One of the most challenging things you can run across when administering data in your Primavera P6 environment is multiple User Defined Fields (UDFs) that have been created for the same information. This often occurs when users are working on projects that need a particular piece of information and don’t realize there is a UDF already created for another project for the same information. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to merge those duplicate UDFs without losing the data already in them?
Written by Sue Fermelia - Implementation Specialist
on Wednesday, 29 June 2022.
Posted in All Articles, P6-Loader
How do you track and report cancelled work in your project? By using P6-Reporter (previously EP-datawarehouse) and snapshots of your project you can not only view cancelled work but also monitor it over time using project snapshots. I have pulled many reports on cancelled work during project execution and after project completions. But can you easily access and present this information?
Written by Mary Lynn Backstrom, PMP, PMI-SP, PMI-BA – Implementation Specialist
on Friday, 17 June 2022.
Posted in All Articles, P6-Reporter
Does your turnaround self-serve dashboard(s) display easy to digest information on your turnaround’s current status? Does your team know where to look and what to look for to stay updated on progress?
If you’re still building your green up reports using Excel, there’s an easier way.
Written by Mary Lynn Backstrom, PMP, PMI-SP, PMI-BA – Implementation Specialist
on Tuesday, 17 May 2022.
Posted in All Articles, P6-Reporter, Turnarounds
In P6 we sometimes discover that an EPS node has gone missing and need to find out what has happened to it. P6-Auditor is a fast and easy way to find out what happened. P6-Auditor reads the data in the P6 audit tables in a spreadsheet format that you can sort and filter.
How do we find what has happened to our EPS?
Written by Sue Fermelia - Implementation Specialist
on Tuesday, 10 May 2022.
Posted in P6-Auditor
Are you still entering your turnaround schedule updates manually? How long is it taking to enter all the schedule update information for each update? There is a better alternative! TAPS can help alleviate some of the pain and stress of manually processing updates to your P6 schedule.
TAPS is a barcode updating tool usable for both P6 Web and Client. A version of TAPS that does not use barcodes is available on mobile devices as well. Let’s have a look at how quick and easy you can update your schedules using TAPS on your phone.
Written by Mary Lynn Backstrom, PMP, PMI-SP, PMI-BA – Implementation Specialist
on Friday, 06 May 2022.
Posted in TAPS
TAPS v11 has a new look. TAPS updates using the computer and scanner maintain the previous, proven functionality, but now TAPS updates are also available using your mobile device. Now anywhere you can safely use your phone, you can enter the updates and send them directly to the schedule instead of waiting until you are back in the office to enter them.
All updates do not have to be received from the same source - just computer, just phone, or a mix of both – whatever works best with your project team. If you have some activities where a field report returned to the office to complete the scanning, TAPS easily addresses that. In the same schedule, if some activities are better updated using TAPS on a phone to submit the updates, TAPS easily addresses that as well. You can even use TAPS and other tools like
CAPPS or
P6-Loader to update your schedules.
Are you wondering how you might update your schedule with activities of all three P6 activity percent complete types? TAPS allows processing of updates for any of the activity percent complete types, mixing as you require with no issues.
TAPS also allows you to use barcode scans to update steps. Yes, steps and resources also. So no matter the mix of update types you may require, TAPS has a number of options available.
Written by Mary Lynn Backstrom, PMP, PMI-SP, PMI-BA – Implementation Specialist
on Thursday, 14 April 2022.
Posted in All Articles, TAPS
Are you polluting your P6 data when you import XERs/XMLs from other companies? Do you have a scrubbing database you import XERs/XMLs into just so you can clear out unwanted data from them, re-export the cleaned project, and then re-import it to your working database? Both of these scenarios are very common and in the first case, can really pollute your working database with all kinds of unwanted garbage or in the second case, cause lost time cleaning out someone else’s junk.
P6-Scrubber is the answer to your data pollution woes. This tool designed by Emerald Associates will take care of clearing out that unwanted garbage prior to importing the XER/XML by allowing you to easily decide what is acceptable in the file. The P6-Scrubber Definition Configurator allows you to set up and save definitions for each client to be used over and over without rebuilding it each time. Definitions can also be edited, so if a new cleansing definition is needed, it can be added to the existing one.
P6-Scrubber can be deployed stand alone or it can be pointed at one or many database so data can be validated against what is already in the database.
Written by Sue Fermelia - Implementation Specialist
on Thursday, 24 March 2022.
Posted in P6-Scrubber
Have you ever had the need to demote an XER from a higher version of Primavera P6 to a lower version so you can import the file into your database? This can be a problem when the file was generated in a higher version and you have a lower version in your organization. Manually modifying the version can cause data corruption and bring your database to its knees.
Written by Sue Fermelia - Implementation Specialist
on Tuesday, 15 March 2022.
Posted in All Articles, P6-Scrubber
As you’d likely expect, P6-Reporter (previously EP-datawarehouse) delivers you data in tables that represent your common P6 items: Projects, Activities, Resource Assignments, and Resources. There’s a lot you can do with these, but to create great reports, you’ll often want to manipulate these tables too:
- prepare the data, so it’s ready to feed your visuals
- prepare the data, so it can describe relationships between your data
- reduce the amount of information being passed in so that your reports are light and responsive
Written by James Andrade - Integration Specialist
on Tuesday, 01 March 2022.
Posted in All Articles, P6-Reporter
We have our project portfolio in P6. How can we quickly and easily access project information to see how the projects in our portfolio are progressing? Can we easily see where there are issues that need our attention? We can with self-serve dashboards in Power BI.
Written by Mary Lynn Backstrom, PMP, PMI-SP, PMI-BA – Implementation Specialist
on Monday, 14 February 2022.
Posted in All Articles, P6-Reporter
More charts. More insight. Understand your projects in ready to use, customizable reports in Power BI, Tableau or ODV.
Written by James Andrade
More charts. More insight. Understand your projects in ready to use, customizable reports in Power BI, Tableau or ODV.
New Features
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New charts for resource allocation - see at a glance which resources are overallocated, then select a resource to see which dates are affected, which projects are using it, and how much float you have in each.
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Gantt charts - select a resource and view how it is allocated across a series of projects.
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Milestone Trending - see any of your milestones across your portfolio: where they're planned to be, where they are now, and if they're behind, how quickly you can expect to get caught up.
Enhancements
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Green-ups are now expandable. Want to know the percent completion for each activity in a category and not just the category itself? Now you can.
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More trending! Is your project headed in the right direction? Perhaps you've had a major setback and are getting caught-up, or perhaps you're falling steadily behind. Looking at current numbers only tells half the story. P6-Reporter reports built on top of EP-datawarehouse snapshots are the only way to see where your Primavera P6 projects have been so that you can tell where they are going. In here you'll find trending information for all costs, finish date and duration variances, as well as CPI and SPI over the course of your project.
P6-Reporter News Articles
on Monday, 14 February 2022.
Posted in News, P6-Reporter
PCM-Archiver version 6.1 gives you better control than ever over the archived file and folder names.
Written by Dan MacMillan
PCM-Archiver version 6.1 gives you better control than ever over the archived file and folder names.
New Features
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The date format used in file and folder names is now configurable.
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Naming rule overrides can now be defined in a separate file, making it easier to keep track of which rules have been customized and which are the defaults.
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More specific naming rules always take precedence over less specific rules, allowing naming rules to be defined in any order.
Enhancements
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Attachments with illegal characters in the file name can now be downloaded with PCM-Archiver. They will be renamed automatically.
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When using force the regeneration check box with incremental extraction, the whole document type will be re-extracted, making it easier to deal with changes to naming rules.
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The out-of-the-box naming rules for drawings have been improved so that the drawing title is included in the file and folder names.
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Additional checks included in progressive and incremental extraction modes to ensure that PCM-Archiver does not make any changes to files outside of the archive location that it controls.
PCM-Archiver News Articles
PCM-Archiver Case Studies
on Monday, 20 December 2021.
Posted in News, PCM-Archiver
Safran Risk has released v21. Read about all the exciting new features.
Written by Ian Nicholson
Safran Risk has released v21. Read about all the exciting new features.
New Features
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Correlation of Activity uncertainty - It’s now possible to correlate the impacts of activity uncertainties in the correlation matrix.
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New Cost Module Functionality - Risks can now be mapped to cost elements at the summary level. Allowed for any number of fields instead of just Base and Quantity via the new “Input Fields” functionality. Multiple different groupings can now be applied to the same cost model.
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New Import of External Files - The import of external files has been completely re-written. It will import files from P6 (.xer and .xml) and Microsoft Project (.xml and .mpp).
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Switch databases without having to re-start Safran Risk - It’s now possible to switch databases without restarting Safran Risk. The database connections can be saved.
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Probabilistic Branching has been added. This allows the model to turn on/off branches during the risk analysis. Functionality has also been added to the scripting to make this easier via a script.
on Friday, 10 December 2021.
Posted in News, Safran
PCM-Archiver version 6 allows you to save even more time when resuming previously-interrupted extractions.
Written by Dan MacMillan
PCM-Archiver version 6 allows you to save even more time when resuming previously-interrupted extractions.
Enhancements
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Document types are listed by name in the web interface instead of by acronym, which makes it easy to find the ones you are interested in.
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Improved naming rules and behaviour now ensure that each document will be written into a unique folder.
PCM-Archiver News Articles
PCM-Archiver Case Studies
on Tuesday, 30 November 2021.
Posted in News, PCM-Archiver
Our latest version of P6-QA brings specific highlights to the GOA and Naval Air Scheduling quality standard metrics.
Our latest version of P6-QA brings specific highlights to the GOA and Naval Air Scheduling quality standard metrics.
New Features
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New quality metrics for GOA - Government of Accountability quality standards
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New quality metrics notebooks for GOA - Government of Accountability quality standards
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New quality metrics for Naval Air quality standards
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New quality metrics notebooks for Naval Air quality standards
on Monday, 25 October 2021.
Posted in News, P6-QA
