This paper provides key insights into the changes that have occurred in Primavera P6 with the transition of the product into a web-centric environment and with the introduction of Primavera P6 Release 8.x.

After Primavera was acquired by Oracle in January 2009, Primavera P6 was eventually ‘assimilated’ into the Oracle Red StackTM solution (all Oracle products suite) with the release of P6 8.0. Prior to the release of P6 R8.0, there was one flavor of a Primavera P6 database (PMDB aka Project Management Database) to administer (not including Methodology Manager aka MMDB), and if the P6 Web was required to run alongside of the P6 Professional Client, it was just a matter of installing a web application server and attaching it to the same database that the P6 Professional Client was attached.

When P6 R8.0 was released around Oct. 2010, it introduced the concept of the ‘Optional Client’ which had to be connected to a P6 R8.0 database and forced all administration to be relegated to the P6 Web interface. This caused a large Primavera community backlash concerning the lack of administration capability in an ‘optional’ client and in part caused the subsequent release of P6 R8.1 and the introduction of the Professional Project management (PPM) and Enterprise Project Portfolio Management (EPPM) databases.

Primavera P6 can now be purchased in two distinct flavors; P6 Professional (PPM) and P6 Enterprise (EPPM). P6 PPM is also known as the ‘standalone’ application but there seems to be confusion over whether it can also be used in an EPPM environment. The answer is yes and no.

The P6 Professional Client application can be used in either environment regardless if it was bought with a PPM license or an EPPM license. The caveat is that when the client is connected to a PPM database the administration is accomplished from within the P6 Professional Client application just as it has for many years and versions prior to R8.x. But if the P6 Professional Client application is connected to a P6 EPPM database then a flag within the application can sense this connection and the administration capability transfers to the P6 Web interface.

Now this brings us to another issue that is not insurmountable but can be complex and time consuming. Let’s assume you have purchased several P6 licenses and went down the P6 PPM path. You’ve implemented P6 and have set up your structures in the database and are happily marching along with your project management and scheduling. Now a year or so down the road a new version of P6 is released (P6 R8.4 is slated to be released Fall 2014) and you want to upgrade. If you decide that all the P6 Web enhancements are something you may want to incorporate into your project controls you’ll have to implement an EPPM environment which will include a web application server. The primary issue is you’ve been running your projects in the PPM database and all the global data cannot be readily ported into the new EPPM database without some sort of mechanism to port the global structures (SDK, API, etc.) and exporting and importing all the P6 projects from one database to the other.

Key takeaways for administering and working in an EPPM environment are:

1. All global information should ‘only’ be administered using the Web interface. Even though global codes, calendars, etc. can still be managed using the P6 Professional Client, issues can be encountered if two people are editing the same information at the same time using the two different interfaces.
2. All resource capacity and allocation reporting and dashboards in P6 Web rely on summarized data. Failure to summarize on a daily or nightly basis could cause erroneous data to be reported.
3. P6 Professional Client reports can only be viewed in the client. All P6 Web reporting now relies on BI Publisher. Workaround is to attach P6 Professional generated report to a project as a Document/Work Products.
4. P6 Projects (not including Excel spreadsheet updates) can only be imported into P6 Web in P6 XML format. Unlike previous P6 versions though (where only one project at a time could be imported or exported), multiple projects can be exported/imported at the same time.
5. Project templates created in P6 EPPM database cannot be viewed using the P6 Professional client.
6. Risk Thresholds viewed and created in P6 Web are not the same as thresholds used in P6 Professional Client. Thresholds created in one interface cannot be seen in the other.
7. Issue Forms created in P6 Web cannot be seen in P6 Client.
8. Documents and Work Products associated with P6 Projects in P6 Web can be seen and alsomanaged in P6 Professional Client.
9. P6 Web has the capability to import resources via Excel spreadsheet.
10. P6 Web Activity Views (aka layouts in P6 Client) cannot be exported as layouts can in P6Client.
11. Tracking Layouts are only available in P6 Professional Client.
12. Job services that once were created and managed in P6 Professional Client are now createdand managed using P6 Web.
13. P6 Users, EPS, OBS, Security Profiles are all managed in P6 EPPM database via the P6 Webinterface.

A Level of Effort activity duration is dependent on its predecessor and/or successor assignments. It basically contracts and expands based on what it is linked to. They can be useful for applying hours for overhead type of activities to a project or turnaround. A common use is to assign a safety watch or crane for the duration of a job, rather than assigning the safety watch or crane to each individual activity.

Things to note about a Level of Effort:

• Do not ignore them during update cycles! They should be managed by the TA schedulerjust like milestones.
• You cannot assign constraints to them.
• They are not included in leveling.
• Start and Finish dates are calculated off of the LOE assigned activity calendar, not the calendars of the activities they are linked to. For example, if the LOE calendar goes to 4pm on a particular day, but its driving successor goes to 5pm, the LOE will only schedule to 4pm regardless of the successor activity calendar.

A level of effort activity is similar to, but different from a hammock activity:

• A level of effort activity uses its assigned calendar to summarize its dates. Hammocks arenot scheduled using their own calendar.
• Any type of relationship can be assigned to a level of effort activity. Only a start-to-startand finish-to-finish relationship can be assigned to a hammock activity.
• A level of effort activity’s duration is calculated from the earliest early start of itspredecessors/successors (linked to the start end of the level of effort activity) to the latest early finish of its predecessors/successors (linked to the finish end of the level of effort activity).
• A hammock activity’s duration is calculated from the earliest early start of its predecessors to the latest early finish of its successor activities.

Some schedulers tend to avoid the use of LOEs because of the inability to control their durations or update them properly. The intent of this document is to clarify all aspects of using Level of Effort activity types.

Level of Effort Duration Type

Although you can assign a Duration Type such as Fixed Duration and Units/Time or Fixed Duration and Units, the duration is actually never fixed, since its duration is controlled by the activities the LOE is linked to.

Since the duration is never fixed, you must have a clear understanding of how the Budgeted Units/Time and Total Units will react when the duration changes:

• During Planning: During the planning period, its best to use Fixed Duration & Units/Time. This ensures that the crew size (Budgeted Units/Time) you apply to the LOE stays constant. The total units will then increase and decrease as the duration flexes.
• During Execution: Once a plan is approved for execution, the duration of the LOE should now be defined. This means that the total hours are also defined based on the static crew size (Budgeted Units/Time) assigned. At this point, you should change the duration type to Fixed Duration & Units. This ensures the total budgeted hours will not increase or decrease during execution when the duration starts to contract and expand. NOTE: Do not use Fixed Units, but rather Fixed Duration & Units. Otherwise the Units % Complete will not automatically update when performing progress entry.Also, this assumes that you have activated the setting in the project Calculations tab “Recalculate Actual Units and Cost when duration % complete changes.” This ensures that the Units % updates along with the Duration %

Be aware that the Remaining Units/Time will now fluctuate (even to decimals or fractions) during execution when the duration of the LOE changes. This is okay, with the understanding that you do not want the total hours of the LOE to change. Typically any required changes to the LOE total hours should be managed through a change process. An example of this is provided at the end of this document.

Fixed Duration & Units vs. Fixed Units Example:

Here is an example containing two LOE activities. One is set to Fixed Duration & Units and the other is set to Fixed Units. Although the Duration % Complete automatically updated on both due to their predecessor activity being progressed, the LOE set with Fixed Units did not update the Units % Complete, Earned Value Labor Units, or the Actual Labor Units. As stated earlier, use Fixed Duration & Units/Time on LOEs during planning. Use Fixed Duration and Units on LOEs during execution.

LOE Percent Complete Type

Although both the Duration % Complete and Units % Complete should automatically update on LOE (provided you are following the parameters noted above), it’s best to use a units percent complete type on Level of Effort activities. Doing so ensures that the actual and earned hours on the LOE are calculated properly.

LOE Relationship Links

Since a LOE duration is determined by the activities it is linked to, both the LOE start relationship link and the LOE finish relationship link are technically supposed to be predecessors, since realistically both the LOE start and finish are supposed to be driven by other activities. We are noting this because you may encounter other P6 users that will argue this point.

So technically the links for both the start and finish should be drawn up to the LOE, as shown in this example, indicating that the LOE duration is always driven by other activities:

The problem is that both links are predecessors to the LOE. That being said, there is not a successor assigned, which causes the P6 log file to flag the LOE as being open-ended:

Regardless of the technical concept that LOE’s must be driven by predecessor links to define both the start and finish dates of the LOE, we at TEPCO recommend a simplistic approach to ensure there is both a predecessor and successor on the LOE:

This resolves the LOE being flagged as not having a successor in the schedule log, and does not adversely affect the LOE duration in any way:

Updating Progress on LOEs

Updating an LOE tends to cause the greatest confusion. An LOE is NOT a summary activity, although many schedulers like to call it one. The only summarizing attribute of the LOE is the start and finish date. Nothing else summarizes to it.

The Duration % Complete and Units % Complete should automatically update on the LOE. This should not be considered summarization either. It is simply updating the percent based on its own duration, although since it is linked and driven by other activities, it can appear to look like a summary. Some environments use them to simply summarize durations, similar to what WBS (or activity code) grouping bands can do.

So when the driving activities are updated, the LOE start date will automatically update to follow its earliest started predecessor.

In this example, activity A1010 has been updated to 100% and the data date has been moved forward 1 day. Both the Duration and Units % Complete on the LOE have updated.

Earned vs. Actual Hours

Since we typically do not enter true actual hours into P6 based on timesheets, we ensure the project setting is activated to Recalculate Actual Units and Cost when duration % complete changes within the projects details Calculations tab. This ensures the Actual Units automatically update when we enter Duration % Complete or Remaining Duration. This gives us the ability to pulled Earned Hours from resource assignments by utilizing the Actual Units fields as earned units. (A separate white paper has been written on this.)

As a precaution, it’s always good to compare the Actual Units field to the Earned Units field prior to running management reports. If the two fields are not the same, something is out of sync. Your S-Curve reports will most likely be skewed as well.

9 times out of 10 it’s a Level of Effort activity causing the problem. This can happen when the Duration % Complete and Units % Complete fields are not the same on the LOE. This can be very apparent when you have LOE’s with a high amount of manhours.

The cause of the two percent fields becoming out of sync is not always clear. It could be the manner in which activities are updated. Or it could be when there are multiple resource assignments on a single LOE. P6 Version 8 seems to calculate the fields in this aspect better than previous versions. This issue is very common in P6 Version 6.2.

Here is an example of what you might encounter. Notice how the Units % Complete does not match the Duration % Complete. Also, the Actual Hours do not match the Earned Hours.

This is a simple example, so we could just manually change the Units % Complete field to 33.33%. However, if you have an LOE with numerous resources and high hours, this may be more difficult to make them match exactly. The P6 percent fields only show 2 decimal places, so it’s quite possible that the Duration % Complete is rounding in the background.

Fortunately there is a very easy fix that can be used at any time and does not take any manual calculations. The Update Progress tool in P6 will automatically resolved the problem for us, and should fix it right down to a fraction of a percent.

1. Use Ctrl-Click to select the LOE activities that are out of sync
2. Go to Tools, Update Progress
3. Select the option Selected Activities Only and click Apply
4. Schedule (F9) the project. (NOTE: The Duration % Complete field may have changed when you performed the update progress. You MUST reschedule to correct it.)

Make Update Progress tool in P6 Part of your Standard Update Process for LOEs:
Since the Update Progress tool resolves the issue, you could add this procedure into your normal updating routine. Simply update your activities as normal, move the data date ahead, ensure no actuals are ahead of the data date, and then use the Update Progress tool on all LOEs. Re- updating an already progressed LOE via Update Progress does not hurt anything. So you could apply a LOE filter and just update them all!

Change Requests and LOEs

If a job containing an LOE increases in duration, this causes the duration of the LOE to increase. The total hours will not increase since the LOE is set to Fixed Duration & Units. An increase in job duration could be due to:

• Discovery work added to the plan
• Weather or Ops delays
• Poor productivity from the primary resources
• Etc…In this example, it’s determined that a change management activity will need to be added to the column for weld repairs. When added into the activity sequence, the LOE duration now increases. In this case, the added work should go through change management approval before adding the activity. However, will the added activity contain the extra Safety Watch hours? If you do this, the LOE will also be running over the top of it, causing the Safety Watch histogram to exceed limits. (Sometimes referred to as “double dipping”.) It’s best to add the extra Safety Watch hours to the existing LOE. This is commonly overlooked.

Another situation that may result in added hours for the Safety Watch is a basic overrun of job duration. In this case, the turnaround manager may want to submit a change request towards the end of the turnaround to compensate for the increased usage of the Safety Watch resources.

Primavera P6 EPPM User Interface Views are an additional layer of security and used to standardize the P6 Web interface for common business functions/roles (i.e., Executive, Project Manager, Resource Manager, etc.). A User Interface View is a set of pre-configured parameters used to create a standard look and feel for a user or groups of users based on their roles in Primavera P6 EPPM.

Both P6v7 and the P6R8.x versions of Primavera contain the User Interface View function.

In Primavera P6 EPPM, when initially installed, no User Interface Views are defined and a user has full visibility to all views, tabs, and dropdown menus although access to certain functions and data will be restricted based on Global and Project Security Privileges assigned to that user. Note also that if a user is not assigned a certain Primavera P6 EPPM module, that particular tab will not be available when logged in no matter what is contained in the User Interface View.

Example: The user below is only enabled for the Portfolio Module in P6 EPPM.

In order to create and assign User Interface Views, a user must either be an Admin Superuser or have the ‘Administration > Add/Edit/Delete User Interface Views’ right enabled.

The following describes the steps required to create and assign a User Interface View to a user who is an Executive stakeholder for a portfolio of projects. This example assumes that a Dashboard for an Executive stakeholder has already been preconfigured.

1.Select Administer > User Interface Views from dropdown menu and click ‘User Interface Views.

2. Select ‘Create User Interface View’ as shown below.

3. Choose a pre-existing User Interface View from which to create a new User Interface View, or choose ‘Create New….’ and click ‘OK’.

4. Give the User Interface View a name such as “Executive” and then set the content as shown below:

5.For this example, ignore the Activity Editing tab and select the ‘Users’ tab in the Details window. Expand the ‘Users without a User Interface View’ drop down.

6.Move the user(s) who will be assigned this User Interface View to “Selected Users” and do not allow editing. Use the symbols to move the users.

7.Click ‘Save and Close’. Logout of P6 Web and log back in as the executive user.

The executive user once logged in will see the Executive Dashboard which is preconfigured with assigned portfolio.

Retained Logic and Progress Override

The retained logic and progress override setting can drastically affect a schedule depending on which is used, so understanding the details of each is key.

In the Schedule Options window, P6 gives us three options to determine how it will schedule activities when out-of-sequence progress occurs.

An example of out-of-sequence progress is when a successor task is able to start prior to the finish of its predecessor, assuming a Finish-To-Start relationship is assigned between the two.

By pressing F9 on your keyboard and selecting Options, the Schedule Options screen will be available for you to choose Retained Logic, Progress Override or Actual Dates.

There are three ways P6 can react when activities are conducted out-of-sequence.

Retained Logic: The remaining duration of a progressed activity is not scheduled until all predecessors are complete. It also prevents tasks from “front-loading” since the remainder of the work is held out.

As you can see, even though Activity B started early, P6 will not allow the remainder of the activity to continue until its predecessor Activity A is complete.

The staffing plan below shows how Retained Logic prevents “front end- loading”.

Progress Override: Network logic is ignored and Activity B can progress without delay. Although the predecessor logic remains intact, the relationship is ignored and the predecessor is treated as if it has an open end, resulting in unrealistic positive float. It also shows the task now capable of running in parallel, but resource availability may not allow this.

Although it’s not apparent, Activity A is treated as open-ended, resulting in an unrealistic increase of float. (This example increased float from 13 to 27 hours.) Activity A and B are also now running in parallel.

This type of scheduling does not prevent “front end-loading” which could lead to an increased staffing plan or improper staffing of the work.

As you can see, Activity B is now running in parallel with Activity A. Activity C was originally scheduled to Finish on March 28th, but is now scheduled to Finish on March 27th; doing so has pulled all scheduled work back and increased the staffing.

Actual Dates: Similar to Retained Logic, but the actual dates are used to calculate the forward and backward pass and treats the actual dates similar to constraints. The result can be an unrealistic amount of negative float.

Treats Activity A as if it was required to complete before its successor’s actual start date causing an unrealistic amount

The remainder of the activity is still treated the same as when we use Retained Logic. P6 will not allow the remainder of the activity to continue until its predecessor is complete. The activity path will still reflect a gain in duration progress.

Viewing the Schedule Log will provide details about your project and its settings. Out-of-sequence activities are one of these items that can be viewed by running the log.

To view the Schedule Log for your project follow the steps below:

1. Click F9 on your Keyboard
2. Check the Log to file box
3. Click Schedule
4. Click F9 on your Keyboard again
5. Now that Log to file location has been selected you can select View Log

Viewing the Schedule Log

The Schedule Log records scheduling results, including:

• Scheduling/leveling settings
• Statistics
• Critical activities
• Errors, warnings (Out-of-sequence activities) • Scheduling/leveling results

• Exceptions

For additional information on Retained Logic and Progress Override view this tutorial: http://bit.ly/1rwEwsO.

This paper provides insight into the anticipated ‘Fall 2014’ release of Oracle’s® Primavera P6 R8.4 PPM/EPPM.

Oracle’s roadmap for the next several years will be focusing on both cloud solutions and the tighter integration of its flagship PPM/EPPM products; Primavera P6, Primavera Prime, and Primavera Unifier.

One of the behind the scene changes in Primavera P6 R8.4 involves the standalone database that comes bundled with the software. Prior to the sale to Oracle, Primavera P6 came bundled with Microsoft® SQL Server® Express 2005 database but soon after the acquisition of Primavera by Oracle, the SQL Server Express database was replaced with Oracle Database Express (Oracle XE). Because of some confusion on how to manage and install Oracle XE, Primavera P6 R8.4 will come bundled with SQLite.

Another change that appears fairly substantial is the ability to transfer global data (codes, calendars, etc.) between P6 databases. In the past, the predominant method to transfer global information from one database to another was through the use of the Software Development Kit (SDK) and in particular the Excel spreadsheets that Primavera had provided throughout the years to support the migration of data. Now it appears that at least some of the global data will be transferrable between two discrete P6 databases. I’m hoping that this will alleviate the issue which pertains to a user implementing a Primavera P6 PPM based solution in-lieu of a Primavera P6 EPPM solution but then later deciding to deploy the P6 Web component. At the very least the global data should be transferrable.

Two new cloud-based services will be added that appear to augment some of the tighter integration between Primavera Unifier and Primavera P6. The P6 Update Baseline and Import/Export functions will now have the capability to be automated via a scheduled service.

A number of enhancements will be made to Primavera P6 Team Member:

1. Team Member will effectively be merged with Progress Reporter (aka Timesheets) giving it the capability to status both activities and actual labor expended (Browser-based timesheets)

2. All resources assigned to a given task in Team Member will be able to be updated all together
3. The ability to update P6 Notebook Topics
4. The ability to filter by a given resource
5. The ability to attach a picture as a document (as taken by a mobile device running TeamMember)
6. The ability to update ‘This Period’ actuals (ability provided by merging Timesheet function)
7. Will include an enhanced sorting capability

Primavera P6 Visualizer will also contain some improvements with the release of Primavera P6 R8.4:

1. Will allow a Shift to be used as a date interval
2. The ability to summarize values into grouping bands
3. The ability to include a legend in the header or footer
4. The ability to turn on or turn off gridlines
5. The option to copy a bar

Future releases of Primavera P6 will focus on an increased integration capability and functionality with Primavera Unifier and Primavera Prime. Included with the release of Primavera P6 R8.4 will be a number of improvements for the integration between Primavera P6 and Primavera Unifier:

1. The integration of Primavera Unifier and Primavera P6 will rely on Primavera Gateway
2. Primavera P6 will have the ability to send P6 resources, rates, expenses, and a high-levelWBS to Primavera Unifier
3. Primavera P6 will have the ability to send summarized and baseline data to PrimaveraUnifier

And finally some ‘ease of use’ enhancements were made to Primavera P6 R8.4 EPPM:

1. The ability to search on resource attributes when assigning a resource
2. The ability to view a scheduled service status in the EPS View (in Primavera P6 R8.3 this function was in the Activities View)
3. The visibility of users that are logged into a given project (versus the entire database)

As far as I can tell, there are no enhancements being made to the P6 Professional Client (although some bug fixes always seem to be present in any major P6 release) and all changes and enhancements primarily focus on the P6 Web component.

During the course of implementing Oracle’s® PrimaveraTM P6, one of the most overlooked aspects of the implementation is the handover of P6 administration from the implementer to the end-user. Prior to the implementation handover, thought must be given as to who will be performing, and how the Primavera P6 environment and the data contained therein, will be managed throughout its lifecycle. One specific item to note is there is always a gray area between the administration of P6 from a Systems Administration and P6 Application Administration standpoint.

There is going to always be ‘care and feeding’ required for the P6 environment; its users, and data with some tasks being more common than others:

• Managing P6 Users, Security, and Licensing.
• Configuration control of coding structures, resource/role pools, calendars, Enterprise Project Structure (EPS)/Organizational Breakdown Structure (OBS), Security Profiles, and settings that are standards and global in nature.
• If no help desk support function is available the Primavera Admin is typically the first responder to user issues and questions. He or she is “The P6 Subject Matter Expert”.
• Provides desk-side mentoring of new users as required.
• Monitoring data and ecological integrity and standard archiving/backupprocesses.
• Point of Contact to IT (System and Database Administrators).
• Typically administrator of the company ‘Oracle Customer Support Identifier’ and point of contact for Primavera Help Desk Service Requests via the MyOracleSupport.com website.References:

My Oracle Support: https://support.oracle.com