Schedule Comparison (Claim Digger) is now in 16.1 Visualizer.

The Schedule Comparison tool that used to be called Claim Digger, is now housed in the 16.1 Visualizer tool that launches off of the P6 Client (Professional). You select it from the top menu. In the next screen you will select the project you want to compare and whether you want to compare it to a baseline or a copy of a project (most likely an earlier version since the "project" will be the current project). Credit to Randy Cash.

How can you schedule reports to be sent out to email addresses?

Go to Reports>Schedule. In schedule, there is an ellipsis near email address. Click that. Once there you can enter more email addresses.

Differences between timesheet approval capabilities.

If you are a Resource Manager, you can review timesheets for resources to whom you have been assigned as timesheet approval manager. If you are a Project Manager, you can review timesheets for resources who are assigned to activities within projects for which you are responsible. If you are a timesheet approval delegate for a Resource or Project Manager, you can review timesheets for resources to whom the original manager has been assigned as timesheet approval manager.

The Responsible Manager field is the Project Manager for all intensive purposes. The Responsible Manager is an OBS element where users can be assigned. Once assigned and assigned to the project, they have rights to the project as well as timesheet approval capabilities. The Responsible Manager in the OBS can be by name, by group, by anything and the respective users can be assigned.

In Team Member, I cannot see how to change expected finish date in My Tasks?

You need to add you as the activity owner in the activity and need to add in project preferences to Team Member section "allow updates to Expected Finish” Dates. Also in project preferences change to both activity owners and resources and add section or change for expected finish.

Hide when empty is not able to be checked in P6 EPPM?

The hide when empty feature in P6 EPPM is not able to be checked due to a bug in the applicaiton. There is a Knowledgebase article (Doc ID 2088764.1) which indicates that a similar issue was fixed in 15.2.4.

Why is the advanced tab for the import template grayed out when I try to import an XML file?

The advanced tab may become disabled if you are trying to import more than one project.

My resource start dates are different than my activity start dates.

This is an issue that routinely occurs. When building schedules, P6 likes to see the schedule built in sequence. Project>WBS>Activity>Resources. While I understand you can't always know the resources you will have on the activity, if you start the activity with no resources and then add resources, the resource will pick up the progressed activity date. P6 sees that the activity started with no resource, it has been added, but it thinks or suggests that resource can't work from the start of the activity because you just assigned them. Try adding your resources before you mark the activity started. If you absolutely can't, you can try changing the start/finish dates of the resource assignment.

If your Gantt is showing a start time that is different than what your activity is or if the activities are not appearing how you think the should, check this setting.

Prior to looking in your schedule for the problem, check the user preferences>resource analysis. Interval for time-distributed resource calculations: Choose the time interval, such as day or week, that you want to use when storing live resource allocation information. Note that, if the layout's timescale interval is set lower than this interval, the calculated amount displays in the first timescale increment. For example, if you set the calculation interval to week and set the layout's timescale interval to day, the total for the week displays on the first day. Refer to the following graphics.

Incorrect Original Duration When Using The Option 'Use Assigned Calendar To Specify The Number Of Work Hours For Each Time Period'

Symptoms:
Incorrect Original Duration when using the option 'Use Assigned Calendar To Specify The Number Of Work Hours For Each Time Period'.
To have the original duration display correctly when using the option 'Use Assigned Calendar To Specify The Number Of Work Hours For Each Time Period'.
Incorrect Total Float for activities.

Causes:
When using the option 'Use Assigned Calendar To Specify The Number Of Work Hours For Each Time Period', you need to make sure all your time periods are correct.

The Problem: When users create new calendars, they use other calendars as a template. It is easy to forget to change the time periods when doing this. The time periods will also be copied over from the template calendar which was used.

To solve this, change the time periods within the calendar by doing the following:

Change the Admin Preference settings:

Go to Admin > Admin Preferences
Click on the Time Periods tab.
Check the box for 'Use Assigned Calendar To Specify The Number Of Work Hours For Each Time Period'.Change the Time Periods for each of the calendars being used:

Go to Enterprise > Calendars.
Highlight the calendar.
Click on the Modify Button.
Click on the Time Periods Button.
Correct the time periods here.

My Oracle Support: Incorrect Original Duration When Using The Option 'Use Assigned Calendar To Specify The Number Of Work Hours For Each Time Period' (Doc ID 973161.1)

Auto Compute Expenses are not updating.

1. Add the activity (durations, resources, etc).
2. Add the expense line and accrual type uniform over activity.

The issue you may hit is the sequence of the order to which you are updating. Here's what I did in the test project and I understand your process be different.

While the actual cost of the expenses is "auto-compute", it will not just happen. You will want to use Apply Actuals and select the appropriate data date that corresponds to your project. Here was my test scenario....

Activity is task dependent with fixed duration going for 30 days starting on 18-JAN. I had an expense line of 10,000.00 budgeted and remaining. I applied actuals with a data date of 25-JAN. Once I did this the actual cost went to 1666.67 (% of total planned duration) and remaining went to 8333.33.

There is no bug with regard to the functionality of this feature.

When a user is deleted from the database, do their user layouts become global in the Client in R15.2?

Once a user is deleted, their specific layouts and preferences are deleted as well. There was a bug in 7.0 that when a user is deleted the layouts are pushed to global, but that is no longer the case.

Can you run batch reports in P6 Professional 15.2?

Yes, you can. The Job Service Server component must be installed to use the Job Services feature. Also, using the Job Services feature requires the appropriate level of security. If a job does not run as scheduled, check with your system administrator. For Batch Reports jobs, click the Job Options tab and add each project/EPS node for which you want to run the batch report. Project batch reports will only run for the project to which they are assigned. To remove a project/EPS node from the job, select it and click Remove. In the Batch Report field, click to select the batch report you want the job service to run. To specify where to send the output of the batch report, click Send Report To.

Your linear spread for a resource assignment is only showing for a part of the activity duration.

If you are seeing your spread for only a portion of the activity, you may need to check the assignment. Check to see that you did select "linear" for the curve. If you have to select it again, do so, then schedule with the most recent data date and then summarize again. After summarizing, check the data in the resource assignments section. There are some cases where you will also need to check the resource assignment start/finish dates in the event that you added the activity, progressed it, added resources, and scheduled etc.

Understanding the Expected Finish Date

There are few things the expected finish date does.

The date on which the primary resource, the person who assigns the expected finish date, anticipates work on the activity will finish. Only the primary resource can edit this field if the activity has started.

When the expected finish date is set, it will change the "finish" date on the status tab, but it WILL NOT change the planned finish date in column view.

The expected finish date will also change the resource assignment finish dates.

On not started and in progress activities, adding the expected finish date will change the finish date (in status tab) in both situations. The planned finish date does not change when you add an expected finish date.

A good write-up with screen shots on leveling by TenSix

Resource Leveling with Primavera P6 Professional

P6 Professional 15 R2 32-bit and 64-bit Features White Paper

P6 Professional 15 R2 32-bit and 64-bit Features White Paper

Differences between Microsoft Project and P6

Differences between Primavera and Microsoft Project (MSP):

We will default all values to the MSP defaults for fields we do not have in Primavera.

Project Start is what MSP uses to schedule. Activities with no predecessors will have the project start date, instead of the Data Date as the early start date from Primavera.

SF relationships in MSP do not abide by Primavera dates and cannot be before the data date.

Primavera Duration% = (Original Duration - Remaining Duration)/Original Duration while MSP %Complete is Actual/Duration.

Material resources in MSP cannot have Max Units/Time, Overtime rate, calendar, or email.

There is no actual overtime work in MPX.

If a loop is generated from Primavera because of using LOE activities, it will import all activities into MSP, but remove the relationships so that there is no loop. MSP detects relationships to LOE activities as loops, Primavera does not.

For MPX export, zero duration activities will be imported into MSP as milestones, even if they are not start or finish milestones in Primavera.

There is no type of Role concept in MSP. So all roles assigned to activities are lost during export.

A task in MSP can have durations as well as be marked as a Milestone. We will always import tasks that are marked as milestones as Milestones, not tasks with durations.

In MSP, milestones do not look at calendars when scheduling. Milestones can start on non-work intervals.

MSP does not allow negative units, but allows negative cost and price/time. Primavera does not allow negative price/time, but allows negative units and cost (Primavera does not allow negative budgeted and remaining units for non-fixed duration type activities).

MSP allows SS and FS relationship between summary tasks. Primavera does not allow relationships between WBS Summary Activities.

Embedded/Linked MSP projects in an MSP project will not be imported. Only the opened project will be imported with its activities.

Primavera At Completion duration maps to MSP Duration because this is field used for scheduling.

Cannot have a duplicate resource assigned to a task in MSP. We will export the combined data for the resource to one MSP resource.

All resource assignments are exported from Primavera to MSP as non-driving.

How do I delete financial data?

1. Open projects that show a difference between columns for actual this period and actual costs or units. There is stored period data in any projects that show a difference between those fields.
2. In Activity view, select View, Show on top, Activity Usage Spreadsheet then View, Timescale and set to Financial Period.
3. Right-click the Activity Usage Spreadsheet and select Spreadsheet Fields and select the appropriate Financial Period Value field(s).
4. Select view, Collapse All to find project with financial period data during the period you want to delete.
5. Either delete the project or remove the project's financial period data.
6. Once all projects show no financial period data in the period you want to delete, you should be able to delete the financial period without issue.

How to delete financial data from the database.

You may want to check the resource assignment for the project and activity. You may also have to do this at the database level. Not sure if you're on client or web, but here are the scripts for the client. How to run a database query to find the actual units and cost that are stored in financial periods for a specific resource assignment. The query will return the actual units and cost along with the financial period they are stored in. select t.act_qty, t.act_cost, f.fin_dates_name, f.start_date, f.end_date from trsrcfin t inner join findates f on t.fin_dates_id = f.fin_dates_id where t.taskrsrc_id in (select taskrsrc_id from taskrsrc where rsrc_id in (select rsrc_id from rsrc where rsrc_short_name = 'XXX')) and t.task_id in (select task_id from task where task_code = 'YYY' and proj_id in (select proj_id from project where proj_short_name = 'ZZZ')); Substitute the blue text with the specific information for the resource, activity and project. XXX - Resource ID YYY - Activity ID ZZZ - Project ID

Why are the dates in the WBS hidden?

In P6 client, Go to Group & Sort>Click on show group totals. Should fix the issue.

How do you upate progress?

You want to choose one way or the other. Either doing it manually or using auto-compute. It may depend on how many activities you are looking to update. There is information on updating in the use guide as well.

Common updating process steps:

Create a baseline
• Identify the new data date
• Enter activity progress throughout the week (update duration remaining & at complete, dates,
or physical % complete).
• Report resource use and costs to date (done automatically by timesheets & apply actuals).
• Reschedule using the new data date (done by job services).
• Perform baseline analysis.
– Compare current plan to baseline plan to analyze variances.
• Monitor project progress with reports.
– Determine whether project objectives are being met.

Updating the Progress of Activities Using P6
Update status to define percent complete and start and finish dates.
To update status:
1) Click Projects.
2) On the Projects navigation bar, click Activities.
3) On the Activities page, select an activity and click the General detail window.
4) In the General detail window, in the Status section:
a. Select or clear the Started and Finished options.
b. If you select an option, click
and select a date from the calendar.
c. Enter a percentage in the Activity % Complete field.
5) On the Activities page, click the Actions
menu and select
Save (Ctrl+S).

Can I export a P6 project to excel?

Yes. In the client and web you can do it. Client: File>Export>Spreadsheet - (XLS)>Select XLS file type.

Web: You can export the list of projects in your EPS view to a Microsoft Excel (.xls) file.
To export projects: Click Projects>On the Projects navigation bar, click EPS.>On the EPS page. >Select an EPS view from the EPS View list>Configure the EPS view to determine what data are exported.>Click the Actions menu and select Import/Export Export to Excel>In the File Download dialog box, click Open to open the Excel spreadsheet or Save to save the file to your computer

How do you show program costs in P6 8.3?

If by program, you mean project..you can cost load your resources on the activities, you can add costs to the budget and spread it, you can add costs to the expense tab to the activity. All costs will roll up to budgeted and then as actual as you either charge time (actuals) or reduce your budgeted expenses by actuals every time period. If by program, you truly mean "program", usually a group of projects will roll up to being a "program" in the EPS view of P6. You can also group projects as a portfolio and have them populate a dashboard or portfolio view. This is the short version of a response because we could expand on this topic for days.

www.p6blogger.com

Have anyone used P6 Visualizer to create TSLD & Gantt Chart?

I would suggest using a sample project and only using one project to build out the "samples" or templates of the TSLD or Gantt Chart. The tedious, but fun part, is customizing the look and feel of the chart or diagram to really get it to where you want. If you don't have a powerful machine, it may hang, but it does not hang on a machine with 8GB of RAM. So keep that in mind. In a quick google search, I found a partner's pdf on using the Visualizer. Hopefully it helps you get started...

http://www.drmcnatty.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/June-2013-Tech-Webinar-Primavera-Visualizer.pdf

How do I use roles in Primavera 6?

You can use roles in a few ways. You can use them as placeholders for activity assignments you know you need, but don't know the actual resource (named or otherwise). Some organizations use the role as the resource name and go that route. Seems like you're using 6, so roles usually can just be added to your activities as you are building your schedule and you can do your planning/budgeting that way if the roles have costs assigned to them. This way, you can get a cost estimate even if you do not know the named resources.

As for EV, this is a topic we could talk about all day here. What exactly is the end goal of what you are measuring? I imagine cost and schedule, but do you know what EV attributes you are looking to measure? All of them. There are plenty of books that are out there. A partner has a pdf out there and there are tons of videos and material out there on this topic.

http://www.drmcnatty.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/October-2012-Webinar-Calculating-Earned-Value-and-Estimate-to-Complete-in-P6.pdfless