Primavera P6 Professional 24.12 has been released by Oracle. In typical fashion, Oracle has released Primavera P6 Professional 24.12 right at the year-end as a Christmas gift to all of us P6 users. Below is a summary of what is in this release.
Primavera P6 Professional 24.12 New Features
Along with a bunch of bug fixes that are in this release, here are the main new features in Primavera P6 Professional 24.12.
Preview Changes Before Committing to Updating a Baseline
Before you commit to updating a baseline, you can now preview them in advance. After you’ve previewed the changes, you have the option to adjust the settings and preview again as often as you need to before actually updating the baseline.
In our demonstration schedule below in Figure 1, an activity was inserted after baselining the schedule.
Figure 1
In Figure 2, we then select to update the baseline.
Figure 2
Figure 3 shows us selecting to add new activities and data and delete tasks that are no longer in the current project.
Figure 3
We then chose to include relationships in the update and click preview.
Figure 4
The preview displays the pending changes to the baseline, Figure 5.
Figure 5
The preview does not display lag between the Install Fence and New Activity. If we agree with the updates, we click to update the baseline, Figure 6.
Figure 6
Figure 7 displays the updated schedule.
Figure 7
Quickly and Easily Unlink Activities
There’s a new Unlink Activities option in the Edit Menu of the Activities page which allows you to unlink activities from their successors and predecessors. You can also right click on the activities and select Unlink Activities.
When you select multiple activities and use the unlink option, only the relationships between the selected activities are removed. Relationships between the selected activities and activities that you have not selected will remain intact.
In Figure 8 below, we have a demonstration schedule where we want to remove the relationship between the Lay Control Cable and the Remove Equipment tasks.
Figure 8
In the activity table, Figure 8, we select Lay Control Cable and Remove Equipment tasks, then choose Edit | Unlink Activities. Figure 9 shows the schedule with the removed relationship.
Figure 9
Now, we want to reinsert this relationship. With Lay Control Cable and Remove Equipment selected, we chose Edit | Link Activities, Figure 10.
Figure 10
Figure 11 displays the schedule with the link reinserted.
Figure 11
More Primavera P6 Professional 24.12 New Features
Choose Whether to Import Responsible Managers from XER File
Responsible Manager is now available as a data type in the Global tab of the XER import template. By default, P6 Professional will import Responsible Managers with the Keep Existing option, but you can select Do Not Import to prevent Responsible Managers from another OBS structure from being imported into your own.
Alternatively, you can select Update Existing to ensure your OBS structure us updated when the file is imported.
Improved Clarity in Global Change Reports
To help you to understand the extent of the changes if you are applying a global change to more than one project, the Global Change report now provides the Project ID and WBS code for all changed items.
Export the Entire Hierarchical Code Value Path to CPP
Many of the data elements you export with your CPP files may be mapped to Activity Codes. By default, P6 Professional exports the code values only.
However, if you have many levels to your hierarchical activity codes, you can now configure the export template to export the full hierarchical path to the code value by selecting “Include code value path” when you map a code in the CPP export template.
The resulting export will include the full path to the relevant code value with dots between each hierarchical level, for example, ENG.Elec.Micro.Interface.
Milestone Activities Support All Relationship Types
You can assign any relationship type to a milestone activity in P6 Professional. This includes: –
- You can import projects regardless of the relationship types assigned to milestone activities in the project.
- You can copy and paste milestone activities without losing any of their relationships.
- You can change the type of an activity in either a project or a baseline to a start or finish milestone without losing any of its relationships.
The default relationship type for relationships connecting with a start or finish milestone is finish-to-start. The “Milestones with invalid relationships” section of the Scheduling and Leveling logs has been renamed to “Milestone activities with atypical relationships”.
Timesheet Approvals
Resource Managers, Project Managers and their delegates can use P6 Professional to view, approve, or reject timesheets. They can also view and add Timesheet History Notes and to send email to the resource who submitted a timesheet.
Project Managers and Resource Managers can also select delegates to perform all these actions on their behalf.
Performance Improvements
The performance of checking projects in and out for SQLite databases has been improved.
Installation Improvements
Improved Code Signing for ClickOnce
You can use a hardware token to implement Extended Validation code signing for your ClickOnce installation.
ClickOnce Installer Renamed
The ClickOnce installer has been renamed to p6professionalsetup.exe
Summary
So, there you have it. That’s a look at what’s in this annual release of P6 Professional 24.12 from Oracle. Most of these new features are requests from users, so it’s nice to see them added. And, of course, any performance improvements and bugs fixes are always welcome!
Click here if you want to know what’s in Primavera P6 EPPM 24.12.