Need Oracle Primavera Help? Here Are 20 Tips and Tricks

One of the most important resources that you have available to you is Oracle’s Primavera project management software. There’s a reason why many have called it the single best planning and scheduling tool ever designed. Despite its versatility, it isn’t always easy to use. If you need Oracle Primavera help, here are 20 different tips and tricks that you can use to get started.

Tips to Answer Your Oracle Primavera Help Questions

Basic Oracle Primavera Features

1. To make the most out of a detailed plan, be sure to include activity steps.
2. Activity steps can be added to a project using a template, which you can then customize as you see fit.
3. There are six different activity types available to you in Primavera, so be sure to choose the right one for the project that you’re working on.
4. Every time you update Primavera, you need to remember to perform an analysis of the project to see how those updates affect other activities.
5. Primavera has no less than five different calculation methods that you can use to help finely track project performance and cost overruns.
6. One of the most helpful reports in Primavera is the “Cash Flow” report, which can be modified in many ways depending on your preferences.
7. Primavera includes four distinct “Activity Duration” type options that you can use to accurately track scheduling depending on your needs.
8. The “Trace Logic” feature in Primavera helps you keep track of both logic and relationships with regards to the project that your team is currently working on.
9. If you want other team members to be able to see your project but don’t want them to be able to make changes and potentially screw things up, be sure to make the project “Read Only” before sending.
10. Linking two projects in Primavera is a great way to make sure that all changes are accurately reflected across multiple teams.

Detailed Project Management Tools

1. The “Materials Tracking” feature is a great way to track submission, approval and even delivery to specific sites from a common activity date.
2. Before you submit your schedule to a consultant, it’s always a good idea to use Primavera to track down any open ends that may be present.
3. Primavera is natively compatible with Excel, allowing you to create activities there and use the “Bulk Import” feature to move them over when you’re ready.
4. The cost of each activity that you’re tracking in a project can also be estimated in Excel before moving to Primavera.
5. You can also export a Primavera project into Excel if you’d like.
6. You can convert a Primavera P3 plan into a P6 plan to keep working on old projects in new software.
7. You can make and save different layouts to give yourself more options with regards to the visual look of the project you’re tracking.
8. The Claim Digger in Primavera lets you compare an updated program to a baseline program, get a finer look at different sets of revisions and more.
9. The “Fill Down” feature can be used to easily copy one value to multiple underlying activities.
10. You can use an S-curve to track a project in Primavera even if you aren’t utilizing “cost” or “resources” features.

Oracle Primavera is an ideal solution at nearly all points of the project management process. Primavera isn’t always easy to use, which is why tutorials and other types of assistance are so important. So long as you keep these tips and tricks in mind, you’ll definitely be able to get the most out of your Primavera deployment

Still want more help with Oracle Primavera Software? IMS offers a variety of Primavera Training Courses at several different locations to help you become an expert at using the software and all of it’s functions. To learn more about Oracle Primavera Training or for help in figuring out the solution best suited for you, contact us. You can all view all of our course offerings here.