Planning and Control Using Oracle Primavera P6 Versions 8 to 17

A user guide and training manual written for Project Management Professionals who wish to learn how to plan and control projects in an established Primavera Enterprise environment with or without Resources and Roles. This book is an update of the author's Primavera P6 Version 8 to 16 book and con-tains a new section on Visualizer. The workshops have been updated so they start in the future. The book has been written so it may be used with any software industry version. The book is packed with screen shots, constructive tips and contains workshops with solutions at the end of each chapter for the reader to practice the skills taught. It has been written so it may be used with either the Professional Project Management Cli-ent version or the Enterprise Project Portfolio Management Optional Client. The book is aimed at: 1. People who wish learn the software but are unable to attend a training course and find the software reference manual hard going. 2. Project management companies who wish to run their own software training courses or provide their employees with an alternative text to the vendor supplied user manual. 3. Training organizations requiring a training manual to run their own training courses. This book is a PMI Approved course and instructors' PowerPoint slide shows are available to training organizations. PMI REPs may apply to have this course licensed to them and award 21 PDUs to each attendee. Primavera Systems Inc. originally asked the author to write this book and this publi-cation is ideal for people who would like to gain an understanding of how the soft-ware operates up to an intermediate level. It covers only Primavera Versions 8, 15 and 16 Professional Client and Optional Client. It explains some of the differences from SureTrak, P3, Microsoft Project and Asta Powerproject to assist people con-verting form other products. The book is designed to teach planners and schedulers in any industry how to setup and use the software in a project environment. It explains in plain English and in a logical sequence, the steps required to create and maintain an unresourced and re-sourced schedule. It tackles some of the more complex aspects of the software that the user manual does not address. It highlights the sources of information and the methods that should be employed to produce a realistic and useful project schedule.

Table of Contents:
1 INTRODUCTION 2 CREATING A PROJECT PLAN 3 STARTING UP AND NAVIGATION 4 CREATING A NEW PROJECT 5 DEFINING CALENDARS 6 CREATING A PRIMAVERA PROJECT WBS 7 ADDING ACTIVITIES AND ORGANIZING UNDER THE WBS 8 FORMATTING THE DISPLAY 9 ADDING RELATIONSHIPS 10 ACTIVITY NETWORK VIEW 11 CONSTRAINTS 12 GROUP, SORT AND LAYOUTS 13 FILTERS 14 PRINTING AND REPORTS 15 SCHEDULING OPTIONS AND SETTING A BASELINE 16 UPDATING AN UNRESOURCED SCHEDULE 17 USER AND ADMINISTRATION PREFERENCES AND SCHEDULING OPTIONS 18 CREATING ROLES AND RESOURCES 19 ASSIGNING ROLES, RESOURCES AND EXPENSES 20 RESOURCE OPTIMIZATION 21 UPDATING A RESOURCED SCHEDULE 22 OTHER METHODS OF ORGANIZING PROJECT DATA 23 GLOBAL CHANGE 24 MANAGING THE ENTERPRISE ENVIRONMENT 25 MULTIPLE PROJECT SCHEDULING 26 UTILITIES 27 EARNED VALUE MANAGEMENT WITH P6 28 WHAT IS NEW IN P6 VERSIONS 8.1 to 15.2 29 TOPICS NOT COVERED IN THIS PUBLICATION 30 INDEX

About the Author :
Paul Harris holds an Honours Degree in Civil Engineering obtained in the UK and is a Certified Cost Engineer through AACEI International, a PRINCE2 Registered Practitioner and a "Managing Successful Programmes" Registered Practitioner. He has worked in the project controls industry for a number of years and has assisted many companies in a range of industries to set up and run project controls systems. His Melbourne, Australia based company, Eastwood Harris Pty Ltd, offers project controls consulting and training services world wide with a strong focus on Microsoft Project and Primavera software.

Review :
Reviewer: Tom Grant MSc BSc, Principal, TAG Consultancy, Review: The P6 PPM Manual by Paul Harris is a well-crafted guide into the concepts and functionality of Oracle Primavera P6. The manual contains 30 chapters of essential information that P6 users will require to get the most out of this complex scheduling tool. It makes the critical distinction between planning and tracking a non-resourced and a resourced plan and explains the necessary processes in a clear and concise manner.Most chapters are reinforced with a workshop and this gives students the all-important "hands on" time with the software. I believe that this is the best way to understand and learn a new software tool and the workshop data is practical and relevant. The P6 topics are introduced in a logical manner that follows the PMBOK Project Lifecycle stages. Once the P6 interface is understood, the process of building a project is undertaken. The main deliverables are defined in the WBS, the work is broken down into activities, logic is added, calendars are defined and scheduling is undertaken. There are a considerable number of preferences and settings that influence the scheduling calculations and all are explained in a timely and precise fashion. I have been teaching Primavera scheduling to a wide range of industries for over 10 years and I believe that Paul's training material offers the best combination of functional and practical training, delivered in a style that is easy to comprehend.