Oracle Primavera P6 Dashboards Demo Script Script Team Information Role Name Email Primary Author L. Camille Frost Camille.Frost@oracle.com Contributor Reviewer Richard Ring Richard.Ring@oracle.com Manager Jeff Wiley Jeff.Wiley@oracle.com Revision Status REVISION STATUS APPROVAL Rev Date Description Originator Reviewed Approved V1.0 23 July 2009 Initial Draft L. Camille Frost Richard Ring L. Camille Frost PRODUCT(S) Version: Primavera P6 v2 Related Documentation / Scripts Document Name Version Location DemoScript-EPS OBS Users v 1.0.doc 1.0 DemoScript-Resource Request & Fulfilment v 1.0.doc 1.0 DemoScript-Prioritize Project Portfolio v 1.0.doc 1.0 Prerequisite Material / Training Prerequisite Project Management in Primavera P6 Rel. 6.2 Location http://education.oracle.com/pls/web_prod-plqdad/db_pages.getcoursedesc?dc=d57387gc10&p_org_id=1001&lang=us Page 1 of 15
Contents 1. INTRODUCTION / OUTLINE / VALUE PROPOSITION... 3 2. SET UP / DATA REQUIREMENTS... 3 2.1. Data / Environment... 3 2.2. Resource Team... 3 3. DEMONSTRATION SCRIPT... 5 3.1. Dashboard Overview... 5 3.2. Personal Workspace... 5 General... 5 Personal Information... 6 Resources... 7 Project Performance... 9 3.3. Dashboard Layout... 10 3.4. Dashboard Access... 10 3.5. Executive Dashboard... 10 Histogram... 11 Scorecard... 12 4. APPENDIX A: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS... 13 5. APPENDIX B: SUPPORTING SCREEN SHOTS / ADDITIONAL INFORMATION... 14 5.1. Performance Threshold... 14 5.2. Scorecard Indicators... 14 Page 2 of 15
1. INTRODUCTION / OUTLINE / VALUE PROPOSITION This demonstration script is focused on creating and using Dashboards in the P6 web client. Keep in mind that much of what is covered in this script may be prepared prior to demo delivery and simply shown / explained / modified on the fly to demonstrate ease of use and value based upon customer s needs and live discussion. The script will include the following in order: Dashboard overview Personal workspace Dashboard layout Dashboard access Executive dashboard The Personal workspace allows an individual to quickly view data that pertains to their role within a project or an organization and only that data. For example, resource requests and resource analysis is important to a resource manager. A team member perhaps is only interested in their schedule for the week and entering time against completed activities. The power to present applicable data in a meaningful fashion to the appropriate people via the web facilitates on-time, on-budget delivery of projects. The features associated with Executive Dashboards allow customers to slice and dice data in a multitude of ways giving them the insight necessary for making the best business decisions going forward. One might say reports can be used for this and that is true but imagine the power of having the data on demand and in near real-time. This is the true power of the dashboard. As end users are updating actuals, putting change orders that increase scope, cost and duration (for example) against a project, stakeholders and executives viewing will see the effects of those inputs immediately. There is no need to wait on a weekly status meeting or report. 2. SET UP / DATA REQUIREMENTS This demo is based entirely in the P6 web client with the exception of a few administrative tasks in the P6 thick client. 2.1. Data / Environment Make sure that you have users set up for P6 web access. If you are unsure how to accomplish this, refer to DemoScript-EPS OBS Users v1.0.doc. Make certain that this user is assigned as a resource to some of your projects. Ideally, you should have a significant number of projects organized in various portfolios such that you have adequate data in your dashboards. TIP: If you are unfamiliar with creating Portfolios and adding projects to them, refer to the Prioritize Project Portfolio script. 2.2. Resource Team You will need to have a Resource Team in place for the Resource Team Summary portlet to work. Page 3 of 15
Click the down arrow next to Resources in the main menu of the web client and select Create Resource Team. Name the team and make certain you are selecting resources that are associated with the projects in the portfolio you have already selected / configured for your demo. Page 4 of 15
3. DEMONSTRATION SCRIPT 3.1. Dashboard Overview Dashboards use portlets to display project and portfolio data. Dashboards in general operate over a specified portfolio meaning a grouped subset of your projects and within that portfolio, use portlets to filter and display that data in various forms. A user (given the appropriate privileges) may have several dashboards perhaps filtering on various portfolios and with different purposes. This script will focus on two types of dashboards: 1) Personal Workspace and 2) Executive Dashboard. 3.2. Personal Workspace A Personal Workspace is a dashboard that is your personalized homepage in P6. Obviously, the look, feel and content will vary depending upon your company role and use of P6. For example, the personal workspace of a Project Manager will differ from that of a Resource Manager. Login to the P6 web client as your designated web user. If this is the first time this user has logged in and they have not customized their personal dashboard nor had other dashboards assigned to them you will see something similar to: The default portlets are shown and there is also some data in this case. Click Customize so we can modify the personal workspace for this user. General In configuring the personal workspace for a customer demo, you might consider using the name of one of your contacts as well as the company name for the dashboard title as shown here. data for your demo. The Dashboard Filter is specifying what portfolio of projects (thus subset of data) over which this dashboard will operate. Select one with appropriate NOTE: In many cases, this is an Administrator designing dashboards for various types of users and may want to restrict them from changing this filter (to prevent users from viewing other portfolios of Page 5 of 15
projects) by checking the Restrict checkbox. It could also be a Project Manager designing dashboards for their team members and thus the restriction also might apply. Because this is a Personal Workspace, the most applicable portlets are associated with Personal Information. That is not to say that other portlets could not be included on this dashboard. For the purposes of this demo, we will create a separate dashboard using some of the other portlets. Keep in mind that you may have most, if not all of these portlets configured prior to the live demo but it is important that the customer understand that these portlets are not custom code but simply configured. Personal Information Locate the Personal Information section and configure as shown: My Projects: Check all boxes. The portlet should look similar to: My Activities: Make certain that your designated user is assigned as a resource to activities in one or more of the projects within your portfolio. The portlet should look similar to: NOTE: Clicking on any of these activities will take you to the details of the activities where time (actuals) can be entered. Communication Center: Allows you to start discussions, start a review, send an email etc. The majority of the portlets under My Information are self explanatory. You should take the time to explore the others not detailed in this script. You may have to modify your data / project resources to make sure you have adequate data for the demo. Page 6 of 15
Resources With respect to the Resource related portlets, you might consider using a different user who is a Resource Manager or Project Manager concerned with resource allocation etc. or you could add these portlets to the same dashboard with which you have been working and simply explain to the customer that these portlets may or may not make sense to be on the same dashboard depending upon the role of the user in question. Configure the Resources portlets as shown here. NOTE: With respect to the Open Requests for Resource Portlet, see the Resource Request and Fulfilment demo script. It will not be covered here. Save and Close to view the results. Click on one of the resources (ideally one that is over allocated) Specify the Resource Team that you created as a part of the set up within this demo script for the Resource Team Summary portlet. NOTE: Any resource that is over allocated will have a red icon. You might manipulate your data to have at least one resource show up such that it makes sense to drill down and determine what is causing the over allocation. Here, you are presented with a graphical representation of the Usage for this resource. Click on Customize to see how you could vary the Timescale etc. NOTE: This Usage profile is with respect to ALL projects to which this resource is assigned. Red indicates the amount of over allocation. Page 7 of 15
For more detail (at the individual project level) click the Spreadsheet radio button. This resource is assigned to two projects and you can see the allocation to each. This helps one determine what is causing the over allocation and address it. As shown here, any number in red indicates the number of hours for which the resource is over allocated. A negative number indicates availability or under allocation. Return to the Personal Workspace and view the Resource Analysis Chart portlet. Select a Resource that ideally is assigned to more than one project within the timeframe you select (you can change this by clicking Customize). Group the results by Project. This particular portlet can not be seen in its entirety so click on the Maximize button to make it larger. This makes is easier to see, week by week (in this case), that our resource is on two projects and is not over allocated (see red line for allocation limit) for the displayed timeframe. TIP: Hoover over each bar for information on Project and exact time. Page 8 of 15
Project Performance The Project Performance portlets focus on Earned Value and related calculations for each of the projects in your portfolio. Below are examples of what your portlets should look like: These portlets give the customer a quick, high level view of where each project is in terms of the schedule and labor units. It also rolls up an overall score or value for all of the projects referenced in the portfolio. Given a negative indicator, one could then drill down further from the portlet for further diagnosis. NOTE: See Performance Threshold in Appendix B for information on adjusting the thresholds and thus indicators associated with each of these calculations. NOTE: Scheduled Performance Index (SPI) is Earned Value (EV) Planned Value (PV) Cost Performance Index (CPI) is Earned Value (EV) Actual Cost (AC) Earned Value can be calculated various ways but in general terms, it is the estimated value of the work accomplished. NOTE: If you need education on EV, CPI, SPI etc. please reference the PMBOK (Project Management Book of Knowledge). To demonstrate how one would drill down for further diagnosis of a poor performance indicator, click on a project that has a negative indicator such as shown below: From here you can drill down to the WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) element and reach further conclusions. Page 9 of 15
3.3. Dashboard Layout Within the Customize view for any dashboard, you can modify the location and size of the portlets associated with the dashboard. Click on the Layout tab and note that you can use the arrows to change location and select either Narrow or Wide for the size of the portlet. 3.4. Dashboard Access As the creator of the dashboard, you control who has access to it. Click on the Access tab (within the Customize view). Options are as shown. For a specific group of user, choose the List of Users as shown. 3.5. Executive Dashboard An executive dashboard, in general, contains high level information with respect costs / budgets / schedule at an appropriate level for project stakeholders and management. This is not to say that a team member or project manager for example might not have these types of portlets on their dashboard. For simplicity sake, this script will reference a portfolio with only a few projects. To create a new dashboard, click the down arrow next to Dashboards and select Manage Dashboards. Click Create Dashboard. The easiest way to create a new dashboard is to find one similar to the one you want to create and use that as a starting point. Thus, you could locate one via this dialog and go from there. For the purposes of this script, we will assume you do not have one to copy and work with one from scratch. With Default Dashboard highlighted, click OK. Page 10 of 15
You should then see a new dashboard template with some default portlets selected. Give it an appropriate name and also specify a portfolio of projects to which this dashboard applies. Uncheck any portlet selected by default. We will configure the executive dashboard through Portfolio Views. Currently, there are none so click Add in the Portfolio Views section. Histogram The first view we will create is a New Histogram. NOTE: If we had existing views, we could choose one of them and modify it accordingly. For this first portfolio view, we simply want to look at the budget of each project in the portfolio in a histogram form. Configure as shown and click Save and Close to view the results. You should see something similar to: The other types of graphical view follow this same type of configuration practice. Page 11 of 15
Scorecard Scorecards provide more of a spreadsheet type view into the performance of a portfolio of projects using applicable KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). In general, these KPIs revolve around costs and budgets but as seen in the configuration dialog, the sky is the limit. You can also sort and group for additional clarification. As any number of the available columns can be added to a scorecard, the following is a screen shot of what a scorecard might look like. In this previous screen shot, one of the columns contains an Indicator. Only user-defined fields can have an indicator associated with them however, you can create a user-defined field and reference a standard P6 column. NOTE: See Scorecard Indicators in Appendix B for creating user-defined fields and assigning an indicator. Page 12 of 15
4. APPENDIX A: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Question What is the maximum number of dashboards a single user may have? What is the maximum number of portlets that can be present on a single dashboard? Can I access other products (like SAP) via P6 Dashboard? Response Unlimited. By default, the number is 12 but this can be changed in the Primavera Administration Application. Yes. Anything that has a URL can be referenced in a P6 Dashboard. Page 13 of 15
5. APPENDIX B: SUPPORTING SCREEN SHOTS / ADDITIONAL INFORMATION 5.1. Performance Threshold To adjust the thresholds associated with Project Performance, click Preferences in the upper right corner of the P6 web client. On the Global tab, scroll down to the Performance Threshold section and expand each of the areas. This is where you would adjust the thresholds associated with each calculation and indicator. 5.2. Scorecard Indicators As previously stated, only user-defined fields can have indicators associated with them. To create a user-defined field, click Administration in the P6 web client and under User Defined Fields, click Project User Defined Fields. Page 14 of 15
Click Create User Defined Field. In this example, a user defined field is created based upon a formula (which uses standard P6 variables) and an indicator is assigned if the value is greater than 100. This user defined field could then be referenced in a scorecard and the indicator would show appropriately. Page 15 of 15