Primavera P6 notebook topics are a way to highlight project details that require special attention. So, if you have something particularly important you want your project team to note, then using the P6 notebook topics may help.
The Primavera P6 notebook topics are any subject or really anything that requires more input to better describe the true narrative of the project. Projects are not performed in isolation. Normally, there are many organizational departments that must put their stamp of approval on the project. And they all want their input to be considered carefully.
Primavera P6’s notebook topics are a way for project managers to highlight issues that are not captured in the schedules definition of deliverables and associated activities. The safety department may have specific guidelines for dealing with potentially hazardous materials. The environmental protection group may have procedures for disposing of project related pollutants. The scheduler provides both these groups and others a voice in the project through the insertion of notebook topics.
This article looks at how to define and assign notebook topics in Primavera P6 Professional.
Let’s proceed and create notebook topics and/or assign them to the schedule as appropriate. Select Admin | Admin Categories… Choose notebook topics on the left. Click + Add to create a new notebook topic and name it Safety & Environmental, Figure 1.
Figure 1
Make certain EPS, Project, WBS, and Activity are all toggled for your new Safety & Environmental notebook topic. Select the activity Drain Piping System activity in our demonstration schedule, Figure 2.
Figure 2
Next, select the Notebook tab in the bottom details. Click the + Add button and select Safety & Environmental in the Assign Notebook Topic dialog, Figure 3.
Figure 3
Click modify and enter the following environmental note: drain chilled water line into sewage line and not storm drain, Figure 4.
Figure 4
The intent of this notebook topic is to alert the project manager and, therefore, construction workers of specific instructions for draining the chilled water line in a way that is environmentally compliant.
We continue and highlight the Remove Damaged Piping activity, Figure 5, and assign it the following Safety and Environmental note: inspect piping for hazardous asbestos material before removal.
Figure 5
Creating the notebook topic is only part of our required effort. As it is now, our notebook topic is only visible when displaying the notebook tab in bottom details for the drain piping system activity. The ideal is for our notebook topic to appear front and center on the Gantt chart.
Select Bars in the Layout tool group. Highlight the Current Bar Label that specifies bars features for all normal or level of effort (LOE) activities. In the Bars dialog bottom frame select the bar labels tab. Click + Add and select the top right label position. Set the label to Safety & Environmental notebook topic, Figure 6.
Figure 6
Thus, our Safety & Environmental notebook topic displays for all normal or LOE activities. Be aware that Primavera P6 Professional only allows one notebook or notes attached to each bar. This explains why we created one notebook topic for both safety and environmental notes. Because we could assign current bar label only one notebook topic we wanted that notebook topic to be relevant for both safety and environmental notes.
Select apply and your notebook topics appear on the Gantt chart for all activities assigned the Safety & Environmental notebook topic, Figure 7.
Figure 7
Well, we seem to have lost our baseline bar when we inserted the notebook topic on the Gantt chart. We need to increase the row height. Select View | Table Font and Row. Untoggle keep current row heights and change select height for all rows to 30, Figure 8.
Figure 8
Now the baseline is viewable. Next left click the right edge of the drain piping system note and drag right till the note is fully viewable, Figure 9.
Figure 9
Now manually increase the row height of the two activities assigned a notebook topic. Left click on the bottom line of each activity assigned a notebook topic and drag to accommodate the respective note, Figure 10.
Figure 10
Your Safety and Environmental notebook topics are now fully viewable on the Gantt chart, Figure 11.
Figure 11
You may want to experiment in the bars dialog with inserting the notebook topic right or bottom-right. You most likely will find that placing the notebook topic top-right provides the best positioning for viewing the activity name labels, notebook labels, and baseline bars.
Once the respective Gantt chart and notebook topic labels appear as desired save the layout, name it Notebook Topics, and make it available to your project. Now whenever you open your Notebook Topics layout the assigned notebook topics are fully viewable on the Gantt chart.
Summary
Primavera P6 notebook topics are a way to highlight important details in the life of the project. It is possible to generate and assign notebook topics to schedule activities. Because the Gantt chart is at the heart of scheduling software it makes sense that schedulers would want to place these important P6 notebook topics directly on the Gantt chart. It may require some adjustments to the Gantt chart, but it is possible to display notebooks topics on the Gantt chart.