5 Things To Set Up in Your New Primavera System
Primavera P6 is a powerful scheduling tool. Getting it installed is just the first step on your journey to authoritative project data and flexible schedules!
In this article we’ll look at five things for your new system administrators to set up before your project teams start using this enterprise tool. If you are considering Primavera, it will help you to know what system admin tasks should be on your implementation project plan.
We’ve written this from the perspective of a new Primavera system installation, but the set up tasks are similar for pretty much every enterprise project management tool out there, so whatever product you are setting up, you’ll still be able to use these tips.
1. User account creation
Your users need accounts!
Identify who needs to be given user accounts and create them in the system. Depending on how many users you have, this could be a time-consuming job. Look into ways to automate the task or sync to single sign on if those options are available to you.
Consider phasing the rollout to users based on need or enthusiasm for the new way of working. This would let you batch account creation so you’ll only have to create accounts for the next wave of users.
2. Privileges
Next, users need to be given privileges to access different kinds of information. Not everyone will need every type of access – only system admins need access to create new users, for example.
Think about the different types of user communities you have and what they need to do. For example:
- Project managers: Create and edit schedules
- Project team members: Update schedule information related to tasks where they are the named task owner, but not delete tasks
- Project sponsors: See dashboards and relevant reporting information but not edit schedules
- PMO team: Create and edit portfolio-level reporting, see and consolidate data from all projects, and you may want them to be able to edit all project information in case a project manager is unable to do so.
Allocate the correct privileges to each user.
3. Preferences
Next up: user preferences. This is particularly relevant for international teams as you can set the interface to display in the local language.
Set time zones, the date format, your preferred currency and any other user-determined preferences. In particular, pay attention to how time is calculated for resource planning.
Read next: our detailed guide to setting up time units in Primavera P6
Tip: You could set these user preferences on behalf of every user. Alternatively, let users know what options they can change themselves so they can edit their own preferences.
4. Naming conventions for layouts
If you spend time creating a P6 layout, wouldn’t it be great to share that with other projects? You can (find out how here). However, the more layouts you have, the harder it is for project managers to find the exact layout that fits their schedule reporting needs.
You might want layouts that are designed for project managers and teams, and different layouts for a PMO audience, or for the project sponsor. Think about how you are going to name layouts so that everyone knows what they are for and they can be easily retrieved when needed.
Create a naming convention and share that with the team. They can follow the naming convention when creating new layouts to make it easier to find reporting presentations that fit a particular purpose.
5. Creating dashboards
Similar to creating layouts, you’ll also want to create dashboards in your tool. Dashboards serve up useful information to project stakeholders and team members. They can be configured to show just about anything. As long as the data is in the tool, it can be presented on a dashboard.
Having said that, as a system administrator within the PMO, you’ll find it easier to start out with a suite of standard dashboards instead of leaving yourself open to building bespoke dashboards for every leader.
Talk to key stakeholders in the PMO and executive teams to find out what data they would find most valuable presented in dashboard format. Then you can create dashboards and make them available to the correct users.
Dashboards will evolve over time as users get accustomed to seeing the information. They might want the information in a slightly different format, or over a different time period. The great thing about enterprise project management tools is that you can usually meet the needs of each stakeholder. However, you might want to set some boundaries on what you offer to avoid spending all day creating custom reports for demanding individuals!
Bonus: Establish guidelines
The new Primavera system and enterprise project management tool you’ve got is a powerful engine. Like all large databases, it can quickly get messy if you don’t create guidelines for how to use it.
Spend a little bit of time creating policies and guidelines for system administration – it will save you a lot of headaches in the future. If you don’t know where to start, our Primavera P6 Administrators can help. With your guidelines in place, you’ll have a framework for administering and managing the projects within your Primavera environment.
You’ve invested in new technology as part of a long-term commitment to mature PMO practices. There’s no need to rush this step. Spend as long as you need getting your tools into a fit shape for your project management community to start using.
When they do log on for the first time, they’ll be greeted by a slick, professional experience. They’ll know exactly what to do next and who to ask if they need any help.