At some point in your project, you may need to stop work on an activity for a period of time and then resume it at a later date. This is often caused by external factors, such as weather conditions or material delays. Depending on your location and the time of the year, you may have this happen quite often. In Primavera P6, you can show activity delays using the Suspend and Resume fields. These tools allow you to choose specific dates for the activity to both suspend and resume work. Any time between those two dates displays as a non-work period – which you can show on the Gantt Chart using necked bars.

In this article, we will go over how to set suspend and resume activities in Primavera P6. First, we’ll look at how to create and assign baselines to compare original dates with suspended dates. Then, we’ll look at how to suspend and resume the activity within the project. Lastly, we’ll go over how to display this suspension on the Gantt Chart using necked bars.

The following examples are all from Primavera P6 Professional 20. However, these tools are available within all versions of P6.

Suspend and Resume Example

In the following example, we have an activity to install a pipe within an excavated trench. These activities will overlap – the plan is to excavate enough of the trench until there’s room to install the pipe. Then, both of these activities will continue on simultaneously. As we can see below, Pipe Installation is set to begin a few days after the start of Trench Excavation.

However, when the activities actually began, it didn’t go quite as planned. During Trench Excavation, the field crew encountered a large boulder that would take several days to remove. Due to this, we wouldn’t be able to work on Pipe Installation as originally expected.

In this scenario, I would want to suspend the Pipe Installation activity until the boulder is removed. Once the boulder is dealt with, we would want to resume work on the installation of the pipe. Because we’ll need to both suspend and resume this activity, we can use the Suspend and Resume tools.

Before using Suspend and Resume, you should status the activities involved. In this example, I’ll show that Trench Excavation has started by checking off Started in the Status tab of the Details section.

The excavation crew discovered the boulder on the second day of Trench Excavation. Pipe Installation has also started – so I’ll check that activity as Started as well. At this point, we could add the suspension – but before doing so, it’s a good idea to create a baseline. This will help us to see the difference between the original dates and the suspended dates from both the Activities table and Gantt Chart.

Maintaining and Assigning Baselines

A baseline is a saved copy of the project at a certain point in time. By saving a baseline, we can compare our original planned dates with our current dates. When we add the suspension, this will show how many days our project’s completion will end up delayed.

To create a baseline, select Project > Maintain Baselines.

In the Maintain Baselines window, select Add to create a new baseline. Keep Save a copy of the current project as a new baseline selected, and press OK.

This will create a copy of the project as it currently is at this point in time.

With a baseline created, it’s also a good idea to assign it. Assigning a baseline lets you see baseline data within the Activity Table and the Gantt Chart. This will help us analyze the effect of the suspension on other activities and the project as a whole. To assign a baseline, select Project > Assign Baselines.

Here, there are four different spots available to assign your baseline to: Project, Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary. It doesn’t matter which field you choose – this just determines which columns you’ll add to the table to view that baseline data. In this example, I’ll assign the baseline just created to the Primary spot by selecting it from the list. Then, press OK.

After assigning your baseline, you can now add columns to the table and bars to the Gantt Chart to display its data. In this example, I already have Primary Baseline bars displaying in the Gantt Chart as thin yellow bars. Now, these bars are showing the dates of the baseline I just assigned. I also added some columns to the table: BL1 Start and BL1 Finish. These columns will now display the start and finish dates for the assigned baseline. We also have columns for Start and Finish, which will show the current project’s start and finish dates. By comparing these columns, we’ll be able to see the effect of the suspension on the project.

Suspending Activities

With a baseline created and assigned, you can now begin suspending activities. To suspend an activity, select it from the table and navigate down to the Status tab in the Details section. Here, you’ll find a Suspend box. This box won’t be active until the activity has started – so make sure you’ve marked the activity as Started prior to suspending. Select the ellipsis button and choose the date the suspension of work should begin.

In this example, I’ll suspend the activity Pipe Installation on January 19th – the day after the excavation crew discovered the boulder. This will show that Pipe Installation will have no work done from the 19th until the resumption date.

To see how this looks in the Gantt chart, I’ll schedule the project forward to a data date of January 25th by selecting Tools > Schedule.

After doing this, the red activity bar for Pipe Installation has moved past the scheduled baseline bar.  This shows that the activity suspension is pushing the project out further than planned.

Resuming Activities

After suspending the activity, you can choose a date for it to resume. The Resume field is also available in the Status tab within the details section. Again, select the ellipses button to choose a date.

In this example, I expect the boulder to be removed within a week’s time, so I’ll set the resume date to February 1st.

Once again, I’ll Schedule the project to see how this affects the overall completion. I can do this using the keyboard shortcut of F9.

After scheduling, we can see that Pipe Installation is now set to finish on February 4th, 4 days after resuming work. Based on the difference between the baseline dates and the current dates, it’s clear that this suspension has delayed the project as a whole.

On the Gantt Chart, there is a visible gap between the work done so far and the remaining work. However, it could be a little cleaner that there is a period of non-work suspension here. If we were to share this schedule as is, stakeholders may assume that this delay was due to our work effort – rather than the suspension. To better show that this was a period of nonwork, we can use necked Gantt Chart bars.

Using Necked Gantt Chart Bars

You can differentiate work and non-work time in the Gantt Chart using necked bars. To adjust the bars, right click on the Gantt Chart and select Bars.

First, select the type of bar you would like to adjust. Ideally, you’d select the bar type that’s used during the suspension time – usually, your remaining work bars. In this example, I’ll make adjustments to both the Remaining Work bar and the Critical Remaining Work bar. After selecting the desired bar type, select the Bar Settings tab. Here, you’ll find some Bar Necking Settings. Select the checkbox for Activity nonwork intervals, which will show any nonwork time as a thinned neck within the bar. This will let us more clearly see the suspension of the work on the Gantt Chart.

I’ll do the same for the Critical Remaining Work bar and then press OK.

Now, the Gantt chart is displaying the delayed, non-work time of Pipe Installation as a thinner bar between the thicker bar ends. It’s now more clear that this delay was caused by a suspension of work, rather than the crew’s work effort.

Summary

Delays in work are a common occurrence in project management. Whether it be from weather issues or delivery delays, you may need to pause an activity’s work for a certain amount of time. In Primavera P6, you can show these types of delays using the Suspend and Resume tools. You can suspend an activity to show a stoppage in work, and set it to resume at a later date. Any time between the Suspend date and the Resume date will display as a non-work period. When it comes to quantifying delays, P6 even allows you to create necked bars, showing both when work stops and when it starts again. No matter what the reason for the delay, you can easily track and record it using Primavera P6.

If you have any comments, questions or suggestions, please use the comment section on the bottom of this page. Don’t forget to subscribe to our blog to get more Primavera P6 tips & tricks directly in your inbox!

Lauren Hecker is the instructor for the Primavera P6 Professionals training courses. To see her next open enrollment course, please visit our calendar. To schedule an onsite or custom course, please contact us!