Global Preferences offer options for you to customize the data display format across all sections of P6 Web Access. The options you choose are exclusively yours; they are your preferences which propagate throughout Web Access.
Examples of preferences you can set include:
- formats for time units, dates, and currency
- calculation methods
- automated features such as notifications
- performance thresholds
To edit preferences, select the options you want to use, then click Save or Save and Close.
On the Global Preferences tab, you can
- Specify the size of list displays
- Choose display settings for performance and actuals data
- Specify formats for time units, dates, and currency
- Set resource staffing features
- Choose notification options
- Set metrics for project scoring and performance thresholds
Specify the size of list displays
At the top of the Global Preferences tab, you can specify
- Maximum number of rows displayed in each section
- For standard, or
flat lists, this option controls the number of rows that display on one
page.
For example, if you specify 5, on a page such as Activity Details Steps, up to five steps will be listed. If the activity you have selected has more than five steps, a Next link appears for you to navigate to the next page of the list.
Note: This preference does not apply to workspace portlets. To specify the number of rows that display for lists in the portlets of a specific workspace, customize the workspace.
- Maximum number of rows displayed in trees and pick lists
- This option controls the number of elements that display in hierarchical
lists, such as the EPS/project hierarchy in the Open Projects dialog box.
If the number of items available to display exceeds the maximum you specify, a message appears to inform you that you are viewing only a partial list.
Choose display settings for performance and actuals data
These settings appear in the General section.
Tips:
-
When a resource is replaced on an activity, an e-mail is sent to the removed resource and to the replacement resource.
-
When the automatic e-mail option is on, confirmation
messages are sent to you, indicating the names of the recipients. If a resource does not have an e-mail address stored in the project database, no e-mail can be sent. In this case, you will know that the resource was not notified because you will not receive a confirmation message with that resource's name.
Calculate Performance and Earned Value Information lets you choose whether to display earned value information, performance indicators, and indices based on cost or labor units. For example, when you display earned value information on the Portfolios Performance Status tab, you will see either Costs or Labor Units data, depending on how you set this preference.
Display actual and earned value using financial period data lets you choose to view information based on past period actuals data that has been stored for custom financial periods. This option applies to the histogram and spreadsheet displays in the Portfolios Gantt Chart, Projects Team Usage view, and Resources Usage view.
When you choose this option, stored financial period values for actuals are distributed evenly from the start to the finish date defined for a financial period and earned value calculations are based on these stored period quantities.
If you do not choose this option, actuals data is spread evenly from the actual start to the data date or actual finish date of the activity or assignment.
Notes:
-
If you choose this option but period performance has not been stored, total reported actuals display in the timescale period representing the data date. You can define financial periods and store period data only in the Project Management module. For more information, contact your P6 administrator or Project Management Office.
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If projects are summarized by financial period (which is controlled by an administrative setting in the Project Management module), this option is ignored. When projects are summarized by financial period and you display a financial period timescale, the profile displays past period actual values if performance has been stored for a financial period; for financial periods that do not have stored performance, the profile displays all unit and cost values in financial period intervals.
Display text on tab icons enables you to show or hide toolbar button text on the Portfolios and Projects toolbars.
Specify formats for time units, dates, and currency
In the Time Units section, you can
- Choose the time increment (such as hours or days) you want to use to display values in units and duration fields throughout P6 Web Access. Mark or clear the checkboxes to display sub-units and a time increment label (h,d,w,m, y)
- Choose to display
resource units/time as a percentage or as units per duration.
Note: P6 Web Access calculates
and stores time unit values in hourly increments. When you specify a
display time increment other than hours, P6 Web Access
uses the Hours
per Time Period settings from Admin Preferences in the P6 Project Management module to
convert hours
to the time increment you specify.
Use the Date Format section to specify the details of date and time fields, such as choosing to display time in 12-hour or 24-hour format, or not at all.
Use the Currency section to specify a currency type, symbol, and number of decimal places.
Set resource staffing features
Use the Resource Staffing section to specify summarizer, activity detail, and search criteria options that relate to resource staffing and activity resource assignment features.
- Automatically summarize
Choose this option if you want to summarize a project after you assign resources. Because availability calculations for resource staffing features are based on summary data, choosing this option ensures that your staffing decisions are based on the most up to date resource allocation data.
When this feature is enabled, you can check the status of the summarizer job on the Resources Details Summarize page.
- Resource Assignments
Choose this option if you want to show an activity's resource assignment details, for example, planned units and remaining units/time.
- Display Notebook
Choose this option if you want to show activity Notebooks when viewing activity details.
- Display Steps
Choose this option if you want to show activity steps when viewing activity details.
- When assigning a resource to an existing activity assignment
When selecting a resource to staff an existing role assignment or replacing a current resource assignment with a different resource, you can choose to always use the current units/time and overtime factor of the new resource or you can choose to be prompted every time so you can select the units/time and overtime factor you want to apply to the assignment.
- When a resource and role share an activity assignment
When selecting a resource to staff an existing role assignment or specifying a role for an existing resource assignment, you can choose to always apply either the resource or role rate (Price/Unit) to the activity or you can choose to be prompted every time so you can select which rate you want to apply.
- Display the role limit based on
In the Project Management module, you can define the maximum availability (limit) over time for each role in the Roles dictionary. By default, role limits are calculated using the limit defined for each role's primary resource; however, you can choose to display role limits based on the custom role limits defined in the Project Management module. In P6 Web Access, role limits are displayed in charts, histograms, and spreadsheets that display role allocation data, such as the Capacity Planning chart and Role Usage histogram.
Note: An administrative setting is also required to implement this feature. For more information, contact your P6 administrator.
Within the resource staffing feature, you can click on an activity name to show limited activity details, based on the following three options you specify.
Note: The activity Rate Source field indicates whether
the resource or role rate is applied to an activity. The Rate Source, along
with the
Rate Type, determines the price/unit value used to calculate costs
for the activity.
Note: If role limits are not defined for a role in the Project Management module, the maximum availability for the role is zero.
- Number of available items to search
Specify the number of search criteria items allowed when searching for resources to staff activities. The maximum valid value is 10.
Choose notification options
Use options in the Notifications section to elect to receive e-mail about specific P6 Web Access events.
Use options in the General section to notify resources when assignments are made or modified.
Tip: E-mail settings in the General section let you choose to automatically notify resources by e-mail when they are assigned to an activity, or removed or replaced on an activity assignment. If you choose the automatic e-mail option, you can also choose to confirm before an e-mail is sent.
Set metrics for project scoring and performance thresholds
Use the Project Score section to choose the project codes you want to use for score calculations. You can also set numeric thresholds for the graphical indicators used to represent the three predefined scoring levels.
The Project Score feature helps you evaluate projects by enabling you to identify and quantify characteristics you want to use to measure and rank projects. If you have the required module access, you can view project scores in the Project Statistics portlet, which is available for dashboards and the Project Workspace.
Use the Performance Threshold section to specify parameters for Performance, Earned Value, and Index values that appear in dashboard Project Performance portlets and on the Portfolios Performance Status tab.
Tip: While the same Project Performance portlets appear in both the Project Workspace and dashboards, the settings you specify in Global Preferences only apply to the dashboard portlets; for each project, you can specify project-specific Performance Threshold settings when you customize the Project Workspace. You can access the Portfolios > Performance Status page only if you have the required module access.
Fields for Performance and Earned Value views include: Schedule to Date, Cost to Date, Schedule at Completion, and Cost at Completion. Fields for the Index view include: Cost Performance Index (CPI), Schedule Performance Index (SPI), and To Complete Performance Index (TCPI). For performance calculation details, click Help at the top of the Performance Status page or, in the portlet title bar, click
