Similar to how activity codes in Primavera P6 can be used to filter activities within a project, project codes can be used to filter projects in an Enterprise Project Structure (EPS) portfolio. So you can filter your project portfolio by any number of custom project codes, such as region, location, project size, priority or any other value you choose.
The Enterprise Project Structure (EPS) in Primavera P6 can blossom into a huge project file system in multi-user databases. Portfolios are a way to focus in on a small portion of this EPS.
Project codes are a way to further select only those projects that meet certain desired criteria. Organizing or filtering your projects by code is a four-step process:
- Create the project codes
- Assign the project codes
- Create a project code filter
- Apply the project code filter
These steps allow you to display only those projects that meet your desired criteria. In this way you can work with or provide reports on specified projects.
This article describes how to create and assign project codes. We then show you how to create and apply the associated project code filter to only display projects meeting your criteria.
We begin by selecting Enterprise | Project Codes from the top drop down menu. In the resulting Project Codes dialog select Modify, Figure 1.
Figure 1
In the following Project Code Definitions dialog select the + Add button, Figure 2.
Figure 2
Type in the name of the project code, in this case ‘Region’, Figure 3.
Figure 3
Set the Max Length to 15 characters. Now click the + Add button and enter the code values for Region, Figure 4.
Figure 4
Now the Region project code specifying the project location is set.
We continue by editing the ‘Estimated Project Size’ project code, Figure 5.
Figure 5
As displayed in the above figure, we adjusted the Code Description for the Medium code value and added a Small code value for projects between zero and $10k. After these changes our ‘Estimated Project Size’ project code is ready.
As displayed in Figure 6 and 7, highlight each project you are considering and assign an ‘Estimated Project Size’ and ‘Region’ project code, accordingly.
Figure 6
Figure 7
Let’s then create a filter that specifies projects by ‘Estimated Project Size’ and ‘Region’, Figure 8.
Figure 8
When we apply the ‘Size and Location’ filter only projects of Medium size in the Mid-Atlantic region will be displayed, Figure 9.
Figure 9
Summary
Project codes in Primavera P6 allow you to select only those projects that meet your filter criteria. This is done to limit EPS size, reduce clutter, and/or to select projects for reporting. The steps to filtering using project codes include creating and assigning project codes, and then creating and applying a corresponding filter. There are a plethora of activity codes and corresponding filters you may create that appear limited only by the scope of your imagination.