Primavera P6: planning and managing projects of all sizes

Part 1: project management and planning

• Understanding general concepts

  • What is a project?
  • Corporate culture and projects.
  • Project life cycles and types.
  • General project-related concepts.
  • The organisation's projects.
  • Key project stakeholders.

• Organising the project in a structured way

  • Identifying the project type.
  • Describing phases and key milestones.
  • Risk analysis.
  • Formalising and communicating objectives.
  • Structuring the project into a work breakdown structure.
  • Defining responsibilities and resources.
  • Engaging all stakeholders.

• Developing precise specifications

  • Defining the expected service or output.
  • Clarifying objectives.
  • Deciding the necessary level of detail.
  • Identifying constraints to address.

• Building the project schedule methodically

  • Schedule development methodology.
  • WBS and OBS: their roles and uses.
  • The importance of effective calendar management.
  • Different activity types and their characteristics.
  • PERT networks and Gantt charts as visualisation tools.
  • Early and late dates: calculation and interpretation.
  • Free float and total float: meaning and impact.
  • Identifying and monitoring the critical path.

• Managing project phases and progress effectively

  • Measuring progress: methods and indicators.
  • Change management: procedures and tools.
  • Identifying, integrating and controlling risks.
  • Implementing and monitoring specific controls.
  • Schedule updates: frequency and content.
  • Schedule stabilisation: techniques and best practices.
  • Closure phase steps and deliverables.

• Optimising project timelines strategically

  • Cost and schedule trade-offs: criteria and decisions.
  • Schedule optimisation and resource management.
  • Performance measurement and monitoring tools.

Part 2: the Primavera P6 environment

• Understanding Primavera fundamentals

  • The database: general principles and operation.
  • Using menus and their displays.
  • Project structure: levels and relationships.
  • Project access: methods and permissions.
  • Customising the environment: preferences and configurations.
  • Good user habits.
  • Multi-project and multi-user management: features and benefits.
  • Understanding user rights: roles and permissions.

• Mastering the enterprise project structure

  • Breaking down an EPS: levels and criteria.
  • Managing the OBS (responsibilities) and RBS (resources).
  • Links and dependencies from the ATS (work packages) to the WBS (breakdown structure).

• Using Primavera codes effectively

  • Primavera codes: definition and purpose.
  • Defining project, activity and resource codes.
  • Managing codes: creation, modification and deletion.

• Creating customised reporting layouts

  • Creating a layout: elements and settings.
  • Using columns and filters to display data.
  • Organising data through grouping and sorting.
  • Selection options: criteria and methods.
  • Gantt and PERT settings: visualisation options.
  • Inserting objects: images, text and tables.

• Managing project calendars effectively

  • Defining and sharing calendars: types and permissions.
  • Defining non-working periods and assigning calendars.
  • Creating shift-work calendars: settings and rules.
  • Communicating requirements: notifications and reminders.

Part 3: project sequencing, scheduling and control

• Initiating a project methodically

  • Creating a new project.
  • Defining project attributes.
  • Breaking down the project into a WBS (Work Breakdown Structure).
  • Defining project stakeholder responsibilities.
  • Creating project activities.
  • Defining activity properties.
  • Presenting project data.

• Managing project timelines precisely

  • Configuring project activities.
  • Defining durations and date constraints.
  • Using the PERT network and activity relationships.
  • Managing float and identifying the critical path.
  • Understanding activities, activity records and activity types.
  • Managing detailed activity records.
  • Locating and organising activities in the Gantt chart.

• Establishing an effective logic network and relationships

  • Building the activity logic network, relationships and constraints.
  • Calculating the PERT and CPM (Critical Path Method) network using forward and backward passes.
  • The concept and use of a driving relationship.
  • Managing open-ended activities.
  • Formatting relationship lines.
  • Logic tracing and loop management.
  • Managing unlinked activities.

• Assigning resources and costs to activities appropriately

  • Defining project resources and costs.
  • Assigning a resource hierarchy.
  • Assigning a cost centre hierarchy.
  • Configuring project resources.
  • Resource organisation and types.
  • Managing detailed resource records.
  • Assigning costs to activities.

• Managing project resources effectively

  • Defining resource workloads.
  • Analysing resource consumption.
  • Developing the resource workload plan.
  • Detecting resource overallocations.

• Creating a project baseline for monitoring

  • Creating a baseline project.
  • Comparing the current project with the baseline.
  • Backing up and restoring a project.

• Managing project progress and rescheduling

  • Updating the project to reflect progress.
  • Calculation options for updates.
  • Recording project progress.
  • Recording resource and cost progress.
  • Updating project milestones.
  • Managing activity suspension.