Primavera P6 – Understanding Various Activity Types

The Primavera P6 software has a number of activity types considering various aspects of project or project-portfolio management. It covers areas such as milestones, WBS related, level of effort (LOE) and the normal ones. In this article, we will understand the activity types available.

The Fundamentals

Each activity (or task in simple terms) must be assigned an activity type. This is because a plan is basically activity driven and as the plan proceeds, we execute the activities. 

Activity types are important because they will control the duration and dates. Taking some examples: 

• When you add more resources to an activity, the duration will be reduced. In project management parlance, it’s called crashing. 
• When you have different calendar associated with an activity, the activity finish date will be impacted.
• When you have resources with different calendars, agian the activity's duration and finish dare will be impacted.

Overall Information

There are six types of activities in Primavera P6:

• Task Dependent activity
• Resource Dependent activity
• Start Milestone activity
• Finish Milestone activity
• Level of Effort (LOE) activity
• WBS Summary activity

This can be seen by going to the bottom half of the Activities window > General tab > Activity Type drop-down menu. (click on the images to enlarge) 

As shown, we have a web-based Information Management System project. The default activity type chosen is the Task Dependent activity for the selected activity. Rest of the activity types are also seen in the drop-down list.

This is the default one because when we create and open a new project within the Primavera Enterprise Project Structure (EPS), we need to set the default activity type. This can be done by going to the bottom-half of the Projects window > Default tab > Activity Type drop-down menu.  

Based on this setting, when you create a new activity, that will be seen in the Activities window. 

Next, let’s see these activity types one by one.

Task Dependent Activity

As explained earlier, this is the default activity type in Primavera P6. 

In this activity, when you assign resources, the scheduling engine of Primavera does NOT consider the resource calendars. Rather, it considers the activity calendar. 

For example: A resource is assigned to work on an activity. The resource calendar informs that the assigned resource will not be available on the coming Monday, but the activity calendar (separate one) informs of no holiday on Monday. 

This activity calendar will override the resource calendar. The duration of the activity will be determined by the activity calendar.   

Resource Dependent Activity

This, in a way, is the opposite of the Task Dependent activity. In this case, the resource calendar will be the driver of the activity. 

Here, the resources assigned to an activity will be scheduled on the resources’ calendars, not the activity’s calendar. 

Start Milestone Activity

Milestone, in formal project management terms, is a significant event in a project, program or portfolio. It’s not considered to be an activity. It's of zero duration. 

However, Primavera 6 software considers Start Milestone as an activity with zero duration. You can also call it a “Zero Duration Activity". As the duration is zero, there is no impact of resource assignment on this activity. However, you can have expenses associated with it!

Finish Milestone Activity

Like the Start Milestone, Primavera 6 also considers Finish Milestone as an activity with zero duration. As the duration is zero, there is no impact of resource assignment on this activity. Here too, you can have expenses associated.

The figure shows both Start and Finish milestones for the Information Management System project.  

As you can see in the “Start” and “Finish” column of the table in the left-side:

• The Start Milestone has the Start date set, not the Finish date.
• The Finish Milestone has the Finish date set, not the Start date.
• Both are of zero days duration. 

Level of Effort (LOE) Activity

This is an activity type that confuses many. But it’s actually simple. It’s like a hammock activity, but not exactly the same.  

The LOE activity’s duration is dependent on its predecessors and/or successors. In fact, it's linked to them, but its behavior is based on the predecessor and/or successor activities. Do note that while leveling resources, these activities are ignored.

The below figure shows a LOE activity associated with Management Work. 

WBS Summary Activity

This is another one which is considered to be complicated, but it’s not. To use this activity, you need to understand the basics of Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). 

As the name tells, the WBS Summary Activity summarizes at a WBS level. One example is shown below. 

As shown above, under the Requirements and Analysis phase (WBS level is WEB 2.5.2), we have added a WBS Summary Activity:

• Summarizes the activities of the Requirements and Analysis Phases WBS and its elements.
• Has the same Start and Finish dates.
• Has the same duration.

This can be reconfirmed with the following view, where I’ve added:

• WBS Name, and
• WBS 

As shown the WBS activity summarizes all elements at a WBS level, which is WEB 2.5.2.

Video Demonstration: P6 Activity Types  

The below video explains various activity types used in Primavera P6. The duration is around 5 minutes [5m:40s]. Put your earphones and go full HD in order to have a better experience. 

In Summary 

When you go for scheduling with Primavera P6, you’ll find various types of activities. They are complex, or even complicated. However, you need to have the right material and proper content to understand and visualize them practically.

When you understand the activity types, you can effectively apply them into your project management plan.

References

[1] Article: WBS Level – 0 (L0) Vs. Level – 1 (L1) with Oracle Primavera P6 and Microsoft Project, by Satya Narayan Dash

[2] Course: Practical PMP with Oracle Primavera P6, by Satya Narayan Dash

[3] Article: Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) in Traditional and Agile Life Cycles with MS Project,  by Satya Narayan Dash

[4] Article: Level of Effort Activity in Primavera P6, by Satya Narayan Dash