Sunday, February 16, 2025

Primavera P6 Pro Live Lessons – Fundamentals of Calendars


Calendars in Primavera P6 is a very important concept, yet highly misunderstood and widely misused. When applied correctly, it brings immense value to your schedule and resource management as well as visualization in the grpahical side, e.g., Gantt Chart view. In this post, content of which is taken from Primavera P6 Pro Live Lessons course, we will learn the fundamentals of Primavera P6 Calendars. 

If you’re using the above course, calendars and associated concepts are used across the lessons in a variety of ways. Now, let’s start with the need of Calendars.

Why Calendars?

We all work within a calendar, which you may or may not realize, but it happens daily! For example, the day has a calendar – a 24-hours calendar. Projects are no different. Resources are no different either. Calendars can also be used for activities. 

Hence, you now can say calendars can be created and assigned to:

  • Each project (can be within a portfolio),
  • Each resource within a project (or shared across),
  • Each activity within a project.

Like our day has a 24 hours calendar, similarly a project calendar will have work hours, e.g., 8 hours a day. Like we have holidays, off-days, or partial working hours, so also will be for a project and/or its resources and activities.

Calendar assignments are important to have a proper schedule management, resource management, tracking and scheduling. It’s also used in resource leveling. 

Types of Calendars

Primavera P6 software comes with three types of Calendars:

  • Global Calendars: Can be applied to all projects within a portfolio or the enterprise. 
  • Resource Calendars: Can be Personal Resource Calendars or Shared Resource Calendars.
  • Project Calendars: Specific to the project under consideration and execution. 

Primavera P6 calls these calendars being parts of Calendar Pools. For example, the Global Calendar Pool will have calendars that apply to all projects. Similarly, Resource Calendars are informed as Resource Calendar Pools and Project Calendar is informed as a Pool of Calendars for each project.

To visualize the calendar, go to Enterprise > Calendars. This will launch the Calendar Dialog Box.

Global Calendars

As shown below, the opened Calendar dialog box has three types of Calendars and the Global is the default selected one. 

    Under Global, you’ve a number of calendars such as 5×10, 6×24, 7×24, Corporate – Standard Full Time, among others. 

As you can see, we also have our own Project Calendar, which is WebMS Project Calendar. To make it as the default calendar, double on the check box shown next. This calendar has been made global so that resources, which are enterprise specific, can inherit the properties of this calendar.

To see the content of this Calendar, click on the “Modify” highlighted button shown to the right of the above figure. 

As shown above for WebMS Project Calendar:

  • Week starts from Sunday (this can be changed).
  • Total work hours/day = 8 hours (this can be changed).
  • Two holidays = Oct 11 and Oct 29.
  • The holidays and non-working days are greyed out.
  • It’s not inherited from any other calendar.

This Calendar is a Global Calendar and all Resource Calendars will inherit the properties such as holidays, partial working days, specific non-working days etc. from this Global Calendar.   

Resource Calendars

This is our next Calendar to understand. In our case, we have two resource (labor) specific calendars as shown below. Both are Personal Resource Calendars. 

Considering CatherineR – Catherine Rice Personal Resource Calendar, you can see the content by clicking on the “Modify” highlighted button shown to the right of the above figure. 

As you can see, this Resource Calendar:

  • Inherits its properties such as holidays and exceptions from WebMS Project Calendar.
  • The project holidays of Oct 11 and Oct 29 are also the holidays for this resource calendar.
  • The daily work hours, however, have been changed to 4 hours/day. 

One can not only change the daily work hours, but also other aspects such as resource holidays, work timings (e.g., from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM), among others.

Project Calendars

When we created the WebMS Project Calendar, it was first a Project Calendar with project specific holidays, non-working days (e.g., organization’s off days), working hours and work timing. 

I’ve made it to be a Global Calendar so that resource calendars can inherit the properties.  

To make a calendar as a Global one, use the “To Global” button highlighted above. 

Video Demonstration

For a better understanding, a video [duration: 03m approx.] related to calendars, has been made available using Primavera P6 and a live project. This video is directly taken from Primavera P6 Pro Live Lessons. Plug-in your headphones and go full-HD to have a better experience.  


Additional information has been given in the above video. Watch and listen to learn more.

Conclusion

Now, we have created the calendars, but when did you apply this Calendar to our project? 

This is a very important question. In fact, many miss this part! You’ve to apply the created Calendar to the project. This can be done by going to the Projects window > Project Details (bottom part) > Defaults tab > Calendar. Click on the image to enlarge. 


As shown above, our WebMS Project Calendar has been applied to the project.

To learn in-depth about Calendars and many tricky areas, subscribe to the course of Primavera P6 Pro Live Lessons.


Check Videos (Before Subscription): 


References:

[1] Primavera P6 Pro Live Lessons Online Course, by ManagementYogi.com

[2] Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) – Primavera P6 Pro Live Lessons Online Course

[2] Practical PMP with Oracle Primavera P6, by ManagementYogi.com


Wednesday, February 12, 2025

Primavera P6 Pro Live Lessons – Adding, Removing, Modifying Currencies


Currencies are important in any project-portfolio management. Primavera P6 is no different and it provides sound currency management capabilities. In this post, we will learn more about it. Content of this article are taken from the Primavera P6 Pro Live Lessons course, a full-fledged video course.

Importance of Currency in Primavera P6

First and foremost, Primavera P6 is not only used for project management , but also for project-portfolio management. Effectively, it's a project-portfolio management (PPM) tool. Mark the distinction. When I say portfolio, there can be many component projects and these can be managed within a single portfolio. 

When you set the currency, it’ll be applicable for all the projects with the portfolio. In the real-world too, currencies are applied in a similar manner.

Now, currency setting is important because it will impact your cost calculation and display. These are derived from the resource rates for all types of resources. When your cost is impacted, subsequent calculations, metrics, evaluation and interpretation will also be dependent. 

Check the Default Currency in Primavera P6

To check the default currency, go to Edit > User Preferences > Currency. There you can see the currency options, which list out the selected currency, along with the symbol and decimal digits. 

As shown above, the default currency set is the US Dollar, with the symbol as $. Both the symbol and decimal digits are enabled. 

Here itself you can change the currency to another and it’ll be applied. For example, if you change it to Pound Sterling by selecting the “…” selection highlighted in the below figure’s red circle, it’ll change the currency name and symbol. 

With the $ US Dollar applied, the activities in the current project (or multiple projects under a portfolio) will display the cost in US Dollars. This is shown below for the activity of “PRD Preparation”. Click on the image to enlarge. 

Do note that you’ve to select the Labor Cost, Nonlabor Cost or Material Cost fields.

Add a New Currency in Primavera P6

To add a currency, go to Admin > Currencies. In the launched dialog box, click on the “+ Add” icon to the right. A new currency will be added. Change the respective fields. In our case:

  • Currency ID: INR
  • Currency Name: Indian National Rupee
  • Currency Symbol: ₹
  • Exchange Rate: 85.000000

This is shown below. (click on the image to enlarge) 

Next, go to Edit > User Preferences > Currency and choose INR as the currency for your project-portfolio as shown below. 

This will ensure Indian National Rupee (INR) as the default currency for your set-up. Next, when you check the activities in your project, the INR will be shown in the cost field. Click on the image to enlarge.

Remove a Currency in Primavera P6

To remove a currency, you have to follow the steps as you did to add. Go to Admin > Currencies. In the launched dialog box, select the currency you want to remove and click on the “× Delete” button. This is shown below. 


Modify a Currency in Primavera P6

To modify a currency and/or the exchange rate, select the currency in the opened Currencies Dialog Box. Select the currency to be modified and double click on the fields that you want to change. Next, you can change the content of the fields.

For example, in the below case, I’ve changed the fields below.

  • Currency ID: USD-US
  • Currency Name: United States Dollar
  • Currency Symbol: $$
  • Exchange Rate: 1.000000 

Notice that the $ symbol is changed to $$. This is a demonstration and explanation. Next as you apply this currency using Edit > User Preferences, it will come as shown below for an activity in the project. Click on the image to enlarge.


Video Demonstration

For your understanding, a video demonstration [duration: 05m approx.] related to the currency settings, changes and applicability, has been made available using Primavera P6 and a live project. It’s taken from Primavera P6 Pro Live Lessons. Plug-in your headphones and go full-HD to have a better experience.  


Conclusion

Some of you may be wondering, can one add a completely new currency? It's not related to any particular geography, location or country, but your own.

Yes, you can!

Let’s say you want to have another currency as follows:

  • Current Name: Special Currency
  • Currency Symbol: #
  • Exchange Rate: 1.000000

Follow the exact same steps as we did earlier and your own defined currency will be set and applied to the projects of the portfolio. As you create your own currency, it’ll come as shown below.

Next, when you apply this currency to your project (and the portfolio), you can see the impact of this special currency (#), across the activities of your projects. Click on the image to enlarge.

Notice the # currency symbol applied to the PRD Preparation activity. 

To learn more and many tricky areas, subscribe to the course of Primavera P6 Pro Live Lessons, which comes with lowest price, but high quality content.  

References

[1] Primavera P6 Pro Live Lessons Online Course, by ManagementYogi.com

[2] Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) – Primavera P6 Pro Live Lessons Online Course

[2] Practical PMP with Oracle Primavera P6, by ManagementYogi.com


Sunday, February 09, 2025

Install, Set-up and Run Primavera P6 Professional PM Release 24.x on Windows 10/11 – In 10 Minutes!

 

The latest release of Primavera P6 Professional (Pro) for project-portfolio management practitioners is now available. It’s Release 24.12 and was released in December, 2024. The Primavera P6 Pro Live Lessons course extensively uses both R24.x and R22.x. This course also has backward compatibility support for R8.x and R15.x.

This software is different compared to the earlier editions in certain visualizations. For example, while scheduling the screen shown is different when compared with earlier ones. But you need not worry. 

The Primavera P6 Pro Live Lessons course covers all the changes. It’s an online, on-demand, and hands-on course. And it’s a complete video course.

This article informs on how to set-up and run the software. There are just four steps you need to follow to install and test the software. You need not spend hours  to set-up, change the settings and run the software. You can complete the below steps and run the software in just 10 minutes! To learn in-depth about this project-portfolio management tool, I'd strongly recommend the Primavera P6 Pro Live Lessons. 

Following are steps:

  • Step – 1: Download and Install the software of R24.x
  • Step – 2: Configure Primavera P6 Professional DB
  • Step – 3: First Run Primavera P6Professional PM R24.x
  • Step – 4: Change the minimal needed settings and run Primavera P6

Step – 1: Download and Install Primavera P6 Pro PM R24.x

You can download the software from Oracle’s e-Delivery platform: http://edelivery.oracle.com/ 

You need to create an account and download. When you search for Primavera P6 Professional PM, the following screen will come-up. Select the needed ones and download. 

After you’ve downloaded the software, you can use the “V1046902-01.zip” archive to extract and it’ll have the needed executable to install. This is shown below. From here onwards, it'll take 10 minutes to complete the installation and start running with Primavera P6!

Double click on the extracted ".exe" file and run the software. Step-by-step instructions are given in the associated document file towards the end of this article.

Step – 2: Configure Primavera P6 Pro PM Database

Post installation, you’ll be asked to configure the database (DB). The DB can be the enterprise level Oracle DB or a light-weight SQL DB. Use the lightweight, quick and efficient SQL DB. It also has the needed functionalities to learn.

Post installation, a successful message for alias creation will be shown. 


Do note the UI and message have changed here in Release 24.12. There is no testing of connections as was the case in earlier installations and set-ups!

Step – 3: First Launch of Primavera P6 Pro PM

Your installation and DB configuration are done. Now you can launch the software. When you launch, provide the needed username and password and the P6 software will be launched. 


When you run for the first time, as you can see, no projects are loaded. It’s shown on top as “No current project”. 

We will start-off projects after the settings related changes are done. This is the next step. 

Step – 4: Change the minimal settings needed and run Primavera P6

Post launching for the first time, you need to change a few settings which is explained in the below linked document. It explains the needed steps. 

Full-fledged video explanations will be part of the Primavera P6 Pro Live Lessons video course.

For example, one setting is with respect to Units Format under Edit > User Preferences > Dates. This is shown below.  


After you’re done with your settings, load a sample project and run. If you are using Primavera P6 Pro Live Lessons course, then you will understand the needed setting changes, the toolbars, the views from the very beginning with real-world projects.

Conclusion – Detailed Document 

You can visualize the step-by-step instructions to download, install, make the settings related changes and run Primavera P6 Professional (Pro) as informed in the below document. You can scroll to see the entire content. To get a PDF copy (public link below), send an email to managementyogi@gmail.com


The complete document is available for viewing – View Link.

Final Words

Good luck and hope you learn Primavera P6 Professional as a professional! If you’re using the Primavera P6 Pro Live Lessons course, then detailed PDFs instructing to set-up both R22.x and R24.x will be shared with you. You’ll also learn Primavera P6 in an in-depth, hands-on manner.


References

[1] New Online Course - Oracle Primavera P6 Pro Live Lessons, by ManagementYogi.com

[2] Install, Set-up, Run and Test Primavera P6 Professional Project Management Release 22.x on Windows 10/11, from ManagementYogi

Videos Primavera P6 Pro Course: 

[1] Sample Videos for Primavera P6 Pro Live Lessons Course (1) - 9 Videos

[2] Sample Videos for Primavera P6 Pro Live Lessons Course (2) - 9 Videos

[3] Sample Videos for Primavera P6 Pro Live Lessons Course (3) - 9 Videos

All the above videos are directly taken from various lessons of Primavera P6 Pro Live Lessons course. You check all the videos in this single list.