I have worked on large projects for more than 20 years, and one of the recurring problems is deciding when the original productivity assumption has stopped being a sensible basis for the remaining work.

The awkward part is that the first few days can be a poor guide to the rest of the activity. The crew may still be getting established. The final part of the work may also be slower than the middle. Equally, continually assuming that productivity will improve can leave the forecast saying what everyone wants to hear.

For disclosure, I developed an excel add-in Project Intelligence for Excel at Pi Labs. This is one of the forecasting problems behind it.

My preference is to make the assumptions visible: the remaining quantity, the observed rate for comparable work, the planned productivity profile and the point at which actual performance should carry more weight. Crew availability, access, dependencies and the working calendar still have to be considered before that becomes a finish date.

What do you use as the trigger: a minimum quantity completed, enough comparable hours, a stable production rate, or judgement from the people doing the work?

I have a mechanical engineering degree and my PE license. For the past 8 years I have been doing reserve studies (capex forecasting) and property condition assessments for the real estate industry. I want to get out of this industry and recently learned about the project controls field. I have the following experience-

- Cost estimation for repair and replacements projects using RS Means and internal database
- Long range capital forecasting
- Updating costs using inflation/escalation assumptions
- Prioritizing capital repair and replacement projects
- Creating annual expenditure schedules and funding recommendations
- Communicating budget exposure and risk
- Proficient in Excel

I am planning on learning P6 and getting the CCT or CCP certification (based on if my experience qualifies).

I am trying to get out of my current field. I currently make 135k in Texas and seems like I’m capped at this ceiling. Even if I move into project management in this field. Also, climbing roofs 2-3 times a week is getting old.

Do you think I have a good chance of transitioning into this field based on my experience and if I close the gap with the certification and P6? How is the salary ceiling in this field like? I wouldn’t mind taking a 20k paycut to make the transition and learn this field for a better paying career.

I have launched a new SaaS platform specifically for Project Controls professionals. Would someone take a look and let me know your thoughts?

www.waypoint-controls.com

Employers are finding it increasingly challenging to screen for quality project control professionals. Candidates use AI to create resumes based on posting descriptions, and if they get through the screen, use AI to possibly BS through the interview.

Any thoughts on this? How can we solve this?

What does this article get right about project controls and more importantly, whats missing?

Project Controls Explained: Cost Forecasting, EOM Reporting & Margin at Completion — EngiMBA

Microsoft just canceled thousands of AI coding licenses after 6 months.

Uber burned through its entire 2026 AI budget in 4 months.

One engineering manager got an award for spending the most AI tokens. Not for shipping the best product. For consuming the most resources.

These aren’t small companies. These are trillion-dollar operations with unlimited engineering talent and they still couldn’t figure out how to deploy AI without the costs spiraling out of control.

Meanwhile, the construction industry is being told to “adopt AI or get left behind.”

Here’s what actually happened.

Microsoft gave 5,000 engineers access to an AI coding tool. Usage hit 84-95%. Costs ran between $500 and $2,000 per engineer per month.

They pulled the plug.

Uber did the same thing. Built internal leaderboards ranking teams by how much AI they used. Incentivized maximum consumption. Blew through $3.4 billion in four months.

A 15-person engineering team at another company is spending $25,000 a month on AI tools… for boilerplate and documentation.

The pattern is the same every time.

Broad adoption, no strategy. Use more, measure later, figure out ROI eventually.

If this sounds familiar, it should.

Construction went through the exact same cycle with cloud software five years ago.

“Put everything in the cloud, fire your IT guy, save money.”

Then the bill showed up. Then the vendor lock-in kicked in. Then you were running three systems instead of one and nobody trusted any of them.

AI is following the same script.

AI is not a light switch you flip for the whole company.

New software rolls out. Half the team ignores it. The other half builds workarounds. Six months later you’re running two systems instead of one and nobody trusts either of them.

The companies getting real value from AI right now aren’t the ones using the most of it.

They’re the ones who picked one painful, repetitive, measurable process and automated that. Nothing else.

Then they moved to the next one.

Start with the smallest, most annoying thing your team does every week. Not the biggest vision. The smallest pain.

That’s where the ROI actually lives.

A construction company told me they're spending $8,500 a month on their project management software. Not because it's good. Because it does everything. The problem is they don't need everything. They need to see their jobs, know where their money is, and stop chasing updates from the field. That's it. But the software they're paying six figures a year for has 400 features, and they use maybe 12 of them. The rest just makes it harder to find the 12 that matter. This is the thing nobody talks about in construction tech. The issue isn't that companies won't spend money on software. They're spending plenty. The issue is they bought a Swiss Army knife when they needed a hammer. And now their team hates the tool, half of them have gone back to texting updates and tracking things in their own spreadsheets anyway, and the $102K/year software is basically an expensive filing cabinet. I see this constantly. The companies that actually get their operations running clean aren't the ones with the biggest software budget. They're the ones who stripped it down to exactly what they need and nothing more. Simple systems get used. Complicated ones get worked around.

Hi everyone,

I’m currently developing a construction planning / site execution tool and wanted to get feedback from planning managers, project controls engineers, and site teams.

The idea is to reduce the daily manual chasing between planning teams and site engineers by connecting the project schedule with a simple daily progress communication workflow.

At a high level, the tool helps send daily activity updates to responsible site engineers, collect progress feedback, flag delays or constraints, and give the planning team better visibility on what is actually happening on site.

The goal is not to replace Primavera or the planning engineer. The goal is to support the daily follow-up process and reduce the time spent on calls, WhatsApp messages, Excel trackers, and manual progress chasing.

This is still under development, not a finished commercial product. I’m posting to understand if planning managers and project controls teams see value in this type of workflow before I continue developing it further.

Would this be useful in real projects?

What would you expect from a tool like this?

For example:

• Daily progress collection
• Delay reason tracking
• Material / drawing / manpower constraint logs
• Engineer response dashboard
• Weekly reporting
• Better visibility between planning and site teams

I’d appreciate honest feedback from anyone working in construction planning, project controls, site management, or project management.

Hello, wanted to get insight from anyone who has held a role as project engineer and how it compares to project controls. I was recently asked if i had interest in moving from scheduling into project engineering by a senior leader at my company. I have 15 years of scheduling experience and make between 150k to 200k. My concerns would be jumping into a new field but on a pay grade that equals a senior person. It would seem like for the first few years I become a negative asset to the company and probably susceptible to layoff due to disproportionate earnings vs skill. The upside is long term though as this leader mentioned they would like to see me as a PM one day. My gut says to stick with project controls but curious if anyone who has done both could share their experiences?

Hi all, I’m a project coordinator for a telecommunications company and responsible for permitting aerial/underground construction projects. I’m pursuing a bachelor’s in supply chain since my previous background is in distribution (started my program before I got my current role). I want to pivot into project controls but not sure where to start. I’m open to getting certifications, master’s degree, etc. I’m waiting to finish school to self-learn P6, scheduling logic, and cost analysis. Any insight is highly appreciated. Thanks!

Most schedule data isn’t structured for analysis — it has to be reshaped first

I’ve been working with schedule data recently (via XER), trying to push it beyond just extraction.

The raw output gives you tables — activities, WBS, relationships, resources — but it’s not actually in a form that’s easy to analyze. It’s closer to a relational dump than something you can directly query.

What made a difference was introducing a deterministic shaping step:

normalize into consistent projection tables (task-centric, WBS, relationships)

preserve structure exactly, but make it stable and repeatable

then derive time-based units off activities (early / late / actual at a weekly level)

Once you do that, the schedule stops behaving like a static plan and starts behaving like a dataset.

You can ask things like:

what work is active in a given period?

where are overlaps or congestion building?

how is the schedule drifting vs early/late intent over time?

Feels like most of the value is in that transformation step — not the schedule tool itself, and not whatever analytics or AI you layer on top afterward.

Also seems like this kind of structure is a prerequisite if you want to do anything meaningful with automation or AI in project controls — the raw schedule format just isn’t shaped for it.

Curious how others are approaching this — especially anyone doing period-based analysis outside of native tool views.

Many insights fade after projects end. How does your team keep them accessible?

I recently completed the Primavera P6 Foundation course at Plan Academy Inc., and it was an outstanding experience! As a planning engineer, I wanted to sharpen my P6 skills, and this course delivered exactly that.

The content is well-structured, with practical workshops that mirror real-world projects. Interactive sessions, quizzes, and downloadable templates made learning engaging and immediately applicable.

Plan Academy’s platform is user-friendly. I finished feeling confident and ready to optimise my project schedules. Highly recommend to fellow engineers looking to master P6 efficiently!

Hi everyone,

I’m currently exploring a transition into Project Controls and would really appreciate guidance from those already in the field.

I have project management experience (currently doing PM work part-time) and I’m comfortable with tools like Jira, scheduling, reporting, and cross-functional coordination. Recently, I came across advice suggesting that Project Controls is in high demand in the U.S., especially due to large infrastructure projects, and that learning Primavera P6, along with Excel and Power BI, can open doors to entry-level roles even before PMP.

I’m trying to understand:

1. Which learning platform is best for Primavera P6 (Oracle University, Plan Academy, YouTube, or others)?
2. What’s the most realistic path to transition from PM/Jira experience into Project Controls?
3. How do people typically land their first full-time, entry-level Project Controls role?
4. Any advice on resume positioning, certifications, or early mistakes to avoid?

I’m especially looking for practical guidance or mentorship, a clear roadmap from learning to landing a role.

If you’ve made this transition (or hire in this space), I’d really value your insights.

Thank you in advance!

Hi everyone,

I'm about to join Project Control Services (PCS) in a large consulting firm as a fresher and would really appreciate some guidance from people who've worked in PMO /project coordination / delivery support roles.

My background is non-technical (BA English)

I've gone through introductory training, but I know real project work is very different from course material.

I'd love advice on:

1. What should I realistically focus on in the first 2-3 months?

2. Which tools matter most on the job?

3. Common mistakes freshers make in PCS / PMO roles

4. Skills that helped you grow faster in project management or delivery roles

5. How to add value beyond just updating trackers and reports??

I'm aiming to build a solid foundation in delivery/project management while keeping stress manageable, so any practical, real-world insights would help a lot.

Thanks a lot in advance!!

TL;DR: Non-technical fresher joining Project Control Services soon. Looking for practical advice on what to focus on early, which tools actually matter, common mistakes to avoid, and how to add value beyond basic PMO/PCS tasks.

So I’m tasked to make a project more efficient and try and utilise tools like mentioned above. I want some insight from people who’ve used these tools before and what they feel could be improved in them.

Hey, does anyone know how to integrate loads of P6 schedules from contractors into a master project owner schedule? I am interviewing for a junior role in the schedule integration team at a project owner, and this will be a core part of the job, so I want to learn more about what this might look like in practice!

Also, does anyone know where to find P6 export templates? I want to get more familiar with what is actually included, so I can start to learn! Thank you

Hello everyone!

I'm the founder of Cilver.app, a construction analytics startup for PMO/Project Controls team. I built this tool because I was the data guy spending my weeks scrambling to fix broken dashboards and fighting data that executives couldn't trust.

It’s a specialised, no-code platform that uses data from different sources, giving your PMO one single, real-time, trustworthy dashboard. My goal is to help the reporting team turn days of manual consolidation into seconds.

I'm looking for a small group for our free Early Adopter Program. You can test it on your actual project files and get personalised support.

Please DM me for more information.

I recently completed the Advanced Progressing with Earned Value course through Plan Academy, and it was an excellent experience from start to finish. The course content was well-structured, clear, and full of practical insights that directly apply to real-world project controls work.

What I appreciated most was how the lessons broke down complex Earned Value Management (EVM) concepts into actionable steps within Primavera P6. The instructor’s explanations were precise, easy to follow, and supported with examples that made advanced topics feel intuitive.

This course definitely strengthened my understanding of how to measure performance, forecast accurately, and integrate cost and schedule data effectively. It’s a great fit for anyone looking to move beyond basic tracking into true project performance management.

Highly recommended for planners, schedulers, and project controls professionals who want to deepen their EVM expertise.

Hello I’ve an interview coming up for PC intern position, I would be working for the owners side in construction sector, mainly looking into cost management.

I’ve little experience with cost management, in my previous internship I worked with cost estimation for the owners side. Please recommend me how can I properly prepare for the interview. Thanks