oracle primavera p6 v7 release value proposition

Release Value Proposition Oracle Primavera P6 v7 Applications Release: Release 7 Creation Date: 3/1/2009 Last Updated: 8/3/2009 Version: 4.0 Status: FINAL

Oracle ‐ This document is intended for information purposes only

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PURPOSE STATEMENT:

This document provides an overview of features and enhancements included in Oracle Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management (EPPM) v7. It is intended solely to help you assess the business benefits of upgrading to P6 EPPM v7 and to plan your I.T. projects.

DISCLAIMER:

This document in any form, software or printed matter, contains proprietary information that is the exclusive property of Oracle. Your access to and use of this confidential material is subject to the terms and conditions of your Oracle Software License and Service Agreement, which has been executed and with which you agree to comply. This document and information contained herein may not be disclosed, copied, reproduced or distributed to anyone outside Oracle without prior written consent of Oracle. This document is not part of your license agreement nor can it be incorporated into any contractual agreement with Oracle or its subsidiaries or affiliates.

This document is for informational purposes only and is intended solely to assist you in planning for the implementation and upgrade of the product features described. It is not a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions. The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described in this document remains at the sole discretion of Oracle.

Due to the nature of the product architecture, it may not be possible to safely include all features described in this document without risking significant destabilization of the code.


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Contents Release Value Proposition for Oracle Primavera P6 v7 Preface..................... 4 Introduction to Oracle Primavera P6 v7 ............................................................ 5

Improved Usability ....................................................................................................................... 5 Advanced Scheduling and Analysis ............................................................................................. 5 Business Process Automation ..................................................................................................... 5 User Administration, Security and Deployment ........................................................................... 5

Web-Based Project Management ...................................................................... 6 Improved Activity Gantt ................................................................................................................ 6

New Activity Gantt Bar Customization Options ........................................................................ 7 Progress Line ........................................................................................................................... 7 Improved Project Gantt Portlet ................................................................................................. 8

New Calendar View ..................................................................................................................... 8 New Activity Network View .......................................................................................................... 9 Web-Based Import and Export .................................................................................................. 10 Addressable P6 Web URL ......................................................................................................... 10 AutoVue Integration ................................................................................................................... 11 Improved Content Management Integration .............................................................................. 11

Planning and Scheduling Enhancements ....................................................... 12 Planning and Scheduling Enhancements in Both the P6 Windows Client and the Web Client 12

Work Day Definition ................................................................................................................ 12 Grouping/Summary Duration Calculations ............................................................................. 12 Adding Code Values on the Fly .............................................................................................. 13 Copy Baseline ........................................................................................................................ 13 Improved Feedback and Communication .............................................................................. 14

Planning and Scheduling Enhancements in the P6 Windows Client Only ................................ 14 Activity Usage Histogram ....................................................................................................... 14 Activity ID Renumbering ......................................................................................................... 14

Business Process Automation ........................................................................ 16 Events ..................................................................................................................................... 16

User Administration, Security, and Deployment ............................................ 17 Oracle Administration and Security Support .............................................................................. 17

Activity Field-Level Security ................................................................................................... 17 Excel Import Security ............................................................................................................. 18 Standardized Server Platform ................................................................................................ 18 Scalability, Performance, Availability ..................................................................................... 18

Increased Standardization for P6 Web Services ....................................................................... 18 Platform Support ........................................................................................................................ 19


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Release Value Proposition for Oracle Primavera P6 v7 Preface This document provides an overview of the value proposition that is associated with the new features and enhancements that are planned for Oracle Primavera P6 v7. This document will help you assess the business benefits of Oracle Primavera P6 v7 and plan your information technology investments. This document describes new or changed functionality only. Existing functionality from prior releases is not described. Our goal is to ensure that you leverage technology to its fullest to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of your operations. Please note that the final release may not have every feature that is discussed in this document, and a specific feature may become a part of a different application or have a product name that is different from those cited in this document. This preface discusses:

• Oracle release information publications • Additional resources

This RVP in any form, software or printed matter, contains proprietary information that is the exclusive property of Oracle Corporation. The information provided in this document is intended to outline our general product direction and is intended for information purposes. The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described for Oracle's products remains at the sole discretion of Oracle.


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Introduction to Oracle Primavera P6 v7 Version 7 is the next major release of the Oracle Primavera P6 solution. P6 v7 represents a tremendous improvement in usability, advanced scheduling and analysis, business process automation, and user administration and security. The new functionality will help companies deliver more projects on schedule, within budget and with the intended scope. Improved Usability The new version of P6 improves the usability for users of all experience levels. Not only will experienced P6 users find it easier to do routine planning and scheduling tasks – from copying baselines to adding new code values to activities and renumbering activity IDs, but new users will be able to become productive very quickly using a simple Calendar view and Excel-based import/export using the P6 Web client. Advanced Scheduling and Analysis With P6 v7, project managers will find it easier to accurately plan, manage and communicate project details, as well as identify trends and key performance indicators that need to be checked. Through many new Web-based graphical options, such as a flexible network view, many customization options on the Activity Gantt view, and a progress line that shows at a glance whether activities are ahead or behind schedule, planners and schedulers are likely to use the Web client as their primary planning and scheduling environment. Business Process Automation Project portfolio management (PPM) has become a mission-critical application within project-intensive organizations. P6 v7 is a complete, open and integrated solution that easily fits within the enterprise’s software ecosystem and it now includes event enablement to easily link project changes and updates that take place within P6 with essential enterprise business processes that are tied to other systems. For example, a change made to a P6 project may kick off an appropriate workflow among systems for approvals or procurement. User Administration, Security and Deployment Today’s business environment mandates careful tracking of ownerships costs for any investment. By lowering the cost of deploying P6 and the ongoing support, organizations are assured that their investment is being maximized while working within tightened budgets. P6 v7 includes new technology to minimize the effort of application deployment and user administration, while taking full advantage of existing hardware and systems.


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Web-Based Project Management Oracle has made tremendous enhancements to the Oracle P6 Web client. Not only is it easier to use for both novice and experience users, but it includes new graphics, scheduling and analysis options that will ensure that the Web client becomes the primary environment for planning and scheduling. The following new capabilities are available in the Oracle Primavera P6 v7Web Client: Improved Activity Gantt The Activity Gantt view includes many new robust configuration options so that all required WBS- and activity-related information can be displayed, accessed and analyzed on one screen. The following items are new for P6 v7 activity Gantt:

• New grouping options: group Gantt chart by date intervals such as day, week, month and financial period.

• More flexible filter definitions: increased the number of filter criteria from 5 to 10. • Access more project information from one screen: additional activity detail

windows for documents, codes, expenses, feedback and WBS, are available from the Activity Gantt view; detail windows can be tabbed, floated, or tiled for a consistent look and feel that does not interfere with the activity table and Gantt chart, maximizing screen real estate.

• Easier activity navigation: jump to successor and predecessor activities from within activity detail windows.

• Formatting: new options for selecting the font and font size of text in activity table. • Performance improvements when displaying baseline and earned value

information. Benefit: The new options in the Activity Gantt view provide greater usability, analysis and customization options, providing efficiency when creating, updating and analyzing projects.

Columns can be customized

Easily move up and down the Activity list

Quickly jump between related activitie


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New Activity Gantt Bar Customization Options The Activity Gantt also includes new options for customizing the bar area:

• Display a third bar on the Activity Gantt. • New bar definitions for planned date bar, float bar, free float bar, and display percent

complete. • “Neck” the bars to show activity and/or calendar non-work time. • Customize the height of each of the three available bars. • Customize font and size of bar labels. • Color-code bars based on activity code. • Non-driving relationships shown as dashed line. • Expanded and collapsed state of groupings now saved during each session in the

activity Gantt.

Benefit: The new bar formatting options enable planners and schedulers to use the Web client to create an improved and more complete graphical representation of the project schedule using formatting options previously only available via the Windows client.

Progress Line A new progress line can be shown on the Gantt chart to graphically communicate variances in project progress. The progress line can be displayed with activity current bars and display schedule variance. In addition, the progress line can be drawn on top of baseline bars, plotting the progress point of each activity on its baseline bar. The progress line shows where the progress should be relative to the data date. (This feature is also available in the P6 Windows client.)

Display up to three bars

Customize bar size and bar label font

Neck bars for non-work time

Color bars by activity codes


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Benefit: The new progress line makes it easy to see, at a glance, which activities are ahead of schedule, on schedule or behind schedule.

Improved Project Gantt Portlet A new dashboard option displays the baseline bar in addition to the current bar in the Project Gantt Portlet. Benefit: Incorporate the updated Portlet in dashboards that adhere to industry standards. The new display option provides an easy way to identify whether project milestones are ahead or behind schedule. New Calendar View The new Calendar view displays the upcoming project work in a familiar calendar format. This view has the same filtering capabilities as the Activity Gantt view. It can also have the activity detail windows displayed for making resource assignments, updating progress of activities, modifying other activity information, and even navigating to predecessor and successor activities. Benefit: The Calendar view provides team members with an intuitive view for displaying their activities along with the required information to perform the work. Project managers can understand project work occurring during specified time periods.


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New Activity Network View Project managers and schedulers can now view the project WBS, activities and project logic through an interactive Web-based activity network. It is easy to collapse WBS elements for a summary view, or expand WBS elements to drill down to the activity details such as steps, relationships and resource assignments. Customize activity boxes as well as specify how activities are to be grouped. In addition, non-driving relationships can be toggled on and off. Benefit: This view makes it easy to analyze schedule logic at both a summary level and a detailed activity-by-activity level. It provides an alternative look into the dependencies between the various WBS elements and the project activities.


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Web-Based Import and Export Project plans can be exported to a variety of formats, updated offline, and then imported back into P6 to update existing project plans. P6 v7 provides Web-based capabilities to import and export project information using the following formats:

• Export to Primavera XML, Microsoft Project or Microsoft Excel • Import from Primavera XML and Microsoft Project to add new activities and/or update

existing activities in the project. • Import from Microsoft Excel to add new activities to the project, supporting additional

import fields.

Note that Microsoft Excel can be used to add new activities to the plan and also for analysis of current project data, allowing individuals flexibility with the tools they use. Benefit: Enables individuals to use familiar desktop software to list activities that will become part of a project, to update work, and to do additional project analysis. Addressable P6 Web URL The P6 Web client can be passed customized URLs with internal project IDs to navigate individuals directly to the project section. Benefit: Custom applications and business intelligence tools can build URLs from internal project IDs and navigate individuals directly to the project section, displaying their default view with the appropriate projects opened.


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AutoVue Integration For organizations that have deployed P6 and Oracle’s AutoVue Enterprise Visualization, project-related design documents can be accessed directly from within the P6 web client. AutoVue Web Version enables viewing, reviewing and collaborating on technical documents and information across the enterprise. AutoVue delivers a network-friendly method of sharing large CAD data even over low bandwidth networks. Benefit: A single interface for project participants to access project schedule information, along with related design documents, to more effectively manage, communicate, and execute on the project plan. Improved Content Management Integration In addition to JackRabbit, P6 v7 can use Oracle Universal Content Management (UCM) and SharePoint as a repository for project documents. Documents can be uploaded through the P6 and stored in UCM or SharePoint. Additionally, individuals may search documents in the content management system, as well as link documents to projects and activities. Document review workflow is supported through the native workflow capabilities of UCM and SharePoint, but will no longer be available with JackRabbit. Benefit: Companies may take advantage of existing enterprise content management systems through P6 to maintain, control and access project documents.


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Planning and Scheduling Enhancements Planning and Scheduling Enhancements in Both the P6 Windows Client and the Web Client

Work Day Definition P6 v7 will provide a system-wide option to convert durations between hours, days, weeks, months, and years based on new calendar settings. In addition to the existing Admin Preference, each calendar will have its own settings for the number of hours in a day, week, month, and year. There will be a new option to determine if the conversion is based on the Admin Preference settings or each calendar’s settings. Benefit: Provides more flexibility, consistency and control over viewing and communicating project time lines and duration of work. Shown below are the Hours per Time Period which can be defined for each calendar.

Grouping/Summary Duration Calculations Summary and grouping band durations will now be calculated based on the corresponding activity- or project-level calendar. Durations that are displayed in grouping bands on layouts, views and reports will now be calculated using the following logic:

Project- and resource-level summary durations will also be calculated according to their assigned calendars, that is their respective default project calendar or resource calendar. Benefit: Provides more flexibility, consistency and control over viewing and communicating project time lines and duration of work.


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Adding Code Values on the Fly Individuals can now add new code values to the dictionary while assigning codes to activities, without having to navigate to the activity code dictionary. They will simply be prompted to specify the activity code value and description.

Benefit: This improvement will enable users to assign new codes to activities in a more efficient and productive manner, thereby reducing the time to create project plans.

Copy Baseline A new copy option will be available for creating a new baseline from an existing project baseline. Benefit: This option reduces the steps required to create a new baseline from an existing one, thereby making it easier to maintain multiple baselines.

New copy baseline option


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Improved Feedback and Communication P6 v7 provides activity-level feedback capabilities so that the project managers and schedulers can collaborate with field personnel on an activity-by-activity basis. Project managers are notified when notes have been added from the field, and then may easily view and respond to the notes. The field personnel will then have access to the feedback. The feedback field is also time-stamped with non-editable history to maintain an accurate audit log. Benefit: Real-time communication, with accurate history, minimizing delays in the execution of project work.

Planning and Scheduling Enhancements in the P6 Windows Client Only

Activity Usage Histogram The activity usage histogram has new ability to spread usage over the late dates in addition to the early dates. This late-date spread is shown as histogram bars and cumulative S-curves, and may be combined with baseline, budgeted, actual and early-date spreads.

Benefit: Improves resource analysis by modeling resource and cost utilization according to late dates.

Activity ID Renumbering New renumbering options are available when pasting a set of activities, as well as for renumbering existing sets of activities. Options include incrementing existing numbers, auto-renumbering and replacing the prefix. Benefit: This option provides greater usability and convenience when creating and modifying project plans.


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Business Process Automation Oracle continues to deliver business automation features that help you run your business more efficiently and profitably. Oracle Primavera P6 v7 is event-enabled to facilitate automated workflow with other enterprise systems. Events Event enablement is a key component needed for organizations to create workflows to automate business processes within one system or across multiple, disparate systems. P6 v7 delivers events capabilities as part of the Web client, Integration API and Web Services. Organizations may create automation within P6 and orchestrate processes across other systems in the enterprise. For example, a project manager schedules a project in P6. The scheduling action triggers an event as follows: Web service publishes a message outlining information about the project and that it has been rescheduled. Any messaging system that subscribes to this type of event would be aware of it. The messaging system queues the message and passes the information in the proper format to another system, such as a workflow engine to initiate a process. The workflow engine might then trigger a series of predefined steps, such as routing an approval form to an ERP system to ensure materials are available when they are needed on the project.Once the form is approved, a similar event chain could result in a notification sent to the project manager through P6 with information that materials are available and reserved for the project. The following events in P6 can be triggered when related business objects are created or modified through the P6 web client, Integration API or Web Services.

Activity Project Resource Activity Code Assignment Project Code Assignment Resource Assignment Activity Expense Issues Resource Code Assignment Activity Step Risk User Baseline Project Relationship WBS

In addition to the business objects, there are special operations which can also be configured to trigger an event. Those operations are:

Project Scheduling Apply Actuals Store Period Performance Project Summarizing Approving Timesheets Run Project Architect

Benefit: Automation of business processes ensures that project decisions, changes and updates are part of broader business processes that are key to the business’ successful operations. When project management is appropriately integrated with other systems in the enterprise, companies can expect greater benefits such as reduced operating costs, faster times to market, and increased customer satisfaction.


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User Administration, Security, and Deployment Oracle Administration and Security Support P6 v7 supports Oracle Identity Management and Access Management Suite and provides a new option for user provisioning through Oracle Identity Management (OIM). OIM assists organizations to centrally create and provision users across multiple, disparate systems, reducing the need for the added work of creating users in each system they need access to. Efficiencies can also be gained by single-sign-on capabilities. P6 v7 supports Oracle Access Manager (OAM), which centrally manages security and access to various systems through single-sign-on that provides one common logon for all applications and removes the need to enter the login credentials for each system. This reduction in login credentials creates a more secure environment. Also supported is Oracle Identity Directory which is a central resource directory repository that helps organizations support single logon and single sign-on, reducing the cost of application management. The P6 solution will also leverage Oracle Configuration Manager (OCM) to assist Oracle Support as they help organizations deploy and maintain their P6 investment. OCM is an automated method to collect valuable configuration information to help Oracle understand customer environments. Benefit: Cost of user administration and security can be reduced be centrally management across applications.

Activity Field-Level Security P6 v7 introduces new field-level security for project activities. Each user can be assigned edit privileges to only the activity fields they are required to update, while all others are read only. Benefit: The activity-level security gives the flexibility to allow individuals to update fields such as actual start and finish, percent completes and remaining effort, while limiting those same individuals to read-only access to other activity-level fields.


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Excel Import Security The security privilege for importing from Excel has been separated from the privilege of importing XER, MS Project and P3 file types. Benefit: This security option enables a user to import from Excel file types only, while also ensuring that global dictionary information is not modified when importing XER, MS Project and P3 file types.

Standardized Server Platform The timesheet Group Server has been moved to the Java platform, removing the requirement of being a Windows-based service on a Windows server. Benefit: Common and independent platform support for the timesheet server. Scalability, Performance, Availability P6 v7 includes new technologies to help further improve scalability, performance and availability. Support for WebLogic JRockit JVM has been added for improved performance and scalability. Also, improved support for WebLogic clustering has been added to increase availability and scalability of the P6 solution. In addition, the Java server platform has been moved to version 6 of Java, which provides better performance and scalability for P6. Benefit: Increased performance, scalability and availability.

Increased Standardization for P6 Web Services P6 v7 Web Services now supports the following Web Services specifications:

WS-Security WS-Security provides ways to secure your services above and beyond transport level protocols such as HTTPS. Through a number of standards such as XML Encryption, and headers defined in the WS-Security standard, it allows you to: • Pass authentication tokens between services • Encrypt messages or parts of messages • Sign messages • Timestamp messages P6 Web Services v.7.0 supports passing authentication tokens using UsernameToken Profile and timestamping messages. Encrypting and signing of messages may be supported in the future.


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WS-Policy The WS-Policy framework provides a general purpose model and syntax to describe the policies of a Web Service. For example, a company may require transport-level security for protecting web service messages. This requirement can be defined by using a policy. For detailed information on WS-Policy and the syntax for writing policy expressions, please visit http://www.w3.org/Submission/WS-Policy/. P6 Web Services has the ability to enforce policy assertions via the underlying CXF services framework. The policy assertions are defined in a single file called policies.xml (see user guide for enabling WS-Policy). For the shipped version of P6 Web Services we officially support policy assertions for enforcing WS-Addressing and transport level security. When transport level security is enabled (by enabling the policy), P6 Web Services will only service requests that are invoked via an HTTPS connection. WS-Addressing WS-Addressing is a standardized way of including message routing data within SOAP headers. When WS-Addressing is enabled, P6 Web Services will only accept client requests that contain addressing information in the SOAP headers. One benefit of using WS-Addressing with P6 Web Services would be a case where asynchronous processing of messages is required. In this case, clients will send messages to P6 Web Services and can specify the endpoint where P6 Web Services will send the response. This endpoint can be the original endpoint that sent the request or a different endpoint.

Platform Support Oracle continually delivers extended and new platform support to leverage new advances in technology and provide organizations with flexible options. For P6 v7 there are new platforms supported to increase the value of your P6 investment while minimizing cost of ownership. The major additions and updates are listed. For full details, see the tested configurations document. Firefox and Internet Explorer (IE) 8 will be supported browser platforms in addition to existing IE 7 support. IE 6 support will be dropped. Oracle HTTP server is now a supported web server (new for 6.2.1). Oracle Universal Content Management (UCM) – In addition to existing Jackrabbit support for content management, Oracle UCM will be supported. Oracle Enterprise Linux – Oracle Enterprise Linux will replace Red Hat Linux support (new for 6.2.1). Oracle XE – Oracle Express will replace Microsoft SQL Server Express for standalone desktop installations. Microsoft SQL Server 2008 will be added as a supported RDBMS for P6 v7.0. Microsoft SQL Server 2005 will continue to be supported and SQL 2000 will be dropped.


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