A Primavera P6 consultant builds, maintains and interrogates your project programme in Oracle Primavera P6, so the dates you report and steer a project by can actually be trusted. Planned is an independent UK P6 consultancy. We work at senior level only, remotely across the UK or on site where a project needs it, across construction, energy and infrastructure.
Whether you are standing up controls on a new programme, preparing a schedule for an NEC submission or an audit, or trying to make sense of one you have inherited, we give you a clear, defensible P6 schedule and the reporting to run it.
What does a Primavera P6 consultant actually do?
The job is to turn how the work will really happen into a programme P6 can calculate correctly, then keep that programme honest as the project moves. In practice that means:
Schedule development. Building the programme to a proper work breakdown structure, with sound logic and realistic durations, rather than a bar chart that looks right but does not calculate a trustworthy critical path. Our project planning and scheduling service covers this end to end.
Baseline management. Setting a formal baseline, then governing change and re-baselines so performance is measured against something real. Our guide on creating a robust baseline in P6 walks through the detail.
Progress and earned value reporting. Periodic updates, earned value, trend and variance analysis that a client or PMO can rely on. This sits within our wider project controls service.
Schedule risk analysis. Risk-loading the programme and running quantitative schedule risk analysis (QSRA) so you can size contingency and show the confidence behind your dates.
Schedule health checks. A DCMA-style quality check before a submission or audit, telling you which failures are cosmetic and which break the critical path.
P6 administration and training. Setting up, configuring and running P6 itself (administration), and building your team's capability through Primavera P6 training.
When do you need a Primavera P6 consultant?
Most clients call at one of a few clear moments. You are starting a programme and need controls set up properly from day one. You have an NEC contract and need an accepted programme that will survive the Project Manager's scrutiny. You have inherited a schedule you do not trust and cannot easily unpick. A submission, audit or lender review is coming and the programme needs to stand up. A project is slipping and you need an honest recovery schedule. Or you simply do not have a senior planner in-house and need one for a defined piece of work. If any of these sound familiar, our note on the signs you need a scheduling consultant goes into more depth.
Why an independent specialist rather than a generalist or a permanent hire?
A permanent planner is cheaper per day but carries fixed cost all year, recruitment risk, and a single point of failure when they are on leave or move on. A generalist project manager rarely has deep P6 and controls expertise. An independent specialist gives you senior capability exactly when you need it, with no bench to carry, and exposure across many programmes rather than one.
We deliver senior-only, so you are not paying for juniors to learn on your project, and we flex through a vetted associate network if scope grows. The goal is not just a better schedule but better scheduling discipline left behind in your team.
How do you work with clients?
We start by understanding the project, the contract and what "good" looks like for you. We build or review the P6 programme collaboratively with the people closest to the work, so the logic reflects reality rather than a template. We hand over clear documentation and, where you want it, train your team to maintain the schedule themselves.
Delivery is remote-first across the UK, which keeps things flexible and cost-effective, with time on site for the stages that genuinely benefit from being in the room.
Which industries do you cover?
We work on complex, schedule-driven programmes across construction and engineering, energy and utilities, infrastructure and transport, and major capital projects. The common thread is a programme where the dates carry real commercial and contractual weight, not the sector itself.
How much does a Primavera P6 consultant cost?
It depends on what the schedule needs and how you want to engage, whether that is a one-off diagnostic, a defined deliverable, or ongoing controls support. Rather than quote a number blind, we scope the work and give you a clear figure. Our 2026 cost guide sets out the day-rate benchmarks and engagement models so you know what drives the price before you ask.
Not sure where your P6 schedule stands? Run it through our free P6 health check. Upload an .xer or .xml file and it scores your programme against recognised DCMA-style quality metrics in your browser, with nothing uploaded to a server. It is a quick, honest read before you decide whether you need a hand.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a Primavera P6 consultant the same as a planning consultant?
For scheduling work, largely yes. A planning or scheduling consultant plans and controls your programme, and P6 is the tool most use on complex projects. It is different from a town planning consultant, who advises on planning permission and land use.
Can you fix a schedule someone else built?
Yes. Inherited and under-pressure schedules are one of the most common reasons clients call. We health-check it, separate the cosmetic failures from the ones that break the critical path, and remediate the logic, constraints and resourcing so it is defensible again.
Which P6 versions do you support?
All current versions, including P6 Professional and P6 EPPM, plus Oracle Primavera Cloud. We can also advise on upgrades and cloud migration.
Do you offer P6 training as well as consultancy?
Yes. Alongside hands-on consultancy we deliver Primavera P6 and Oracle Primavera Cloud training at all levels, on site or remotely, so your team can maintain schedules that pass quality checks by design.