P6 Professional 23.12 has been released by Oracle and here’s a look at what’s in it. In what has become a very predictable release schedule (every December), this latest version has a couple of useful new features. Let’s dive straight in and check out what’s in P6 Professional 23.12.
Project Checker Improved
Two new options have been added to Project Checker dialog box enabling you to restrict the scope of the checks to only severity 1 (important) and 2 (significant) checks only, and to report only errors found by the report.
The report now includes a breakdown table at the top, allowing you to drill down to the report results for specific check types and severity. Alternatively, you can choose to view the entire report.
It’s important to note that Project Checker must be enabled during database configuration for all alias types except SQLite. If you configure your database connections from the command line the parameter /ProjectCheckerEnabled can be set to true to enable the Project Checker. Not only can Admin Superusers run the Project Checker, but Project Superusers can also run it against projects to which they have Project Superuser access.
Paste Data From Excel Directly Into P6 Professional
You can paste data from Microsoft Excel directly into P6 Professional spreadsheets cells. For example, when you are planning future period assignments you can use the Range Paste item on the context (right-click) menu to paste data copied from an Excel sheet into the spreadsheet cells you have selected in P6 Professional. You can also copy multiple cells from a P6 Professional spreadsheet using the Range Copy item on the context menu, and then paste those cells into Microsoft Excel.
Any User Can Import Projects From Spreadsheets
A user no longer needs to be assigned the Project Superuser profile to import XLSX files into a project. As long as a user is assigned a global security profile that includes the Import XSLX privilege, they are able to import spreadsheets in XLSX format.
DOE – CPP Export Feature Enhanced
You can export projects and baselines to CPP format from when P6 Professional is connected to a SQLite or PPM database and even when P6 Professional is connected to an EPPM database but is in offline mode. You can also create export templates for exporting project data to CPP format in P6 Professional. CPP fields must be mapped manually when creating CPP templates in P6 Professional.
See The Number of Projects in a Group on the Projects Page
When your view of the Projects page is grouped, you can add the Project Count column to see how many projects are in each group.
Refinement of Role Limit Calculation
If you choose to display the role limit calculated according to the primary resources’ limits, you can choose to calculate the limit using only active resources in P6 Professional on the User Preferences, Resource Analysis tab.
CPP Export Feature Enhanced
From P6 Professional when connected to an EPPM database, you can export multiple projects and their associated baselines in CPP format. Export templates for CPP format that have been created in P6 are available in P6 Professional. Exporting CPP format files from P6 Professional uses a job service in P6. Once the export process is complete, P6 Professional users can download the exported file from the Job Status dialog box in P6 Professional.
Duplicate Calendars Renamed
Duplicate calendars are automatically renamed with a unique named. Duplicate calendars can sometimes accidentally be created if multiple processes are running in the background at the same time on the same data set. In P6 Professional 23.12, the issue has been resolved.
Summary
So, there you have it. Another year and another release by Oracle. While it’s not going to blow your socks off, any improvements are always welcome. The top 3 features in this P6 Professional 23.12 release that I think users will find most useful, are:
- Being able to paste data directly into P6 from Excel
- Allowing any user the ability to import projects from spreadsheets
- Improved Project Checker
Let us know what you think and happy scheduling!