How can I use activity steps?
Activity steps make it possible to describe and report progress for activity work at a more granular level of detail. If you have privileges to edit activities, you can add individual steps to activities, or you can add predefined groups of steps based on templates that have been defined for your organization.
In addition, to quantify the portion of an activity's total work that each step represents, you can specify a value called a step weight. Optionally, on a project per project basis, step weights can be used to calculate Activity Percent Complete.
I want to
- read about Step Templates
- read about Weighted Steps
- use weighted steps to calculate Activity Percent Complete
Activity Step Templates
Step Templates enable an organization to define groups of steps that can be shared by many projects. By creating templates for groups of activity steps that are relevant in many projects, an organization can streamline data entry and ensure that work is identified consistently throughout the organization. Step templates can be created in the Project Management module only, but can be used in P6 Web Access to add predefined steps to activities.
In P6 Web Access, when adding steps to an activity, you can choose from a list of available templates. You can use more than one template, but you can add steps from only one template at a time.
If you use a template to add steps to an activity, you can edit the step details except for the step name.
Weighted Activity Steps
To indicate the portion of activity work that a single step represents, you can assign it a numerical value, or Step Weight. Once work for a step is underway, Primavera can use the step weight and the reported progress of step work (Step Percent Complete) to calculate the percentage of total work that has been completed for the activity (Activity Percent Complete).
How does step weight affect Activity Percent Complete?
Because weight represents a percentage of the total work for an activity, a step that has more impact on the finish of an activity should be given a higher weight than other steps in the group. Primavera converts the weight of each step into a percentage, referred to as Step Weight Percent.
Step Weight % = (Step Weight/Sum of Weights for all steps) *100
Step name | Step Weight | Step Weight % |
---|---|---|
step 1 | 1 | 10% = (1/10)*100 |
step 2 | 2 | 20% = (2/10)*100 |
step 3 | 3 | 30% = (3/10)*100 |
step 4 | 4 | 40% = (4/10)*100 |
Because it reflects a larger portion of the overall work for an activity, when a step with a higher weight is complete, it has a greater impact toward the finish of the activity, or Activity Percent Complete.
Activity Percent Complete = the sum of (Step Weight % * Step % Complete) for each step/100
Given the following progress reported (Step % Complete) for our sample steps, Activity Percent Complete would be calculated as follows.
28% =[ (10% * 100%) + (20% * 50%) + (30% * 0%) + (40% * 20%) ] /100
Step name | Step Weight % | Step % Complete |
---|---|---|
step 1 | 10 | 100 |
step 2 | 20 | 50 |
step 3 | 30 | 0 |
step 4 | 40 | 20 |
Requirements for using weighted steps to calculate Activity Percent Complete
All of the following must be in place
- In the Project Management module, a project-level option must be turned on. This option, Activity percent complete based on activity steps, is typically controlled by a project administrator. It is available as a calculation option setting for individual projects.
- The Percent Complete Type for the activity that is using weighted steps must be set to Physical.
In P6 Web Access, you can specify an activity's percent complete type in Activity General Details. See View, add, or edit activity details for more information. - Weight values must be specified and work progress must be reported for each step.
In P6 Web Access, you can specify weights and record progress on the Projects > Activities page or in Activity Steps Details. See Add, edit, delete, or record progress for activity steps for more information.