{"id":36391,"date":"2016-10-08t08:06:14","date_gmt":"2016-10-08t12:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.deco-dalles.com\/?p=36391"},"modified":"2019-10-18t11:37:17","modified_gmt":"2019-10-18t15:37:17","slug":"create-predecessor-report-primavera-p6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.deco-dalles.com\/create-predecessor-report-primavera-p6\/","title":{"rendered":"how to create a predecessors report in primavera p6"},"content":{"rendered":"

on most construction projects primavera p6 schedules are presented to stakeholders in pdf file format<\/a> due to the obvious formatting advantage that pdf offers. unfortunately, when reviewing a p6 gantt chart printed to pdf, there is very little information available about the logic relationships<\/a> between activities in the schedule. in this tutorial i’ll shod you the steps to follow to create an activity predecessors report in primavera p6 that can be included in a schedule basis document or issued along with a schedule to help stakeholders gain a better understanding of the relationships between activities when reviewing a project schedule<\/a>.<\/p>\n

alternative methods<\/h3>\n

there are a few methods of showing activities relationships in p6 but are they very effective?<\/p>\n

a couple of examples are shown below.<\/p>\n

\"how
figure 1a<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

figure 1a shows a gantt chart with relationship lines<\/strong> enabled. although we can see the relationships line, you would probably agree with me that tracing logic lines across different wbs elements on gantt chart is a tedious process; especially if the gantt chart timescale<\/a> is compressed so that the width of the chart fits on a single page. tracing predecessors is not really possible.<\/p>\n

\"how
figure 1b<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

figure 1b shows a gantt chart with the predecessors<\/strong> column displayed. notice that this column only shows the activity ids of predecessor activities without the activity names. also when an activity has multiple predecessors, it would most likely require a very wide predecessors<\/strong> column which will distort our gantt chart format.<\/p>\n

it is obvious that the two examples above do not do a very good job of helping one to understand the logic relationships between activities in a schedule hence the need to use the method outlined in this tutorial.<\/p>\n

creating a primavera p6 predecessors report<\/h2>\n

step 1<\/h3>\n

from the left side navigational toolbar, click on reports<\/strong>\u00a0and this will open the reports<\/strong> interface (figure 3).<\/p>\n

\"how
figure 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"how
figure 3<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

note that you can also open this reports interface<\/a> by going through tools > reports > reports<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

step 2<\/h3>\n
\"how
figure 4<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

select the report group under which you want to save the report we are going to create (open projects > schedule<\/strong> in this example as shown in figure 4 and click on add<\/strong> from the right navigational toolbar. this will open the report wizard<\/strong> dialog.<\/p>\n

step 3<\/h3>\n
\"how
figure 5<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

under create or modify report<\/strong>, ensure that new report<\/strong> checkbox is ticked and then click on the next<\/strong> button to open the next prompt.<\/p>\n

step 4<\/h3>\n
\"how
figure 6<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

under select subject area<\/strong>, select activities<\/strong> from the list and then click on the next<\/strong> button to open the next prompt.<\/p>\n

step 5<\/h3>\n
\"how
figure 7<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

under select additional subject areas<\/strong>, scroll down the list in the available subject areas<\/strong>\u00a0and select predecessors and then click on the move right<\/strong> button (figure 7 #3). this will move predecessors<\/strong> to the selected subject areas<\/strong>\u00a0and place it as a subset of activities<\/strong>. now click on the next<\/strong> button to open the next prompt.<\/p>\n

step 6<\/h3>\n
\"how
figure 8a<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

under configure selected subject areas<\/strong>, select activities<\/strong>\u00a0and ensure that the message activities is displayed as shown in figure 8a #2 to confirm you have made the right selection. then click on columns<\/strong> button to open the columns<\/strong> dialog.<\/p>\n

\"how
figure 8b<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

from the available options<\/strong> section search and add the fields: activity id<\/strong>, activity name, start<\/strong> & finish<\/strong> to the selected options<\/strong> section. click on apply<\/strong>\u00a0and ok<\/strong>\u00a0buttons to return to the configure selected subject areas<\/strong> prompt.<\/p>\n

\"how
figure 8c<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

still with activities<\/strong> selected click on group & sort<\/strong> button to open the group and sort<\/strong> dialog.<\/p>\n

\"how
figure 8d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

in the group by<\/strong> section, select wbs<\/strong> (or the activity code used for grouping in your gantt chart) under the group by<\/strong> column, untick the indent<\/strong> checkbox. in the group by options<\/strong>, select <none><\/strong> from the dropdown box & untick the id\/code<\/strong> checkbox. now click the sort<\/strong> button to open the sort<\/strong> dialog.<\/p>\n

\"how
figure 8e<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

click on add<\/strong> button, from field name<\/strong> dropdown box, select start<\/strong>\u00a0and from sort order<\/strong> dropdown box, select ascending<\/strong>. repeat #1 to #3 but this time select finish<\/strong> from the field name<\/strong> dropdown box and then click the ok<\/strong> button to return to the group and sort<\/strong> dialog.<\/p>\n

\"how
figure 8f<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

click the apply<\/strong>\u00a0and ok<\/strong>\u00a0buttons to return to the configure selected subject<\/strong> areas<\/strong> prompt.<\/p>\n

\"how
figure 8g<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

still with activities<\/strong> selected click on filter<\/strong> button<\/a> to open the filter<\/strong> dialog.<\/p>\n

\"how
figure 8h<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

under parameter<\/strong> column, select activity status<\/strong> from the dropdown box; under is<\/strong> column, select is not equal to<\/strong> from the dropdown box; under select completed<\/strong> from value<\/strong> dropdown box.<\/p>\n

i have made these selections because i want to filter out completed activities<\/a> so that focus of the report is on outstanding activities. click the apply<\/strong>\u00a0and ok<\/strong>\u00a0buttons to return to the configure selected subject areas<\/strong> prompt.<\/p>\n

\"how
figure 8i<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

under configure selected subject areas<\/strong>, select predecessors<\/strong>\u00a0and ensure that the message predecessors<\/strong> is displayed as shown in figure 8i #2 to confirm you have made the right selection. then click on columns<\/strong> button to open the column<\/strong>s dialog.<\/p>\n

\"how
figure 8j<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

from the available options<\/strong> section search and add the fields: activity id<\/strong> (renamed pre id), activity name<\/strong> (renamed predecessor name), start, finish, driving, relationship type<\/strong> (renamed rel) & lag<\/strong> to the selected options<\/strong> section. click on apply<\/strong>\u00a0and ok\u00a0<\/strong>buttons to return to the configure selected subject areas<\/strong> prompt.<\/p>\n

\"how
figure 8k<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

now click on the next<\/strong> button to open the next prompt.<\/p>\n

step 7<\/h3>\n
\"how
figure 9<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

under report title<\/strong>, type activities predecessors report<\/strong> in the textbox and then click on the next<\/strong> button to open the next prompt.<\/p>\n

step 8<\/h3>\n
\"how
figure 10a<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

under report generated<\/strong>, click run report<\/strong>\u00a0button to open the run report<\/strong> dialog.<\/p>\n

\"how
figure 10b<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

under send report<\/strong> to section, select print preview<\/strong> option and click the ok<\/strong> button to open the report (though there are 4 options to choose from, my preference is print preview<\/strong> as this gives me the chance to preview the report before printing to my preferred format).<\/p>\n

\"how
figure 10c<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

the print<\/strong> preview shows the report is formatted how i want it.<\/p>\n

the report is grouped by wbs<\/strong> (figure 10c #1) and activities<\/strong> (figure 10c #2) which have 1 tab of indent so that they appear under their wbs are sorted by start > finish<\/strong> while activities predecessors<\/strong> (figure 10c #3) have 2 tabs of indent so that they appear under their successor activity.<\/p>\n

click on the print<\/strong> icon to print to pdf<\/a>, this assumes you have a pdf printer set-up or you will be using microsoft print to pdf (pdf file attached for your review). once you are happy with the report format, click on the close<\/strong> button to close the print preview<\/strong> and return to the report generated<\/strong> prompt.<\/p>\n

\"how
figure 10d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

click on the next<\/strong> button to open the next prompt.<\/p>\n

step 9<\/h3>\n
\"how
figure 11<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

under congratulations<\/strong>, click save report<\/strong>\u00a0button to save the report.<\/p>\n

a message box will popup confirming that the report has been saved using the report title<\/strong> assigned in step 7<\/strong>, click ok<\/strong>\u00a0to close the message box, then click on finish<\/strong>\u00a0to close the report wizard<\/strong> dialog and return to the report<\/strong> interface.<\/p>\n

step 10<\/h3>\n
\"how
figure 12<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

you should see the newly created activities predecessors report under the report groupings selected in step 2<\/strong> (i.e. open projects > schedule<\/strong>). under report scope<\/strong> column you should see global<\/strong> because by default p6 makes reports available to all projects but you can change it current project<\/strong> (my preference is to leave as global so that i can use same report for different projects). under last run date<\/strong> you would see the last time you ran the report.<\/p>\n

to run the report in future, select the report, right-click and select run<\/strong>\u00a0and then report<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"how
figure 13<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

final words<\/h3>\n

the tutorial has been deliberately simplified to make it easy for beginners to understand and was developed using primavera p6 v16.1<\/a> but it will work in all versions of p6. you can use one of the sample projects that ships with p6 to test your precessors report. let us know what you think using the comment box below.<\/p>\n

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