Updating schedules is a crucial part of any successful business, but that doesn't mean it isn't a frustrating task. Manually entering data can be exhausting and mind-numbing, not to mention costly and just very time-consuming all-around. When Suncor Energy approached Emerald Associates, desperate for some kind of alternative to the dreaded task of updating schedules, we were happy to help.

For Suncor, manually updating schedules was just not working. It was too slow and not nearly accurate enough to suit their needs. That's where TAPS came in.

Written by Ravi Wallau

Looking for an easy way to collect project schedule updates from your project team? There’s a better way than paper reports and the data entry that comes with them. You can have your team enter their updates once in CAPPS, and from there the updates can be sent to P6. No additional data entry is necessary! The updates must even be approved before they take effect in your P6 schedule so nothing can get imported and affect the project schedule without having first been reviewed and accepted. Let’s have a look at some of the configuration options available in CAPPS.

Written by Dan MacMillan

Deal with Data Items in XERs and XMLs Quickly Prior to Import

Are you looking for a quick and clean way to remove or prefix data, roll global calendars to the project level or assign the resources to import to an existing resource node in an XER/XML before importing it into your production database? By doing things like this, you can keep your organization’s codes, UDFs, calendars and resources tidy and easily identify what was imported.

P6-Scrubber - Simple Scrub will allow you to do one or all of these things quickly and easily. Once a definition is set up, it can be saved to scrub other files with the same parameters, saving even more time.

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?

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?

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.