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Feb

What “Delete This Row” Really Means in a P6 Spreadsheet

Categories: P6 EPPM, P6 Optional Client, P6 Professional, P6 Web, Primavera Training

Tags: P6, P6 Update, Primavera P6, Primavera Templates, Primavera update

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by Bill Pepoon

During a private Primavera P6 training session last week I was showing my client how to import changes into a P6 schedule using a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. As you probably know, there are basically four steps involved: (1) create a spreadsheet template inside P6, (2) export the spreadsheet, (3) make changes to the spreadsheet, and (4) import the spreadsheet back into P6. There are a few basic rules to follow, such as not changing the order of the columns in the spreadsheet after it has been exported, but otherwise it is an easy way to share Primavera P6 data with individuals who may not have access to (or understand how to use) P6.

As a consultant, I use spreadsheets all the time for schedule updates. I send spreadsheets to my clients and ask them to provide the status of each activity that has been started or completed since the previous update. I rarely have to input this information manually. This process saves a lot of time and I can focus on more important tasks such as checking the critical path, and looking for open ends and out-of-sequence progress.

Anyone who has used a spreadsheet exported from Primavera P6 has probably noticed the mysterious column that P6 adds at the end. This column is not part of the template created in P6 but always appears in the exported file. While both rows 1 and 2 are column headers, it is the second row that most people notice because of its somewhat cryptic message:

“Delete This Row”

My client understood this instruction to mean that the second row should be deleted prior to importing the spreadsheet back into Primavera P6. And where did they get this crazy idea? From the in-house P6 expert. Granted, it does appear that P6 is telling you to delete the second row. And the real meaning of this instruction does involve deleting a row.

Here’s the deal. Deleting rows in the spreadsheet does not delete the activities when the spreadsheet is imported back into Primavera P6. I sometimes forget to use a filter in my spreadsheet template and when I realize there are more activities in the spreadsheet than I intended, it is often faster just to delete the rows rather than re-export the spreadsheet. And for this reason I also warn my clients that deleting a row in the spreadsheet is not the proper way to get rid of activities that are no longer needed.

The purpose of “Delete This Row” is in fact to delete one or more rows. You type “d” in this column next to any activity that should be deleted from the schedule. When the spreadsheet is imported back into Primavera P6 the activities with “d” next to them will be deleted. It is actually a great way for someone to communicate to me that certain activities should be deleted. In the graphic below, Activity ID 21 has been designated for deletion:

Keep in mind, that when activities are deleted there is a chance that it creates open ends in the logic network, so it is very important to check for missing predecessors and/or successors before publishing the schedule. Otherwise, “Delete This Row” is a very convenient way to get rid of unwanted activities.

Dec

2014 in Review

Categories: Disney, Orion, P6 EPPM, P6 Professional, Primavera P6, Primavera Training, SPAWAR, Wrigley Field

Tags: Contractor, Disney, Orion, P6 EPPM, P6 Professional, Primavera Training, SPAWAR

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by Bill Pepoon

2014 was the best year ever for Primavera Scheduling and our parent company, Construction Science. But while higher revenues are always welcome it was really the range of clients and training experiences that made 2014 very special. Here are just a few of the highlights:

We provided Primavera P6 training to a NASA contractor working on the Orion space program. Orion is the first deep-space program initiated by NASA since Apollo. As someone who well remembers landing on the moon – I was 11 years old when it happened – the idea of going back to deep space is very exciting. No decision has been made by NASA on a destination, but Mars or an asteroid seem like distinct possibilities.
We provided Primavera P6 training to Disney’s Creative Costuming at Disneyland. Yes, Disney uses Primavera P6 to schedule the making of costumes for all of their major theme-park characters. We spent one day at Disney University (!) teaching class and another day teaching at the actual location where the costumes are made. The effort that goes into making these costumes is quite extraordinary.
We provided Primavera P6 training to the U.S. Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) in San Diego. One of the interesting tidbits that came out of this training is that the Admiral of the Navy does not like red bars on the Gantt charts. He apparently believes that “red” means the project is behind schedule. And you definitely do not want to make the guy in charge of the Navy’s weaponry mad. So we showed the SPAWAR team how to make the critical path bars another color.
We provided Primavera P6 training to a general contractor in Chicago who is renovating Wrigley Field. This $575M project represents the most extensive renovations ever made to Wrigley Field, one of America’s oldest ballparks. This will be an incredibly difficult project due to the historic status of Wrigley Field – even the ivy that covers the outfield walls is a protected landmark. ESPN has posted some great high-resolution photos of what the renovated ballpark will look like.
I was selected by Lorman Seminars to be a presenter and moderator of its “Tricks, Traps and Ploys Used in Construction Scheduling” seminar in Sacramento, CA. After 31 years as a professional scheduler it was fun to talk about all the sneaky stuff that is sometimes part of CPM scheduling. An audio recording of the seminar and the training manual can be obtained at a 50% discount by using this link.
Our Primavera software sales nearly doubled compared to 2013. We have always offered very competitive pricing but we firmly believe that our personal attention to clients is really the deciding factor. With the various versions of Primavera software that are available (Contractor, P6 Professional and P6 EPPM) we try very hard to steer our clients to the right product for their needs.

On a more personal note, the partners in our firm attended Game 4 of the 2014 World Series in San Francisco. What an amazing experience! Attending a World Series game is, in my opinion, a “bucket-list” item. Winning the World Series? Priceless! Actually, this was a very special World Series for me as my first baseball love was the Kansas City Royals and now I root for the San Francisco Giants. Given how I feel about both teams maybe this should count as two bucket-list items!

To all of our clients we send our heartfelt thanks and gratitude. And we wish all of you a great 2015.

Dec

What is a “Planned” Date in P6?

Categories: Constraints, P6 EPPM, P6 Professional, Primavera P6, Schedule Options

Tags: Finish, P6, Planned Finish, Planned Start, Primavera P6, Start

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by Bill Pepoon

Primavera P6 has quite a few date fields that are often misunderstood. Perhaps no date field is stranger than the “planned” date. To begin with, there will always be a Planned Start and a Planned Finish date associated with every activity. In a schedule with no progress (or what we would traditionally call the “baseline” if P6 did not use this designation for target schedules) the following is always true:

Planned Start = Start
Planned Finish = Finish

Once progress is recorded, however, all bets are off. The planned dates will not reflect actual dates, for example. Primavera P6 shows actual dates in the Start and Finish columns, making it easy to see which activities have progress (take that, Microsoft Project!) without having to add the Actual Start and Actual Finish columns. Space is always at a premium in a printout so not having to add the actual columns is a nice benefit.

Here is where it gets interesting. Changing the Planned Start or Planned Finish date on an activity with no progress will change the Start and Finish dates and likewise move the bar in the Gantt Chart. The rules are:

Changing the Planned Start changes the Start date, even if the Planned Start is before the original Start date
Changing the Planned Finish moves the Finish date and changes the Original Duration to match
Changing the Planned Start and Planned Finish will move the Start and Finish dates accordingly
No other activities are affected by changes to the Planned dates of an activity

None of this will happen, however, if the “Schedule automatically when a change affects date” scheduling option is selected. This is because scheduling the project wipes out the changes made to the Planned dates. These are not constraints, after all. The logic was never modified. Which may seem like Planned dates are a cruel trick.

Well, we create logic for a reason. Moving bars around is not scheduling. Logic is supposed to drive dates. A few constraints are okay – although some owners are adamant about having none – as long as they do not cause an interruption to the critical path. Postponing the start of a critical activity would obviously make no sense.

Note that if you change the Planned Start or Planned Finish of an activity with progress, nothing happens at all. The Planned dates will not change.

Changing the Planned dates, really, is mostly a bad idea. But let’s say we all agree that some of the dates in a schedule are not right. So we massage the dates using the Planned columns and then create a baseline. Using the baseline as a guide, we then modify the logic and durations to achieve the new dates. Sort of like tracing a drawing with velum paper.

Comments or questions? Please feel free to contact me.

Nov

Primavera P6 R8.4 Database Options

Categories: Claim Digger, P6 EPPM, P6 Professional, P6 Web, Primavera P6

Tags: Claim Digger, P6 EPPM, P6 Professional, Primavera P6, Release 8.4, SQLite

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by Bill Pepoon

In a recent blog for Construction Science I discussed some of the new features of Release 8.4 for Primavera P6 Professional and EPPM. Today I would like to discuss the database options for a standalone installation of P6 Professional. Oracle 10g Express (Oracle XE) has been included with P6 for several years. Users could also choose from one of several versions of Microsoft’s SQL Server, but most opted for SQL Server 2005 Express Edition because it is a free program. Both of these options are still available. But Release 8.4 introduces another option, SQLite. The advantage of SQLite is that it does not have the size limitation of Oracle XE (4 GB) and is easier to manage than Oracle XE or Microsoft SQL. Backing up a database is now as easy as copying a file folder because SQLite is a serverless database engine. For users who have struggled with Oracle XE or Microsoft SQL Server, SQLite seems like a great option.

Ah, but there is a trade-off for simplicity! Oracle’s Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) are not compatible with SQLite. This is something Oracle intends to fix in a future P6 release or patch. APIs are the building blocks of many software programs, and while it is not something most of us would ever realize, Oracle’s Claim Digger is an API. So Claim Digger is not accessible when using SQLite. For me, that is a deal-breaker. I use Claim Digger nearly every day to analyze files. In some situations my clients have more than one version of a baseline schedule or update on their server and they no longer remember why. If some of these files are in fact identical we can delete them without any concern. At the very least, Claim Digger will tell us what the differences are. Most owners also expect contractors to explain what changes were made during the update process, and the Claim Digger report usually suffices.

Claim Digger does have some limitations, which I will discuss in a future blog, and there are third-party programs that are more powerful. However, Claim Digger is included with P6 so it is a tool that all users have access to without spending more money. I will accept free help anytime!

Also, because SQLite is truly a single-user environment, there are several other restrictions:

There are no User or Security Profiles, as there can only be one user
All projects are opened in Shared mode; Read Only and Exclusive modes are disabled
Sending e-mail notifications of Project Issues is not supported
Advanced import options are disabled for projects in XML format
Check In and Check Out of projects are disabled
There are no options to save data for All Users or Another User (layouts, etc.)
Job Services is not supported; Jobs cannot be scheduled
Update Baseline and Risk Analysis are not supported

Oct

P6 EPPM Training Available Online and In-Person Anywhere

Categories: In-Person P6 Training, Live Online P6 Training, P6 EPPM, P6 Optional Client, P6 Web

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by Bill Pepoon

Earlier this year we rolled out our popular P6 101 (8-hour) and P6 102 (16-hour) training programs for P6 EPPM. We waited to offer this training until we had a chance to develop our own training materials. Our training programs are designed to mimic the steps necessary to create a schedule, run production, update and monitor progress, in that order. More importantly, we teach P6 EPPM from the perspective of professional schedulers who have been using Primavera software for 25 years. Some features in P6 EPPM are not appropriate for every industry. And there are situations where switching to P6 Optional Client makes more sense than trying to muddle by with P6 Web. Both of these components are included with P6 EPPM.

For example, you cannot automatically renumber Activity IDs in P6 Web while this can be accomplished quite easily in P6 Optional Client. So in the P6 EPPM environment an employee using P6 Web might need to request that another employee using P6 Optional Client perform this task instead. Conversely, the P6 Optional Client user would need to request that the P6 Web user change the Earned Value settings, one of many administrative settings that are only accessible via P6 Web.

Our P6 EPPM training programs are intended to teach the P6 Web component since P6 Optional Client is virtually identical to P6 Professional. However, we can teach both P6 Optional Client and P6 Web back to back in order to fulfill all of our clients’ training needs. We did this recently for a major Department of Defense contractor in Kansas City. The first two days were devoted to using P6 Optional Client and the next two days focused on P6 Web.

Already our P6 EPPM training has been in high demand. We recently completed a 6-week assignment for the State of California, developing training materials and training the in-house trainers. Ironically, we beat out Oracle itself for this assignment! Next week we begin training a major highway contractor in Texas. We provide P6 EPPM training online every month for individuals and groups. In-person P6 EPPM training is available anywhere in the world for small groups. Well, we only provide this training in English but otherwise no restrictions!

Below is an introduction to P6 EPPM that we recently posted on YouTube:

http://youtu.be/-so7qEzQ08o

This video explains how to set up a new project in P6 EPPM. In the next few weeks we will be posting more videos explaining various features of P6 EPPM. Please contact us if you have any questions.

Sep

P6 EPPM vs. P6 Professional

Categories: P6 EPPM, P6 Professional

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by Bill Pepoon

Yesterday I delivered a P6 training session to a client who bought the enterprise (EPPM) version of this software for the wrong reason. There is a perception based on rather confusing marketing materials put together by Oracle that if you want to log in remotely to a database you must buy P6 EPPM. Nothing could be farther from the truth. But anyone who tries to muddle their way through Oracle’s website would have a hard time figuring this out.

P6 EPPM is web-enabled software. Notice I did not say “cloud” software. There is a big difference. When you buy P6 EPPM you still install it on a server in your offices. Once installed on a server, users access P6 EPPM using their Web browser. More on that in just a moment.

Deploying P6 EPPM in a large organization can certainly have benefits. Rather than installing P6 software on hundreds of computers you install it once. That is a pretty good deal and nearly as practical as true “cloud” software hosted on someone else’s servers. One of my clients has several hundred named users – meaning people who have access to the software – and not surprisingly they are using P6 EPPM.

So what about remote access using P6 Professional? Well, it’s not too difficult for anyone to gain remote access to a database regardless of which version of P6 they are using. You simply install the database on a server and users connect to it remotely using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) or some similar means of networking. Admittedly I know nothing about setting up a VPN but this is easy for an IT person to do. And most companies already have something like this in place already.

Because P6 EPPM is web-enabled, however, you are accessing files on the Internet. Lose your Internet connection and you are not getting any work done. With P6 Professional, you can install one database on your laptop and another on a regular server. This way you always have access to a database. Another advantage with P6 Professional is that using a Web browser is much slower than using software that resides on a computer. Each time you leave one window in P6 EPPM you are waiting for your browser to load another one. Unless you have a very fast Internet connection this will drive you a little crazy.

The Web browser introduces still another problem. P6 EPPM will not function correctly unless you are using Internet Explorer 8. Love Google Chrome? Too bad, because it will not work with P6 EPPM. And forget about using Mozilla Firefox as well. And frankly, who is still using IE 8 other than maybe Al Gore? Okay, that was a cheap shot at the guy who once claimed to have invented the Internet, but the point is most of us have already upgraded to something else – a long, long time ago.

Java also rears its ugly head in P6 EPPM, which requires a very specific version of Java that is several years old. Java is a programming language used by many applications and websites. Ironically, Oracle owns Java but P6 EPPM has to make do with a really old version. My client with the hundreds of named users quickly discovered that it had several different versions of Java installed on various machines. And during my class yesterday I could not get the Project Preferences pop-up window to appear no matter what I tried. Cursed Java strikes again!

(To be fair, P6 Professional also uses Java but because you are using the program in a standalone environment the older version of Java is not much of an issue).

So have I convinced you to switch to P6 EPPM yet? Look, P6 EPPM is fine for large organizations since it makes deployment much easier. But when I show people P6 Professional side-by-side with P6 EPPM, they always pick P6 Professional. If you have only a few named users, P6 Professional is easy to deploy. You might only need to install P6 EPPM once, but the last time I installed it required an entire weekend and several phone calls to Oracle Support.

When it comes down to scheduling projects – which is the point, after all – P6 Professional is easier to use, and much faster. But not to worry. P6 EPPM software includes P6 Optional Client in addition to the Web-enabled software, and P6 Optional Client is basically P6 Professional with just a few minor differences. Yet many people who purchase P6 EPPM are not even aware that another version of the program is included. Oracle simply does not explain this very well at all, but now you know!