Primavera

Project managers needs a smart tool to plan their projects. Usually the planing phase requires lots of work and care to not fall in mistakes. Therefore, there was the need for a simple software that can help project managers plan their projects. Here I will be discuss the main parts of Primavera course that I took under Dr. Ehab Soliman in Handis Academy. The course explained Setting up, Activities, Work Breakdown Structure, Construction Specification Institute, Resources, Print and Save, and Data Analyses.  

Setting up the Primavera

Before starting the CPM, first we need to setup the program parameters; such as, time and currency. To do so, click “Edit” from the tool bar, then “User Performance” as shown bellow in Figure(1).

Figure (1): User Performance.

After clicking “User Performance” the next window will come out in Figure (2). From this window we will consider the first three options on the left side. The option “Time Units” is shown below. In this option we can change the “Unit of Time” from hours, days, weeks, and months.

Figure (2): Units Format.

The second option “Dates” will give you user the option to change how the dates looks like, and shows a sample example at the bottom of the box.

Figure (3): Date Format.

To add a non-existing currency we need to click “Admin” from the tool bar, then click on “Currencies..” as shown in Figure (4).

Figure (4): Adding currencies.

By doing the previous step we will get a new window, shown below. Then clicking “Add” will allow the user to add a non-existing currency with the desire name and exchange rate.

Figure (5): Currencies window.

Going back to the “User Performance” as explained in earlier stages. We can choose our new currency or search for some existing currencies from Primavera library, as shown in Figure (6).

Figure (6): Currency options.

From the menu bar by clicking “Enterprise” then “Enterprise Project Structure” we can get a new window to add new projects to our system. This can be easily done by clicking “Add”, then using the arrows to fit the new project under the perfect location/category, see Figure (7).

For example, if a company has several projects in several locations. First, we must create the Location, then add the projects in that specific location. Therefore, this will create a tree-structure to navigate through different projects of the company.

Figure (7): Enterprise Project Structure (EPS).

Activities

To add activities to a project, first we must ensure that we are in activities, indicated with “1” in Figure (8). Then by clicking the new button, we can create an activity as shown in step “3”. Once the activity is created, we can add the resources needed.

Figure (8): Activities.

If the activity is a milestone, we can add that from the drop-box under general, shown in Figure (9). Also, care must been taken as there are two types of milestones. One is for the start, and another for the finish.

Figure (9): Adding milestones.

To assign activities, first thing is to choose the desire activity. Second, is to click on “relationships” followed by “assign”. Then a new window will pop-out. From this menu the user must choose the predecessor activity. Finally and most importantly, is to add the “relationships” and “Lag”. The default relationship is “FS” which stands for “Final to Start”, and “Lag” is the float.

Remember that Total Float referred to the total amount allowed for the delay without delaying the due date of the project. However, Free Float is the maximum allowed delay for a certain activity without delaying its’ followed successor.

Figure (10): Assigning relationships.

After adding all the activities, it is time to run the program. To run the software first click “tools” from the tool bar then “Schedule”. The software will then create the following window. By just clicking “Schedule” from the pop-out window the program will run and update itself.

Figure (11): Running the program.

 Sometimes the user wants to edit and adjust the columns of his/her activities. This can be done by clicking on “View” then “Columns..”, as shown in Figure (12).

Figure (12): Reaching "columns" window.

In Figure (13), category “1” has some arrows to add new columns to the table. On the other hand, category “2” can rearrange the options.

Figure (13): Adding columns. 

In order to filter the results, we can click the filter button indicated with “1”, or by clicking “View” then “Filters” from the tool bar. Instantly next will come a new window as shown in Figure (14). From this window, the user can add or create filters. Furthermore, it is not recommended to choose many options from the filter window. Because, some activities might clashes. Therefore, there is the option “Show activities that has all the filters or that has anything from the filter”, as indicated with “4”.

Figure (14): Filtering based on the critical activities.

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

Primavera allows an easy way to add WBS to the project. The simplest process to do this is by first clicking “WBS” from the left hand side. Secondly, click on “add” to add a new activity. Then the user can edit the name or the level and position of the activity from the areas “3” and “4” respectively.

Figure (15): Work Breakdown Structure.

Construction Specification Institute (CSI)

Construction specification Institute had made a global list of around 16 divisions/categories that define activities into groups. To add the CSI codes into the system first we have to click “Enterprise” from the toolbar, followed by “activities”, then we will get the following window shown in Figure (16). After that we have to change the activity code to “projects” and click on “Add” to add the codes.

Figure (16): Adding CSI codes.

To show the CSI codes in the tables, first we “right” click at the top of the columns, then click on “columns” to get the following window in Figure (17). From the columns window, search for “CSI code” which should be found under “Activity Codes – Projects”. Once you find it, highlight it and switch it to list on the right by the using the arrows.

Figure (17): Adding CSI codes in the columns.

Sometimes the users prefer to show the activity in groups based on WBS or CSI codes or even both of them together. To do so, click on “Group and Sort” icon. In the pop-up window click inside the table cell under “Group By”. Then choose based on what category you want to show the activities, and click the box next to it. To finish click on “OK”, and to go back to normal click on “Delete”. In Figure (18), the example shows that the activities are to be displayed based on “CSI code” then the “level 1 of WBS”.

Figure (18): Group and sort.

Resources

To add recourses, click on “resources” from the left hand side. Then click on “add” from the right hand side. After that write the name of the resource, type, price, etc. in the pop-up window shown with “No.5”. Remember to NOT keep the resource as a sub-resource as shown with “No.3”. This can be adjusted by clicking on the arrow shown with “No.4”, shown in Figure (19).

Figure (19): Adding resources.

Once all the resources are created, the user will assign these resources to the activities. This will be done by first going to the activities and clicking on the desire activity. Next, from the bottom box, click on “Add Recourses”. Then a new window will come out to choose the activity. The user must then input some data in the box shown with “No. 5” as illustrated Figure (20).

Figure (20): Assigning resources.

After adding all the resources, go to “tools” from the tool bar. And click on “Recalculate Assignment costs…”. This will update the prices in the system.

Figure (21): Recalculating the costs.

Print and Save

To print the timeline, the user has to click on “File” then look for the print options:

Page Setup: to setup the page. This can allow the user to modify the margins, choose from landscape or portrait, and revision.

Print Setup: Here the user can choose the printer or the desire number of pages to be printed.

Print Preview: To have a look on how the program will print the tables.

Print: To print

Next is the category for saving the program on an external drive. Which will give few new windows and it is straight forward to work with.

Figure (22): Print and save options.

Data Analyses

Primavera has a useful feature that can give important data to the user in form of tables or spreadsheets. To show this, simply go to “View”, then “Show on Bottom”, and choose the desire information you want to preview. Also to edit the graphs, just right click anywhere on the graph to open the “Activity Usage Profile Options”.

Figure (23): Adding graphs or spreadsheets.