Oracle Primavera

Kommentare: I have used MS Project in my College days and we use to work on extracts of the Big Commercial and Private Project and it explained us the little and major differences between the MS Project and Primavera. Primavera is overall the best detailed software for Project Management Professionals out there.

Vorteile: The main thing WBS is seperated from the activties. You can add sub-activities and even the minor expenses like travelling and training costs. You can put in the percentage of completion in the sub-activities. Since it is EPPM software you can work on multiple projects. It's user defined controls and access makes it more easier to set roles and responsibilities to each and every OBS and activities and only allows multiple users to work at the set EPS & WBS level as per pemissions allowed. I was once working on a Villa project and we had the option to set more than one relationship between two activities. You can also create resources as per composition based on the Schedule of Rates(SOR) from whichever region you are working from. It makes it more easier to assign for a particular project. One another big benefit is that you can create 'n' number of Baselines as compared to other project management softwares. You can add risk and issues as well. Overall I feel Primavera P6 EPPM is a detailed project management software and you can work it at any verticals and horizontals.

Nachteile: What i don't like about this software is that it doesnt allow multiple entries on it's own based on the formulae set. Again you need to check out your project and schedule with correct date and time, well that is plus point definitely but in case you missed the proper date and time as per your working calender then it will affect the project at a minor level initially and major differences will be made if that remains ignored. Another drawback for it is that if you are working on a single project then it will require lot of detailing for WBS, OBS, EPS, Roles and responsibilities which can be unnecessary in some cases. You have to remember each and every detail wherever you are putting it.

Vorteile: Oracle Primavera provides the flexibility to integrate different schedules while maintaining each on as a stand-alone schedule when needed. The ability to create different layouts, filters and baselines is a great feature to satisfy different requirements from our stakeholders. We use Springboard platform to access the software through a web connection adding additional flexibility and real time access. We had use the software with a peak of seven planners including two CM companies in a Green Field project with great success.
In addition, we are currently planning a shutdown and the ability to schedule using different calendars and resources has been very useful in identifying gaps and peaks in our plan.
The option to have multiple baselines is also useful to compare current schedule through different phases of the project.

Nachteile: Resources/progress graph and histograms are not as good as I am used to get from other application like Excel. Data export is not always as expected and some data manipulation is required in the other application (like Excel) to get the appropriate formats.

Kommentare: It was my daily driver for years and despite the steep learning curve, it was an extremely capable tool.

Vorteile: - has everything required for project scheduling using critical path method (WBS, activities, cost and resource loading)
- Global change offers an unbelievably powerful solution to change thousands of activities on the fly.
- Can handle very large schedules that include tens of thousands of activities at ease.
- Works using databases rather than project files which makes it suitable for working on many projects and offers many types of databases (Oracle, SQL server, SQLite)
- supports single or multiple users
- now has the EPPM version which is cloud-based and has improved immensely over the years

Nachteile: - It shines for large and complex projects, for smaller and simpler schedules it tends to be more cumbersome.
- It requires a very good understanding of how the software and CPM work when analysing results. Otherwise; mistakes can be done easily
- While powerfull, the reporting feature of the Pro version (Standalone) looks antiquated in comparison to the EPPM cloud version.
- The standalone version has not received any important feature updates for years.
- Lacks the seamless integration with MS Office that MS Project has
- Requires IT assistance to migrate the database from one computer to another

Kommentare: Overall I really love the software and the problems it solves. I am able to export to an excel file to analyze which makes things a lot easier for me. Then I can re-upload the excel file and it will adopt any changes I have made in the spreadsheet.

Vorteile: I love how easy is it to see linked attributes in the gantt chart. There is simple connecting and coloring that allows you to track exactly where you are on a program, project or task level. It is relatively easy to use. As long as you are familiar with Excel you should be able to use most of the basic features. The WBS structure is similar to other programs I've worked in and the ability to copy and past at different levels helps to speed up the setup of a project.

Nachteile: There are a ton of functionality with the software but I have found it difficult to get any instruction or help when I get into some of the more complex features. Googling is about your best bet when you have a questions about something. There have also been some issue when you switch between versions. New versions aren't able to connect to the older version's server and therefore do not have access to the other schedules.

Kommentare: I have been using Primavera for about 12 years now, and I've been training people how to use it, I've managed to train government engineers, construction contractors, engineering firms, and sponsors, it has been a great experience, the program is very precise when it comes to time, cost, resource, risk, and schedule calculations (CPM, PERT).

Vorteile: - Great for large scale projects
- Detailed scheduling with time and cost breakdown
- Perfect filtering features
- High level resource management functionality
- Expense distribution over activity duration

Nachteile: - Graphics are not very appealing
- Jumping between tabs on the lower ribbons is very annoying compared to the tabs functionality available now on office software, and Autodesk products