Primavera® P6™ Project Management

545 Pages·2014·12.74 MB·English

Primavera P6 Project
® ™
Management
Reference Manual
vii
Table of Contents
Preface...............................................................................................xiii
Primavera Products............................................................................................xiv
Using Documentation and Help........................................................................xvii
Where to Get Support.........................................................................................xx
Part 1: Overview and Configuration
Understanding Project Management.................................................3
Why Use Project Portfolio Management?............................................................4
Your Role in the Organization..............................................................................5
Project Management Process Overview...............................................................8
Planning, Controlling, and Managing Projects...................................................10
Quick Tour..........................................................................................13
Getting Started....................................................................................................14
Selecting a Language..........................................................................................17
The Workspace...................................................................................................18
What Is a Layout?...............................................................................................21
Customizing Displays.........................................................................................23
Sample Layouts..................................................................................................25
Using Wizards.....................................................................................................27
Defining Administrative Preferences and Categories.....................29
Defining Default Settings...................................................................................30
Defining Standard Categories and Values..........................................................40
Defining Currencies............................................................................................46
Setting User Preferences....................................................................49
Formatting Time Units........................................................................................50
Formatting Dates................................................................................................52
Setting View Currency and Symbols..................................................................53
Setting Mail Preferences.....................................................................................54
Implementing Wizards........................................................................................55
viii Table of Contents
Creating a Log of Tasks and (cid:3)
Setting Startup, Group and Sort, and Column Options.....................................56
Changing Your Password....................................................................................58
Setting Profile and Spreadsheet Data Options....................................................59
Setting Calculation Options for Resource and Role Assignments......................61
Selecting Startup Filters......................................................................................63
Part 2: Structuring Projects
Setting Up the Enterprise Project Structure...................................67
Enterprise Project Structure Overview................................................................68
Setting Up the Enterprise Project Structure........................................................75
Adding a New Project to the Enterprise Project Structure..................................77
Using Project Architect.......................................................................................79
Working with the Enterprise Project Structure...................................................84
Defining Enterprise Project Structure Details.....................................................89
Setting Up the Organizational Breakdown Structure....................97
The OBS..............................................................................................................98
Viewing an OBS................................................................................................101
Setting Up an OBS............................................................................................103
Editing OBS Elements......................................................................................106
Defining Resources and Roles.........................................................109
Resources Overview..........................................................................................110
Viewing and Adding Resources........................................................................111
Defining Resource Shifts..................................................................................118
Defining and Assigning Resource Codes and Values.......................................119
Setting Up Roles...............................................................................................122
Assigning Roles to Resources...........................................................................127
Defining Custom Resource Curves...................................................................129
Reviewing Work Breakdown Structures .......................................133
The WBS...........................................................................................................134
Viewing a WBS.................................................................................................136
Grouping by WBS Path.....................................................................................138
Adding WBS Elements and Assigning Properties............................................139
Using WBS Milestones.....................................................................................143
Assigning WBS Category Values......................................................................145
Defining Earned Value Settings for Specific WBS Elements...........................146
Assigning Estimation Weights to WBS Elements............................................148
Defining Budgets..............................................................................151
Top-Down Budgeting........................................................................................152
Establishing Budgets.........................................................................................155
Establishing a Monthly Spending Plan.............................................................157
Primavera
Table of Contents ix
Tracking Budget Changes.................................................................................159
Establishing Funding........................................................................................161
Tracking and Analyzing Budgets.....................................................................164
Establishing Project Codes..............................................................165
Defining and Assigning Project Codes.............................................................166
Grouping, Summarizing, and Filtering by Codes.............................................170
Working With User-Defined Fields................................................175
Creating User-Defined Fields...........................................................................176
Working with User-Defined Fields...................................................................178
Working with Indicators...................................................................................180
Creating Calendars..........................................................................183
Adding Calendars.............................................................................................184
Modifying Calendars........................................................................................186
Part 3: Implementing the Schedule
Establishing Activity Codes ............................................................193
Creating Activity Codes and Values.................................................................194
Grouping and Summarizing by Codes..............................................................198
Working with Activities...................................................................201
Activities Overview..........................................................................................202
Adding Activities..............................................................................................203
Defining General Activity Information............................................................205
Defining Schedule Information........................................................................209
Establishing Relationships................................................................................213
Displaying Activity Details for Assignments...................................................218
Assigning Resources and Roles........................................................................219
Assigning Resource Curves to Resource or Role Assignments.......................223
Manually Planning Future Period Assignments...............................................224
Assigning Activity Codes and Adding Expenses.............................................230
Viewing Activity Feedback and Posting Resource Notes.................................232
Assigning Work Products and Documents.......................................................234
Adding Steps.....................................................................................................235
Creating and Assigning Activity Step Templates.............................................237
Viewing Activity Summaries............................................................................240
Viewing Contract Manager Documents............................................................241
Using Global Change........................................................................................242
Working with Cost Accounts and Project Expenses.....................247
Cost Account and Expense Overview..............................................................248
Setting Up a Cost Account Structure................................................................249
Adding Expenses and Entering Cost Information............................................253
Defining Expense Details.................................................................................256
Analyzing Costs................................................................................................258
Primavera
x Table of Contents
Performing Top-down Estimation..................................................261
Performing Top-down Estimation.....................................................................262
Applying Saved Top-Down Estimates To a Project..........................................266
Part 4: Updating and Managing the Schedule
Managing Baselines.........................................................................271
Creating and Maintaining Baselines.................................................................272
Assigning Baselines to Projects........................................................................276
Comparing Current and Baseline Schedules.....................................................278
Updating Baselines...........................................................................................280
Updating, Scheduling, and Leveling...............................................283
The Update Process...........................................................................................284
Choosing a Method of Updating.......................................................................286
Highlighting Activities for Updating................................................................288
Updating Progress for Spotlighted Activities...................................................290
Estimating Progress Automatically...................................................................292
Updating Using Timesheets..............................................................................295
Updating Activities Manually...........................................................................297
Interrupting Activity Progress...........................................................................303
Applying Actuals..............................................................................................305
Storing Period Performance (Past Period Actuals)...........................................307
Scheduling Projects...........................................................................................311
Leveling Resources...........................................................................................317
Recalculating Resource and Role Assignment Costs.......................................321
Managing Resource Assignments.....................................................................323
Summarizing Projects .....................................................................325
Setting Summarization Options........................................................................326
Summarizing Project Data................................................................................327
Managing Risks................................................................................335
Adding Risks.....................................................................................................336
Calculating Exposure Values............................................................................338
Calculating a Risk’s Impact..............................................................................339
Creating and Deleting Risk Types.....................................................................340
Customizing Risk Layouts................................................................................341
Project Issues and Thresholds ........................................................343
Adding Issues....................................................................................................344
Assigning Tracking Layouts to Issues..............................................................348
Using the Issue Navigator.................................................................................349
Adding Thresholds............................................................................................350
Primavera
Table of Contents xi
Threshold Parameter Definitions......................................................................353
Monitoring Thresholds.....................................................................................357
Assigning Tracking Layouts to Thresholds......................................................358
Maintaining a Project’s Document Library..................................359
Viewing a Document Library and (cid:3)
Adding/Deleting Work Products and Documents...........................................360
Specifying Document Location References.....................................................362
Assigning Work Products and Documents.......................................................363
Tracking Projects.............................................................................365
Creating Tracking Layouts...............................................................................366
Working with Tracking Layouts.......................................................................369
Customizing Tracking Layouts.........................................................................370
Grouping, Sorting, and Filtering Data in Tracking Layouts.............................372
Comparing Projects with Claim Digger ........................................375
Claim Digger Overview....................................................................................376
Comparing Projects/Baselines..........................................................................377
Comparison Data..............................................................................................384
Creating and Using Reflections......................................................391
Reflection Overview.........................................................................................392
Creating and Using Reflections........................................................................393
Reflection Guidelines.......................................................................................396
Checking Projects In and Out ........................................................397
Managing Remote Projects...............................................................................398
Checking Out Projects......................................................................................399
Checking In Projects.........................................................................................401
Part 5: Customizing Projects
Working with Layouts.....................................................................407
Layout Types....................................................................................................408
Creating, Opening, and Saving Layouts...........................................................414
Exporting and Importing Layouts.....................................................................415
Copying and Pasting Resource Spreadsheet Data to Microsoft Excel.............416
Grouping, Sorting, and Filtering Data...........................................417
Grouping Data..................................................................................................418
Sorting Data......................................................................................................422
Filtering Data....................................................................................................423
Primavera
xii Table of Contents
Customizing Layouts.......................................................................427
Modifying Columns..........................................................................................428
Adjusting the Timescale....................................................................................431
Formatting Gantt Charts....................................................................................434
Formatting Activity Network Layouts..............................................................442
Modifying Resource and Activity Usage Profile Settings................................446
Customizing Reports.......................................................................455
Reports Overview..............................................................................................456
Opening Reports...............................................................................................457
Creating and Modifying Reports.......................................................................458
Using the Report Editor....................................................................................461
Adding Data Sources and Rows to Reports......................................................465
Adding Text Cells to Reports............................................................................469
Sorting Report Data Sources.............................................................................477
Customizing a Report with the Report Editor: an Example..............................478
Using Report Groups........................................................................................488
Setting Up Batch Reports..................................................................................489
Printing Layouts and Reports.........................................................491
Defining Page Settings......................................................................................492
Previewing Layouts and Reports.......................................................................496
Printing Layouts and Reports............................................................................497
Publishing Layouts and Reports in HTML Format...........................................499
Publishing a Project on the World Wide Web...............................501
Project Web Site Overview...............................................................................502
Publishing a Project Web Site...........................................................................504
Customizing the Appearance of a Project Web Site.........................................506
Publishing Activity and Tracking Layouts........................................................507
Linking the Project Management (cid:3)
and Contract Manager Modules ..................................................509
Linking the Project Management Module to Contract Manager......................510
Linking a Project Management Project to a Contract Manager Project...........512
Importing Contract Manager Data to (cid:3)
a Project Management Module Project...........................................................514
Index..................................................................................................517
Primavera
Preface xiii
Preface
In this preface Primavera’s Project Management module
is comprehensive, multiproject planning
Primavera Products
and control software, built on SQL,
Using Documentation and Help
Oracle, and SQL Server Express server
Where to Get Support
databases for organization-wide project
management scalability. The module can
stand alone for project and resource
management, or it can be used with
companion Primavera products to
manage your project portfolios.
Primavera - Project Management
xiv Preface
Primavera Products
Primavera provides an integrated project portfolio management (PPM)
solution consisting of role-specific tools to satisfy each team member’s
needs, responsibilities, and skills. This solution uses standard Windows
interfaces, client/server architecture, Web-enabled technology, and stand-
alone (SQL Server Express) or network-based (Oracle and Microsoft SQL
Server) databases. Primavera offers the following software components:
Project Management The Project Management module enables users
to track and analyze performance. It is a multiuser, multiproject system
with scheduling and resource control capabilities supporting multi-tiered
project hierarchies, resource scheduling with a focus on roles and skills,
recording of actual data, customizable views, and user-definable data.
The module is ideal for organizations that need to simultaneously manage
multiple projects and support multiuser access across a department or the
entire organization. It supports an enterprise project structure (EPS) with
an unlimited number of projects, activities, baselines, resources, work
breakdown structures (WBS), organizational breakdown structures (OBS),
user-defined codes, and critical-path-method (CPM) scheduling and
resource leveling. Large-scale implementations for organization-wide
project portfolio management use it with Oracle or SQL Server as the
project database. For smaller implementations, you can use SQL Server
Express.
The module also provides centralized resource management. This includes
resource timesheet approval and the ability to communicate with project
resources who use the Timesheets module. In addition, the module
provides integrated risk management, issue tracking, and management by
threshold. The tracking feature enables users to perform dynamic cross-
project rollups of cost, schedule, and earned value. Project work products
and documents can be assigned to activities and managed centrally. The
Report Wizard creates customized reports that extract specific data from
its database.
Methodology Management The Methodology Management module
is a system for authoring and storing methodologies, or project plan
templates, in a central location. Project managers can select, combine, and
tailor methodologies to create custom project plans. These customized
methodologies can be imported into the Project Management module
using the Project Architect wizard and used as templates for new projects.
In this way, your organization can continually improve and refine
methodology activities, estimates, and other information with each new
project.
Primavera - Project Management
Preface xv
Timesheets Primavera also provides a Web-based interproject
communication and timekeeping system. As a team-level tool for project
participants, Timesheets helps team members focus on the work at hand
with a simple cross-project to-do list of their upcoming assignments. It
also provides views of project changes and timecards for manager
approval. Because team members use this module to enter up-to-the-
minute information about their assignments and record time against their
workloads, project leaders can make crucial project decisions with the
confidence that they have the most current information possible.
Primavera’s Web application The Primavera Web application
provides browser-based access to project, portfolio, and resource data
across the organization. Every web user can create customized dashboards
that provide an individualized and focused view of the specific projects
and categories of project data that are most relevant to their role in
managing project portfolios, projects, and resources. Project Workspaces
and Workgroups extend the model of customizable, focused data views by
enabling designated project team members to create a uniform team view
of data that relates to one specific project or to a subset of activities within
a project. The Primavera Web application provides access to a wide range
of data views and features that enable Web users to manage their projects
from initial concept review and approval through to completion.
Primavera Integration API The Primavera Integration API is a Java-
based API and server that enables developers to create client code that can
seamlessly access Primavera’s project management functionality.
Software Development Kit The Primavera Software Development
Kit (SDK) enables users to integrate the data in the Project Management
module database with external databases and applications. It provides
access to the schema and to stored procedures that encapsulate business
logic. The SDK supports the Open Database Connectivity (ODBC)
standard and ODBC-compliant interfaces, such as OLE-DB and JDBC,
for connecting to the project management database. The SDK must be
installed on any computer that needs to integrate with the database.
Claim Digger Claim Digger provides the capability to compare two
projects, or a project and an associated baseline, to determine what data
has been added, deleted, or modified from the schedules. Based on the
data fields you select for comparison, this feature creates a project plan
comparison report in one of three file formats. Claim Digger is
automatically installed with the Project Management module. You can
access it from the Tools menu.
Primavera - Project Management