P6 Professional User Guide

Group and sort data based on indicators

Filter data based on indicators

Perform global changes

Display timescale bars

View indicator data in reports using columns, group and sort, and filters.

To assign values to indicator fields:

You are required to create a column for the UDF, click in the field, and select an icon from the list. An indicator UDF can have one of four values: red, yellow, green, or blue. You must select one of these values whenever you enter a value for an Indicator UDF, whether in columns, group and sort, filters, reports, global change or bars.

Note:

In columns, filters, global change, and group and sort, indicator UDF values appear as icons. In reports, indicator UDF columns show the text value of the icon (that is, rather than displaying the icon, the value is red, yellow, green, or blue).

Defining Calendars

Calendars

You can create and assign calendars to each resource, each project, and each activity. For each calendar, you can define the following:

available workhours in each calendar day

default hours per time period settings that are used as conversion factors when entering or displaying units in time increments other than hours

national holidays

your organization's holidays

project-specific work/ nonworkdays

resource vacation days.

Calendar assignments are used for activity scheduling, tracking, and resource leveling. Whether an activity uses its assigned calendar or the calendar of an assigned resource depends on the activity type you specify (task-dependent versus resource-dependent).

Three calendar pools are defined: global, resource, and project. The global calendar pool contains calendars that apply to all projects. The project calendar pool is a separate pool of calendars for each project. The resource calendar pool can be a separate pool of calendars for each resource. You can assign either resource or global calendars to resources, and you can assign either global or project calendars to activities.

You can link resource and project calendars to global calendars. Then, if you make changes to a global calendar, your changes apply to all resource and project calendars that are linked to the modified global calendar.

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Structuring Projects

Shared and Personal Resource Calendars

Resource calendars consist of two types:

Shared Resource Calendar

When connected to a P6 EPPM database: Shared resource calendars can be assigned to multiple resources, and only users with Add/Edit/Delete Resource Calendars privilege (as defined using P6) can edit a shared resource calendar.

When connected to a P6 Professional database: Shared resource calendars can be assigned to multiple resources, and only users with Add/Edit/Delete Resource Calendars privilege can edit a shared resource calendar.

Personal Resource Calendar

Personal resource calendars are similar to shared resource calendars except a personal resource calendar is assigned to only one user, and that user can can edit their standard workweek, their default work hours per time period, and exceptions in their personal resource calendar without needing any privileges. A user assigned a personal resource calendar can edit it by choosing Enterprise, Calendars, and then selecting their calendar.

When connected to a P6 EPPM database: To edit a personal resource calendar, the user must be defined (using P6), a resource representing the user must be defined (using P6 or P6 Professional), the user must be associated with the corresponding resource (using P6), and a personal resource calendar must be created for that user (using P6 or P6 Professional).

When connected to a P6 Professional database: To edit a personal resource calendar, the user must be defined, a resource representing the user must be defined, the user must be associated with the corresponding resource, and a personal resource calendar must be created for that user.

You can convert shared resource calendars to personal resource calendars only if zero or one resource is assigned to the shared calendar, and you can convert a personal resource calendar to a shared resource calendar. Also, to convert calendars between shared and personal you must have the Add/Edit/Delete Resource Calendars privilege. When P6 Professional is connected to a P6 EPPM database, this is defined in P6 .

Notes:

You can create a personal resource calendar using the Calendars dictionary, the Resource Details, Details tab, or the New Resource Wizard.

To create a personal resource calendar, you must have the Add/Edit/Delete Resource Calendars privilege.

Defining default hours per time period in calendars

P6 Professional calculates and stores time unit values in hourly increments, but you can set preferences to display time units in other increments, such as days or weeks. The values specified for Hours per Time Period are used to convert hours to other time increments for display, and to convert all non-hourly time increments to hours for storage in the database.

When P6 Professional is connected to a P6 Professional database:

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P6 Professional User Guide

Administrators can define Hours per Time Period settings globally on the Admin Preferences, Time Periods tab, or they can specify that the Hours per Time Period settings should be defined per calendar.

When Hours per Time Period settings are defined per calendar, units and durations are displayed more accurately. When Hours per Time Period settings are defined globally and you set your user preferences to display units and durations in time increments other than hours, units and durations will display unexpected values when the Admin settings for Hours per Time Period do not match the work hours specified in calendars assigned to activities and resources. This occurs because the display reflects the conversion factor of the Admin Preference Hours per Time Period settings, not the hours per day defined by the activity’s or resource's assigned calendar.

For example,

User Preferences, Time Units = day

Admin Preferences, Hours per Time Period = 8h/d Activity calendar, Work hours per day = 10h/d User-entered activity duration = 30h

Actual duration display = 3d6h (30h duration/8h per day, based on the conversion factor set in Admin Preferences)

Expected duration display = 3d (30h duration/10h per day, based on the conversion factor set in the activity calendar)

To avoid unexpected display results, an administrator should mark the 'Use assigned calendar to specify the number of work hours for each time period' checkbox on the Admin Preferences, Time Periods tab. Then, you can specify the Hours per Time Period settings for each defined calendar, and assign these calendars to the appropriate activities and resources.

When P6 Professional is connected to a P6 EPPM database:

Administrators can define Hours per Time Period settings globally from the P6, Application Settings, or they can specify that the Hours per Time Period settings should be defined per calendar.

When Hours per Time Period settings are defined per calendar, units and durations are displayed more accurately. When Hours per Time Period settings are defined globally and you set your user preferences to display units and durations in time increments other than hours, units and durations will display unexpected values when the P6 Application Settings settings for Hours per Time Period do not match the work hours specified in calendars assigned to activities and resources. This occurs because the display reflects the conversion factor of the Application Settings Hours per Time Period settings, not the hours per day defined by the activity’s or resource's assigned calendar.

For example,

User Preferences, Time Units = day

P6, Application Settings, Hours per Time Period = 8h/d Activity calendar, Work hours per day = 10h/d User-entered activity duration = 30h

Actual duration display = 3d6h (30h duration/8h per day, based on the conversion factor set in P6, Application Settings)

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