Primavera 6 Planning & Scheduling

Project planning & scheduling using
Primavera 6

Eng. Hussien Mostafa Ahmed

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Contents
INTRODUCTION TO PROJECT MANAGEMENT .................................................................................................... 5
TIME MANAGEMENT ....................................................................................................................................... 10
PROJECT TIME MANAGEMENT STEPS ............................................................................................................. 10
PRIMAVERA SET UP ......................................................................................................................................... 11
START THE PROGRAM ..................................................................................................................................... 16
PRIMAVERA INTERFACE ................................................................................................................................... 17
OBS (ORGANIZATIONAL BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE) ........................................................................................ 20
EPS (ENTERPRISE BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE) .................................................................................................. 23
THE CALENDARS ............................................................................................................................................... 26
ADMIN PREFERENCES ...................................................................................................................................... 28
ADMIN CATEGORIES ........................................................................................................................................ 33
THE CURRENCY................................................................................................................................................. 34
CREATE NEW PROJECT .................................................................................................................................... 35
OPEN PROJECT ................................................................................................................................................. 38
WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE ................................................................................................................... 41
ACTIVITIES ........................................................................................................................................................ 43
ACTIVITY TYPES ................................................................................................................................................ 44
ACTIVITY STEPS ................................................................................................................................................ 46
CONSTRAINTS .................................................................................................................................................. 48
CONSTRAINTS TYPES ....................................................................................................................................... 48
RELATIONSHIPS................................................................................................................................................ 50
LOGICAL SEQUENCE IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT ........................................................................................... 50
HARD LOGIC AND SOFT LOGIC ........................................................................................................................ 53
ACTIVITY ID ...................................................................................................................................................... 54
ACTIVITY DURATION ........................................................................................................................................ 56
DURATION TYPES ............................................................................................................................................. 56
ACTIVITY CODING ............................................................................................................................................ 59
GANTT CHART .................................................................................................................................................. 62
SCHEDULING .................................................................................................................................................... 66
FLOAT TYPES .................................................................................................................................................... 66
CRITICAL PATH METHOD (CPM) ...................................................................................................................... 68
PERT TECHNIQUE ............................................................................................................................................. 71
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PERT vs CPM .................................................................................................................................................... 72
RESOURCES ...................................................................................................................................................... 73
ASSIGN RESOURCES ......................................................................................................................................... 82
LEVELLING RESOURCES .................................................................................................................................... 85
RECALCULATE ASSIGNMENT COSTS ................................................................................................................ 91
RESOURCE ASSIGNMENT ................................................................................................................................. 92
RESOURCE CURVES .......................................................................................................................................... 94
BUCKET PLANNING .......................................................................................................................................... 98
RESOURCE LAG .............................................................................................................................................. 101
USAGE SPREAD SHEETS AND PROFILES ......................................................................................................... 102
ACTIVITY USAGE SPREAD SHEET .................................................................................................................... 103
RESOURCE USAGE SPREAD SHEET ................................................................................................................. 105
ACTIVITY USAGE PROFILE .............................................................................................................................. 108
RESOURCE USAGE PROFILE ........................................................................................................................... 111
TRACE LOGIC .................................................................................................................................................. 114
MAINTAIN AND ASSIGN BASELINE ................................................................................................................ 117
UPDATING SCHEDULE .................................................................................................................................... 121
EARNED VALUE MANAGEMENT .................................................................................................................... 128
UPDATE PROGRESS AND APPLY ACTUALS ..................................................................................................... 132
ROLES ............................................................................................................................................................. 135
EXPENSES ....................................................................................................................................................... 140
THRESHOLDS AND ISSUES ............................................................................................................................. 143
WP’S and DOCUMENTS ................................................................................................................................. 150
RISKS .............................................................................................................................................................. 155
GLOBAL CHANGE ........................................................................................................................................... 167
USER DEFINED FIELD ...................................................................................................................................... 169
REPORTS ........................................................................................................................................................ 172
PROJECT REFLECTION (WHAT IF SCENARIO) ................................................................................................. 176
SCHEDULE COMPARISON .............................................................................................................................. 179
PRIMAVERA VISUALIZER ................................................................................................................................ 183
USER PREFERENCES ....................................................................................................................................... 187
TOP DOWN ESTIMATION ............................................................................................................................... 192
FILTERS ........................................................................................................................................................... 198
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GROUP AND SORT ......................................................................................................................................... 200
DISSOLVE ....................................................................................................................................................... 205
FIND AND REPLACE ........................................................................................................................................ 206
SPELL CHECK .................................................................................................................................................. 207
EXPAND ALL ‐COLLAPSE ALL .......................................................................................................................... 207
TABLE FONT AND ROW .................................................................................................................................. 208
IMPORT AND EXPORT .................................................................................................................................... 209
PRINTING ....................................................................................................................................................... 214

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INTRODUCTION TO PROJECT MANAGEMENT

‐ What the primavera is?

Oracle Primavera software products are designed to support the project management needs of
organizations that manage large numbers of projects at one time. These integrated applications use
project portfolio management (PPM) to support the management needs of project teams in different
locations and at varying levels of the organization.

‐ What the project is??

A project is temporary in that it has a defined beginning and end in time, and therefore defined scope
and resources.

And a project is unique in that it is not a routine operation, but a specific set of operations designed to
accomplish a singular goal.

‐Project management, then, is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project
activities to meet the project requirements.

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Project Management rules are governed by Project Management Body of Knowledge
called PMBOK which is currently in its 6th edition. According to it, there are 49 processes
mapped across 5 phases and 10 knowledge areas.
The 10 Knowledge Areas that have been defined in project management are:
1. Project Integration Management

2. Project Scope Management
3. Project Schedule Management
4. Project Cost Management
5. Project Quality Management
6. Project Resource Management
7. Project Communications Management
8. Project Risk Management
9. Project Procurement Management
10. Project Stakeholders Management
Before I tell you about each of these Knowledge Areas in detail, let me first introduce you
to the 5 process groups.
1. Initiation Phase – Start of the process with developing the initial report and
identifying the stakeholders
2. Planning Phase – Planning of the project by preparation of the management plan,

scope, etc.
3. Execution Phase – Execution of the project as per planned management data

across all the knowledge areas.
4. Monitoring and Controlling Phase – Monitoring & Controlling of the project as

per the planned progress.
5. Closing Phase – Handover of the project to the customer after the final sign off!
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Now if you refer to the below table, you will see how the 10 Knowledge Areas and 5
process groups have been mapped with 49 processes.
PROCESS GROUPS INITIATION PLANNING EXECUTING MONITOR & CONTROL CLOSING

• Direct & Manage • Monitor & Control
*Close
Project Integration • Develop • Develop Project Project Work Project Work
Project or
Management Project Charter Management Plan *Manage Project • Perform Integrated
Phase
Knowledge Change Control
• Plan Scope Management

Project Scope • Collect Requirement • Validate Scope
Management • Define Scopes • Control Scope
• Create WBS
• Plan Schedule
Management
Project Time • Define Activities
• Control Schedule
K Management • Sequence Activities
• Estimate Activity Duration
N • Develop Schedule
O • Plan Cost Management
Project Cost
W Management
• Estimate Costs • Control Costs
• Determine Budget
L
E Project Quality
• Plan Quality Management • Manage Quality • Control Quality
Management
D
G Project Resource • Plan Resource Management
. Acquire Resources.
. Develop Team • Control Resources
E Management • Estimate Activity Resources
. Manage Team
Project
• Plan Communication • Manage • Monitor
A Communication
Management Communications Communications
Management
R
E • Plan Risk Management
A • Identify Risks
• Perform Qualitative Risk
S Project Risk
Analysis
• Implement Risk
• Monitor Risks
Management Responses
• Perform Quantitative Risk
Analysis
• Plan Risk Responses
Project Procurement • Plan Procurement • Conduct

• Control Procurement
Management Management Procurement
• Manage
Project Stakeholder • Identify • Plan Stakeholders • Monitor Stakeholders
Stakeholders
Management Stakeholders Engagement Engagement
Engagement
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Although the Knowledge Areas are interrelated, they are defined separately from the project
management perspective. The ten Knowledge Areas identified in this guide are used in most
projects most of the time. The ten Knowledge Areas described in this guide are:

1‐ Project Integration Management. Includes the processes and
activities to identify, define, combine, unify, and coordinate the
various processes and project management activities within the
Project Management Process Groups.
2‐ Project Scope Management. Includes the processes required to
ensure the project includes all the work required, and only the work
required, to complete the project successfully.24 Part 1 ‐ Guide
3‐ Project Schedule Management. Includes the processes required to
manage the timely completion of the project.
4‐ Project Cost Management. Includes the processes involved in
planning, estimating, budgeting, financing, funding, managing, and
controlling costs so the project can be completed within the
approved budget.
5‐ Project Quality Management. Includes the processes for
incorporating the organization’s quality policy regarding planning,
managing, and controlling project and product quality requirements,
in order to meet stakeholders’ expectations.
6‐ Project Resource Management. Includes the processes to identify,
acquire, and manage the resources needed for the successful
completion of the project.
7‐ Project Communications Management. Includes the processes
required to ensure timely and appropriate planning, collection,
creation, distribution, storage, retrieval, management, control,
monitoring, and ultimate disposition of project information.
8‐ Project Risk Management. Includes the processes of conducting risk
management planning, identification, analysis, response planning,
response implementation, and monitoring risk on a project.
9‐ Project Procurement Management. Includes the processes
necessary to purchase or acquire products, services, or results
needed from outside the project team.
10‐ Project Stakeholder Management. Includes the processes required
to identify the people, groups, or organizations that could impact or
be impacted by the project, to analyze stakeholder expectations and
their impact on the project, and to develop appropriate
management strategies for effectively engaging stakeholders in
project decisions and execution.

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TIME MANAGEMENT
‐Time management is the processes that are used to help ensure the timely completion of the
project.
Time management is not a peripheral activity or skill. It is the core skill upon which
everything else in life depends." ‐ Brian Tracy
‐the plan is the logical sequence of events to accomplish a goal (what & how) while
a schedule incorporates durations and dates into the sequence of events necessary
to accomplish the plan.

PROJECT TIME MANAGEMENT STEPS

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PRIMAVERA SET UP
1‐ Click the primavera set up file.

2‐ The program will start setting up wizard
choose typical.

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3‐ Press install .

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4‐ Choose run database configuration.

5‐ choose pro standalone (SQLite).

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6‐ Choose add a new standalone database and connection

7‐ choose the password then press next.

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8‐ choose the data base file destination then next then finish.

 Uncheck the (load sample data) to prevent the program from loading sample EPS and
sample projects which may interfere with our projects.

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START THE PROGRAM

From the windows start menu choose from oracle primavera P6
then P6 professional R16.1

. The login name is (admin) and write your password.

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PRIMAVERA INTERFACE

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‐ Right click on tool bars and select customize.

‐ You can select which tool bar to be displayed and the appearance options from options.

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OBS (ORGANIZATIONAL BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE)

It is obvious that the enterprise different organizational breakdown structures have an effect
& making constraints on the availability of resources & the work flow of the project.

* The different types of OBS: ‐
1‐ FUNCTIONAL ORGANIZATION: ‐

2‐ PROJECTIZED ORGANIZATION: ‐

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3‐ MATRIX ORGANIZATION: ‐

COMPARISON BETWEEN THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF OBS: ‐

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* To insert the OBS in primavera: ‐ enterprise OBS

Now we can add the organization and beneath the organization the departments & sections
which represent the hierarchy of the organization
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EPS (ENTERPRISE BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE)

It’s the hierarchy of the enterprise projects, programs.

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To insert the EPS in primavera: ‐ enterprise then (enterprise project structure)
Now we can add the enterprise and beneath the enterprise (sectors‐ zones ‐areas…..) which

represent the hierarchy of the enterprise

Pressing the add button to add a new item (general note)
Use the direction buttons to adjust the hierarchy and arrange the items (general note)
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THE CALENDARS

* To create calendar for a project:
1‐ENTERPRISE CALENDARS
2‐ Then press add and choose any calendar to start adjusting the new calendar.
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3‐ Modify the calendar by adjusting the following
‐ working days per week.
‐ working hours per day.
‐ The day off and holidays.

Calendars types: ‐
1-The global calendar pool contains calendars that apply to all projects.
2- The project calendar pool is a separate pool of calendars for each project.
3-The resource calendar pool can be a separate pool of calendars for each resource.
 You can assign either resource or global calendars to resources, and you can
assign either global or project calendars to activities.
 You can link resource and project calendars to global calendars. Then, if you
make changes to a global calendar, your changes apply to all resource and project
calendars that are linked to the modified global calendar.
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ADMIN PREFERENCES
from admin. admin. Preferences

Choose from the left side (general) to adjust the first day of the week and the default duration of
the new activities.

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Choose from the left side (data limits) to adjust the maximum levels of tree for each data type

Choose from the left side (ID lengths) to adjust the number of ID characters limit of the data type

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Choose from the left side (Time periods) to adjust the number of workhours for each time
period.

Choose from the left side (earned value) to adjust the way we compute the performance
percentage complete and the way we compute the estimate to complete

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Choose from the left side (reports) to adjust sets of headers & footers to be used in the reports
format.

Choose from the left side (options) to specify the interval to summarize and store resource
spreads.

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Choose from the left side (rate types) to specify titles for resources rate types

Choose from the left side (industry) to specify the enterprise industry type.

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ADMIN CATEGORIES
it allows to categorize the different types of (baselines‐expenses‐WBS‐documents‐document
status‐risks ‐notebooks‐ unit of measure)

* the unit of measure
* To insert the unit of measures from admin admin. Categories unit of measure
* Then add the different units of measures and its unit abbreviation

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THE CURRENCY
* To insert the local currency from admin currencies.
* Add the new currency & its symbol and exchange rate with the American dollar

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CREATE NEW PROJECT
*To begin a new project from file, click new
‐then select the project EPS and press next.

‐then define the project ID & project name and press next.

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‐then define the project start date & finish date.

‐then define the responsible manager from the OBS.

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‐then choose the rate type (price /unit).

‐congratulations you create a new program ‐press finish.

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OPEN PROJECT
*To open an existing project from file, click open
Then select the project from the list of projects (EPS)

 Note that we can open multiple projects at the same time.

 We also can close the projects from file, press close all.

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‐ Project general data modifications
‐ From enterprise choose projects
Or press the projects tab on the left

From the project details down side press general to adjust the project ID & project
name

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From the project details down side press dates to adjust the project start and finish dates.

From the project details down side press defaults to adjust the following: ‐
‐duration type
‐percent complete type of the activities
‐default activity type
‐the calendar
‐activity ID auto numbering defaults

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WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE
Defining the WBS: -
It is the deliverable oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed by

the team to accomplish the project objectives and create the required deliverables.
The upper levels of the WBS typically reflect the major deliverable work areas of the
project, decomposed into logical groupings of work. The content of the upper levels
may vary, depending on the type of project and industry involved. The lower WBS
elements provide appropriate detail and focus for support of project management
processes such as schedule development, cost estimating, resource allocation, and risk
assessment. The lowest-level WBS components are called work packages and contain
the definitions of work to be performed and tracked. These can be later used as input
to the scheduling process to support the elaboration of tasks, activities, resources, and
milestones which can be cost estimated, monitored, and controlled.
A few of the key characteristics of high-quality work breakdown structures (PMI,

2006) are outlined below:
 A central attribute of the WBS is that it is “deliverable orientated” (Berg &

Colenso, 2000). The PMBOK® Guide—Third Edition defines a deliverable as:
“Any unique and verifiable product, result, or capability to perform a service that
must be produced to complete a process, phase or project.” In this context,
“oriented” means aligned or positioned with respect to deliverables—that is,
focused on deliverables.
 An additional key attribute of the WBS is that it is a “hierarchical decomposition
of the work.” Decomposition is “a planning technique that subdivides the project
scope and project deliverables into smaller, more manageable components, until
the project work associated with accomplishing the project scope and deliverables
is defined in sufficient detail to support executing, monitoring, and controlling
the work” (PMI, 2004). This decomposition (or subdivision) clearly and
comprehensively defines the scope of the project in terms of individual sub
deliverables that the project participants can easily understand. The specific
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number of levels defined and elaborated for a specific project should be
appropriate for effectively managing the work in question.

*from the project menu choose WBS.
Insert the proper WBS for the project.

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ACTIVITIES
A project activity is a specific task needed to be done in order to produce
the project's deliverables.

* To insert the activities, open the activity layout from project menu and choose activities.

* Choose the WBS then insert new activity from the right tool bar.

* After inserting the whole activities open (activity details) from view ‐show on bottom then
details.

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ACTIVITY TYPES

Task dependent activity: ‐ This Activity Type is used in cases where the allocated
number of resources has no impact on the determination of duration. In other
words, the activity is supposed to take a certain amount of time to be performed
irrespective of the resources it has.
resource dependent activity: ‐ When the number of resources assigned to a task

determine the task’s duration, it is called a Resource Dependent activity. For
example, if one particular resource can complete a task in 4 days, then two such
resources can complete the same task in 2 days.
Start & finish milestone activity: - A Milestone represents a point in time
(event) when a pre-determined task or goal is started or achieved, i.e. a task
which has some significance is either started or is completed. For example,
Start/Finish of a Project, Commencing execution works, Completion of a Phase,
etc.
A Milestone will show only one date in the Start/Finish Date columns. A Start
Milestone will have only a start date and no finish date. Similarly, a Finish
Milestone will have only a finish date. This is because by definition, a Milestone is
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just the representation of a point in time; it has no duration of its own. That is why
Milestones have ‘zero’ days as duration. Also, Milestones do not consume any
resources.
Level of effort activity: -The duration of a level of effort activity is dependent on
the assigned predecessor and successor activities. The duration is calculated
from the defined relationship at the predecessor to the defined relationship at the
successor. These jobs span or exist as long as some other works are being
performed. You might already know that Level of Effort activities are designed to
represent support work on a project. This is work that does not contribute directly
to the deliverables or outcome of the project, but supports their progress. These
are still important tasks, even critical to the project, but are defined as supportive.

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ACTIVITY STEPS
 Activity steps allow the scheduler to break down an activity into smaller units of
work that will assist in making a status of the activity when the project starts.
 click on the steps tab in the activity details at the bottom of the screen.
 from the left side press add to add the activity steps.

Customize the activity steps columns to show: ‐
‐ step name: ‐ the name of this part of the activity.
‐ step weight: ‐ it is the step weight of the activity.
‐ the step weight percentage: ‐ the percentage of the step weight to the total weights of all steps
(the total of steps percentage weight must be 100%).
‐ % complete: ‐ the progress % complete of the activity step.
‐ Completed: ‐ check the box when the activity step is completed (% complete 100%).

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‐ From the right window click modify to write a hint or description of the activity step.

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CONSTRAINTS
‐ We click on the status tab in the activity details at the bottom of the screen.
CONSTRAINTS TYPES
 Start On imposes the specific start date you choose. The Start On
constraint can delay an activity's early start or move forward an
activity's late start to satisfy the constraint date.
 Start On or before defines the latest date an activity can start. This
constraint only affects late dates and may decrease total float. When
calculating a schedule, P6 Web Access imposes the start on or before
constraint in the backward pass only if the calculated late start date
will be later than the imposed date.
 Start On or after defines the earliest date an activity can begin.

This constraint affects only early dates. When calculating a schedule,
P6 Web Access imposes the start on or after constraint in the forward
pass only if the calculated early start date will be earlier than the
imposed date.
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
 Finish On imposes the specific finish date you choose. The Finish On
constraint can delay an activity's early finish or move forward an
activity's late finish to satisfy the constraint date.

 Finish On or before defines the latest time an activity can finish.
The finish on or before constraint affects only late dates.

 Finish On or after defines the earliest date an activity can finish.
The finish on or after constraint reduces float to coordinate parallel
activities, ensuring that the finish of an activity is not scheduled
before the specified date. It is usually applied to activities with few
predecessors that must finish before the next phase of a project.

 As Late as Possible imposes a restriction on an activity with positive
float to allow it to start as late as possible without delaying its
successors. When calculating a schedule, P6 Web Access sets the
activity's early dates as late as possible without affecting successor
activities.

 Mandatory Start imposes the early and late start dates you choose.
P6 Web Access uses the mandatory early start date regardless of its
effect on network logic. A mandatory early start date could affect the
late dates for all activities that lead to the constrained activity and all
early dates for the activities that lead from the constrained activity.
 Mandatory Finish imposes the early and late finish dates you
choose. P6 Web Access uses the mandatory finish date regardless of
its effect on network logic. This constraint affects the late dates for all
activities that lead to the constrained activity and all early dates for
the activities that lead from the constrained activity.

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RELATIONSHIPS
Relationships types: ‐

1‐ F.S: ‐ FINISH TO START RELATIONSHIP.
2‐ S.S: ‐ START TO START RELATIONSHIP.
3‐ F.F: ‐ FINISH TO FINISH RELATIONSHIP.
4‐ F.S: ‐ START TO FINISH RELATIONSHIP.

LAGS & LEADS: ‐

Lag is the number of planning units an activity (successor) is delayed instead of starting
at its previous date.
Lag can be positive or negative. Negative lags are also called as lead
LOGICAL SEQUENCE IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT
In project management, a predecessor is an activity that precedes another activity – not in the
chronological sense but according to their dependency to each other. A predecessor activity can
have several direct successor activities.
To determine the direct predecessors of an activity, you must clarify which activities you must
complete before you can start the activity you’re currently looking at (reasons can be technical,
organizational or methodological in nature).
To determine the direct successors, you must clarify which activities can only begin after you
completed the current activity (reasons can be technical, organizational or methodological in
nature).
Predecessors usually precede their successors in a chronological order, but there are some (very
few) cases where the successor starts before its predecessor (start-to-end – see dependencies).
This is a rare case however and it’s often hard to comprehend as it goes against our notion
of time.
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‐To add the relationships to an activity from activity details press the relationship tab
‐From the left side press (assign) to select the predecessor of the activity
‐From the right‐side press (assign) to select the successor of the activity
‐We can select more than one predecessor or successor to an activity
‐To delete an assignment press (remove)
‐To move on to another activity of the predecessors or the successors press (go to)

‐Right click on the predecessor or successor columns to customize the columns

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Choose the columns you need to use from the menu
‐Choose relationship type & driving if not appeared

‐Choose the relationship from the list in the relationship type column

If driving column checked this means the predecessor is driving the start date of the
current activity

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HARD LOGIC AND SOFT LOGIC

‐ Hard logic
‐ In project management, tasks are dependent on other tasks. This means that tasks are
related with one another. The dependency of the tasks determines the order of activities
within the project schedule.
‐ The mandatory dependency, also called hard logic, are those that are inherent to the
project or work. Thus, this particular dependency indicates that Task B cannot proceed
unless the requirements of Task A have been satisfied.
‐ Unfortunately, this particular task relationship is highly constrained. Take note that
the predecessor task should be completed even before the successor task can start. It is
important to take note that this a natural constraint that all project managers following this
type of dependency should deal with. This is the reason why it is so crucial for the project
manager to identify all tasks effectively, set appropriate time to complete the tasks and
also plan for contingency in case the task is not completed on the desired date.
‐ Soft logic
-A relationship that is established based on knowledge of best practices within a particular
application area or an aspect of the project where a specific sequence is desired. Based
on project management in terms of time, discretionary dependency is sometimes referred
to as preferred logic, preferential logic or soft logic.
-It is established based on knowledge of best practices within a particular application area
or some unusual aspect of the project where a specific sequence is desired, even though
there may be other acceptable sequences.
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ACTIVITY ID

‐ The activity ID is unique can’t be repeated

‐ By default, the activity ID is consisting of prefix (A) and suffix (1000) which increases by

Constant increment of 10

‐ We can adjust the activity ID by a coding system to be more representable to the activity

Example: ‐

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

M V S T 0 1 R C . 1 0 0 0

Where: ‐

1 & 2 is project name (M project)

3 & 4 is building type (standalone villa)

5 & 6 is the building number (01)

7 & 8 is the type of work done (reinforced concrete)

9&10&11&12 is the suffix and increased by a constant increment (10) to the next activities.

Renumber activity ID
Select the group of activities to modify
the activity ID then right click to press
on (renumber activity ID)

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‐ choose the auto number option and type the new ID prefix and use the suffix 1000 with increment
value 10 to adjust the activities ID

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ACTIVITY DURATION

Activity duration = (budgeted units /productivity rates*no. of crew)
Example: ‐

Activity name: ‐ reinforced concrete foundations
Budgeted units: ‐ 500 m3
Carpentry productivity rate: ‐ 5 m3 /day
No. of crews: ‐ 5 crews
Activity duration = 500m3 / (5 m3 per day * 5 crew) = 20 days

DURATION TYPES
In preparing project time schedules in Oracle’s Primavera P6, project planning and scheduling
professionals need to properly select duration types. Primavera P6 uses the following two
formulae to determine units of work:
Resource Units = Resource Units per Time Unit * Duration

Remaining Resource Units = Resource Units per Time Unit * Remaining Duration
Based on these two formulae, the user is able to make one or two element(s) of the equation
fixed, and input or change the other element(s). That way, Primavera P6 will calculate the
remaining elements of the equation. To determine which element(s) of the formula to solidify,
the users need to take the nature of the work or information at-hand into account and make
an informed decision concerning the elements that need to be solidified. This decision then
helps the user to choose among the four main types of activity duration types.
Four types of activity duration types can be defined in Primavera P6. They include

1) Fixed Duration & Units,
2) Fixed Duration & Units/Time,
3) Fixed Units, and
4) Fixed Units/Time.
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The following discusses each of these activity duration types in more depth:
1‐Fixed Duration & Units: This type of activity duration is used in Primavera P6 when the
duration and the amount of the resources are known and supposed to remain fixed in the
schedule. It is recommended that project planning and scheduling professionals use this duration
type for time‐ and budget‐ constrained projects prior to making schedule updates. The two
possibilities include the following:
 Option 1: Duration does not change when resources are added or removed, or if the user
changes Units/Time.
 Option 2: A change to the Duration will change the Units/Time; however, Units remains
unchanged.
2‐Fixed Duration & Units/Time: This type of activity duration is used in Primavera P6 when the
duration and resource performance are known and are supposed to remain fixed (i.e., unchanged)
in the schedule. In other words, activity durations remain unchanged in the schedule; however,
the remaining units change. If an activity is supposed to be completed within a certain, fixed time
frame irrespective of the number or amount of resources being assigned to the activity, this
activity duration type is the right choice that needs to be used for that activity. This activity
duration type is most often used if the user uses task dependent activities (not resource
dependent activities). The two possibilities include the following:
 Option 1: Duration does not change when resources are added or removed, or when
Units/Time changes.
 Option 2: A change to the Duration will change the Units; however, Units/Time remains
unchanged.
The use of this activity duration type locks the duration, and the default Units/Time (productivity)
values for each resource added. Nevertheless, this activity duration types allows the overall Unit
cost to increase when resources are assigned to the activity. It is recommended that project
planning and scheduling professionals use this duration type during the planning phase because
doing so will force Primavera P6 to honor activity duration estimates and increase the work (Units)
and, therefore, the budget, based on additional quantities of work performed (Units/Time).
It is important to note that this duration type disables the User Preferences, Calculations tab
option Recalculate the Units, Duration, and Units/Time for existing assignments based on the
activity types.
3‐Fixed Units: Primavera P6 users need to use this type of activity duration if the amount of work
needed to complete an activity (e.g., 8,000 bricks to be laid) is fixed. If this type of activity duration
is used, decreasing units per time causes the activity duration to increase; however, if the user
updates the duration or units per time, the Units remain unchanged. Increasing the resources
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allocated to an activity whose duration types is Fixed Unit, decreases the activity duration. It is
best to use this activity duration type where the duration is “resource dependent” (and not “task
dependent”). If in a project, the budget is set and it is difficult to get additional cost increases
approved, the Fixed Units activity duration type is the right choice assuming the other above‐
mentioned requirements are also satisfied.
4‐ Fixed Units/Time: Primavera P6 users need to use this type of activity duration if the activity
has fixed productivity output per time period (regardless of activity duration). In other words, this
duration type is supposed to be used when the user would like the resource units per time to
remain unchanged while the activity duration or units change. For example, if a piece of
equipment requires two workers to operate, the Fixed Units/Time duration type might be the right
choice. When the duration of an activity whose duration type is Fixed Units/Time increases, the
amount of budgeted labor units also increases while resource Units/Time remains unchanged. This
activity duration type is most often used if the user uses resource‐dependent activities.

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ACTIVITY CODING

*From enterprise choose activity codes

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‐Then create new activity code from the modify button
‐Then select the activity code and add the codes and insert the code value and
code description and the color
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Then from the activity layout window ‐view‐ columns select the activity code to be
displayed in the layout then for every activity insert its code value. This will help in
filtering and grouping and sorting of activities.
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GANTT CHART
‐ To show the Gantt chart press the Gantt chart icon to appear

‐ To make it disappear press the table icon to show the table of activities only

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 * Or from view – show on top – Gantt chart


‐ Press right click on the chart to show these options

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1‐ Press bars option to show this window

This window allows to show different bars on the schedule which represent different types of
activities
 We can modify this bar color and width and shape from the bar style
 We can adjust the bar labels too and bar position on the bar & bar settings

2‐ Press bar chart options

Gives us the options to show the relationships and legend on the bar chart
And also, the option of adjusting the different lines of the chart and how to appear
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3‐ Press time scale

We use it to adjust the date format (year/month ‐ month/week ‐ week/day ….)

Or use ordinal dates to count the months or weeks (1‐2‐3‐4‐…….)

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SCHEDULING
*after adding the activities & activities ID & activities durations & activity relationships Now
we ready to schedule the program.
**but first we must know how to add columns in the layout.
From view choose columns
‐ We can add the calendar column to choose the assigned calendar for each activity
‐ The original duration column to enter the duration for every activity.
FLOAT TYPES
Total float: ‐ The total amount of time that a schedule activity may be delayed from its early
start date without delaying the project finish date, or violating a schedule constraint.
Total Float = LF - EF (or LS - ES)

Where ES = Early Start, EF = Early Finish, LS = Late Start, and LF = Late Finish
Free float: ‐ The amount of time that a schedule activity can be delayed without delaying the
early start date of any immediately following schedule activities.
Free Float = ES of next activity – EF

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To schedule the project from tools (schedule) or F9

Press schedule to make primavera proceed in calculating the planned
dates (start and finish) for activities based on the activity durations &
relationships and to determine the critical path of the project.

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CRITICAL PATH METHOD (CPM)
The critical path is the longest duration path through a network diagram, it
determines the shortest time to complete the project”. In other words, once you
determined the critical path, you will have the project duration.
*the critical activities which represent the critical path have a total float equal zero
and if delayed this means the delay of the project.
*the project may have more than a one critical path.

Critical path method example: ‐
Now we have seven activities: ‐

Where

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 Create a project network

 Perform forward and backward passes
 Determine project completion date and duration

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 Calculate floats (slack values)
 State the critical path
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PERT TECHNIQUE
Program Evaluation and review technique (PERT) is a technique for estimating. It applies a
weighted average of optimistic, pessimistic, and most likely estimates when there is
uncertainty with the individual task/activity estimates. So, PERT is a method to evaluate and
estimate the time required to complete a task. This is like a Three-Point estimate but here
we give more weightage to the most likely estimate. The accuracy of single-point task
duration estimates may be improved by considering estimation uncertainty and risk. This
concept originated with the program evaluation and review technique (PERT). PERT uses
three estimates to define an approximate range for a task’s duration:
Most likely estimate (M): This estimate is based on the duration of the task, given the
resources likely to be assigned, their productivity, realistic expectations of availability for
the activity, dependencies on other participants, and interruptions.
Optimistic (O): The task duration based on analysis of the best-case scenario for the task.
This will tell the minimum time the task may take.
Pessimistic (P): The task duration based on analysis of the worst-case scenario for the task.
This will tell the maximum time a task can potentially take.
Now let us see how we do estimates using three-point (Triangular Distribution) and PERT.
Let “E” be the estimated time taken for the task after calculation.
The formulas are:
• Three-point estimate / Triangular Distribution: E = (O + M + P) / 3
• PERT: E = (O + 4M + P) / 6

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PERT vs CPM
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RESOURCES
Types of resources: ‐

1‐ Material
2‐ Machine
3‐ Manpower the 5 M
4‐ Money
5‐ Methods

 In primavera there is three types of resources
[material – labor (manpower) – non‐labor (machine)]
*adding resources: ‐
1‐ From enterprise press resources then the resources layout will appear

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Or you can press this button

The resource layout will appear like this

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2‐ to add a new resource press add from the right side as usual

3‐Add the resource ID and resource name
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4‐Choose the resource type and the unit of measure if the resource type is material

5‐Add the price per unit

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6‐Add the resource communication data

7‐Choose the roles.

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8‐Choose the resource calendar.

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9‐Choose auto compute actuals for this resource to make primavera calculate the actual units of
the resource with the same as the percent complete of the activity

10‐And finally press finish
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 We can add columns to the layout (unit of measure ‐resource type ‐resource ID –
resource name) and modify the data of any resource.

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 Also, we can modify the price per unit for any resource from the down side window

 Or, we can modify the resource details (resource type ‐calendar‐unit of measure ‐
currency) from the tab details

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ASSIGN RESOURCES
‐From the activity’s layout choose the activity to assign the resources
‐From the activity details window choose resources tab

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Press assign resource and a menu of the resources dictionary will appear

Choose the resources you want to assign to the activity

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From the resource tab choose budgeted units’ column and budgeted cost

Add the budgeted units (quantities) and the program will calculate

the budget cost = (budgeted units * price per unit)

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LEVELLING RESOURCES
Primavera P6 Professional has the capability to level resource allocations when they become
overloaded across a number of activities. This can be a particularly valuable feature when you
have a resource constrained project that includes a scarce resource whose skills cannot easily be
hired in to overcome shortfalls.
 Firstly, define the max units per time for the resource
 Open the activity window
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 Open the resource usage profile
Now we have two activities at the same time with the same resource, each activity has a 6
units per day of this activity with budgeted units per day as a total equal 12 unit per day.
The allowable max units per day for this resource is 10 units per day so we need to level these
activities.
But first we need to determine the activity levelling priority, from columns select activity
levelling priority.
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This option can be done for the projects too, choose from the projects window the project
levelling priority column and select number from 1 to 10 (the lower the number, the higher
the priority) that as we can level the resource for a group of projects.
 Now from tools select level resources
The levelling window will appear
Leveling Priorities:
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 Field Name: Lists the fields by which to prioritize resources when leveling. Priorities are used
only when more than one activity competes for the same resource at the same time.
 Sort Order: The order in which to level resources according to the field names displayed.
Double-click the Sort Order field to choose Ascending, Descending, or Hierarchy (option only
appears for fields that are hierarchical).
 Log to file: Mark to record your leveling results in a log file (.txt). Enter the name of the file in
which you want to save your leveling results. Click to select a new file.
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Level Resources Dialog Box Definitions:
 Automatically level resources when scheduling: Mark to automatically level resources each
time you schedule a project.
 Consider assignments in other projects with priority equal/higher than Mark to include
resource assignments in other projects within the range of the leveling priority you specify
when determining if a resource is over-allocated. Assignments in closed projects are considered.
For example, if you mark the checkbox and specify a leveling priority of 5 in this field, the
leveler considers all projects with a project leveling priority of 1,2,3,4, and 5. The leveling
priority ranges from 1 (highest priority) to 100 (lowest priority). Set a project’s leveling priority
on the General tab of the Projects Window.
 Preserve scheduled early and late dates: Mark to preserve the early and late dates that were
calculated during project scheduling.
 Recalculate assignment costs after leveling: Mark to recalculate resource and role costs after
leveling resources/roles in the projects. Use this option to calculate the costs of resource/role
assignments that are assigned multiple rates.
 Level all resources: Mark to level all resources. When not marked, you can select which specific
resources you want to level.
 Level resources only within activity Total Float: Mark to delay activities with resource conflicts
only up to their late finish date.
 Preserve minimum float when leveling: The amount of float you want to maintain when
activities are delayed because of resource conflicts. You can type a new number and time unit.
NOTE: This field is always converted to hours, regardless of the time unit you enter.
 Max percent to over-allocate resources: The maximum percentage by which resource
availability can be increased during resource-leveling. This increased resource availability is
used to level if resources on an activity cannot be leveled after using up the activity’s float limit.
You can type a new percentage.
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Press level button to level the resources
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RECALCULATE ASSIGNMENT COSTS
Whenever any of the five (5) possible price per unit values changes for a resource or role
already assigned to activities, run the Recalculate Assignment Costs feature. This feature
recalculates any changed assignment costs.
You should also run this feature during scheduling or leveling because dates will change
and resources might be using time varying rates. This means their activities can shift into
periods with different effective prices. Therefore, the costs would have to be recalculated.
The Recalculate Assignment Costs feature only applies to currently open projects. This
provides project managers with control over recalculating costs only when prices have
changed.
When another user changes prices for resources or roles, P6 will display a message
indicating that the Recalculate Assignment Costs feature should be run in order for project
assignments to use the new values.
 From tools select recalculate assignments cost.
The budgeted cost will be recalculated as per the price changes.
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RESOURCE ASSIGNMENT
Use the Resource Assignments window to view all resource assignments for all currently
opened projects. You can also display resource cost and quantity information in a
spreadsheet. You can group, sort, and filter resource assignments, customize columns,
and open and save resource assignment layouts.
‐ From project menu, choose Resource Assignments.
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We can use the spread sheets at the right side as the resource usage spread sheet to
display the budget units or budget cost or whatever the data we want to display by clicking
customize and select the type of date to display through time intervals.
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RESOURCE CURVES
From resources tab press right click to customize resource columns

From general add curve
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(Resource curve is a tool used to distribute the resources across the
activity duration)
Choose from the list the curve shape to distribute the resources budget units as this curve

We can adjust a distribution of our own for the resources budgeted units by create a user
defined curve.
‐ From enterprise choose resource curve
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‐ Choose add to create a new curve
‐ Choose an existing curve to copy from and modify to create the new curve

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We created a new curve and we can rename it
Press modify to modify the resource distribution

We can change the curve value % to the new distribution (for example to distribute the resource
to be loaded on the first 50% of the duration)
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BUCKET PLANNING
A bucket is another term for “time period.” In Primavera applications, we can view, enter,
and edit activity and assignment data in various buckets, such as daily, weekly, monthly,
quarterly, yearly, and financial period. The term “bucket” is generally used in future period
bucket planning, which enables us to manually enter and edit assignment data for some
activities in future.
When we specify an activity’s total budgeted or planned units, the budgeted or planned
units for an assignment to that activity are spread evenly across the duration of the activity,
in the timescale increment we choose. For example, a four-week activity with 80 budgeted
or planned units is spread as follows, assuming a weekly timescale:
Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4
20h 20h 20h 20h
However, our projects may contain activities for which we know work will be performed
sporadically and at varying levels of effort. For these activities, we can do either of the
following to more accurately capture when we plan for work to be performed on an
activity:
 Assign a curve to a resource or role assignment.

 Manually enter future period assignment values.
While assigning a resource curve to the resource/role assignment will yield more accurate
results than spreading units evenly across the duration of an activity, the work we plan to
perform per period on an activity may not be fully reflected by the curve. As a result,
performance against the project plan cannot be accurately measured.
To achieve the most precise resource/role distribution plan, we can manually enter the
budgeted or planned resource/role allocation per assignment in the timescale unit we choose
(days, weeks, months, quarters, years, or financial periods). For example, assume an activity has
an original or planned duration of 28 days and budgeted or planned units of 80 hours. For this
activity, we know that the actual work will not be spread evenly across the duration of the
activity; rather, the budgeted or planned units will be spread as follows:
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Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4
10h 30h 15h 25h
By manually entering the planned resource/role distribution in future period assignment

buckets, we can create an accurate baseline plan to measure against current project progress. As
the current project schedule progresses and we apply actuals, we can track how the project is
performing against plan by comparing the project’s budgeted or planned future periods to the
current project’s actuals.
If work on an activity is not proceeding according to plan, we can manually update the
remaining units for an assignment’s future periods, enabling you to measure the remaining
work for an assignment without changing the original plan. Alternatively, if we choose to re-
estimate future work based on changes to the project schedule, we can edit an assignment’s
future period budgeted or planned units
while the activity is in progress; if many assignment’s require re-estimation, we can establish a
new baseline plan based on our changes.
Tips
 We can compare the planned future period resource distribution to actual units and
costs in the Resource Usage Profile, Resource Usage Spreadsheet, Activity Usage
Profile, Activity Usage Spreadsheet, time-distributed reports, and the Tracking window.
If we plan your project work in defined financial periods, after we store period
performance, we can compare the resource distribution we planned to the project’s past
period actuals.
 Activity costs, including earned value and planned value, are calculated using the
planned future period resource distribution we define for activity assignments.
Primavera bucket planning method: -
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 From resource assignment window right click on resource usage spread sheet and
select budgeted units from spread sheets fields.
 Adjust the time scale to show the resource distribution on the desired time scale.
 Manually distribute the resource budgeted units on the time scale.
 Note that the resource curve type changed to be manual.
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RESOURCE LAG
‐ When multiple resources assigned to an activity and one resource have to be lagged from
the other resources so we can adjust the lag in the resource tab in the activity details
Noting that the resources have a start and finish date from the original activity dates and
after defining the resource lag the activity duration will be adjusted according to the
resource lag
Also, we can adjust the start and finish dates manually of the resources and then the
activity duration will be adjusted.
After adding the resource lag
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USAGE SPREAD SHEETS AND PROFILES
‐ From view select show on bottom and from the drop-down menu select any of the
following: -
1- No bottom layout
2- Details (activity details)
3- Activity table
4- Gantt chart
5- Activity usage spread sheet
6- Resource usage spread sheet
7- Activity usage profile
8- Resource usage profile
9- Trace logic
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ACTIVITY USAGE SPREAD SHEET

The Activity Usage Spreadsheet displays activity data in a spreadsheet format. View
baseline, budgeted or planned, actual, remaining, and at completion values or review
information such as earned value cost, actual labor and nonlabor units, and remaining total
cost for the activities in your project.
The Activity Usage Spreadsheet is split into two panes. The left pane displays the Activity
Table, including all the columns, grouping, sorting, and filtering options defined for the
Activity Table. The right pane displays timescaled spreadsheet data for each activity; you
can specify the data fields you want to include.

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By right click on the right pane we can adjust the data displayed of the activities

‐ We can adjust the time scale options
‐ Zoom in and zoom out
‐ Spread sheet fields to adjust fields to appear in the spread sheet. we can select fields to appear for
time intervals or cumulative or both.

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RESOURCE USAGE SPREAD SHEET
Use the Resource Usage Spreadsheet to analyze quantity or cost usage for resources or
roles. For every role and resource in the project, you can review cost or quantity
information for a specific project or for all projects across the enterprise (total allocation).
You can also select the spreadsheet fields to specify which cost or quantity information
you want to view and set the timescale for displaying data values. If you have the
appropriate security privilege, you can manually enter values for budgeted or planned and
remaining (early) units in the spreadsheet.
When you choose to display information for all projects, the bottom layout is divided into two panes.
 The left pane lists all the resources or roles stored in the hierarchy, depending on your current view.
 The right pane displays the values for the activities assigned to each resource or role.
When you choose to display information only for a specific project, the bottom layout is divided into three
panes.
 The left pane lists all the resources or roles stored in the hierarchy, depending on your current view.
 The middle pane displays all of the activity assignments for the resource or role currently selected in
the left pane.
 The right pane displays the values for the activities assigned to the resource or role currently
selected in the left pane.
‐ To display roles in the left pane
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click the Display Options bar in the left pane of the Resource Usage Spreadsheet, then
choose Select View, By Role
‐ To display the resource data for all project right click on the right pane then select show all
projects.
‐ Right click on the right pane to adjust the time scale or user preferences or spread sheet
options.
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‐ Or select the spread sheet fields
‐ We can select the data to display (time interval, cumulative or both)
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ACTIVITY USAGE PROFILE
 Use the Activity Usage Profile to view cost or unit values for activities in the open
project over time according to a timescale you specify. The Activity Usage Profile
displays resource allocations for all activities or for the activities you select in the
Activity Table, Activity Usage Spreadsheet, Gantt Chart, or the Activity Network.
 The Activity Usage Profile can display labor, nonlabor, material, and expense costs
and labor and nonlabor units allocated to the activities in your project over time.
Costs and units allocated to activities for each period in the timescale are
represented as vertical bars. You can also display curves for charting cumulative
costs or units over time.
From the left pane you can filter the Activity Usage Profile to include all activities displayed
in the top layout, or to include only the activities you select in the top layout. You can also
filter the top layout to display only those activities that correspond to the time period you
select in the bottom layout.
Right click on the right pane to modify the timescale options or activity usage profile
options.
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Activity usage profile options: -
**The data tab: -
‐ Display: - cost or units

‐ Filter for bars / curves: -
*if we choose to display cost (filter the type of resource to be displayed in the bars and
curves from labor, nonlabor, material, expenses or the total)
*if we choose to display units (filter the type of resource to be displayed in the bars and
curves from labor, nonlabor or the total)
‐ Show bars/curves: - to select the type of data to be displayed on the curve and also to
show data by date intervals or cumulative and the color of each type of data.
‐ Show earned value curves: - to select the earned value curves to display in the chart
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**The graph tab: -
This to adjust the graph lines and display options
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RESOURCE USAGE PROFILE
Use the Resource Usage Profile to analyze quantity or cost usage for resources or roles.
You can view a resource's or role's cost and quantity data for a specific project or for all
projects across the enterprise (total allocation).
Define the profile to specify whether you want to display cost or quantity information and
set the timescale for displaying data values. Choose to display past period actual or actual
to date values in bars and curves. Choose to display vertical bars to represent costs or
units allocated to your resources for each time period, and include cumulative curves to
represent accumulated units and costs over time.
From this profile it displays the resource limit (max units per time) and the over allocating
units of the resources.
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‐ The left pane shows the resources or roles and the right pane is for the profile charts
‐ Right click to the right pane to: -
1- show all projects: - to display the data of the resource for all the projects
2- stacked histogram: - to display stacked histogram for more than one
resource
3- Timescale: - to modify the time scale options
4- Resource usage profile options: - to modify the data displayed in the curve.
5- User preferences: - to adjust the user preferences
6- Zoom in & out
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Resource usage profile options:-
‐ Display: - cost or units

‐ Show bars/curves: - to select the type of data to be displayed on the curve and also to
show data by date intervals or cumulative and the color of each type of data.
‐ Show remained bars as: - to determine to show the total remaining
‐ Additional data options: - to select to show the max limits of the resource and the
overallocation and the overtime
‐ Select the graph tab to modify the chart graph options.
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TRACE LOGIC
At the heart of most scheduling software is the Gantt chart. But using the Primavera P6
trace logic feature is useful if you are interested in better understanding the relationships
between activities.
Trace Logic is a tool in Primavera P6 Professional that enables you to step through or
“trace” through schedule activities in order to focus in on activity predecessor and
successor relationships. The Trace Logic tool displays relationships for any activity you
select in the Activity Table or Gantt chart. It also works or displays relationships for any
activity selected on the Activity Network. Trace Logic allows you to dive into the schedule
to better understand an activity’s placement in the schedule.
-from view select show on bottom then trace logic
Highlight the respective activity in the Activity Table or Gantt chart and view its trace logic
in the bottom pane.
To better understand and interpret the trace logic consider the following trace logic chart
features:
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 Activity boxes outlined in red are critical activities, while activities outlined in black
are non-critical.
 Solid red lines denote critical relationships, and solid black lines are non-critical.
 Dashed lines represent non-driving relationships, whereas solid lines specify driving
relationships.
** You may limit the number of predecessors and successors viewed on the Trace Logic chart by
selecting the Layout drop down menu and Bottom Layout Options.
You may also define the contents of the activity boxes by selecting View - Activity Network
- Activity Network Options.
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From activity box template tab define the data to display at the activity box.
From activity network layout define activity network layout and organization options.
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MAINTAIN AND ASSIGN BASELINE
Assign baseline: -
in order to update any schedule, we should first assign a baseline to compare with.
From project choose maintain baseline

Press add to maintain a schedule as a baseline
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We have two options
1‐ Save the current project as a new baseline
2‐ Convert another unopened project as a new baseline, if we choose this option a list of
the projects will appear to choose one of them
 Then the baseline will appear as follows

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From project choose assign baseline

Choose the baseline to assign to the current project

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Set the baseline as primary baseline as you can add several baselines to a single project

Now you have a baseline assigned to the project.

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UPDATING SCHEDULE

% complete types: -
Duration % Complete
Duration % Complete type is used when the remaining duration value is calculated directly
from the Activity % Complete field.
Physical % Complete
Physical % Complete type is used when the physical work achieved does not correlate
directly to the remaining duration; the production rate is not constant.
Units % Complete
Units % Complete models the situation where you have multiple resources working at
different burn rates.
‐ From projects layout choose the specified project and enter to the defaults tab and choose the
default type of (% complete) to set on the activities

** also, you can set default options for the project such as (the calendar ‐activity type ...etc.)
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From the activity details choose general and set the (% complete type) for the activity
For each activity We can set different type of % complete.

From the activity details choose the status tab

‐ Now update the actual status of the activity by checking on the start and finish and set the
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actual start and finish dates (if the activity finished) and the % complete will automatically 100%

‐ If the activity started and not finished yet, from the duration % complete enter the actual
complete percentage and the remaining duration be calculated automatically as per the
remaining percentage

‐ If we use physical percentage complete we will enter the remaining duration manually

** To update the schedule: from tools choose schedule

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Determine the data date & press schedule button
**Press options in the schedule window
We have many options to use during updating
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Difference between retain logic & progress override

When using Retained Logic, the activity that starts out of sequence cannot finish until
its predecessor has finished. The remaining duration of the out of sequence activity will
be scheduled to begin after the predecessor is scheduled to finish. Retained Logic
respects the network logic.
When scheduling using Progress Override, Primavera P6 ignores the relationship
between the activities and schedules any remaining duration of the “out of sequence”
activity from the data date.
out of sequence activities

it is any activity that is in-progress or has completed before one or more of its predecessors.
This condition is reported in the warnings section of the P6 Professional
**check (log to file) in the schedule window and after scheduling press view log.

4‐ the log file show different information & statistics about the current project as
follows: ‐
‐ general data about the general settings used in the schedule
‐ statistics of the schedule as (no of activities‐no of relationships ‐…. etc.)
‐ errors & warnings (activities without predecessor‐activities without successor‐ out of
sequence activities ‐…etc.)
‐ scheduling & levelling results.
‐ Exceptions (critical activities ‐Activities with unsatisfied constraints‐Activities with
unsatisfied relationships‐…etc.)
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After we update the status of all activities at the current date now we can show the columns
that show the earned value & planned value & SPI of the project to measure the progress of
the project at all and whether the project is ahead of schedule or behind schedule.
EARNED VALUE MANAGEMENT
Planned Value
Planned Value describes how far along project work is supposed to be at any given
point in the project schedule and cost estimate. Cost and Schedule baseline refers
to the physical work scheduled and the approved budget to accomplish the
scheduled work. Together, they result in an important value: Planned Value (PV).
PV can be looked at in two ways: cumulative and current.
Cumulative PV is the sum of the approved budget for activities scheduled to be

performed to date. Current PV is the approved budget for activities scheduled to
be performed during a given period. This period could represent days, weeks,
months, etc.
PV, also known as Budget Cost of Work Scheduled (BCWS),

Actual Costs
Actual Cost (AC), also called actual expenditures, is the cost incurred for executing
work on a project. This figure tells you what you have spent and, as with Planned
Value, can be looked at in terms of cumulative and current. Cumulative AC is the
sum of the actual cost for activities performed to date. Current AC is the actual
costs of activities performed during a given period. This period could represent
days, weeks, months, etc. AC is also called Actual Cost of Work Performed
(ACWP).
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Earned Value
To report the accomplishments of the project, you must apply Earned Value (EV)
to the figures and calculations in the project. EV is the quantification of the
“worth” of the work done to date. In other words, EV tells you, in physical terms,
what the project has accomplished. As with PV and AC, EV can be presented in a
Cumulative and Current fashion. Cumulative EV is the sum of the budget for the
activities accomplished to date. Current EV is the sum of the budget for the
activities accomplished in a given period. Earned Value is also called Budgeted
Cost of Work Performed (BCWP).

Planned Value (PV) is determined by the cost and schedule baseline. Actual Cost
(AC) is determined by the actual cost incurred on the project. Earned Value (EV)
tells you, in physical terms, what the project accomplished.
Item Questions
Planned Value (PV) How much work should be done?
Earned Value (EV) How much work was done?
Actual Cost (AC) How much did the work cost?
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Schedule Performance Index
The SPI is defined by PMI’s PMBOK® Guide as “a measure of schedule efficiency

on a project. It is the ratio of earned value (EV) to planned value (PV). The SPI is
equal to earned value divided by planned value, SPI = EV/PV. An SPI equal to or
greater than one indicates a favorable condition and a value of less than one
indicates an unfavorable condition.” (PMI, 2004, p. 374 For example, should your
calculation show a SPI of 1.1, that translate to your project recognizing $1.10 for
every $1.00 spent to date on your project. Assuming your SPI efficiency remains
throughout the reminder of work; your project will finish ahead of schedule.
Cost Performance Index
The CPI is defined by PMI’s PMBOK® Guide as a “measure of cost efficiency on a

project. It is the ratio of earned value (EV) to actual costs (AC). The CPI is equal to
the earned value divided by the actual costs, CPI = EV / AC.” (PMI, 2004, p. 356 A
CPI equal to or greater than one indicates a favorable condition and a value of less
than one indicates an unfavorable condition. For example, should your calculation
show a CPI of $0.90, which translates to your project recognizing $0.90 for every
$1.00 spent to date on your project. Assuming your CPI efficiency remains the
same throughout the reminder of work; your project will be over budget.
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** go to the activity’s layout – from view – columns
‐ Choose from the earned value columns group
(Earned value cost-planned value cost-schedule performance index-schedule variance) to
show the project status and performance.
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UPDATE PROGRESS AND APPLY ACTUALS
In Primavera, when you need to make a quick update of project (Let’s say everything
goes as it’s planned) we have 2 ways of automatically update progress:
 Apply Actuals
 Update Progress
-from tools select apply actual or update progress
Apply actuals: -
The Apply Actuals function will update any activities with the “Auto Compute Actuals”
checkbox marked
From view select columns then select general- (auto compute actuals)
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make sure to check both the activity auto compute actuals and the resource auto
complete actuals to apply actuals the activity.
Note that: -
-If the activity has auto compute actuals not checked and its resources has auto compute
actuals checked, the activity will update actuals
From tools select apply actuals
Select the data date which you want to update the selected activities (in range of the current
date to the selected data date) with its planned dates.
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Update progress: -
the Update Progress (Progress Spotlight) feature will update activities which fall within
the spotlighted region regardless the status of “Auto Compute Actuals” checkbox.
From tools select update progress.
Select the data date which you want to update all the activities (in range of the current date
to the selected data date) with its planned dates.
And this is the rule when Primavera automatically apply the Actual (in both option):
 Apply an Actual Start to all Activities that have a Planned Start < Data Date. The
Actual Start is set to the Planned Start.
 Level of Efforts and WBS Summary activities get their dates from other activities.
 Planned Finish is not changed.
 Calculates Remaining Duration as the Early Finish-New Data Date.
 Calculates Actual Duration as Original Duration-Remaining Duration.
 Calculates Actual Units as Activity % Complete * At Complete Units.
 If Planned Finish is < Data Date, then an Actual Finish will be applied. The Actual
Finish is set to the Planned Finish.
 Actuals are subtracted from Budgeted values to calculate Remaining values.
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ROLES
What is a Role?
Roles are project personnel job titles or skills, such as mechanical engineer, inspector, or
carpenter. They represent a type of resource with a certain level of proficiency, rather than a
specific individual. Roles can also be assigned to specific resources to further identify that
resource’s skills. For example, a resource may have a role of an engineer and manager.
You can temporarily assign roles during the planning stages of the project to see how
certain resources affect the schedule. Once you finalize your plans, you can replace the
roles with resources that fulfill the role skill levels. Five proficiency levels can be
assigned to roles: Master, Expert, Skilled, Proficient and Inexperienced.
‐ from enterprise select roles.
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‐ From the roles window add new role and select general to add the role ID and role name and
the description of the role
‐ select resources tab to assign resources to the role
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And then select the proficiency of this resource
select prices to add the role prices
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- select limits to add the maximum units per time and its effective date
** now from (activity details window-resource) we can assign a role to an activity by

pressing (add role) button.
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-by pressing the (assign by role button) we can select a resource assigned to the role
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EXPENSES
If you are looking for ways to assign costs to activities in Oracle Primavera P6 without
creating a global resource for every item, then you may find the Expenses feature
useful. A project expense can be many things: administration, travel, consulting,
software, facilities, training, you name it. The Expenses tool is also ideal for project-
specific material items, such as custom-built items that need to be identified in the
schedule, but again, don’t really belong in the resource pool.
In other words, Primavera P6 has advanced cost management capabilities. You can
assign resources, costs and expenses to activities easily. Expenses can be transportation,
consulting, training costs, wages, etc. Direct and indirect costs can be assigned to
activities as expenses without using the resources in Primavera P6. The expense tool is
useful for project specific material, labor and equipment costs.
-From activity details select expenses tab.
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-press add button at the bottom left to add a new expense.
-select the expense category
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-select the accrual type to determine the way of distribution of the cost on the activity
1- uniform over activity

2- end of activity
3- start of activity
-then we can fill the budgeted units & price per unit cells for this expense and the budgeted
cost will be calculated automatically and also, we can fill the vendor column cell with the
name of the vendor.
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THRESHOLDS AND ISSUES
A threshold is a user-defined trigger that identifies when the status of an activity has
exceeded or is close to moving beyond an acceptable range.
Thresholds are created by:

 Selecting thresholds from project tool bar.
 Add a new threshold.
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 Selecting a parameter ex. start date variance, cost variance, cost % of budget
 Set lower and upper values for the threshold’s range
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 Apply the threshold to a specific work breakdown structure
When you create a threshold for a specific WBS element, you can specify how you
monitor the WBS element.
1. You can monitor the threshold at the activity level.

2. You can monitor the threshold at the WBS level.
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The difference between the two ways of monitoring is how Primavera groups issues. If you
monitor a threshold at the activity level, then issues are created for each activity that violates
the threshold’s range. If you monitor thresholds at the WBS level, then the activities’ issues
will be summarized and reported at the WBS element, rather than each activity.
You can specify the issue status and priority
From details tab you can specify the time range to monitor the threshold
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Once you have defined a threshold in P6, it can be monitored to identify whether it has any
issues associated with it.
From tools select monitor threshold, press monitor.
The issues will appear in the details (threshold issues window)
Select an issue and go to the project issues layout.

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Issues
Select issues from the project toolbar
We can specify the expected resolution date of the issue
Write notes about this issue
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From tools select issue navigator
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WP’S and DOCUMENTS
Primavera P6’s Work Products and Documents feature enable schedulers’ to catalog
and keep track of all project-related documents and deliverables.
As a project progresses, it is possible to assign a work product or document to an
activity in your schedule.
‐ From project select WP’S & DOC’S: -
‐ Then add a new document
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Enter the document name the reference number and select the document status and select the
document category.
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‐ You can select the document category from a default list or create your own. To input a new
document category, select Admin | Admin Categories…. In the admin categories dialog select
the document categories.
‐ In the down side of the wp’s & docs window there is four tabs: -
1- General tab: - to add the document name and the reference number and select the
document status and select the document category and the revision date and the author
of this document.
2- Description: - to write a description of this document and its content.
3- Files: - to determine the document destination with two options the first private
location to select a destination at your desktop and the second public location if you
work on LAN of public network.
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4-assignments: - to assign this document to a specified activity
‐ We now can go the activities window and enter to the activity details and select WP’S &
docs.
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‐ To display this document, select details and then launch

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RISKS
Risks are uncertain events/conditions that have the potential to negatively (or positively)
impact project objectives.
Primavera P6 Professional includes an integrated Risk Management feature that enables you
to identify, categorize and prioritize risks, assign a responsible person for managing the risk,
assign risks to one or more activities that may be impacted by the risk, and conduct
qualitative analysis on each risk. Additionally, you have the ability to record a risk response.
P6 generates a “Risk Score” based on information that is entered for each risk. The “Risk
Score” can then be used to help you evaluate the significance of the risk.
‐ From project select risks.
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**then from this window or the (general tab) we can add a new risk.
‐ Now we can add the risk ID & risk name
‐ As we can identify the risk category from the default list in admin categories which we can
add more categories and modify it.
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‐ also identify the risk type (opportunity or threat). A threat will have a negative impact on
your project, while an opportunity will have a perceived benefit to the project.
‐ And identify the risk status
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‐ The different types of risk status: -
‐ Proposed: The risk is identified and awaits approval.

‐ Open: The risk is approved as a valid risk to the project.
‐ Active: The risk is currently impacting the project.
‐ Rejected (Closed): The risk is not seen as a valid risk to the project and therefore will
not be tracked and managed by the project manager. The data for this risk cannot be
modified once it is closed.
‐ Managed (Closed): The risk occurred and was successfully managed by the project
team and is no longer an active risk. The data for this risk cannot be modified once it is
closed.
‐ Impacted (Closed): The risk occurred, impacted the project and is no longer an active
risk. The data for this risk cannot be modified once it is closed.
‐ And identify the risk owner (owner or person responsible for resolving the risk)
‐ And fill (identified by) column who represent who identify this risk and (identified on) to
clear the date of identification of the risk.
‐ And the exposure start and finish will be filled automatically.
‐ Exposure Start: The earliest start date of all activities to which the risk is assigned. If
no activities are assigned to the risk, the Project Start date is shown.
‐ Exposure Finish: The latest finish date of all activities to which the risk is assigned. If
no activities are assigned to the risk, the Project Finish date is shown. If there is no
Project Finish date, the Project Schedule Finish data is shown. If there is no Project
Schedule Finish date, then the Project Must Finish On date is shown. If there is no
Project Must Finish On date, then the Project Start date is shown.
-Pre-Response Exposure Cost: The potential cost of the risk. The value for the Post-
Response Exposure Cost field is based on values selected for the Probability and Cost
fields, located under the Pre-Response section on the Risks, impact tab, and on cost
figures associated with the activities assigned to the risk or to the project, if no risk
assignments have been made.
The application calculates the Exposure Cost value using this equation: Exposure Cost
= Planned/Budgeted Total Cost * (Probability Midpoint * Cost Midpoint)
**Where the budgeted total cost is for the assigned activities of the risk or the total budgeted
total cost for the project if the risk not assigned to activities.
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Ex: -
if the project total cost =1,000,000
And the risk probability is high = (50% to 70%) MED-POINT IS 0.6
And the cost impact is medium = (10 % to 20%) MED-POINT IS 0.15
So, the exposure cost equals (1,000,000 L.E * 0.6*0.15) = 90,000 L.E
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Open the impact tab
From the left side enter the pre-response data

Probability: The probability of the risk occurring.
 <None> (Clears a previous selection, if any.)
 1 - Very High (70% or higher)
 2 - High (50% to 70%)
 3 - Medium (30% to 50%)
 4 - Low (10% to 30%)
 5 - Very Low (Up to 10%)
 6 - N (Negligible)
Schedule: The impact on the schedule if the risk occurs.
 2 - High (10% to 20%)
 3 - Medium (5% to 10%)
 4 - Low (1% to 5%)
 6 - N (Negligible)
Cost: The monetary impact on the project if the risk occurs.
 2 - High (20% to 40%)
 3 - Medium (10% to 20%)
 4 - Low (1% to 10%)
 6 - N (Negligible
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Score: The overall risk score based on the values you select for three fields:
Probability, Cost, and Schedule. Two of these fields, Cost and Schedule, are known as
the impact fields.
The Probability field and each impact field have these possible values: Very High, High,
Medium, Low, Very Low, and Negligible. The application uses the highest value
selected for the Cost and Schedule fields as the overall impact value. The application
determines the Score by plotting the overall impact value with the value entered for
Probability, as shown in the table below.
For example, if you enter the value Low for Cost and the value Medium for Schedule,
the application uses Medium, the highest of the two, as the overall impact value. The
application then uses the table below to determine the Score value by plotting the
overall impact and Probability values. The columns in the table represent the overall
impact values (Negligible through Very High), while the rows represent the Probability
values (Very High through Negligible). The application determines the Score as the
number that corresponds to the intersection of the applicable Impact column and
Probability row. So, to continue our example, if you entered a value of High for
Probability, the Score would display as 14, the number shown where the Impact
Medium column intersects the Probability High row.
Impact Impact Very Impact Impact Impact High Impact Very

Negligible Low Low Medium High
Probability Very High 0 5 9 18 36 72
Probability High 0 4 7 14 28 56
Probability Medium 0 3 5 10 20 40
Probability Low 0 2 3 6 12 24
Probability Very Low 0 1 1 2 4 8
Probability Negligible 0 0 0 0 0 0
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‐ From the middle determine the response type
Response Type: The action to take in response to the score for the risk.
- If the risk is a threat, the values are Accept, Avoid, Reduce, or Transfer.
- If the risk is an opportunity, the list of values is Enhance, Exploit, Facilitate, and Reject.
- Selecting <None> clears a previous selection, if any.
Response Description: The description of the response
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‐ From the right side enter the post-response data (the actual data after taking the risk
response) – the same fields & calculations as pre-response data
Open the activities tab
Determine the activities to assign the risk
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Open the description tab
To add the description of the risk
Open the cause tab
To add a description of the risk cause
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Open the effect tab
To add a description of the risk effect
Open the notes tab
To add any notes about the risk
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Now from the activities window we can show the assigned risks for any activity by selecting
the risk tab from the activity details

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GLOBAL CHANGE
** It is an order used to make a change on a wide range of data

‐ From tools – global change

‐ There are some default global changes to use
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‐ We can modify any default global change or create a new one
By adding the condition in (if) window and what to do in (then) window
Then press change button

The change window will appear to show the actions will be taken after the change

Then press commit changes to apply the changes or cancel changes to ignore the changes
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USER DEFINED FIELD
User-defined fields enable you to add your own custom fields and values to the project
database. For example, you can track additional activity data, such as delivery dates
and purchase order numbers, or resource and cost-related data, such as profit,
variances, and revised budgets.
-from enterprise select user defined fields
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Choose the subject area of the defined field
For example, if you add a user-defined field in the Activities subject area, you can
display that user-defined field as a column in the Activity Table (Activities window).
‐ Then add a new field and name it
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And determine the data type (text – cost – integer- indicator -….)
Then we can add this field as a column to the activities layout.
We can use this user defined fields in grouping & sorting or global change or making reports
based on this field.
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REPORTS

‐ From tools press reports

Or press here
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‐ This is how the reports layout appear

‐ There are many default reports will appear choose one and press right click and run report

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‐ We can print the report directly or show the print preview

‐ And that is an example of how the report like

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‐ We can modify this default report by right click on the report and then modify

‐ Press yes to enter the report editor
‐

‐ Now go the report editor to modify the report

‐ Or you press the add button on the right side to create and design a new report with any
required data
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PROJECT REFLECTION (WHAT IF SCENARIO)
Projects in Primavera P6 can be in one of four states: Planned, Active, Inactive, and
What-if. Each of these states helps support the project’s lifecycle stages. Now, if you
are in the process of creating a new schedule, you want your project to be in the
planned mode. This is changed to active when you begin the process of providing
progress updates.
Projects that are temporarily suspended or completed are designated inactive. Last;
projects that you are investigating for scope changes using reflection or projects you are
presently investigating resource assignments are set to what-if.
Primavera professional offers the What-If feature. Using this feature, the user
could create a What If project, make multiple scenarios and merge back the
scenarios partially or fully into` the original project. The What-If is termed as a
reflection in P6 Professional.
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‐ From enterprise select projects to show the projects window.
‐ Right click on the project then select create reflection.
‐ Enter the what if project and proceed with your modifications.

‐ To merge the modifications to the original schedule right click on the reflected project
then select (merge reflection into source project).
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-Press merge changes to add the changes to the original project.
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SCHEDULE COMPARISON
Primavera P6 Claim Digger is now called Schedule Comparison and is accessed from the Visualizer
program. You will find Scheduler Comparison in the same location (Tools) as Claim Digger but
clicking on this button will launch the Visualizer program.
Or click the add button from primavera visualizer and select schedule comparison.
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 Create new comparison and fill the comparison name field. And click options.
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 On the left hand select the project and on the right hand select the baseline or the
project you want to compare with. Then click add.

 Click general to choose the report format and output file destination
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 Click advanced to select information to compare.
 Click save and draw to compare and the comparison sheet will appear with the
differences.
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PRIMAVERA VISUALIZER
Oracle Primavera P6 Visualizer is a reporting-tool that you can use to create
customizable Gantt charts and Timescale Logic Diagrams (TSLDs) for time-based, daily
comparison reporting. P6 Visualizer can be launched as a standalone application that
can connect to P6 Professional and P6 EPPM databases. You can also open P6
Visualizer by selecting Tools, Visualizer from P6 Professional.
Press the add button to select either Gantt or TSLD (time scaled logic diagrams) which
is different ways in presenting the data than the ordinary Gantt chart in the primavera
P6
Now we select from the left window a project from the primavera EPS (available projects)
and press the arrow to move this project to the right window (selected projects)
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Then press next and you go to the layout window with three options to make a layout for
your project: -
1- Create new
2- Create new from existing layout
3- Open from existing
To create a new fill the layout name then press draw
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‐ Or press options to modify the following: -
1- Chart and grid
2- Time scale
3- Bars and labels
4- Lines
5- Group and sort
6- Filters
7- Page setup
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‐ That’s how the Gantt chart appear
‐ That’s how the TSLD appears
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USER PREFERENCES
From edit press user preferences
** Choose from the left side (time units) to adjust: ‐
‐ the time units used for resource units and how to show its decimals (ex. 1manpower /day or 1
manpower/hour …etc.)
‐ the time units used for activity duration & how to show decimals
‐ how the units per time appears
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** Choose from the left side (dates) to adjust the date format and appearance.
** Choose from the left side (currency) to adjust the used currency and choose to show the
currency symbol and decimals or not.
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** Choose from the left side (assistance) to choose to show a wizard when adding new activity
or new resource or not.
** Choose from the left side (application) to choose the startup window and labels of
grouping bands.
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** Choose from the left side (password) to modify the program password.
** Choose from the left side (resource analysis) to choose what is the kind of projects data
appear when using the resource usage profile and spread sheet.
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** Choose from the left side (calculations) to specify how cost and resource units are
allocated when you add are remove resource assignments form Activities.
** Choose from the left side (startup filters) to choose the default filters to start the
application (show all projects data or the current project data only).
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TOP DOWN ESTIMATION
Performing a top-down estimate in P6. Every project comes with budget, and often with
a firm fixed price or not to exceed clause to boot. As a scheduler the challenge is it
make the work fit the budget.
Primavera P6 Professional supports Top Down Estimating to assist you in making the
project fit the budget. You can do this by using weighed activities and the Top Down
Estimating feature.
Primavera P6 Professional works great to provide bottom-up estimates of activities and

deliverables. Sometimes though you are provided a proposed hours or cost for the
entire project, then you must go and compute the impact of that proposed cost on
individual deliverables and activities. Well, Primavera P6 Professional also has a top-
down estimate feature for distributing the proposed cost of your project among both
deliverables and activities.
‐ First of all, we set the estimate weight for the WBS’s by adding the column of est.
weight
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Let’s assume the weight of (WBS 1= 6) and the weight of (WBS 2= 4)
Then go and do the same in the activity window and put the estimated weight of each
activity in the WBS.
Assume we have a lumpsum resource of price per unit = 1,000,000 L.E assigned to the
activities (activity 4 - 5 - 6)
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By default, the budgeted units per time = 8 per day and will be multiplied by the activity
duration, as per the activity durations and the budgeted units the total budgeted units of
the assigned resource are 320 unit.
Now from tools we select top down estimation
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‐ Now we select the WBS to estimate
‐ Select the resource to estimate
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‐ After selecting the resource named lumpsum it appears that there are three activities
with this resource assignment and the current total units is 320 unit.
‐ Then we add the estimated units (prior experience) let’s make it 10 units and press
apply.
The results will be as follows: -
1- As per the estimate weight of the WBS’s (WBS1 weight equal 6 and WBS 2
weight is 4)
2- then the budget units of the resource for WBS1 will be (6/10 *total budgeted units
which is (10)) = 6 budgeted units and total budget cost 6,000,000 L.E.
3- then the budget units of the resource for WBS2 will be (4/10 *total budgeted units
which is (10)) = 4 budgeted units and total budget cost 4,000,000 L.E.
4- For (WBS 1) it has one activity and will be assigned with the whole budgeted
units of the WBS of the resource.
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5- For (WBS 2) It has two activities with different estimated weights
 The budgeted units of the resource for Activity 4 will be (3/7 * total budgeted units
assigned to the WBS 2 which is (4)) = 1.71 and with total budget cost 1,710,000
L.E
 The budgeted units of the resource for Activity 5 will be (4/7 * total budgeted units
assigned to the WBS 2 which is (4)) = 2.29 and with total budget cost 2,290,000
L.E
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FILTERS
Adding filters
‐ From view press filter or press the filter button
‐ To show all activities and disable any filter check the upper left option (all activities)
‐ In case of choosing two filters we have two options
1- (all selected filters) to filter the activities that fulfil all the selected filters
2- (any selected filters) to filter the activities that fulfil any of the selected filters
‐ We have many default filters to use and we can modify them.
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Add new filter by clicking new
‐ Create the condition of the filter to be applied
‐ We can create more than one condition to be applied to the filter
‐ We can choose to apply the filter with all of the conditions to be fulfilled (all of the following) or
apply the filter when any of the conditions fulfilled (any of the following)
‐
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GROUP AND SORT
‐from view choose group & sort or press this icon in the tool bar

This window will appear
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Let’s proceed and define a group by criteria. In the group and sort dialog we click the drop-down
menu directly below group by and select the criteria let us select (WBS option)
After selecting grouping by WBS the activity list in the activity table will be grouped in the
WBS hierarchy.
From (to level drop-down menu) select which WBS level we want to group the activities or
select all.
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**From the font and color column We can modify the font and color of each WBS level
We can select too many options to group the activities and here is an example
**We can select the grouping criteria by start and then select the interval (month) to group
the activities by the start date during each month
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**Or we can select any activity coding assigned to the project activities to be the grouping
criteria of the activities.
**if we select none from the group by drop-down menu the activities will be listed without
any grouping at all.
**we can select more than one criteria to group by the activities with the priority for the
upper criteria.
**by pressing the sort tab, we can select the sorting type to use (ascending or descending)
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Display options: -
1- To include totals in the layout, mark the Show Grand Totals checkbox.
2- To show only summary data for each hierarchical level included in the layout, mark the Show
Summaries Only checkbox.
Group by options: -
1- Hide if empty -Mark Hide if empty to hide group title bands that do not contain
activities within the group
2- Sort bands alphabetically- Mark Sort grouping bands alphabetically to display the
grouping bands in alphabetical order rather than their order in their respective hierarchy
3- Show- Mark the appropriate checkbox to determine the text that displays on the
grouping band.
To display the field name on the grouping band, mark the Show Title checkbox.
To display the ID or Code value on the grouping band, mark the Show ID/Code
checkbox.
To display the Name or Description on the grouping band, mark the Show
Name/Description checkbox
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DISSOLVE
‐ Right click on any activity and choose dissolve
‐ This option allows to delete the activity and linking between the predecessor and successor
of the activity.
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FIND AND REPLACE
‐ From edit press find or replace
‐ To find a certain word in the schedule press find
‐ To find a certain word in the schedule and replaced by another word press replace.
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SPELL CHECK
From edit press spell check to check the wording of the activities.
EXPAND ALL ‐COLLAPSE ALL
‐ From view expand all - collapse all – collapse to
‐ To collapse all the activities under the project WBS press collapse all
‐ To collapse the activities or WBS to a certain level press collapse to and determine the level
to collapse to.
‐ To expand all the collapsed activities press expand all.
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TABLE FONT AND ROW
From view press table font & row to adjust the activity fonts and the table row height
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IMPORT AND EXPORT
From file choose export
Choose the format you want to export your project from the primavera
 You can export your project to an excel file

Then next to choose the data to export
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Then specify the project to export
Then choose the destination to export the project and finish
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From file choose import
Choose the import file format
Then next to choose what type of data you want to import
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Then select the file name
Choose the import options
Choose the import action from the list below and from (import to) choose the EPS to add the project in.
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Then update project options to determine the configurations to be followed when any
conflict happen when updating an existing project
Press modify to select the actions to be taken.
Then press finish to start the import process
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PRINTING
‐ From file select layout print preview & then page setup
‐ From page select the orientation and scaling and paper size.

‐ create the header & footer for the print area and adjust the margins.

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‐ from the header and footer tabs we can select the number of sections needed and the section
height and select the type of data inserted in each section as per the drop‐down menu in the
previous figure
‐ in case of selecting to add a text press the modify button to insert the text in the text window.

‐ select options tab to adjust the time scale start and time scale finishing for printing area

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‐ we can select
‐ PS – earliest project start date
‐ PF – latest project finish date
‐ DD ‐ earliest data date
‐ CD‐ current date
‐ CW‐ current week
‐ CM‐ current month
‐ Custom date‐ to custom a specified date
‐ We can use abbreviations such as PS‐2M which means earliest start date minus two months
or PF+2M which means latest finish date plus two months

‐ to select what appear in the print area, we can check any option in the print check boxes
216 | P a g e

THANK YOU
217 | P a g e

Primavera 6 Planning &amp; Scheduling

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Primavera 6 Planning &amp; Scheduling

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1. Project Integration Management

2. Planning Phase – Planning of the project by preparation of the management plan,

3. Execution Phase – Execution of the project as per planned management data

4. Monitoring and Controlling Phase – Monitoring & Controlling of the project as

PROCESS GROUPS INITIATION PLANNING EXECUTING MONITOR & CONTROL CLOSING

• Plan Scope Management

Project Procurement • Plan Procurement • Conduct

Defining the WBS: -

It is the deliverable oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed by

A few of the key characteristics of high-quality work breakdown structures (PMI,

 A central attribute of the WBS is that it is “deliverable orientated” (Berg &

resource dependent activity: ‐ When the number of resources assigned to a task

 Start On or after defines the earliest date an activity can begin.

Select the group of activities to modify

the activity ID then right click to press

on (renumber activity ID)

Resource Units = Resource Units per Time Unit * Duration

we ready to schedule the program.

**but first we must know how to add columns in the layout.

From view choose columns

Total Float = LF - EF (or LS - ES)

Free Float = ES of next activity – EF

*the project may have more than a one critical path.

The formulas are:

• Three-point estimate / Triangular Distribution: E = (O + M + P) / 3

 Open the activity window

 Now from tools select level resources

The levelling window will appear

The budgeted cost will be recalculated as per the price changes.

‐ From project menu, choose Resource Assignments.

Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4

20h 20h 20h 20h

 Assign a curve to a resource or role assignment.

10h 30h 15h 25h

By manually entering the planned resource/role distribution in future period assignment

Primavera bucket planning method: -

 Manually distribute the resource budgeted units on the time scale.

 Note that the resource curve type changed to be manual.

After adding the resource lag

‐ We can select the data to display (time interval, cumulative or both)

**The data tab: -

‐ Display: - cost or units

This to adjust the graph lines and display options

‐ Display: - cost or units

‐ Select the graph tab to modify the chart graph options.

-from view select show on bottom then trace logic

** To update the schedule: from tools choose schedule

out of sequence activities

Cumulative PV is the sum of the approved budget for activities scheduled to be

PV, also known as Budget Cost of Work Scheduled (BCWS),

Planned Value (PV) How much work should be done?

Earned Value (EV) How much work was done?

Actual Cost (AC) How much did the work cost?

The SPI is defined by PMI’s PMBOK® Guide as “a measure of schedule efficiency

Cost Performance Index

The CPI is defined by PMI’s PMBOK® Guide as a “measure of cost efficiency on a

From tools select apply actuals

‐ from enterprise select roles.

‐ select resources tab to assign resources to the role

select prices to add the role prices

** now from (activity details window-resource) we can assign a role to an activity by

-From activity details select expenses tab.

-select the expense category

1- uniform over activity

Primavera 6 Planning & Scheduling

Primavera 6 Planning & Scheduling