Schedule · Course
Primavera P6 for Real Projects
A hands-on course that takes you from zero to confidently building, resourcing, and updating a P6 schedule on a live UK construction or infrastructure programme. Written and taught by practitioners who use P6 every week, not trainers who last touched a project in 2015.
Who it is for
Built for these people.
- Graduate engineers and planners who have been handed a P6 licence and told to get on with it
- Professionals moving from MS Project or other scheduling tools who need P6 fluency fast
- PMO analysts who review schedules but have never built one from scratch
- Engineers and project managers who want to understand what their planner is actually doing
- Anyone who needs to produce a schedule that will stand up to a DCMA or client assurance review
Outcomes
What you will walk away with.
- Understand P6’s architecture: EPS, OBS, WBS, calendars, and activity codes — and why they matter for multi-project environments
- Build a well-structured, fully logic-linked schedule from a scope document, using UK conventions (NEC, CESMM, SCL Protocol)
- Resource-load a schedule and produce a meaningful S-curve and histogram
- Set a baseline and understand what baseline comparison actually tells you
- Run a monthly status update cycle: progress, remaining durations, actual dates, data date
- Produce a credible 4-week look-ahead from a live programme schedule
- Identify the common P6 mistakes that cause schedules to fail assurance reviews
- Know when a schedule is telling you something useful and when it’s lying to you
Syllabus
Session by session.
Session 1 — P6 Architecture
3 hours- Enterprise Project Structure (EPS) and why it matters for portfolio visibility
- Organisational Breakdown Structure (OBS) and how it drives access control
- Calendars: global, project, and resource calendars; handling shift patterns and NEC compensation events
- Activity codes and user-defined fields: using them to filter, sort, and report without duplicating data
- P6 Admin basics: user accounts, licence types, database vs standalone — what you’ll encounter on site
- Common P6 myths and bad habits that cause problems later (and why they’re so widespread)
Session 2 — Building a Schedule
3 hours- Work Breakdown Structure (WBS): principles, typical UK construction WBS patterns, what the NEC requires
- Activity types: task-dependent, resource-dependent, milestones — when to use each
- Relationships and logic: FS, SS, FF, SF; lag and lead; when lag is appropriate and when it’s hiding a missing activity
- Duration estimating: how to get to defensible numbers and document your basis
- Critical path: what it is, why it moves, and what it means for programme management
- Schedule quality checks before you share it with anyone: open ends, constraints, missing logic
Session 3 — Resourcing & Baselining
3 hours- Resource types and loading approaches: labour, equipment, materials; units vs units/time
- Producing a resource S-curve and histogram from a P6 schedule
- Baseline types in P6: BL1, User Baseline, Primary Baseline — and the difference between them
- Baseline management: when to rebaseline, how to seek client approval, audit trail discipline
- Producing a meaningful schedule narrative to accompany the baseline submission
- Common baselining errors that come back to haunt you in a dispute or entitlement claim
Session 4 — Live-Programme Techniques
3 hours- The monthly update cycle: setting data date, entering actuals, remaining durations, actual dates
- Earned value from P6: pulling % complete, physical % complete, and understanding the difference
- Producing a credible 4-week look-ahead: filtering, grouping, and exporting for site use
- Schedule analytics: interpreting schedule performance, float trends, and critical path drift
- Delay analysis fundamentals: how the SCL Protocol uses schedules as evidence; contemporaneous records
- Exporting and reporting: PDF, XER, XML, and what to keep in your project record
Prerequisites
Before you join.
- Basic familiarity with project management concepts (activities, dependencies, milestones)
- No prior P6 experience required — we start from the application architecture
- A copy of P6 Professional or P6 EPPM accessible during sessions (we cover how to get a trial licence if needed)
- A willingness to build a real schedule during the course, not just follow a demo
What you get
Included with every seat.
- Access to all four live sessions with a practitioner instructor
- Recordings of every session, available for 12 months
- A course workbook with the practice schedule files used during the sessions
- A P6 quick-reference card covering the most-used keyboard shortcuts and menu paths
- A SOMA certificate of completion for your CPD record
- Access to a post-course Q&A thread for follow-up questions from your own projects
FAQs
The honest answers.
Is this enough to make me a P6 expert overnight?
No. It gets you fluent enough to build and update a real schedule by the end of week two, and to know the right questions to ask when something looks wrong. Becoming genuinely expert takes months of live-project experience. This course removes the ramp-up time and bad habits you’d otherwise pick up unsupervised.
Do I need to bring my own copy of P6?
Yes. You’ll need access to P6 Professional or P6 EPPM during the sessions. If your employer has a licence, use that. If not, Oracle offers a 30-day trial — we’ll send instructions for setting this up before Session 1. We cover both standalone and database-connected configurations.
Does this cover schedule assurance and DCMA 14?
We cover schedule quality checks and the main DCMA 14 signals during Session 2 (building logic that will pass review) and Session 4 (maintaining a schedule through delivery). Running a formal DCMA 14 assessment on contractor submissions is a separate consultancy product — see our Planning & Scheduling service page.
What if I miss a session?
All sessions are recorded and the recording is available within 24 hours. We’d encourage you to watch it before the next session rather than skip it, because the course builds week on week. If life intervenes, you can also roll your place to the next cohort — just let us know before the cohort starts.
Can I expense this?
Almost certainly. At £895 it sits well within standard professional development budgets and is clearly CPD-qualifying training. We provide a VAT invoice suitable for expenses. Some delegates pay personally and reclaim via self-assessment — worth checking with your accountant.
Do you run this in-house for teams?
Yes. In-house delivery for teams of 6 or more is available, and we can tailor the example schedule to your sector or contract type. Contact us for a quote.
Is this suitable for P6 EPPM (web) as well as P6 Professional (desktop)?
Mostly yes. The core concepts — WBS, logic, baselining, updating — are the same in both. Some menu paths and interface details differ. We’ll flag the key differences during the sessions, and the recordings cover both where they diverge.
Want to talk about training your team?
Tell us the shape of your programme and your team's level. We will come back with a recommendation that fits — open course, in-house, or a mix.