Planning Engineering Interview Questions and Answers | Top 20

        Best Planning Engineering Interview Questions and Answers                     

Question-01: What is ACWP, BCWP & BCWS?

Answer: ACWP is Actual Cost of Work Performed, BCWP is Budgeted Cost of Work

Performed & BCWS is Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled.

Question-02: How you will make a comparison of different updates for the same schedule?

Answer: I will use Claim Digger function that is available in Primavera P6.

Question-03: Do you know any about Retained & Over-Ride Logic in Scheduling?

Answer: This only matters if the schedule is not going at it was planned, means a difference is activities progress. The Progress Over-ride will not respect the logic anymore if there is any variance and hence will shorten the critical path but with mostly illogical out of sequence activities. In other sense, the activities will do as it is an open- end activity. The Retained logic is completely otherwise.

Question-04: What do you know about DCMA Scoring?

Answer: DCMA is 14-Point Assessment Metrics to evaluate any baseline schedule. It includes; 1. Logic 2. Leads 3. Lags 4. Relationship Types 5. Hard Constraints 6. High Float

7. Negative Float 8. High Duration 9. Invalid Dates 10. Resources 11. Missed Tasks 12. Critical Path Test 13. Critical Path Length Index (CPLI) 14. Baseline Execution Index (BEI)

Question-05: What do you about Delay Analysis Techniques?

Answer: Normally it is defined in the Contract documents that how we are going to calculate extension of time but if not then there must be a consensus for using any available technique from both of the parties like 1) Impacted as planned 2) Windows Analysis 3) Time Impact or 4) As-Built But-For.

Question-06: What is the difference between Float & Slack? Answer: Nothing, just synonyms.

Question-07: What is the difference between Planner & a Scheduler?

Answer: Both are quite different but linked to each other tightly. Somewhere these are just synonym to each other.

Planner or Planning Engineer reads the IFC drawings, define the activities, duration & resources according to site construction conditions. He knows better all the phases of work to be done even during the tender stage and also at the construction stage. It should be from an engineering background necessarily.

On the other hands, Scheduler takes-over the work done already by the planner to make a more detailed one. This job does not require to have an engineering background.

I read somewhere on LinkedIn (by Mustafa Ozgoren) that

Planning is What & How?

Scheduling is When & Who?

Both should be well versed in Planning software in any case.

Question-08: What is different % complete type in Primavera P6? Answer: Physical, Units & Duration.

Question-09: What is different duration type in Primavera P6?

Answer: Fixed Units, Fixed Units/time, Fixed Duration & Units, Fixed Duration & Units/Time.

Question-10: What is Productivity?

Answer: Productivity is the efficiency of any working entity. It is measured as the amount of output for work per hour. Productivity rates define how efficient a team you have. Formula is Productivity = Output / Input

Example: Let say you have two masons (call A&B) and let’s review their work for last week,  A worked for 50 hours and B for 30 hours. A fixed 5000 blocks & B did 3500 blocks. As a planner, you may like A as it is putting more on but let’s have a check on productivity for both

Mason A= 5000/50hrs = 100/hour

Mason B= 3500/30hrs =116/hour

Here, B is much more productive than A and hence you need to raise the skill level of A- type Mason by proper training, etc.

Question-11: What are the different levels of a Schedule?

Answer: There is a different school of thought to define levels of a program one says its six levels, others say it’s five and even one thinks only four levels of a program are there when scheduling.

Here, I will explain the six levels as most of the old school people still think as more logical, there are

LEVEL-1: Overview Schedule LEVEL-2: Area Wise Schedule LEVEL-3: Discipline Wise Schedule LEVEL-4: Major Activities Schedule

LEVEL-5: Detailed Activities Schedule

LEVEL-6: Micro-detail Activities Schedule

Question-12: What is the difference between Project Planner & Project Controller? Answer: Project planner does the planning phase for the project from WBS

identification, identification of project deliverables, milestones, create the baseline, plan the budget, cash flow and KPI’s and trackers. The planner is to prepare the program and prepare an acceptable budget for all parties.

Project control provides assistance and ensures that the plan is controlled by providing risk register, analyzing critical path, placing mitigation plans, track project KPI, and ensures that the project is running on time and budget. Its focus is only productivity & reports according to organizational norms.

Question-13: What you normally present in a Weekly Report?

Answer: It depends on the demands of stakeholders on a particular project. Normally, I update the Schedule with a proper backup, do required baseline comparisons, Critical Path that displays activities are important to consider on, three weeks lookahead –

3WLHS, EVM reports are also included in my report. I draw S curves for Man-hours, Cost, Manpower Histogram, Equipment Histogram. Furthermore, I always update the Procurement Schedule separately in MS Excel to track other materials. Long lead items are already being tracked and updated accordingly in my baseline schedule.

Question-14: What are the different types of Primavera P6 activities? Answer: These include

Task-Dependent: In this type assigned resources are scheduled based on the

activity’s calendar itself.

Resource Dependent: In this type, the assigned resources are scheduled based on assigned calendars.

Level of Effort: This type of activity goes with dependent activities like administrative issues.

Start Milestone: This is designated for the start of a major phase or stage of a project.  A milestone that has zero duration. It is just like a flag.

Finish Milestone: This is designated for the finish of the major phase or stage of a project. A milestone that has zero duration. It is just like a flag.

Question-15: Differentiate between budgeted Cost and Budgeted Units?

Answer: Budgeted Cost for an activity is the total budgeted costs of all resources on that particular activity whereas Budgeted units are budgeted units of work for the resource assignment on any particular activity.

Question-16: When the Planning Phase /Stage is started for a Project?

Answer: Well, they say planning phase should be started before ending the initiation phase but as per my thinking Planning should be started as soon as the project life cycle starts.

Question-17: What is the difference between different Primavera Scheduling

Programmes?

Answer: There are few other programs but we will discuss below three as these are mainly used for scheduling

1.  Primavera P6 Professional

2.  Primavera P6 EPPM (Web Client)

3.  Primavera Contractor

Now, Primavera Contractor is the least costly and hence not have much features

like Enterprise and Admin menus are not available. It is limited to 2000 activities only. No Microsoft Project XML file support, No Resource Roles, No Enterprise Project Structure (EPS) and it is installed only as standalone. Still, it is a great and powerful application. The interface is as of Primavera P6 Professional. A person that uses Primavera P6

Professional can handle it with ease.

Now let’s compare the other two major giants Primavera P6 Professional & Primavera P6

EPPM

EPPM have some edge over Professional as it has more visual aids, can handle more projects at once, installation is faster, need to be installed at only one machine whereas Professional should be installed on each machine. Professional is a small-scaled as compare to EPPM as it only can handle 100,000 activities. EPPM has more graphs, different dashboards, and pivot tables to help the management to review the status quickly whereas you need to use third-party software like MS Excel to get better visualization when using P6 Professional.

Professional has more speed than EPPM, it needs no internet connection to be operated whereas EPPM needs a good internet connection.

Question-18: What is normally you see on a Change Order Form?

Answer: There are five major & must mentions on any Change Order (CO) Form;

1.Change in the Scope – Either additions or reductions. A change is just color can be referred into a change order even no monitory value involves. Better to document this for reference to give credit.

2.Change in Cost – Either plus, negative or even zero.

3. Change in time – Never forget if you are on contractor side & must plan as per resources or add optimum to avoid Liquidated Damages (L.D.). It should have a start & finish date even though not necessary as per Change Order form.

4.Signatures – It should be signed by authorized parties two or more.

5.Date of Change Order – The signature date must be included on the Change Order

Form.

Question-19: Difference between MS Project and Primavera P6?

Answer: I have used both of these but in my opinion, Primavera P6 is way more powerful than MS Project. MS project only allows 11 baselines for any particular project but Primavera P6 offers unlimited baselines. That shows that with Primavera P6 we can handle complex projects.

In Primavera P6 multi-user can work at the same time, but in MS Project one must close so the other user can open that project.

Web Support is also available in Primavera P6 EPPM that means a user can operate through the internet without installing Primavera P6 software on a machine. That makes it a portable type of product.

MS Project is a user-friendly as most of the people are familiar with Microsoft products like MS Excel buy Primavera P6 needs some basic skills/training to operate.

You can read more about these here MS Project and Primavera P6

Question-20: How you track Progress of a Project?

Answer: There are three ways to track the progress of a project

Man-hours

Cost

Quantities

Every client has his/her preferences to use any of the above methods but I use Man- hours. The reason is it gives me proper control of resources that make tracking quite easy and effective. One can get realistic manpower requirements for a particular project.

Many clients prefer cost but if a Project Manager filters activities with higher cost and get it done first then it will show some kind of fake overall progress. But it is good to have a proper cash flow forecast.

Quantiles are preferred where material management is required mainly and it also helps to track KPI’s of a constructions site. But being a planner, I must say tracking is really tough with this method as you need to track most of the materials.