Reporting Project Performance in Primavera P6. 1 Powered by POeT Solvers Limited

Transcription

1 Reporting Project Performance in Primavera P6 1 Powered by POeT Solvers Limited

2 In this lesson, we will uncover how to format your Gantt chart for printing. Once we cover printing, we will show you how to create easy reports from layouts. Let s get going. One of the most common ways to create a project report is to simply print your project, Gantt chart and all. The printout can serve as a report, documenting your progress so far. We will show you how easy it can be to print your project with the Gantt chart, and how to format it so it looks good. Before we print, let s start with some initial formatting of the Gantt chart. Did you notice the text beside each bar? These are called Bar Labels and, like every other thing in Primavera, they are highly configurable. Let s make some changes to them. Click on the Layout Options Bar. Select Bars from the menu. We have seen this window in previous lessons. I am sure you recall that you can use it to configure your Gantt chart. The item in the list we will be working with is called Current Bar Labels it contains the general text or labels for most activities on the Gantt chart. Highlight the Current Bar Labels item in the list. Good. Now let us have a look at the bar labels tab. Click on the Bar Labels tab. 2 Powered by POeT Solvers Limited

3 You can see from the configuration shown here that the general labels have been set to display the Labels to the right of each activity bar on the Gantt chart. Now let s make some changes. Click on Activity Name in the Bar field to display the dropdown list. Type the letter F on your keyboard to quickly scroll in the list. Select Finish in the dropdown list. This represents an activity s finish date. Good. Now your Gantt chart will display the Finish date next to each activity. Let s add another label to each activity to display Total Float as well. Click the Add button in the bottom left corner of the window. Click the down arrow in the new field. Type the letter T on your keyboard to quiclky scroll in the list. Select Total Float in the list. Now you have set the labels to display both the Finish date and the Total Float of each activity. Let s see what your Gantt chart looks like now. Click Apply and Click OK to view the close the window and view the Gantt chart. 3 Powered by POeT Solvers Limited

4 Check out the new labels on your Gantt chart. How Of cource, you could assign more labels and there are many to choose from. Primavera s Gantt chart is highly configurable and now you know how to make changes. Lets move on to printing the Gantt chart. Click on the File menu. Select Print Preview from the menu. Shown here is a preview of what your printout will look like. Let s make a few improvements. Click on the page setup button on the toolbar. Let s start by scaling the entire project and Gantt on page 1. Select fit to: Set the scaling to 1 pg wide. Click the increment arrow in the pages wide field. Now set the scaling to 1 pg tall as well. Click the increment arrow in the tall field. Nice work! Click on the Options Tab to perform some further configurations. On the Options Tab, you can define the starting and ending positions of the Gantt timescale. This can be helpful if you want to print only a section of your project. Let s set the timescale to display the entire project. Click on the button in the Timescale Start field. 4 Powered by POeT Solvers Limited

5 Choose PS Earliest Project Start for the starting position Let s set the Timescale s ending position. Click on the button in the Timescale End field. Choose PF Earliest Project Finish for the ending position. Now let s return to our print preview screen. Click OK to luck in your configuration changes. To send this view to a printer, you would simply click on the printer icon on the toolbar. Instead of printing, let s zoom in for a closer look. Click the Zoom in on the toolbar. That looks better, doesn t it. Let s close the print preview and return to our Activities view. Click the Close icon on the toolbar. Next, you are going to learn how to create a simple report from any of the many layouts you have seen. Remember, a layout is screen customization. The layout shown here is called Reporting Performance. We will show you how to craete a simple report using the same columns and data from Reporting Performance layout. Let s begin. Click on the Tools menu. 5 Powered by POeT Solvers Limited

6 Select the Report Wizard menu item. Reporting Project Performance in Primavera P6 The Report Wizard will walk you through creating the report. You will soon see how easy this is. Go ahead and choose the Use Current Screen option. Click the Next button. It is not necessary to change any options on the following screens. Because we are using the layout to create the report, most of these screena are already pre-populated and configured properly. You just have to click Next a few times. Click the Next button. Nothing to change here. Click the Next button. Nothing to change here either. Click the Next button. Let s give your report an appropriate name. type MFE Activities in the white box and then press ENTER. Good. Click the Next button. Let s have a look at the report you created. Click the Run Report button. Click OK to see the Print Preview. 6 Powered by POeT Solvers Limited

7 Here s your report. Reports in Primavera are formalized and look more professional than screen printouts. The data is the same as in your layout. You can see that the data is organized by WBS and each WBS section has a summary line with subtotals, which again is the same as the group bars in your layout. Let s use the Zoom function for a closer look. Click the Zoom in button on the toolbar As you have seen, creating a report from a current layout is easy. The report wizard is handy for taking whatever layout you are using and turning it into a professional looking report. Reports can also be further customized you might want to add a company logo, for example, which can also be done in the Page Setup screen you were just working in. Excellent work! You have completed ALL the lessons in our e-learning course. We do hope you found the course very helpful and informative. 7 Powered by POeT Solvers Limited