Introduction to Primavera P6 EPPM r8.2 v3.6

INTRODUCTION TO PRIMAVERA P6 EPPM RELEASE 8 FOR IMPLEMENTATION CONSULTANTS

1 For Oracle employees and authorized partners only. Do not distribute to third parties. © 2011 Oracle Corporation – Proprietary and Confidential

TABLE OF CONTENTS Lesson 1: Course Overview ...................................................................................... 13 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 13 Course Logistics .......................................................................................................................... 14 Classroom Management ............................................................................................................ 14 What this Course IS – and ISN’T ................................................................................................. 14 Course Learning Objectives........................................................................................................ 15

Lesson 2: Introduction to Primavera P6 .................................................................... 19 Objectives................................................................................................................................... 19 Role / Impact Chart .................................................................................................................... 19 Introduction to Oracle-Primavera P6 ......................................................................................... 20 Project-intensive Industries Require Enterprise Project Portfolio Management (EPPM) ......... 21 Why Oracle-Primavera? ............................................................................................................. 22 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management ................................................................................. 23 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management: Single Corporate System of Record ..................... 24

Lesson 3: Data and Basic Navigation ........................................................................ 26 Objectives................................................................................................................................... 27 Role / Impact Chart .................................................................................................................... 27 Enterprise and Project-Specific Data ......................................................................................... 27 Enterprise Data .......................................................................................................................... 28 Project-Specific Data .................................................................................................................. 28 Enterprise/Project-Specific Data ................................................................................................ 29 Logging In ................................................................................................................................... 30 Dashboards Page Basics ............................................................................................................. 31 Dashboards Page Navigation ..................................................................................................... 32 Opening an Existing Project ....................................................................................................... 33


Activities Page............................................................................................................................ 36

Lesson 4: Views......................................................................................................... 39 Objectives .................................................................................................................................. 39 Role / Impact Chart.................................................................................................................... 39 Activity Views ............................................................................................................................ 40 Activity View List........................................................................................................................ 44 Activity Network ........................................................................................................................ 45 Activity Table ............................................................................................................................. 46 Calendar View............................................................................................................................ 47 LAB: Customizing a view ........................................................................................................... 48 Columns ..................................................................................................................................... 49 Activity Details ........................................................................................................................... 51 Saving Views .............................................................................................................................. 53 LAB: Create a New View ........................................................................................................... 54 LESSON REVIEW ......................................................................................................................... 55

Lesson 5: Enterprise Project Structure ...................................................................... 56 Objectives .................................................................................................................................. 56 Role / Impact Chart.................................................................................................................... 56 Enterprise Project Structure ...................................................................................................... 57 EPS and Security Issues – Changes to User’s Access or Functionality ....................................... 58 Viewing the EPS ......................................................................................................................... 59 Modify the EPS .......................................................................................................................... 60 Benefits of the EPS .................................................................................................................... 60 EPS Implementation Consulting Note ....................................................................................... 60 LESSON REVIEW ......................................................................................................................... 61 Small Group Discussion: ............................................................................................................ 62

Lesson 6: Project Details and Defaults ...................................................................... 65


Objectives................................................................................................................................... 65 Role / Impact Chart .................................................................................................................... 65 Project Details and Defaults ....................................................................................................... 66 General Tab ................................................................................................................................ 66 Must Finish By Date ................................................................................................................... 67 Project Planned Start Date ......................................................................................................... 67 Project Codes ............................................................................................................................. 68 Codes Tab ................................................................................................................................... 69 Description Tab .......................................................................................................................... 71 Funding Tab ................................................................................................................................ 72 Issues Tab ................................................................................................................................... 73 Notebook Tab............................................................................................................................. 74 Fields in the Notebook tab ......................................................................................................... 75 Adding a Notebook Topic ........................................................................................................... 76 Risks Tab..................................................................................................................................... 77 Instructor Led Training Project Setup View ............................................................................... 78 Saving the Project Setup View ................................................................................................... 81 Project Default Fields ................................................................................................................. 82 Auto-numbering Defaults .......................................................................................................... 83 Activity Type ............................................................................................................................... 84 Duration Type............................................................................................................................. 86 Percent Complete Type.............................................................................................................. 88 Cost Account .............................................................................................................................. 90 Calendar ..................................................................................................................................... 91 Additional Project Level Setting Fields ....................................................................................... 92 LESSON REVIEW ......................................................................................................................... 94

Lesson 7: Creating a Project ..................................................................................... 95 Objectives................................................................................................................................... 95


Role / Impact Chart.................................................................................................................... 95 EPS Page .................................................................................................................................... 96 Expanding and Collapsing .......................................................................................................... 97 Creating a Project ...................................................................................................................... 98 LAB: Create a Project ................................................................................................................ 99

Lesson 8: Modifying Project Information ................................................................ 103 Objectives ................................................................................................................................ 103 Role / Impact Chart.................................................................................................................. 103 Overview.................................................................................................................................. 104 Project ID: Project Plans ......................................................................................................... 104 Course Scenario ....................................................................................................................... 104 LAB: Modifying Project IDs ..................................................................................................... 105 Project Name ........................................................................................................................... 105 LESSON REVIEW ....................................................................................................................... 105 Review LAB .............................................................................................................................. 105

Lesson 9: Creating a Work Breakdown Structure..................................................... 107 Objectives ................................................................................................................................ 107 Role / Impact Chart.................................................................................................................. 107 Work Breakdown Structure ..................................................................................................... 108 Viewing WBS Elements ............................................................................................................ 109 Create a WBS ........................................................................................................................... 110 Modifying the WBS .................................................................................................................. 111 LESSON REVIEW ....................................................................................................................... 113

Lesson 10: Adding and Editing Activities ................................................................. 115 Objectives ................................................................................................................................ 115 Role / Impact Chart.................................................................................................................. 115 Activities .................................................................................................................................. 116


Activity Attributes .................................................................................................................... 116 LAB: Set up a Project Defaults ................................................................................................. 117 Activity Type ............................................................................................................................. 118 Adding Activities ...................................................................................................................... 119 Saving Changes......................................................................................................................... 121 LAB: General Tab ..................................................................................................................... 122 Adding Steps to an Activity ...................................................................................................... 125 Lab: Steps ................................................................................................................................ 126 Notebook Tab........................................................................................................................... 128 Activity Codes........................................................................................................................... 129 Assigning Activity Codes to an Activity .................................................................................... 130 LAB: Assigning Activity Codes.................................................................................................. 131 Calendars.................................................................................................................................. 132 Calendar Types ......................................................................................................................... 132 Calendar Assignments And Activities ....................................................................................... 133 LESSON REVIEW ....................................................................................................................... 134

Lesson 11: Creating Relationships .......................................................................... 137 Objectives................................................................................................................................. 137 Role / Impact Chart .................................................................................................................. 137 Network Logic Diagram ............................................................................................................ 138 Precedence Diagramming Method .......................................................................................... 138 Relationship Types ................................................................................................................... 139 Relationships with Lag ............................................................................................................. 139 LAB: Creating Relationships in the Activity Details ................................................................. 140 Assigning Lag ............................................................................................................................ 143 LESSON REVIEW ....................................................................................................................... 144

Lesson 12: Scheduling ............................................................................................ 145 Objectives................................................................................................................................. 145


Role / Impact Chart.................................................................................................................. 145 Critical Path Method Scheduling ............................................................................................. 146 Critical Path.............................................................................................................................. 146 What is the Data Date ?........................................................................................................... 147 Viewing the Data Date ............................................................................................................. 148 Forward Pass ........................................................................................................................... 149 Backward Pass ......................................................................................................................... 149 Total Float ................................................................................................................................ 149 Backward Pass with Required Finish ....................................................................................... 150 Circular Relationships (Loops) ................................................................................................. 150 Open Ends................................................................................................................................ 151 Scheduling a Project ................................................................................................................ 152 Schedule Log ............................................................................................................................ 155 Audit Schedules using Schedule Log........................................................................................ 157 Lab: Review Schedule Log and Correct Errors ......................................................................... 158 LESSON REVIEW ....................................................................................................................... 159

Lesson 13: Assigning Constraints ............................................................................ 161 Objectives ................................................................................................................................ 161 Role / Impact Chart.................................................................................................................. 161 Constraints............................................................................................................................... 162 COMMONLY USED CONSTRAINTS ........................................................................................... 163 Impact of Must Finish By Constraint ....................................................................................... 165 Activity Constraints.................................................................................................................. 167 LESSON REVIEW ....................................................................................................................... 169

Lesson 14: Formatting Schedule Data ..................................................................... 171 Objectives ................................................................................................................................ 171 Role / Impact Chart.................................................................................................................. 171 Grouping Data ......................................................................................................................... 172


Customize Grouping Box .......................................................................................................... 173 LAB: Grouping and Sorting ...................................................................................................... 174 Grouping by Date ..................................................................................................................... 175 Sorting Activities ...................................................................................................................... 176 Filtering Activities..................................................................................................................... 177 Filters Dialog Box...................................................................................................................... 178 Applying a Standard Filter ........................................................................................................ 180 Using Multiple Filters ............................................................................................................... 181 Clear all Filters .......................................................................................................................... 182 LESSON REVIEW ....................................................................................................................... 183

Lesson 15: Roles and Resources ............................................................................. 185 Objectives................................................................................................................................. 185 Role / Impact Chart .................................................................................................................. 185 Roles and Resources ................................................................................................................ 186 Roles Dictionary ....................................................................................................................... 187 Roles Dictionary Details ........................................................................................................... 188 Defining Resources................................................................................................................... 189 The Resources Administration Page ........................................................................................ 190 Resource Details....................................................................................................................... 191 LESSON REVIEW ....................................................................................................................... 195

Lesson 16: Assigning Roles ..................................................................................... 197 Objectives................................................................................................................................. 197 Role / Impact Chart .................................................................................................................. 197 Assigning Roles to Activities ..................................................................................................... 198 LAB: Assign a role to an activity ............................................................................................... 199 LESSON REVIEW ....................................................................................................................... 202

Lesson 17: Assigning Resources and Costs .............................................................. 203


Objectives ................................................................................................................................ 203 Role / Impact Chart.................................................................................................................. 203 Steps for Resource Management ............................................................................................ 204 Lab: Assigning Resources by Role ........................................................................................... 205 Assigning Resources ................................................................................................................ 206 Lab: Modifying a Resource Assignment.................................................................................. 207 Designating a Primary Resource .............................................................................................. 208 Planning Costs ......................................................................................................................... 209 Resource Costs ........................................................................................................................ 209 Expense Costs .......................................................................................................................... 210 LESSON REVIEW ....................................................................................................................... 212 Small Group Discussion ........................................................................................................... 213

Lesson 18: Analyzing Resources .............................................................................. 215 Objectives ................................................................................................................................ 215 Role / Impact Chart.................................................................................................................. 215 Summarize Project Data .......................................................................................................... 217 Team Usage Page .................................................................................................................... 218 Displaying the Team Usage page ............................................................................................. 219 Formatting the Team Usage Page ........................................................................................... 220 Displaying a Resource’s Allocation .......................................................................................... 222 LESSON REVIEW ....................................................................................................................... 223

Lesson 19: Optimizing the Project Plan ................................................................... 225 Objectives ................................................................................................................................ 225 Role / Impact Chart.................................................................................................................. 225 Analyzing the Project ............................................................................................................... 226 Analyzing Schedule Dates ........................................................................................................ 227 Comparing Finish Date to Must Finish By Date ....................................................................... 228 Focusing on Critical Activities .................................................................................................. 229


LAB: Compressing the Schedule by Focusing on Critical Path Activities ................................. 230 Shortening the Project ............................................................................................................. 233 Refining Duration Estimates .................................................................................................... 234 Modifying Relationships........................................................................................................... 235 Modifying Constraints .............................................................................................................. 236 Verifying Project Dates............................................................................................................. 237 Analyzing Resource Allocation ................................................................................................. 238 Lab: Use the Team Usage Page to identify over allocated resources. .................................... 239 Identifying Resource Over allocation ....................................................................................... 240 Identifying Activities causing Over allocation .......................................................................... 241 Correcting Over allocation ....................................................................................................... 242 Lab: Resolve Over Allocation................................................................................................... 245 LESSON REVIEW ....................................................................................................................... 247

Lesson 20: Baselining the Project Plan .................................................................... 249 Objectives................................................................................................................................. 249 Role / Impact Chart .................................................................................................................. 249 Baselines .................................................................................................................................. 251 Creating a Baseline................................................................................................................... 253 Assigning a Baseline ................................................................................................................. 255 Viewing Baseline Bars .............................................................................................................. 257 Bars Tab.................................................................................................................................... 258 Displaying Baseline Bars........................................................................................................... 259 Saving the View ........................................................................................................................ 260 LESSON REVIEW ....................................................................................................................... 261 Small Group Lab ....................................................................................................................... 262

Lesson 21: Project Execution and Control ............................................................... 263 Objectives................................................................................................................................. 263 Updating a Project ................................................................................................................... 264


Defining a Statusing Period ..................................................................................................... 266 Lab: Statusing a Project .......................................................................................................... 268 Rescheduling the Project ......................................................................................................... 271 View Schedule Impacts ............................................................................................................ 272 Controlling the Project ............................................................................................................ 273 Compressing the Schedule ...................................................................................................... 274 LESSON REVIEW ....................................................................................................................... 276 SMALL GROUP SUMMARY LAB ................................................................................................ 278


Notes


L ESSON 1: C OURSE O VERVIEW I NTRODUCTION This training course provides the Implementation Consultant with basic training on Primavera P6 EPPM v8.2. The course takes a more streamlined approach at teaching basic functionality, focusing on the fastest way to do things in Primavera P6 EPPM. In addition, each section of the course will provide an organizational impact assessment of the functionality, including:

Which Roles at a Customer would care about this functionality? Why would they care? Are there any Risks associated with this functionality?

In addition, each lesson will include small workshop exercises that require Participants to take what has been demonstrated/learned and then apply it to a business scenario. The course is also structured on an “easy to difficult” skill building path. Therefore, it will not be possible to skip any course sessions and expect to be able to pick up missed content. In addition, since content would have been missed, the skills in successive chapters are built on previous chapters, which would more than likely leave the Participant confused when he / she could return.


C OURSE L OGISTICS This course takes three full days to complete. The Instructor will take one break per hour. The Instructor will set the start and end times for the breaks, and will start back from break at the agreed upon time.

C LASSROOM M ANAGEMENT The use of cell phones in the class is prohibited. Texting is not allowed. The reason for these rules is that there is a lot of content being delivered quickly. If a class participant is constantly coming in and out of the class from an attention perspective, they will fall behind and will get lost. Given that this course is a compression of two courses, time is of the essence. The Instructor will not have time to go back and re-teach content to participants that have “checked out” by texting, taking meetings, or answering calls.

W HAT

THIS

C OURSE IS –

AND

ISN’T

This course is a fundamental overview of Primavera P6 EPPM r8.2 functionality. The expected outcome is fluent understanding of basic functionality. It isn’t an opportunity to have the instructor provide free consulting expertise during class time to solve issues that may have arisen during a Customer engagement. If Participants bring up consulting issues that are not relevant to the scope of this class, the issues will be tabled on the white board. If there is time, then the Instructor may discuss these issues during breaks. However, given that there is a lot of content packed into three days, Participants may find that these discussions are limited.


C OURSE L EARNING O BJECT IVES Basics of Oracle-Primavera

Describe Primavera Describe P6

Data, Navigating, and Views

Describe enterprise and project-specific data Log in Open an existing project Navigate in the Home window and Activities window Open an existing view Customize a view Save a view

Enterprise Project Structure

Describe the components that comprise the Enterprise Project Structure View the EPS

Creating a Project

Create a project Create a project from template Navigate in the Projects window View and modify information in Project Details

Creating a Work Breakdown Structure

Create and edit multiple levels of a WBS hierarchy

Adding Activities

Describe an activity and its components Describe activity types Add activities Add a Notebook topic to an activity Add steps to an activity Assign activity codes to activities


Creating Relationships

View a network logic diagram Differentiate between the four relationship types Create relationships between Activities

Perform a forward and backward pass Describe float and its impact on a schedule Identify loops and open ends Calculate a schedule Analyze the scheduling log report

Scheduling

Assigning Constraints

Apply a Must Finish By date to the Project Apply a constraint to an individual activity Add notebook topics to constrained activities Describe the available constraint types Identify schedule Risks associated with assigning activity constraints

Formatting Schedule Data

Group activities according to a specific criteria Sort activities Apply a filter Create a filter

Roles and Resources

Describe roles Views the roles dictionary Describe resources Identify the differences between labor, non-labor and material resources View the resource dictionary

Assigning Roles

Assign roles to an activity Assign rates to roles


Assigning Resources and Costs

Assign resources by role Assign labor, non-labor, and material resources to activities Adjust Budgeted Units/Time for a resource Assign expenses to activities

Analyzing Resources

Display the Resource Usage Profile Format a profile Format the timescale

Optimizing the Project Plan

Analyze schedule dates Shorten a project schedule Analyze resource availability Remove resource over allocation Analyze project costs

Baselining the Project Plan

Create a baseline plan Display baseline bars on the Gantt Chart Modify the bars on the Gantt Chart Adding a progress line Identify Risk and Issues associated with the management of baselines

Project Execution and Control

Describe several methods for updating the project schedule Use Progress Spotlight Status activities Reschedule the project Identify potential usage issues associated with statusing a project and rescheduling


Reporting Performance

Describe reporting methods Run a schedule report Run Configuration reports Create a report using the current layout Create a report using Report Wizard

Summarizing Project Data & Running Job Services

View summarizer details Manually summarize data

Notes


L ESSON 2: I NTRODUCTION TO P RIMAVERA P6 O BJECT IVES Provide high level overview of Primavera P6 and its role as an Enterprise Project Portfolio Management tool

R OLE / I M PACT C HART Role

Functionality / Issue

Implementation Consultant

Present overview information during Project Kick Off meetings, and during reinforcement meetings with Executive Sponsors

Executive Sponsorship

Create and deliver reinforcing communications to supporting organizations helping to drive adoption

Customer Core Project Team

Address organizational resistance issues with information


I NTRODUCTION

TO

O RACLE -P R IMAVER A P6

Primavera’s mission has always been to “rid the world of project failure”. Primavera has been achieving this goal – one project and one company at a time. For 25 years Primavera has been recognized as a global leader in project portfolio management and consistently ranked as a leader by industry analysts. Primavera’s primary focus has been on project-intensive industries, as well as the project-focused groups in all types of businesses. Primavera solutions support unique industry-specific business processes within these project-intensive industries. Customer base is especially strong in engineering and construction, Utilities, oil & gas, the US military, Federal government agencies and Aerospace and Defense.


P ROJECT - INT ENSIVE I NDUSTRIES R EQUIRE E NTERPR ISE P ROJECT P ORTFOLIO M ANAGEM ENT (EPPM)

When Primavera started in 1983, project management was the responsibility of specialists in companies whose businesses were completely dependent on delivering projects. Over the years, Project and Portfolio Management has evolved into an enterprise-wide application that drives business success in many industries. Primavera customers, especially those who rely on effective project management for competitive advantage and profitability, have asked for complete solutions that integrate financials with project portfolio management to meet the challenges that these companies face.

They want to better manage projects in spite of competing priorities and limited resources. Their customers and project sponsors expect faster project delivery without sacrificing any scope or quality. They need visibility into issues, risks, changes, budgets – everything essential to controlling a project – so everyone has the information they need to make the best decisions.


And across the board, projects are becoming increasingly more complex which demands tighter collaboration among all participants, regardless of where they are in the enterprise.

W HY O RACLE -P R IM AVERA ?

Primavera is a natural fit for Oracle with an impressive list of customers across industries. With Oracle and Primavera, an organization can ensure that clear goals are communicated from the top down, and are then reflected in the project priorities. It requires implementing governance processes and data across the enterprise to be able to deliver the right projects and programs aligned with business goals and objectives. Primavera functionality helps to establish processes for aligning resources with the high-value projects. The single view of data will enable project teams to move faster in a concerted, integrated effort to satisfy customers and clients. Primavera provides the information needed to complete projects on time and within budget – helping to rid the world of project failure. The single system view of data provides visibility into project performance issues, thereby giving advanced warning to stakeholders of Risk and Issues that would contribute to project failure. Primavera provides access to real-time information to make informed decisions and mitigate risk. Having a comprehensive single view of data will provide


measurements on commitments made throughout project teams. The commitments with measurements hold projects accountable for these commitments. Measurements and Key Performance Indicators drive completion and success.

E NTERPR ISE P ROJECT P ORTFOLIO M ANAGEMENT

To understand Primavera products and services, one must have an understanding of Enterprise Project Portfolio Management. Primavera provides bottom up data from a dispersed field and uses its best in class scheduling engine to provide real time schedule and forecast information on:

Date of Delivery Cost at Completion Resource requirements Contingency required Earned value

Primavera's Enterprise Project Portfolio Management products, together with Oracle's project financials, human resources, supply chain management, product


lifecycle management, business intelligence, and infrastructure software are expected to provide the first, comprehensive Enterprise Project Portfolio Management solution. This solution will help companies optimize resources and the supply chain, reduce costs, manage changes, meet delivery dates, and ultimately make better decisions, all by using real-time data. The combined offering of Oracle and Primavera allows true end to end Enterprise Project Portfolio Management.

E NTERPR ISE P ROJECT P ORTFOLIO M ANAGEMENT : S INGLE C ORPORAT E S YSTEM OF R ECOR D

Primavera P6 is a recognized leading choice for mission critical Enterprise Project Portfolio Management solutions and helps more than 5,000 global customers and over 2.5 million users propose, prioritize, select, plan, manage, and control complex projects. Primavera’s products are complementary to Oracle’s leading applications, middleware, and database offerings. Together, Oracle and Primavera provide the first, comprehensive Enterprise Project Portfolio Management solution for projectintensive industries, all from a single, global vendor.


Oracle is well positioned and committed to support Enterprise Project Portfolio Management (EPPM) customers. Effective EPPM integrated with financial, human capital management, product lifecycle management, supply chain applications, and infrastructure software removes the silos that separate traditional PPM from other key enterprises, and is critical to accelerating business innovation, enabling efficient project execution, driving project profitability, and reducing risk for large complex and capital-intensive projects.


Notes


L ESSON 3: D ATA AND B ASIC N AVIGATION O BJECT IVES

Describe enterprise and project-specific data Log in Open an existing project Navigate in the Dashboard page and Activities page Open an existing view Customize a view Save a view




An implementation consultant needs to have an understanding of the basics of navigation, as well as what data is Enterprise and Project Specific in order to configure the system to satisfy the Customer’s business requirements. In addition, having an understanding of Enterprise (Global) and Project data will help define Security Profiles.


E NTERPR ISE

AND

The Core Team / Project Team must have an understanding of the basics of Enterprise and Project Specific data in order to state their business requirements in terms of functionality.

P ROJECT -S PEC IFIC D ATA

A project in P6 contains enterprise data and project-specific data.


E NTERPR ISE D ATA Enterprise data provides the global structure needed to manage multiple projects. It is available to all projects across the organization and provides the infrastructure for centralized project and resource management. Enterprise data is usually defined and maintained by a system administrator. Examples of enterprise data:

Enterprise Project Structure (EPS) Organizational Breakdown Structure (OBS) Project codes Resource codes Admin settings and preferences Resources Cost accounts

Enterprise data is globally configured data that is generally tightly controlled by Change Controls Boards with a Change Request process in place. Very few people will have the security to be able to modify Enterprise data to help ensure the ongoing integrity of the system.

P ROJECT -S PEC IFIC D ATA Project-specific data is only available to the project in which it is defined. Project managers will define project-specific data to further control their projects. Examples of project-specific data:

Dates Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) Activities Activity relationships Baselines Expenses Risks Thresholds and issues Work products and documents


Project Web site

E NTERPR ISE /P ROJECT -S PECIFIC D ATA The following types of data are enterprise as well as project-specific:

Calendars Reports Activity codes


L OGGING I N Type a valid Login Name and Password to log in to Primavera P6. If the Login Name/Password is not known, contact the system administrator. NOTE: Passwords are case sensitive. NOTE: Some Customers may have IT Security requirements that have been defined within the organization. Options exist for both SSO and LDAP support within P6.

Log in to Primavera 1. Launch your internet browser and access the login page. 2. In the Username field, enter . 3. In the Password field, enter . 4. Click on the Login button.


D ASHBOARDS P AGE B ASICS The Dashboards page is the starting point for navigation. It provides quick access to a series of project and enterprise data. At the top of the Dashboards page is the Navigation bar, which lists the 4 sections the user will have access within Primavera, which is controlled by a user’s security settings. Each section provides specific functionality. It may be helpful to think of the Navigation bar as specific locations of data within the application. Instead of a file structure, there is a graphical user interface showing pages with titles. FUNCTIONALITY NOTE: The data that appears on the dashboards is controlled by each dashboard’s filter, and is not impacted by the project that is currently open in the application.


D ASHBOARDS P AGE N AVIGATION The table below lists key navigation items in the Home window.

Item

Description

(1) Navigation Bar

The Navigation bar displays the four sections the user has access; Dashboards, Portfolios, Projects, and Resources.

(2) Available Dashboards

Dashboards can be created by the administrator and assigned to users. Users can also create user specific dashboards.

(3) Filter by Box

The filter selected in the box controls the data that is displayed on the dashboard.


O PENING

AN

E XISTING P ROJECT

In order to edit project data users will need to open a project. Users can open individual projects or groups of projects. Opening multiple projects is common on very large projects when each project in P6 represent a smaller subset of the overall project. Multiple projects can be opened by select individual projects in the Open Project box, or selecting an EPS node. FUNCTIONALITY NOTE: if a user does not have access to the node or the project, they will not be able to open the projects within the node. This is important to remember, as it often results in calls to Support organizations. There are very good reasons for understanding how to use the Open Project dialogue box. The Open Project dialog box lists all the projects you are authorized to open.

Open a single project Open a single node All projects under the node are opened. Open multiple projects under different nodes


Display the Open Project Box 1. On the Navigation bar, click on the Projects drop down arrow. 2. Click on the link Open Projects.


Open a Project 1. Select all projects in the Selected Projects section and click on the Left pointed arrow. 2. Expand the All Initiatives and Engineering & Construction nodes. 3. Scroll down and select the project Nesbid Building Expansion. 4. Click on the Right pointed arrow. 5. Click on the Ok button.


A CTIVIT IES P AGE The Activities page is used to create, view, and edit activities for open projects. The table below lists key navigation items in the Activities page.

Item

Description

(1) Projects Bar

Create and manage projects, request or staff resources, and update project status

(2) Menu Bar

All commands executed by toolbar icons can be accessed with these three commands: Actions, Edit, and View

(3) Activity Table and GANTT Chart

List of Activities in the project plan, and the associated GANTT

(4) Activity Details Tab

Details tabs allow entry of information about a highlighted activity

(5) Tool Bar

Use the Activities tool bar to execute features and functions on the Activities page.


Navigate to Activities page 1. On the Projects bar, click on Activities.


Notes


L ESSON 4: V IEWS O BJECT IVES

Open an existing view Customize a view Save a view




Views are one of the most powerful features of Primavera P6 EPPM. The Implementation Consultant must be fluent in the creation, modification and use of views.


The Core Team / Project Team must have an understanding of the basics of Views, as this will be foundation data for reporting and data entry solutions.

Views are a very powerful feature of Primavera P6 EPPM. A view is a customizable display of information, combining all the visual elements that appear on the screen. In the Projects section, Views are available in the EPS and Activities pages. Views can also be used to enter data.


A CTIVITY V IEWS The Activities page provides options for viewing data. Data can be displayed using four different options. These options are available under the View menu, and on the toolbar.

Show on Top In any view, users may access different information. 1. Verify that you are in the Projects section and on the Activities page. 2. In the View drop down list, select Gantt Chart by WBS. 3. In the View menu, select and view each of the following:

Gantt Chart Table Activity Network Calendar View

4. Click on View, Gantt Chart.


Activity Details When a user selects an activity in the Activities page, the Activity details section will appear. 1. Select the activity Design Building Addition. 2. Click on each tab in the Activities Details.


WBS Details When a user selects a WBS element in the Activities page, the WBS details section will appear. 1. Select the WBS element Design and Engineering. 2. Click on each tab in the WBS Details.


Hiding Details To hide the details section, click on the Minimize button.

1. Click on the Minimize Details button.


A CTIVITY V IEW L IST Views can be saved three ways:

Global – Available to all users. A security privilege is required to create and edit a Global View. Multiple Users – Available to a select list of users. User – Available only to the user currently logged in.

Selecting views from the Activity View List Select different activity views. If prompted to save changes to view, click on No. 1. In the Activity View list, select the view Activity Count. 2. In the Activity View list, select the view Simple Spreadsheet. 3. In the Activity View list, select the view Resources. 4. In the Activity View list, select the view Gantt Chart by WBS.


A CTIVITY N ETWOR K Use the Activity Network to view the relationships between activities and the logical flow of the activities in the project. Activity boxes can be grouped by various criteria, such as WBS. This display is a great way to quickly see relationships between activities. If there are activities without relationships, then the project’s logic is broken and should be repaired before scheduling the project in order to properly calculate the project’s critical path.

Display the Activity Network 1. Click on View, Activity Network. 2. Click on View, Zoom Out until all five activities in Design and Engineering are visible on the screen.


A CTIVITY T ABLE The Activity Table enables the user to display project data in spreadsheet format. The user can also modify the columns in the Activity Table to meet their needs. Display the Activity Table on the entire screen to analyze data solely in tabular format.

Display the Activity Table 1. Click on View, Table.


C ALENDAR V IEW The Calendar View enables the user to display project data in a Calendar format.

Display the Calendar View 1. Click on View, Calendar View. 2. Scroll to November 2011.


LAB: C USTOM IZING

A VIEW

Any view can be customized and saved as a new view. Saving views for future use allows users to quickly retrieve information. The View menu and the Customize View box are the centralized areas for view customization. The following is a list of view elements that are customizable:

Columns Activity grouping and sorting Filters Bars Gantt Chart Activity Network

BEST PRACTICE: As mentioned previously, any view can be customized and saved as a new view. There are also a number of predefined views that are available in Primavera P6. P6 users should explore each of the predefined views for possible use before starting from scratch to build all new views.


C OLUMNS The Columns box enables the user to select columns to display in the Activity Table and specify the order in which they appear.

Available Columns section — Lists data items by category. Selected Columns section — Lists items currently displayed. Single arrows — Move highlighted data items to the other section. Up/down arrows — Configure the order of the data items. Show first column as – The Activity ID or Activity Name must be the first column in the Activity Table. Whichever field is not selected in this list must be added to the Selected Columns list.


Add a column to the Activity Table and reorder 1. Click on View, Gantt Chart. 2. Click on View, Columns. 3. In the Show the first column as list, select Activity ID. 4. Under Available Options, expand the General group, select Activity Name and click on the Right pointed arrow. 5. Under Available Options, expand the Dates group, select Start and click on the Right pointed arrow. 6. Under Selected Options, select Activity Status and Primary Resource and click on the Left pointed arrow. 7. Use the Up and Down buttons to reorder the fields to match the Screenshot. 8. Click OK.


A CTIVITY D ET AILS The tabs displayed in Activity Details can be hidden. BEST PRACTICE: It may be beneficial to create views that have only some of the available tabs visible for specific functionality.

Customize Activities Details 1. Click on View, Customize Detail Windows. 2. Under Area, select Activities. 3. Clear the checkboxes for Expenses, Feedback, Issues, and Risks. 4. In the Customize Detail Windows box, click on the Save button. 5. In the Customize Detail Windows box, click on the Close button.



S AVING V IEWS Views can be Global, Multiple User, or User.

View, Save — Saves changes to the existing view. View, Save As — Prompts the user to save the view with a new name.

Customize Activities Details 1. Click on View, Save View As. 2. In the Save View As box enter .


LAB: C REATE

A

N EW V IEW

Scenario Customer has an immature project management organization that has not had a lot of training in Primavera P6 EPPM. Within this organization, there are six new project managers that will be responsible for updating schedule status.

Procedure Using current project as sample data, design and build a simple view using the Gantt Chart by WBS as a template. Create the prototype, and determine the best way of proving out the usability of this view. Save the view in such a way that the original view is not over written. Be prepared to present the view to the class.


LESSON REVIEW Key Concepts The Dashboard page is a starting point for navigating in Primavera.

Use the Navigation bar for quick access to Dashboards, Portfolios, Projects, and Resources sections. A project consists of enterprise and project-specific data. View activity data in the Activities page and customize the view. Use views to easily display data specific to the user’s needs. The user can customize views by selecting columns. Activity Details, arranged in tabs, displays detailed information for the activity highlighted.

Discussion Questions 1. True or False: A view can be saved so it can be accessed by only one user. 2. How can an entire node of projects be opened simultaneously?


L ESSON 5: E NTERPRISE P ROJECT S TRUCTURE O BJECT IVES

Describe the components that comprise the Enterprise Project Structure View the EPS Discuss the importance of the EPS Identify different ways of setting up the EPS given varying business requirements




The Enterprise Project Structure will more than likely be the first set of global data to be defined in a typical implementation. Therefore, the Implementation Consultant must be able to understand how to define the EPS with the Customer.


The Core Team / Project Team must have an understanding of the Enterprise Project Structure, as they will need to work with the Implementation Consultant to define it in such as way as to facilitate the basics of reporting to Management.


E NTERPR ISE P ROJECT S TRUCTURE The Enterprise Project Structure (EPS) is a hierarchy used to organize projects.

The EPS is made of roots and nodes. Each root in the EPS can be subdivided into many nodes. Nodes represent different levels within the structure.

It may be helpful to think of the EPS as the default group and sort, or the standard filing system for projects. For example, nodes can represent divisions within the company, departments, project groups, or site locations.

All projects must be included in a node. Each node can contain an unlimited number of projects Projects always represent the lowest level of the hierarchy Placement of a project in the hierarchy determines the summary level in which it is included


EPS AND S ECUR ITY I SSUES – C HANGES F UNCTIONALITY

TO

U SER ’ S A CC ESS

OR

Although the Organizational Breakdown Structure (OBS) will not be discussed in this course, these two notes are very important to remember. They will be recalled during discussion on OBS and Security Profiles. NOTE: Depending on which node the project resides, and depending on how users have been assigned to EPS Nodes and OBS elements will affect if a User will have access to a project. This is important, as it may result in a call to Support if the user can’t see a project. NOTE: Depending on which node the project resides, depending on how users have been assigned to EPS Nodes and OBS elements, and depending on what Project Security Profile has been assigned to a User in that EPS Node / OBS element will determine what a User is able to do in a project. This is important, as it may result in a call to Support if the user cannot modify data in a specific project plan.


V IEWING

THE

EPS

A user can view the Enterprise Project Structure in the Projects section on the EPS page. The three fields to enter when adding an EPS node are: EPS ID — Identifies the selected EPS node. EPS Name — Description of the selected EPS node. Responsible Manager — Use this field to select an OBS (Organizational Breakdown Structure) element to associate with the selected level of the EPS. As noted, the OBS will not be discussed in the chapter.

View the EPS 1. On the Navigation bar, click on Projects. 2. Click on the EPS page. 3. Open the view EPS Only View.


M ODIFY

THE

EPS

This functionality will be taught in the Application Administration course.

B ENEFITS

OF THE

EPS

Each node in the EPS offers the customer the opportunity to roll up data. Customers can define their EPS by Program, Functional Organization, Location, and various other types of criteria. There is no one correct way to define the EPS. The EPS offers many benefits, including the ability to:

View project priorities, scope, budgets, and resources across the entire project structure or within a specific node. Manage projects separately while retaining the ability to roll up and summarize data across multiple projects. Each node acts as a master project, rolling up all "child" nodes and projects. A node can be opened to view all detailed activity information from the "child" projects. View resource allocation across projects. Assign security at any level of the project structure to provide users with appropriate access to project information. For example, if a user is assigned to the Construction Node only, then they will only have access to that node and its children.

EPS I MPLEMENTAT ION C ONSULTING N OTE Defining the EPS can be a very time consuming process at a customer site. It is important to communicate to customers that the EPS can be easily modified to respond to changing business requirements. In addition, and as this course will show in later chapters, it is possible to group and sort on any criteria that is defined in the system by using codes. If a Customer understands that this is possible, and if they understand that customized views can be created with the grouping and sorting of the data as they desire for specific users or organizations, the definition of the EPS will no longer seem to be limiting and finite.


LESSON REVIEW Key Concepts

The EPS is a hierarchy that represents the management and organization of projects in the company. In the EPS, the root is the top level and can be subdivided into nodes. Each node represents a level in the project structure that can hold another node or a project. Projects represent the lowest level of the hierarchy. The EPS enables a user to view project data across the entire project structure or within a specific node.

Review Questions 1. True or False: Five projects are the limit under each node. 2. True or False: A user can open only one project at a time. 3. True or False: Once the EPS is set in Primavera P6 EPPM, it can never be changed.


S MALL G ROUP D ISC USSION : 15 minutes for discussion, 30 minutes for presentation A user will be assigned to a smaller working group, and assigned one of the following business scenarios. Determine how to best represent the EPS for this customer using the requirements noted in the assigned business scenario. Scenario A: The customer is in the Utilities industry. The customer mentions that in the planning, design, and building of a new nuclear power plant, that each component in the end to end program is owned by a distinct organization that owns an organizational budget. Each organization has budgeted effort for the specific component within the end to end program. Each organization must also be able to view roll ups of staffing plans to determine headcount shortfalls and associated hiring plans. Scenario B: The customer is in Information Technology. The customer is an international customer. Each IT organization is parsed into multiple sub organizations. Each sub organization is budgeted and managed by location. Resources are also wholly owned and managed by country. However, global projects require participation by resources within each country. Global projects must be able to pull data into a Program view. Scenario C: The customer is in the Oil and Gas industry. The customer utilizes master schedules, with sub schedule components that are owned by sub contractor organizations. Each sub contractor organization must update their schedules each week in Primavera, export the project, and send it to the customer for inclusion into the master schedule. The master schedule is managed as one project; however, the projects are 10 to 15 years in duration, with global implications.


Scenario D: The customer is in Public Sector. The customer is mandated to use government Earned Value Management processes. The customer’s projects are broken out by contracted deliverable. Each deliverable must report Earned Value Management metrics and agreed upon performance metrics. The contracted deliverables are owned by different departments within the government. The resources for each project deliverable may be government employees, or may be contractor organizations.


Notes


L ESSON 6: P ROJECT D ETAILS AND D EFAULTS O BJECT IVES

Navigate throughout Project Details Modify Project Details Assign Calendars Assign Project Status Assign Project Codes




Implementation Consultant must be fully versant in each of the Project Details tabs, and understand the implications of making different selections in Project Details.

Core Project Team

Core Project Team members must be able to coach Users in affected organization on the use of Project Details.


P ROJECT D ETAIL S

AND

D EFAULTS

Project Details is located in the bottom layout of the EPS page. It can be used to define the project properties. Project Defaults can be defined by displaying the appropriate columns and editing the data in Project Table, or by clicking on Actions, Set Project Preferences.

G ENERAL T AB The General tab enables a user to view or modify general information about the selected project. Project ID, Project Name, and Responsible Manager can be set when you create the project, or a user can change them here.

Project ID — Short, unique identifier for the project. Project Name — Name of the project.

Project Status — Indicates project status. There are 4 project statuses: Planned, Active, Inactive, and What If. Responsible Manager — Individual or organization selected from the OBS that is responsible for the project. Users associated with this OBS node will have access to the project, but what level of access is dependent on the Project Security Profile.


M UST F INISH B Y D ATE The Must Finish By field is not a mandatory field. A user can assign a project Must Finish By date at any point in the project life cycle in the General tab in Project Details.

P ROJECT P LANNED S TART D AT E Project Planned Start date is the current scheduled start date of the project. It should not be confused with Actual Start, which is applied once the project has started. Planned Start Dates are used to help create staffing and budget plans, as well as see projects within a portfolio within the web.

View the Project Planned Start Date 1. On the Navigation bar, click on Projects, then click on the EPS page. 2. Under the Engineering & Construction node, select the project Nesbid Building Expansion. 3. Click on the General tab.


P ROJECT C ODES Project codes allow users to categorize projects. An unlimited number of project codes can be defined and their values assigned to projects. Since Project Codes are defined at the enterprise level, a security privilege is required to create and edit them, but not to use them. Project codes can be set up in a tabular format in the EPS page for easy entry and then saved as a view. Codes can be modified from the tables as well as the Codes tab. The benefit of using a view rather than the Codes tab is that the User can be certain that all of the codes have in fact been assigned to each project. It is also very easy to determine if a required project code is missing and must be assigned.


C ODES T AB The Codes tab enables users to assign project code values to the selected project.

Project codes allow users to group the projects in the EPS to specific categories, such as location or division. Project codes also are useful organizing large amounts of information and distinguishing one project from another. Unlimited hierarchical project codes are supported. It is extremely important that all required project codes are added to all projects. Filters, filters applied to views, and grouping and sorting can all be generated using codes. If the projects are not coded, then the data for the project is not included in the reports. If the projects are not coded correctly, then any views that use filters built on codes will not include those projects. RISK: If customers are using the Codes tab for assigning project codes, it is very possible that they will miss a required project code. Implementation Consultants should clearly document all of the requirement project codes for each project type to mitigate this risk. BEST PRACTICE: Always create a project set up view for customers showing all project codes in columns. By doing this, users can clearly see if there are codes that have not been assigned to projects. In addition, it is easier to assign all codes in this fashion in the Project Table.


Assign a Project Code 1. Verify the project Nesbid Building Expansion is selected. 2. Click on the Codes tab. 3. Click on the Assign button. 4. In the Select Project Code box, expand the code Capacity Analysis and select the value Required. 5. In the Select Project Code box, click on the Assign button, then click on the Close button.


D ESCRIPTION T AB The Description tab enables users to enter a project description which is viewable when opening a project.

View the Description tab 1. Click the Description tab.


F UNDING T AB The Funding tab enables users to assigning Funding Sources during Customer engagement where Project Budgeting, Project Cost Accounting, and possible integrations with Financial Management Systems are in scope. If programs and projects have multiple funding sources, creating a Funding Sources Dictionary is required. Funding Sources are often linked to Cost Accounts by virtue of User Defined Fields.

View the Funding tab 1. Click the Funding tab.


I SSUES T AB The Issues tab enables users to document problems or concerns about the projects. Priority and responsibility can be associated with issues, allowing for tracking and reporting.

View the Issues tab 1. Click the Issues tab.


N OTEBOOK T AB The Notebook tab enables users to write, view, or edit project notes such as the project’s purpose, core requirements, or other project-specific details. Notebook topics are defined as part of the configuration of Primavera. Notebook topics can be assigned at the EPS level, Project level, WBS level, and Activity level. The graphic below shows the default notebook topics that are used in the dataset for this course. The notebook topic name is shown, along with where it can be assigned.


F IELDS

IN T HE

N OT EBOOK

TAB

Notebook Topic — List of topics assigned to the selected node/project. Detail — User-defined description of the selected topic. A user can use HTML editing features, including formatting text, inserting pictures, copying, pasting, and adding hyperlinks.


A DDING

A

N OTEBOOK T OPIC

Add a Notebook Topic 1. Click the Notebooks tab. 2. Click on the Assign button. 3. In the Select Notebook Topic box, select Scope, and click on the Assign button. 4. In the Select Notebook Topic box, click on the Close button. Double-click in the Description field for Scope, then click on the Browse button. 5. In the Edit Scope box, enter . 6. In the Edit Scope box, click on Ok.


R ISKS T AB The Risks tab enables users to document potential risks and the probability that the risk will occur.

View the Risks tab 1. Click the Risk tab.


I NSTRUCTOR L ED T RAINING P ROJECT S ETUP V IEW We will now set up a new view which we will use for defining project defaults. We will use the Budgetary Planning view as a template for our new view.

Open the Budgetary Planning View 1. Open the view Budgetary Planning. 2. Click on View, Columns. 3. In the Customize Columns box, remove all of the fields listed under Selected Columns.


Next we will select the fields we will display. Project level defaults settings will be located in the Preferences group.

Display Fields 1. For the option Show first column as, select Project ID. 2. For the option Sort by, select Project Name. 3. Under Available Columns, expand the group General, and add Project Name. 4. Under Available Columns, expand the group Preferences, and add the following fields: •

Activity ID Prefix

•

Activity ID Suffix

•

Activity Type

•

Increment

•

Calendar

•

Duration Type

•

Percent Complete Type

•

Cost Account

5. Click on Ok.



S AVING

THE

P ROJECT S ETUP V IEW

We will make some final adjustments and then save the new view.

Saving the Project Setup View 1. Use click and drag to adjust the column widths until all fields are visible. 2. Click on View, Save View As. 3. In the Save View As box, enter . 4. Click on Ok.


P ROJECT D EFAULT F IELDS Prior to creating activities in a schedule, the project default settings should be reviewed and adjusted to ensure they are in accordance with the overall project plan. These settings can be changed during the life of the project, but will not impact activities which already exist. These settings will only impact new activities. You can also access these settings by clicking on Actions, Set Project Preferences.

Navigate to Defaults Tab 1. Select the project Nesbid Building Expansion.


A UTO - NUMBERING D EFAULTS Three fields determine how new activities will be numbered in a project.

Activity ID Prefix – Controls the alpha-numerical characters which appear prior to the Activity ID Suffix. Activity ID Suffix – A sequence of numbers which, in combination with the Activity ID Prefix, will be unique for each activity in a project. Increment – Controls the difference between each Activity ID Suffix when a new activity is created.

USAGE HINT: For the activities in a project that may have the same names as other projects, it may be useful to add some type of prefix that identifies the project within the activity. If multiple projects are opened, it will help schedulers differentiate between activities of multiple projects. For example, if the project is an Office Building Addition project, Users could set the prefix to BA, and verify the suffix as 1000 and the increment as 10. When adding activities, the first activity ID will be numbered BA1000, the second activity ID will be BA1010, etc. For increment, users must set this setting to either 5 or 10, to allow for spacing between the Activity ID Suffix to insert new activities later in the process.


A CTIVITY T YPE The Activity Type controls how an activity is scheduled in accordance with relationships, calendar assignments, and resource assignments.

Task Dependent

The activity's resources are scheduled according to the activity calendar. In other words, the schedule dates override the individual resource’s calendar.

Resource Dependent

The activity's resources are scheduled according to his/her own calendar. This activity type selection will have a huge impact if the Customer decides to implement resource leveling. In other words, the schedule dates are less important than the individual resource’s calendar.

Level of Effort

The activity's duration is dependent on its predecessor and successor activities. Administrative overhead activities are most often assigned as Level of Effort activities. As predecessor and successor activity dates shift, so will the dates of the Level of Effort activity. Constraints cannot be applied to Level of Effort activities.

Start Milestone

The activity marks the beginning of a major stage in the project. Start Milestones do not have time-based costs, resource assignments, or durations.

Finish Milestone

The activity marks the end of a major stage in the project. Finish Milestones do not have time-based costs, resource assignments, or durations.

WBS Summary

The activity's duration is dependent on the activities assigned to the same WBS level, select WBS Summary. This activity functions the same way that a WBS element does. The total duration for the activity spans the total duration of all other activities. This activity type is used very often by organizations for the assignment of resources.


The user cannot assign resources that drive activity dates to WBS summary activities. Constraints cannot be applied to WBS Summary activities.


D URATION T Y PE The Duration Type controls how the resource equation Duration * Units/Time = Units is recalculated when one of the three fields is changed by the user.

Fixed Units/Time Choose Fixed Units/Time if the user wants the resource units per time to remain constant when the activity duration or units change. This type is used when an activity has fixed resources with fixed productivity output per time period. The user most often chooses this duration type when the user is using resource dependent activities. USAGE HINT: Selecting Fixed Units/Time limits the % allocation for a resource. Note that this will affect resource dependent activities. If the resource’s % allocation exceeds the specified limit, then the duration will be increased.

Fixed Duration & Units/Time Choose Fixed Duration & Units/Time if the user wants the activity duration to remain constant and the remaining units to change. This type is used when the activity is to be completed within a fixed time period regardless of the resources assigned. The user most often chooses this duration type when they are using task dependent activities. USAGE HINT: If Duration and Unit/Time are fixed, then the Units must change if the work is to get done on time. If the user edits the Units, then the Units/Time will be recalculated.

Scenario: The user is working on a government contract that specifies that if a specific mission critical activity does not complete by the agreed upon, contracted date, then a penalty will be paid by the company. Since this is not a fixed bid contract (fixed Units), it doesn’t matter to the company who does the work, or how many resources are assigned to that activity to get that work completed by the contracted date.


Fixed Units Choose Fixed Units if the user wants the activity units (work effort) to remain constant when the duration or resource units per time change. This type is used when the total amount of work is fixed, and increasing the resources can decrease the activity duration. The user most often chooses this duration type when they are using resource dependent activities. USAGE HINT: If the user is working on a fixed bid contract and must report actual against plan, then selecting Fixed Units is the best choice. For example: A Contractor has 2 weeks to finish plumbing in a house. The total budgeted hours for that activity are 80 hours. The project’s dates slip due to other contractor work slips. The contract is renegotiated with the Customer. The plumbing activity now has 3 weeks to complete. However, the budgeted hours are still only 80 hours. Selecting Fixed Units means that those 80 hours will be spread over a three week period instead of a two week period.

Fixed Duration & Units Choose Fixed Duration & Units if the user wants the activity duration to remain constant and the units/time to change. This type is used when the activity is to be completed within a fixed time period and the total amount of work is fixed. The user most often chooses this duration type when they are using task dependent activities. NOTE: The Duration Type field is disabled if the Activity Type is Start Milestone or Finish Milestone.


P ERCENT C OMPLET E T YPE The Percent Complete Type selected reports project performance data. While all three types are tracked, this setting controls which of the three will be used as the Activity Percent Complete.

Physical % Complete To indicate that the activity's percent complete will be entered by the user for this activity, select Physical. In this case, Activity % Complete = Physical % Complete. USAGE NOTE: This percent complete type is generally used by less mature project management organizations. It is a subjective assessment of how much work has been completed. The Risk of all activities being 90% complete is significant. This risk can be mitigated by using Steps, and linking Physical % complete to Steps % complete. Note that generally speaking, the activities are not fixed bid (units) or fixed duration.

Duration % Complete To specify that the activity's percent complete be calculated from the original/planned and remaining durations, select Duration. In this case, Activity % Complete = Duration % Complete = (Original or Planned Duration – Remaining Duration)/Original or Planned Duration. USAGE NOTE: This percent complete is calculated purely on the amount of time that has elapsed vs. the amount of time that has been committed for an activity. This is generally used in activities that have contracted dates with penalties. Or, it is used by operations driven projects with budgets that must be spread over fixed date ranges. The Risk with using this percent complete type is that although it clearly shows how much time has been used, it does not give clear visibility into how much work has actually been completed.

Units % Complete To specify that the activity's percent complete be calculated from the actual and remaining units, select Units. In this case, Activity % Complete = Units % Complete = (Actual Labor Units + Actual Nonlabor Units)/(Actual Labor Units + Actual Nonlabor Units +Remaining Labor Units + Remaining Nonlabor Units).


USAGE NOTE: This percent complete type is calculated on the number of hours that have been used vs. the total number of budgeted/contracted hours. This is generally used on fixed bid contracts with fixed budgeted amounts. The Risk with using the Percent Complete type is that although it clearly shows how much time has been used, it does not give clear visibility into the amount of work that has been completed.


C OST A CCOUNT In many implementations, customers may wish to set up a Cost Account Breakdown Structure. The Cost accounts are created and maintained under the Enterprise Data page. A user can specify a project's default cost account. This cost account will be used for resource assignments to activities and project expenses in the open project. The default cost account is only used for new resource assignments to activities and new project expenses. Changing this setting does not affect existing resource assignments to activities or existing project expenses.


C ALENDAR Calendars can be created and assigned to each resource and each activity. These calendars define the available work hours in each calendar day. A user can also specify holidays, project-specific work/ non-workdays, and resource vacation days. Calendar assignments are used for activity scheduling, tracking, and resource leveling. Whether an activity uses its assigned calendar or the calendar of an assigned resource depends on the activity type the user specifies. Three calendar pools are defined: Global The global calendar pool contains calendars that apply to all projects and resources. Resource The resource calendar pool can be a separate pool of calendars for each resource. Project The project calendar pool is a separate pool of calendars for each activity in a project. A user can assign either resource or global calendars to resources, and they can assign either global or project calendars to activities. A user can link resource and project calendars to global calendars. If a user defines a holiday in a global calendar, that holiday will be applied to all resource and project calendars that are linked to the modified global calendar.


A DDITIONAL P ROJECT L EVEL S ETTING F IELDS There are additional fields which can be displayed and modified based on how the project will be managed. It is recommended that the impact of modifying these settings be considered since they will have an impact on how project performance is calculated. Use the Calculations tab to specify how to calculate cost and resource use when a user updates activities. This tab is significant, because it will affect Project Performance reporting. If the Customer is implementing Earned Value, the settings in this field will affect Earned Value Metrics. The table below describes the Setting Names. Setting Name

Description

Activity % Complete from Steps

For physical % complete activities, if this option is enabled, then the activity % complete will be a compiled calculation of Steps % complete.

Allow Duplicate Resource Assignments

Allows for the same resource to be assigned to an activity more than once. This option should be enabled if a resource assignment may change during the life of the activity.

Allow Negative Actual Units

Allows for negative actual hours to be entered.

Baseline Option

Determines of the Project Baseline or the Primary Baseline is used for Earned Value analysis.

Drive Activity Dates by Default

When enabled, this option allows the resource assignments to control the early finish of the activity.

Fiscal Year

Sets the start of the fiscal year.

Link Actual and Period Actual Units and Cost

Enable this option to recalculate actual or period actual units and costs when one of these values is updated.


Link Planned and At Completion

The units and costs for the Planned and At Completion fields will be linked for activities that have not started.

Price/Unit

The price/unit will be used on activities that do not have a resource assignment.

Primary Can Complete Activity

The Primary Resource can mark an activity as completed in Progress Reporter.

Rate Type

The default rate type assigned to all resource assignments.

Recalculate Units from Costs

When enabled, this will recalculate the units on the resource assignments when the user edits the costs.

Resources Can Assign Themselves

Allows a resource to assign themselves to an activity in Progress Reporter.

Resource Can Complete Assignments

Resource can mark an activity as completed.

Resources Can View Inactive Projects

Resources can view their assignments in projects with a status of Inactive.

Resource Status Activities Using

Establishes that either Remaining Duration or Percent Complete is used by the resource when statusing an activity.

WBS Code Separator

Which non-alpha-numerical character is used to separate the different levels in the WBS.

When Activity Progress is Removed

When actual are removed from an activity, determines if remaining duration and units should be reset to planned, or if planned duration and units should be reset to remaining. This option should ALWAYS be set to Reset Remaining Duration and Units to Planned.


When Updating Units or Costs

Determines if the actual units should be subtracted from the at completion units to return a value for remaining units, or if the actual units should be added to the remaining units to return a value for the at completion units.


Use columns on the EPS page to define default settings and properties for the selected project.

Review Questions 1. Click the _________ tab in the EPS page to change the project’s Planned Start date. a. General b. Defaults c. Dates d. Settings 2. True or False: A user must specify a date by which the project must finish.

Notes


Lesson 7: C REATING A P ROJECT O BJECT IVES

Create a project Navigate in the Projects window View and modify information in Project Details




Implementation Consultants must be able to coach and mentor Project Teams and Customer’s Application Administrators on how to create projects.


The Core Team / Project Team must have an understanding of how to create projects because they will need to develop processes around controlling who can create projects, under what conditions, and what those project plans must have in common in order to create meaningful management reports.


EPS P AGE To view high-level information about the project, navigate to the EPS page, which displays the projects within the EPS that a user can access. A user can also:

Open, create, and save project views Group projects by the Enterprise Project Structure, project codes, or other project-related items Filter projects Modify column data.

Navigate to EPS Page 1. On the Navigation bar, click Projects. 2. Click on the EPS page button.


E XPANDING

AND

C OLLAPSING

Expanding and collapsing allows a user to hide detailed data. The benefit is this enables the user to hide information they do not currently need so they can search for information.

Expand and Collapse EPS 1. Click on the collapse button on the left of the grouping band Engineering & Construction. 2. Click on the expand button on the left of the grouping band Engineering & Construction. 3. Click on View, Collapse All. 4. Click on the expand button on the left of the grouping band All Initiatives. 5. Click on the expand button on the left of the grouping band Engineering & Construction. 6. Click on View, Expand All.


C REATING

A

P ROJECT

Projects can be created in the EPS page. A project can be created using one of the following methods: Method

Description

Action menu, Add, Add Project

This method allows the user to create a project defining the required fields Project ID, Project Name, Description, EPS, Responsible Manager, Project Planned Start date, and Must Finish By date. The user may also define which existing project or project template to use as a template for the new project. If creating a project from an existing project or project template, the user can select which data to include from the template.

Copy and Paste

This method allows the user to select a project and use copy and paste to create a new project. During the paste function, the user can select which data to include from the original project. Once the new project has been created, the Project Name, Description, EPS, Responsible Manager, Project Planned Start date, and Must Finish By date will be identical to the original project. The user will need to edits these fields after the new project has been created.

Import a file

This method allows the user to import a project saved in the XML format. The XML format is supported by previous versions of Oracle Primavera and Microsoft Project.


LAB: C REATE

A

P R OJECT

Create a Project 1. Confirm the user is on the EPS page. 2. Select the node Engineering & Construction. 3. Click on Actions, Add, Add Project. 4. In the Add Project box, enter MTP in the Project ID field. 5. Enter My Training Project in the Project Name field. 6. Enter February 4, 2013, in the Project Planned Start field.


Since the user select the EPS node Engineering & Construction prior to creating the project, the EPS field was set to that node. The Responsible Manager field was also set, using the responsible manager as defined on the EPS node. All of the required fields have been defined. However, if the user would like to use an existing project as a template for the new project, they can define it at this time. During this process the user can specific which data in the existing project to include in the new project. Since this will be a new project, certain data such as Issues, Funding Sources, and Summary Data will not be included. The baseline from the original project will also not be included.


Select a Template 1. In the Add Project box, click on the Browse button for the option Copy from existing project or template. 2. Expand the All Initiatives and Engineering & Construction nodes. 3. Select the project Nesbid Building Expansion, then click on Ok. 4. In the Add Project box, click on the Advanced tab. 5. Verify that the checkmarks for Issues, Funding Sources, Summary Data, and the baselines are not marked, then click on Create.


Notes


L ESSON 8: M ODIFYING P ROJECT I NFORMATION O BJECT IVES

Create and Modify Project IDs Understand how Project IDs can be codified to represent project types and programs Create and Modify Project Names Understand how Project Names can be standardized to show the relationship to an overarching program




Implementation Consultants need to have an understanding of how to optimize the use of Project IDs and Project Names. This will help the Customer to create standards and guidelines that will facilitate understanding of the data to specific user audiences.


The Core Team / Project Team must have an understanding of the best use of Project IDs and Project Names. This will help communicate to affected User audiences the meaning of the data as it is created and maintained over time.


O VER VIEW Modifying the project information can be done in the EPS page in the table or in the Project Details tabs. For simplicity, this class will utilize Project Setup Views created earlier to enter data in the Project Table.

P ROJECT ID: P ROJECT P LANS Project ID — this is a unique ID in Primavera. Primavera will not allow a duplicate Project ID. If a user types in a previously used Project ID, a message will pop up indicating that it is already in use.

C OURSE S CENARIO This course has been written to facilitate understanding of a program view of data. The EPS has been set up by industry.


LAB: M OD IFYING P ROJECT ID S You will use the business case scenarios from earlier chapters. Requirements 1. Rename Project ID In the project table, double click in each Project ID field and rename it to something else. That something else should include some reference to the business case that you have been assigned. 2. Be prepared to show your responses and explain your Project IDs.

P ROJECT N AME The Project Name field does not require a unique name. In the design of the solution for a customer, the Implementation Consultant should recommend a set of naming conventions for each project that will make the names recognizable.


The user can create a project by importing a file, copying an existing file, or by creating a project from an existing template. Once the project is created, use the Projects window to view highlevel information for projects the user can access.

R EVIEW LAB 1. Create a new project in the training node for the assigned User/Login. 2. Rename the project: UserName Training Project. 3. Rename the Project ID: UserInitials_TP. 4. Enter a Planned Start date of March 4, 2013.


Notes


L ESSON 9: C REATING A W ORK B REAKDOWN S TRUCTURE O BJECT IVES

Define a Work Breakdown Structure Create multiple levels of a WBS hierarchy




An Implementation Consultant must be an expert at creating and modifying Work Breakdown Structures to respond to the myriad of project scenarios that will be discovered at Customer sites.

Core Project Team

The Core Team will need to be able to create Work Breakdown Structures to be able to respond to the requirements of the organizations affected by a Primavera implementation.


W ORK B R EAKDOWN S TR UCTURE The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a hierarchical arrangement of the products and services produced during, and by, a project. It enables a user to divide a project into meaningful and logical pieces for the purpose of planning and control.

Each project has a unique WBS hierarchy. The root level of the WBS is equal to the Project ID and Project Name. Elements within the WBS have a “child/parent” relationship, which means that they can be rolled up and summarized from the lower level information.


V IEWING WBS E LEMENTS When a project is created, a root level WBS element is added with the same ID and name as the project. The WBS can be viewed and defined in the Activities page of the Projects section.

View the WBS in the Activities Page 1. On the Navigation bar, click on the Projects drop down arrow. 2. Click on the Open Projects link. 3. In the Open Projects box, verify that the project My Training Project is the only project listed under Selected Projects. If other projects are listed, select each one and click on the left pointed arrow button. 4. Click on Ok. 5. Click on the View, Collapse All. 6. Click on the Expand button the on the My Training Project grouping band. 7. Click on the Expand button the on the Mechanical/Electrical Systems grouping band.


C REATE

A

WBS

New WBS elements can be added as a child (lower level) or as a sibling (same level) as the selected WBS element. WBS elements can be added using the Add WBS buttons or the Action menu. The name of the WBS elements can be entered right in the Activity table.

Add a WBS element. 1. Select the WBS element Design and Engineering. 2. Click on Action, Add, Add Child WBS. 3. Enter <30% Design> for the new WBS name. 4. Click on Action, Add, Add Child WBS. 5. Enter <65% Design> for the new WBS name. 6. Click on the Save button.


M ODIFYING

T HE

WBS

The structure of the WBS can be modified. Elements can be outdented to a higher level, or indented to a lower level. If the user adds a WBS element to the wrong level or in the wrong order, they can use the indentation keys located in the Edit menu to adjust the structure of the WBS hierarchy.

Modify a WBS element 1. Select the WBS element 65% Design. 2. Click on Edit, Outdent. 3. Click on the Save button.

Security can be controlled within Primavera down to the WBS level. A Responsible Manager can be designated within the WBS.


Add a Responsible Manager 1. Select the WBS element Design and Engineering. 2. Click on the General tab. 3. Double-click in the Responsible Manager field, then click on the Browse button. 4. In the Select Responsible Manager box, expand Enterprise. 5. Select Energy, then click on Ok. 6. When prompted if you would like to assign the Responsible Manager to the children WBS elements, click on Yes. 7. Click on the Save button. 8. Select the WBS element 30% Design and view the Responsible Manager field. 9. Use steps 1 to 7 and changed the Responsible Manager back to E&C.



The Work Breakdown Structure is a hierarchical arrangement of the products and services produced during and by a project. The highest level of the WBS is the project, and the lowest level consists of the individual activities required for the deliverables. Create the WBS in the Activities page. Use the indentation keys to form various levels in the WBS. Review Questions 1. True or False: When a new project is created, the root level of the WBS is created with the same name as the project. 2. True or False: When a new WBS element is added it can only be added as a child of the highlighted WBS element. 3. True or False: Indentation keys can be used to adjust the structure of the WBS hierarchy.


Notes


L ESSON 10: A DDING AND E DITING A CTIVITIES O BJECT IVES

Describe an activity and its components Describe activity types Add activities Add a Notebook topic to an activity Add steps to an activity Assign activity codes to activities




An Implementation Consultant must be an expert at creating and modifying Work Breakdown Structures to respond to the myriad of project scenarios that will be discovered at Customer sites.

Core Project Team

The Core Team will need to be able to create Work Breakdown Structures to be able to respond to the requirements of the organizations affected by a Primavera implementation.


A CTIVIT IES Activities are the fundamental work elements of a project. They are the lowest level of a WBS and the smallest subdivision of work that directly concerns the project manager.

Most detailed work unit tracked in a project schedule. Contains all information about the work to be performed. Also known as a task, item, event, or work package.

A CTIVITY A TTRIBUTES Use the Activities page to create, view, and modify activities for the selected project. To add an activity to a project, perform one of the following actions:

On the Toolbar, click on the Add button. In the Action menu, click Add, Add Activity. Press Insert on the keyboard. Right-click and click Add Activity.


LAB: S ET

UP A

P R OJECT D EFAULT S

Establish Project Default Settings 1. On the Navigation bar, click on the Projects. 2. Click on the EPS page button. 3. Select the project My Training Project. 4. Verify the Project view Project Setup is selected. 5. Verify the following settings and change if necessary. a. Set the default Activity Type to Task Dependent. b. Set the Duration Type to Fixed Duration and Units / Time. c. Set Percent Complete Type to Duration. d. Set Calendar to Office Building Addition Calendar 1. 6. Click on Save.


A CTIVITY T YPE Start Milestone This type is typically used to mark the beginning of a phase or to communicate project deliverables.

Zero-duration activity.

Only has a Start date. A user can assign constraints, steps, expenses, work products, and documents. A user cannot assign roles. A user cannot assign resources except for the primary resource.

Finish Milestone This type is typically used to mark the end of a phase or to communicate project deliverables.

Zero-duration activity. Only has a Finish date. A user can assign constraints, steps, expenses, work products, and documents. A user cannot assign roles. A user cannot assign resources except for the primary resource.

Task Dependent This type is typically used when the work needs to be accomplished in a given timeframe, regardless of the assigned resources’ availability.

The activity’s resources are scheduled to work according to the activity calendar. Duration is determined by the assigned calendar’s workweek.


Resource Dependent This type is typically used when multiple resources assigned to the same activity can work independently.

The activity’s resources are scheduled according to the individual resource’s calendar. Duration is determined by the availability of the resources assigned to work on the activity.

Level of Effort This type is typically used for ongoing tasks dependent on other activities.

Duration is determined by its predecessor and successor activities, and its assigned calendar. Examples include clerical work, security guard services, and meetings. A user cannot assign constraints.

WBS Summary This type is used to summarize a WBS level.

The WBS summary activity comprises a group of activities that share a common WBS level. Dates calculated on a WBS summary activity are based on earliest start date of the activities in the group and latest finish date of these activities. The WBS summary activity duration is calculated based on its assigned calendar. A user cannot assign constraints to WBS summary activities.

A DDING A CTIVITIES A user can use the Activity Details tabs to add an activity, and then enter additional information about the activity. When adding an activity, first select either the WBS band in which the activity will reside, or select an existing activity in the WBS band.


Add activities to the Project Plan 1. Click on the Activities page button. 2. Select a WBS element, 30% Design. 3. Click on Action, Add, Add Activity. 4. On the keyboard, hit the Insert key. 5. On the toolbar, click on the Add Activity button. 6. There should now be 3 activities under the WBS element 30% Design. 7. Use Click+Shift+Click to select all three activities. 8. Click on Edit, Copy. 9. Select the WBS element 65% Design. 10. Click on Edit, Paste.


S AVING C HANGES The Activity ID’s for the new activities will not be defined immediately after they are created. The user can manually enter Activity ID’s or the user can save their changes and allow P6 to automatically determine the Activity ID’s based on the Activity ID project default settings.

Saving the New Activities 1. Click on the Save button. 2. View the Activity ID’s for the new activities.


LAB: G ENERAL T AB Use the General tab or the Activity table columns to modify basic information about the activity.

Modify Activity Details 1. Click on the General tab. 2. Select activity EC1870 and enter in the Activity Name field. 3. Select activity EC1880 and enter in the Activity Name field. 4. Select activity EC1890 and enter in the Activity Name field. 5. Select activity EC1900 and enter in the Activity Name field. 6. Select activity EC1910 and enter in the Activity Name field. 7. Select activity EC1920 and enter in the Activity Name field. 8. Click on Action, Add, Add Activity. 9. Select the new activity and enter in the Activity Name field. 10. Click on the Save button.



Modify Activity Details 1. Click on the General tab. 2. Select activity EC1870 and enter 20 in the Planned Duration field. 3. Select activity EC1880 and enter 20 in the Planned Duration field. 4. Click on the Save button.


A DDING S TEPS

TO AN

A CTIVITY

Activity steps allow users to create a checklist for the activity, and then track the completion of each step. Steps often provide a list of procedures required to complete the activity and provide extra guidance to resources assigned to the activity.

Assign an unlimited number of steps per activity. Steps can be marked completed in P6 and by the primary resource in timesheets. Steps do not have duration estimates or dates. Each step can have an additional explanation in the text area on the right side of the Steps tab. User Defined Fields may be created to provide additional information for Steps.


L AB : S TEPS Add Steps to Activities 1. In Activity Details, click the Steps tab. 2. Select activity EC1930. 3. In the Steps tab, click on the Add button. 4. In the Step Name field, enter . 5. On the Activities page toolbar, click on Save.

Delete Steps from Activities 1. Select activity EC1930. 2. In the Steps tab, click on the Delete button. 3. On the Activities page toolbar, click on Save.


Activity step templates enable the definition of common steps for assignment to multiple activities. If a commonly used step or set of steps have already been defined for an activity, they can be converted to the steps in a template.

Add Steps from Steps Template 1. In Activity Details, click the Steps tab. 2. Select activity EC1930. 3. Click on the Add from Template button. 4. In the Select Activity Step Template box, select System Design Checklist and click on Assign. 5. In the Select Activity Step Template box click on the Close button. 6. On the Activities page toolbar, click on Cancel. 7. When prompted to save changes, click on No.


N OTEBOOK T AB Just as in the EPS page, there is a Notebook tab in the Activities page. The Notebook tab enables users to assign notes to an activity. Notebook topics are typically instructions or descriptions that further describe the activity according to specific categories of information. They are added the same way that they were added to the EPS page. In addition, text and hyperlinks can be inserted into the Description for each Notebook topic. BEST PRACTICE: Notebook topics are used to help document status, document use of constraints, document when a project plan is not executing a pre-defined methodology exactly.

Add a Notebooks topic and description 1. Select activity EC1930. 2. Click the Notebooks tab. 3. In the Notebooks tab click on the Assign button. 4. In the Select Notebook Topic box, select Recent Accomplishments, then click on the Assign button. 5. In the Select Notebook Topic box click on the Close button. 6. In the Notebooks tab double-click in the Description box. 7. In the Edit Recent Accomplishments box enter . 8. In the Edit Recent Accomplishments box click on Ok. 9. On the Activities page toolbar, click on Save.


A CTIVITY C ODES Just as codes were added at the Project level in the EPS page, Activity codes can be defined at the Activity level as well. Activity codes enable users to classify and categorize activities according to organizational and project needs. Codes of any type can be used in filters, to group and sort data, to view and roll up activities in the Activity Table, customize views, build reports, and select and summarize activities. USAGE HINT: Many customers have governance organizations that require certain activities in each project plan. The use of Activity Codes would help users to quickly identify those required activities for audit processes. Activity codes can be defined in three levels: Global-level — Available to all activities in the database Create an unlimited number of global-level activity codes. Organize activities within a project or across the project structure. EPS-level — Available to all activities within the EPS node and its children

Create an unlimited number of EPS-level activity codes. Organize activities within a project or across a portion of the EPS.

Project-level — Available to activities only in the project in which the code is created

Create up to 500 project-level activity codes per project. Filter and organize activities based on unique, project-specific requirements.


A SSIGNING A CTIVIT Y C ODES

TO AN

A CT IVITY

Activity codes may be assigned in the Codes tab, or in an appropriate set up view in tables.

Add a column for the activity code in the Activity table. Use the Codes tab in Activity Details.


LAB: A SSIGNING A CTIVITY C ODES Assign an Activity Code in Codes Tab 1. Select activity EC9130. 2. In Activity Details, click the Codes tab. 3. Click on Assign. 4. In the Select Code Value box, expand Responsibility. 5. Select Andy Mason and click on the Assign button. 6. In the Select Code Value box click on the Close button. 7. On the Activities page toolbar, click on Save.


C ALENDARS Calendars can be created and assigned to each activity and resource. Calendar assignments are used to schedule activities and level resources.

An unlimited number of calendars can be created. The Activity Type determines whether the activity calendar or resource calendar is used during scheduling.

C ALENDAR T YPES There are three calendar types: Type

Description

Global calendar

Resource calendar Project calendar

Contains calendars that can be used by all projects in the database. Available for all resources and activities in the database. Contains a separate pool of calendars for resources. Contains a separate pool of calendars for each project. Available for the current project only.

Use the Calendar field in EPS page to change the default calendar assignment for a project.


C ALENDAR A SSIGNMENTS A ND A CT IVITIES Each activity may have a different calendar. This may be extremely important for international implementations, where some activities are wholly owned by resources in a specific country. Remember, each country has a different set of holidays, different work weeks, etc. Calendars are assigned at the activity level the same way they are assigned at the Projects level; by modifying the Calendar column. Since this activity was executed at the Project level, it will not be repeated for this class. USAGE NOTE: Calendars assigned to activities will definitely affect dates as projects are updated, statused, and scheduled. Project Managers and Application Administrators need to be aware of what could be perceived as peculiar date results using multiple calendars within the same project. It is not the tool that is at fault. It is doing exactly what it was told to do. At the project level, project managers and management will need to determine if the risk of using multiple calendars within the same project plan is worth what could be resulting confusion during status reporting.



There are many ways to add an activity to a project: On the toolbar, click on the Add Activity button In the Edit menu, click Add Activity Press Insert on the keyboard Right-click and click Add Activity Copy / paste an Activity Activity Type controls how an activity’s dates are calculated. Use steps to create an activity checklist, and to track step completion. Use activity codes to group activities by a common attribute. Global-level codes can be assigned to all activities in the database. EPS activity codes can be assigned to all activities within the assigned node Project-level activity codes can be assigned to activities in the projects in which they are created.


Review Questions 1. When the activity’s dates are determined by the availability of the resources assigned to the activity, then the activity type is: a. Task dependent b. Resource dependent c. Milestone d. Level of effort 2. True or False: The duration of a milestone is dependent on its predecessor/successor activities.


Notes


L ESSON 11: C REATING R ELATIONSHIPS O BJECT IVES

View a network logic diagram Differentiate between the four relationship types Create relationships in the Activity Network Create relationships in Activity Details




As part of scheduling and possibly compressing a schedule, an Implementation Consultant needs to be fully versant in the concept of relationships between Activities, as well as the result in the schedule of modifying relationships. Customers rarely have an understanding of project planning, apart from the more complicated issue of relationships and scheduling logic. They will have a lot of questions regarding relationships and their impacts to project schedules.

Core Project Team

As leaders within their companies, Core Team members will also need to be fluent with their knowledge of scheduling and relationships. During the adoption period, novice project managers will surface a lot of resistance around constraining dates rather than allowing scheduling logic and relationships to forecast dates. Core Team members will need to be experts in these concepts to be able to coach and mentor their organizations.


N ETWORK L OGIC D IAGRAM A network logic diagram is a logical representation of all the activities in a project showing their dependency relationships.

P RECEDENCE D IAGRAMMING M ET HOD Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM) is a technique for creating network logic diagrams.

A box or rectangle represents an activity. Lines with arrows connect the boxes and represent the logical relationships between the activities.

Predecessor — Controls the start or finish of another activity. Successor — Depends on the start or finish of another activity.

In general, most users will start with either the first activity in the network and enter each successor, or start with the last activity in the network and enter each predecessor.


R ELATIONSHIP T YPES There are four relationship types. In the following diagrams, activity A represents the predecessor and activity B represents the successor.

Finish-to-Start (FS) — When A finishes, B can start. Start-to-Start (SS) — When A starts, B can start. Finish-to-Finish (FF) — When A finishes, B can finish. Start-to-Finish (SF) — When A starts, B can finish.

R ELATIONSHIPS

WITH

L AG

Lag specifies a user defined offset or delay between an activity and its successor. It can be added to any type of relationship and have a positive or a negative value, though the use of negative lag is prohibited on many projects. Lag is scheduled based on the calendar selected in the General tab in Schedule Options dialog box. There are four calendar options for scheduling lag: Predecessor activity calendar Successor activity calendar 24-hour calendar Project default calendar Below are two examples of relationships with lag: Finish-to-Start with Lag — The Construct Building Foundation activity must be finished for seven days before the Construct Building Exterior and Structure activity can start. (FS7 indicates there is a Finish-to-Start relationship with 7 days of lag.) Start-to-Start with Lag — The Install Interior Belt Conveyors activity can start five days after the Construct Building Exterior and Structure activity starts. (SS5 indicates there is a Start-to-Start relationship with 5 days of lag.)


LAB: C REATING R ELATIONSHIPS

IN T HE

A CTIVITY D ETAILS

Creating Relationships in Activity Details 1. On the Navigation bar, click on the Projects. 2. Click on the Activities page button. 3. Select activity EC1870 and click on the Successors tab. 4. In the Successors tab, click on the Assign button. 5. In the Select Successor Activity box, expand My Training Project, Engineering & Construction, and 30% Design. 6. In the Select Successor Activity box select activity EC1880 and click on the Assign button.

When creating relationships using the Predecessor and Successor tabs in Activity Details, the assignment boxes can remain open while the user navigate to the next activity.


Create a Relationship 1. In the Activity table, select activity EC1880. 2. In the Select Successor Activity box select activity EC1890 and click on the Assign button. 3. On the Activities page toolbar, click on Save.

Note: Relationships can also be added in the GANTT Chart.


The user can use the Relationship Type field to change the relationship.

Change the Relationship Type 1. Close the Select Successor Activity box. 2. In the Successor tab double-click in the Relationship Type field and select Start to Start. 3. On the Activities page toolbar, click on Cancel.


A SSIGNING L AG In the Predecessor and Successor tabs, lag can be assigned in the Lag field. Lag can be entered using any period of time, (8 hours or 1 day), but upon hitting the Enter key, if will be displayed in accordance with the preferences for duration.

Assign lag to a Relationship 1. In the Successor tab click in the Lag field 2. Enter 1 and press Enter. 3. On the Activities page toolbar, click on Cancel.



Use the Predecessor and Successor tabs in Activity details to view, create, and modify relationships. There are four relationship types: Finish-to-Start, Start-to-Start, Finishto-Finish, and Start-to-Finish. The default relationship type is Finish-toStart. Use lag to specify a delay between an activity and its successor.

Review Questions 1. True or False: Four different types of relationships are supported. 2. True or False: Lag is the user-defined offset or delay between an activity and its successor.

Notes


L ESSON 12: S CHEDULING O BJECT IVES

Perform a forward and backward pass Describe float and its impact on a schedule Identify loops and open ends Calculate a schedule Analyze the scheduling log report




As noted previously, the Implementation Consultant needs to be able to go beyond knowledge of the functionality of scheduling. They need to be able to use the functionality to identify scheduling issues, and provide suggestions as to fixes for schedules. This would include advanced topics included in this chapter.

Core Project Team Member

The Core Project Team will need to know as much as the Implementation Consultant to provide coaching and mentoring of Users in affected organizations to drive adoption.


C RITICAL P AT H M ETHOD S C HEDULING The Critical Path Method (CPM) scheduling technique is utilized to calculate project schedules. CPM uses activity durations and relationships between activities to calculate schedule dates. This calculation is done in two passes (forward and backward) through the activities in a project.

C RITICAL P AT H

The critical path is the series of activities that determines a project's completion date. The duration of the activities on the critical path controls the duration of the entire project. A delay to any of these activities will delay the Finish date of the entire project. Critical activities are defined by either the total float or the longest path in the project network. USAGE NOTE: Critical Path Activities in the GANTT are shown in Red. This can be confusing to novice project managers as they perceive Red to be BAD. Be prepared to address this with Customers.


W HAT

IS THE

D ATA D ATE ?

The Data Date , indicated by the blue line in GANTT chart, is the project start date during the project planning process. After the project data update process has initiated, the Data Date is moved to correspond with the deadlines set in that process. The Data Date is always the starting point for scheduling calculations.

Open the Project Nesbid Building Expansion 1. On the Navigation bar, click on the Projects drop down arrow. 2. Click on the Open Projects link. 3. Under Available Projects, expand the All Initiatives and Engineering & Construction nodes. 4. Scroll down and select the project Nesbid Building Expansion. 5. Click on the Right pointed arrow. 6. Under Selected Projects, select My Training Projects. 7. Click on the Left pointed arrow. 8. Click on the Ok button. 9. Click on the Activities page.


V IEWING

THE

D ATA D ATE

The Data Date is the date that is utilized as the starting point for schedule calculations. It is the date used to schedule all remaining work. During the Planning phase the Data Date should match the Project Start date.

Adjust the Display to view the Data Date 1. Right-click on the timescale and select Year/Month. 2. Click and drag on the vertical split between the Activity Table and Bar Chart until only the Activity ID and Activity Name fields are visible on the left. 3. In the Bar Chart scroll until the Data Date line is visible on the left.


F ORWARD P ASS The forward pass calculates an activity’s early dates. Early dates are the earliest times an activity can start and finish once its predecessors have been completed. The calculation begins with the activities without predecessors.

Early Start (ES) + Duration — 1 = Early Finish (EF)

B ACKWARD P ASS The backward pass calculates an activity’s late dates. Late dates are the latest times an activity can start and finish without delaying the end date of the project. The calculation begins with the activities without successors. For projects without a Must Finish By date, activities without successors are assigned a Late Finish equal to the latest calculated Early Finish date (25 in the graphic below).

Late Finish (LF) — Duration + 1 = Late Start (LS)

T OTAL F LOAT An activity's Total Float is automatically calculated each time a user schedules the project. A user cannot edit an activity's float values directly. The critical path is the series of activities that determines a project's completion date.

The amount of time an activity can slip from its Early Dates without delaying the project. The difference between an activity’s late dates and early dates Activities with zero Total Float are critical Late date — Early date = Total Float (TF)


B ACKWARD P ASS

WITH

R EQUIRED F INISH

One of the most common project scenarios is a required finish date for the project.

Used only during the backward pass Required finish date specifies when the project must finish regardless of the network’s duration and logic Late Finish — Duration + 1 = Late Start

C IRCULAR R ELATIONSHIPS (L OOPS ) Loops indicate circular logic in an activity path. The schedule will not be calculated until the loop is eliminated. To eliminate a loop:

Determine proper logic Re-run the schedule A dialog box is displayed listing the activities in the loop


O PEN E NDS

Open ends are activities without either a predecessor or successor. No predecessor — Activity uses Data Date as its Early Start. No successor — Activity uses project finish as its Late Finish.

Open-ended activities can portray an unrealistic amount of positive total float. It is recommended that each project have only two open ends: the first activity and the last activity. Given that schedule calculations begin with activities without predecessors in a Forward Pass, if more than one activity does not have a predecessor then the schedule dates will be flawed. Given that backward pass schedule calculations begin with activities without successors, if more than one activity does not have a successor, then the schedule dates will be flawed. Schedules that have more than one activity without a predecessor and more than one activity without a successor are said to have broken logic.


S CHEDULING

A

P ROJECT

When a user schedules a project, activity dates are calculated according to durations and logic. Mark the Display scheduling log upon completion checkbox to display scheduling results. After a user schedules the project, note the change in the position of activities on the Gantt chart. Activities are displayed according to their calculated start and finish dates. Critical activities are displayed in red.


Prior to scheduling the project, we will display the columns that will be impacted.

Display Date Columns 1. Click on View, Columns. 2. Under Selected Columns, remove all the fields except Activity Name. 3. Verify that the option Show first column as is set to Activity ID. 4. Under Available Columns, expand the Dates group. 5. Add the Early Start, Early Finish, Late Start, and Late Finish columns to the Selected Columns list. 6. Under Available Columns, expand the Durations group. 7. Add the Total Float Column to the Selected Columns list. 8. Click on Ok. 9. Click on View, Save View As. 10. In the Save View As box, enter , then click on Ok.


The user can schedule a project by using one of three ways: Press the F9 key on the keyboard Click on Action, Run, Scheduler Click on the Schedule button on the toolbar. The project is currently scheduled to begin on February 24, 2012. When we schedule, we need to verify the data date is correct.

Schedule the Project 1. Click on Action, Run, Scheduler. 2. Change the Data Date to February 24, 2012. 3. Mark the checkbox for the option Display schedule log upon completion. 4. Click on the Schedule button.


S CHEDULE L OG The Schedule Log displays scheduling results, including:

Scheduling settings Statistics Errors Warnings Scheduling Results Exceptions

The schedule log will automatically be displayed after scheduling the project, but once the log is closed, the user must schedule the project again in order to view it. The user can save the schedule log before exiting the window. The log can be saved as a webpage or a text file.


Saving the Schedule Log 1. If you are using Internet Explorer, in the Schedule Log window click on File, Save As. 2. In the Save Webpage box, browse to the My Documents folder. 3. In the File name field, enter >. 4. In the Save type as field, select Text File (*.txt). 5. Click on Save.


A UDIT S CHED ULES

USING

S CHEDULE L OG

Project Managers should look for activities without Predecessors and activities without Successors. There should only be one activity without a Predecessor – the first activity in the project plan. There should only be one successor – the last activity in the project plan.


L AB : R EVIEW S C HEDULE L OG

AND

C OR RECT E RRORS

Reschedule the project and display the schedule log. Review the Warning sections. As stated in this lesson, there should only be two open ends, but four activities are listed that do not have a successor.

EC1380 EC1410 EC1590 EC1860

Foundation Phase Complete Begin Structural Phase Close-In Phase Begins Building Addition Complete

Only one activity, EC1860 Building Addition Complete, should not have successor. Correct this issue by creating the relationships listed below. Use the Finish to Start relationship type for all relationships. Predecessor

Successor

EC1380 - Foundation Phase Complete

EC1390 - Erect Structural Frame

EC1410 Begin Structural Phase

EC1420 - Floor Decking

EC1590 Close-In Phase Begins

EC1600 - Insulation and Built-up Roofing

We will take this time to correct two additional errors with the schedule. The durations of two activities need to be corrected. Locate the two activities listed below and correct their durations. Activity

Correct Duration

EC1290 - Fabricate and Deliver Heat Pump and Controls

20 days

EC1310 Fabricate and Deliver Flooring

30 days

There is an incorrect relationship tie with another project. Select activity EC1700 and delete the predecessor relationship with activity EC1840.



After relationship logic has been defined, schedule the project to determine when the activities will take place. When scheduling using the Critical Path Method, activity Early Start and Finish dates are calculated during the forward pass, and the Late Start and Finish dates are calculated during the backward pass. The Data Date is used as a starting point when scheduling all remaining work for the project. After scheduling, activities will have a total float that represents the amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying the project. After scheduling, results are display in the Schedule Log.

Review Questions 1. True or False: A schedule’s late dates are calculated during the backward pass. 2. True or False: A schedule can be calculated containing loops. 3. True or False: The critical path is the path of activities through the project that determines the project end date.


Notes


L ESSON 13: A SSIGNING C ONSTRAINTS O BJECT IVES

Apply an overall deadline to a project

Apply a constraint to an individual activity

Add notebook topics to constrained activities

Describe the available constraint types



Customer Management

Management must understand the risks associated with adding Constraints to the schedule so that they can determine if the data that they are seeing in reports is “real” or “fabricated by constraint.”

Project Scheduler

If a Schedule is constrained, and if that constraint is not clearly called out, then a Project Scheduler and Project Manager may assume that their projects are progressing as planned until the Constrained Date is not met. If / when that occurs and the project is rescheduled, then the accurate picture of critical path will be revealed.

Project Managers

Implementation Consultants

Consultants should clearly warn Customers about the use of constraints. If a Consultant has been asked to review a customer’s configurations to determine why schedules are not progressing properly, a good place to begin would be to see if schedules are constrained. If so, check the number of constraints that are contained in those schedules.

Application

Users may call for support for schedule dates that are “broken.” As noted in the previous chapter, the


Administrators

logic may be broken, or the schedule may be constrained which in effect, breaks the logic.

C ONSTRAINT S Constraints are imposed restrictions used to reflect project requirements that cannot be built into the logic. Constraints allow users to build schedule that accurately reflects the real-world aspects of the project. Constraints provide added control to the project and impose restrictions on the entire project or an individual activity

Constraints are user-imposed.

A maximum of two constraints can be assigned to an activity.

After applying a constraint, the project must be rescheduled to calculate the new dates. BEST PRACTICE: It is strongly recommended that a Notebooks Topic is assigned to any activity that is constrained. In addition, a Constraint is an Assumption. Following Risk Management principles, Assumptions are in fact Risks. It is recommended that any constrained activity has an associated Risk assigned to it.


COMMONLY USED CONSTRAINTS MUST FINISH BY (Project Level)

Used when an overall project deadline must be met.

Forces all activities in the project to finish by the date (and time) specified.

Affects the Total Float of the entire project.

Can be applied in the General tab in Project Details or in the Must Finish By column in the Project Table. Note the current scheduled / calculated Finish date for the project.

This project is currently scheduled to be completed on March 05, 2014. This is the project’s Early Finish, and represents the earliest date that the project can be completed based on the relationships, calendars, and durations in the schedule. The project has a deadline of October 4, 2013. Due to the way the schedule is currently built, the project will not be scheduled to finish on time.


Apply a Must Finish By Constraint 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Click on the EPS page button. Select the project Nesbid Building Expansion. Click on the General tab. Set the Project Planned Start date to 27-Feb-12 08:00 AM. Set the Must Finish By date to 04-Oct-13 05:00 PM. On the EPS toolbar, click on Save.


I MPACT

OF

M UST F INISH B Y C ONSTRAINT

The next step is to reschedule the project to see the effect of the imposed deadline on the late dates and the Total Float in the project plan. As noted previously, the Must Finish By date selected is five months earlier than the scheduled Finish Date. Therefore, many of the activities contain negative Total Float.

Identify Negative Float 1.

Click on the Activities page button.

2. Click and drag the vertical split bar so all dates column and the Total Float column are visible. 3. Press F9. 4. In the Schedule Project box, clear the check box for the option Display scheduling log upon completion. 5. Click on Schedule. 6. Review the dates and Total Float columns in the Activity Table.


The user can view the impact of the Must Finish by constraint by looking at the Project grouping at the top of the page. The project has an Early Finish of October 18, 2013 and a Late Finish of October 4, 2013. The different between the two dates is the negative Total Float, which is 9.4 days


A CTIVITY C ONSTRAINTS Start On or After Use the Start On or After constraint to set the earliest date an activity can begin. This constraint will delay the Early Start of the assigned activity and all of driving successors.

Forces the activity to start no earlier than the constraint date

Pushes the early start date to the constraint date

Affects the early dates of its driving successors. Finish On or After Use the Finish On or After constraint to set the earliest date an activity can finish. This constraint will delay the Early Finish of the assigned activity and all of driving successors.

Forces the activity to finish no earlier than the constraint date

Pushes the early finish date to the constraint date

Affects the early dates of its driving successors Finish On or Before Use the Finish On or Before constraint to set a deadline on the finish date of an activity.

Forces the activity to finish no later than the constraint date.

Pulls the Late Finish date to the constraint date.

Affects the late dates of its driving predecessors.

Start On or Before Use the Start On or Before constraint to set a deadline on the start date of an activity.

Forces the activity to start no later than the constraint date

Shifts the Late Start to the constraint date

Affects the late dates of its predecessors


Used to place a deadline on the start of the activity

As Late As Possible

Delays an activity as late as possible without delaying its successors.

Shifts early dates as late as possible; also called zero free float constraint.

Start On

Acts as both an Start On or After and a Start On or Before constraint.

Will delay the start of an activity if logic schedules the activity to start prior to the constraint date.

Will impose a deadline on the start of the activity if logic schedules the start of the activity after the constraint date, generating negative float.

Finish On

Acts as both an Finish On or After and a Finish On or Before constraint.

Will delay the finish of an activity if logic schedules the activity to finish prior to the constraint date.

Will impose a deadline on the finish of the activity if logic schedules the finish of the activity after the constraint date, generating negative float.

Mandatory Start and Finish

Forces early and late dates to be equal to the constraint date.

Affects late dates of predecessors and early dates of successors.

The only constraints that violate network logic.



Assign constraints to activities and projects to reflect real-world restrictions.

A maximum of two constraints can be assigned to an activity.

The Must Finish By constraint is used when an overall project deadline must be met.

Use the Start On or After constraint to set the earliest date an activity can begin.

Review Questions for Discussion Identify some justifiable scenarios for constraints. Be prepared to present to the class.


Notes


L ESSON 14: F ORMATTING S CHEDULE D ATA O BJECT IVES

Group activities according to a specific criteria

Sort activities

Apply a filter

Create a filter




Very often Customer implementations have large schedules and multiple user groups that need to review data in updated schedules. It is critical to be able to manipulate schedule data to show only that data that is relevant at any point in time during the project management life cycle. Grouping and Sorting, creating filters, and creating views that have a combination of all will be common place.

Project Schedulers

In large schedules, Project Schedulers and Project Managers need to immediately see just the high Risk data / activities. Grouping and Sorting and using Filters will help manage the data, and manage the work.

Project Managers

Managers

Managers need to understand how Grouping and Sorting, Filters and Codes work together to be able to conceptualize data outputs from the system.


G ROUPING D AT A Grouping is a flexible way to organize data into categories that share a common attribute. A user can group data to create customized views. A user can also use grouping to quickly view subtotal data in the group title bands, view summary bars in the Gantt Chart, and summarize data for reporting purposes.

Grouping is available in certain pages.

Activities can be grouped by hierarchical fields such as WBS, activity codes, and project codes.

Activities can be grouped by data fields such as dates, costs, Total Float, and other numeric data.


C USTOMIZE G ROUPING B OX The Customize Grouping box is used to set up the organization of activities on the screen.

Select fields to group by — Lists data items used to group the current display. To Level —When grouping by a hierarchical data item, this indicates the number of levels to display. When grouping by a date field, this indicates the interval by which a user wants to group the selected data item. Band Color – Displays the background color for each group title band Text Color — Displays the text color for each group title band.

Show field title — Mark this to display the name of the field that the layout is grouped by. The value is also displayed.

Show field rollups — Choose to display or hide the total values for grouping bands.

Hide if empty — Mark to hide the group title bands that do not contain activities.

Sort Order — Select the method the grouping data will be sorted.

ID/Code — Mark the checkbox to display the ID or code value on the grouping band.

Name/Description — Mark the checkbox to display the name or description on the grouping band.

ID/Code and Name/Description – Mark the checkbox to display both the ID/Code and the Name/Description.


LAB: G ROUPING

AND

S ORT ING

View the Customize Groupings box 1. Verify that you are on the Activities page. 2. Click on View, Group.


G ROUPING

BY

D ATE

Grouping a layout by date allows a user to identify activities that are scheduled to occur within a particular time period.

Group data by Start and save as a new view 1. In the Select fields to group by section, under the Dates category, select Start. 2. In the To Level box, select Month. 3. Click on OK. 4. Click on View, Save View As. 5. In the Save View As box enter . 6. Click on Ok.


S ORTING A CTIVITIES Sorting determines the sequence in which activities are listed within each grouping band. Based on the data item a user chooses, they can sort alphabetically, numerically, or chronologically. To sort by single criteria, click the data item’s column title.

Click column title to sort data by Early Start 1. In the Activity Table, click on the column title for Early Start.


F ILTERING A CTIVIT IES A filter is a set of instructions that determines which activities are displayed in a view. Filters enable users to create customized views by limiting the number of activities displayed, such as helping to focus on critical activities. A set of pre-defined Standard filters is provided, as is the ability to create userdefined filters. Filters are divided into the following groupings:

Standard Available to all users 7 pre-defined filters Cannot be deleted or modified

Global

Available to all users A Security Privilege is required to edit or save

Multiple User

Available to only the users specified when created

Can only be deleted by the user who created the filter

User

Available to current user for all projects to which he/she has access.

One or more filters may be applied to a view at a time. Multiple criteria for selection may be used within a single filter. Filter specifications can be saved and re-applied. Filters can be saved as part of a view.


F ILTERS D IALOG B OX

Filters Toolbar – Location for tools to create, edit, delete, cut, copy, and paste filters. The functions on the Filters Toolbar are disabled when a Standard filter is selected.

Clear — Click to clear all filters and to show all activities in the current view.

Show matches for — When more than one filter is marked, a user must select one of the following options: All applied filters — Mark to include the activities that meet the criteria of each selected filter Any applied filter — Mark to include the activities that meet the criteria of at least one of the selected filters


View the Filters dialog box 1. Click on View, Filters, Filters.


A PPLYING

A

S TAND ARD F ILTER

We will use a filter to display only milestones for a quick high level report.

Use a Filter 1. In the Apply to View column, mark the checkbox next to the filter Milestones only. 2. Click on Ok. 3. If necessary click and drag the vertical split bar to the left so the bar chart is visible. 4. Click on View, Save View As. 5. In the Save View As box enter 6. Click on Ok.


U SING M ULTIPLE F ILTERS If a user cannot achieve the goal with a single filter, they can run two filters simultaneously. We will also need to adjust other view options.

Execute two filters 1. In the View drop down list, select Organized by WBS with Details. 2. Click on View, Filters, Filters. 3. In the Apply to View column, mark the checkbox next to the filters Milestones only and Critical. 4. In the Show matches for box, select all applied filters. 5. Click on Ok. 6. Click on View, Group. 7. In the Customize Groupings box, mark the checkbox for Hide if empty, then click on Ok. 8. Click on View, Save View As. 9. In the Save View As box enter 10. Click on Ok.


C LEAR

ALL

F ILTER S

To clear all filters and show all activities, click on the Clear button in the Customize Filters box.

Clear All Filters 1. Click on View, Filters, Filters. 2. Click on the Clear button. 3. Click on Ok.



Use grouping and sorting to organize activities in a view.

The Group and Sort dialog box provides options to show grand totals and summaries, and to modify the font and color for each grouping selected. You can also sort the groups alphabetically, numerically, or chronologically.

Use filters to customize the layout or to show only activities that satisfy the filter criteria. Multiple filters can be applied to a layout.

Review Questions Which of the following is not a true statement about default filters? a. They are available to all users. b. They can be deleted. c. They cannot be modified. d. There are 7 predefined filters. True or False: One or more filters may be applied to a view at a time.


Notes


L ESSON 15: R OLES AND R ESOURCES O BJECT IVES

Describe roles

Views the roles dictionary

Describe resources

Identify the differences between labor, non-labor and material resources

View the resource dictionary

Modify the resource dictionary




Many Customers have a challenge with Resource Management and Capacity Planning. Planning using Roles is often a solution that can help Customers develop appropriate short and long term hiring plans for mission critical projects, as the demands for Roles can be forecast over time. In addition, the use of Rates for Roles and / or Resources can be very beneficial from a Planning and Budgeting perspective using either top down or bottom up estimation processes.

Project Managers

Project Managers need to understand the importance of assigning either Roles or named Resources to activities in their project plans. Even if the project plans look good, have great logic and realistic dates, if the staffing isn’t available for the project, then the dates are going to slip. The project’s planned dates and available staffing must


be balanced in order for a project to stand a chance at coming in on time and on budget.

R OLES

AND

R ESOUR CES

Before a user begins to manage resources in Primavera, they must understand the difference between a role and a resource:

Role — A role is a job title or skill — for example, Software Engineer, Project Manager, Trainer, and Database Administrator.

Resource — A resource is an individual (or equipment or material) used to complete an activity. The Role dictionary and Resource dictionary are enterprise data; available for use across all projects. After roles and resources are defined, roles can be associated to resources, identifying the skill sets of each resource. Each resource also can be assigned a primary role, which defines the core skill or responsibility in the organization.

Some organizations use roles as placeholders in activity assignments until specific resources are assigned to do the work.


R OLES D ICTIONARY The Roles dictionary contains five tabs:

Description tab — A text area for entering a general description about the role.

Resources tab — Lists the resources that are capable of performing the responsibilities associated with the role as well as their proficiency.

Prices tab — There are five available price per unit values. The title of these values can be defined in the Rates tab in Admin Preferences.

Limits tab — specify allocation limit(s) for a role. Multiple limits can be established based on effective date.

Role Teams – Identified the role teams the role has been assigned to.

View the Roles dialog box 1. On the Navigation bar, click on Resources. 2. Click on the Administration page. 3. Click on the Roles tab.


R OLES D ICTIONARY D ETAILS Description Tab The Description tab allows the administrator to enter data in a text box. A user can also enter pictures and html links.

Resource Tab Click this tab to see any Resources that have been assigned to this Role. In the case of a new Role, a user would need to assign a Resource to the Role. Functionally, a user can either assign Roles to Resources, or assign Resource to Roles. In either case, the link between the Resource and the Role would show up on this tab.

Prices A user can add up to five price-per- unit rates for each role in the roles dictionary. When a user assigns a role to an activity during project planning, they can choose which rate they want to use to calculate cost. Defining rates for specific roles yields more accurate project cost planning results.

Limits Tab Use the Limits tab to specify available quantities (limits) for a role. Setting limits helps a user quickly identify areas of role overload in Resource/Role Usage Profiles. A user can define an unlimited number of role limits for each role; however, the effective date must be unique. By default, role limits are calculated based on the limit defined for each role’s primary resource. A user can choose to display role limits based on the custom role limits or based on the calculated primary resources’ limit in their preferences.

Role Teams A user can group roles in teams which are commonly used together. This enhances role analysis, as the user can focus solely on the role team in one view.


D EFINING R ESOURC ES A resource is anything used to complete an activity. The Resources Administration page contains information about all resources within the organization, enabling centralized resource management. Resources are divided into three categories:

Labor (people) — Measured in units of time Recorded in terms of price/unit — for example, $50.00/hour

Nonlabor (equipment) — Measured in units of time Recorded in terms of price/unit — for example, $465.00/hour

Material — Measured in units other than time — for example, $4.50/sf


T HE R ESOURCES A DMINISTRATION P AGE Resources can be organized using a hierarchal structure, but each level of the Resource structure is itself a resource that can be assigned to an activity.

Display resource data in the Administration page 1. On the Administration page, click on the Resources tab. 2. Expand the resources E&C Resources and Engineering. 3. Select the resource Paul Kim.


R ESOURCE D ETAILS Use Resource Details to add, view, and edit detailed information about the selected resource.

General Tab The General tab enables a user to enter general information about the selected resource including the resource’s ID, name, employee ID, title, e-mail address, office phone number, unit of measurement, and status.

Resource teams Tab The Resource Teams tab displays the resource teams a resource has been assigned to. Resource teams allow the user to group resources which are commonly used together. This enhances resource analysis, as the user can focus solely on the resource team in one view.


Roles Tab The Roles tab is the location a user can view and assign resources to roles. Functionally, a user can either assign Roles to Resources, or assign Resource to Roles. In either case, the link between the Resource and the Role would show up on this tab.

Codes Tab The Codes tab enables a user to assign resource code values to further categorize the selected resource for grouping and organizing.


Units and Prices Tab The Units and Prices tab enables a user to set prices and availability according to time.

Effective Date — The effective start date for price and availability.

Max Units/Time — A numeric value or percentage the resource can perform in a single work period, according to effective date, e.g., 8 h/d (100%) = full-time or 4 h/d (50%) = part-time. Setting this limit allows a user to quickly identify areas of resource over allocation in resource profiles/spreadsheets.

Price/Unit — Set the resource’s price for a single work unit, according to the effective date. Up to five rates can be defined for each resource.


Settings Tab The Settings tab enables a user to enter the selected resource’s labor classification, currency and overtime settings, and profile.

Calendar — Calendar used to identify resource availability.

Default Units/Time — Indicates the units/time that will be applied when the resource is assigned to an activity.

Overtime Allowed — Mark to indicate the resource can enter overtime hours in Timesheets, or in the Resources tab in Activity Details.

Overtime Factor — Indicates the value by which the resource’s standard price should be multiplied to determine the overtime price.

Auto Compute Actuals — Mark to automatically calculate the resource’s actual quantity of work according to the project plan.

Currency — Indicates the currency associated with the resource’s costs.

Calculate costs from units — Mark to calculate the cost of an activity based on the assigned units.

Timesheet User Login – The username of the resource for Progress Reporter.

Uses Timesheets – Enables Progress Reporter for the Resource.

Timesheet Approval Manager – The user who approves the resources timesheets in Progress Reporter.


Notes Tab The Notes is a text area that generic information regarding the resource can be entered and viewed.


A role is a job title or skill, for example, Trainer or Manager.

A resource is someone — or something — used to complete an activity.

Roles can be assigned to resources to aid in resource management. Multiple roles and a single primary role can be assigned to each resource.

Resources are divided into three categories: Labor (people); Nonlabor (equipment); Material (measured in units other than time, e.g., $4.50/ square foot).

Roles are defined in the Roles dictionary.

Resources are defined in the Resources window, where a user can use Resource Details to view and edit information about resources.

Review Questions True or False: Up to ten rates can be defined for each role and resource. True or False: When resources are defined, they are assigned to a specific project and cannot be shared with other projects.


Notes


L ESSON 16: A SSIGNING R OLES O BJECT IVES

Assign roles to an activity

Assign rates on roles




Many Customers choose not to implement named Resources in their companies. Working with Human Resources, they have interfaces that link back to HR Systems that update the total capacity for all Job Roles. The planning for these Roles may either be top down or bottom up. Using Roles rather than named resources makes it easier to manage hundreds of resources that may be working on large programs / projects. Knowing the total capacity for that Role at any point in time will quickly surface the need to supplement work force – short term or long term, identify staffing Risks, and create contingency plans to meet the demand for Roles and Skills over time.

Project Managers

On very large projects, it is doubtful that project managers will have time to manage individual resources down to the activity level. The use of Roles for planning purposes will significantly expedite the staffing management process.


A SSIGNING R OL ES

TO

A CTIVITIES

If a user knows which skill sets are required for each activity, but not the exact people who will perform the work, they can assign roles to the activities. Role assignments will act as placeholders, which can be used later to assign the applicable resource. To assign a role to an activity, click Add Role in the Resources tab in Activity Details. Usage: In the Construction industry resources are frequently defined generically, and roles are not used. For example, many construction companies will define a resource called Carpenter instead of identifying each individual in the company as a resource and assign the carpenters to a Carpenter role. In the IT industry resources are frequently defined for each individual person, and roles are used.


LAB: A SSIGN

A ROL E TO AN ACTIVITY

We will assign a role to an activity in the Assignments tab. We will edit some of the columns that appear in the Assignments tab. 1. On the Navigation bar, click on Projects. 2. Click on the Activities page. 3. In the view drop down list, select Resources. 4. Use the Customize Columns button in the Assignments tab to display the columns listed below and to hide all other columns:

Resource Names Role Name Planned Duration Planned Units/Time Planned Units Rate Type Price/Unit Planned Cost

5. Use Click and Drag to sort the columns in the Assignments tab in the order listed above. 6. Click on View, Save View As. 7. In the Save View As box enter Assigning Resources. 8. Click on Ok.


We will assign the role Design Engineer to the activity Review and Approve Designs to assist Paul Kim. 1. In the Activity table under the WBS element Design and Engineering, select the activity Review and Approve Designs 2. Click on the Assign Role and Save button 3. In the Select Role box, expand the E&C Roles and Engineer 4. Select the role Design Engineer and click on Assign 5. In the Select Role box, click on Close


Rate types are assigned to roles in the Assignments tab in Activity Details. The rate type determines the price/unit used to calculate costs for the assignment. The names for each rate type are defined by the system administrator. When a user selects a rate type, the monetary value is updated automatically in the Price/Unit column.

Assign Rates on Roles 1. Verify the activity Review and Approve Designs is selected. 2. In the Rate Type column on the Assignments tab, double click the field for the Design Engineer role. 3. In the Rate Type drop down list, select Internal Rate. 4. In the Assignments tab, click on the Save button.



Role assignments can act as placeholders, which a user can later use to assign specific resources.

A user can also assign rates to roles. The rate type determines the price/unit used to calculate costs for the assignment.

Review Questions 1. Roles can be assigned to which of the following: a. Resources b. Activities c. WBS elements d. Projects e. a and b only 2. True or False: A user is limited to five rate types per role.

Notes


L ESSON 17: A SSIGNING R ESOURCES AND C OSTS O BJECT IVES

Assign resources by role

Assign labor, nonlabor, and material resources to activities

Adjust Budgeted Units/Time for a resource

Assign expenses to activities




Assigning Costs to Roles, Resources and Expenses is generally more advanced functionality. Until Project Inventories are stable, and staffing plans within Projects are stable, assigning Costs generally causes a great deal of confusion. It is strongly recommended that Project Cost Accounting / Budgeting / Cost Management be put in a roadmap of projects over time, where incremental improvement in these processes is planned.

Project Managers

Many Project Managers want to get to Earned Value Metrics as soon as possible. However, unless this is a very mature project manager that understands the impacts of scheduling, relationships, duration and effort, budgeted units over time limits, and balancing the project plan with staffing plans, implementing Cost Variance metrics and EVM will fail quickly.


S TEPS

FOR

R ESOUR CE M ANAGEM ENT

Following are the basic steps for resource management: 1. Define resources in the Resources Administration page

Define resource availability.

Set up the resource name, description, cost, roles, and attributes that control the resource’s effect on the schedule.

2. Assign resources in the Activities page:

Enter the resource name and amount of work planned.

The cost is calculated based on the resource quantity and price/unit as defined in the Resources window.

3. Analyze resources and costs in the Team Usage page:

Use the Resource Usage profile to view resource quantity/cost information graphically. The profile helps a user analyze when, and to what extent, a resource is allocated.

Use the Resource Usage spreadsheet to view resource quantity/cost information in a tabular format. Like the Resource Usage Profile, the spreadsheet helps a user analyze resource allocation.

Use columns to view total costs.


L AB : A SSIGNING R ESOURCES

BY

R OLE

Resource assignments can be made by replacing a role assignment with a specific resource. At least one role must be assigned to an activity in order to assign resources by role. Or, Resources may be assigned to an activity without assigning a Role. In this instance, a Role would show up in the Resources tab. It would be the primary role of the assigned resource.

Assign a resource by role 1. Verify that you are on the Activities page and that activity Review and Approve Designs is selected. 2. On the Assignments tab, double-click in the blank Resource Name field for the role Design Engineer. 3. In the Select Resource box, expand E&C Resources and Engineering Department. 4. Select the resource Wendy Resner and click on OK. 5. When prompted to use the Unit/Time and Overtime factor values for the new resource, click on Ok. 6. When prompted to use the Price/Unit for the new resource, click on Ok.

When assigning resources by role, two confirmation boxes are displayed. These settings include Price/Time, Units/Time, and Overtime Factor values.

Click No — Retains the role’s Price/Unit, Units/Time and Overtime Factor values.

Click Yes — Apply the resource’s Price/Unit, Units/Time and Overtime Factor values.


A SSIGNING R ESOUR CES When a user assigns a resource to an activity, the following calculation is performed: Duration x Units/Time = Units This formula must remain true. Depending on numerous factors, including the type of activity or type of resource, a user may need to adjust Duration, Units or Units/Time when assigning a resource. When a user does modify one of these three fields, P6 will recalculate the formula based on the Duration Type of the activity.

Duration – The amount of time the activity will take to be completed.

Units — The number of units (hours) that a resource is assigned to work on the activity.

Units/Time — The number of units (hours) that a resource is scheduled to work in a specific time period, for example, 8 hours/day.

Typically, a resource is not assigned to work on a level of effort activity full time. Therefore, the Units/Time is usually adjusted after making a Level of Effort resource assignment.


L AB : M ODIFYING

A

R ESOURCE A SSIGNMENT

The activity Concrete Foundation Walls requires two laborers to complete the work. Currently there is only one laborer assigned to the activity. Since 100% represents one laborer, 200% represents two laborers. 1. In the Activity table under the WBS element Foundation, select the activity Concrete Foundation Walls. 2. In the Planned Units/Time field in the Assignments tab, enter 200%. 3. Click on the Save button in the Assignments tab.

Since the Duration Type of the activity is Fixed Duration & Units/Time, when the user changed the Units/Time, P6 recalculated the Units. 18 days * 200% (16 hours/day) = 36d (288 hours) Currently the value for Units is expressed in days and Units/Time is expressed as a percentage. These values can be presented differently, in hours for example, by changing the settings in the user’s preferences.


D ESIGNATING

A

P RIMARY R ESOURCE

The primary resource is the resource that can update the activity’s progress, dates, remaining duration, percent complete, and steps in the Progress Report application. Typically, it is the person responsible for coordinating an activity's work. An activity can have one or no primary resource.

Only the primary resource can send feedback via Progress Reporter to the project manager, informing the project manager of the status of an activity.

A primary resource can be assigned to a milestone activity to allow the milestone to be updated through Progress Reporter. This assignment is made in the Assignments tab in Activity Details.

Only a Labor type resource can be designated as a primary resource Usage: If an organization is not using the Progress Report application, there is no functional need to designate a Primary Resource and the field can be ignored. However, the field can still be used to identify the lead resource on an activity.

Assign a primary resource to the activity 1. Use the Customize Columns button in the Assignments tab to display the Primary Resource column. 2. Click and Drag the Primary Resource column so appears as the second column after Resource Name. 3. Mark the checkbox for the Rough Carpenter resource. 4. Click on the Save button in the Assignments tab.

After you save your changes, the checkbox for the Ironworker resource will be cleared.


P LANNING C OSTS Costs are planned and managed at the activity level. There are two types of costs:

Resource — Calculated based on resource assignments

Expense — Lump sum costs that are manually entered

R ESOURCE C OSTS The cost of a resource can be calculated based on the Price/Unit defined in the Resource dictionary and the Budgeted Units assigned to the activity.

Planned Cost = Planned Units * Price/Unit

View Budgeted Cost for mgirzdius in activity A1020 1. Use the Customize Columns button in the Assignments tab to remove the Primary Resource column and Role columns. 2. Adjust the columns widths so that all columns are visible in the Assignments tab.

The ironworker is assigned to work 18 days, or 144 hours. The ironworker’s price/unit is $55 per hour. The total planned cost for the ironworker is: 144 hours * $55 = $7,920


E XPENSE C OSTS Expenses are non-resource costs associated with a project. They are typically onetime expenditures for non-reusable items. Examples of expenses include facilities, travel, overhead, and training. Expenses are manually assigned at the activity level. A user can enter a single lump sum expense or they can enter the number of units and the Price/Unit.

Expense categories can be assigned to classify the expense.

Expenses can be accrued at the start, end, or uniformly over the duration of an activity.

A unit of measure can be used to label the quantity, for example, each, pounds, or square feet.

Display and Modify the Expense tab Before assigning an expense, we will display and modify the Expense tab. 1. Click on View, Customize Details Windows 2. Under Detail Window, mark the checkbox for Expenses 3. Click on Save 4. Click and Drag on the title bar for the Expenses detail window and drop on top of the Assignments window 5. Use the Customize Columns button in the Expenses tab to display the columns listed below and to hide all other columns: a. Expense Item b. Expense Category c. Planned Units d. Rate Type e. Planned Cost


We will track the costs for the concrete for the foundation walls as an expense.

Assign an Expense 1. Verify the activity Concrete Foundation Walls is selected. 2. In the Expenses tab, click on the Add button. 3. In the Expense Item column, enter . 4. Double-click in the Expense Category column and select Materials. 5. In the Planned Units field, enter 1. 6. In the Price/Unit field, enter 50,000.00. 7. Click on the Save button on the Activities page toolbar.



Three steps in resource management are defining resources, assigning resources, and analyzing resources.

If a role is not designated as a placeholder in an activity, assign a resource directly from the Resource dictionary.

When a user assigns a resource to an activity, this calculation is performed: Duration * Units/Time = Units.

When a user assigns a resource, they can adjust the Duration, Units/Time or Units. They can also designate a primary resource.

Review Questions 1. True or False: A maximum of 10 resources can be assigned to an activity. What type of resource is not measured in units per time? a. Labor b. Nonlabor c. Material d. None of the above True or False: Expenses are non-resource costs associated with a project and assigned to a project’s activities. True or False: Attributes such as price/unit and expense item can be entered on the Expenses tab in Activity Details.


S MALL G ROUP D ISC USSION Your Customer has been evaluated by CMMi auditors and has been awarded a Level 4 maturity designation. This organization has been using Primavera for 5 years. You start your implementation by doing an audience assessment. You look into project plans within each EPS node and find quickly that project data is bad. Dates don’t make sense. All activities in plans are constrained. Roles / Resources have not been assigned. There are no baselines for the projects. Your Customer Executive Sponsor is pushing hard to take their Project Plans to the next level by implementing Earned Value Management metrics. In small groups, discuss how you might discuss your findings with the Executive Sponsor. What approaches might you take that would allow the Executive Sponsor to show Earned Value Management success, but not overwhelm those project managers that are obviously not ready for this level of maturity and discipline?


Notes


L ESSON 18: A NALYZING R ESOURCES O BJECT IVES

Display the Team Usage page

Format a profile

Format the timescale




As noted previously, Project Plans must be balanced to show realistic dates linked to staffing plans in which assigned resources are not critically over allocated. This chapter focused on balancing resources manually without the use of Resource Leveling. Resource Leveling is very advanced functionality. It assumes that organizations have thought through the Project Risk and Prioritization processes so that Leveling allocates resources to the most critical projects. Executing the process manually with Customers will minimize the confusion that will result if Leveling is used. Remember - activities in project plans that are resource dependent will have dates that move out depending on the individual projects’ defined risk and priority level. If Customers are still grappling with schedules, scheduling, schedule management and adoption of standard data update processes, adding Resource Leveling into that mix will more than likely lead an implementation into failure.

Project Managers

As noted previously, project dates and staffing plans must be balanced. Dates must be realistic. Part of


determining whether or not dates are realistic is looking at staffing plans, identifying over allocations, and then resolving those over allocations – preferably in the planning process before baselining.


S UMMARIZE P ROJEC T D ATA Prior to view resource allocation, project data should be summarized.

Summarize the Project 1. Verify that you are on the Activities page. 2. Click on Actions, Run, Summarize Projects.


T EAM U SAGE P AGE The Team Usage page provides a graphical or tabular view of unit/cost distributions over time. It displays the amount of effort needed from each resource/role on the project during each time period. Use the profile to determine how many hours each resource is scheduled to work; identify over allocated resources; track expenditures per time period; and display a banana curve to compare early and late dates.

View unit/cost distributions from a specific project or all projects to which a user has access.

View resource or role allocations.


D ISPLAYING

THE

T EAM U SAGE

PAGE

Use the Team Usage page information to determine which resources/roles are over allocated and which resources/roles are underutilized.

Analyze a resource’s allocation using the Team Usage page 1. Click on the Team Usage page button. 2. In the left pane, expand the resource group under the project name.


F ORMATTING

THE

T EAM U SAGE P AGE

The Team Usage page can be customized to display data graphical in a histogram or tabular in a spreadsheet.

Display — Select to display units or costs.

Timescale – Set the timescale interval.

Show Current Project only – Only resource allocation from the current project will be displayed.

Show All projects – Resource allocation from the across the entire database will be displayed.

Limit – Displays a bar that is based on the Max Units/Time field in the resource dictionary and the calendar assigned to the resource.

Allocation Limit – Displays a bar that shows the resource available based on activities the resource is currently assigned.


Procedure: Set the Timescale to Month/Week 1. In the Timescale drop down list, select Month/Week. 2. Click on the Save link.


D ISPLAYING

A

R ESOURCE ’ S A LLOCATION

Select a resource in the left pane to display the resource’s allocation.

Set the Timescale to Month/Week 1. In the left pane, select the resource Paul Kim. 2. In the histogram, scroll to February of 2012.



The Team Usage page provides a graphical and tabular view of unit/cost distributions over time. It displays the amount of effort needed from each resource/role on the project during each time period.

Use the profile to determine how many hours each resource is scheduled to work; identify over-allocated or under-allocated resources; track expenditures per time period; and display a banana curve to compare early and late dates.

A user can further customize the Team Usage page by using the Customize box.

Review Questions 1. True or False: The Team Usage page allows a user to focus on resource allocation. 2. True or False: Data in the Team Usage page can be displayed in graphical or tabular format.


Notes


L ESSON 19: O PTIMIZING THE P ROJECT P LAN O BJECT IVES

Analyze schedule dates

Shorten a project schedule

Analyze resource availability

Remove resource over allocation

Analyze project costs




This chapter addressed what is commonly referred to as “crunching” or compressing a schedule. While it is important to understand how to do this in Primavera, crunching a schedule is high Risk. It should always be done within the context of available staffing.

Project Schedulers, Project Managers

It is always tempting to use schedule compression techniques to “make the dates look good.” As noted, this is high Risk behavior. While the math may show that the dates are better and are meeting management requirements, reality of project execution will quickly show that dates will be missed, slips will occur, and the projects will not perform as expected.


A NALYZING

THE

P R OJECT

Once a user has created the project plan, verify that it meets the project stakeholders’ date, resource, and cost requirements. If an inconsistency exists between the information in the project plan and the project requirements, they will be able to identify the source of the problem and define a solution:

Analyze schedule dates — Evaluate the schedule to ensure that milestone dates and project dates are achieved.

Analyze resource allocation — Evaluate the resources to ensure that the resources are not over allocated.

Analyze cost budget — Evaluate project costs.


A NALYZING S C HEDULE D ATES The most important date in the schedule is the calculated project Finish date. If the calculated Finish date of the project is beyond the Must Finish By date, the project must be shortened. In addition, each deliverable in the project should be scheduled to finish by the dates imposed by the project stakeholders. Steps for analysis:

Compare the calculated Finish to the Must Finish By date.

Back up the project plan.

Focus on critical activities.

Shorten the project.


C OMPARING F INISH D ATE

TO

M UST F INISH B Y D ATE

A user can quickly determine whether the project will finish on time by viewing the General tab on the EPS page. The calculated Finish date is later than the Must Finish By date, indicating that the project will not finish on time. 1. Click on the EPS page button. 2. Select the project Nesbid Building Expansion. 3. In Project Details, click the General tab and compare the Must Finish By date to the Scheduled Finish date.

Will the project as now scheduled finish on time? Usage Note: The comparison of the Scheduled Finish date and the Must Finish By date is very important to the success of the project. Reviewing these dates with Management can help to manage expectations as to when this work is realistically able to complete.


F OCUSING

ON

C RIT ICAL A CTIVITIES

To shorten the project, focus on critical activities. These represent the longest continuous path of activities through a project that determines the project Finish date. If a user adjusts a critical activity, the project’s Scheduled Finish date is likely to be affected.


LAB: C OMPRESSING T HE S CHEDUL E C RITICAL P AT H A CTIVITIES

BY

F OCUSING

ON

1. Click on the Activities page button. 2. Click on Actions, Run, Scheduler. 3. In the Schedule Project box, click on Options. 4. In the Schedule Options box, for the option Define critical activities as, select Longest Path. 5. Click on the Save link. 6. Click on Schedule.

Discussion: What conditions may be present that would suggest that selecting Longest Path may be preferable to Total Float less than or equal to “x” days?


Modify the View and Run the Critical default filter 1. Open the view Basic Gantt Chart. 2. Click on the column header for the Start column. 3. Click and Drag on the vertical split bar so the bar chart is visible. 4. Click on View, Filters, Filters. 5. In the Customize Filters box, mark the checkbox for the Critical Activities filter. 6. Click on Ok. 7. Click on View, Columns.

8. Add the columns listed below to the Select Columns section and remove any columns from Select Columns not listed below. Note: Some columns may already be listed under Select Columns.

Activity ID Planned Duration Start Finish


Total Float

9. Click on View, Save View As. 10. In the Save View As box enter . 11. Click on Ok.


S HORTENING

THE

P ROJECT

If schedule analysis leads a user to conclude that the Must Finish By date cannot be met, concentrate efforts on shortening the schedule. Several methods can help a user accomplish this goal: Refine duration estimates: Break down long activities. Assign additional resources to reduce duration Use relationships to overlap activities Apply/modify constraints Change calendar assignments Put critical activities on a longer workweek Add exceptions to non-work time in a Project Specific Calendar Best Practices: Exceptions should never be added to a global calendar, as that would impact every activity in every project in the database. It would be far easier to simply change calendar assignments.


R EFINING D URATION E ST IMATES Begin the analysis by reviewing the activities with the longest duration. In general, these activities offer the greatest flexibility in altering durations. It should be noted that this is a best practice for any project plan prior to assigning Resources / Roles and estimating effort (hours / units) for the activity.

Reduce the duration of an activity 1. Select an activity, EC1100 – Site Preparation. 2. In the Planned Duration column, enter 30. 3. Click on the Save button. 4. Click on Action, Run, Scheduler. 5. Verify the Data Date is February 27, 2012. 6. Clear the checkbox for the option Display schedule log upon completion. 7. Click on the Schedule button.


M ODIFYING R ELATIONSHIPS If a user needs to further compress the schedule, review relationships between activities on the critical path.

Modify a Relationship 1. Verify activity, EC1100 – Site Preparation, is selected. 2. Click on the Successors tab. 3. Double-click in the Relationship Type column. 4. Select Finish to Finish. 5. In the Lag column, enter 10. 6. Click on the Save button. 7. Click on Action, Run, Scheduler. 8. Verify the Data Date is February 27, 2012. 9. Click on the Schedule button.


M ODIFYING C ONST RAINTS Constraints assigned earlier in the project life cycle may need to be modified based on the latest information from the project team. If a user modifies a constraint, be sure to also modify the Notebook topic that was created to document the constraint. One should be very judicious in the use of constraints. Constraints disrupt the scheduling engine. As noted previously, this may make the schedule look green from a date perspective. However, as constrained activities slip, the impacts on successor activities are not felt during the scheduling process. A backlog of work commonly piles up either before or during the constrained activity. When the constrained activity finally slips, then the downstream impact of that slip shows up immediately. This is a very common scenario in Phase / Gate methodologies that have constrained activities. It is a difficult conversation to have with Steering Committees who have been seeing a green schedule for weeks, and then are updated in a status meeting that the project has slipped 3 months over the course of one week.


V ERIFYING P ROJECT D ATES To see if the project will now finish on time, verify that no negative Total Float exists on any of the activities in the project. The Total Float for the project equals 2 days and the calculated Scheduled Finish date is 02-Oct-13. Therefore, the project is scheduled to finish before the Must Finish By date of 04-Oct-13.

Verifying Project Dates 1. Click on the EPS page button. 2. Select the project Nesbid Building Expansion. 3. In Project Details, click the General tab and compare the Must Finish By date to the Scheduled Finish date.

Will the project as now scheduled finish on time?


A NALYZING R ESOURCE A LLOCATION The project plan is now scheduled to be completed by the deadline. Before proceeding, verify that resources are appropriately allocated. A user can use the Team Usage page to determine which resources are over allocated or underutilized. A user can then re-assign resources to help even the workload. Since we have changed the dates of the activities, we will need to summarize the project before analyzing resource usage. We will also focus on the current project.


L AB : U SE

THE T EAM U SAGE ALLOCATED RESOUR CES .

P AGE

TO IDENTIFY OVER

1. Click on the Activities page. 2. Click on Actions, Run, Summarize Projects. 3. Click on the Team Usage page button. 4. In the left pane, expand the resource group under the project name. 5. Click on the Customize link. 6. In the Customize box, select Current Project only. 7. Click on the Save link.


I DENTIFYING R ESOURCE O VER

ALLOCATION

The Team Usage page allows a user select a resource to identify allocation. Select each resource and view their profile. Remember the project occurs between February 2012 and October 2013.

Identify Over-Allocated Resources 1. Select each resource and view their profile.

The resource Paul Kim is over-allocated. The next step is to identify the activities causing the over-allocation.


I DENTIFYING A CT IVITIES

CAUSING

O VER

ALLOCATION

The spreadsheet in the Team Usage page allows a user identify activities that a resource is assigned to. Paul is over-allocated between the weeks of May 13 and June 10.

Identifying Activities Causing Over-Allocation 1. Select Spreadsheet. 2. Click on the link for the project Nesbid Building Expansion.

In the Resource Project Activities box, six activities are listed for Paul. Three activities; EC1050, EC1070 and EC1080, occur over the same period of time, causing the over-allocation.


C ORRECTING O VER

ALLOCATION

There are several methods to remove the over allocation from a resource:

Replace the over allocated resource with an available resource.

Increase the resource’s workweek.

Increase the hours/day that the resource works.

Assign additional resources to the activity. To view allocation from resources not assigned to the project, we will access the Resource Usage page under the Resources section. There are two people who could be used in place of Paul, Jeff Young and Wayne Prescott. We will search on their names.

Identify an alternate resource to work on activities 1. On the Navigation bar, click on Resources. 2. Click on the Analysis page. 3. Click on the Resource Usage tab. 4. In the left pane, click on the Search button. 5. In the search box, enter . 6. In the left pane, select Jeff Young.


Jeff is not assigned on any activities after December 2011, so he would be available to replace Paul on one activity.


Procedure: Identify an alternate resource to work on activities 1. In the search box, enter . 2. In the left pane, select Wayne Prescott.

Wayne is also not assigned on any activities, so he would be available to replace Paul on one activity as well.


L AB : R ESOLVE O VER A LLOCATION After discussing our options with Paul, Jeff, and Wayne, you have decided that. Paul will remain assigned to activity EC1050, Jeff will be assigned on EC1070, and Wayne will be assigned on EC1080.

Replace the Over-Allocated Resource 1. Click on Activity EC1070. 2. In the Assignments tab, double-click in the Resource Name column.

3. In the Search box in the Select Resource box, enter Jeff Young. 4. Select Jeff Young and click on Assign. 5. Click on Ok to close Message box 6. Click on Activity EC1080. 7. In the Assignments tab double-click in the Resource Name column.

8. In the Search box in the Select Resource box, enter Wayne Prescott. 9. Select Wayne Prescott and click on Assign. 10. Click on Ok to close Message box.


11. Use the Team Usage page to check the allocation for Paul Kim, Jeff Young, and Wayne Prescott.

Review updated allocation 1. Click on Actions, Run, Summarize Projects. 2. Click on the Team Usage page button. 3. In the left pane, expand the resource group under the project name. 4. Select Paul Kim, Jeff Young, and Wayne Prescott and focus on allocation in May and June of 2012.

All three resources are showing they are not over-allocated.



Optimizing the project plan is the last step in planning the project. Ensure that the project plan meets its date, resource, and cost requirements.

If the calculated Scheduled Finish date of the project is beyond the Must Finish By date, the project must be shortened. Compare the dates in the General tab in Project Details.

A user can use various methods to shorten the project, such as refining durations, modifying relationships, applying constraints, and focusing on critical activities.

Use the Team Usage Histogram or Spreadsheet to review resource allocation.

Review Questions 1. True or False: A user can quickly determine whether the project will finish on time by reviewing the Status tab in the EPS page. 4. Which of the following is a method for removing resource over allocation? a. Decrease the resource’s workweek b. Assign the resource to more activities in that time frame c. Re-assign work to a different resource d. All of the above 2. True or False: To be successful at shortening a project, a user must focus on critical activities. 3. Which of the following are alternatives for compressing the duration of a project? a. Use relationships to overlap activities b. Add resources to reduce durations c. Review long activities to determine if duration can be refined d. Change calendar assignments


e. All of the above

Notes


L ESSON 20: B ASELINING THE P ROJECT P LAN O BJECT IVES

Create a baseline plan

Display baseline bars on the Gantt Chart

Modify the bars on the Gantt Chart




The concept of Baselining, while simple functionality, is generally difficult to understand. Project Baselines are snapshots in time of the agreed upon work – dates, duration, efforts, resources, and costs. As project plans are updated throughout the life of the project, it is expected that there will be variances. Baselining is a tool to indicate project performance. It shows project managers where projects may be headed for trouble, or are in trouble. The Actual data as compared to the project plan is that which allows project performance to be measured. Baselining should not be attempted until the best practices of setting up the project plan, reviewing activities, reviewing durations, reviewing relationships, assignment of resources, and estimation of effort / units for those resources over time is completed.


Project Schedulers, Project Managers, Managers

Anyone involved in Project Management as well as Management and Sponsors need to understand that variances are expected and normal. If all projects show Plan and Actual to be 100% in alliance, it is very likely that data is being manipulated to consistently show project performance as “green.” While this is tempting to do, it defeats the purpose of using the tool. Primavera predicts failure. Predicting failure allows for proactive responses to address predicted failure and increase the probability that projects will come in on time and on budget.


B ASELINES A baseline is a copy of a project that a user can compare to the current project in order to evaluate progress. BEST PRACTICE: Create a baseline plan before updating a schedule for the first time. A baseline provides a target against which a user can track a project’s cost, schedule, and resource performance. Baseline functionality in Primavera P6 enables a user to:

Save an unlimited number of copies of a project for comparisons.

Designate one copy of a project as the project baseline and one as user baselines for comparison to the current project.

Assign a baseline type to categorize the copies of the project. Examples include initial planning, what-if, or mid-project baselines. Baseline types can help a user benchmark performance across multiple projects.

Baseline, indicated by black bar, is used to compare schedule performance against current project, indicated by shaded bars.


Because baselines and baseline management are the starting point for all project performance measurements, one could make an argument that only a governance organization (PMO) should have the security to create and maintain baselines.


C REATING

A

B ASEL INE

A user can create a baseline either by:

Copying the currently opened project.

Converting another project into a baseline. When a user creates a baseline, they must select the project to which it is associated. Baselines can be assigned only to opened projects. All opened projects are displayed in the Maintain Baselines dialog box.

A baseline had been previously created prior to optimizing the schedule. Since that baseline is no longer valid, we need to create a new one. Usage: It should be consider either retaining or deleting the previous baseline. Some organizations would retain it to keep a record of changes in the schedule.


Create a baseline 1. On the Navigation bar, click on Projects. 2. Click on the Activities page. 3. Click on Actions, Define Baselines. 4. Expand the group Nesbid Building Expansion. 5. Click the Add Baseline button. 6. In the Baseline Name column, replace the B2 at the end of the baseline name and replace it with 7. In the Baseline Type column select Initial Baseline Plan. 8. Click on the Save button in the Baseline box.

Usage: It is recommended that the baseline name be unique and information. Include the purpose of the baseline, (Original, Update) and the date of creation or the data date. It is also recommended that baselines are never deleted. Old baselines should be archived. Verbiage: Many experienced project managers and schedulers, especially in the construction industry, will only refer to the original baseline as a Baseline. Subsequent copies of the schedules are referred to as Updates. In the construction industry there is only one baseline.


A SSIGNING

A

B ASELINE

Now that a baseline has been created, it must be assigned as the official baseline to be used for project performance measurements. Use the Project Baseline and the User’s Primary Baseline fields in the Baseline box to assign the baseline for comparison. If no baseline is designated as active, the current project plan is used as the baseline.

Project baseline Baseline selected by the project manager for the project Used for schedule, resource, and cost comparison Controlled by the security privilege, Maintain Project Baselines

User’s Primary Baseline User-specific; each user can choose a different copy of the project as their primary baseline for comparison to the current project Used for schedule, resource, and cost comparison Select the newly created baseline as the project baseline and the primary user baseline.


Select the newly created baseline as the project baseline and primary user baseline 1. In the Project Baseline select Nesbid Building Expansion – Original Baseline. 2. In the User’s Primary Baseline select Nesbid Building Expansion – Original Baseline. 3. In the Baseline box, click on the Save button. 4. Click Close.

Usage: It is not necessary to select the same baseline as both the Project Baseline and the User’s Primary Baseline.


V IEWING B ASELINE B ARS The Gantt Chart Options box allows a user to modify the type, size, color, and shape of the bars displayed in the Gantt chart.

Timescale — Bar is drawn based on the timescale selected, for example, Actual Bar drawn from Actual Start date to Actual Finish date.

Filter — Bar is drawn for all activities that match the criteria listed in the filter displayed.

Open the Gantt Chart Options Box 1. Click on View, Gantt Chart Options.


B ARS T AB Up to three bars can be displayed in the Gantt Chart at one time. The user can show any combination of the following bars:

Current Bar — Displays a bar based on the Early Dates of the activities.

Late Bar - Displays a bar based on the Late Dates of the activities.

Project Baseline Bar – Displays a bar based on the dates of the Project Baseline.

User’s Primary Baseline Bar – Displays a bar based on the dates of the User’ Primary Baseline.

Float Bar - Displays a bar representing the amount of time an activity can be delayed without impacting the end of the project based on the activity’s Total Float.

Free Float Bar - . Displays a bar representing the amount of time an activity can be delayed without impacting the activity’s successors based on the activity’s Free Float.

Current Bar Options

Show progress — Displays progressed activities with the color Blue

Show critical – Displays critical activities with the color Red

Label – Sets the activity data used for the bar label

Label position – Sets the location of the bar label

Label font – Sets the font of the bar label

Necking

Use calendar non-work time — The bar is necked, or reduced in height during periods when the activity is not scheduled to occur due to calendar non-work time. (Weekends, Winter shut downs).

Use activity non-work time — The bar is necked, or reduced in height during periods when the activity is not scheduled to occur due to suspending the activity.


D ISPLAYING B ASELINE B ARS By displaying baseline bars in the Gantt chart, a user can visually compare the baseline plan’s schedule dates to the current project plan’s schedule dates.

Open the Gantt Chart Options Box 1. In the Second Bar drop down list, select Project Baseline. 2. Click on Ok. 3. Click and Drag the vertical split bar to the right to clearly see the bar chart.


S AVING

THE

V IEW

With the Baseline Bars displayed, we will save a new view.

Save the New View 1. Click on View, Save View As. 2. In the Save View As box enter



A baseline is a copy of a project that can be compared to the current project to evaluate progress. Create a baseline plan before updating a schedule for the first time.

A user can create a baseline by copying the currently opened project or converting another project into a baseline.

Assign a baseline type to categorize the baseline based on how a user intends to use it.

A project baseline is the baseline selected by the project manager for the project and is controlled by a security privilege. A user’s primary-baseline can be designated by each user and is used for schedule comparison only.

The Bars box allows a user to modify the type, size, color, and shape of the baseline bars displayed in the Gantt Chart.

Review Questions 1. True or False: Only one baseline can be compared to a current schedule at any given time. 2. A user can use a project baseline to compare: a. Schedule data b. Resource data c. Cost data d. All of the above


S MALL G ROUP L AB 1. The Customer wants a customized view. Requirements are:

Show Primary Baseline- yellow bar

Show Planned Work –green bar

Show Actual Work –blue bar

Show Baseline Finish Date as label in Primary Baseline Bar

2. Be prepared to demonstrate your steps to the class.

Notes


L ESSON 21: P ROJECT E XECUTION AND C ONTROL O BJECT IVES

Describe several methods for updating the project schedule

Use Progress Spotlight

Status activities

Reschedule the project


U PDATING

A

P ROJECT

Once a project has started, a user needs to update actual schedule information and resource usage at regular intervals. The company will establish a standard update procedure, including how data is collected and how often it is updated.

How Often? A user may need to update daily, weekly, or monthly, depending on the length of the project and how frequently a user wants to adjust their forecasts.

How Data is Collected 1. Project managers manually enter the actual date, resource, and cost information

Record actual dates and progress, actual resource usage and cost, and expense costs.

2. Approve and apply timesheets

Team members use timesheets to update activities.

Project managers review and approve timesheets.

Project managers apply timesheets to the project.

3. Auto compute actuals

Progress of activities is automatically calculated according to the project plan.


General Items to Consider in Creating a Schedule Update Process

Create a baseline plan

Identify the new Data Date

Enter activity progress

Report resource use and costs to date

Use Suspend and Resume dates as necessary

Calculate the schedule – Be sure to verify the new Data Date

Monitor project progress with reports

Determine whether project objectives are being met:

Will the project finish on time?

Is it within budget?

Are project resources being used effectively?

Tips for Updating Status

Use Activity Details tabs or the Activity Table.

Use Progress Spotlight to identify activities to be updated.

Use filters and grouping to create a statusing view.

Use rolling dates for a time period look-ahead.

Organize in a useful sequence via activity codes, resources, and dates.


D EFINING

A

S TATUSING P ER IOD

Define the statusing period before beginning to update activities. In general, the statusing period begins at the current Data Date and ends at the new Data Date. The length of the statusing period depends on the frequency of the updates. A user could, for example, create a statusing period that extends one week from the current Data Date. The end of the statusing period will become the new Data Date — the date up to which actual performance is measured.

Progress Spotlight Progress Spotlight creates a visible statusing period between the current Data Date and the next new Data Date. It also provides a highlighted list of activities that should have progress during the update period.

Activate the Progress Spotlight 1. Click View, Progress Spotlight. Progress Spotlight establishes a statusing period of one week from the current Data Date, based on date interval of the Gantt Chart timescale, which is set to Week/Month. Click and drag the right edge of the Spotlight to increase/decrease the statusing period.


Entering Actuals Once a project is underway, a user must enter actual schedule data, resource usage, and expense costs at regular intervals. A user may need to update daily, weekly, or monthly, depending on the length of the project and how frequently they want to adjust their forecasts. Actual data is different than planned data — actual data is the real time and cost associated with an activity. Enter schedule, resource, and cost data in the following order:

Completed Activities

Actual Start and Actual Finish dates

Actual Regular Units/Costs

Actual Cost for expenses

Activities in Progress

Actual Start date

Percent Complete and/or Remaining Duration

Actual Regular Units/Costs and Remaining Units/Costs

Actual and Remaining Costs for expenses if the activity work is temporarily halted, use Suspend/Resume dates


L AB : S TATUSING

A

P ROJECT

To update a start milestone, mark the Started checkbox and enter the Actual Start date. A user does not need to enter data in the Finish field because the activity type is a Start Milestone, which has zero duration.

Status a Start Milestone activity 1. Select activity, EC1010 – Start Office Building Addition Project. 2. Click the General tab. 3. Mark the Started checkbox. 4. Verify the Actual Start date, 27-Feb-12. 5. Note also that for milestones the Finish checkbox is automatically checked.


For a Task type activity that has started, the user would specify either a remaining duration or percent complete if the activity is still in progress, or an actual finish if the activity is completed.

Status the LOE, which started and finished on time 1

Select an activity, EC1000 - Design Building Addition.

2. In the General tab, mark the Started checkbox and 3. Verify the Actual Start date, 27-Feb-12. 4. In the Percent Complete field, enter 50%. 5. Click on the Save button. Since the Percent Complete is set to Duration, the remaining duration will automatically recalculate when the user saves changes.


Next a user will check the Actual Regular Units for the activity. Note that in this example, data in the Actual Regular Units field is not automatically recalculated because in the option Link Percent Complete with Actuals in Project Preferences is not checked. We will need to update the actual units manually.

Status Actual Regular Units 1. Click the Assignments tab. 2. In the Actual Units column for Paul Kim enter 20. 3. Click on the Save button.


R ESC HEDULING

THE

P ROJECT

Now that actuals have been entered, it is time to reschedule the project based on the new Data Date. Any activities that did not finish on time will delay their successor activities. 1. Click on Actions, Run, Scheduler. 2. Set the Data Date to 23-Mar-2012. 3. Click Schedule.


V IEW S C HEDULE I M PACTS After the project has been rescheduled, the user will review the schedule for possible delays. The user will also turn off Progress Spotlight since it is no longer needed.

Analyze the activities on the critical path.

Review the project’s performance to date.

Develop strategies for getting the project back on track.

Gain agreement within the project team.

Implement the revised project plan.

1. Click on View, Progress Spotlight.


C ONTROLLING

THE

P ROJECT

After rescheduling a project, analyze schedule dates, resource allocation, and the cost budget.

Analyzing schedule dates

Analyze the schedule to determine if milestone dates and project dates are being met.

Compare the calculated Finish date to the Must Finish By date to see if the project will be completed on time.

If the project is behind schedule, analyze critical activities.

Adjust the project to meet the project Finish date.

Analyzing resource allocation

After adjusting the project, determine if resources are being used effectively.

Analyzing the cost budget

After adjusting the project, view At Completion Total Cost to determine if the project is within budget.


C OMPRESSING

THE

S CHEDULE

If the calculated Scheduled Finish date is later than the Must Finish By date, a user can use several methods to shorten the project:

Use relationships to overlap activities.

Add resources to reduce durations.

Break down long activities.

Change calendar assignments.

Put critical activities on a longer workweek.

Add exceptions to non-worktime.

A user can use the following set of questions to help you determine the most appropriate way to adjust the schedule.

Can the Finish date of the project slip?

The project may need to be delayed if no other options are available.

If the delay is approved, adjust the affected milestones.

If the delay is not approved, find another way to meet the project milestones and Finish date of the project.

Can the scope of the activity/project decrease?

In some cases, in order to meet the project milestones and finish date, a user can decrease the total amount of work that will be accomplished, i.e., decrease the scope of the project.

If the scope change is approved, decrease the scope by reducing the total hours worked on activities. This will change the duration of the activities.

If the scope change is not approved, explore other ways to meet the project milestones and Finish date of the project.


Were the budgeted hours over or under-estimated?

A user may have overestimated the number of hours needed to complete activities; perhaps the scope of work can be accomplished in fewer hours.

You can decrease the total hours worked on activities, which decreases the duration of the activities.

Can additional resources be assigned?

A user can assign another resource to the activity to finish it on time.

This may be possible if another resource with the necessary skills is available.

If a resource is available, a user can assign it to make up the hours.

Can the resource work overtime?

The resource may need to work overtime to complete an activity on time.

If this is possible, a user can decrease the duration of the activity, then enter the original remaining hours.

The hours the resource works each day will increase.



Once a project has started, use one of the three options below to update actual schedule information and resource usage at regular intervals: Manually enter actual dates and resource and cost information Approve and apply timesheets Auto compute actuals

When updating a project, actuals are recorded for each activity relative to the Data Date. The Data Date is the date up to which actual performance data is reported, and the date from which future work is scheduled.

To status completed activities, update Actual Start and Actual Finish dates, Actual Regular Units/Costs, and Actual Costs for expenses.

To status activities in progress, update Actual Start date, Percent Complete and/or Remaining Duration, Actual Regular Units/Costs and Remaining Units/Costs, and Actual and Remaining Costs for expenses.

After actuals are entered, reschedule the project based on the new Data Date. Activities that did not finish on time will delay successor activities.

After scheduling, analyze schedule dates, resource allocation, and the cost budget. If the calculated Finish date is later than the Must Finish By date, try to shorten the project.


Review Questions 1. Arrange the following in the order for updating an activity in progress. a. Actual Regular Units and Remaining Units b. Actual Start date c. Percent Complete/Remaining Duration d. Actual/Remaining Costs for expenses Step 1: _________ Step 2: _________ Step 3: _________ Step 4 __________ 2

True or False: The Data Date is scheduled at the end of the day.


SMALL GROUP SUMMARY LAB 1. Select a project. 2. Copy the project into the E&C Node. 3. Assign a Planned Start date. 4. Open the project 5. Schedule the project 6. Review activities in the project. 7. Validate / modify durations 8. Check logic. 9. Modify relationships as appropriate. 10. Reschedule the project. 11. Add Resources to each Activity. 12. Estimate effort for each Resource on each Activity. 13. Reschedule the project. 14. Add activities to the project plan. 15. Repair the logic. 16. Validate / modify duration. 17. Reschedule the project. 18. Add Resources to new Activities. 19. Estimate effort for each Resource on each Activity. 20. Reschedule the project. 21. Review the Scheduled Finish Date. 22. Add a Must Finish By date to the project schedule. 23. Reschedule the project. 24. Review the Activities – identify those activities that are on the critical path.


25. View the Schedule Log to determine how many activities on are the critical path. 26. Discussion: will this project finish on time. Considerations:

How long is the project?

How many activities are on the critical path?

Are my resources over allocated?

Can I swap out resources to remove over allocations?

27. Be prepared to present your project to the class.


Introduction to Primavera P6 EPPM r8.2 v3.6

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