P6 Professional User Guide
Merging a Reflection with the Source project (on page 181)
Future Period Bucket Planning
Manually Planning Future Period Assignments (on page 132)
Create a future period bucket planning layout (on page 133)
Manually enter future period assignment values (on page 135)
Editing Past Period Actual Spreads
Edit past period actual data (on page 178)
Project Check Out and Check In
Managing remote projects (on page 183)
Check out a project to XML (on page 184)
View the check-out status of a project (on page 185)
Modify check in update options for an XML file (on page 185)
Check in a project from XML (on page 185)
Your Role in the Organization
P6 Professional meets the needs of several types of users. The following section describes the P6 Professional application audience by roles. Roles may vary or overlap depending on the organization.
Network administrators
Network administrators configure an organization's network environment (localand wide-area networks) for optimal performance with P6 applications. They install and maintain the server and client components of the applications. In addition, they manage user access to data and develop and maintain a comprehensive security policy to ensure that data are protected from unauthorized access, theft, or damage.
Network administrators ensure that the hardware and software supporting P6 applications function reliably by
Setting up and maintaining the network to ensure reliable connections and the fastest possible data transfer
Creating and maintaining accurate lists of network resources and users so that each has a unique network identity
Database administrators
Database administrators (DBAs) are responsible for setting up, managing, and assigning access rights for the P6 Professional databases. They set and oversee rules governing the use of corporate databases, maintain data integrity, and set interoperability standards.
Database administrators ensure reliable access to the P6 Professional database by
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Understanding Project Management
Installing, configuring, and upgrading database server software and related products as required
Creating and implementing the database
Implementing and maintaining database security, including creating and maintaining users, roles, and privileges for the database
Monitoring database performance and tuning as needed
Planning for growth and changes and establishing and maintaining backup and recovery policies and procedures
Operations executives
Operations executives are responsible for strategic planning and ongoing performance analysis. They use P6 Professional to analyze schedule, resource, and cost data across projects.
Senior executives may be responsible for
Prioritizing projects
The profit/loss for a specific business entity
Funding and go/no-go decisions about projects
Strategic planning over the future of the business or division
Project controls coordinators
Project controls coordinators are responsible for ensuring that Primavera applications are implemented properly and operate smoothly. They play a key role during implementation by:
Working with operations executives and program/project managers to structure project, organization breakdown structure (OBS), and resource hierarchies, set up basic calendars, and define organization-wide custom fields and codes in the P6 Professional.
Assigning security rights to users in P6 Professional
Program managers
Program managers oversee several high-level project managers; they are responsible for multiple projects and use P6 Professional, along with P6 to:
Perform cross-project analysis
Manage projects to on-time and on-budget completion
Prioritize resources across projects
Plan projects before they are funded
Project managers
Project managers manage multiple small, repetitive projects or a single, complex project. They are responsible for on-time/on-budget completion of the projects and use P6 Professional and P6 to:
Allocate specific named resources to a project in conjunction with the functional manager of those resources
Communicate project information both up and down the chain of command
Manage resources related to the project
Resource/Cost managers
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P6 Professional User Guide
Resource managers allocate resources across projects and distribute their workloads. They are responsible for resource planning, including recruiting, hiring, and training resources, and they may be responsible for loading resource information in P6 Professional and the Resource section of P6. Cost managers perform detailed financial analysis of projects, handle project billing, and integrate financial information within the company.
Team leaders
Team leaders manage the work for a portion of a larger project. They are managers who produce work and manage a team, and they often use P6 Professional, and P6, to prioritize short-term tasks or objectives, typically when the duration is less than the planning period of the project.
Team members (P6 EPPM Only)
Team members are trained in a specific skill required on a project. They work with their manager to develop activities and durations for incorporation into the schedule. Once activities are added to the schedule, team members update them using the Progress Reporter module to indicate the work they performed during designated accounting periods. Team members may also use personalized dashboards in P6 to quickly access their projects, activities, documents, and more.
P6 Professional Process Overview
The hierarchical structuring of data serves as the foundation before the addition of actual project data. The following sequence is suggested for setting up the main structures:
Administrators, working with program managers and project managers, structure the EPS and OBS hierarchies. An EPS can consist of multiple root nodes, which enable particular types of projects to be grouped together, such as project templates or high-risk projects.Within each root node, you can further break down an EPS into multiple EPS nodes to categorize the types of projects.
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Understanding Project Management
The WBS acts as a continuation of the EPS for the individual projects in the enterprise. A WBS provides organization and control of project and activity information through a hierarchy of WBS elements. When you create projects, P6 EPPM automatically creates a WBS element at the same hierarchy level and with the same name as the project. The P6 EPPM enables you to set anticipated project dates, budgets, and spending plans for a WBS at a high level to indicate when the work should occur and how much its planned budget and monthly spending should be. You can use the pre-established budget amounts and funding information you set for WBS elements for their project and activity counterparts.
Planning, Controlling, and Managing Projects
Before implementing P6 Professional to schedule projects, team members and other project participants should understand the processes involved in project management and the associated recommendations that help smooth the implementation that best supports your corporate mission.
If you were driving to a place you had never seen, would you get in the car without directions or a map? Probably not. More than likely you'd take the time to plan your trip, consider alternate routes, and estimate your time of arrival. Planning the drive before you even left would help your trip to be more successful. And, along the way, should you encounter road blocks or traffic delays, you would have already identified alternate ways to reach your destination.
Project management follows the same methodology and purpose; to achieve each project's goals, you need to plan them in advance. Good project management is no longer an option in today's corporate world. It is a critical tool to help your company stay on target and accomplish its goals.
Simply stated, project management is the process of achieving set goals within the constraints of time, budget, and staffing restrictions. It allows you to get the most out of your available resources. Resources include
People
Materials
Money
Equipment
Information
Facilities
Roles
Project portfolio management factors in all of these variables across multiple projects, enabling project managers and company executives to see an accurate picture of how each project's resource use affects other projects.
The process of project management is guided by three key principles:
Planning
Controlling
Managing
Planning a project
The first step in project management is to define your project.
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P6 Professional User Guide
1)What is the scope of the work? What activities will make up the project and what is their relationship to each other? You'll want to identify the major milestones that will help you monitor the project's progress.
2)What is the project duration? What are the dates when the project will begin and end?
3)What resources are available to the project? Beyond labor, think about all the types of resources you will require.
4)Who will perform what tasks? Determining your labor resources and their available workhours is a key part of building a successful project. You'll need to plan for downtime and holidays and determine the regular workweek for various staffing types.
5)How much will the project cost? What are the costs per resource? Are there any hidden project costs?
6)What is the estimate budget? Establishing a project budget estimate in advance helps you monitor possible cost overruns.
The answers to these questions form the framework of your project.
Controlling a project
Once you have built your project and estimated your budgeting needs, you save this original plan as a baseline, or target schedule, to help you control the project. A baseline provides a solid point of reference as your schedule changes over time. It allows you to compare the original schedule to the current one and identify significant changes and develop contingency plans.
You control a project to keep it heading in the right direction. You'll want to track work progress and costs, compare them to your baseline, and then recommend what actions should be taken.
Effective project control reaps many benefits. It allows you to keep a close eye on possible problems before they become critical. It lets the project team and senior management view cost and scheduling timeframes based on the reality of the schedule.
Managing a project
The process of guiding a project from start to finish is the responsibility of a project manager. A good project manager wears many hats, acting at various times as a motivator, communicator, coordinator, and advisor. As you control the project's progress, it is your job to keep your team aware of changes to the schedule and possible consequences. In many ways, you are the project's ambassador, ensuring that your project organization is carrying out its responsibilities for the best possible outcome.
To be an effective project manager also requires consistency when you update your projects. Select a day each week, or biweekly, when you will regularly update projects. This regular update will include progress on values such as
Dates on which activities started or finished
Dates when resources are consumed
Changes to resource rates
Determine a standard policy for the update and scheduling procedure, and for reporting progress.
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Understanding Project Management
The Project Management module provides many tools to assist you in reporting progress to both team members and senior management. Use the Project Web Site option to create a central location where team members can view project progress. Consider the many system reports as a means for communicating change. In addition, senior management can use the Portfolios section of P6 to summarize project data and easily capture a snapshot of how a project or group of projects is progressing.
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