Yes, you heard that correctly. We are now on version 15.1 of Oracle Primavera P6. This one is going to confuse the market for half a decade or so. The new naming convention for the release is tied to the year and the number of the release that year. So after Microsoft moves away from a similar naming convention e.g. Windows 98, Oracle introduces it. Let’s not get in to Microsoft skipping Windows 9 and jumping straight to Windows 10 due for release later this year.
Anyway, enough of that. Let’s take a look at what’s just been released in both Primavera P6 EPPM and Primavera P6 Professional.
Primavera P6 EPPM 15.1
Starting with Primavera P6 EPPM, there are some really nice new capabilities in 15.1, including starting the journey of moving to HTML5 and replacing Java applets.
Resource Bucket Planning
A long requested feature is Resource Bucket Planning where you can enter units into buckets manually rather than having them distributed linearly over the duration of an activity. With this new feature, you can now enter different levels of effort for different time periods.
Cut, Copy and Paste Multiple Projects
Another welcome addition is the ability to cut, copy and paste multiple projects at the same time. You can simply elect multiple project or a whole EPS node and Control X, C and V to your hearts content.
XML Import/Export of Project Baselines
In Primavera P6 EPPM 15.1, you now have the option to include baselines in the importing and exporting of projects using the XML format.
Detail Windows – Customize Columns
In each of the following detail windows, you can now customize the columns:
- Activity detail windows: Expenses, Issues, Predecessors, Successors, Relationships, Risks, Steps.
- WBS detail windows: General, Issues.
- Project detail windows: Risks, Issues.
- Relationship detail windows: Start, Finish and WBS.
Module Access Additions
Visualizer has now been added to the Module Access section in the User Access page. Previously, this was available together with P6 Professional and now you can add them separately, allowing users access to Visualizer and not necessarily to P6 Professional.
Improved Audit Access
You can now audit changes to the P6 database for users who don’t have access to the database via queries. This audit information can then be used in reports created using BI Publisher.
Updated Gateway
Gateway integration has been updated to allow integration with more than one instance of Primavera, Unifier and ERP systems.
UN/CEFACT
Primavera P6 now supports UN/CEFACT XML Format 6 containing integrated master schedule data.
HTML5 for Application Settings
Yes, no applets here. HTML5 is now used for the Application Settings page which means less hassle and faster performance.
Integration Between P6 and Unifier
Sending activity information from Primavera P6 to Primavera Unifier is now possible as well as receiving updated dates back from Unifier. You can also populate Primavera P6 with data from Unifier’s business processes. You can also send P6 activity data to Unifier Activity Sheets.
Primavera P6 Team Member
Several additional have been made to Team Member including:
- The ability to filter by resources more efficiently
- Toggle task detail information
- New additional duration units
- Icons that indicate activity ownership or resource assignment more clearly
- Marking a completed task back to in-progress
- Improved usability for touch screen devices
P6 Mobile
P6 Mobile also gets an update with new features including:
- New timesheet capabilities enabling you to update tasks and submit timesheets
- Updating notebook topics from the My Tasks view
- Distinguishing between activity owner and resource assignments
- Removing actual finish dates
- Showing a task’s start dates
Primavera P6 Professional
The still hugely popular Primavera P6 Professional gets a makeover with the following enhancements:
Import/Export Baselines in XML Format
The ability to include baselines when importing and exporting projects in Primavera XML format has been added to P6 Professional 15.1. Previously, you needed to restore a baseline to a project in order to import or export it.
Enterprise Features Are Back
They took them out and now they’re back. When connected to an EPPM database, the following can now be administered in P6 Professional:
- EPS
- OBS
- Project codes
- Activity step templates
- Cost accounts
- Funding sources
Separate Module Access for P6 Professional and Visualizer
As mentioned above under Primavera P6 EPPM, P6 Professional and Visualizer have been separated so that you can allow user access to one or the other (or both).
UN/CEFACT
Primavera P6 Professional now supports UN/CEFACT XML Format 6 containing integrated master schedule data.
Enhanced Unifier Integration
As with P6 EPPM, activity data including user defined fields can be sent to Primavera Unifier.
Visualizer
Visualizer is now 64bit which greatly improves its performance and ability to handle larger projects or groups of projects.
Also, you can now import and export layouts in Visualizer allowing the ability to share one or more layouts with other Visualizer users.
Summary
Nice job Oracle! There’s something for everybody in this release whether you are using Primavera P6 EPPM or P6 Professional. It will take time for the market to get used to the new release naming convention for Primavera P6, so let’s hope it won’t all change again in a few years.
UPDATE:
Read our first look at Primavera P6 Professional 15.1 in more detail.