Introduction, development and analysis of banana curve in project management.

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Introduction, development and analysis of
“Banana” Curve
In project management.
(A union of Early & Late measurement Curves.)
Mujahid Ishtiaq
PMP® | PSP® | PMI-SP® | AMPC®
Project Planner/Scheduler
15th
March, 2016.

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Contents
Purpose ............................................................................................................................................ 4
Introduction..................................................................................................................................... 4
Banana Curves.................................................................................................................................. 5
Methods to Calculate Early and Late curves data in primavera schedule. ........................................ 8
1. Using Activity Usage Profile .................................................................................................. 8
2. Using Reports tool............................................................................................................... 10
Step1: Exporting Early Curve Data .......................................................................................... 10
Step 2: Exporting Late Curve Data........................................................................................... 12
3. Using Activity Usage Spreadsheet....................................................................................... 13
4. Using Resource Assignment Data........................................................................................ 15
References ...................................................................................................................................... 16
Online References ....................................................................................................................... 16
Book Reference ........................................................................................................................... 16

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List of Figures
Figure # Name/Description Page#
Figure 1 Typical S-curve 04
Figure 2 Planned Vs. Actual S-Curve 05
Figure 3 Late Progress Curve 06
Figure 4 Banana Curve 06
Figure 5 Banana Vs. Actual 07
Figure 6 Snapshot: Activity Usage Profile 08
Figure 7 Snapshot: Activity Usage Profile Options 08
Figure 8 Snapshot: Selecting Data from Activity Usage Profile Options 09
Figure 9 Snapshot: Early and Late Curves in Primavera P6 09
Figure 10 Snapshot: Selecting Report Tool 10
Figure 11 Snapshot: Subject Area Selection 10
Figure 12 Snapshot: Configuring Selected Subject Area 11
Figure 13 Snapshot: Selection of Report Format and Output Location 11
Figure 14 Snapshot: Activity Usage Spreadsheet in Primavera P6 13
Figure 15 Snapshot: Selecting Spreadsheet Fields 13
Figure 16 Snapshot: Selecting Early and Late Cost Data from P6 14
Figure 17 Snapshot: Copying Data from Activity Usage Spreadsheet 14
Figure 18 Snapshot: Resource Assignments 15
Figure 19 Snapshot: Selecting Early and Late data from resource assignments 15
Figure 20 Snapshot: Sample Banana Curve in MS Excel 15

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Purpose
Progress curves are used extensively throughout the industry as an indicator to detect if the rate of
progress is satisfactory to achieve the desired end date. However, there are many types of progress
curves.
 Man hours S-Curves
 Cost S-Curve
 Baseline S-Curve
 Actual S-Curve
 Target S-Curves
 %age S-Curves
 Banana S-Curves (Early & Late Curves)
This document is aimed at introduction, development analysing Banana Curve. Discussion will cover
the following points:
 What are early and late curves?
 What is Banana Curve?
 How can they help a Project/Controls Manager in project data analysis?
 How to generate Banana Curves from primavera?
 What are their benefits?
Introduction
S-Curve is defined as “A display of cumulative costs, labor hours or other quantities plotted against
time”. The name is derived from the S-like shape of the curve, flatter at the beginning and end and
steeper in the middle, which is typical of most projects. The beginning represents a slow, deliberate
but accelerating start, while the end represents a deceleration as the work runs out. A typical S-Curve
is shown in figure below.
Figure-01 Typical S-curve

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S-Curves are typically used to analyse variances between planned and actual measurements. This
analysis helps project/controls managers to monitor progress and growth of project at any specific
time and at any specific percentage of completion. A Comparison of planned and actual project
completion is shown in figure below.
Figure 02- Planned Vs. Actual S-Curve
Banana Curves.
While developing a project schedule, it is well known that tasks are normally
planned on early start and early finish dates. But each task also possesses late start and late finish
dates. Early start is the earliest possible time a task can be started. Late start is the latest possible time
a task can be started. These early start and late start dates are calculated using forward and backward
pass. Now a days, there are several project scheduling soft wares available in market which auto
calculate early start & finish and late start & finish dates for each task in a schedule. In old days when
there were no such soft wares available, these dates were calculated manually using Activity on Arrow
(AOA) and Activity on Node (AON) diagramming methods.
By default, all scheduling soft wares plan every task in schedule on its early start and finish dates
instead of on late start and finish dates. Instead, difference between late dates and early dates is
available with the tasks in the form of total float. A total float is defined as, “The amount of time by
which a task can be delayed or extended from its early start without delaying the project completion
date or violating a schedule constraint”.
2% 5%
10%
18%
30%
48%
65%
80%
90%
96%
100%
2% 4%
8%
15%
26%
34%
40%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
120%
MeasuredValue(Progress%)
Time (Month)
Planned Vs. Actual S-Curve
Planned Progress Actual Progress
Variance

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S-Curve generated from schedule scheduled at early start & finish dates is called early s-curve or we
just call it S-curve because it is most common form of S-curve.
Another Curve for which scheduler schedules all activities at their late start and finish dates is called
late curve.
Figure 03- Late Progress Curve
If both Early S-Curve & Late Curve are plotted together, the result is called Banana Curve because of
its shape which is similar to a BANANA. A typical Banana Curve is shown in figure below.
Figure 04- Banana Curve
2%
6% 8%
12%
18%
26%
32%
45%
68%
90%
100%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
120%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
MeasuredValue(Progress%)
Time (Month)
Late Progress Curve
Late Planned Progress
Late
2% 5%
10%
18%
30%
48%
65%
80%
90%
96%
100%
2%
6% 8%
12%
18%
26%
32%
45%
68%
90%
100%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
120%
MeasuredValue(Progress%)
Time (Month)
Banana Curve
Early Planned Progress Late Planned Progress
Early
Late

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When actual data is fed into schedule and schedule is updated, Actual progress line should float
between early and late curves or within banana curve. Actual Progress line above banana will show
that project is either ahead of schedule (if banana curve is for progress) or above budget (if banana
curve is for cost) and actual line below banana curve will show that project is either behind schedule
or under budget.
Figure 05- Banana Vs. Actual
This approach is a nice example of “management by exception”. The rule is that “the actual progress
line should be within the banana”. If the line is going outside of the banana, project/controls manager
has to manage it. It is an exception to the rule. Having a swift glimpse of this report, the manager can
have a good idea of the standing of the project as compared to where it was planned to be. This
approach can be used as an early warning to make a manager vigilant about any cash issues showing
up on the Project.
Sometimes upper level management keeps this report favourite. Every scheduling soft wares available
in market does not have capability to generate banana curve. Using Microsoft Project, you can
generate only one curve at a time i.e. early curve or late curve. MS Project does not have capability to
combine both curves. Primavera Project Planner (P6) has capability to generate “early curve” and “late
curve” at the same time which results in the formation of banana curve. You can also prepare banana
curve in excel by exporting data from primavera P6 to excel. In this document, different methods of
generating banana curve from primavera schedule will be discussed. Our reference throughout the
discussion will be “baseline schedule” not an “As build schedule”.
2% 5%
10%
18%
30%
48%
65%
80%
90%
96%
100%
2%
6% 8%
12%
18%
26%
32%
45%
68%
90%
100%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
120%
MeasuredValue(Progress%)
Time (Month)
Banana Vs. Actual
Early Planned Progress Late Planned Progress Actual Progress
Early
Late

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Methods to Calculate Early and Late curves data in primavera schedule.
In this document, we will discuss four methods to calculate early and late cash flow in primavera
schedule.
1. Using Activity Usage Profile
2. Using Reports tool.
3. Using Activity Usage Spread Sheet
4. Using Resource Assignment Data
1. Using Activity Usage Profile
A. Open your schedule in Primavera Project Planner (P6)
B. Make sure your schedule is loaded with cost through resources, expenses or both.
C. From your “bottom layout” tool bar, click on Activity usage profile” button.
Figure 06- Snapshot: Activity Usage Profile
D. Your early S-curve will appear in your bottom layout. Right click on any point in profile
area and select “Activity usage profile options”.
Figure 07- Snapshot: Activity Usage Profile Options

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E. From Activity usage profile option window, select “Cost” if you need banana curve for
your cash flow and select “Unit” if you need banana curve for you resource units.
Then select types of cost or units you want to bring into banana curve. After that in
“Show Bar/Curve” section, check boxes of “Remaining Early” & “Remaining Late”
option under cumulative boxes. Press Apply and then OK.
Figure 08- Snapshot: Selecting Data from Activity Usage Profile Options.
F. Now you will get banana curve in your profile area as shown in the following figure.
Figure 09 – Snapshot: Early and Late Curves in Primavera P6.

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2. Using Reports tool.
Although Banana Curves can be drawn in P6 itself, but primavera has very limited profile and data
enhancement options. Data labelling is also not adjustable and graphics are not that much attractive.
To create more attractive graphs, some of the professionals use MS Excel to draw graphs by exporting
data from p6 through reports tool and some other methods which also be discussed later. By default,
report tool provides data only for early dates. So here we have to extract data in two steps. To
complete this action, follow given steps.
Step1: Exporting Early Curve Data
A. Click on “Tools” on main manue and go to reports as shown in the figure.
Figure 10 – Snapshot: Selecting Report Tool.
B. From reports window click on any report and press “+” button to add or modify
report.
C. Report Wizard will open. Click next and check “Time Distributed Data” checkbox. Now
from given field select “activities” and click next.
Figure 11 – Snapshot: Subject Area Selection

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D. Now “Configure Selected Subject Areas” window will open. Click on “Columns” button
and select “Planned Value Cost” and click OK.
Figure 12- Snapshot: Configuring Selected Subject Area
E. On next screen adjust timescale and click “Next”.
F. Write appropriate report title and click “Next”.
G. Click on “Run Report”.
H. In “Run Report” window, select HTML file, select file output location and click “OK” as
shown in figure.
Figure 13 – Snapshot: Selection of Report Format and Output Location.

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I. Report will open in your web browser. Here you can select values, paste in excel and
draw nice and attractive graph.
Step 2: Exporting Late Curve Data
A. Now you have data for early curve only. To get data for late curve, you have to schedule all
activities on their latest dates.
B. To get late curve data, go to columns and insert “Primary Constraint”.
C. In this column, select “As late as Possible” constraint for the first activity.
D. Use fill down option to assign this constraint to all activities.
E. Press F9 to schedule.
F. Now all activities are scheduled at their late dates.
G. Repeat the same steps as you did to get data for early dates.
H. Combine both early and late curves in MS excel to generate nice and attractive banana curve.
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3. Using Activity Usage Spreadsheet
MS Excel has wealth of options to adjust and manage graphs and make them easy to understand and
attractive. Follow given steps to create banana curve by exporting data from “activity usage
spreadsheet”.
A. To export data to excel, click on “activity usage spread sheet” button and you will have it in
your bottom layout.
Figure 14 – Snapshot: Activity Usage Spreadsheet in Primavera P6.
B. In spread sheet opened in your bottom lay out, move cursor to the upper left corner of
spreadsheet and right click. From options select “Spreadsheet fields”.
Figure 15 – Snapshot: Selecting Spreadsheet Fields.
C. From “Spreadsheet options” window select “Cum Budgeted Total Cost” and “Cum remaining
late total cost”. “Cum Budgeted Total Cost” will give you values which are already calculated
at early dates while “Cum remaining late total cost” will give you values calculated on late
dates of schedule.
See figure below.

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Figure 16 – Snapshot: Selecting Early and Late Cost Data from P6.
D. Now you have both “Cum Budgeted Total Cost” and “Cum remaining late total cost” values
in your bottom layout. Click on the upper left corner and press Ctrl+C on your keyboard to
copy data. Don’t forget to adjust time intervals from timescale according to your
requirements.
Figure 17 – Snapshot: Copying Data from Activity Usage Spreadsheet
E. Now you can paste this data in excel and create nice looking and attractive banana curve.
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4. Using Resource Assignment Data
If you have loaded all of your cost in resources and there is no expense cost in your schedule, you can
use this method to extract early and late data and transfer to MS excel to create banana curve. This is
most easy and handy method. To extract data through resource assignments, complete following
steps.
A. Click on “Resource assignments” button.
Figure 18 – Snapshot: Resource Assignments
B. Right click in resource assignment spreadsheet area and select “Cum Remaining Early Cost”
and “Cum Remaining Late Cost” options. Click “OK” to apply changes.
Figure 19 – Snapshot: Selecting Early and Late data from resource assignments.
C. In Resource Assignment Window, select the resource pool for which you want to have early
and late costs and press Ctrl+C to copy data.
D. Go to excel and past this data. Now you can play with this data to draw banana curve in excel
as shown in figure.
Figure 20 – Snapshot: Sample Banana Curve in MS Excel

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References
Online References
www.maxwideman.com
www.planacademy.com
www.planningplannet.com
Book Reference
Construction Project Scheduling & Control 3rd
Edition. (Saleh Mubarak)
Construction Scheduling – Principles and Practices (J.S Newitt)
Project Planning & Control using Primavera P6 (Paul Eastwood Harris)