Oracle has released Primavera P6 15.2 for both P6 Professional and of course, P6 EPPM. For those that want to skip the details and just go to the highlights, here’s a list of the new features and functions in both versions of Primavera P615.2.
New Features in Primavera P6 EPPM
Usability Enhancements
- Global Search and Replace
- Close All Open Projects from the Right-Click Menu
- View Usage When Assigning Resources
- Filter on Rolling Dates
- Import and Export as a Scheduled Service
- Export XML as a Job Service
- Open Log File From a Notification
- Publish Baselines Immediately
- Save Detail Window Settings as Part of View
- Keep Selection After Sorting
- Database Auditing Improvements
- Additional Filter Criteria for Codes
- Microsoft Project XML 2013 Support
Applet Removal in P6 EPPM
- Activities Page Basic View
- Open Projects Dialog Box
P6 Team Member
- Assign Yourself to an Existing Task
- Filter Tasks by WBS
P6 Mobile
- Assign Yourself to an Existing Task
- Toggle Project ID in Task Details
- Timesheet Improvements
- Additional Task Filters
- Demo Mode
- Set Task and Timesheet Reminders
- Crop and Annotate Images
- Subscribe to Mobile Calendars by Project
- View Task Location Details
New Features in P6 Professional
- 64-Bit P6 Professional Installation
- Additional Filter Criteria for Codes
- Export XML as a Job Service
- Copy Project as a Job Service
- Save Resource Selection in the Resource Histogram and Spreadsheet
- Microsoft Project XML 2013 Support
- Select Language at Login
This blog is focused on Primavera P6 EPPM, so let’s take a look at some of the new goodies in more detail. You can also read all about the new release of Primavera P6 Professional 15.2 here.
Global Search and Replace
With the release of Primavera P6 EPPM 15.2 you have a new search and replace feature that is good for the activity, Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), and project. You can search up to five fields that you want to update. Primavera P6 EPPM allows you to view changes before they are activated. In fact you can not only view impending changes before they take place, but you can also make your own editing adjustments before the changes are finalized.
Activities Page Basic View
There’s a new Basic View for the Activities page, which simplifies the screen and gives you access to the basic functionality. You can manage activities and WBS elements, customize the activity grid layout, edit activity information in the details pane, and view your schedule in a configurable Gantt chart. At any point in time, you can switch to the Activities page Classic View to perform more complex tasks.
To get started using this capability click Activities on the Projects Navigation bar.
- Use the Toolbar to switch between a grid-only view, or a grid and Gantt chart view. Enable Fullscreen mode, open the Customize View dialog box, and print the current view (Grid View only).
- Add, edit, and delete activities in the Grid.
- The Row Actions menu allows you to add and delete activities and add, delete, expand, and collapse WBS nodes.
- Edit activity information in the Details Pane.
- The Gantt chart provides a visual representation of your activities. Customize bars, labels, colors, timescale, and lines in the Customize View dialog box.
- Switch between the Activities page Classic View and the Basic View.
Filter on Rolling Dates
You can now filter data on the EPS, Activities, and Assignments page based on rolling dates; dates or date ranges that automatically update according to time or project data changes.
For example, Current Week is a rolling date that changes over time and can be applied to a selection of date fields. As the Current Week changes, different activities are filtered according to the rolling date applied. Create rolling date ranges by adding upper or lower limits. For example, Actual Finish within range of Current Date and Current Date Plus 2 Weeks will display any activity whose Actual Finish is within the next two weeks. Use rolling dates to display a dynamically updating selection of projects, activities, or resources based on the parameters of the filter.
Publish Baselines Immediately
Want an ASAP service to publish your baselines? Good news, you can now publish selected project baselines as an ASAP service without having to republish the entire project. This feature is useful in situations where baselines have been added or updated since a project was last published. Publish baselines to bring the necessary reporting tables up to date. You must publish a project before you can publish any of its baselines.
View Usage When Assigning Resources
In Primavera P6 EPPM 15.2 you can now access and view resource usage data on specific resources before making the resource assignment. Great! Now you do not have to guess whether resources are available only to find out after making the assignment that they are in fact over allocated.
Close All Open Projects from the Right-Click Menu
Oracle Primavera is always looking for ways to make yours Primavera P6 EPPM interface more pleasant. As part of this ongoing effort the Close All option was added to the right-click menu on the EPS page. Yes, it is a minor addition, but will make your P6 EPPM experience smoother.
Import and Export as a Scheduled Service Close All Open Projects from the Right-Click Menu
It is good practice to create backup copies of your project in the EPS. It is even better to export those files to another hard drive. Well, now you can make sure your files are backed up on a regular basis. Primavera P6 EPPM 15.2 enables you to import and export projects as scheduled services. You can make weekly backups of your projects, and even share project and baseline data with other organizations.
As with other job services, these can be performed in the background allowing you to continue working within P6 EPPM.
Slowly Saying Goodbye to Java Applets
Starting with Primavera P6 EPPM 8.4, Oracle Primavera started removing Java-based applets from the application favoring pages written in HTML5, which load faster and do not require additional plug-ins. As part of this effort, Primavera P6 15.2 continues this with the following pages, which have been updated to HTML5.
- The Activities page can be switched to an HTML-based Basic View for basic functionality or the applet-based Classic View for more complex tasks.
- The Open Projects dialog box is now written in HTML5.
Future releases of Primavera P6 EPPM will include more elements converted to HTML5.
Subscribe to Mobile Calendars by Project
P6 Mobile: Primavera P6 15.2 has features available for iOS that enable you to subscribe to online calendars containing your tasks. You can choose to receive information on all your assigned tasks or your tasks from selected projects. On your iPhone navigate to the Calendar app to view tasks for each calendar day. Here you can view task dates, task status, project name, and WBS.
Assign Yourself to an Existing Task
With P6 EPPM Mobile for iOS you should have no excuse for not having enough work to do, because you can assign yourself as a resource to an existing task directly from you iPhone. Project Managers can review the task assignments on the Review Status Updates page in Primavera P6 EPPM.
Summary
Another strong release from Oracle with a good combination of new features and addresses some underlying areas that needed attention. The migration away from Java Applets is very welcome and should start solve a lot of issues with customers. It’s one area where we can’t wait until it’s completed.
We particularly welcomed the Global Search and Replace, Publish Baseline Immediately, Filter on Rolling Dates and know that the Basic View for the Activities page will be very useful for customers. Great work Oracle Primavera!
Related Articles
See what’s in the new release of Primavera P6 Professional 15.2 here.