Considerations when importing P3 projects

Most data is converted directly from P3 3.x to P6 Professional. The subsections below explain how data is handled after it is imported into P6 Professional and a direct match does not exist.

Activity codes

P6 Professional contains global and project activity codes. Global activity codes are provided with the sample data delivered with P6 Professional. If you choose to create separate projects (rather than combine them) in the Import wizard, all activity codes, activity ID codes, and alias codes from P3 3.x import as global activity codes in P6 Professional, so they are available to all projects. If you choose to combine subprojects into one project to import, the activity codes, activity ID codes, and alias codes import as project-specific activity codes.

Note: Activity code values assigned to activities in P3 3.x that do not exist in the Activity Codes Dictionary are not converted to P6 Professional.

When activity codes are imported into P6 Professional, the P3 activity code description is used as the activity code in P6 Professional. For example, if the activity code name in P3 is RESP and the description is Responsibility, then Responsibility is imported as the activity code in P6 Professional. If there is no description associated with an activity code, then the four-character name is imported as the activity code.

Activity types

P6 Professional supports the following activity types that correspond to activity types in P3 3.x:

Autocost rules

P3 3.x provides automatic resource-to-cost ratio calculation rules by which P3 3.x calculates costs and estimates resource usage when you update activities. These rules convert to P6 Professional.

Add actual to ETC and Subtract actual from EAC becomes Add Actual to Remaining and Subtract Actual At Completion when you update Actual Units or Costs fields in the Calculations tab in the Projects window.

P3 3.x provides an autocost rule to choose whether you want to use the updated percent complete to calculate actual quantity to date, actual cost to date, both (select both checkboxes), or neither (deselect both checkboxes). If both checkboxes are selected in P3 3.x, the setting in P6 Professional, Recalculate Actual Units and Cost when duration % complete changes, is selected. If neither checkbox is selected in P3 3.x, the setting is not selected in P6 Professional. If one checkbox is selected and the other is not, the setting in P6 Professional is not selected.

The Link actual to date and actual this period autocost rule in P3 3.x converts to the Link actual to date and actual this period units and costs field in the Calculations tab of the Projects window in P6 Professional.

Calendars

P6 Professional supports global, resource, and project calendars. Global calendars in P6 Professional apply to all projects. Sample global calendars are provided with P6 Professional. When you import a project, all base calendars are added to the list of existing global calendars. Resource calendars from P3 3.x are converted to shared resource calendars in P6 Professional.

P6 Professional does not support the ability to designate repeating holidays. If you convert a daily P3 3.x project, the repeating holidays from the P3 3.x project are applied directly to the global calendars in P6 Professional. For example, if July 4 is a repeating holiday in P3 3.x, it is designated as a nonworkday in the global calendars for each applicable date from the project start date to the project finish date in P6 Professional.

Constraints

P6 Professional supports two constraints per activity. Review the following conversion table:

Costs

In P3 3.x, the estimate to complete can be a negative value to account for cost overruns on an activity. All negative cost values import to P6 Professional as expenses, so the cost overruns can be tracked.

Lump sum costs can be converted as expenses or resource assignments with a budgeted cost in P6 Professional. From the Import Wizard, click on the Advanced button in the Update Project Options screen to select your preference.

Cost accounts

When connected to a P6 EPPM database: Cost accounts are converted from P3 3.x to P6. Cost accounts are global across all projects in P6. When you import a project, P6 creates a branch for the project cost accounts, and the project name is added to the beginning of each cost account. The cost category in P3 3.x becomes part of the cost account in the P6. For example, cost account 11101 from project APEX creates the following branch in the P6:

• APEX
• APEX.11101
• APEX.11101.L

When connected to a P6 Professional database: Cost accounts are converted from P3 3.x to P6 Professional. Cost accounts are global across all projects in P6 Professional. When you import a project, P6 Professional creates a branch for the project cost accounts, and the project name is added to the beginning of each cost account. The cost category in P3 3.x becomes part of the cost account in the P6 Professional. For example, cost account 11101 from project APEX creates the following branch in the P6 Professional:

• APEX
• APEX.11101
• APEX.11101.L

If duplicate cost accounts are encountered when you import a P3 3.x project, you can choose how to resolve each conflict by modifying the import configurations in the Import wizard.

When connected to a P6 EPPM database: P6 Professional imports cost accounts but the dictionary can only be viewed in P6.

Custom data items

P3 3.x custom data items are converted to the following user-defined data items in P6 Professional.

You can display converted activity custom data items as columns in P6 Professional’s Activity Table. In the Activities window (with an Activity Table or Gantt Chart displayed on top), click the Layout options bar, then choose Columns. Select the appropriate user-defined fields from the list of Available Options and add them to the layout.

You can also display your converted resource custom data items as columns in P6 Professional. In the Activities window, click the Layout options bar, then choose Show on Bottom, Activity Details. Click the Resources tab to display resource information. Right-click in the column area, and choose Customize Resource Columns. Select the appropriate user-defined fields from the list of Available Options and add them to the table.

Duration types

P6 Professional allows you to specify each activity's duration type as Fixed Units/Time, Fixed Duration and Units/Time, Fixed Units, or Fixed Duration and Units. When all resource assignments on the P3 3.x task are non-driving, the duration type becomes Fixed Duration & Units/Time, which indicates that an activity's duration will not change, regardless of the number of resources assigned to the activity or the amount of work required to finish the activity.

When any resource assignment on the P3 3.x task is driving and Freeze Resource Units per Timeperiod is selected in the autocost rules, the duration type becomes Fixed Units/Time.

When any resource assignment on the P3 3.x task is driving and Freeze Resource Units per Timeperiod is not selected in the autocost rules, the duration type becomes Fixed Units.

Manual future period buckets

When you import a P3 project to a P6 Professional project that contains manual future period assignment buckets, the manual values are deleted if you choose the Update Existing or Replace Existing import option.

Percent complete type

Each activity in P6 Professional must be assigned one of the following percent complete types: physical, duration, or units.

When you import P3 3.x activities to P6 Professional, they are assigned the percent complete type of Duration, which specifies that the activity's percent complete is calculated from the original and remaining durations.

Planning unit

You can only convert projects with an hourly or daily planning unit. Weekly and monthly planning units are not supported. To display duration units in hours, choose Edit, User Preferences, Time Units. Choose Hour as the Units format and either Hour or Day as the Durations format.

Project codes

P6 contains a global project codes dictionary which is available to all projects in the organization. You can assign a project code value to projects for each project code you create. All 10 project codes defined in the P3 3.x project and their assignments are imported.

Note: If the import option “Combine subprojects” (when importing a single project group) or “Merge Subprojects” (when importing multiple project groups) is selected in the Import wizard, the project codes and values assigned to the master project are imported.

Resources

P6 Professional contains one master resource pool across all projects. A sample resource hierarchy is provided when you install P6 Professional. When you import a project, the resources are imported to the location in the hierarchy you specify in the Import wizard. If duplicate resource IDs are encountered during the import process, you can choose how to resolve each conflict by modifying the import configurations in the Import wizard.

In P6 Professional, resources are classified as labor, nonlabor, or material. Any resource in P3 3.x with a unit of measure equal to most variations of a time unit, such as h, hr, or hour, is converted as a labor resource. When connected to a P6 Professional database, any resource in P3 3.x with a unit of measure equal to those defined in the Admin Categories, Units of Measure tab in P6 Professional is converted as a material resource. When connected to a P6 EPPM database, any resource in P3 3.x with a unit of measure equal to those defined using P6 is converted as a material resource. All other resources are classified as nonlabor. Labor units are displayed as hrs/day. You can change the display unit by choosing Edit, User Preferences, and then clicking the Time Units tab.

All time-based calculations in P6 Professional are based on hourly units. If your project in P3 3.x is planned in days, P6 Professional refers to each resource’s unit of measure to determine how to convert resource assignments. If the resource unit of measure is equal to most variations of an hourly time unit such as, hr or mh, then P6 Professional assumes the resource assignment is based on hours and converts it as-is. If the resource unit of measure is something other than hours such as, day or d, then P6 Professional assumes the resource assignment is in days and multiplies all resource values by a factor of eight (assuming 8 hr/day). In this case, decide if eight is the correct multiplier. If the resource is classified as a material resource, the resource units are not multiplied; they convert as-is.

You can change the multiplier in the PRMCONVERT.INI file. You can also modify the list of unit of measure abbreviations that P6 Professional refers to during the conversion.

For resources that have a blank unit of measure, use the Import wizard to decide how to handle the assignments.

Note: The conversion process creates additional levels in the resource structure for P3 3.x hierarchical resources. P6 Professional supports only maximum limits for resources. Normal resource limits are not converted.

Resources assigned to milestone activities in P3 3.x become expenses in P6 Professional. The resource name is used for the expense name, and the resource’s budgeted cost is the expense’s planned or budgeted cost. The first resource found on the milestone becomes the primary resource in P6 Professional.

Resource curves

You can specify the allocation of resources and costs over the duration of an activity using resource curves. All resource curve definitions assigned to the projects being exported from P3 3.x, are imported into P6 Professional. The curve name is prefaced by the P3 3.x project name in P6 Professional (e.g., APEX - Triangular). The resource curve assignments are also imported.

P3 3.x divides the activity’s duration into 11 increments (points) from 0 through 100 percent. Each increment indicates resource use. The activity must have at least one minute of Actual Duration in order for the curve to calculate any values. The curve definition is for intervals.

The value for 0% represents the amount of resource used between the start and 4.99%; the value for 10% represents the usage between the start and 10% completion. Curves in P6 Professional are defined using 21 points. The first point from P3 3.x imports directly into P6 Professional. The other 10 curve values are split in half and rounded to the nearest 10th.

For example:

P3 3.x Bell Shape:  0 1 3 8 15 23 23 15 8 3 1

P6 Professional Bell Shape:  0  .5  .5  1.5   1.5  4    4  7.5   7.5  11.5   11.5   11.5   11.5  7.5   7.5  4   4  1.5   1.5  .5  .5

Scheduling options

The following scheduling options convert to P6 Professional:

In P3 3.x, relationship lag is always calculated using the predecessor calendar. An advanced scheduling option in P6 Professional enables you to choose the calendar you want to use. This setting will default to predecessor calendar for imported P3 3.x projects.

In P6 Professional, float calculations for subprojects converted as individual projects are always based on the finish date of each individual project.

P6 Professional always rolls up resources assigned to an activity, which then determine the activity’s durations and schedule dates.

Suspend and resume dates

In P3 3.x, a suspend date indicates that an activity is suspended at the end of the specified day. In P6 Professional, a suspend date indicates that an activity is suspended at the beginning of the specified day. Due to this discrepancy, actual and remaining durations are affected for daily projects. Hourly projects are not affected.

For example, an activity suspend date of 05OCT04 (end of the day) in P3 will import to P6 Professional as 05OCT04 (the beginning of the day). In P6 Professional, the actual duration for the activity will be one day shorter than it was in P3 because P3 progresses the work through the suspend date (while P6 Professional suspends progress at the beginning of the day).

Target projects

You can convert target projects just as you would any other project; however, the target designators are not converted. To designate a target project in P6 Professional, choose Projects, Maintain Baselines. Click Add and choose Convert Another Project to a New Baseline of the Current Project. Select the converted target project as the baseline for the current project.

WBS codes

In P6 Professional, a WBS must exist and all activities must be assigned to a WBS code. If the imported P3 3.x project uses a WBS, it is converted to P6 Professional. If no WBS exists, P6 Professional creates a WBS root node and names it PROJ, where PROJ is the P3 3.x project name. All activities are assigned to this WBS code.

Because P6 Professional uses the WBS to define a project structure, you should not assign the same WBS code to different activities across projects within a project group in P3 3.x. For example, if activity CS300 is part of the Conveyor System project, it should not be assigned a WBS code that belongs to the Automation System project. If the conversion program encounters this situation, it duplicates the code's entire branch in both projects. To distinguish the projects, the program and project names are added as a prefix to the WBS code structure. For example, for the APEX project, APEX.CONV.AM.01 and APEX.AUTO.AM.01 would be included as branches in the WBS.

Related Topics

Manual future period buckets