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21 Tips Primavera P6
21 Tips Primavera P6
SHORTCUTS
PRIMAVERA
1 SPOT OPEN ENDS IN THE ACTIVITY
NETWORK
An important health check to perform before issuing a schedule is to remove open ends in the
activity network. A good starting point is to look for the list of activities without predecessors/
successors in the Scheduling/Leveling Report, which can be accessed from the Schedule window
(F9 or Tools >Schedule>View Log). A sample of this section of the report is shown below:
Note that open ends are also generated by activities whose i) only predecessor relationship is a
finish-to-finish link or ii) only successor relationship is a start-to-start link. This check can be
performed manually within P6 by looking at relationship lines on the Gantt chart or looking at
predecessors/ successors in the Activity Details window; or through the Schedule Check utility
available in Primavera Risk Analysis, or other schedule analysis software with similar
capabilities.
1 PROJECT-LEVEL SETTINGS: USING THE
DEFAULTS TAB
The Defaults tab under project settings can save you a lot of time if you need to add multiple
activities with the same calendar, duration type, percent complete type, activity type, cost
account and/or even a given ID structure. In other words, there is a way you can pre-assign a
given value to each of these settings for all new activities you insert to the schedule, eliminating
the need to edit them on a per-activity basis, after you’ve added the new tasks.
In order to do this, go to the Projects window, select the project you’re working on and then
locate the Defaults tab at the bottom of the screen, where the Project Details are displayed. If the
Defaults tab is not visible, make sure you right-click anywhere in the Project Details area, choose
“Customize Project Details” from the drop-down menu and move Defaults to the Displayed Tabs
list on the right. Once you access this tab, you’ll be able to select pre-determined values for all
the parameters mentioned above.
For example, let’s assume you have a group of activities belonging to 2 different phases of your
project and whose IDs are entirely numeric. If you needed to update their IDs to reflect the phase
each line item belongs to through an alphanumeric ID, you’d do the following:
a) Highlight all activities occurring during phase 1 of the project, as shown in Figure 3.1 below.
Figure 3.1 – Select Activities
b) Right-click, choose “Renumber Activity IDs” and check the “Auto-number” option.
c) Pick a prefix such as “PH1-”, a suffix “1000” and an increment value of 10. Click Ok to see
the updated codes for your activities (ie: PH1-1000, PH1-1010, PH1-1020, etc), as shown in
Figure 3.2 and Figure 3.3 below.
d) Proceed in the same way for phase 2 activities, using “PH2-” as prefix to denote they belong
to phase 2.
a) Display the Calendar column in the Activity Table, as shown in image 4.1 below.
Figure 4.1 – Display Calendar Column in Activity Table
b) Change the calendar ID of the first activity in the range to the desired calendar.
c) Highlight all the activities that you need to update calendars for. Note that the activities you
select don’t need to be listed consecutively in the Activity Table (ie: gaps in the range are
allowed as well). Also, ensure that the cell containing the desired calendar ID (ie: the value that
will be copied onto the rest of the activities in the highlighted range) is the first item in that
selection, as shown in image 4.2 below.
Figure 4.2 – Activity Selection
d) Click Edit>Fill Down, press Ctrl+E, or right-click on the range and select Fill Down. The
calendar for all activities in the highlighted range will be updated to match that of the first cell in
the range, as shown in Figure 4.3 below.
5 DISABLE AUTO-REORGANIZATION
If you’re using a layout that groups activities by a certain parameter (eg: WBS, calendar or a
particular activity code), editing the value of this parameter for multiple activities can become a
cumbersome task. Why? Because every time you update this information for one activity it
automatically gets moved to its new “location” in the schedule, forcing you to make edits on a
per-activity basis.
This problem can be easily avoided by disabling the auto-reorganization option, which you can
access through the corresponding button in the “Tools” toolbar, or the Shift+F12 hotkey. This
way, you can work on editing the values of a particular parameter at the activity table level
without any of your activities moving around until you’re done making changes. This can be
particularly helpful if you’re using the Fill Down tool to copy information from one activity into
multiple activities.
For instance, let’s assume you’d like to change the percent complete type for all activities in the
schedule from Duration to Physical. After adding a new Global Change, you’d need to select
“Activities” in the subject area (note that you can also implement global changes on resource
assignments and project expenses), and then create a rule for P6 to apply across the schedule, as
shown in Image 6.1. This rule is set up as follows:
-Box #1: If Parameter “Percent Complete Type” equals “Duration”.
-Box #2: Then Parameter “Percent Complete Type” equals “Physical”
Figure 6.1 – Modify Global Change
Next, click the Ok button and select “Apply Change”. You will see a log with all the proposed
changes, as shown in Figure 6.2 below. Finally, click “Commit Changes” to update all parameter
values to the new values.
Note that you can add multiple rules and use two logic operators (ie: apply changes if “any” or
“all” of the rules created apply) to customize the Global Change you’re trying to implement. In
this case of this tip, we only used a single rule; but the tool can clearly be utilized to implement
more intricate and complex changes to the schedule.
As you adjust the settings on the Units Format window, you can see the resulting format on the
right-hand side of the window, within the “Example” boxes. Similarly, changes made to the date
format can be visualized at the bottom of the “Dates” window, in the “Sample” box.
8 EXPORT TO EXCEL
Unlike P3, Primavera P6 allows you to export information directly into a spreadsheet by copying
and pasting the desired information, just like you would do on any other program. To export the
entire Primavera Schedule, press Ctrl+A to select all the information displayed on the Activity
Table; then press Ctrl+C to copy and Ctrl+V to paste directly to spreadsheet.
Alternatively, you can always stick to the traditional method by i) right-clicking on your
selection and choosing “Export to Excel” or by ii) clicking File>Export, and choosing the
Spreadsheet (xls) option.
In order to run the Claim Digger utility, all you need to do is go to the Tools menu, and click
“Claim Digger.” You will then be prompted to pick 2 files: one for the original project (or
baseline) and another containing the revised project, as shown in Image 9.1 below. Click
compare and you’ll get a comprehensive report of all the differences between both schedules
from durations, float and logic to activity additions/deletions and WBS changes.
b) Locate the second string of characters (or “word”) on the very first line (or “sentence”) of the
document, as shown in Image 15.1 below. This is where the file version is specified.
c) Edit this number to match your version of P6. In this example, you’d replace “15.0” by “8.3”.
d) Save the file. Make sure the extension remains as .XER and is not changed to .TXT.
First, pick your baseline(s) by going to Project>Maintain Baselines (see Image 16.1). Here you’ll
be able to choose from your other projects in the EPS, or save a copy of the currently open file to
serve as one. Each baseline can be named and assigned a baseline type (ie: initial planning
baseline, customer sign-off baseline, etc.). Once you have a list of potential baselines (or target/
reference projects to compare your current schedule to), you can go to Project>Assign Baselines
(see Image 16.2). A window will pop up and you’ll be asked to select a project baseline, as well
as up to three user baselines (primary, secondary and tertiary).
Image 16.1 – Maintain Baselines
The last step is to have P6 display the calculated variances for you. To do this, simply add
columns to the activity table (right-click> columns) and pick the variance-related fields that best
suit your reporting needs. Options include columns like “Variance – BL Project Duration” and
“Variance – BL Project Labor Cost”.
17 CREATING CUSTOM UNITS OF MEASURE
By default, Primavera has only a few options to choose from when it comes to defining and
assigning Units Of Measure (UoM) for material resources in the schedule. This is a very
common issue that you might encounter in virtually every project you work on, as materials (and
therefore their units) can widely vary depending on project type, cost-management requirements,
measuring conventions, etc.
For example, when looking through a construction budget you might see that timber matting is
measured by square foot; while on a similar project its UoM can be square yards– a unit that
might not be available by default in P6. Similarly, activities such as seeding and stabilization
might require an area UoM other than the traditional square foot, such as acres.
The intent of the Critical Path Method (CPM) is to allow you to obtain total project duration by
finding the longest sequence (ie: “path”) of activities from project start through completion. If
we’re working on a schedule baseline, then both methods will lead to the same result. In other
words, activities in the longest path will also be those with zero total float (TF). This continues to
hold even when we add constraints to our baseline to account for intermediate and final project
deadlines (eg: building dried-in, substantial completion and final completion milestones); as by
definition, a baseline shows no delays and hence no negative float.
Now, let’s assume we update the schedule and find that there is a delay relative to the original
completion deadline, as well as some of the intermediate milestones we incorporated earlier into
the baseline. As you may expect, these unsatisfied constraints generate negative TF values.
Evidently, each of the 2 critical path calculation criteria will yield completely different results
this time around. The Total Float Less Than Or Equal To (zero) method will include any activity
with a negative TF value; while the Longest Path method will continue to show the longest
progression of activities leading to project completion.
This means that, if a 100-activity schedule is delayed and 80% of its activities have negative TF
values, then the critical path determined through the first method will be comprised of 80 line
items, and will not necessarily let us distinguish which activities have an impact on the current
project completion forecast. The Longest Path option, on the other hand, will continue to show
only the activities that drive our current completion date and keep the list of activities considered
“critical” to a minimum.
In conclusion, the Total Float Less Than Or Equal To rule is valid for calculating total project
duration (ie: the longest sequence of activities leading to your project completion milestone) as
long as you don’t have unsatisfied constraints generating negative TF values. However, chances
are you’ll be in the latter scenario most of the time, as you’ll for sure need to add constraints to
your schedule; let alone update it on a regular basis and probably even show delays on more than
one occasion. In these cases, the Longest Path option would be the recommended setting for
calculating total and remaining project duration.
Similarly, when the recipients of the .plf file have already opened the schedule, all they need to
do is go to the same menu and select “Import” this time (View>Layout>Open; Import). Once
they’ve imported it, it will be listed on the Open Layout list for them to use.
20 EXPORT FILTERS
Similar to Layouts, Filters can be exported for the same reason: making sure everyone involved
in the project is able to see the same data, and save time to set up complex and sophisticated
filters. P6, however, doesn’t have an option to directly export a filter as an isolated element.
Instead, you’ll need to incorporate it to a layout and export it as part of the layout.
Once you’ve created a layout and a filter, open the Filters window. This can be accessed by
right-clicking on the activity table and selecting Filters, pressing the funnel icon on the toolbar or
by clicking View>Filter By>Customize. Once there, select the desired (ie: previously created)
filter from the list and press the Copy As Layout button, as shown in Image 20.1 below.Now the
filter will be listed under “Layout Filters”, and will be exported together with the current layout
(ie: the layout that you previously created and which you wish to send to your project team).
Image 20.1 – Filters, Copy As Layout
For instance, think of the effort associated to preparing as-built drawings during the closeout
phase of a project. This can be either incorporated to the schedule as a single item representing
all work from final as-built survey through record drawing set approval; or it can be broken
down into the smaller tasks (or “steps”) implied by this effort. At the same time, however, the
latter can result in an unnecessary number of new activities which can make your schedule
unmanageable and very cumbersome to update.
If you’ve been faced with this dilemma, fortunately you can get the best of both worlds by using
the Activity Steps feature. This option allows you to create sub-tasks (namely, “steps”) for the
activities you need to track more closely without the need to break them down into separate,
smaller activities. In order to do this, select the activity you need to create steps for. Then, go to
the Steps tab located in the Activity Details window and define the sub-tasks required for this
activity as shown in Figure 21.1.
As shown above, you can record progress under each Activity Step, and even assign weights to
drive overall activity progress calculation. If the latter is the case and you’d like P6 to do this
automatically for you, make sure to activate the “Activity Percent Complete Based on Activity
Steps” setting. This option can be found under the Calculations tab at the project-level settings,
as shown in Figure 21.2 below: