Primavera P6: Project Management Training

1. Welcome to Primavera P6 Training: Hello and welcome to the Primavera P6 training course. My name is Charlotte early and I'm having over 15 years or project management experience, worked with medium to large scale projects and the private and government sectors such as IT, telecommunications and EPC. Today I will help you learn the foundations of Primavera P6 and all those concepts that are required to build your project schedule efficiently and effectively. Just a quick note that for the learning purposes, we'll be using the Primavera P6 professional and a standalone environment, which is a single user implementation only. Throughout the course, I will help you learn the project schedule building concepts and other related tasks using the Primavera P6 professional will learn to create enterprise project structure. And we'll create a new project and its related activities. After, we'll see how to configure Primavera P6 preferences and calendars. I will help you create the work breakdown structure. And we'll work together to create and set up a project schedule. Then we'll see and we'll learn adding constraints to the different project activities. Also, I will discuss about setting up an assigned baselines and we'll go through and assign project resources to the particular activities. After this, setting up and handling of the project expenses will also be examined during the training. Will demonstrate and learn about printing project layouts, importing and exporting of the projects and different file formats. So are you ready to build your project schedule? Then? Let's start it right away. 2. Core Concepts: As we know that the Primavera P6 is a portfolio programs and projects management software. So let's learn the concept of portfolio, this program and the definition of a project. Now, to understand portfolio, Let's concentrate and build other concepts. Please remember that the portfolios are means to achieve the organization's strategic objectives and always exist and the top of organizations hierarchy, all projects and programs always created under the portfolio. E.g. the reader products or services that are being offered by any organization to their customers is called the products or services portfolio. One example can be if a company, let's say the company name is R-bar, is investing large amounts of their money in different sectors, such as oil and gas, telecommunications, construction, then this will be the company or investment portfolio. Now, let's try to understand that what is the program? As per PMI definition, a program is a collection of related projects which are managed as a group. Now, the program is created to achieve the specific organizational objectives. And those organizational objectives what not possible to achieve by executing the project separately. Now, let's understand what is the project. According to PMI, PMBOK, sixth edition, the project can be defined as the project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result. Please remember that the project is always temporary in nature and has definite start and end date. E.g. launching of a new product in the market is an example of project. Also, the migration of your primarily local server-based to install addition to a Cloud-based environment is another good example of a project. I hope the concept, project, program and portfolio is clear to you now. So that's heard about this lecture. Let's move to our next lesson now. 3. Schedule Building Process: Now let's have a quick overview and examine the project schedule building process in German. More or less, we will follow the same concept of scheduled building that you are using the Oracle Primavera P6 are in Microsoft project. We will adopt the same concept of scheduled building, except the creation of the EPS that you may or may not be able to find in any other schedule management software, Oracle Primavera P6. While building your project schedule, please remember that we have to go step-by-step. Firstly, we will create enterprise project structure if it's not created there previously. Secondly, under EPS, we will create our new project. Then under the newly created project, work breakdown structure, or WBS, is created. After, we'll add activities under each WBS element regarding toward project requirements or objectives. Then the relationship between activities such as finish-to-start, start to start, start to finish. Our finish-to-finish is defined. Lastly, the resources such as labor, non-labor, our material resources will be assigned to each and every project activity. So that's it about this lecture. Let's move to our next lesson now. 4. Installing Primavera P6 Professional software: Let's select the folder where we have downloaded the zip file. In our case, I have downloaded and extracted the zip file in my Download folder. So I will select and run the setup file, the P6 Pro Arte 1912 folder. Darren database configuration option will keep as it is. And then click Okay. Since I will not be connecting to any Oracle Database, Cloud Connect, Microsoft SQL Server for training purposes with revoking and configuring the database locally on our laptop machine. That's why I will select the driver type B6 pro professional standalone SQLite only. Then click Next. Please note that since we will be adding the standalone database on our laptop. So I will select the radio button, add a new standalone database and connection. Then I will click Next button, type and confirm my password. Then I'll click Next. Select Finish button. Press. Okay, my setup is complete now. The latest Primavera P6 version 19 is installed already on my computer. Then I will run programs Primavera P6 version 19. It will ask for the username and password. As you can see in the window, I will type my username and password. Click on Connect button. Standalone Primavera P6, professional project management software is ready. Now, we need to select the relevant industry working for. From the main menu. I will select admin, admin preferences. I will select the industry type, aerospace and defense. Click Okay. Latest version of Primavera P6 is ready further, our patient now positive that you have learned and understood the Primavera P6 installation procedure very well now. 5. Downloading Primavera P6 from Oracle: In case if you don't have a copy of the Primavera P6 software review. The Primavera P6 is not installed on your laptop or desktop machine. Then please don't worry. The downloading of the parameter a P6 software is straightforward and very easy. You can always download it from the Oracle website. I'm going to explain the download procedure for you. Let's open our web browser and visit the website. Delivery.oracle.com. It will open up the Get Started video download page in front of us. Click on new user registration link. If you don't have DICOM already. Create your Oracle Account. Farm is appearing here. 6. Creating Enterprise Project Structure: Now we are ready to create enterprise project structure. Then can create and start working on our new project. Please remember, in simple terms, the enterprise project structure. Eps, creates a database or projects similar like folders. And each EPS node can be further divided into multiple levels. From the main menu, select Enterprise, and then click on the enterprise project structure option. Click on Add button on the right side. And don't below, under EPS ID, I will type training and EPS name has Primavera education. And I will click on the Close button then you see the new EPS. As a Primavera education has appeared already at the top. Next, we're going to create our project until this new EPS named as primary education. Please remember that the EPS id and name can be selected as part of a specific company requirements. 7. Creating New Project in Primavera P6: We have already created enterprise project structure in the previous lesson, and we are ready to create a new project now, for doing so, I will select my EPS and click on File from the top menu, and click on New. Simply press Control plus N on our keyboard. New project wizard will open up. Then choose the newly created EPS to select EPS option. Select Plus button on the right side and click Next. Type project ID as he 001, and project name as learning Primavera foundations. And select Next. We have to mention the project start and finish date here. Or you can leave it as default. I will be leaving other options such as a responsible manager, raid type as defaults. Click on Finish, and the new project is appearing under our new EPS. Earlier named as learning Primavera. Select the project by clicking on project id. We are zeros 01, and see the detail from below here in the date stamp. Let's mention that up Chan, as our plan start date. I will mentioned the anticipated start dates as 15th January and finish dates to 30th of June. Congratulations, you have created your first project in the primal variable. Now our next step would be to set up a calendar for our newly created for them. 8. Creating Calendar: As we have created our project already in the previous video. And now we need to create a calendar and assign it to our new project accordingly. In Primavera, we can create an assigned to lenders to every project activity and resource. In a calendar, we can define the available work hours for each calendar day, such as holidays, working and non-working days. Resource. Vacation days. From the main menu, select Enterprise. And I will click on calendar options. As you see, the calendar window is opened already. Select the project radio button. Since we are going to apply calendar to our project. So I will click on Add button. Let's select Template from the global calendars. I'm going to select five days Worksheet Template. Let's click Add and a new calendar is appeared under calendar name. I'm going to rename it as PR zeros 015 days per week. We will click on modify button. At the top, I will select a detailed work, our Barbie. I'm going to click on Work Week and the right side. And making sure that Saturday, Sunday is a holiday. And my timing for all other days is eight to 04:00 P.M. 8 h a day. Every day. After that, I will select Okay button and close. Calendar named e0015 days per week is created for my project already. Now let's apply this calendar by clicking on our project name. Then it defaults tab in the calendrics option. Let's confirm if the newly created calendar is applied already. 9. Creating WBS: So far now, the calendar is already assigned to my project. Our next step is to create the work breakdown structure or WBS for our project. And then create activities under these WBS. Accordingly. Wbs means we will break down our project work into different parts or sections. So let's click on projects from the top menu. And then I will select WBS option. It is opening up the WBS window in front of us with it's showing the project name that has start and finish dates displaying in the Gantt chart area. Next, we need to right mouse click on WBS name, click Add. And in new WBS name is appearing on the screen. Let's create two more in a similar way. For the sake of this training, I will keep it simple and we will limit ourselves to three WBS only. Next, I have to rename them as part of my requirements, such as stage one to training planning, stage to as training commencement, and stage three as training implementation. We can sort them out by clicking on WBS name in ascending or descending order. I'll let Project WBS is complete. And next step is to add the project activities under these WBS names. 10. Adding Activities: In our last lesson, we have already completed the WPS entries, and now it's time to define activities under each WBS. We need to switch to activities window. So from the top menu, select activities. From the project option. I will right mouse click on training, planning, and then click on Add option to add activities here. I will add three. For now. We have noticed that the activity IDs are automatically assigned by the software. Let's rename the activities to define training objectives. Training lead, analysis, and create list of participants. Similarly, we can add activities by right mouse click on the Training commencement. Then I will rename these activities as identifies start and end dates. And the second activity we will modify as training material preparation. Next, we will add activities for our third WBS, which is training, implementation and undertraining implementation. We will rename the activities as conduct training and issue certificates. We have defined our project activities under each WBS category. The next task is to define milestones and add relationship between the activities. 11. Add Project Milestones: We have created the project activities in our last lesson. And now let's define the milestone activities for our project. By the way, what's the milestone activity? It means the activities that shows and mark the start or end of a certain project work or face in other scheduled milestone activities, I'll always have a zero duration. Please make sure that we are in the activities window. Now. In the project activities window, Let's click on Activity ID a 1,000, which is defined training objective. As you see here in the detail from down below. In the journal tab, I will change the activity type option to start milestone. Kindly observe that here. As soon as I change the activity type has milestone activity. The activity duration is changed to zero. And at the same time, this change will also be reflected in the Gantt chart area as well. Now, in a similar way, I'm going to assign activity ID a 1060, which is issued certificates. We will assign this activity 1060 as the finishing milestone. So that's how we define the milestone activities in our project schedule. As a next step. In the next lesson, we will add relationships between our project activities. So that's the end of this lecture. Let's move to our next lesson now. 12. Create Activities relationship: If we observe the schedule activities in the upper right side in the Gantt Chart Area, we find out that all these activities are starting in the same time. Why is that? It means there is no relationship exists. And we need to create the relationship between these activities in our project schedule. So first, I will click on the activity that I want to assign predecessor activity. And here, in our case, I will click on the activity called create a list of participants. Now from the 3D Slicer tab, Let's click on the Assign button. In the activity detail from below. As you see, we will have assigned reading assessors window, displaying here. Now in this window, select activities id a 1010, which is training needs analysis. And then let's click on the plus button to assign this activity as a predecessor to the activity ID 1020, create a list of participants. And after you see a finish to start relationship is appear in the relations column in the detail form below. Now again, in a similar fashion, I will click on the identify, start and end dates, and assign, create a list of participants. The predecessor. Then we'll click on training, material preparation, and assign identifies start and end dates as a previous answer. After, I will click on conduct training and assign training material preparation as a predecessor of the sector D. Now, we created relationship between all the activities in other projects schedule. So next, I need to schedule my activities by pressing the schedule icon in the top menu. And immediately after this, as you see, will have a finish to start relationship appear between all the activities as shown in the Gantt Chart Area. Good. So in this way, we can always create any type of relationship, such as finish to start, finish to finish, start to start. Our start to finish between our project activities as part of our project needs. Now, please note that alternatively, we can create any activity relationship type. Whether it's finished to start, Start to start, finish to finish our start to finish by using the relationship optional. So we will discuss and we'll go through these relationship types in details in Primavera P6 essentials course. And this is the end of this lecture. Let's move to our next lesson now. 13. Adding resources: We have created and defined the relationship between project activities already. Now, we will learn to add resources, I mean, the labor or non-labor and material resources to the activities in our project schedule. And further, we will assign these resources to the different project tasks. From the top in the main menu, let's select Enterprise, and let's click on the Resources option. And as you see, it is opening up the resources window in front of us. Now, let's move down at the end. And right mouse click on Add to add resources to the resources database here. Let's be fine. The main heading for our resources first. If it's not existing already. Here. As an example, I will enter the resource ID as prime Amira and resource name as Learning Solutions. Resource Type will be as labor. Then the Details tab below. I will change the defaults units per time as 8 h per day. And rest of the settings I will keep as defaults. Now here, I would suggest to add and create separate heading for the labor, non-labor and material resources. And then under each heading, we can define the resources accordingly. Okay, So next, I will add resources under the Learning Solutions. And at the moment, let's add just to labor resources under learning solutions for now. By right-clicking on this, I will modify the resource IDs at JB and j k respectively. The source name can be any names such as John and David. Now here, please note that you can have your own resource IDs, name, and type as per your specific organization and as birth as plus big project needs. Then after selecting the resource below in the Details tab, I will change the default units per time to 8 h per day. Please note that we can always modify the resource details down below in the details and units and prices tabs as needed. So this way, we can add resources to the project resources, the database in Primavera P6 professional. And in the next lecture, we will learn to assign these resources to the different project activities. So that's it. That's the end of this lecture. Let's move to our next lesson now. 14. Assign resources: In our previous lesson, we have learned the procedure to create the resources for our project. Now, we will see that how these resources, whether labor, non-labor, our material, can be assigned to the project activities in our schedule. To complete this task, let's click on the project and open it. It will take us to the activities window. Or we can select activities option from the project menu at the top as well. First, we have to make sure and select the activity. We want to assign any resource. Then in the detail from below, we will click on Resources tab. For me. I will click on the activity, training, needs analysis. And in the bottom, under Resources tab, I will select Add Resource button. And it will open up a new window. So from here, I will assign John to our first project activity by clicking the plus icon on the right. You see in the resources window, john has been assigned already training, needs analysis activity. Similarly, I will assign drawn to other activities, accept, conduct training, since the required resource for this activity is David. So that's how we usually assign the different resource types part of a project activities. That's it. This is the end of this lesson. Let's move to our next lesson now. 15. Assign expenses: In our earlier lessons, we have already learned the procedure to create and assign resources, the project activities. Now it's time for the expenses. In this lesson, we are going to learn that How can we assign different expenses to a certain project activity? Please note that the expenses are the non resource cost that are associated with the project and these are assigned to the activities in a project. Generally, the expenses are onetime expenditures for non reusable items, e.g. it can include expenses related to materials, facilities, travel, overhead, and training. Please note that we can categorize expenses and we can mention a unit of measure for expenses and specify if an expense occurs at the start or end of an activity or uniformly over its duration. Each expense item has a budgeted or planned cost, actual cost, and estimated remaining cost. For your info, the expenses are not the same, like resources. As you know, the resources generally extend across multiple activities and on multiple projects. The examples of resources, as you know, people working on the project and equipment, etc. Please note that unlike resources, the expenses are project-specific only. Now to assign expense to activities, please make sure to open the activities window from the project menu at the top. Now, in the project activities window, we need to select the activity for which we want to assign the expenses. E.g. in our case, it can be conducted training. As you see below in the detail form. We will click on the expenses tab. Now, click on Add button to add new expenses item. And I will click once more to add another one. We will rename the first item as a trainer, boarding and lodging, and the second one as training material expenses. In the budget cost field, we can enter budget available for every activity. In our case. Let us assume that the budget available for trainer boarding and logic is US dollar 1,200. And for training material it is US dollar 900. Various costs such as labor, non-labor material, total costs, and expenses. Details can also be seen and observed in the summary tab. That's it. This is the end of this lesson. Let's move to our next lecture now. 16. Setting Project baselines: Setting a baseline for a project is another important topic. Okay, So what's the baseline? A baseline is a complete copy of a project plan that we can compare to the current schedule to evaluate progress. Please note that the simplest baseline plan is a complete copy, our snapshot of the original schedule. And this snapshot provides a target against which we can track our project's cost, schedule and performance. Now, for your information, although the Primavera P6 allow us to save a number of baselines for our project. But at any given point of time, we can select only up to three baselines for the comparison purposes. And also, please note that before we update the schedule for the first time, we should create a baseline plan first. Now, let's learn that. How can we create and assign a certain baseline to our project? For this, I will click on the project from the main menu and click on the maintain baseline option. As you can see, the maintained baseline window is already displaying my project name here. And need to click on Add button on the right side and then add new baseline window is showing here. Now we will confirm, save a copy of the current project as new baseline. And next I will click. Okay. We can see the newly created baselines B1 has appeared in the baseline lean. I will select baseline type as a management sign of baseline. Okay, Then let's press Close button on the right side. Now, the next step is assign this newly created baseline to our project. So let's select project from the main menu, and let's click on the assigned baseline option. I will select project baseline as our newly created baseline. And similarly, we will select learning primarily foundations be one option, primary in the user baselines. Then we need to click on the Okay button. Now, let's observe this in the Gantt chart area. And the new blue bar has appeared under each project activity, which is actually the project baseline that we have assigned to our project already. So this is the end of our lesson. Let's move to our next lecture now. 17. Updating project schedule: Please note that once a project is in progress, It's important to keep the schedule up to date. And one of the most important reasons to update the schedule is that actual durations may change from our original durations, our original estimates. Also, the sequence of activities may change, wants the book begins, and we may need to add new activities and delete the unnecessary ones. Regularly updating schedules and comparing them with baseline schedules, and shows that we are using our project resources effectively. So let's learn to update the activities progress in the project schedule. In the project activities window. Down in the details from below, I will click on the status tab. And under status, we can update the spirit is up each project activity here, e.g. when the activity was started or finished, the expected finish date, duration. Duration facilitates complete, etc. Please note that it's very important that we should update the progress regularly and enter the start and dates as well as expected finished day of every project activity here. Okay, So this is the end of this lesson. Let's move to our next lecture now. 18. Reporting project activities: In Primavera P6 professional, the reporting of the project activities is very easy. Please note that it's important for us to control and monitor our project schedules accordingly. Now, to monitor the project activities in the upper left corner area. In the project activities section. I will right mouse click and then I will select the filters option here. E.g. if I want to show and see the activities that has streets defined in our project schedule. For this, in the Filters window, I will click and select the option that has taught constraint or has finished constraint options. And after, I will click on OK button to see the required result. And this will display all the activities that has constraints defined in our project, as you can observe in the activities window. As another example, that increase in our schedule. If we want to see the activities that are defined as milestone, then for this, we can select milestone option in the Filters window to see our display the milestone activities in our project schedule. Now as you can see in the activities window, there are just a milestone activities that are showing there. Now. Please note that as part of our own specific project requirements, we can always define our own filters by clicking on the New button on the right side of the filter window. In fact, there are various filters defined already that are there in the Filters window by default, such as completed and critical activities in progress, not started activities, etc. This is the end of this lecture. Let's move to our next lesson now. 19. Project constraints: Generally, in Primavera P6, the constraints are used to manipulate the start or finish time of the individual projects or activities. In other words, we can say that a constraint is a factor that sets when an activity can start or when it can be finished. Now, in order to add our second project constraint, I will select our project in the project window. Then in the project detail from below, we need to click on the Data tab. Now here, as you see, must finish by option is the one that we normally use for setting the project constraint. Here. I will set them must finish by option to 30th, January 2020. Nafta. I will refresh data by pressing F5 from my keyboard. So once my data is refreshed, then I have to reschedule my project that we can do by pressing the F9 key on our keyboard Are we can use the schedule option from the tools menu. Now, let's press F9 to schedule the project for this change to happen. And this will let us update the project database with the latest project data. Okay, So this is how we set a constraint for our projects. So that's it. This is the end of our lecture. Let's move to our next lesson now. 20. Add activity constraint: We have already learned about adding the project constraint earlier. And now, let's learn to Add Activity constraint to our project activities. Like this. I will select our project and open up the activity has been low. Then I'm going to select the activities for which I'm going to apply the constraint. In fact, each activity in primary therapy is six. We can have up to two constraints, primary and secondary, that can be placed on it. Please note that there are many different types of constraints available for each activity under primary and secondary constraint types. Now, let's choose and click on the Activity ID a 1010. In the detail from below, I will select Status tab. Then under constraints and the primary constraint, I will select start on or before mentioned day as required. Leave as it is. Now, you see the asterisk sign the beer in the start date of the activity, which shows that this activity has constraint applied on it already. So that's it. This is the end of our lecture. Let's move to our next lesson now. 21. Import Export projects in Primavera P6: In this lesson, I'm going to show one of the important function of Primavera P6 that we can use to import our export the projects in different file formats. E.g. we can import our primary basics project files into R, XCR, XML, Microsoft XL, etc. We can also export, import our projects into Microsoft Project file format if required. Okay, so let's open our project. And I will click on the File menu on the left. And then I will click on the Export option. As you see, it will open up the export window. Now, I will leave the first option selected. And I'm going to press the next button. Then I will leave the project option selected and click Next again. And that will show me the project to export window. Our project is showing there already. So let's click Next. And I need to select the location here where my project file is saved. After, I will click on the Finish button and it will save the exported project in the mentioned location. In our case, it is our desktop. Similarly, now to import, I will select the Import option from the file menu, and then I will click Next. Next again. And we need to select the location of the file to be imported into the Primavera P6 professional. Now in the Import Project Options window, I will select the Import action as create new project. And also the important location such as engineering and construction are E and C. And then we'll click on the plus button on the right side. After I will press Next and select Finish, as you see now. Another copy of our project B are 001 is appearing on the engineering and construction EPS already. So this way we can transfer projects in different file formats into our out from the Primavera P6 professional as needed. Okay, So this is the end of our lesson. Let's move to our next lecture now. 22. Printing project reports: It's very simple to print our current layout. I will click on the file from the top menu and select Preview option in case you need to do some adjustments in the page, margin, header or footer sections of your layout. Then, the upper left, Gardner, I will select Page Setup icon. To accomplish these tasks. By selecting page margin tabs. I have the option to select page orientation, paper size, and margin settings. Then I had the option to select header and footer tags. For modifying section settings. Options tab let you change the start and end dates, activity table and Gantt chart settings. We can click OK button on the right side to apply changes to our layout for printing. Once the setup is complete, we can click on Print icon on the upper left corner to set the layout for d. Okay, so that's it. Let's move to our next lesson now. 23. Primavera P6 'File' Menu Options: Now, if you asked me that what exactly we want to achieve by going to the File menu. Our objective is to go to the File menu to make you familiar, understand, and observe the available options. Learn the commands and describe their functions. Briefly. Inside the file menu. From the top. In the main menu, we can leftmost click on the file to see all the functions available in the File menu. Please note that there are commands in the file menu that are grouped into sections separated by a horizontal menu separated bar. The first group is related to the projects, that is, and create a new project. Open an existing project. Are close. All the open projects. Every one of these actions can be achieved by a shortcut key as well. For example, Control plus n creates a new project. Control. Plus o is used to open an existing project. Similarly, the control plus w keys are used for closing all the currently open projects. The File menu can also be accessed by using the art plus F keys from the keyboard. Now, let's start and discuss the first command in the file menu. The new command is used to create a new project. As you can see, if we click on the new command, it will open up the new project wizard. And we can select our required EPS to create the new project in the primary route P6 database. Alternatively, we can use Control plus n keys from our keyboard to open up the new project window. Next, the open command will launch the Open Project window. And we can click and select to open the required project from the existing projects list. Alternatively, we can use Control plus o keys from our keyboard to open up an existing project from other projects list. Moving forward, the close I'll command is used to close all the projects that are opened currently. Alternatively, dot Control plus w keys can also be used to achieve this task. Please note that all the open windows that display projects specific data, I mean the activities and work breakdown structure windows will also close automatically. When we are selecting close, I'll command. The next group of items on the File menu is related to the printing. Let's start with page setup. The setup command is used to open up the page setup window. In the page setup dialogue box. We can define bit size and orientation. Set scaling options, change the size of margins, and define a header and footer. Please note that this screen is similar to the Print Setup and other Windows applications. As we can see that that are tabs for the headers and footers. I highly recommend that the company name and current there should be set in either the header or the footer section. And let's make sure that the printouts are clearly marked as the property of your company. The Print Setup concerns the settings for other specific printer may differ from person to person. The Print Setup command opens the print setup window where we can select the printer and define printer properties as required. Print preview opens the print preview window. And the print preview window. We can define page and print settings. And we can print the content of the selected window. Print Preview shows what the primary route B6 will be sending to the selected printer. This is very helpful. Because we can adjust the Page Setup, view, print, review, and continue to make adjustments until the preview shows the printout that how you want to see it. Print command allows us to print the currently selected window, helps to select the printer and set printer options. Next, the import command starts the import wizard. Normally we use the import wizard to import projects, resources, roles from other Oracle applications or various other different applications. That means the import option help us to bring the project and data into Primavera P6 from specifically formatted data sources. I mean, it may come from various different sources, including earlier versions of Primavera, P6, P3, Microsoft Project, and XL, etc. Similarly, the export command starts the Export Wizard. The Export Wizard is used to export projects. Resources are rules to other Oracle applications. Project. Microsoft Excel. In other words, export. Let us send projects and data out of Primavera P6 into data file. And this file may be exported to a variety of formats, such as earlier versions of Primavera V3, Primavera P6, Microsoft Project, and Microsoft XL, etc. The second project command is used to create primarily there are XCR export file of the open project and automatically opens your email system and attaches the XCR file to the body of the email message. As you can see, the subject line of the email is automatically filled with the name of the project. Send project option is simply a convenient shortcut for exporting the project and emailing the file separately. Please note that this command is enabled once we open a project. The project portfolio command opens the selected portfolio window. And we use select a portfolio window to open a portfolio. Please note that when we open a portfolio, it will close. All the open projects. Then displays the projects contained in the selected portfolio in the project window. Select Project Portfolio lets the user to choose from the available portfolios. In fact, these are subsets of projects. For example, the portfolio could contain all projects above a certain budget. Art. It could be the setup projects that are the responsibility of a specific project manager. Please note that opening portfolio definite open the projects contained in the portfolio. We must open the projects we want to work with from the project's Window, which normally shows all of the projects contained in the open portfolio. The Commit Changes command is used to apply all the changes to the primary P6 database. In other words, commit changes, rights, any changes you have made back to the database. Now, let's see the refresh data command, which refreshes and display the most current data from the database. Refresh data is very helpful when multiple people and processes are making changes to the system. Pressing F5, we'll update the data to reflect the changes from others. The recent projects option shows us the three most recently open projects. You can select the project you want to open and work with. Finally, the exit command is used. If we want to exit and close down the primary B6 software. Exit is the standard Windows command. To close the application. And choosing exit will always prompt us to answer the question that, how are you sure you want to exit Primavera P6 professional? In fact, this prompt is a safety measure for the people who repeatedly tell the program to exit by accident. 24. 'Edit' Menu Explained: The Edit menu is a standard Windows menu that help us to do common actions such as cut, copy, and paste, etc. Now let's briefly discuss the functions. Are the available commands in the Edit menu. We can launch the Edit menu from the top from the main menu. Alternatively, we can access the Edit menu option by pressing the plus e keys together from our keyboard. Like any other Windows application, for example, Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel applications. The undo command in the Primavera also changes the data back to its previous state before our last action. Similarly, the cut command, the selected data object, and the Primavera P6 cut option will remove an item and place it into a buffer so that we can paste it later. We can cut simple text, a complex items such as activities. The shortcut for this is the same as in most of the Windows programs, which is Control plus x. Similarly, the copy command copies the selected data objects. However, copy will not delete the original data after the pace. The shortcut for the copy command is control plus C. By using the paste command, we can paste copied. Got data objects using the paste option. Paste will insert the last item, guard or copied. The shortcut for this command is control plus V. Please remember that this command is only enabled once we copy cut a data object. The add command in the Edit menu, data item into the active window, for example. And the activities window by choosing the egg demand and activity to the related WBS. Please note that the results of the add function depends on the screen on which we are located in the main application. For example, if we are viewing activities, add command will add in new activity. And if we are viewing WBS structure, command will add a new WBS element. Although no shortcut is shown, we can usually achieve the same result by pressing the Insert key on our keyboard. Similarly, the delete command deletes the selected data object. The result of the delete function depends on which screen we are in. For example, if we are viewing activities, delete function will delete activities. If we are the project's window, delete command will delete the selected project. Fortunately, the anima, we issue a delete command. We will be prompted before the delete is committed, which is a great safety measure. The delete function can also be used by the Delete button on our keyboard. Please note that the dissolved command in the Edit menu delete the selected activity and Jin's its predecessor and successor activities with a finish-to-start relationship. In other words, dissolve function is only available when we select an activity that has both predecessors and successors. It allows us to delete the activity. For our node. The predecessor activities are then assigned to its successor activities. The assigned function in the Edit menu is used to assign additional entities to the project activities, such as resources, roles, activity codes, predecessors, and successors. Next, the function of the link activities command is to create a finish to start relationship between the activities that are selected in the activities window. This action creates relationships based on the order in which the selected activities. It listed, for example, the link activities. The two activities will be linked via a finish to start relationship. And the default behavior is direct. The upper item in the activity view will become the predecessor of the item below it. So if you sort by activity ID in the ascending order, such that activity ID 200 appears before activity ID a 300, and link the two activities by using the link activities command, then the a21 will be the predecessor of activity ID 300. However, if we sort by activity ID in descending order, such that activity a 300 appears before the activity A2, 100. And link the two activities by using link activities function. Then in this case, the activity A3 will become the predecessor to the activity a 200. Linking activities in this way can be easy, but we have to use it with great care. Please note that the link activities come on, it's only enabled. Then we select more than one activity and the activity table, our activity network. Clear from the name, the renumber activity IDs command is used to open up the renumber activity IDs window. We use the renumber activity IDs window to specify that how we can renumber the selected activity IDs. Renumber activity IDs option help us to change the ID numbers of a group of activities. Since the activity ID is a key piece of data, this is very helpful and function. For example, at the beginning of a project, activity IDs under a certain WBS element are to be prefixed with CD and incremented by 20. But later on, it is decided by the project management team that the same activities are to be changed and prefixed if AB, and incremented by it. Rather than having to update all of the activities manually. One-by-one renumber activity IDs can be used to change the activity IDs at once. The select all command in the Edit menu, select all the data items in the active window. The shortcut key for the select all command is control plus a. For example, choosing this command in the activity window, select all the project activities. Find command is used to open the window. And this window, we can search for a particular value. We specify within the active window, the sharp cut further fine function is control plus F. Replace command is used to replace the text found in the search results with a new text we specify. In other words, replace the letter search for the text and the currently selected column and replace it with the new value. The shortcut keys for this function is control plus r. As clear from the command name, the spell check command starts the spelling checker and the primary raw P6 database. And we use this function to check spelling for all the displays that are objects in the active window. Another important command in the Edit menu is user preferences, which is used to open the user preferences window. This menu item is quite different to every other item found under the Edit menu. It brings up a window that shows a lot of other users settings and options. We use the user preferences window to specify settings and preferences, like how to display time, date, and currency information. Paraboloid project. We can also set options to send email, specify startup options, and how to change the password, etc. We will discuss the user preferences, configuration details in the coming lessons. 25. 'View' Menu Commands: Now it's time to introduce and briefly describe the view menu commands. Normally, we can access view menu from the mean menu in the top. And the alternative way to access the view menu is by using the ir plus v keys from the keyboard. The parameter P6, project layout files and nice feature for creating reports. But projects in the primary route B6. If required, we can say Explore and can store B6 project layout files. In the Windows Operating System. We use Leo command to create open a save the project layout as required. The shoe on the top command is used to choose the type of LEO we want to display it in the top portion of the active window. Similarly, show on bottom command, help us to choose the type of Leo used to display the bottom portion of the active window. The bottom layer option, we can use to customize the tabs that are displayed in the activity details. Similarly, the boss command is used to open the dialogue balls. Botsman DO is used to specify the style and the labels for the buds in the Gantt chart. Please note that this boss command is enabled only when we displaying Gantt chart in the active window. Further, we can open the bar chart options to customize of a current project Gantt chart display. The color command is choose to open the columns window, which we use to customize the gardens that displays in the active window. The available options differ for each window displayed in the parameter of B6 display area. Please note that this command is enabled. Then we'll display a table view and the active window. The timescale option is for opening the timescale of dialogue box. And this is used to specify the timescale we want to display in the current Gantt chart profile, our spreadsheet layout options. Open the filters dialog box and is used to select a predefined filter. We can create a custom filter if needed. The group and sort by command is Jews to open the group and sort by window. And we use this to specify a grouping and sorting criterias. Similarly, the progress line command is used to show or hide the progress line. And again chart, which shows the comparison and progress of their activities and how the project is performing with respect to the baseline project. Progress spotlight command is another very useful command that is choose to enable or disable the progress spotlight feature. And when this problem is spotlight feature is enabled, it highlights the activities that fall between the last data and the new data date in the game chart area. Next, the attachments come on, enables us to add curtain and textured elements and to show or hide all curtain attachments. Curtain attachments highlight a specific time period in a Gantt Chart Area. Texture attachments are used to display the custom text we enter and again char. This command is enabled only when we display a Gantt chart in the activities window. The line numbers option is used to show number for each row in the activities view and the primary without B6. This command is enabled only when we display an activity table, Gantt chart activity using spreadsheet in the active window. The table front and fruit command is used to open the table front and rear window. The table front and trope window-based use, but changing the appearance, the text, color, and the height of the rows in the display. Hint help them use but enabling or disabling the hilt head. Like any other Windows applications. The function of the zoom come on is to enable zoom in zoom mode of a timescale layout. Such as Gantt chart, spreadsheet profile. As needed. We can resize the chart views, fit the entire chart into the visible area. And the Expand command is used to expand all the collapsed elements in a group. In the hierarchical TableView. This collapse, I'll come on, collapses all the expanded elements in a group of identical TableView gloves to come on open. The collapse to Window, which we use to select the grouping band we want to collapse or expand in the grant layout. Then the toolbar command is choose to choose the toolbars we want to display in our toolbar, ADL. Reset all toolbars command. This option help us to reset all the toolbars, icons and locations back to the factory defaults. Cleared from the name lock. Our toolbox option help us to set lock the toolbars and the current president positions. 26. All about 'Project' Menu: The project menu, let us to perform a number of projects related actions, such as working with activities, resources, and WBS elements. Please note that we will describe these project manual functions briefly at the moment. And D's and other projects related activities will be covered in detail in the coming lessons. In order to access Project Menu, normally would click on the project from the top menu. Can use the r plus pq together directly from the keyboard to access the project menu. The first command from the very top in the project menu is used to open the activities window. We use the activities window to create, view and edit activities for the currently open project. That is salts assignments option. We use this option to open the Resource Assignments window. We use studies source assignments window to view all the resources assignments grouped by the source. For all the currently open projects. We can display resource cost, and quantity information in a spreadsheet if required. Breakdown Structure or WBS command is used to open the WBS window. Typically, we use the book breakdown structure window to create, view and edit the open projects Breakdown Structure, or WBS. An important command, the assign baselines, which is used to open the assign baselines window. Normally, we use the assign baselines dialog box by assigning project primary, secondary, and tertiary baselines to a particular project. The main theme baselines option, is by opening the maintain baselines dialog box. The typical use of the main thin baselines window is to create, delete, copy, or restore baselines for the open project. Next women see that expands his command. The expenses command is used to open the project expenses window. And we use this project expenses window to add, edit, and delete expense items for all the activities in the open project as needed. The products and documents. Wpa and docs command opens. Wps and Docs window. The typical use. The WPS and Docs window is to create and maintain product and document records for the open project. For example, the records per standards, procedures, guidelines, and templates, etc. The threshold command is used for opening the project threshold window. The project threshold window is used to create, view, edit, and monitor thresholds. But the open project also, we can monitor a threshold at the work breakdown structure level, the activity level to identify issues and the ongoing projects. Another useful feature, the issues command is used for opening the project issues window. This project issues window help us to add, edit and delete issues for the open projects. And used to send email notifications about the project issues to the project team and senior management as required. Another important command in the project menu is risks. Come on. Please note that this command only appears if the parameter will be six. Professional is connected with B6 professional database. The risks command open up the risks view. We use statistics view to edit, assign, and delete project risks. The open project, if needed. We can also calculate exposure values and its overall impact on the project's schedule and costs. Next comes the set D for project command. The SEC default project option is used to open the SEC before project may note, if we go to Open and with multiple projects, then we use this window. Specify which project to open by default, which project setting to use. Then we scheduled level resources. Also. Which project to use by D4 when we add new information to the primary that are P6 database. 27. 'Enterprise' Menu Functions: Please note that the enterprise menu will show different functions are items depending on whether we are running. Primavera P6 professional, the B6 enterprise optional client. Please also remember that in our case, for learning purposes, we are referring to and using the primary therapy six professional throughout this course. Please note that generally the difference in these two, I mean, the Primavera P6 professional or the B6 enterprise optional client. Is that the P6 enterprise optional client assumes that the system is installed in an environment where the primary B6 administrative responsibilities are separated from their daily scheduling jobs. Whereas the primary B6 professional generally installed at the organizations. Schedulers have more responsibility and ownership of the entire Primavera P6. Installing. The enterprise menu can be accessed directly by pressing the r plus n keys from our keyboard. We can open the enterprise menu from the main menu as well. The first command and the enterprise menu is projects command. The projects command will open the project window. We use the project's window to setup the enterprise project structure. Eps. We can add new projects and can also manage multiple projects by using this command. Enterprise project structure on EPS command. Open up the enterprise project structure dialog box. The typical use of the enterprise project structure window is to define the EPS, which is hierarchical structure of the database of our project. Then the tracking command is used to launch the tracking Mendel. The tracking window is used for monitoring a project's progress using different types of layouts. Next comes the project portfolios command. Project portfolios command. Open up the project portfolios. Mendel. We use the project portfolios dialog box to add, edit and delete portfolios in the database. That is sources command is used to open up the resources window. The resources window is used to maintain both our organizations resource hierarchy and individual resource information. The primary route P6 database. The role command opens the window. We use the rules dialog box to add, edit and delete rules. We can also use the roles command to assign roles to the resources. Please note that we can define up to five price per unit rates for each role. And also we can specify role availability over time. Similarly, the obvious command is used to open the organizational breakdown structure window. We use the organizational breakdown structure dialog box to create, view and edit the organizational breakdown structure. Our OBS. We can also use this dialog box to view a list of users who can access and OBS elements related project information. So let's discuss the resource scores command, which is used to open, that is source scores dialog box. The resource courts dialog box is for creating and deleting the resource chords. We can use these cores to sort, filter, group, and report on the project data across the enterprise. Project courts command will open the project courts window. And the project courts window is used to create, edit, and delete project goals and values. Normally, we use these chords and values to sort, filter, group, and report activity information. For your information project called command only appears when the primary therapy six professional software is connected to a Primavera P6 professional database. Next, the activity course command is used to open the activity course dialog box. The activity courts window is used to create, edit, and delete global project and EPS activity chords and values. Also, we use these chords and values to sort, filter, grow, and report project activity information. Then we use user-defined fields option to open the user-defined fields window. The use of the user-defined fields dialog box is to add an unlimited number of custom fields and values to the project database. Another very important command is calendars. Calendars command in the project menu is used to open up the calendars window. And by using the calendars command, we can create, edit and delete global project and resource calendars as required. We can also view calendar assignments and can also specify a default, global Canada as needed. The usage of resource shifts command is to open the source window. We use the resource shifts window for defining the shift calendars part of a project resources. One of the important and very interesting command that we use in the project menu is activity step templates. The activity step templates is used to open the activity step Templates window. This activity step Templates window is simply used to create templates containing groups of steps common to the multiple activities. Then we can assign these templates to the activities as needed. The cost account command open up the cost accounts window. Discussed accounts window is used for maintaining our organizations cost accounts. And we can assign these cost accounts to activities in any of the projects in our organization. And we can assign these cost accounts to activities in any of the projects in our Primavera P6 database, the costs we cannot option only visible when the parameter P16 professional is connected to a P16 professional database. The funding sources command helps to open the funding sources window in Primavera P6. The funding sources window is used for setting up a funding sources dictionary for any type of funding sources, such as any non-profit, government allocated funds, etc. The store images option, open star images Manager window, which we use to upload pictures are thumbnails for use in the various types of project reports that will be reduced. Another interesting command in the project menu is resource curves option, which launches the resource Scopes window. This resource comes option. It's used to add, delete, modify the source curves. These curves are used to assign resources and cost over the duration of an activity. I mean, the resource curves are used to specify how we want resource units. Our costs are spread over the duration of a particular activity. For your information. There are 12 default resource curves defined in the primary raw B6. Finally, the external applications option is used. But opening the external applications window. And this external application window help us to set-up links with external applications if needed. 28. 'Tools' Menu Commands: The tools menu covers a range of options. The first section deals with the progressives project status. We will discuss these and other tools, menu commands and their functions briefly in this lesson. The first command in the Tools menu is scheduled, which we use to open schedule dialog box. And in this window, we can schedule the open projects and set different scheduling options. I mean, usually after updating the project activities, we need to reschedule the project regarding to the new data date by pressing F9 on our keyboard. By using the schedule command in the Tools menu. Level resources means that in our projects, we make sure that resource demand does not exceed resource availability. The level resources command used to launch the level of resources window. And from here, we can leverage resources and can set the resource leveling option as required. The applied actually means that we've scheduled activities only within the specified timescale between the grains that are there and the new data. Did they apply actuals come on, open up the apply AT tools window. And this window, we can update the schedule by applying actual sales up to date data that we select. For each open project. Once the project is ongoing, it is important to keep the project schedule up-to-date. Possibility. The actual duration will differ from your original estimates and the sequence of activities may also change once the project work begins. The update progress command is used to launch the update progress window. This window, we can estimate progress for the selected activities as needed. The recalculate assignment costs. This option in the project menu is used for launching the recalculate assignment costs Mendel. From this window, we can recalculate resource and role assignment costs for all the activities in the open project. The objective of the summarise command is to make sure that all the projects are been recently summarized so that project information stays up-to-date in the primary therapy six database for the most accurate data. Summarise command enable us to summarize open projects. Also, we have the option to summarize all the projects. Instead of summarizing just the open projects. By using the store period performance feature, we can track actuals. Today two units and costs. Store period performance. Come on. Open up the store period performance window, where we can store past period actually, for any open project in the defined financial period. By default, we can add, edit or remove data in a P16 window, for example. And the activities, our projects window. The feature will automatically reorganize data in the active window according to the group and sort criteria specified for that particular window. Basically, the disabled Otto reorganization feature is used to enable or disable the automatic reorganization. By default, automatic reorganization is enabled. But when we turn on the disabled Otto of reorganization feature, the model does not automatically reorder the currently active window regarding to our recent changes. The Global Change feature is used to launch the Global Change window, where we can make changes to all the activities, resources, assignments, our project expenses is selected group of these items at one time. Please note that one must have access to the activities, resources, assignments, and expenses. To which we want to make global changes. Please remember, the security profile does not enable you to access all of these items. You will not be able to commit changes. You want to make. Dominate thresholds. Feature is used to open the monitor threshold dialog box. In this window, we can monitor all of the open projects thresholds at once. Threshold identifies some issues, Then the issues are displayed under the threshold issues. Please note that when a threshold is created, it does not automatically have issues identified. Instead, we must manually monitor the specific threshold. The issue navigator is another useful feature used to track any issues related to any of the project activities. You should navigate the largest, the issue navigator window where we can track the open projects issues, including associated activities, resources, and work breakdown structure elements. The visualizer command is used to open up the primary grab B6 visualizer. B6 visualizer is a reporting tool that we use to create customizable Gantt charts, timescale logic diagrams, and schedule comparisons. For the time-based daily comparison reporting. Reports feature is used to launch the report's window. We use the report's window to create, edit, run, delete, import, and export different types of global and project reports. The report wizard command is used to start the report wizard, which is used to create new reports and modify existing result reports. As part of a project reporting needs. The use of the public project website. This window is used to save the project information specified as HTML files. And we can then publish these files. Has a website on an Intranet, on the Internet. Activity layouts, open. The Select activity layouts window, which is used to specify the activity layouts to publish to the project website. The use of the tracking layouts command is to open publish dialog box, and to specify tracking layouts to publish on the project website. The top-down estimation come on. We'll launch the top-down estimation window. The main objective of the top tone estimation feature is to apply labor, non-labor, and material resource units to the activities in a top-down manner using the assign weights. Please remember that when performing the top-down estimation, first, we must determine the total number of labor non-labor resource units. We want to apply words to perform top-down estimations. First, we have to assign estimation weights. Go to the WBS elements and related activities. If needed. We can limit the scope of the estimate according to the WBS element and required resources. The schedule comparison command launches. The visualizer. We use Visualizer tool to create a schedule comparison layout, which is used to compare the selected data fields in a revised project, whether it's related retinal project or revised project. And the corresponding baseline visualizer allows us to set options, then visualize the reports. We can directly output reports. Printing to an XPS document as needed. 29. Primavera P6 'Admin' Menu: The Primavera P6 professional. The Admin menu is used to manage Edmund preferences and categories. To get the red, the currencies, and the financial videos as well. The Primavera P6 professional client. The Admin menu can be accessed by using the R plus AKS together from the keyboard. And on the other hand, we can launch the Admin menu from the main menu at the top as well. Please note that since we are using Primavera P6 professional client, the Admin menu is available and visible for us already. In case, if you are using and working in a B6 enterprise environment. I mean, if you are using P6 enterprise client, then all these administrative functions are allowed to access via the web interface only. The first command in the Admin menu is admin preferences. The admin preferences command is used to launch the admin preferences window. Edmund preferences is used to modify a number of global settings. And there are several tabs like general data elements, lens and time periods. The General tab we set starting day of the V. And the time periods is the place where we can set the number of working hours along with abbreviations for each time period, etc. The earned value is very large topic in charge. For understanding purposes. Earned value is simply a technique that is used for measuring project performance, which is calculated according to both of our project costs and the project schedule. Generally, the earned value analysis are typically performed for the WBS elements in our project schedule. Now here in the Earned Value tab, we set the techniques for calculating the project performance, percentage complete, and specify the procedure for estimate to complete calculations. That is also called ETC. In chart form. In the Reports tab, in the headers and footers form, we specify and set the default labels for our project reports. We can select and specify resource titles and roll rate types, integrates diet tab. In order for default calculation settings. In the Primavera P6 professional, we specify our industry type in the industry tab as needed. In chart. We use the admin preferences window to specify default settings which are established by the primary grab B6 project administrator. Now the next command or the feature in the Admin menu is guard admin categories. The admin categories feature allows us to open the admin categories window. We use this argument categories window to set the baseline types, expense categories, breakdown structure, and the document categories, along with document status and risk categories. By using the admin categories. Also, we can set the notebook topics and units of mayors as part of a project's requirements as needed. The admin categories window is used to define standard categories and values that we can apply to all products in our organization. Next comes the currencies feature and the Admin menu, which allows us to open the currencies dialogue box. We normally use these currencies window to set up the currencies we want to use for our project in order to calculate the project cost. In the primary therapy six professional. Then the last feature is financial periods. The financial periods command is used to open up the financial periods window, which is used to define global and customized financial periods that we can use to store a product's time period performance for any predefined time period mentioned in the financial periods window.