Table Of ContentOracle Primavera P6
Version 8: Project and
Portfolio Management
A comprehensive guide to managing projects,
resources, and portfolios using Primavera P6,
through version 8.2.
Daniel L. Williams, PhD
Elaine Britt Krazer, PMP
professional expertise distilled
P U B L I S H I N G
BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI
Oracle Primavera P6 Version 8:
Project and Portfolio Management
Copyright © 2012 Packt Publishing
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First published: August 2012
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Cover Image by David Gutierrez ([email protected])
Credits
Authors Project Coordinator
Daniel L. Williams, PhD Joel Goveya
Elaine Britt Krazer, PMP
Proofreader
Cecere Mario
Reviewers
Denitsa Banova
Robert W. Self, PMP Indexers
Hemangini Bairi
Deepak Vohra
Tejal R. Soni
Acquisition Editor
Rukshana Khambatta Graphics
Manu Joseph
Lead Technical Editors
Shreerang Deshpande Production Coordinator
Prachali Bhiwandkar
Sonali Tharwani
Cover Work
Technical Editors
Prachali Bhiwandkar
Apoorva Bolar
Madhuri Das
About the Authors
Daniel L. Williams, PhD first began working with Primavera in 2001 as part
of an integration project with JD Edwards World. Since then, he has helped clients
integrate Primavera with many other systems, such as PeopleSoft, Timberline, and
Oracle EBS. His work centers around helping people make best use of Primavera
and other software investments. Sometimes this involves heavy integration;
sometimes it involves customization and automation of business processes.
Sometimes it simply involves listening to people talk through their business goals
and helping them come up with workable solutions. Daniel's background includes
a Ph.D. in Physics from Caltech, many years of programming in C, C++, C#, and
Java, and for the past decade, leading numerous software development projects
oriented around Primavera
I would first like to thank my wife Heather for being the cornerstone
of our family and allowing me to pursue a career I enjoy. I would
also like to thank Justin Cohen for his years as a friend and business
partner, and Patrick Martin for his long-term friendship, advice,
and support. This book would have not been possible without all
of the clients I have worked for over the years—Wendy Kaszycki,
David Myers, Sandy Kayser, Sally Rau, Beth Maclean, Cathy
Rosczewski, and many others. Their guidance is what drives me
to learn and improve every day, and their thanks is the greatest
reward for my labors.
Elaine Britt Krazer, PMP began working with Primavera products as a project
manager for a government contractor in a top secret environment in 2003. Having
managed projects since 1986, she embraces Primavera as her tool of choice. She
has written training materials and published materials that combine best practices
(as defined by the Project Management Institute® and from experience) and the
appropriate use of Primavera within client organizations. Her philosophy is that
understanding an organization's strategic goals for projects are the foundation
for project management excellence and Primavera is the tool of choice. She has
a master's certificate from George Washington University 2002, and Project
Management Professional (PMP®) and ITIL Foundations certifications. She is an
Oracle Certified Primavera Implementation Specialist and is Primavera Training
Authorized. Elaine has worked in most major industries implementing Primavera.
Her past includes technical change management, business process redesign, data
center management, and PMO creation.
I would like to thank Daniel, the team at Packt Publishing, and my
family for their constant support during the writing of this book. I
am blessed.
About the Reviewers
Denitsa Banova works as a Primavera implementation consultant. She has
extensive experience in Portfolio/Program/Project Management gained in more
than five years of work as a team leader, consultant, and trainer in Primavera
implementation projects in various IT companies, construction and manufacturing
sectors, and also as project manager in different software implementation projects.
Her specialties are Primavera P6 EPPM and Primavera P6 Professional.
I would like to thank Joel Goveya for being such a cooperative and
an understanding project coordinator.
Robert W. Self, PMP has over 20 years experience in training, implementation
and use of Primavera products with expertise in Primavera Project Manager (P6),
Contract Manager (Expedition), and Project Risk Manager (PertMaster).
He has written multiple training manuals to help students become power users of P3
and P6. These manuals range from basic concepts through advanced topics, such as
reporting, resource management, and use of Risk in P6.
Currently, Robert is a part of the project controls team at the DFW International
Airport, working directly with civil and facility project managers on a variety of
projects ($1M – $20M each project) throughout the entire project lifecycle. These
projects include basic renovation to Greenfield projects, even the occasional LEED
project. His daily duties include performing frontline evaluation of programmatic
(internal), as well as contractor schedules. In addition to his regular duties, he
provides mentoring to DFW colleges and contractors in terms of schedules and
project controls.
I would like to thank my wife, Sharon, for her patience and
understanding. She has been and remains my inspiration. She has
long suffered as a road warrior's wife.
I would also like to thank Mike Stone for giving me the opportunity
to get into the training and consulting business by working with the
Houston Primavera dealer. The variety of industries and clientele
proved an excellent crucible to focus my understanding and
appreciation of quality project management tools and techniques.
Deepak Vohra is a consultant and a principal member of the NuBean.com software
company. Deepak is a Sun certified Java programmer and web component developer,
and has worked in the fields of XML and Java programming and J2EE for over five
years. Deepak is the co-author of the Apress book Pro XML Development with Java
Technology and was the technical reviewer for the O'Reilly book WebLogic: The
Definitive Guide. Deepak was also the technical reviewer for the Course Technology
PTR book Ruby Programming for the Absolute Beginner, and a technical editor for
the Manning Publications book Prototype and Scriptaculous in Action. Deepak is also
the author of the Packt Publishing books JDBC 4.0 and Oracle JDeveloper for J2EE
Development, Processing XML Documents with Oracle JDeveloper 11g, and EJB 3.0
Database Persistence with Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g.
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Table of Contents
Preface 1
Chapter 1: Getting Started with Oracle Primavera P6 7
Product history 7
Enter Oracle 8
P3 and SureTrak 9
What's in the name? 9
P6 core concepts 11
Project Management Life Cycle 11
Activities 12
Resources 13
What's new in P6 Release 8 14
New in Release 8.2 15
Summary 19
Chapter 2: Getting Around: Understanding
and Customizing the P6 Interface 21
EPPM Web Client overview 22
Application menus 23
Tabs 24
Modules 25
Main screen 25
Logging into the P6 Client 26
Screen overview 30
Main menus 33
File menu 34
Edit menu 37
View menu 48
Project menu 48
Enterprise 49
