P6 Rel 8 allows a user to create a private calendar for the resource, or to create a Shared Calendar for multiple resources to share. The difference is that the Shared Calendar cannot be edited by the resources, while a personal calendar can.

To create a Resource Calendar, do the following:

• Select Enterprise Data from the Administer Drop-Down Menu
• Scroll to the Resources section and select Resource Calendars

• Highlight Personal Calendars and click Add to add a personal calendar.
• Highlight Shared Calendars and click Add to add a shared calendar.
• If you have created the calendar as Personal Calendar and now want it to be a Shared Calendar, highlight the calendar name and click on the two-person calendar icon.
• If you have created it as a Shared Calendar and want it to be a Personal Calendar, highlight the calendar name and click on the one-person calendar icon.
• On the Used By Tab, select the resource(s) who will be using this calendar.

There are two features that you can use together to identify In-progress Activities on a daily basis: Group and Sort, and Filters. First, using a layout displaying your WBS and activities, select Group and Sort from Layout Options. In the Group and Sort dialogue box under Group By, select Start. Then under Group Interval, select Day.

Next utilize and execute the default filter of In Progress. Under Layout Options, select Filter and check the box beside In Progress, and select OK to execute. 

Your final product will provide a daily synopsis of In-Progress Activities.

If you want to see daily activities regardless of activity status, then simply turn off, or do not create, a filter. 

Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher comes as a Restricted-use License (RUL) within Primavera Contract Management 14. The RUL allows users to view, schedule and execute reports within the application. If you were going to create or modify reports, then you would need to purchase a license of BI Publisher.

Level-of-Effort activities are used for ongoing tasks dependent on other activities. In other words, Level-of-Effort activities are used to track non-project work, such as clerical work and meetings. In addition, roles and resources can be assigned to a Level-of-Effort activity. A project manager who manages one project or multiple projects may be assigned 1 hour/day to Level-of-Effort activities in each project to complete administrative tasks.

The duration of Level-of-Effort activities is triggered by its predecessor and successor activities and its assigned calendar. When scheduled, the Level-of-Effort activity will stretch between the two, and when the duration on another activity moves, then the Level-of-Effort activity will respond by expanding or contracting in relation to the change.

Level-of-Effort activities are different from “hammocks.” Level-of-Effort activities may be similar in theory to a “hammock,” in that the Level of Effort stretches between a start and finish timeframe; however, Level-of-Effort activities summarize the latest start dates and earliest finish dates of its predecessors and successors. The “hammock” summarizes the earliest start dates and latest finish dates of its predecessors and successors.

To create a Level-of-Effort Activity:

• Open project; make sure you are in the Activity Window
• Make sure that view shown on Top is: Activity Table (and/or Gantt Chart)
• Make sure that view shown on Bottom is: Activity Details
• Add the new Level-of-Effort Activity (e.g. Project Meeting) and keep Duration as the default
• In the General Tab on Activity Details, change the Activity Type to Level of Effort

• In the Relationship Tab on Activity Details, anchor “Project Meeting” with predecessor and successor. Make sure the predecessor has a Start-to-Start relationship type and the successor has a Finish-to-Finish relationship type.

• If necessary, add your Roles and Resources to the Activity
• Finally, Schedule your Level of Effort Activity

As you can see the scheduled Level of Effort activity of Project Meetings now has a duration of 221 days because the activity has a predecessor from the beginning of the project, and a successor at the end of the project.

Yes, everything is in a different place administratively, but once you get used to it, Version 8 is actually much easier to use.

User Access

On the right side of the screen, there is a Menu Bar. From the Menu Bar, select Administer and you will see the following:

• Select User Access from the menu to create/modify users, the OBS, Global Security Profiles and Project Security Profiles.
• Instead of the privileges being lumped together, they have now broken it out by the area the privilege is associated with.
• At the bottom of the screen shot, there are tabs which allow you to set the profile’s security within each of the tabs. (Administration, Codes, Global Data, Resources, Templates, Views and Reports)

Enterprise Data

• Select Enterprise Data from the Administer Drop-Down Menu to set the various admin preferences and categories.
• These are now organized by the area affected. (Global, Projects, Activities, Resources, Risks, Issues and Documents). For example, Global Calendars are found in the Global Section and Project Calendars are found in the Projects Section.

Once you start working with P6 Version 8, you will see that it is much more intuitive than previous client versions were to administer.

There is actually an easy way to assign resources to activities that have unstaffed roles.

Within the Dashboards area there is a portlet called Open Requests for Resources. This would be the easiest way to see the open requests and assign resources to the activities. In order to use this, you must have created a Role Team. This team contains the roles that the resource manager is responsible for controlling.

To create a Role Team:

• Under the Resources Tab, select Manage Role Teams
• Click Create a Role Team
• Enter a Name for the Role Team
• Select the appropriate Radio Button for Current User or All Users
• Select the appropriate Roles to be included in the Team and click the Arrow Button pointing to the right
• Click Save

To add the Open Requests for Resources to a Dashboard:

• From the appropriate Dashboard, select Customize
• Check the Box for Open Requests for Resources
• Expand the information under the Open Requests for Resources
• Select the Radio Button for All Projects or Projects based on the Dashboard filter
• Select from the Drop-Down how to Organize the information
• Select the appropriate Role Team
• Select the appropriate Project Code (if applicable)
• Click Save
• Click on the Layout tab to select where on the screen the portlet will appear
• Click Save and Close

To assign Resources to Unstaffed Roles:

• From the Open Requests for Resources Portlet, select the appropriate Role
• A screen will appear displaying all activities for the Role that are unstaffed within the project
• Select the activities to assign the resource with a checkbox
• Click Assign Resources
• Select the appropriate resource and click Assign

Portfolios are a means of grouping similar projects together. They are not exactly the same in the Web and Client versions. Portfolios created in the Web version are not available in the Client, and vice versa.

Portfolios in Primavera P6 Client Version

Portfolios are used to reduce the number of projects being displayed in the Open Project Dialog Box, as well as the Projects Window.

To view a Portfolio in the client, do the following:

• Select Enterprise, Project Portfolios from the Menu Bar
• Click Add
• On the General Tab, enter the Name of the Portfolio, select who the portfolio is available to (Another User, Current User, All Users) and enter a description
• On the Projects Tab, click the Assign Button and select the project(s) to be included in this portfolio (any new projects will have to be added manually)

To use a Portfolio in the client, do the following:

• Select File, Open from the Menu Bar
• Select the appropriate Portfolio from the “Select a Portfolio” at the top of the
  dialog box
• You can always see what Portfolio is currently active by looking at the status bar at the bottom of the screen.

Portfolios in Primavera P6 Web Version

Portfolios are used in P6 Web to define projects being displayed in the Dashboards, as well as on the Portfolios Tab.

To view a Portfolio in the Web, do the following:

• Click on the Arrow next to Portfolios and select Manage Portfolios
• Click Create Project Portfolio
• Enter the Portfolio Name
• Select to manage the portfolio Manually or By Filter
• Select  the folder availability (Another User, Current User, All Users)
• If Manually, select the project(s) on the left and click the Arrow pointing to the right (any new projects will have to be manually added)
• If By Filter, enter up to three filter criteria based on General Project Information, User Defined Project Fields or Project Codes (any new projects will be automatically added to the portfolio if they meet the filter criteria)

To use a Portfolio in the Web, do the following:

• From Portfolios
• Click on the Arrow next to Portfolios and select Open Portfolios
• Select the appropriate Portfolio
• From Dashboards
• In the upper right hand portion of the window, click on the Filter By icon
• Select the appropriate Portfolio. NOTE: When Dashboards are created there is an option to “Restrict the Portfolio.” If this is the case, a user will not be able to change the portfolio on a Dashboard.

NOTE: You can also create various portfolio views in the Web version, for use with your portfolios, but that’s a topic for a future post!

An EPS (Enterprise Project Structure)-level activity code can be very useful when there are multiple divisions or project types etc., in a single database.

Often a Global Activity Code is really only for one specific division or project type, but all divisions have to view the activity codes. If these codes were Project-Level Activity Codes, then they would have to be created for each project. The EPS-Level Activity Codes allow users to group, sort and filter by these activities code values within a specific EPS.

To create an EPS-level Activity Code, do the following:

1. Click on Enterprise, Activity Codes from the Menu Bar
2. Select the Radio Button for EPS and click Modify
3. Click Add and select the appropriate EPS level
4. Enter the name for the EPS-Level Activity Code and the maximum length for the values of the activity codes
5. Click Close
6. Make sure the new activity code is selected in the drop-down and click Add
7. Enter in the Activity Codes and their descriptions

Hint:

To change the order in which EPS-level activity codes are listed, select the activity code that you want to move in the Activity Code Definitions dialog box, then click Shift Up or Shift Down.

Yes, this is one of those features in P6 with many steps, but also many benefits.

In P6, by default, actuals will be distributed evenly across time periods. For example, we set up an activity to start the first day of May, and we have actuals for the month of May of 15 hours.  We have actuals for the month of June of 25 hours. P6 will display this as 20 hours for May and 20 hours for June. To get the exact amount of hours for each month, you have to store period performance. To do this, take the following steps:

1.)   Set up your financial periods:

1. Select Admin, Financial Periods from the Menu Bar
2. You can either add your financial periods manually, or set up a batch run by entering the start date and end date and how often the period should be created.

2.)   Enter your actuals for the resource into the column, Actuals This Period. It will also put the same amount in the Actual Units Column; at the end of May, Actuals This Period would have 15 hours, as would Actual Units.

3.)   When you are done with the update, do Tools, Store Period Performance. This will move the Actuals this Period to the appropriate financial period and zero out the Actuals This Period column. At the end of June, enter 25 hours in Actual This Period.  Actuals This Period will have 25 hours and Actual Units will have 40 hours.

4.)   To view the financial periods, do the following:

1. Click Edit, User Preferences
2. Click on the Application Tab
3. Enter the Financial Periods that you would like to view.
4. In the Activity Window, add the financial period columns (they will start with the financial period).

In conclusion, this is a way to see the “true” actuals per financial period instead of its being evenly distributed over the periods.

A scenario is a “snapshot” of project data for a project group at a specific moment in time. These are beneficial when you want to maintain historical data for a portfolio of projects. Scenarios can be displayed in the Portfolio Analysis and Capacity Planning portions of the Portfolios section.

Scenarios are created either in the Portfolio Analysis or Capacity Planning pages within the Portfolios section. On the Portfolio Analysis page, you can create a scenario based on any existing view and project group to which you have access. On the Capacity Planning page, you can create a scenario based on any Scorecard View and project group to which you have access.

For either page, the scenario saves the project group and its related summarized data at
the time it was created, as well as the view. For example, if <Latest Data> is currently selected, the new scenario will include the view, along with the latest summarized data for the project group at that moment in time. If you have a scenario currently selected, the new scenario will include the view, along with the data associated with the currently selected scenario.

A good place to use scenarios is when you are comparing data from one update to the
next. Create a new scenario for each update (after scheduling and summarizing) and the next update, do a side-by-side comparison of <Latest Data> and the scenario created at the last update.