Project Scheduling with Primavera P6 and MS Project Training Course

Duration 10 days 18 modules · 65 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Project Planners and Schedulers, Project Managers and others
Fee from USD 2,200 KSh 190,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-PM-127

Before you join: Participants should understand basic project management terms such as scope, milestones, work packages, risks and stakeholders.

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

Projects fail to meet commitments when schedules are built as presentation documents rather than management systems. Weak logic, unrealistic durations, unmanaged constraints and late progress updates obscure the true critical path. This course addresses the practical work of turning scope, resources, risks and contractual milestones into a controlled schedule that supports decisions on delivery dates, staffing, recovery actions and change requests.

Participants build and maintain an integrated project schedule using Primavera P6 Professional and Microsoft Project. They develop work breakdown structures, calendars, activity definitions, logic networks, duration estimates, resource assignments and cost-loaded plans. The course covers Critical Path Method, schedule quality checks, baseline control, earned value measures, progress updating, forecasting and delay analysis. Participants also learn where the two applications differ: P6 for multi-project, enterprise-controlled environments and MS Project for project-level planning, team coordination and portfolio reporting.

Teaching combines focused instructor briefings with case-based schedule development, tool demonstrations, peer schedule reviews and realistic update cycles. Participants work from a project brief through to an approved baseline, then update it against simulated progress, assess variance and prepare a recovery proposal. They leave with a complete, quality-checked schedule pack, including a schedule narrative, baseline plan, update report and management dashboard that can be adapted to their own project.

The course suits project professionals working on capital projects, infrastructure, technology delivery, operations improvement, public programmes, product implementation and complex service contracts. It is particularly useful where clients, funders or internal governance bodies require defensible dates, resource plans and regular schedule reporting.

What you will be able to do

  • Build logic-driven project schedules in Primavera P6 Professional and Microsoft Project
  • Develop work breakdown structures, calendars and activity coding systems for controlled planning
  • Calculate critical paths, total float and schedule sensitivities using Critical Path Method
  • Assign resources and costs to produce time-phased staffing and budget forecasts
  • Baseline schedules and control approved changes through formal schedule governance
  • Update progress, analyse variance and forecast completion dates from current performance
  • Apply DCMA 14-Point Assessment checks to identify schedule quality defects
  • Present a complete schedule baseline, update report and recovery plan to decision-makers

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Produce defensible schedules rather than date lists and static Gantt charts
  • Diagnose broken logic, excessive constraints and unreliable float before reporting deadlines
  • Use Primavera P6 and Microsoft Project confidently for planning and schedule updates
  • Explain schedule variance, critical path movement and recovery options to senior stakeholders
  • Build evidence for project controls, contractor discussions and change-control decisions

For your organisation

  • Earlier identification of delivery threats through logic-based critical path analysis
  • More credible completion forecasts for investment, governance and client reporting
  • Consistent baseline and update practices across projects and project teams
  • Improved resource visibility through time-phased demand and capacity analysis
  • Stronger evidence for change requests, delay reviews and recovery decisions

Course modules

18 modules over 10 days

Participants can define the governance, information and planning controls required for a usable project schedule.

  • Project life-cycle governance and schedule-control responsibilities under ISO 21502
  • Scope baseline, WBS and schedule baseline relationships explained
  • Rolling-wave planning and progressive elaboration for uncertain work packages
  • Milestones, activities, deliverables and planning packages distinguished precisely
  • Schedule management plan contents, approval gates and change authority
  • Planning assumptions, constraints and calendars recorded in a basis document

Participants can translate approved scope into a structured, measurable activity network.

  • Work breakdown structures decomposed to controllable planning-package and work-package levels
  • Control accounts aligned with scope ownership, budgets and reporting responsibility
  • Activity naming conventions built around measurable completion criteria
  • Activity IDs, codes and user-defined fields configured for reporting
  • Appropriate activity granularity tested using the 8/80 guideline
  • Milestone dictionaries distinguish contractual, internal and decision-point milestones

Participants can establish realistic working-time assumptions and activity duration estimates.

  • Global, project and resource calendars configured for working-time patterns
  • Holiday exceptions, shift patterns and weather allowances entered correctly
  • Duration estimating uses analogous, parametric and three-point techniques
  • Productivity rates convert quantities, crews and effort into durations
  • Elapsed duration and working duration selected for appropriate activity types
  • Duration assumptions documented with source data and estimating confidence

Participants can build dependency logic and interpret Critical Path Method calculations.

  • Finish-to-start, start-to-start, finish-to-finish and start-to-finish relationships applied
  • Lead and lag values used only with documented operational justification
  • Precedence diagramming method models sequence, handoffs and parallel work
  • Forward and backward passes calculate early and late dates
  • Total float, free float and negative float interpreted correctly
  • Critical paths tested against contractual milestones and completion commitments

Participants can configure a Primavera P6 project structure and create an initial schedule.

  • Enterprise project structure and organisational breakdown structure relationships established
  • P6 project settings, calendars and default options configured
  • Work breakdown structure nodes created within the P6 project
  • Activities, durations and milestones entered using P6 layouts
  • Relationships, lags and constraints assigned through Activity Details
  • Scheduling runs interpreted through P6 log messages and dates

Participants can build a controlled project plan in Microsoft Project using sound scheduling logic.

  • Project start dates, calendars and scheduling options configured
  • Summary tasks and task hierarchy constructed from the WBS
  • Task modes selected to control manual and automatic scheduling
  • Dependencies, leads and lags created using the Gantt Chart
  • Deadline dates applied without replacing logic-driven schedule calculations
  • Network Diagram and Tracking Gantt views used for validation

Participants can distinguish legitimate constraints from scheduling practices that hide delivery risk.

  • Mandatory, discretionary, external and resource constraints classified systematically
  • Hard constraints compared with deadline dates and logical relationships
  • Constraint dates reviewed for effects on float and criticality
  • Open ends, dangling activities and circular logic identified
  • Schedule risk register links uncertainty drivers to vulnerable activities
  • Contingency activities and management reserve treated through governance controls

Participants can assign resources and costs to create time-phased delivery forecasts.

  • Resource breakdown structures classify labour, plant, materials and subcontractors
  • Resource calendars reflect availability, shifts and utilisation limits
  • Units, rates and costs assigned to activities accurately
  • Resource histograms reveal peaks, gaps and capacity conflicts
  • Resource levelling compares automated adjustments with management decisions
  • Time-phased cost plans align with control accounts and funding needs

Participants can approve a schedule baseline and explain its basis to reviewers.

  • Baseline schedules checked for scope, logic, calendars and resources
  • Schedule narrative documents assumptions, exclusions, risks and key dates
  • Basis of schedule records estimating sources and planning rules
  • P6 baselines created, assigned and compared against current schedules
  • Microsoft Project baselines saved for schedule and cost variance
  • Formal approval workflows establish the authorised performance measurement baseline

Participants can collect progress data that produces credible schedule updates.

  • Data dates established before collecting actual progress information
  • Physical percent complete, duration percent complete and units percent compared
  • Rules of credit define objective completion measurement for activities
  • Actual starts, actual finishes and remaining durations entered consistently
  • Status cut-off procedures prevent future progress and retrospective distortions
  • Progress evidence matched to inspections, approvals, quantities and acceptance records

Participants can update schedules and forecast completion based on current project performance.

  • P6 update cycles apply status data through the data date
  • Microsoft Project tracking methods update actuals and remaining work
  • Rescheduling incomplete work evaluates retained logic and progress overrides
  • Critical path movement analysed after revised dates and durations
  • Finish-date forecasts compared with baseline commitments and contractual milestones
  • Update narratives explain drivers, impacts, decisions and required actions

Participants can use earned value data with schedule information to assess project performance.

  • Planned value, earned value and actual cost calculated
  • Schedule performance index and cost performance index interpreted
  • Performance measurement techniques selected for work-package characteristics
  • Budget at completion, estimate at completion and variance forecasts prepared
  • Earned value trends compared with critical-path schedule indicators
  • Control account reports connect schedule status with cost accountability

Participants can assess schedule integrity and correct common quality defects.

  • DCMA 14-Point Assessment tests applied to schedule health
  • Missing logic, excessive lags and long durations investigated
  • High float, negative float and invalid dates analysed
  • Hard constraints reviewed against approved schedule management rules
  • Critical path length index and baseline execution index calculated
  • Corrective actions documented in a schedule quality review report

Participants can model disruption scenarios and prepare practical schedule recovery actions.

  • What-if copies preserve the approved baseline before scenario modelling
  • Logic alternatives test resequencing, parallel work and phased handovers
  • Crashing evaluates duration reduction against additional resource cost
  • Fast tracking examines overlap risks, rework exposure and governance approvals
  • Recovery schedules assign accountable actions, dates and performance measures
  • Scenario comparisons present completion dates, risks and resource implications

Participants can analyse schedule impacts and support controlled responses to change events.

  • Change events classified by scope, timing, responsibility and notice requirements
  • Time impact analysis inserts prospective changes into approved schedule logic
  • Windows analysis compares schedule updates across defined reporting periods
  • As-planned versus as-built comparisons identify actual sequence divergence
  • Concurrent delay assessed using critical path evidence and project records
  • Change-control submissions state impact, mitigation, decision and baseline treatment

Participants can coordinate interdependent schedules and report portfolio-level delivery exposure.

  • P6 enterprise data supports shared resources and cross-project reporting
  • Inter-project relationships identify dependency dates and interface ownership
  • Programme milestones consolidate project commitments into integrated roadmaps
  • Portfolio views compare criticality, float consumption and resource demand
  • Microsoft Project master projects and subprojects managed with caution
  • Common coding structures support dashboards, filters and governance reports

Participants can produce decision-focused schedule reports for different stakeholder groups.

  • Milestone charts communicate executive commitments without unnecessary task detail
  • Gantt charts highlight critical activities, slippage and upcoming decisions
  • Look-ahead schedules convert master plans into near-term operational commitments
  • Schedule narratives distinguish facts, assumptions, risks and recommended actions
  • P6 layouts, filters and grouping create targeted stakeholder reports
  • Microsoft Project reports present milestones, workload and variance trends

Participants can build, quality-check, update and present a complete schedule baseline and recovery proposal.

  • Project brief converted into WBS, calendars, activities and milestone structure
  • Logic network developed, scheduled and tested for open ends
  • Resources, costs and baseline commitments assigned to selected work packages
  • DCMA schedule health checks identify and correct planning defects
  • Progress update generates variance analysis, forecast dates and recovery actions
  • Schedule pack presented with narrative, dashboard and management recommendations

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

What you take back to work

  1. Schedule management plan template
  2. Basis of schedule template
  3. Logic-driven Primavera P6 schedule
  4. Microsoft Project baseline plan
  5. DCMA schedule quality checklist
  6. Schedule update and recovery report

Who should attend

  • Project Planners and Schedulers — need to build and maintain logic-driven delivery schedules
  • Project Managers — need reliable dates, forecasts and recovery options for governance decisions
  • Programme Managers — need consistent scheduling controls across interdependent projects
  • Project Controls Engineers — need schedule quality tests, progress analysis and reporting methods
  • Construction and Engineering Managers — need defensible plans for contractors, milestones and claims
  • PMO Analysts — need common scheduling standards and portfolio-level reporting data

Skills and tools covered

Critical path analysisSchedule baseline controlResource-loaded schedulingProgress measurementSchedule quality assuranceDelay impact analysis

Tools and standards

Primavera P6 Professional, Microsoft Project, DCMA 14-Point Assessment, ISO 21502

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short technical briefings followed by guided work in Primavera P6 Professional and Microsoft Project. Participants develop schedules from a realistic project brief, test alternative logic and calendars, assign resources, then run update cycles using status data. Group reviews focus on schedule narratives, critical path findings and management reporting. Simulations introduce late activities, scope changes and resource conflicts. Individual application planning helps participants map the methods, data requirements and governance steps to their own projects.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should understand basic project management terms such as scope, milestones, work packages, risks and stakeholders. Experience contributing to a project plan, coordinating activities or reporting progress is useful. Participants should be comfortable using desktop software, spreadsheets and file-management conventions. Prior use of Primavera P6 or Microsoft Project is not required; the course begins with core application setup and scheduling concepts. Advanced mathematical training, programming skills, formal project management certification and prior experience of construction planning are not required.

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 know basic project terms and have some exposure to project planning, coordination or reporting. No previous Primavera P6 or Microsoft Project experience is required, but participants should be comfortable using desktop software.

Bring a laptop if attending in a format where it is required, together with any permitted project planning documents you want to review. Course cases, templates and software guidance are provided; organisational data should be anonymised before use.

It is designed for planners, project managers, project controls staff, PMO analysts and delivery managers responsible for project dates and progress reporting. It is suitable for capital, technology, operations and public-sector projects.

General project management courses cover broad disciplines such as scope, risk, procurement and stakeholders. This course concentrates on building, testing, updating and reporting schedules in Primavera P6 and Microsoft Project.

Participants use reusable templates for schedule governance, assumptions, quality checks and update reporting. The methods can be applied to a new schedule, an inherited plan requiring repair or a project needing a credible recovery forecast.

Each day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours. The first part develops a working baseline schedule, while the later modules focus on updating, quality assurance, forecasting, delay analysis, reporting and the final 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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