Understanding the Expected Finish Date

There are few things the expected finish date does.

The date on which the primary resource, the person who assigns the expected finish date, anticipates work on the activity will finish. Only the primary resource can edit this field if the activity has started.

When the expected finish date is set, it will change the "finish" date on the status tab, but it WILL NOT change the planned finish date in column view.

The expected finish date will also change the resource assignment finish dates.

On not started and in progress activities, adding the expected finish date will change the finish date (in status tab) in both situations. The planned finish date does not change when you add an expected finish date.

A good write-up with screen shots on leveling by TenSix

Resource Leveling with Primavera P6 Professional

P6 Professional 15 R2 32-bit and 64-bit Features White Paper

P6 Professional 15 R2 32-bit and 64-bit Features White Paper

Differences between Microsoft Project and P6

Differences between Primavera and Microsoft Project (MSP):

We will default all values to the MSP defaults for fields we do not have in Primavera.

Project Start is what MSP uses to schedule. Activities with no predecessors will have the project start date, instead of the Data Date as the early start date from Primavera.

SF relationships in MSP do not abide by Primavera dates and cannot be before the data date.

Primavera Duration% = (Original Duration - Remaining Duration)/Original Duration while MSP %Complete is Actual/Duration.

Material resources in MSP cannot have Max Units/Time, Overtime rate, calendar, or email.

There is no actual overtime work in MPX.

If a loop is generated from Primavera because of using LOE activities, it will import all activities into MSP, but remove the relationships so that there is no loop. MSP detects relationships to LOE activities as loops, Primavera does not.

For MPX export, zero duration activities will be imported into MSP as milestones, even if they are not start or finish milestones in Primavera.

There is no type of Role concept in MSP. So all roles assigned to activities are lost during export.

A task in MSP can have durations as well as be marked as a Milestone. We will always import tasks that are marked as milestones as Milestones, not tasks with durations.

In MSP, milestones do not look at calendars when scheduling. Milestones can start on non-work intervals.

MSP does not allow negative units, but allows negative cost and price/time. Primavera does not allow negative price/time, but allows negative units and cost (Primavera does not allow negative budgeted and remaining units for non-fixed duration type activities).

MSP allows SS and FS relationship between summary tasks. Primavera does not allow relationships between WBS Summary Activities.

Embedded/Linked MSP projects in an MSP project will not be imported. Only the opened project will be imported with its activities.

Primavera At Completion duration maps to MSP Duration because this is field used for scheduling.

Cannot have a duplicate resource assigned to a task in MSP. We will export the combined data for the resource to one MSP resource.

All resource assignments are exported from Primavera to MSP as non-driving.

How do I delete financial data?

1. Open projects that show a difference between columns for actual this period and actual costs or units. There is stored period data in any projects that show a difference between those fields.
2. In Activity view, select View, Show on top, Activity Usage Spreadsheet then View, Timescale and set to Financial Period.
3. Right-click the Activity Usage Spreadsheet and select Spreadsheet Fields and select the appropriate Financial Period Value field(s).
4. Select view, Collapse All to find project with financial period data during the period you want to delete.
5. Either delete the project or remove the project's financial period data.
6. Once all projects show no financial period data in the period you want to delete, you should be able to delete the financial period without issue.

How to delete financial data from the database.

You may want to check the resource assignment for the project and activity. You may also have to do this at the database level. Not sure if you're on client or web, but here are the scripts for the client. How to run a database query to find the actual units and cost that are stored in financial periods for a specific resource assignment. The query will return the actual units and cost along with the financial period they are stored in. select t.act_qty, t.act_cost, f.fin_dates_name, f.start_date, f.end_date from trsrcfin t inner join findates f on t.fin_dates_id = f.fin_dates_id where t.taskrsrc_id in (select taskrsrc_id from taskrsrc where rsrc_id in (select rsrc_id from rsrc where rsrc_short_name = 'XXX')) and t.task_id in (select task_id from task where task_code = 'YYY' and proj_id in (select proj_id from project where proj_short_name = 'ZZZ')); Substitute the blue text with the specific information for the resource, activity and project. XXX - Resource ID YYY - Activity ID ZZZ - Project ID

Why are the dates in the WBS hidden?

In P6 client, Go to Group & Sort>Click on show group totals. Should fix the issue.

How do you upate progress?

You want to choose one way or the other. Either doing it manually or using auto-compute. It may depend on how many activities you are looking to update. There is information on updating in the use guide as well.

Common updating process steps:

Create a baseline
• Identify the new data date
• Enter activity progress throughout the week (update duration remaining & at complete, dates,
or physical % complete).
• Report resource use and costs to date (done automatically by timesheets & apply actuals).
• Reschedule using the new data date (done by job services).
• Perform baseline analysis.
– Compare current plan to baseline plan to analyze variances.
• Monitor project progress with reports.
– Determine whether project objectives are being met.

Updating the Progress of Activities Using P6
Update status to define percent complete and start and finish dates.
To update status:
1) Click Projects.
2) On the Projects navigation bar, click Activities.
3) On the Activities page, select an activity and click the General detail window.
4) In the General detail window, in the Status section:
a. Select or clear the Started and Finished options.
b. If you select an option, click
and select a date from the calendar.
c. Enter a percentage in the Activity % Complete field.
5) On the Activities page, click the Actions
menu and select
Save (Ctrl+S).

Can I export a P6 project to excel?

Yes. In the client and web you can do it. Client: File>Export>Spreadsheet - (XLS)>Select XLS file type.

Web: You can export the list of projects in your EPS view to a Microsoft Excel (.xls) file.
To export projects: Click Projects>On the Projects navigation bar, click EPS.>On the EPS page. >Select an EPS view from the EPS View list>Configure the EPS view to determine what data are exported.>Click the Actions menu and select Import/Export Export to Excel>In the File Download dialog box, click Open to open the Excel spreadsheet or Save to save the file to your computer

How do you show program costs in P6 8.3?

If by program, you mean project..you can cost load your resources on the activities, you can add costs to the budget and spread it, you can add costs to the expense tab to the activity. All costs will roll up to budgeted and then as actual as you either charge time (actuals) or reduce your budgeted expenses by actuals every time period. If by program, you truly mean "program", usually a group of projects will roll up to being a "program" in the EPS view of P6. You can also group projects as a portfolio and have them populate a dashboard or portfolio view. This is the short version of a response because we could expand on this topic for days.

www.p6blogger.com

Have anyone used P6 Visualizer to create TSLD & Gantt Chart?

I would suggest using a sample project and only using one project to build out the "samples" or templates of the TSLD or Gantt Chart. The tedious, but fun part, is customizing the look and feel of the chart or diagram to really get it to where you want. If you don't have a powerful machine, it may hang, but it does not hang on a machine with 8GB of RAM. So keep that in mind. In a quick google search, I found a partner's pdf on using the Visualizer. Hopefully it helps you get started...

http://www.drmcnatty.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/June-2013-Tech-Webinar-Primavera-Visualizer.pdf

How do I use roles in Primavera 6?

You can use roles in a few ways. You can use them as placeholders for activity assignments you know you need, but don't know the actual resource (named or otherwise). Some organizations use the role as the resource name and go that route. Seems like you're using 6, so roles usually can just be added to your activities as you are building your schedule and you can do your planning/budgeting that way if the roles have costs assigned to them. This way, you can get a cost estimate even if you do not know the named resources.

As for EV, this is a topic we could talk about all day here. What exactly is the end goal of what you are measuring? I imagine cost and schedule, but do you know what EV attributes you are looking to measure? All of them. There are plenty of books that are out there. A partner has a pdf out there and there are tons of videos and material out there on this topic.

http://www.drmcnatty.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/October-2012-Webinar-Calculating-Earned-Value-and-Estimate-to-Complete-in-P6.pdfless

How can I restrict users from changing the filter on the dashobard?

Go into the dashboard, on the general section, you can restrict users from changing the filter.

Why is summarize staying in pending status?

This is usually happening if Job Services is not installed or the Primavera Job Service is not running. Reinstall Job Services, verify it can connect during installation. Ask the System Administrator to verify that Job Service is installed and running.

What is meant by financial periods and stored period performance?

The help definition actually isn't too bad...so I am going with it.

P6 enables you to define your organization's global financial periods in the Financial Periods dialog box. Customized financial periods provide more accurate display and reporting of actual units and costs. Rather than spreading costs evenly throughout the length of a project, users can view how actual costs were incurred by customized financial period.

If your organization always updates the schedule according to the same time interval (i.e., every week, every month, every quarter, etc.), you can quickly create a batch of financial periods. If the schedule may be updated irregularly, you can create a single financial period at any time.

When financial periods exist in the Financial Period dictionary, users can store period performance for any defined period. When you store period performance, actual units and costs are stored as past period actuals. The past period actual values can be edited for any financial period in columns of the Activity Table and Activity Details, Resources tab. Past period actual spreads per financial period can be viewed in the Activity Usage Spreadsheet and Resource Usage Spreadsheet, and past period actual data can be displayed in profiles, time-distributed reports, and the Tracking view.

If you are experiencing Java Plugin issues when in P6 8.x web.

If any of you are using 8.x – 15.1 and experiencing Java Plug-in issues with Firefox 31-38; most noticeably loading the page and see the block plugin icon appear, you can use this workaround to allow the sites you are trying load to pass through as trusted sites (I’ve only added Oracle/PGBU sites). This will speed up performance and reduce the actions for the subsequent loads. Feel free to share.

As a workaround, you can use the Exception Site list feature to run the applications blocked by security settings. Adding the URL of the blocked application to the Exception Site list allows it to run with some warnings.

Steps to Add URLs to the Exception Site list

1. Go to the Java Control Panel (On Windows Click Start and then Configure Java)
2. Click on the Security tab
3. Click on the Edit Site List button
4. Click Add in the Exception Site List window
   
5. Click in the empty field under the Location field to enter the URL
   
   Example: http://www.example.com
   (URL should begin with http:// or https://)

More information from Oracle located here http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/technotes/guides/jweb/security/exception_site_list.html

Please explain the total float options in the schedule options feature.

If you are referring to compute total float, you have 3 options in the schedule options dialog box. Here are the options and there explanations.

Compute Total Float As option

Determines the method to calculate total float for all activities based on the following methods:

Start Float: The difference between the early and late start dates (Start Float equals Late Start minus Early Start).

Finish Float: The difference between the early and late finish dates (Finish Float equals Late Finish minus Early Finish).

Smallest value: Select to use the most critical value, which is the smaller of the start float and finish float values.

I'm using P6 web 8.3 and I'm trying to figure out how I can manually enter my remaining hours by week/month, in the same way I used resource assignments in the windows client.

Bucket planning is available in version 15.1.

Schedule % and performance % not showing any data.

Most likely need to tie EVM options in the admin preferences to activity % complete.

Has anyone experienced Global Activity Code structures changing on their own? I am currently facing this issue. The database is accessed by 20+ Project Planners. XER Imports are often carried out.

Not sure what versions you're using, but you may be able to click the column header and it will go through a sort. Now that I see that you have folks importing projects, depending on the version, some of their coding may be coming in as well.

Has anyone experienced a glitch in Primavera P6 Team Member where you setup the project to require status update approvals, however the updates go directly into the P6 schedule without stopping for approval?

There is more information in the P6 8.x user guide, but most likely the project preferences have not been configured correctly. Here are some brief instructions on how to do so.
To configure status updates:
1) Click Projects.
2) On the Projects navigation bar, click EPS.
3) On the EPS page:
a. Select a project.
b. Click the Actions
menu and select
Set Project Preferences....
4) In the Project Preferences pane, click Team Member.
5) On the Team Member page, click the Status Reviews tab.
6) On the Status Reviews tab:
a. Select Enable review for team member status updates.

Can you please guide me as to how I can convert a manually entered and baselined project into a Project template in Primavera 8.3.0

Without going into P6, I am almost certain that when you go to action>add project template, it gives you the option to copy from an existing project. You can select the project you manually entered and baselined and add it as a project template. My thought is that it's not going to carry over the baseline as each baseline is specific to the actual project and will not be a copied over feature. I will replicate for accuracy.

Issue with modifying a report with Report Wizard

You may not have security to change the reports. Depending on which P6 version you are using, you may need to change it in the global profile or you may need to contact your admin to change it.

Edit Global Reports Create, edit, and delete global reports; edit report
groups and global report batches; and save global
reports created or modified by the Report Wizard.

P6 Physcial % Complete not working anymore...?

Check to make sure the activity % complete type is set to physical on the general tab. Easy thing to overlook. Also earned value preferences to make sure it's pulling from activity % complete.

What are required from a planner for his/her weekly report?

Schedule, Critical Path, Activities that are of importance around the time of the report, EVM figures by WBS/phase/gate.

I am updating a project schedule with resources and after updating I found that the remaining units/time for completed activity is still fixed 8h/d. Is this right?

Remaining units/time should tie back to the hours/day setting and correct, it should not be changed. the remaining units is what you can change.

Why create a secondary baseline?

Possibly to track against the original baseline for variances.

Performance % showing in WBS 100% Completed (P6), but activities are not completed.

In Admin Preferences you need to set the technique for computing performance percent complete to pull from activity % complete. That should fix the issue. Also check it in the WBS section.

Why I don't see any related tasks on activity in the P6 iOS application?

Click on the activity in the list of activities. Also, this application is referred to as the Team Member app. So you need to be an activity owner, primary resource or project manager with rights to the activity. It is not the all-inclusive P6 EPPM application that you use on the desktop. This application is for team members to update their tasks that they are responsible for or assigned to or are the owner of. Related tasks can be accessed after selecting the respective activity.

How do you create formula-based UDF's?

1) Click the Projects
menu and select Enterprise Project Data, or click the Administer
menu and select Enterprise Data.
2) In the Enterprise Data pane, expand Projects and click Project UDFs.
3) On the Project UDFs page:
a. Click
Add (Insert).
b. In the User Defined Field, double-click and type a name.
c. In the Data Type field, double-click and choose a type from the list.
d. In the UDF Type field, double-click and choose Manual or Formula from the list.
Notes:
-Choosing Formula enables the fields in the Formula detail window, allowing you to define a formula or statement to calculate the value of the field. If no calculation is required, choose Manual.
-You cannot filter views by UDFs calculated on the basis of a formula.
4) In the Formula detail window, define a formula or statement.
5) In the Indicators detail window, define a graphical indicator.
6) On the Project UDFs page, click
Save (Ctrl+S).

I would like your help with the stages to changing the baseline dates in P6.

In P6 you create your schedule and then take a baseline (snapshot) of the schedule at a point in time. You use that baseline as your point of reference and the dates usually should not be changed. You are able to update the baseline dates in a baseline. You can do this in the same area you take the baseline by using "update baseline". It will take actuals and replace old baseline dates as well as new planned dates will replace the old baseline dates. Using the Update Baseline utility, you can update the original baseline plan with new activity, resource/role assignment, and project data. When updating a baseline, you can choose to update all activities or you can apply a filter to update activities that meet the filter’s criteria. You can also specify the types of data to update, including specific data related to activities, resources, costs, thresholds, and issues.

How to summarize activity % complete of activites to WBS level if i have cost baseline

You can set up the view with the activity % complete column in the activity table and then group and sort by the respective WBS level. make sure that summary roll-ups are checked off on the group/sort (in web this will be under customize view).

A contractor has given me a "change log" What are someof the factors I should consider when reviewing the "Change Log"?

Review the contractors hours/costs from before and after the change. If the contractor's activities were already loaded in the schedule, you may want to review what is there now and what is being changed. If you took a baseline of the schedule with the resource loaded activity, you can change the activity's attributes, take another baseline and compare.

Can you approve an extension of time claim without a resourced program?

You can extend a project or activity from the original duration, yes, you can do that. If a baseline was taken of the project, you can do it on non-started activities.

Why can't I see resource assignments for a specific project?

Check to see if the layout is filtering on certain projects/attributes. Also check to see if project is active.

Does anyone have a checklist that can be used for building baseline scheudle in P6?

In P6 you build a schedule and then you baseline the schedule. As for a checklist for building a schedule, if you have used P6 before, you can add the WBS's, activities and select your activity types, % complete types, and add your durations, resources, and costs.

I'm using P6 version 8.3. As we update any program we get the letter "A" beside the actual dates. is there any way i can hide or get rid of the "A". It will help me for comparing in Excel.

You can choose to not display that column in the activity table. Or you can use actual start and finish and planned start and finish and the A is not there.

I want to see in progress or not started activities.

You can run a report in P6 client to report on these. A simple filter will get you there. Maybe try one filter at a time, but I think you could do one that was two-tiered asking for "any" activities that are in progress or not started. This is something that many planners/schedulers look at, so very common problem.

Does it seem correct to change the remaining duration of activities that have not started? For me, remaining duration implies that an activity has started and to change the remaining duration of an activity that isn’t started just wrong.

I would not change the remaining duration of an activity that hasn't started. I would go into the current schedule and change the original duration. This way, if you change in the current schedule you can measure that variance against the baseline that was taken. I think comparing current schedule to baseline (in P6) is a lot easier done than measure remaining duration changes.

What are some P6 activity types?

Task Dependent: This type of activity indicates that assigned resources should be scheduled based on the activity's calendar, rather than the calendars of the resources.

Resource Dependent: This type of activity indicates that resources should be scheduled based on their assigned calendars. Use this type when the activity duration may be affected by resource availability.

Level of Effort: This type of activity indicates that it is ongoing with a duration determined by its dependent activities. The duration is calculated based on the schedule dates of its predecessors and successors. Administrative activities are typically designated as Level of Effort.

Start Milestone: This type of activity indicates the beginning of a major project phase. Activities of this type have a duration of zero (0) with no resource assignments.

Finish Milestone: This type of activity indicates the end of a major project phase. Activities of this type have a duration of zero (0) with no resource assignments.

I want to add weight to a WBS.

What Manuel said is the way it should really be done. You want to create the project, add the WBS's, add their respective activities with duration and cost and the EVM/CPM functionality in P6 will roll the most important WBS/Activities up to the project level. If you're manually trying to do it, the software is basically just a fancy way of doing a schedule. I do understand what Tony is suggesting, but I feel like this is before the hard schedule is in Primavera and more on a narrative basis for early stakeholder meetings before the WBS/Activity/Cost/Resources are starting to really get built out. If you have cost associated to all of these (contracted) and you assign the % to each of them, a simple xls formula will give you your "weighting"...you don't need Primavera for that. Primavera is used to manage projects with cost, schedule and scope. We do allow you to have a budget log (static) on each of the WBS's and that's one way you could go with your weighting, but once the schedule starts getting built out, that static budget log is just used for comparison and is not in any impacted by the schedule.

I want to learn Primavera. What are the best resources?

I would highly suggest some of the Paul Harris books. They are available on Amazon. They, along with working a senior P6 user who was a contractor, helped me immensely. The videos and web training are just very high level and not very interactive. I have a link to a bunch of his books on my site, but you can go to Amazon as well. I would use the books in conjunction with the user manual on docs.oracle.com. The user manual is more of a seek & find as where Paul's books build on your foundation level as you progress through the topics.
Best,
Bob

http://www.p6blogger.com/p/books-on-p6.html

What is retained logic and progress override and can you give me an example?

When you choose Retained Logic, the remaining duration of a progressed activity is not scheduled until all predecessors are complete. When you choose Progress Override, network logic is ignored and the activity can progress without delay. Retained Logic - Project A has relationships. If you choose retained logic, P6 abides by those relationships and schedules accordingly. Progress Override- Project A has relationships, but they are ignored when you progress activities.

I want my resources to be notifed of their assignments.

This setting can be handled in my preferences in 8.4. A setting in my preferences allows you to enable them to be notified when they are assigned or removed from an activity. You can also be prompted before the email is sent.