Primavera Risk Analysis Planning Tutorials
Primavera Risk Analysis Planning Tutorials
Primavera Risk Analysis Planning Tutorials
Table of Contents
The quickest way to learn about Primavera Risk Analysis's project tools is to actually enter a project plan.
This tutorial takes you through the basics of entering a plan and will take about 60 minutes. It will cover:
Starting a new plan.
Entering tasks and milestones.
Adding summary tasks.
Adding logic to define task relationships.
Creating and assigning resources.
Looking at project cost
Identifying and resolving resource over demand.
Printing a Gantt Chart.
Saving a plan.
(Section 1.16)
If you are reading this is in the on-line help you may want to print out this tutorial - see Printing Help
Topics and Chapters (Section 1.16)
File | New
Choose the "New Plan" template and click Open.
Plan | Plan Information.
Enter 'Garden Landscaping' in the Plan Title.
Click on the Dates tab.
Change the Plan Start Date to 15/07/07.
Change the Data Date to 15/07/07.
Click on OK to exit the dialog box.
A task is an element in a plan that involves doing something and which takes time.
Mr. House has broken his project down into 17 tasks. The first step is to enter these into Primavera Risk
Analysis.
Change the tasks 'Start project' and 'Ready for competition" to milestones by following the
steps below.
Click on the task description 'Start Project' to display its details in the Task Details dialog.
The Task Details dialog box can be used to view and edit task information by clicking on the
appropriate tab. It is usually located at the bottom of the application window, though it can be re -
positioned and closed if necessary.
In the above screenshot you will notice that the bars have a black float line after them. This is
explained in the section Task Details dialog - Task Links tab (on-line documentation) and can
be switched on and off through the menu item Format | Gantt Chart | Task Details and by selecting
either 'Show all float' or 'Hide all float' from the Float dropdown.
A summary task is a task that takes on the duration of the tasks that are demoted under it. They can be
used to represent sub-projects, project phases or WBS structure. Summary tasks organize your plan
making it easier to view.
You can see that Mr. House has broken down his plan into three summary tasks:
1. FENCE
2. GARDEN PATH
3. GARDEN POND
Drag the mouse down the page to select the tasks below.
Release the mouse button when the 3 required tasks are selected.
Only select the tasks that are going to be in the summary task and not the summary task itself.
You can roll up or contract the subtasks of a summary task. To do this look at the far left hand end
of the summary task row - you should see a grey button with a small minus sign in it - see below.
Double -click on this button and all the subtasks for that summary are hidden.
You can contract or expand all summary tasks in one go. To do this click on the tool bar
Each task has its own calendar. To see the task calendar currently assigned double-click on a task to
display the Task Details and select the General tab.
Every time you create a new task it is assigned the Standard calendar as the default.
The Standard calendar has weekends as non-working as the default. You can see the weekends on the
Gantt Chart represented by the vertical shaded areas.
We have decided that all our tasks will work a 7 day week, unless we decide otherwise. We could go
through and change the calendar of every task to the 7 day calendar. But, because all our tasks already
have the Standard calendar assigned, it will be quicker to change the Standard calendar itself.
You will notice weekend days are no longer shaded on the Gantt Chart.
Great!! All the tasks are entered, the plan has been structured using summary tasks and we have altered
the Standard calendar.
Next we will look at adding logic to the plan.
Tasks are linked by defining a relationship between their start and finish dates.
In this tutorial only one task relationship is going to be used. This is the finish to start link, or F-S, and is
the most commonly used.
The finish to start link means a task cannot start until the task before has finished.
If you have created any links that are not required you can delete them from the Links tab in the Task
Details.
To delete a link
Click on a task.
Click on the Links tab in the Task Details dialog.
Select the link under Successors or Predecessors.
Press the Delete button.
Now the milestones representing the start and finish of the project need to be linked to the summary
tasks.
Follow the steps below to add a lag between 'Fill pond' and 'Buy Fish'
Click on the task 'Fill pond' and select the Links tab in the Task Details dialog.
Under Successors, select the cell below Lag that currently shows a value of 0.
Enter a value of 2.
The lag is displayed like this:
In the Gantt Chart view the relationships between tasks are not always very clear especially in larger
more complex plans.
To see relationships clearly you can use the Precedence Network view.
The Precedence Network view displays each task as a box and each task box contains information about
the task such as description and task name. Relationships between tasks are shown as links between the
boxes.
Click OK and a new sheet is added to the plan that contains the Precedence Network.
Look at the Precedence network and see if the relationships between your tasks are the same as these:
Your Precedence Network will not look exactly like this. This one has been changed to make it smaller
and easy to view on the screen.
For a task to be completed it often needs resources. In Primavera Risk Analysis people, equipment,
materials and fixed costs are all treated as resources.
Mr. House has made a list of the resources his project is going to need.
Follow the steps below to change the loading of FENCE, FISH, PAINT, SAND and SLABS to
spread.
Select the box under Default Loading that corresponds to loading of the resource you wish to change.
Type 's' on your keyboard for spread loading and press return.
Follow the steps below to enter the costs for the resources in Mr. House's project.
Select the cell under Cost that corresponds to the resource you wish to add a cost to.
Type in the costs shown below.
FENCE=$100
FISH=$20
LABORER=$30
Primavera Risk Analysis - Planning Tutorials | 11
PAINT=$30
SAND=$20
SLABS=$100
Well done!! You have created the resource list and you can now leave the Resource setup by clicking on
File | Close.
Next we will be looking at assigning the resources to the tasks.
Now that the resources are defined you need to assign the resources to the tasks that need them.
Follow the steps below and assign the resources to the tasks listed in the table that follows.
In the Task Details select the Resources tab.
Select the first free cell below ID.
Select the resource you want to assign.
Select the cell below Units/Period.
Type in the required amount of resource units.
Continue until all tasks have their required resources.
Save the plan.
When the resource LABORER is assigned to a task its calendar restricts when that task can take
place. You will see that this restriction or 'downtime' is displayed as yellow vertical shading on the
Gantt Chart.
Excellent!! Mr. House's project plan is entered into Primavera Risk Analysis.
This is perhaps a good time to have a break and think about what you have done so far.
Next we will be evaluating and adjusting the plan so it meets the project aims.
Once you have assigned your resources to your tasks you may find that the demand for a resource
exceeds its supply. This resource then has an over demand.
You can identify resource over demand using the Resource Graph. The Resource Graph can show you how
much of a particular resource is required each day.
If you cannot see the screen shot above on your screen, simply click on any task to align the chart.
Next we will look at resolving the resource over demand.
have to level the plan so that no more than two laborers are required at any one time.
There are two ways of leveling your tasks:
1. By hand and watching the effect on the Resource Graph.
2. With Primavera Risk Analysis's automatic leveling.
In our tutorial we will use the automatic leveling to resolve the over demand of the laborers.
'Nudge' Tasks
But first to see how simple it is to 'nudge' tasks by hand, click in the Gantt Chart window to make it
active. Try 'nudging' some tasks around to see the effect on the Resource Graph. To 'nudge' a selected
task simply hold down the CTRL key and press the left and right cursor keys.
A task with a 'nudge' date displays a blue circle with an 'i' at the task start date.
When you have finished nudging tasks, reset them back to their early start dates (the earliest date a task
can start will depend on the plan logic).
You may remember that Mr. House wanted to complete his project without spending more than $850. To
look at the task costs, an extra column and a totals line can be added to the Gantt Chart.
First we will go back to the Gantt Chart only view to give us more room.
To enter the Gantt Chart Columns dialog box quickly, double-click on an existing column heading.
Locate and highlight the column Cost [Remaining] in the Left Columns tab.
Check Total this column.
Check Show Total Line.
Click on OK to return to the plan.
Use the mouse to click and drag the splitter bar to the right (see diagram below). This moves the
Gantt Chart and reveals the new column.
Your plan should now look something like this:
The column Remaining Cost sums up all the remaining costs associated with a task. For a summary task
this includes the costs of its subtasks.
The totals line adds up columns containing costs. You can see that the total remaining cost is $900. This
is $50 over Mr. House's budget.
Next we will look at trying to adjust the plan so it meets the project aims.
Remove the LABORER resource assigned to 'Line pond' by following the steps below
Select the task 'Line pond'.
Primavera Risk Analysis - Planning Tutorials | 15
Reset the tasks back to their earliest starts and level the plan
Plan | Level Resources.
The option Reset all the tasks to their early start dates should be already checked - if not check it
now. This ensures that the results of our previous resource level are reset before we level again.
Click Level Now button.
Your plan should now look like this:
You can see that the plan duration has shortened and the finish date is in time for the competition. Now
the cheers!!
You have adjusted the plan to meet the project aims. If the project runs to schedule, the garden will be
ready in time for the competition.
Next we will look at printing out the Gantt Chart.
To demonstrate how easy it is to print reports using Primavera Risk Analysis we will print out the Gantt
Chart for Mr. House's plan. We will keep it short as you are probably ready for a break.
Under the Scaling options check that Fit to 1 pages wide is selected.
Click OK.
File | Print. Click on the Print button.
It's as simple as that!
Excellent! You have entered, evaluated, adjusted and printed the plan for a small project.
If the project were to go ahead you would continue to use Primavera Risk Analysis to track its progress.
Tracking the project progress allows potential problems to be identified quickly and contingency plans
made.
You are now ready to enter your own plans. Use the rest of the online help to find out more in depth
information as and when you need it.
First you need to save your plan if you want to use it again.
If there are any unsaved changes you are asked if you want to save them.
To save the changes and quit click on YES, or else click on NO.
PDF Documentation
Some of the on-line help (e.g. tutorials) can be found in the Documentation folder that is created when
the Primavera Risk Analysis software is installed. The documentation is saved in the Adobe PDF format.
The default installation folder for the documentation is:
C:\Program Files\Oracle\Primavera Risk Analysis\Documentation