Resources | Primavera Scheduling

Feb

P6 Version 20.12 Released

Categories: Activity Relationships, P6 Calendars, P6 Professional, Primavera Resources, Resources, Schedule Options, SQLIte

Tags: dissolve activities, Financial Periods, Primavera P6 Professional, Relationship Lag, schedule options

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by Bill Pepoon

Oracle released Version 20.12 of Primavera Professional Project Management in December 2020. If you have not upgraded P6 recently, here are some of the most salient improvements since 2018:

Dissolve Activities With Or Without Lag: You can choose whether or not to retain lag when dissolving activities using the Retain lag setting in the Calculations tab of the User Preferences Dialog. If you choose to retain lag, the lag from the dissolved activity's predecessor relationship will be added to that of its successor relationship and applied to the new relationship. (Version 19.5)

Improvements to Stored Images Functionality: Multiple images can be uploaded at the same time. (Version 19.7)

Project Code Maximum Length Changed: The maximum length for Project Codes in PPM databases is 60 characters. (Version 19.7)

Scheduling and Leveling Options Can Be Exported to and Imported From Primavera XML: When you export projects to Primavera XML format, scheduling and leveling options are included. When importing the Primavera XML file, you can choose whether to import with the Update Existing or Keep Existing import actions against the scheduling and leveling options. (Version 19.8)

Allow or Restrict Access to Resources From Multiple Parent Resources: You can select up to five resources when defining which resources a user can access. The user can access and use the selected resources and all child resources of the selected resources. (Version 19.9)

Choose to Export Primavera XML Files Into a Compressed File: When you export projects in Primavera XML format you can choose to have the files exported to a single compressed file in .zip format. (Version 19.10)

Add Comments About Relationships: Add the Comments column in the Relationships detail window to add extra information about the relationship, for example to explain the need for lag assigned to the relationship or the need for the relationship itself. Relationship comments are plain text and can be up to 250 characters long. This is my favorite new feature. (Version 20.4)

Categorize and Organize Activities and Assignments Using Role Codes: With potentially hundreds of roles being used across an enterprise of projects, role codes provide another method for filtering the roles you need to access quickly, or for grouping, sorting, and filtering roles and role assignments. (Version 20.6)

Improved Control of Options When Scheduling Multiple Projects: In the Scheduling Options dialog box, you can select which of the open projects options will be used when you schedule multiple projects. In the Level Resources dialog box, you can select which of the open projects leveling options will be used when you level multiple projects. You can generate scheduling and leveling log files as HTML files. (Version 20.6)

Fill Down and Fill Across Quickly in the Resource Assignment Spreadsheet: You can fill data on the Resource Assignment Spreadsheet window from shortcut (right click) menu. (Version 20.8)

Fill Down Multiple Cells in the Resource Usage Spreadsheet of the Activities View: You can fill data on the Resource Usage Spreadsheet pane from several cells simultaneously. Select multiple contiguous cells by holding down shift while clicking the first and last cells in the range, then select the rows to copy to using either shift and click (to select contiguous rows) or Ctrl and click (to select separate rows), then right click to select the Fill Down menu item. (Version 20.9)

Financial Period Calendars Allow You to Use Different Financial Periods for Different Projects: You can create multiple financial period calendars with different periods. The different financial period calendars can have different durations as well as different start and end dates to each period. You can create new financial period calendars from scratch or duplicate an existing calendar as the basis for a new financial period calendar. (Version 20.10)

Copy Dates to Other Assignments Using Fill Down in Resource Usage: You can use fill down to populate dates in the Resource Usage Spreadsheet of the Activities window of P6 Professional. Fill down options for start and finish dates are available both in the Activity Resource Assignments section and the spreadsheet columns. (Version 20.10)

Easily See Exact Values for Histogram Bars: You can select to view the values for bars on histograms and stacked histograms in the options for the Activity Usage Profile, Resource Usage Profile, and Tracking View. (Version 20.10)

Categorize and Organize Assignments Using Codes: With potentially many thousands of active resource and role assignments across hundreds of projects, assignment codes provide another method for grouping, sorting, and filtering the assignments you need to access quickly. (Version 20.11)

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Jul

The Rookie Resource Mistake

Categories: Level of Effort, P6 Professional, P6 Tricks, Primavera P6 Baselines, Resources, Uncategorized, WBS Summary

Tags: Baselines, Earned Value, Primavera P6, Resources

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by Bill Pepoon

In one of my favorite Gene Hackman films, Heist, there is a scene where his character is explaining how he solved a problem. His client (actually, a mobster he is planning to rip off) says, "you're a pretty smart guy." When Hackman's character declines the compliment, the mobster replies, "then how did you figure it out?" Hackman's response:

"I said to myself, 'what would a smart guy do?'"

I love that line. Unfortunately, I recently forgot that lesson. Let's set the stage. I am updating a new Primavera P6 schedule for the first time. I have a change order modification that has been added, and there is also progress on this new activity.

The client told me he is 40 percent complete with the modification. So I type in that percentage. And I move on with the update. But while checking my customized earnings report I realize there is no Earned Value for the new activity. But the activity is in fact showing 40% complete.

Okay...

Now, perhaps you are thinking I forgot to apply an actual start date. Well, no, it would not be possible to show a percent complete without first entering an actual start date. I should also mention that I am using the Physical % Complete type so that I can enter whatever percentage I want.

Hmm. Perhaps there is something wrong with the way I cost-loaded the activity. Nope, it has a budgeted total value. And I am using the same resource that all other cost-loaded activities have been assigned in this particular schedule.

What about my Earned Value settings? I almost never change them, but I verified that Performance Percent Complete = Activity % Complete (Admin > Admin Preferences > Earned Value). In the construction industry that is pretty much the setting that everyone uses. The point being that the activity percent complete determines Earned Value.

Yet here I am, still looking at zero dollars earned and 40% complete.

Aha, must be the activity type! We know that certain activity types like Level of Effort and WBS Summary behave differently than other types of activities.

Sorry - the new activity is Task Dependent. Nothing to see here folks. And if you were thinking it was a milestone, keep in mind that milestones cannot be assigned resources due to their zero durations.

What would Gene Hackman do?

He'd probably say something like, "hey buddy, if Earned Value is working on EVERY other activity in the schedule then there has to be something different about this one."

But it's not different, it's just new.

Oops...

Yes, it is a new activity! And where does Earned Value come from?

The baseline to the current schedule!

Under the Settings tab in the Project Details window there are two options for calculating Earned Value: Project baseline or User's primary baseline.

My schedule was set to Project baseline, and my Project baseline is the original plan. The new activity doesn't exist in the original plan so Earned Value is automatically zero.

I knew this, of course, but it is easy to forget when you are in a hurry. And it seems rather odd that users who never create baselines for the current project are immune to this potential problem. Because when there are no baselines the current schedule IS the baseline!

This is in my mind one of the most counter-intuitive aspects of Primavera P6. Earned Value is not always based on the current schedule. Why would I want to base my earnings on something other than the current schedule? If the budget has changed it seems logical to pay off the new budget.

Now, I prefer not to change the value of an existing activity for pretty much the same reason I don't change the original durations. I want to preserve the old values for future reference. If the duration or budget is changed by a modification I will add a new activity for that purpose.

I have had a few projects, however, where we re-balanced the activity budgets. Assigning any baseline other than the current schedule would clearly cause problems. Which brings up another concern: the Earned Value for a project can be okay one day and off the next if a different baseline is assigned. Fun!

When I mention this during training sessions I often hear someone with a little Primavera P6 experience say something like, "never happens to me". Yes, that could be true. If you don't typically create baselines then by default your baseline is the current schedule. Lucky you!

Those of us who utilize baselines on a regular basis have to be more careful. And it gets rather complicated when there is more than one baseline attached to the current schedule. Re-assigning a baseline can change Earned Value. Oh well. I'll just keep channeling Gene Hackman.

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P6 Version 20.12 Released

The Rookie Resource Mistake