This document summarizes the program management processes at Georgia Transmission Corporation, an electric utility. It describes how the company uses Primavera for project scheduling, resource management, and cost tracking across hundreds of capital projects. Key aspects of the program management include a matrix project team structure, standardized project templates and coding in Primavera, daily reporting of schedule and cost variances, and interfaces between Primavera and other systems like Lawson for accounting and TPOP for project authorization. The document provides details on how various tools, including Primavera, Excel, and Access, are used together to manage the program.

1. Program Management at an Electric Utility
Patrick O’Connell
Project Control Coordinator
patrick.oconnell@gatrans.com

2. • Objective 1: Program Management
– Org chart
– Details for reporting
• Objective 2: Quality Control of Schedules
– Daily Digest
• Objective 3: Feedback from Team
Members
– Daily Digest
– Timesheets

3. Georgia Transmission Corporation
• GTC - owned by 39 Electric Membership
Cooperatives (EMCs) in Georgia
• Build, operate and maintain Transmission
Lines and Substations
– not only for the EMC’s but also for the ITS
– ITS – shared transmission system in Georgia
with 4 members: GTC, GPC, MEAG and
Dalton

4. Building Projects
• How we do it:
– We are a matrix organization
• PM Group
• Functional Departments
– Divided into Project Teams
• North, South and Bulk
• Some hard matrixed to a team
• Others assigned based on availability
– Project Reporting (PR) supports not only the Project Managers
but also Planning, Environmental, Land Acquisition, Design,
Construction and Maintenance
– PR also works with Accounting, Finance and IT and almost
everyone else including HR and others

5. Projects in Primavera
• All capital projects and some others for timesheet users
• Schedules created from standard templates
– Provide standard lead times for common projects
– Proper coding for time, contracting and invoices
• Resource loaded
– Timesheet users may be assigned in template or
• Assigned by their matrix assignment or
• Assigned by department
– Expense codes for payments
• Consistent across all projects
• Project schedule has all cost – BAC, AC, ETC, EAC
• One Stop Shop (almost)

6. Primavera Output from Program Perspective
• Prepared from Primavera
– Annual Budget for Capital Projects
• Major Expenditures
• Workforce planning
– Capital Projections
• Major Expenditures
• Variance Reporting
– Semi – monthly resource waterfalls
• FM and group leads have ability to provide feedback
• Construction
• Other – Quality Assurance, As-Built Tracking,
Performance reporting

7. Primavera Reports
• We generate from the client first then go to
other tools as needed (which is a lot)
– Estimates
– Current Cost / Manhour Status – Job Services
– Scope Changes
– Closeouts
• Publish
– Activity Layouts – somewhat of a savior
– Project Websites – very painful (for my co-op
student)
• If this could be automated…

9. Primavera Tools
• Client
– Power users
• Timesheets
– Time entry and status activities
– Time entry only
– Status activities only
• Web Access
– Power users
– Function Managers
– Project Managers

10. Project Control Specialists
• Assigned to a SS and TL Project Manager
• Estimate, Maintain and Closeout
– Approximately 400 - 450 active projects
– 100 mile Transmission lines to small substation
modifications
– Schedule updates semi-monthly
– Responding to schedule and cost variance reports
for EMC, ITS and BOD
– Responding to PM, timesheet users, functional
managers

11. Primavera Supplemental Tools
• MS Access
– Too many queries, so many so I stopped counting
– Standardized and ad-hoc
– Backbone for reporting
• Excel
– Daily Digest
– Waterfalls for FM and PM
• Business Objects
– Cost reporting from Lawson (accounting)
– Contract reporting
– Validation of cost load
• TPOP
– Legacy web tool, where projects start
– Tool used by Planning – authorizes projects

12. Nightly Interfaces
• Employee data from Lawson HR to Primavera resources
– Contact info, payroll codes, etc
– Including contractors using the Timesheet tool
• Primavera Project activity structure and resources to Lawson
Activities
– Activity one to one
– Resources become sub accounts (expense codes)
• Actual cost from Lawson GL to Primavera Activity / Resource
• TPOP to Primavera
– Project name, project manager, scope, etc
• Primavera to TPOP
– Schedule and cost summarized for high level TPOP fields
• Timesheet to Lawson Payroll (ON DEMAND)
– Summarized to fill appropriate Lawson fields

13. Daily Digest
• PCS
– Info not found in Primavera
– Lookaheads
• Coop
– Troubleshooting
– Tracking
• Coordinator / Mgr
– Busting chops or otherwise known as coaching

14. Daily Digest

15. Client
• Template schedules
• Project Reporting / Tracking / Problem Solving –
big part of how/what we communicate
– 25 Project Codes
– 16 Activity Codes
– 12 Resource Codes
– 112 UDF codes across
• 50 Project
• 21 Resource Assignment
• 14 Task
• Playing with 14 in Expenses

16. Timesheet
• Improvements here are a HOME RUN -170+ users
• Assignment based. Users:
– Enter time, status, Notes to PM
– People are assigned to 5-10-25-100 projects
– Steps – how we do Quality Assurance
• Easy to use but also has limitations
• Custom Trigger on TASK table
– We use this to communicate who updated what activities, when and
with what dates
• No Graphics and no sdk support

17. Quality Assurance
Update Status

19. Department Discipline Waterfall

20. The End
• If we made it this far and there is time for questions….