Primavera P6 Professional Advanced Rel 19: Eduardo Vera

Primavera P6 Professional
Advanced Rel 19
Eduardo Vera
AMBIT Enterprise Solutions S.L.
evera@ambitec.es
D91348GC10
Edition 1.0
Copyright © 2020, Oracle. All rights reserved.

SECTION I
Advanced Resource Management
Resource and Role Analysis

Resource Assignments Window
Manual Resource Allocation
Bucket Planning
Leveling Resources
Storing Period Performance

1
Resource and Role Analysis

Objectives
After completing this lesson, you should be able to:

• Analyze resource usage using the Resource Usage Profile.
• Analyze resource usage using the Resource Usage
Spreadsheet.
• Compare staffed vs. unstaffed role allocation.

Resource and Role Usage
• Resource availability can have an impact on projects.

– Are enough people available to do the work?
– Can the resource finish work within budget?
– Does the resource have sufficient availability to finish
work?
• Projects often compete for the same resources/roles.
• Monitor resource/role allocations and schedule deadlines.
– Is any leeway possible in allocating resources?

Resource and Role Limits
Limits determine the availability of resources and roles.

• Resource limit is affected by:
– Project/resource calendar
– Max units/time
• Role limit is based on a custom limit or the combined
limits of all resources assigned that primary role. Role
limit is affected by:
– Project calendar
– Max units/time
Overallocation occurs when assigned work exceeds the
resource or role limit.

Resolving Overallocation
• Replace the overallocated resource with another available

resource.
• Increase the hours/day that the resource works.
• Increase the length of the resource’s workweek.
• Assign additional resources.

2

Objectives

• Identify sections in the Resource Assignments window.
• Use the Resource Assignments window to view and edit
resource allocation.
• Select data to display in the Resource Usage Spreadsheet.

• View and add resource and role assignments to activities

in the open project(s).
• Display resource/role cost and quantity over time in the
Resource Usage Spreadsheet.
• Manually enter budgeted and remaining units.

3
Manual Resource Allocation

Objectives

• Assign resource lag and duration to resource assignments.
• View and assign resource curves to manually spread
allocation.

Linear and Non-Linear Distribution of Work
• Linear
– Resource assignment work is automatically spread
evenly, or linearly, over the duration of an activity.
• Non-linear
– Work is not distributed evenly.
5-day activity
Resource Distribution Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri
Plumber Linear 8h 8h 8h 8h 8h
Carpenter Non-linear 6h 10h 6h 10h 8h

Resource Lag and Resource Duration
• Control the dates on which resource use begins and ends.
• Resource lag
– Delay between start of the activity and start of the resource.
– Distribute work between resources who cannot work
simultaneously.
• Resource duration
– Use if resource isn’t needed throughout length of activity.
– This is the original duration of the assignment, not the activity.
10-day activity
Resourc Resource M T W T F M T W T F
e Duration
Carpenter 40h 8h 8h 8h 8h 8h
1
Carpenter 40h Resource Lag = 5 days
8h 8h 8h 8h 8h
2
Resource Curves
Assign to resources to describe how you want to distribute
resource use across activity. Examples include:
• Front-loaded – Most resource use at beginning of activity
duration.
• Back-loaded – Most resource use at end of activity duration.
• Bell-shaped – Resource use begins slowly, gradually
increases as activity progresses, tapers off at finish.
10-day activity
Resource Resource M T W T F M T W T F
Curve
Carpenter Back-loaded 4h 4h 6h 6h 6h 10h 10h 10h 12h 12h
Plumber Bell-shaped 4h 4h 8h 8h 10h 10h 8h 8h 4h 4h

4
Bucket Planning

Objectives

• Explain the difference between bucket planning and linear
distribution.
• Explain benefits of bucket planning.
• View future period buckets.
• Edit period buckets for a resource assignment.
• Track manual curves in the project.

Linear Distribution
The method for distributing resource assignment work over

course of activity.
• Remaining work is spread linearly over remaining duration.
• Budgeted work is evenly spread over duration of activity.
– A one-week activity with 40 Budgeted Units, spread
evenly over five days.

Bucket Planning
• Use when linear distribution does not reflect work that

needs to be performed at varying levels over duration of
activity.
• To accurately reflect work, manually add and edit the
budgeted and remaining units for each time period — or
"bucket" — over the duration of the assignment.
• Edit values in future period buckets for labor, non-labor,
material resource assignments, and role assignments.

Bucket Planning Example
Budgeted Units for the same one-week activity were manually

entered for the buckets representing Day 3, Day 4, and Day 5
so the activity would finish on time.

5
Leveling Resources

Objectives

• Define resource leveling.
• Set resource leveling options.
• Level a project to resolve resource conflicts.
• Analyze the effects of resource leveling.
• Level based on activity and project priorities.

Leveling Overview
• Use to resolve resource availability conflicts between

activities that use the same resources.
• A process that ensures resource demand does not exceed
resource availability.
• Determines the earliest dates an activity can be scheduled
without overallocating resources.
– Compares the allocation of resources to availability and
then delays certain activities to remain within the
resource limits.

Handling Resource Conflict
The following are steps that can be executed when you
encounter resource conflict and overallocation:
• Determine whether resource conflicts exist through
Resource Usage Profile / Spreadsheet.
• Use resource leveling to resolve overallocation.
– Review leveling log to determine impact.
– Review Resource Usage Profile to see whether
problems are resolved.
• If leveled dates are acceptable, constrain activities.
• If leveled dates are not acceptable:
– Review logic and resource assignments/ availability.
– Modify activity data and then reschedule.

(Before Leveling)
Schedule Activity A
Activity B
16
Resource
Allocation
Rose Danner 8
Resource
8h/d Max Units/Time limit line
0
June 1-5 June 8-12 June 15-19 June 22-26 June 29 - July 6-10
July 3

(After Resource Leveling)
Schedule Activity A
Activity B
16
Resource
Allocation
8
Rose Danner Resource
8h/d Max Units/Time limit line
0
June 1-5 June 8-12 June 15-19 June 22-26 June 29 - July 6-10
July 3

Resource Leveling in P6 Professional
P6 Professional compares resource requirements of all
scheduled activities to the maximum quantity available at the
time of leveling.
• The maximum amount of work a resource is available to
perform for a given time period is defined by the
resource’s standard work hours, as defined in the resource
calendar.
• If the resource is not available for the entire duration of
the activity, the activity is delayed until the resource
becomes available.
You can level all resources in your project or select the

resource(s) to be leveled.

Resource Leveling in P6 Professional
• The following items are ignored during the leveling

process:
– Milestones
– Level of Effort activities
– What-if projects
– Expenses
– WBS Summary activities
• An activity’s schedule dates may temporarily change when

leveling a project.

Leveling Rules in P6 Professional
These rules are used to determine the order for leveling
activities:
• Mandatory constraints
– P6 Professional leaves activities that have a mandatory
Start/Finish date on their early dates.
– Network logic may be violated.
• Topological order (predecessor/successor relationships)
– Respects network logic.
• Leveling priority ("tiebreaker")
– Priority is used to determine which project or activity
gets the resource (leveled) first when a conflict exists.
– Leveling priorities can be assigned at project or activity
level.
Leveling Priorities
How would this network be leveled?
• Activity A is leveled first.
– Activity B and C then compete for the same resource.
• Activity B is leveled first based on activity priority.
– Activities C and D then compete for the same resource.
• Activity D is leveled based on activity priority.
• The remaining activities are leveled in this order: C, E, F.
B D
Activity Priority Activity Priority

3 - Normal 3 - Normal
A F

3 - Normal 3 - Normal
C E

5 – Lowest 1 - Top

Leveling a Tool – Not a Solution
• Leveling is a tool, not a solution. The intended use of

leveling is to level projects and then analyze results.
• Do not assume that leveling will solve all of your allocation
problems, especially if your project has a deadline.
• Activities may be delayed past required dates, or some
activities may not shift at all because sufficient resources
are never available.
• After leveling, you should analyze the results and then use
constraints when appropriate.

6
Storing Period Performance

Objectives

• Display financial periods as columns.
• Store past period performance.

Financial Periods
Administrator-designated period of time used in P6

Professional to:
• Store actual units and costs for each period.
• Track previous period performance for trend
analysis.

Store Period Performance
• Stores Actual This Period values of activities and

assignments in financial periods.
• Resets Actual This Period values to zero for current period.

Store Period Performance Example
Actual This Period value and the 2018-01-01 financial period

value before actual values are stored.
Actual Units Actual This 2018-01-01
to Date Period Actual Units
100 100 0
Actual This Period value at 0, with actuals now stored in

the financial period.
Actual Units Actual This 2018-01-01
to Date Period Actual Units
100 0 100

1
Case Study: Analyzing Resource Usage

SECTION II
Advanced Project Management
Duration Types
Calculating Percent Complete
Earned Value
Advanced Scheduling
Timescaled Logic Diagrams
Managing Multiple Projects

7
Duration Types

Objectives

• Determine which Duration Type works best in a given
situation.
• Assign a Duration Type to an activity.

Time and Work
This equation expresses the relationship between the length of

time a resource spends on an activity and the amount of work
that the resource performs.
Duration X Units/Time = Units
Examples:
2 days X 8 hrs/day = 16 hours

Time and Work
Although the labels for the variables may change, the basic
equation remains the same:
• For a Non-Progressed Activity:
– Original Duration X Budgeted Units/Time = Budgeted Units
• For a Progressed Activity:
– Remaining Duration X Remaining Units/Time = Remaining Units
Related equations:
– Actual Units + Remaining Units = At Completion Units
– Budgeted Units – At Completion Units = Variance (in Units)

Duration Type
Duration Type controls how P6 Professional recalculates the

time/work equation when one of the equation’s variables is
changed.
There are four Duration Types:

• Fixed Duration & Units
• Fixed Duration and Units/Time
• Fixed Units
• Fixed Units/Time

Choosing a Duration Type
Use the following table as a reference when selecting
Duration Types:
If you do not want P6 to recalculate… …then use:

Budget or work effort Fixed Units
Daily resource allocation Fixed Units/Time
If you do not want P6 to recalculate the
…then use:
schedule (duration) and…
Budget or work effort Fixed Duration & Units
Daily resource allocation Fixed Duration and Units/Time

Recalculating the Time/Work Equation
This table indicates which of the equation’s values recalculates
when one of the variables is changed.
When duration is When units/time is When units are
changed, what is changed, what is changed, what
Duration Type recalculated? recalculated? is recalculated?
Fixed Units/Time Units Duration Duration
Fixed Duration and Units/Time Units Units Units/Time
Fixed Units Units/Time Duration Duration
Fixed Duration & Units Units/Time Units Units/Time
• If the duration is fixed, P6 will never recalculate the duration.

• If the duration is not fixed, P6 will always recalculate the
duration.

Duration Type: Fixed Units/Time
• Indicates that resource availability is limited.

• Choose Fixed Units/Time if you are planning the activity
according to the resources assigned to the activity and
need to focus on:
– Resource availability
– Resource overallocation or underutilization
Duration Type When duration is When units/time When units are

changed, what is is changed, what changed, what is
recalculated? is recalculated? recalculated?
Fixed Units/Time Units Duration Duration

Duration Type: Fixed Units/Time
• Fill in the columns in the table below so that the

equation remains true.
Duration X (Fixed) Units/Time = Units
Fixed
Duration Units
Units/Time
10 d 8 h/d 80 h
Change Duration 5d 8 h/d 40 h

Change Units/Time 20 d 4 h/d 80 h
Change Units 15 d 8 h/d 120 h

Duration Type: Fixed Duration and Units/Time
• Indicates that duration and units/time are not subject to
change regardless of the number of resources assigned to
the activity.
• Choose Fixed Duration and Units/Time if:
– You are planning the activity in terms of the calendar or
schedule dates.
– The activity has a “drop-dead date.”
– You are entering an original duration value for the
activity rather than budgeted labor units.
Duration Type When duration When When units
is changed, units/time is are changed,
what is changed, what what is
Fixed Duration and
Units Units Units/Time
Units/Time

Duration Type: Fixed Duration and Units/Time
• Fill in the columns in the table below so that the equation

remains true.
(Fixed) Duration X (Fixed) Units/Time = Units
Fixed Fixed
Units
Duration Units/Time
10 d 8 h/d 80 h
Change 8 h/d 40 h
5d
Duration
Change 10 d 40 h
4 h/d
Units/Time
Change
10 d 12 h/d 120 h
Units

Duration Type: Fixed Units
• Indicates that the work effort (labor units) assigned to the
activity is not subject to change. Since cost is directly
correlated with units, it is also not subject to change.
• Choose Fixed Units if:
– You are planning the activity in terms of work effort or
budget.
– You are entering Budgeted Labor Units for the activity
rather than Original Duration.
Duration Type When duration When When units
is changed, units/time is are changed,
what is changed, what what is
Fixed Units Units/Time Duration Duration

Duration Type: Fixed Units

remains true.
Duration X Units/Time = (Fixed) Units
Duration Units/Time Fixed Units

10 d 8 h/d 80 h
Change
5d 16 h/d 80 h
Duration
Change
20 d 4 h/d 80 h
Units/Time
Change
15 d 8 h/d 120 h
Units

Duration Type: Fixed Duration & Units
• Indicates that the Units/Time should be recalculated if
either the duration or units are changed.
• Choose Fixed Duration & Units if:
– You are planning the activity in terms of schedule dates
and its work effort.
– The activity has a “drop-dead date,” and you know the
total effort required to complete the activity.
Duration Type When duration is When units/time When units are

changed, what is is changed, what changed, what
recalculated? is recalculated? is recalculated?
Fixed Duration & Units Units/Time Units Units/Time

Duration Type: Fixed Duration & Units

remains true.
(Fixed) Duration X Units/Time = (Fixed) Units
Fixed
Units/Time Fixed Units
Duration
10 d 8 h/d 80 h
Change
5d 16 h/d 80 h
Duration
Change
10 d 4 h/d 40 h
Units/Time
Change
10 d 12 h/d 120 h
Units

8
Calculating Percent Complete

Objectives

• Describe the three Percent Complete Types.
• Determine which Percent Complete Type to use based on
how your organization reports progress.
• Explain how activity percentages are calculated based on
the Percent Complete Type chosen.
• Use weighted steps to calculate Percent Complete.

Percent Complete
• Used to identify the amount of work completed on an
activity.
• Assigned at the project level but may be changed at the
activity level.
• Three types:
– Duration Percent Complete
– Units Percent Complete
– Physical Percent Complete
• Selected type displays as field on Status tab in Activity
Details.
– Determines Activity % Complete, which can be
displayed as column in Activity Table.

Duration Percent Complete
• Use if you record progress based on the number of work

days remaining (i.e., Remaining Duration).
• Activity is duration-driven.
• Default type in P6 Professional.
• Calculated as:
[(Original Duration – Remaining Duration)/Original Duration] X 100

Units Percent Complete
• Use if you record progress based on actual work effort

accomplished and remaining work effort needed to
complete (i.e., Remaining Units).
• Activity is work-effort driven.
• Calculated as:
(Actual Units/At Completion Units) X 100

Physical Percent Complete
• Use if you record progress based on personal judgment.

• Activity is work-product driven.
• Manually entered – not calculated.

Weighted Steps
• Used to calculate Activity Percent Complete based on the
relative weights of completed vs. non-completed steps.
• Weight of a step can be any number from 0 to 999,999.
• Weights are relative based on a total of 100%.

9
Earned Value

Objectives

• Define earned value.
• Define Performance Percent Complete.
• Review the results of different earned value techniques.
• Recognize the benefits of using earned value analysis.

Earned Value Analysis
• A technique for measuring project performance.
– Compares actual costs and schedule progress against
planned costs and schedule progress.
• Provides an objective evaluation of project performance at
any point in the project schedule.
– Valid performance measurements across all projects
regardless of size, complexity, or budget range.
• Provides an accurate forecast of a project’s final cost and
finish date.
– Results can be reliably predicted as early as within the
first 15-20% of a project schedule.

Essential Performance Variables
Earned value calculations are based on three essential
performance variables, measured at any point (data date) after
the project has started:
• Planned Value Cost – The monetary value of the work that
should have been accomplished by the data date if the
project had proceeded according to the baseline plan.
– How much work should have been done?
• Earned Value Cost – The monetary value of the work
actually performed by the data date.
– How much work was actually done?
• Actual Cost – The actual total cost incurred for the work
accomplished by the data date.
– How much did the completed work cost?
Earned Value Analysis – A Simplified Example
Project Plan:
10-day project to build 10 desks for $1,000
• $1,000 total value
• 1 desk per day
• $100 per desk
10 days 10 desks $1,000

(1 desk/day) ($100/desk)

Planned Value Cost (PV)
At the end of day 5 of the project:
• How many desks should have been built? 5 desks
• What is the value of those desks that should have been
built? 5 x $100 = $500
5 days 5 desks $500

Earned Value Cost (EV)
• How many desks have actually been built? 3 desks
• What is the value of those desks that have been built?
3 x $100 = $300
5 days 3 desks $300

Actual Cost (AC)
• How much did it cost to build those three desks?
$600
5 days 3 desks $600

Summary of Performance Variables
Planned Value Cost (PV) = $500
Earned Value Cost (EV) = $300
Actual Cost (AC) = $600

Schedule Variance (SV)
• Schedule Variance is the difference between what was

earned and what was planned:
EV – PV = Schedule Variance
In our example:
$300 (EV) – $500 (PV) = – $200 (SV)
• A negative number indicates that the project is behind

schedule.

Cost Variance (CV)
• Cost Variance is the difference between what was earned

and the actual cost:
EV – AC = Cost Variance
In our example:
$300 (EV) – $600 (AC) = – $300 (CV)
• A negative number indicates that the project is over

budget.

Variance vs. Performance Index
• Schedule and Cost Variances merely indicate how much a

project is ahead/behind schedule or over/under budget.
– A variance of $300 is significant on a $1,000 project but
considerably less significant on a $10 million project.
• Schedule and Cost Performance indices each provide a

ratio that relates variances to overall project dimensions
and accurately gauges performance regardless of project
size.
– Performance indices can be used to forecast final
schedule and cost outcomes.

Schedule Performance Index (SPI)
• The Schedule Performance Index is the ratio of what was

earned to what was planned:
EV/PV = Schedule Performance Index
In our example:
300/500 = .6
• A number less than 1.0 indicates that the project is behind

schedule. For every dollar of physical work this project had
planned to accomplish, only $.60 was actually completed.

Cost Performance Index (CPI)
• The Cost Performance Index is the ratio of what was

earned to the actual cost:
EV/AC = Cost Performance Index
In our example:
300/600 = .5
• A number less than 1.0 indicates that the project is over

budget. For every project dollar spent, only $.50 in physical
work was accomplished.

Estimate to Complete (ETC)
Estimate to Complete identifies how much money it will cost to
complete a project from the point at which the earned value
analysis is performed.
The ETC is calculated using one of two formulas:

• ETC = remaining cost for activity
– Calculated as Remaining Units X Resource Price/Unit
• ETC = Performance Factor X (Budget at Completion –
Earned Value Cost)
– Where the Performance Factor is calculated depending
on the technique selected for the WBS.

Performance Factor (PF)
The Performance Factor is used to compute Estimate to
Complete. The Performance Factor is calculated in one of four
ways:
• PF = 1
– Yields an overly optimistic result.
• PF = 1/CPI
– Yields an optimistic/realistic result.
• PF = 1/(CPI X SPI)
– Yields a pessimistic/realistic result.
• PF = User Defined
– Yields a variable result depending on the assumptions
used to establish the PF.

Earned Value Graph
Key
SV Schedule Variance
CV Cost Variance
ETC Estimate to Complete
BAC Budget at Completion
EAC Estimate at Completion
VAC Variance at Completion

10
Advanced Scheduling

Objectives

• Calculate multiple float paths when scheduling.
• Explain the difference between scheduling logic options.
• Describe a calendar’s effect on lag.

Critical Path
• Series of activities that determines a project’s minimum
total duration and completion date.
• Defined either by Total Float or longest path in project
network.
Black bars =
Critical path

Question
Can activities that are not on the critical path affect project
duration?
1. Yes
2. No

Multiple Float Paths
FLOAT
Black bars =
Critical path
Gray bars =
Near critical
White bars =
Less critical
FLOAT

Scheduling Out-of-Sequence Activities
Retained Logic
Preserves original
relationship
between activities.
Progress Override
Disregards original
relationship
between activities.

Calendar Effect on Lag
5 day workweek
7 day workweek

11
User-Defined Fields and Global Change

Objectives

• Establish user-defined fields.
• Define global change parameters.
• Run a global change.

12
Managing Multiple Projects

Objectives

• View multiple project activities.
• Schedule multiple projects.
• Set the default project for multiple projects.
• Explain how project elements are handled in multi-project
mode.

Benefits of Breaking a Large Project
Into Smaller, Multiple Projects
• Break into phases or smaller projects while maintaining

inter-project relationships.
• Keep sensitive financial information confidential when
working with multiple organizations.
• Meet requirements of governments and other sponsors to
maintain separate, smaller projects or phases of a larger
project.

A
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Resource and Role Analysis

Copyright © 2015, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Resource and Role Analysis

Copyright © 2020, Oracle. All rights reserved.

After completing this lesson, you should be able to:

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• Resource availability can have an impact on projects.

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Limits determine the availability of resources and roles.

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• Replace the overallocated resource with another available

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Resource Assignments Window

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After completing this lesson, you should be able to:

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• View and add resource and role assignments to activities

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Manual Resource Allocation

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After completing this lesson, you should be able to:

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Resource Distribution Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri

Carpenter Non-linear 6h 10h 6h 10h 8h

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Plumber Bell-shaped 4h 4h 8h 8h 10h 10h 8h 8h 4h 4h

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After completing this lesson, you should be able to:

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The method for distributing resource assignment work over

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• Use when linear distribution does not reflect work that

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Budgeted Units for the same one-week activity were manually

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After completing this lesson, you should be able to:

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• Use to resolve resource availability conflicts between

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Copyright © 2015, Oracle. All rights reserved.

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You can level all resources in your project or select the

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• The following items are ignored during the leveling

• An activity’s schedule dates may temporarily change when

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Activity Priority Activity Priority

Activity Priority Activity Priority

Activity Priority Activity Priority

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• Leveling is a tool, not a solution. The intended use of

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Storing Period Performance

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After completing this lesson, you should be able to:

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Administrator-designated period of time used in P6

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