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Today I was asked what the distribution of work hours in the project looks like, per hour. The background was to determine the amount and distribution of night shift hours.
By default, the resource distributions diagrams (histograms) are created based on daily, weekly or monthly and not hourly intervals. Only for very detailed project schedules with a high volume of work, histograms are required on an hourly basis, for example for plant revisions (also known as shutdowns or turnarounds).
The following article explains a method for creating such charts and exporting the required data to Excel.
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First of all, there must be a schedule with assigned resources and working hours.
Then we're ready to go:
P6 settings for hourly resource evaluation
When a resource diagram is displayed in P6, the work units are usually calculated and displayed on a daily basis.
Resource distribution by days
If you now change the time scale to day/hours, the hours are not distributed over the working time, but are displayed completely in the first hour of the day. Of course, this result is not very useful.
Resource histogram with false distribution of hours
Diese offensichtlich falsche Darstellung ist auf eine Benutzervoreinstellung zurückzuführen, welche standardmäßig für die Auswertung auf Basis von Zeitintervallen in Tagen vorbelegt ist.
This obviously incorrect display is due to a user preferences setting, which is set to daily time intervals by default.
user preferences setting for hourly resource analysis
Go to Edit >> user preferences >> Resource Analysis >>Interval for time-distributed... and change it to "Hour", confirm the security question and close the dialogue.
The time interval of the histograms switches immediately to hourly basis. The same diagram now looks like this:
Resource diagram with correct display at hourly time interval
Export resource distribution to Excel
Evaluations are usually carried out in Excel, since the reporting functions in Primavera are somewhat cumbersome and bulky.
How is resource distribution data exported to Excel?
The following procedure has proven itself for me.
Preparation for Data Export of Resource Distribution
First switch to the Resource Assignments view.
The following settings should be made there:
resource assignment layout
Export of resource distribution data
Wenn die oben beschriebenen Vorbereitungen abgeschlossen sind, sind die Daten bereit für die Übertragung nach Excel.
Wie auch in der Aktivitätsansicht kann man nun einzelne, mehrere (gedrückte STRG-Taste) oder alle Zeilen selektieren und mit Kopieren/Einfügen nach Excel übertragen.
When the preparations described above are complete, the data is ready to be transferred to Excel.
You can now select single rows, multiple rows (CTRL key pressed) or all rows and copy/paste them to Excel.
Copy / Paste from Primavera to Excel
The data can then be further edited in Excel as required.
Fazit
Zur Auswertung von Primavera Ressourcenverteilungen ist es erforderlich, das richtige Zeitintervall in den Primavera Benutzeinstellungen festzulegen. Ansonsten kann es zu verfälschten Darstellungen kommen.
Zur weiteren Aufbereitung der Daten für Berichte, Kurven usw. lassen sich die Daten sehr einfach aus der Primaveraansicht Ressourcenzuweisung exportieren. Entscheidend ist die Vorbereitung des richtigen Layouts mit den gewünschten Daten. Wird das Layout gespeichert, läßßt es sich jederzeit wieder verwenden, beispielsweise für turnusmäßige Statusreports.
Wie sind Deine Erfahrungen mit der Aufbereitung von Ressourcendaten? Nutzt Du dafür Primaveraberichte oder Excel? Schreib Deine Erfahrungen in die Kommentare.
Summary
For the evaluation of resource distributions it is necessary to define the correct time interval in the Primavera user settings. Otherwise the display may be distorted.
For further processing of the data for reports, curves, etc., the data can be easily exported from the Primavera Resource Assignment view. Just prepare the layout that shows the desired data for the export. After the the layout is saved, it can be used again at any time, for example for regular status reports.
What is your experience with the preparation of resource data? Do you use Primavera reports or Excel for this? Tell uns your experiences in the comments.
