Primavera P6 Professional 21.12 has just been released by Oracle. In what is now becoming an annual tradition, Oracle’s release cadence for on premise installations are timed just before Christmas. It’s worth noting that Oracle also released P6 EPPM 2012 which is discussed in another blog here.
Here’s a look at what’s in the Primavera P6 Professional 21.12 release.
Primavera P6 Professional 21.12 Feature Overview
Resource and Role Cost Spreads Consider Rate Changes Over Time
Total costs have always been calculated to consider changes in resource and role rates, however until this release, costs spreads were linear. The setting defaults to spreading cost based on a Linear Spread but can be changed to Units Spread to allow cost spreads to account for changes in resource and role rates. If you select to change from Linear Spread to Units Spread, you must run Recalculate Assignment Costs for all projects.
Resource Driven Critical Path Visibility
To aid in the resolution of delayed critical paths before they become project over-runs, P6 Professional can show activities on up to 30 activity-driven critical paths, calculated with or without resource leveling.
Start and Finish Times for Activities When Your View Shows Only the Date
When your view shows only the start and finish dates for activities, not the time, you can specify a time for the start or finish date of the activity in the date picker.
Choose Import Options for Responsible Manager and Separate Import Options for Global and EPS Activity Codes
When importing projects, you can select the import action to use for the Responsible Manager assigned to the project.
Changes to Running Reports, Importing and Exporting from the Command Line
When you run batch reports from the command line, or import or export files from the command line, use Primavera.CacheService.exe instead of PM.exe. For example:
- Primavera.CacheService.exe /username=ResnerW /password=59djxJQx /alias=PMDB /actionScript=actions.config /logfile=c:\ReportLog.txt
- Primavera.CacheService.exe /username=ResnerW /password=59djxJQx /alias=PMDB /actionScript=c:\imports \importprojects.xml /logfile=c:\imports\ImportProjectLog.txt
- Primavera.CacheService.exe /username=ResnerW /password=59djxJQx /alias=PMDB /actionScript=actions.xml /logfile=c:\exportProjectLog.txt
Assignment Cost Exports
When you export to Primavera XML, Price Per Unit data for assignments is included in the export file.
Select the Financial Period Calendar to Assign When Importing a New Project
When you import projects from a Primavera XML file, you can select the financial period calendar to assign to any projects you choose to import with the Create New import action.
Maintain Relationships with External Projects When Importing from Primavera XML Files
When you import projects from a Primavera XML file, you can choose whether to retain relationships between activities in the project and those in external projects.
Primavera P6 EPPM Related Features
Resource Calendars (EPPM Only)
When P6 Professional is connected to a P6 EPPM database, you can differentiate between the types of resource calendars you are importing from the P6 XML template. The Type column in the Advanced section of the Import Options dialog box labels the calendars as personal or shared.
Export Projects in IPMDAR Format (EPPM Only)
You can export projects and their associated activities and resource assignments in IPMDAR format. IMPDAR is a project export format required by the US Department of Defense. The IPMDAR export generates a zip file containing a collection of JSON files which constitute the IPMDAR data and a text file describing the content of the JSON files.
Filtered Portfolios (EPPM Only)
P6 Professional EPPM users are able to view filtered portfolios in read-only mode and can be applied from Selected Project Portfolio dialog box.
Import Template Enhancement (EPPM Only)
On the Primavera XML Import Template page, you can now manage how Resource Calendars are handled when importing them, separate from Global calendars.
Summary
Primavera P6 Professional 21.12 is yet again another steady release with some folks vigorously welcoming some of these new features.
One last thing and in addition to the above features, the P6 Professional Application Administration Guide has been improved. P6 Professional Application Administrators can now find all the information they need in one place. Chapters and topics previously only in the P6 Professional help, are now also in the P6 Professional Application Administration Guide.