Planner answers
Retained logic or progress override in P6: which should I use?
Short answer: Use retained logic for contract programmes. It keeps the remaining work of an out-of-sequence activity behind its unfinished predecessors, so the forecast stays honest. Progress override lets remaining work ignore those predecessors and usually shows an optimistic finish. Fix the out-of-sequence logic rather than switching to override.
The setting is in Tools → Schedule → Options → When scheduling progressed activities use. It only matters when an activity started before its predecessors allow it (out of sequence).
- Retained logic: the remaining duration waits for the unfinished predecessor. Conservative, and what most Engineers expect.
- Progress override: the remaining duration starts at the data date, ignoring the predecessor. The finish date looks earlier, but a real dependency may be lost.
- Actual dates: schedules remaining work using actual dates; rarely used for contract programmes.
Whatever you choose, keep it the same in every update; a change of option between updates moves dates and must be explained in the update narrative. Chronaxis reads the option from each XER and schedules exactly the way P6 does.