaneous schedule records
  • Recovery options: resequencing, crashing, fast tracking and scope reprioritisation
  • Documenting recovery actions, decision owners, risks and revised milestone commitments

Participants can coordinate related projects and report cross-project dependencies in Primavera P6.

  • Inter-project relationships for shared milestones, interfaces and programme dependencies
  • Portfolio grouping through EPS nodes, project codes and responsibility assignments
  • Shared resource pools across concurrent projects and operational work
  • Cross-project critical paths and programme-level milestone forecasting
  • Project thresholds and issues for management attention and escalation
  • Comparing project performance through standardised dates, codes and status fields

Participants can produce decision-focused Primavera P6 views, reports and schedule narratives.

  • Custom layouts for planners, project managers, executives and contractor reviews
  • Columns, grouping, sorting and filters for focused schedule analysis
  • Bars, colours and Gantt-chart settings that communicate critical information
  • Reporting baseline variance, float, milestones, resource demand and exceptions
  • Schedule narratives explaining progress, forecast changes, risks and corrective actions
  • Printing and exporting controlled reports for review meetings and governance packs

Participants can manage schedule data exchanges and maintain controlled planning standards.

  • XER export and import controls for transferring Primavera P6 projects
  • Spreadsheet import preparation using activity codes, identifiers and validation rules
  • Data-date, calendar and code checks before accepting external schedule files
  • Schedule-management plans defining update cycles, roles and approval gates
  • Naming conventions for projects, baselines, layouts, reports and archived versions
  • Audit trails for changes, status submissions, approvals and corrective actions

Participants can connect schedule risks, assumptions and contingency decisions to the project plan.

  • Risk registers linked to threatened activities, milestones and dependencies
  • Three-point duration estimates using optimistic, most-likely and pessimistic assumptions
  • Monte Carlo schedule-risk analysis concepts and confidence-date interpretation
  • Contingency activities versus hidden float and unmanaged schedule padding
  • Risk response actions incorporated as owned activities within the schedule
  • Communicating uncertainty through range forecasts, triggers and escalation thresholds

Participants can review contractor schedules against defined acceptance criteria and reporting requirements.

  • Contract schedule requirements: updates, narratives, baselines and milestone obligations
  • Acceptance criteria for activity logic, durations, calendars and constraints
  • Reviewing subcontractor interfaces, procurement lead times and owner dependencies
  • Assessing resource-loading credibility against planned work quantities and productivity
  • Comment registers recording schedule deficiencies, required corrections and deadlines
  • Using approved schedules as evidence for progress, variation and delay discussions

Participants can build, review and present a complete Primavera P6 baseline schedule, update forecast and management report.

  • Creating an EPS-aligned project with approved calendars, codes and WBS
  • Building logic-driven activities, milestones, constraints and interface relationships
  • Assigning resources, costs and planned quantities to selected work packages
  • Establishing a baseline and applying progress against a defined data date
  • Reviewing schedule quality, critical-path movement, resource conflicts and earned-value indicators
  • Presenting forecast dates, risks, recovery actions and management reporting outputs

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Primavera P6 project setup template
  2. Logic-driven baseline schedule model
  3. Resource and cost-loading worksheet
  4. Schedule update and status procedure
  5. DCMA-style schedule quality checklist
  6. Management schedule-reporting layout pack

Who should attend

  • Project Managers — need reliable schedules for delivery decisions and stakeholder commitments
  • Project Planners and Schedulers — build and maintain detailed Primavera P6 project plans
  • Project Controls Engineers — integrate schedule, cost, progress and reporting information
  • Construction Managers — coordinate contractors, work fronts, milestones and resource demand
  • Programme Managers — review cross-project dependencies, critical paths and portfolio forecasts
  • PMO and Reporting Professionals — standardise schedule data and management reporting outputs

Skills and tools covered

Primavera P6 schedulingCritical path analysisResource loadingCost controlBaseline managementSchedule quality assurance

Tools and standards

Oracle Primavera P6 Professional, Critical Path Method, DCMA 14-Point Assessment, Earned Value Management

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings followed by Primavera P6 demonstrations and structured case work. Participants build a project schedule in stages, beginning with enterprise structures and progressing through logic, resources, baselines, updates and reporting. Group reviews test schedule assumptions, critical paths and management messages. Simulations introduce late progress, changed scope, resource shortages and recovery choices. Trainers use examples from capital works, construction, technology deployment and operational projects, then support participants to map the methods to their own planning and reporting responsibilities.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should understand basic project-management terms such as scope, milestones, work breakdown structures, activities, dependencies and project risks. Experience contributing to a project plan, construction programme, implementation schedule or progress report is useful. Participants should be comfortable using Windows applications and spreadsheet data. Prior Primavera P6 experience is not required, although those with limited exposure will benefit from the structured build process. Advanced mathematics, programming, database administration and formal project-management certification are not required. Participants should bring examples of their own project schedules or reporting requirements where organisational policy permits.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You should understand basic project terms such as activities, milestones, dependencies and work breakdown structures. You do not need prior Primavera P6 experience, advanced project-controls knowledge or a formal project-management qualification.

Bring a laptop if requested for your delivery location, together with examples of schedules, reporting formats or planning requirements you may discuss without breaching confidentiality. Training materials and access to the required Primavera P6 learning environment are provided for course activities.

The course is designed for project managers, planners, schedulers, project-controls staff, construction managers and PMO professionals. It is suited to people who create schedules, review contractor plans or make decisions from schedule and progress reports.

General project-management courses cover broad methods for scope, stakeholders, risk and governance. This course concentrates on building and controlling detailed schedules in Primavera P6, including logic, resources, baselines, updates, reporting and schedule-quality checks.

Participants leave with reusable structures for schedule setup, baseline approval, progress updates, quality reviews and reporting. These can be adapted to live capital, construction, technology, operational or programme work, subject to organisational planning standards.

Each training day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours. The first week establishes Primavera P6 foundations and builds a working schedule; the second week develops cost, controls, reporting, risk, contractor review and a final integrated capstone.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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