{"id":33892,"date":"2016-02-20t09:24:15","date_gmt":"2016-02-20t14:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.deco-dalles.com\/?p=33892"},"modified":"2019-10-18t11:00:23","modified_gmt":"2019-10-18t15:00:23","slug":"primavera-p6-change-log","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.deco-dalles.com\/primavera-p6-change-log\/","title":{"rendered":"hack a primavera p6 change log from activity steps"},"content":{"rendered":"

one of the most often requested features for primavera p6 is an activity change log. although a log of changes to your project’s activities<\/a> is not yet native to the software, you can hack yourself<\/a> a primavera p6 change log using a few simple steps.<\/p>\n

i want to first give full credit for this solution to ronald weaver<\/a>, a master scheduler at kbr australia\u00a0who brought it to us. it’s innovative thinking.<\/b><\/p>\n

why maintain an activity change log in primavera p6?<\/h2>\n

the reasons for tracking changes<\/a> to your project’s activities during the project lifecycle are many. here’s a few that come top of mind:<\/p>\n

1) be prepared for claims.<\/strong><\/p>\n

construction delay claims<\/a> experts will tell you that the party with the best documentation will most often win the claim. documentation has not been the strong suit of many project controllers or p6 users, but with claims having more impact and becoming more risky in some industries, the benefits of having good documentation are coming to the forefront.<\/p>\n

2) easier reporting.<\/strong><\/p>\n

one of my clients is required to produce a monthly report to the owner that contains a list of all changes to our project schedule since last month. right now, we use change inspector<\/a> to generate the report. but it’s not without a lot of excel magic<\/a> to get results that make sense and look good. what if you could simply run a report on your activity change log right out of p6? much easier.<\/p>\n

3) keep a change log at your fingertips.<\/strong><\/p>\n

primavera p6 eppm<\/a>‘s auditing feature requires running reports in p6 analytics. that’s a lot of software overhead to get access to a change log. what if you could read the change log right in primavera p6 professional? when you view an activity, you could see a list of changes, who made them, when and the impacts. that’s going to make your life a lot easier.<\/p>\n

as you can see, there are lots of pluses. but there is one drawback. it’s not automated like you’d expect it to be. but, let’s dig in anyway because i think this is a solution that will work for lots of planners and schedulers.<\/p>\n

the setup<\/h3>\n

spoiler – the secret to this setup is primavera p6’s activity steps. betcha didn’t see that coming!<\/p>\n

right. turns out that activity steps offer the all of the features an activity change log needs.<\/p>\n