Many Oracle Primavera P6 EPPM deployments are developed ad-hoc, often without much in the way of ownership and putting it “right” can be nearly as big a technical challenge as it is a human one. When someone with authority decides its time to reign in the chaos and manage the projects properly, one of the first things to do is tighten the privileges to protect Global Data such as Global Activity Codes. Analysis in due course reveals that some of those Global Activity Codes are used by a small group of projects from a particular part of the organization and need frequent updating.
The ideal solution would be to change them into EPS Activity Codes, but P6 does not allow that to happen. Even if all the projects that use them are under one EPS Node it isn’t clever enough to make it happen. There is a quick way of doing this that involves updating a record in the database, but your warranty will go out of the window so we’ll just have to use another way.
The task of changing a Global Activity Code to an EPS Activity Code can be achieved using Microsoft Excel. Assuming all the projects are below the particular EPS Node where the EPS Activity Code is to be created, there are 3 major steps:
- Create the EPS Activity Code by copying the definition and values in the Global Activity Code.
- Export activities into an Excel spreadsheet that contains both Activity Codes.
- Move the Global Activity Code values into the EPS Activity Code value column.
- Import the Excel spreadsheet back into the P6 project.
Create the EPS Activity Code
The steps in this section will create an EPS Activity Code with exactly the same values as an existing Global Activity Code. Before starting these steps, you should find out the “Max Length” value for the Global Activity Code.
1. Go to “Enterprise > Activity Codes…” to display the “Activity Codes” dialog and then click on the “EPS” radio button to view the EPS Activity Codes.
2. Click on the “Modify” button to display the “Activity Code Definitions – EPS” dialog.
3. Now click on the “Add” button to display the “Select EPS” dialog. Choose the EPS Node where you want to create the EPS Activity Code and then click on the select button to choose it.
4. A new Activity Code is displayed and highlighted in the “Activity Code Definitions – EPS” dialog. Change the name to what you want it to be and adjust the “Max Length” field to the same size as the Global Activity Code.
In our example we are calling the EPS Activity Code “TBN-Delivery Manager” with a length of 20 characters.
Finally click on the “Close” button to return to the “Activity Codes” dialog.
5. Select the “Global” radio button and then choose the Global Activity Code to copy from the drop-down list. In this example we will be copying the “Delivery Manager” Global Activity Code.
Then click on one of the values and use the combination of CTRL + A keys to select all the values. They will be highlighted.
Now click on the “Copy” button to make a copy of all the highlighted values.
6. Click on the “EPS” radio button and select the target EPS Activity Code (“TBN-Deliver Manager”). Then click on the “Paste” button and wait for all the values to be copied into the new EPS Activity Code.
They will be highlighted when they are copied.
7. Click on the “Close” button to complete the creation of the EPS Activity Code and values.
Export to Excel
In this section we will export the data into an Excel spreadsheet so we can move the values from the Global Activity Code to the EPS Activity Code.
- Open a project that has the Global Activity Code values assigned to it. This project must be under the EPS Node where the EPS Activity Code was created.
- Although not necessary, I have created a simple view that shows the “Activity Id”, “Delivery Manager” Global Activity Code and the “TBN-Delivery Manager” EPS Activity Code. It shows the EPS Activity Code is blank whereas the Global Activity Code is populated.
1. Go to “File > Export…” to display the “Export” dialog. Then select the “Spreadsheet – (XLS)” radio button and click on the “Next” button to continue.
2. The “Export Type” dialog is displayed. Select the Checkbox next to “Activities” and verify all other checkboxes are clear.
Click on the “Next” button to continue.
3. The “Projects to Export” dialog is displayed. You will need to select the project you wish to export by clicking on the Checkbox on the left hand side.
Click on the “Next” button to continue.
4. The “Select Template” dialog is displayed. If this is the first project you are changing the codes on then you will need to create a Template by clicking on the “Add” button. Otherwise you will need to select the Template created for this task and click on the “Next” button to take you to step 8.
5. The “Modify Template” dialog is displayed with a default name. Change the “Name” to something that represents what the template is doing. For this tutorial we have called it “Move Demand Manager to TBN-Demand Manager”.
Click on the double left pointing triangles which will remove all but the three essential colums which are “Activity Id”, “Activity Status” and “WBS Code”.
Now use the list of columns on the left habd side along with the single right pointing triangle to add the Global Activity Code followed by the EPS Activity Code.
Click the “OK” button to return to the “Select Template” dialog.
7. The newly created template should be selected. Click on the “Next” button to continue.
8. The “Select XLS” dialog is displayed with a default file name. You may want to click on the elipses button at the end of the filename and use the windows dialog to choose another name.
Once the name is as you want it, click on the “Next” button to continue.
9. The “Summary” dialog is displayed. Click on the “Finish” button to export the data to the Excel file.
Once completed a dialog saying “The export was successful” is displayed. Dismiss it by clicking on the “OK” button.
Move Data in Excel
This is the section where we move the values from the Global Activity Code to the EPS Activity Code for our project.
1. Open the Excel Spreadsheet created in the earlier step. It will look something like the screenshot below where the EPS Activity Code column is empty and the Global Activity Code column is populated.
2. Swap the contents of the the first and second between column D and column E.
I do this by first copying column D1 and D2 to E3 and E4. Then I copy E1 and E2 to D1 and D2 respectively. Finally Icut the contents of E3 and E4 and paste them into E1 and E2.
This leaves my spreadsheet looking like the screen shot below where the names at the top of the columns for D and E have been swapped.
3. Save the spreadsheet and exit Excel.
Import From Excel
Importing the modified Excel file will assign the same value of the EPS Activity Code to each Activity and remove the Global Activity assignment as well.
1. Go to “File > Import…” to display the “Import” dialog. Then select the “Spreadsheet – (XLS)” radio button and click on the “Next” button to continue.
2. The “Select Excel File” dialog is displayed. Use the elipses button to display the windows Open dialog and choose the Excel spreadsheet.
Click the “Next” button to continue.
3. The “Import Type” dialog is displayed. Select the checkbox next to “Activities” then click the “Next” button to continue.
4. The “Import Project Options” dialog is displayed. The “Import Action” should be “Update Existing Project”
Click the “Import To” box a couple of times and then click the elipses button when it is displayed. This will display a dialog listing all open projects. Use it to select the correct project.
Once back on the “Import Project Options” dialog with the project selected, click on the “Next” button to continue.
5. The “Summary” dialog is displayed. Click on the “Finish” button to import the the Excel file data into the project.
6. Once completed a dialog saying “The import was successful” is displayed. Dismiss it by clicking on the “OK” button.
If you now went back to the Activity View it will show the EPS Activity Code with the same values as the Global Activity Code as the screenshot below shows.
Repeat Until Done
To make the change in another project just repeat the last three sections as there is no need to create the EPS Activity Code again. The process can become quite laborious but it is something that each user can do for their own P6 projects so can get done fairly quickly.
The most difficult scenario is when faced with Baselines. Each baseline will need to be detached have the process performed on it and then re-attached to the project. Don’t forget the Baseline Type and which Baseline slot, if any the project belongs to.
When you are certain all the projects have been completed, the Global Activity Code can be deleted along with its values and assignments and the transfer is now completed.