This paper describes ways to solve out of sequence activities.

1. 1
How to Solve Out of Sequence Activities
Amr M. Morsy, Consolidated Contractors Company, March 2017
When you build a baseline programme for a project, the Activities relations used to build that
baseline are classified into types, hard and soft logic. Hard logic means that the relation is a fact
that is inevitable to happen such as Installation of the block works cannot finish before finishing
the Concrete Skeleton, or closing the false ceiling cannot be done before finish all the MEP
works under that ceiling. Soft logic means that the relation is used to achieve planned sequence
by the Contractor, and changing that sequence is applicable. Usually the actual sequence that
occurs on site differs from the planned sequence. So, when the baseline for the project is
updated after achieving actual progress on site and reflecting that in the update, out of
sequence activities show up.
There are different cases for out of sequence activities as illustrated below:
1- Successor Activity is started while the Predecessor Activity is already started but is not
completed yet, and the relation type between them is (FS)
2- Successor Activity is started while the Predecessor Activity didn’t start yet, and the relation
type between them is (FS) or (SS)
3- Successor Activity is completed while the Predecessor Activity is already started but is not
completed yet, and the relation type between them is (FS) or (FF)
4- Successor Activity is completed while the Predecessor Activity didn’t start yet, and the
relation type between them is (FS), (FF) or (SS)
To solve the out of sequence you need to modify the relationship type as follows:
1- In the 1st
case you can modify the relationship type to be (SS) or (FF), but in this case also it
is better to make it (SS) to avoid having the activities out of sequence again
2- In the 2nd
case you can modify the relationship type to be (FF) only
3- In the 3rd
case you can modify the relationship type to be (SS) only

2. 2
4- In the last case, modifying the relationship type will not be helpful, and that means that the
out of sequence in that relationship may be result from improper update for the Project
Activities or that this relationship is already invalid relationship
Modifying the relationship type for each out of sequence relationship manually in Primavera P6
may consume a lot of time especially if those out of sequence activities number is huge. So, to
solve that issue, exporting Excel file from Primavera P6 will be more helpful and quicker.
The following steps show how to use Excel files to solve the out of sequence:
1- Export the Excel file of Activity Relationships from Primavera P6 using the template shown in
Figure 1
Figure 1

3. 3
2- Open the exported Excel file and use Excel filters as shown in Figure 2
Figure 2
3- To apply the solution of the 1st
case, select “In Progress” in the “Predecessor Activity
Status”, select “In Progress” in the “Successor Activity Status” and unselect the “SS” in the
“Relationship Type” (as it is logical) as shown in Figure 2
4- Copy the Activity Relationships that resulted from the applied filters to duplicate them. Then
insert the letter “d” under the column “Delete This Row” for the copied Activity
Relationships and that step is used to remove the out of the sequence Relationships as
shown in Figure 3
5- To replace the removed Relationships change the “Relationship Type” for Activity
Relationships that resulted earlier from the applied filters to be “SS”

4. 4
Figure 3
6- In the 2nd
case, select “Not Started” in the “Predecessor Activity Status”, select “In Progress”
in the “Successor Activity Status” and unselect the “FF” in the “Relationship Type”
7- Repeat the same steps as we did in the 1st
case and change the “Relationship Type” for the
filtered relations to be “FF”
8- In the 3rd
case, select “In Progress” in the “Predecessor Activity Status”, select “Completed”
in the “Successor Activity Status” and unselect the “SS” in the “Relationship Type”
9- Repeat the same steps as we did in the 1st
case and change the “Relationship Type” for the
filtered relations to be “SS”
Using Excel files exported from Primavera P6 can save a lot of time and effort in solving the out
of sequence activities. So, it is better to have the knowledge of how to use benefit from the
features provided from Oracle to use link Primavera P6 with the Excel.