Activity codes help filter, group, and sort activities by some particular value, such as project phase, location on work site, and/or responsible contractor for an activity’s completion. Yes activity codes support schedule reporting. So once you have all your deliverable Work Breakdowns Structure (WBS) elements and associated activities listed in your schedule, you most likely will receive activity report requests from upper management.
Completing the list of WBS elements and associated deliverables is a major step forward in the planning phase of a schedule; this list is the backbone of the schedule. Creating and assigning activity codes to individual activities provides a means for creating useful activity reports. Schedulers create and assign activity codes to activities which enables the creation of a wide variety of reports.
This article demonstrates how to create and assign activity codes to activities in Primavera P6 Professional to support schedule reporting.
Creating Codes
Our demonstration project is displayed in Figure 1.
Figure 1
This is a pipe repair and improvement project. We have several subcontractors working on this project and we want to generate reports based on the individual subcontractors doing the work. The first step is to create codes for each subcontractor. Proceed by selecting Enterprise | Activity Codes, Figure 2.
Figure 2
In the activity codes dialog toggle project, and select the modify button, Figure 3.
Figure 3
Next, in the activity code definitions – project dialog select the +Add button, Figure 4.
Figure 4
Type in the activity code header name Subcontractors and make the maximum code length 10, Figure 5.
Figure 5
Close the dialog. In the activity codes dialog click the +Add button to define our first subcontractor activity code, Figure 6.
Figure 6
Type in the appropriate code value and description, Figure 7.
Figure 7
Continue adding code values until all subcontractors are listed, Figure 8.
Figure 8
Assigning Codes
Add the column subcontractors to the activities table, and we will be ready to assign codes. In the bottom details select codes, Figure 9, highlight the Total Engineering subcontractor and assign it to the start project activity.
Figure 9
The resulting assignment is displayed in Figure 10.
Figure 10
Well because total engineering performs most of the work it makes sense to populate the entire column with this subcontractor, and then make changes to the few activities assigned other subcontractors.
Use the fill down feature in Primavera P6 to simulate a copy and paste procedure down the column. Highlight the column starting at the assigned start project activity down to the last activity in the schedule, Figure 11.
Figure 11
Right click and select fill down from the popup menu, Figure 12.
Figure 12
For more detailed instructions on the fill down feature refer to the blog Using Fill Down, Copy & Paste In Primavera P6.
In Figure 13 the entire column except contract award date is assigned the total engineering subcontractor.
Figure 13
Double click on the subcontractor’s cell in the activity table to change the subcontractor assigned to the respective activity, Figure 13. All subcontractor assignments are complete and displayed in Figure 14.
Figure 14
Great! So we are done with all the subcontractor activity assignments.
Reporting
Now that we have created and assigned our subcontractors we can proceed creating reports. Let’s use the group and sort feature to create an example report, Figure 15.
Figure 15
In the Group By select our newly created subcontractor’s option, Figure 16.
Figure 16
Toggle hide if empty and sort bands alphabetically group by options, Figure 17.
Figure 17
Figure 18 displays our sample subcontractors report.
Figure 18
I will finish by adding that you can also select all of the activities that you want to assign codes to. Simply right click, select ‘assign’ then select ‘activity codes’. There you can select single or multiple codes for these activities. It’s worth noting that there’s often more than one way to do things in Primavera P6.
Summary
Primavera P6 Professional supports reporting with the activity feature for creating and assigning activity codes. The Primavera P6 activity codes feature is robust, and supports a seemingly limitless possibility of activity codes. After creation and assignment of activity codes you can group, filter, and sort for reporting schedule details.